Just chilling to some tunes

Now, look, I don’t really have any intention to make this blog about music, but I love art and culture and to ignore my current “can’t- stop- pressing- the- reply- button” obsessions would be ill considered, now wouldn’t it. So here are two songs that I can’t get off the repeat.

I love rap. I know the hipsters of Sydney might shoot me down for this, but I really love hip hop culture. I am fully aware of the fact that the manifestations of hip hop culture contribute and reinforce some pretty horrible hierarchies and stereotypes surrounding sex and race. However the developments of hip hop music, namely on the streets of New York, represent a counter culture that addresses and critiques the hegemonic state of affairs that privilege the rich, white, male. I will write more on this in later posts, because the types of music and the types of art that have been and are being created within the hip hop sphere is really exciting and interesting.

Having been working on a lot of feminist writing pieces for my studies, I could spend a long time talking about how hip hop culture has constructed certain types of masculinity and femininity, that are reflexive of the highly racialised and sexualised climate, but I’ll save you all a year of reading, and myself from just thinking about all of it and not posting so please excuse the quick brush over!

Now you wouldn’t be entirely wrong in saying that this track wouldn’t kill without it’s sample, but if you listen to her distinct sound and watch the incredibly stylised film clip, you’ll see that this girl is brilliant. Iggy Azalea. Iggy Azalea. Iggy Azalea, I’m really just enjoying her name to be honest.

She has mentioned in interviews that she hates the continual references to her ‘whiteness’ and womanhood, but I think the girl needs to own these identities because it’s what makes her whole persona so subversive. She is a young, white, blonde haired, Australian, rapper and really is the antithesis of the typical characterisations found in hip hop culture. Hip hop has worked off, and reinforced traditional gender roles and ideas about what men and women are and what they should do, and much of these constructs characterise an aggressive, pimp like, bravado masculinity whereas women are depicted at their sexual disposal. The large exclusion of women in rap, outside of this traditional eye candy hooker image demonstrates the, quite frankly, misogynistic climate of hip hop culture.

 Sooooo when we have someone like Iggy come along and drop this bomb of a beat, yeah she is completely aligning herself with this masculine idea of what it means to be a rapper; she is tough, aggressive and in your face, but ultimately she’s a woman, a white woman, and doesn’t fit within these assumed boundaries of hip hop.  This fact is the exciting thing about what she is doing, she’s breaking these rules about what hip hop has to be and do for woman, and as a lover of rap, that is so exciting! Go girl!

And this film clip is actually amazing! Check it out below but her clothing here kills. The mesh, 80’s references and graffiti cheerleader, the asesthics combine this strange masculine attitude and ultra feminine babe. It’s this clash of roles and identities that is most powerful, so hopefully Iggy is going to storm the industry and carve is up a bit.

My World. Iggy Azalea.

            The other song I can’t stop playing: the Drake remix of SBTRKT ft Little Dragon, “Wildfire”. Ok seriously, the original is amazing, but having that little bit of Drake rap at the front just makes the song so much cooler. SBTRKT, who basically is a London DJ, (yeah he composes and mixes and produces and all that, but for all intensive purposes let’s call him a DJ) is kind of fucking amazing. His name, pronounced ‘subtract’ is all about anonymity and bringing back the music to the music and not all this hype about fame and everything of the DJ. Quality shit. I love that and think that’s really cool and obviously a lot of DJ’s are into that right now i.e Bloody Beetroots and all that but most people seem to not know SBTRKT so here he is! I also love the fact he always wears these amazing African masks, there is something very modernist about it and it just reminds me of the whole cubist movement and Picasso’s paintings, especially this very famous one! 

Just listen!

SBTRKT Wildfire drake remix

yay!

One relaxed evening

Moving forward from a recent post that was all about strengthening and valuing our friendship based relationships, a few days ago, two of my close friends threw a little soiree for a bunch of old school friends. My friends, Miranda and Rachel have gotten the party hosting down pat, putting on a mean BBQ and decorating the heck out of their house with fairy lights. Impressed? Yeah you are.

It was a really great evening to catch up and check in with some dear friends, some of whom were once the most important people in my life, but through one way or another, life has gotten the best of us and our lives have drifted apart. There is something exciting and humbling about being reminded about whom you were in high school and what you did, even though it wasn’t that long ago. Having been a bit all over the shop with my life lately, having a chat with a few certain people really gave me a good shot in the arm and reminded me about the things I value in myself. Sometimes you really need to listen to the people around you because even though we are great at assessing our own strengths and weaknesses, we are each our own best critics. Friends have the benefit of hindsight and sometimes their special insight and support is really just what you need. They have a strange combination of closeness and distance that during a crisis, we might not always have. Love and treasure those around you because The Beatles were right, “I get by with a little help from my friends”. 

Photo credits: Jenni Chen

Cycle In Cinema

There are many things that I think make life worth living, and for me a few of these things include great film and great people. Getting to live and play in the electric city that is Sydney, I have been lucky enough to get to volunteer at a few of the amazing events that our city holds every year and have met some talented and passionate people along the way. This weekend just gone, Sydney held one of these brilliant events, of which I was able to partake in.

Over Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights, there were these great cinema events at Taylor Square on Oxford Street, called “Cycle in Cinema”. Now imagine old school images of loved up couples in Cadillacs, sitting at the drive-in cinema, watching some black and white movie about a teenage mutant lobster zombie rampaging the all American teenagers’ burger joint. Now imagine instead of sitting in your car, you’re sitting on your bike, pedalling away to power the moving image and generate the sound. Well, that was the basic gist of “Cycle in Cinema”, a series of cinematic events produced by the City of Sydney as part of the parent event We Make This City. Now don’t get me wrong, you didn’t need your bike and not everyone had their bike BUT everyone got a chance to ride one of the several bikes that were hooked up to this amazing system that generated the movie. People brought picnic blankets and there were some tyres to chill out on as a different series of short films were screened each night.

We Make This City, is basically a series of events that creatively address the problem of climate change and need for sustainability, positing that with all the education and awareness about the problem and the solutions, why aren’t we, as individuals and as a collective, doing anything about it? Specifically Cycle in Cinema engages with ideas about renewable energy and its potential through pedal-power. I found it a really experimental and thrilling way to experience film and it really appeals to your social conscience. This event couldn’t have been made possible without the driving force of an organisation called Magnificent Revolution Australia. Their partner organisation in the UK developed the technology to generate and harvest energy through pedalling on a bike and having held heaps of events across Europe and even a few in Asia, its been brought to Australia, with a roaring success! Yay!

I thought it was such a brilliant, chilled out series of events. The first two nights were held outdoors at Taylor Square, with a screen set up against the old conveniences and the third night, due to wet weather, was held in this slightly abandoned looking bar down the road. All three nights had a great turn out and the variety and quality of films showcased was inspiring, thoughtful and hilarious. I was an invigilator, so I basically helped out where needed but the great perk of this volunteer job was that I got to watch the films as well.

Friday hosted a special Queer night, in recognition of Mardi Gras; the films were humorously poignant and in a genuinely funny way reflected upon the gay experience. I know that is a bit wanky but there was this one film, DIK that just blew my mind! It was about a conversation between a married couple regarding their homosexual experiences, catalysed by something their son innocently drew. I actually thought Sunday was the best night in terms of the films screened. It was all about sustainability and you need to look them all up now! I can’t describe them enough and they were short, incredibly educational, eye opening, and brilliant pieces of cinema. Go now: Plastic Bag; Hairytale; Waste Not; Skipping Dinner; and Magic Harvest. I’ve included the link to Plastic Bag, because it’s totally a life changing, tears in the eyes movie about, a plastic bag. Yep you read that right, I cried a tad bit from this one. 

Plastic Bag via YT