Great Sourthern Land

Sitting on the other side of the planet is an island continent. A vast land known mostly for its cricket players, deadly animals and that accent we all love to mock. For years our knowledge of Australian music has been limited to a handful of acts like AC/DC, INXS and Kylie Minogue. While global heavyweights, these artists can obscure a treasure trove of quality music.

Now, inspired by my house mate Anthony, who has also written about Aussie music, I thought I ‘d unabashedly blow the trumpet for some of my favourite Australian Artists, some whom have already carved out a following abroad.

The latest wave of Australian music isn’t confined to one genre, and so I’m going to categorise by city, rather than sound.

Sydney

Guitars seem the order of the day in Sydney. Some of my favourite bands of recent years were born and bred in this tourist magnet of a city. There is the surf rock riffs of The Preatures; the reggae stylings of inner city Sydney’s Sticky Fingers, not to mention the Brit pop inspired sounds of their close comrades in the DMAs.

There’s more to Sydney than guitars. Hermitude provide punchy electronic music, while Elizabeth Rose takes care of the synth-pop side of things.

Perth

The isolation of Perth has given birth to some sublime psychedelic rock acts. Tame Impala are the obvious name here. Frontman Kevin Parker has moved his project away from those psychedelic roots and into more groovy territory with his latest album, Currents.

Meanwhile, close associates Pond play a more tongue in cheek brand of psychedelic inspired rock. Their last couple of efforts have been short and chaotic, 2013’s riff laden Hobo Rocket is must listen material.

Melbourne

As Anthony mentioned, Melbourne is the big name in Australian music. One of my favourite artists from the southern city is Chet Faker, who plays a brand of smooth electronic music. The city also has it’s share of psychedelia with King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard taking the crow for most dizzying name and music.

Before any Australians see this, I’m not forgetting Adelaide and Brisbane, who have provided us with Hilltop Hoods and Violent Soho respectively.

For those interested in keeping up with the latest in Australian music, I recommend keeping an eye on Triple J’s hit list and Unearthed. This is the only radio station you’ll need on your car radio if travelling down under.

The Cringe

Last weekend Australia hosted the G20. The river city of Brisbane became a mini police state. Barricades went up and heavily armed police lined the streets, outnumbering the locals. The big boys (and Merkel) came to town, greeted at Brisbane airport by a convoy of cars that ushered them to the world’s biggest talkfest.

I’m not here to blog about the G20 agenda of economic growth, worshiped over the course of the weekend as a cure for all the world’s ills. No, I’m here to talk about the facial contortions performed across this island continent. The cries of anguish and red faces of embarrassment that accompanied every word spoken by PM Tony Abbott.

Australia suffers from ‘cultural cringe.’ This inferiority complex means Australians feel like teenagers trapped in the living room with their parents when a sex scene comes on TV. Replace the sex scene with Australian culture and the parents with the G20 and you have the modern day Australian cultural cringe.

Despite finding its feet in world affairs, even punching above its weight with a place on the UN Security Council, Australia still harbours an inferiority complex. Cultural cringe reared its head through the weekend in a couple of ways. The G20 gave Australians the opportunity to fawn over foreign leaders. What hope for Abbott, Hockey and the like with Obama, Modi and Merkel on the loose? Despite a waning and troubled Presidency at home, President Obama received a rock star reception during his University of Queensland speech. The young crowd lapped up his anecdotes on alcohol and “BrisVegas,” as well as references to serious issues such as climate change. You may question whether Obama’s reception is truly indicative of cultural cringe. I say yes. This is a leader whose idealism has failed to change America, yet still holds sway in Australia, providing the perfect tonic for young Australians who believe the grass is greener over yonder, where they have real inspirational leaders, instead of the Coalition government.

The second example of cultural cringe comes from the media response to the weekend. Newspapers, particularly the Sydney Morning Herald, seemed more interested in Tony Abbott’s “gaffs” than the G20 agenda. The Herald found Abbott’s speech from 4:08 onward particularly embarrassing. They cringed at his mention of domestic politics. These kind of stories certainly fit the Herald, a paper we expect to attack a right-wing government. Yet they also reveal a sense of insecurity, an odd sense of embarrassment at a politician playing politics. The leaders of the other nations are hardly new to political grandstanding, I doubt they shared the red faces of those at the Herald.

Aside from this story, the other memorable moment from the G20 weekend was this awkward handshake. The three way handshake is a genuinely cringe worthy moment. Naturally, these sweaty palms and awkward grips were broadcast on every news bulletin in the days that followed.

When two of the biggest stories from the G20 weekend are framed as embarrassing and awkward it tells us that Australia has not quite outgrown its cultural cringe. Australia is still an adolescent nation trying to find its way. On the world stage it’s fairing alright, though there are challenges such as the rise of Asia and a realisation that they are not immune to global turmoil.

Like many young Australians who go off to Europe or the States, the nation itself is stepping out into the world. Experience may see Australia outgrow its cultural cringe, but the complex could remain in the back of the nation’s collective mind, coaxed out when the perceived “adult” nations enter the room.

Red Skies: US Midterm elections

To those outside the United States, the Republican victory in this week’s midterm elections may seem like the latest instalment of a dystopian film franchise. Red skies have descended on the US, sweeping away the last idealist sentiment held since the beginning of Barack Obama’s reign.

The Republican Party have gained control of the Senate and the House, as well as winning many governorships. After four years of Congressional struggle, President Obama is left to face an ideologically opposed Congress. The phrase ‘lame duck’ is already filling website screens and newspaper headlines.

All this after the early promise of Obama’s reign. The hope of his Presidential campaign, when the indomitable phrase ‘Yes We Can!’ inspired support at home and abroad, is now extinguished. We could go round and round all day about what happened to that early promise. It disintegrated, breaking apart piece by piece. Congressional gridlock, poor leadership and deep seeded ideological differences all chipped away at that promise.

Obama, it appears, is an idealist. Watch any of his State of the Union Addresses and you will see grand ideas and hopeful schemes. Back in 2008 his campaign for change gave hope to many, a new era appeared to be dawning. As with all idealism, whether exhumed by King Arthur or Barack Obama, it came up against political reality. Or, in Obama’s case, a tough Republican Party with a clear right wing agenda.

Obama is certainly not without fault. Leadership demands consensus building, middle ground and decisiveness to force through an issue. Instead, the Obama administration has been hampered by indecision and a failure to build coalitions. The Democrats have suffered as a result.

Have we entered a Republican Camelot? Does 2014 herald the beginning of a Republican reign that will stretch to a 2016 Presidential victory? Commentators across the media are unsure. There’s little point in gambling on the Presidency yet when there are so many potential Presidential candidates.

To throw in more doubt, this Midterm election is not representative of the electorate who vote in Presidential elections. On Tuesday, the Democrats failed to mobilise their base of minorities, woman and young people. The same groups who gave President Obama the keys to the White House. BBC commentators have suggested that midterm elections are ‘whiter and more male.’ Coupled with low turnout, this may suggest that the Republican swing is in part a protest vote, characterised by voters refusing to turn up.

Both parties know that voter base is not set in stone. Evangelical Christians and working class whites, for example, were once on the side of the Democrats, now they are firmly in the GOP camp. Likewise, the GOP will be aiming to make inroads with minority groups, particularly Latinos, in the lead up to the 2016 election. In that regard the Democrats must tread carefully. They cannot assume support, but must reach out with a clear policy agenda.

For now Americans will live under red skies. Despite suggestions that Americans don’t like the GOP, this election tells us that it’s better to have your enemy make decisions than to live in constant gridlock.

Or perhaps the truth lies with Sideshow Bob, who once said, ‘Your guilty conscience may move you to vote Democratic, but deep down you long for a cold-hearted Republican to lower taxes, brutalize criminals, and rule you like a king.’

Warm idealism has certainly given way to a calculated – perhaps cold – Republican agenda.

Imagining Europe

Imagined worlds. The fantasy genre has entered the mainstream in recent years. First, we had Peter Jackson’s epic adaption of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. Now HBO’s Game of Thrones, a much nastier world than Middle-Earth, has engrained itself in popular culture. Many of the authors leading this charge to mainstream consciousness are Americans. American fantasy writers include luminaries such as Robert Jordan, George RR Martin, Brandon Sanderson, Patrick Rothfuss and many, many other fine writers. I want to draw attention to the nationality of these authors. Despite living in a nation with its own rich history, American fantasy authors have a penchant for settings influenced by Medieval Europe. Yet the United States has no experience of Medieval history. American fantasy authors are looking across the Atlantic when creating their worlds. They are imagining Europe. I want to explore this idea, but first I need to ask, what is fantasy?

“Fantasy” is an extremely broad genre that can be divided into endless subgenres. For the purposes of this post, fantasy refers to epic fantasy, rather than young adult series like Harry Potter or subgenres such as steampunk. With that in mind, fantasy literature can be described as fictional history. The worlds created by the likes of George RR Martin, Patrick Rothfuss and a plethora of other modern writers are recognisable to the reader. They take our world to extremes, blend cultures, reorganise history and fuse it with magic, often against a backdrop of epic struggle or political intrigue. Fantasy literature takes intrinsic elements of human history and imbues them with a sense of wonder. Battles are joined by dragons and sorcerers, as well as axe and sword. Storylines often feel like the grand narratives we impose on real history. Just as the Second World War is laden with apocalyptic language and overtones of good versus evil, so too are fantasy storylines given the feel of epic struggle. When we open a fantasy novel, we are reading the epic struggles and historical turning points of an imagined world. In this way, the broad concept of fantasy really amounts to the history of a fictional world.

Fantasy literature is heavily influenced by Medieval Europe. The Medieval period covers a broad portion of history. Yet the period contains everything you need for creating an epic struggle. Swords, axes, knights, peasants, religious crusades and constant warfare. The mists of history cover the Medieval era just enough to create a sense of mystery. We can view the time between the fall of Rome and the rise of Enlightenment as a mystical time of Arthurian chivalry, or we can see it as a brutal period of unending warfare, a dark time in human history. Either scenario provides fodder for a fantasy writer.

Unlike their British and European counterparts, American fantasy writers find themselves writing in a period absent from North American experience. The USA had no feudal period. No Medieval period in the European sense. The United States had no serfs, no knights or lords dividing the land into small pieces. Yes, the thirteen colonies had monarchical rule, but the Revolution rolled around to free Americans from the perceived tyranny of George III. The United States isn’t marred by centuries of religious antagonism or warring royal dynasties that characterises European history. Yet the influence of this European history is exactly what we find in the work of American authors.

Why the ascendancy of European settings over American settings? A difficult question, no doubt authors are influenced by their own history and surroundings, but they seem less inclined to put dragons in the American Civil War than the War of the Roses. There is more inclination to dress a character in the armour of a knight than the war gear of a Native American, more stabbing with a sword than hacking with a tomahawk. The answer to this question may lie in a central characteristic of transatlantic cultural exchange, proposed by Malcolm Bradbury. Bradbury argues that the United States has looked to Europe for a sense of history. In his words, Europe is ‘past to America’s present.’ Americans seek a history stretching beyond their own shores, more ancient than that of settlers in a New World. Bradbury also argues that Americans have a ‘relatively unchanging’ view of Europe. This is a view coloured by gothic castles and peasants, rather than a modern Europe.

American fantasy literature reflects both this desire for an ancient past and the unchanging portrayal of Europe. Three of the most successful fantasy series in recent years reflect European medieval settings. Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series contains a wealth of cultures, but these are primarily European. Through character names and daily life in rural settings, we see nods to European history and culture. Character names include Tuan, lifted from Irish mythology. Names such Galad, Egwene and Artur Hawkwing nod towards Arthurian mythology. Jordan’s initial setting is the Two Rivers, a rural village isolated from the dangers of the wider world, or so they believe at the onset of the series. Characters farm, receive travelling merchants and celebrate religious festivals. In my view, this is a place reflective of how Americans imagine historical Europe, as a place of isolated peasants, to whom the next town over is a mystery.

Elsewhere, George RR Martin freely admits to the influence of European, particularly British history, on his Song of Ice and Fire series. Patrick Rothfuss’ Kingkiller Chronicles is another series situated somewhere in Europe’s long Medieval period. The setting is initially one of rural country life, travelling bards and Kings at war.

These series represent only a fraction of fantasy output by American authors. So I cannot suggest that all American fantasy writers are creating their worlds with Europe in mind. Yet the series discussed above represent some of the bestselling fantasy literature of the twenty-first century, with clear nods to a history that the United States didn’t experience. I recently purchased Brian McLennan’s Promise of Blood, a book described as, ‘A French Revolution with wizards.’ So the trend of Americans reimagining Europe continues in the fantasy genre. European history provides rich fodder for American authors. Yet the influence of the medieval represents more than just a penchant for axes and knights. Imagining Europe in a fantasy setting appeals to a sense of history Americans crave, a deeper history stretching beyond their shores.