thoughts right now (she's been everybody else's girl)

Transitioning from student to prospective employee is absolutely terrifying. In about two months' time, I will no longer have the security of university. No longer will my days, months, years be scheduled around semesters and (avoiding) classes. Scary stuff. Granted, this is assuming I pass my units this semester, and I can't say that I'm not tempted to fail on purpose so I can postpone growing out of my student body (side note: was that some great phrasing or what? Damn. I'll have to try extra hard to not be so brilliant in order to get below 50% this semester).

I'm not worried about being incompetent. I'm not particularly worried about getting a job. I'm not worried about having a dismal future with no money or half-decent reputation to my name. But I guess there is a real sense of wariness and apprehension for any graduate, moving into the real world that our teachers love to go on about.

I think that journalism in particular is a difficult field to get into. It's competitive, and there seems to be a lot of luck involved - right place, right time, right person etc - when it comes to securing a job. There are so many talented people out there, and not just recent graduates, who are searching high and low for work. The worst part is that talent is never enough. Lots of great writers or broadcasters are jobless, and this combined with the rise of the internet makes it all a lot harder (which conveniently brings me to my next point. Curse my skills!).

The internet is both a blessing and a curse for journalists (speaking in the new-media sense, I don't want to get into the blogger/journalist debate here). On one hand, there are so many options and so much potential for success, purely based on its democratic nature. Literally anyone can start a website and secure an audience of some description. This can lead to anything. On the other hand, the fact that there are so many people doing the same thing makes it more difficult to get noticed. And this goes hand in hand with social networking; just look at the number of options you have - FaceBook, Twitter, Tumblr, Blogs, Forums etc. Everyone is spread so thin, but people feel like they have to be everywhere in order to be noticed. Even I feel the pressure sometimes, and my blog isn't even a blip on the radar.

At the moment I feel very overwhelmed with my options. Do I continue this blog? Do I look to the future and start a more professional website? Should I have an online portfolio? What should I do to make the best possible statement? I've done a lot of reading on the matter and I've come up empty handed. Everyone's situation is different and I'm not sure of the best route to take from here. So my thoughts right now are "Hmm, decisions decisions!" and then a bit of a blank. I'm worried about making a choice one way or the other, and regretting it later. I don't know. This is probably the wrong attitude, especially since all these new avenues open to me are rather new developments. Perhaps past graduates felt like they had limited options, and here I am complaining about too many.

If there's anything I took away from my internship at the ABC, it's that I can do it. I had originally not been very interested in broadcast media (I feel more comfortable writing and not having to think about pictures or audio) but I was surprised to find how comfortable I felt in that environment. I have the skills and I am very ambitious. I guess it's all a matter of where or how I channel my energy. End rant (for tonight anyway).

breaking news

I'm currently a week into a two-week stint interning at the ABC's Northbourne office here in Canberra. While at times frustratingly dull (there has been a lot of sitting around doing nothing), the experience so far has been quite illuminating in seeing how things work in the real world as opposed to breezy university world where you literally have weeks to come up with a story. So far I've sat in on morning radio programs, interviewed and cut stories for radio, written news stories for the hourly bulletins, spent time in the Raiders' gym for a sports story (where I couldn't keep a straight face because I felt like I was in a real-life porn film), met the wonderful Virginia Haussegger, sat with her in the studio as the 7pm bulletin was going to air, and nabbed my first ever freebie bag (a sack full of Garnier products from the Floriade media launch). So far so good I guess. Here's hoping this next week goes well!

[I love this Special Report editorial with Hilary Rhoda. Fitting, no? Plus we pretty much have the same colouring and eyebrows]

no angel came

This week, fashion brand Rodarte (designer sisters Kate and Laura Mulleavy) announced a collaboration with MAC cosmetics. In today's world of high fashion meets high street partnerships, this announcement seemed perfectly normal, and the line was a sure success given the popularity of other similar projects. Instead, the Mulleavy sisters are now being met with a ton of criticism given the inspiration of their cosmetic line (linked to their previous fashion collection) - a road trip across the US border into Mexico - and subsequently the names of some of the products - eg: 'Juarez' and 'Factory' are nailpolish shades in the collection. Many critics are calling this distasteful, given the many social problems in the impoverished areas that the Rodarte sisters were inspired by, as well as the fact that these are cosmetic products, and have essentially no meaning beyond that, so why weigh them down with such heavy issues? Is this really raising awareness? MAC are now backpedaling after the uproar online and assuring customers that some proceeds will go towards charities in the Juarez area.

Obviously fashion, and more widely, art, wouldn't be where it is today without people pushing boundaries and finding inspiration in the not-so-peaches-and-cream parts of life. But under what circumstances is one "allowed" to use tragedy and the suffering of others as crucial elements of one's art? Personally I don't think there should be any rules about where to source your inspiration from, but the execution must be flawless. If one is to use say, the horrible situation in Juarez as the stimulus point for a work, I think the answer lies in the result. Is the final product successful in conveying a message or raising awareness? Or does is come off as a weak attempt at social commentary? Or worse, is the inspiration being used solely as a means to make money? This is where it comes in handy to be critical and informed.

I feel a bit foolish making a post about something I am decidedly undecided about but still. By blabbering about it with myself, I hope to eventually come to a point where I have a concrete opinion on the wider issue. In this case, I can see both sides of the argument, and as much as I want to side with the 'artists', I feel as a makeup line, it really doesn't send any kind of message other than the commodification of a tragic situation. Unfortunately for the Mulleavy sisters, I think their intentions are irrelevant in this instance. Obviously they did not go into this thinking to mitigate the horrific rates of rapes, homicides and constant gang/drug related violence in the city of Juarez - it's very likely that they wanted to draw attention to these problems. But as I said, the end result speaks for itself and from where I stand, this is an oversight on their part that has come off as very ignorant and too flighty to send the right message.

why judging a book by its cover ain't so bad

Typography, layout and design are all areas that you only realise the importance of when you really think about them. When you read the newspaper, a magazine, anything, you're taking it at face value, and your average reader will not question any of these elements. They are actually rather crucial elements to any given publication, and could sway a whole range of people to either read on or turn the page.



I came across Tush magazine on my travels earlier this year. I was sitting around at Charles de Gaulle airport waiting for a flight and I took my usual trip to the newsagent stand to buy reading material/chocolate. I instantly picked a copy of Tush up. Ranya Mordanova was on the cover and she is so striking. If I had taken five seconds out of my Ranya moment, I would probably have noticed that the magazine is written entirely in German, thus incomprehensible for me. I only realised this once I sat down to read it properly several days later, after much ooohing and aaahing at the gorgeous images inside. While first I laughed at my stupidity, I then realised that it didn't matter, because for me it was the visual hit that really drew me in, regardless of the quality written content it may or may not contain. It's so refreshing to see such original and arresting visual work, rather than the average, tried-and-tested presentation that most magazines have.



Tush magazine is just one publication that is proof of clever and beautiful design being able to transcend all kinds of boundaries. Locally, I think Russh is probably the best example. Their Style Icon, Fashion Album and Mix and Match pages are all fantastic.

[images are my crappy scans from the first 2010 issue of Tush]