Switch Issue #5
Written by young people for young people.
Content
Contents/team1
Editorial2
VCE Rant3
Get to Know4
Murdena Rising5/6
Olympic Spirit6
Ballers ride bikes7
One to Follow8/9
The American Dream 9/10
To be Fair 10/11
A Cautionary Tale11
Joey Knox12
Creative Section – Izzy’s Story 14/15
Mother’s Day 15/16
Armageddon Cake17
The Pickers Union18
Lunar Concept Store 18/19
Quick & Easy Vegetarian Enchiladas19
IT20
Drawn to Life 20/21
Daniel Longo 21/22
Game Review 22/23
Book Review23
Team
Editor
Amanda Sherring
Deputy Editor
Jessica Dickers
Sub-Editor
Alastair McGibbon & Linn Ahlvik
Designer
Julian Grant
Photographer
Natalie Evans
Foreign Correspondent
Sophia Skinbjerg-Eyles
Editorial Committee
Adrian Aloi, Alastair McGibbon, AmandaSherring, Cassie Santoro, Gabe Rule, Jessica Dickers,Julian Grant, Linn Ahlvik, Natalie Evans, Tex Miller, Sophia Skinbjerg-Eyles, Zakary Testa
Production Services
Adcell Media
ThanksCr Jan Farrell, Mardi Janetzki, the Youth Development
Team & Adcell Media.
Editorial
Here at Switch we are continuously surprised at the talented and passionate individuals that live in Geelong. In this issue we want you to be just as impressed, so we’re sharing a few incredible people achieving amazing things in their area. Flick to page 10 and let Hannah Teesdale inspire you to action, admire the raw beauty that Daniel Longo captures, be inspired to travel to America with Chad Suhan and listen to the strength and courage that blank encompasses. Hopefully this issue inspires you to take some leaps of your own, and embrace the things you love.
The Switch Team
Contribute
SWITCH is a Geelong Youth Magazine that provides a creative outlet for young people as well as all the information you guys want to know. The mag is entirely written by young people (12- 25 years old) for young people and contains interviews, fiction, reviews, poetry and heaps more. Switch magazine is managed by a dedicated editorial team. They’re in charge of the content, layout, editing process and occasionally even writing stories. Each issue is over 30 pages of matte full colour, which gets distributed to local schools, libraries, cafes and youth venues around the region. The best part is that it’s free! If you want to see your work published in Switch, it’s super easy to get involved. You can submit articles and interviews as well as reviews of books, movies, and albums. Your articles will be read by the Switch team and possibly published in the next issue. We are always on the lookout for amazing photos or illustrations as well, who knows, your picture may even be chosen for the cover!
Send your submissions to .
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VCE Rant
Written by Tahlia Sinclair
I With thousands of students heading into VCE this year, many are looking ahead to the all-important ATAR score they wish to receive at the end of their studies. The calculators are out and everyone’s finding out what study scores are needed in order to get their desired ATAR. Trying to figure out a desired score is hard enough, however what about the subjects that get scaled up or scaled down?
Not many people know how the system works which leaves many VCE students worrying about their subjects, especially those who had had other factors in their life that affects their score. Students studying languages, advanced mathematics, sciences and classical studies are all candidates for the exciting and highly beneficial up scaling which is when study scores are increased from their original score based on the subject. However, many students also face the plight of down scaling as portfolio subjects, music subjects, VET and health based subjects all face the penalty of having their hard earned marks being scaled down.
The students who undertake subjects that get scaled down work just as hard the subjects that are scaled up or that stay the same. Portfolio subjects including studio arts, media and visual communication design are some of the most time consuming subjects available to those students who do them. School assessed tasks (SATs) are the major assessed task in portfolio subjects and they consist of a lengthy years work to submit one final project. Most of the SATs and a lot of the portfolio work is done by these students outside of class time and school hours as weekends and after school are often the only time they can work on their pieces, especially those wishing to record podcasts, radio segments and film videos.
It seems as though the hard work and effort these students are putting in is being completely disregarded and ignored. I believe we should let these students keep the scores that they rightfully earned. Sure, we can continue to upscale some subjects but we need to abolish the unfair and unwanted down scaling system. Personally, if I earned a score of thirty in media studies, I would want to keep it, not be marked down, it isn’t fair. Regardless of the subjects undertaken, students should keep the score they rightfully earned because it’s unfair to scale down any VCE subjects.
Get to Know– Tex Miller
What he does
Blues musician and music writer
Website: facebook.com/texmillermusic
Guitar of choice
I’ve got to say my mum’s nylon stringed Maton guitar from the ‘60s. It’s got the sweetest tone and is just a dream to play.
What do you wish you had invented?
To be Jann Wenner and have invented Rolling Stones magazine.
Favourite Movie?
Almost Famous or The Blues Brothers
What’s your ultimate festival lineup?
Coldplay, Radiohead, The Lumineers, Ben Howard, John Mayer, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals and Gary Clark Jr.
What kind of style music do you play?
A cross between John Mayer folk pop and blues rock.
What made you want to get into music?
My parents were very musical; there were always Joni Mitchell and James Taylor records around the house. I was actually trying to think this morning of what first turned me onto guitar, and I think that was when I first started listening to John Mayer.
First gig/festival you went to?
It was probably Queenscliff Music Festival in about 2003, the year that everyone discovered Cat Empire, John Butler Trio and Xavier Rudd and they were all there.
What’s something people wouldn’t know about you?
If I added an A and an N to my name, my initials wouldspell out batman.
What’s the best thing about being a musician?
Being able to get up on stage and play your music to
the crowd.
Top 3 albums of all time?
‘What’s the Story Morning Glory’ by Oasis, ‘Parachutes’ by Coldplay and ‘A Guide to Love, Loss and Desperation’ by The Wombats.
What’s the best gig you’ve played?
I had the opportunity to open for Diesel at the Barwon Heads Hotel when I was 17-years-old - that was a pretty big thing.
Murdena Rising
Written by Tex Miller
Murdena have been a band on the rise for quite a while now, ever since their humble beginnings. Since their first trip up to the Tamworth Country Music Festival, Annie Rose Maloney knew that the band was destined for big things. In that year, Murdena were lucky enough to take out the Battle of the Bands at that year’s festival and since then have gained a reputation at the infamous festival. Starting out as an acoustic duo with just Annie and Hugh Maloney, Murdena have since become one of the biggest rock/ alternate country bands in the local Geelong scene. With a self-titled EP around the traps at the moment and a follow up due in the next few months, I recently
got the opportunity to sit down with Annie to have a chat about the band.
From acoustic duo to full five-piece band, the evolution of the local country band’s music has been a natural progression. “I started to play a lot of country music and we began to get a whole heap of corporate gigs and wedding slots through family friends,” Annie said.
“I began writing some songs and took them to Hugh to get him to put his spin on things — and that’s how our early songs began. Hugh started to sing and we began to take things a lot more seriously than we had been previously. Our confidence really grew with the addition of bass and drums to the outfit.”
Since the release of their self-titled EP, Murdena have gained a strong live following, and their alternate country sound can be heard most prominently in the songs ‘Burn Of Gin’, ‘Sheena’ and ‘Headed North’. The band’s most recent local gig was at the Ocean Grove Festivus in early April, which Annie described as a turning point for the band. “It was really nice to play locally and it was a great setup for a festival. There
were a few people that came to just see us, which Ifound pretty funny,” she said.
“It’s quite humbling, really, because this time a year ago nobody knew who we were and to have people coming to a festival and paying money to see you play is really nice.”
Self-managed and booking shows all around the country — and at the moment, looking at tours in Sydney and Adelaide — the success that has followed Murdena in the past twenty-four months has been quite awe-inspiring. Now, Annie says, the band is just considering their next move.
“We’ve been together as a band for about a year and a half, and now we need to get onto another platform to build our profile again. Whether that’s doing some tours like we are, as well as doing interviews, there is always something on the go and another level to push our name out there to,” she said.
“We are also constantly writing new stuff so that we people that love our music don’t get sick of us too quickly.”
The new EP — which is due to be released in the next couple of months — is made up of songs that the band has been playing live for quite some time. This time around, Annie feels that the EP is a lot more thought-out and intense than their first release.
“If anything, this release shows how much the band has grown and I think you can hear that in the different sound of the songs. With new band members you get new influences, and I think I’m writing a lot less folk stuff than I was in the beginning,” she said. Although Annie is quickly gaining a reputation as a country musician, the first album that she bought with her own money — one of her first musical memories — is completely different to what she is playing in Murdena today.
“I remember I was really into cassette tapes and collecting them, and I think one of the first ones I ever had was B*Witched; (my collection) had Backstreet Boys and all of that other stuff. I guess it’s a little bit of guilty pleasure,” she said. “I remember hearing Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Dancing in the Dark’ and buying it on tape in Thailand when I was about six years old, thinking it was the best thing ever. I don’t know what attracted me to that song and to this day I still don’t know. It’s got all the elements of a great song, and Bruce Springsteen is just one of my biggest influences; his song writing is superb and onstage he’s unreal.”
With a sold out EP launch at Cherry Bar for their first release, Murdena are planning on reaching the sameheights this time around. It might be a while off, butit will definitely be worth the wait. Keep your eyes and ears open for the new EP — which should be out soon —and head along to a Murdena gig to see what all the fuss is about!
Olympic Sprint
Written by Zakary Testa
In February this year, the world’s greatest winter Olympic athletes competed in front of millions of spectators all around the world. It was hosted by the city of Sochi in Russia, and in the months prior to the event, Russian President Vladimir Putin enacted tough and drastic anti-gay laws that essentially paralyzed and ostracized the Russian LGBT community.
That begs the question – did Russia deserve to host the Winter Olympics? Does Putin deserve to hold a position of power when he holds views that are 50 years out of date? Should the world stand idly by while gay Russians are forced to conceal who they are in order to survive in a world of discrimination and degradation? The short answer to all of those questions is a comprehensive no.
12 months ago Switch published my piece on gay marriage, and the reception I received was fantastic. But realistically, how far have we really come in the last 12 months? Unfortunately, we haven’t come very far at all. There are still hateful protests and misguided fury, senseless beatings and aimless hatred.
Being a straight man, I can only imagine what it’s like to be a gay person in the terrifying world we live in. We live in a country led by a man who is too afraid to confront the problem that thousands of people are facing every day, a problem that is growing by the day.
Sometimes I wonder what it’s like to be Tony Abbott. It must be bizarre to wake up in the morning, put on your manly suit and tie and you go about your day, offending sections of society without even realizing — just by opening your mouth. Some of these comments — that sound like they should be coming from an uneducated man 50 years ago — are now being uttered by the most powerful man in Australia – the Prime Minister. Abbott and Putin aren’t all that different; both lead a backwards nation that refuses to accept LGBT people — a group in society that is not going away any time soon. Realistically, they’re not harming anyone, and if their existence offends your traditionalist beliefs I suggest some face time with a mirror and some contemplation.
Don’t get me wrong – I’m not saying you have to be a gay rights supporter and attend rallies. I wouldn’t be much better than Putin and Abbott if I forced an idea upon you and told you to “just deal with it”. I’m just saying you have to be human — treat your fellow human beings with the respect every person deserves. You won’t like every person you meet; that’s a given. I’ve met plenty of people that I don’t necessarily like or want to associate with. That’s fine; that’s human nature, you can’t like everyone. But you can respect people and you can give people a chance.
I’m not sure about others but I find it extremely frightening to live in a world where these anti-gay beliefs are still able to be aired in a public forum – particularly in a country that has played host to the Winter Olympics. I feel for the LGBT community – having your place in society constantly under scrutiny would be maddening. Why is it that a decision made by a government can have such a detrimental impact on an entire community? Why does so much rest upon the view of one homophobic man?
So when you go about your daily routine today, do me a favour and change one little thing: be more open-minded to things that may seem unnatural to you. Open your eyes and your heart to things you would’ve neglected in the past. The time for changeis now; not tomorrow, not next week. Now. You control what you do and how you think; no one else can control how you treat people.
Challenge the views of the ignorant and forge yourown belief system. That is how we can move forward together.
Ballers Ride Bike
Written by Gabe Rule
I got a new whip. Nope not a car as I only just got my learners (which means I can do lifts to parties if my Mum is also attending).
I bought a bike.
Actually, my parents bought me a bike, and before you allow your eyebrows to reach judging heights, it was my birthday. I know a bike seems like a very grade two present, which is probably true, but grade two birthday parties are tops; less vomit, lolly bags. Also despite the fact that old people think that every 17-year-old comes with an IT degree, I didn’t ask for an electronic gift.
Previous birthday presents include: in 2012, a trampoline, for a 16-year-old? Yes champ. Mum realized her son had spent his childhood without a trampoline and decided 16 would be a good age for it. And 2002, a spy kit, which made me feel very Spy Kids for about four minutes, until I realised that Carla Gugino and Antonio Banderas were not a real life couple.
I was actually also gifted a mountain bike for my grade two birthday, which I cut sick on and landed a total custom job by covering it with stickers and tazos from my K-Zone magazines (because, didn’t have a lot on at age eight). Get a pen MTV- pimp my mountain bike.
Fast-forward five years, the same bike landed me in hospital with a broken arm at age 13. I was trying to impress some ‘doodz’, and thought the way to do this was to blow their minds with some sick tricks. As you may have already guessed, I ended up in the gutter. Hospital was nothing like Grey’s Anatomy. I was disappointed. But I’m determined not to add bikes to the list of ‘Things I’m Not Good At’, which includes Jenga and Glad Wrap. I’m going to be good at bikes.