By Aaron Darc
Society & Culture
LOVE IS IN THE AIRWAVES
May 8th
In the post-post-9/11 world, can reality television deliver us from evil? Big Brother, please take notes…
Seven years ago, I had very little presence in the digital sphere. As an oldschool comms marketer who was eager to cross over into the future – and, yes, as a writer with a little audience looking to find a big audience – the potential of the online world called to me with tempting stories of little people with big websites. And I was late to the party. By the time I got there, it was already a little like a Corey Worthington bash – the press, similarly to their ridiculous stories of businessmen who made it big from their garage (we liked those, didn’t we?), often toted around success stories of talents who had been “stumbled upon” online; but in the now crowded cybersea, nobody was being stumbled upon, because nobody was able to sit there in anyone’s way to be stumbled upon. But I knew enough from my marketing background to understand what this meant - you had to be connected to something else, something big, something commercial, that people were quite deliberately stumbling into, and, through association, there you were. I needed to write about something everyone was talking about – or reading about – online. And I needed to write about something that also gave me the vehicle to slip in the same things I’d be writing about, anyway – disguised as discussions not about those concerns (psychosocial concerns, a the end of the day), but of the topic du jour. I investigated commercial hitrates, did a bit of cybersurfing, and found what I thought was too good a vehicle for Aaron Darc to be true: Big Brother. Aaron Darc meet reality television. Whether you like it or not.
LONDON CALLING
Aug 11th
“There is nothing more dangerous than to build a society, with a large segment of people in that society, who feel that they have no stake in it; who feel that they have nothing to lose. People who have a stake in their society, protect that society; but when they don’t have it, they unconsciously want to destroy it.”
Martin Luther King
Earlier today, I had the misfortune of finding a copy of The Daily Telegraph (yeah, I know), which led me to experience the displeasure that was Miranda Devine’s creative take on the London riots. I say “creative”, because she somehow managed to turn a riot that happened under a conservative government into another case of left-wing mismanagement. You gotta hand it to her, she doesn’t let reality get in the way of what they pay her so nicely to spew out. For Devine, it was all down to “politically correct policing”. Yes, that’s right, lovely Miranda actually proposed that, far from having too much racism and cruelty in our social policies, we have not had enough – and if we did have more, like… say… the freedom to basically lock away the immigrant portions of our society (they did that in Germany, once), then this damned riot wouldn’t have happened, because they’d all be… I don’t know…. locked up… or killed. Elsewhere in the paper, random fuckwits on the street (they’re not exactly thin on the ground in this country) answered the searing question: Could the riots happen in our own country? My favourite was the guy who answered, “No, because though they have the same problems, they have some on a much bigger scale that thankfully we don’t, like immigration.” And it struck me, really, because at the end of the day, everybody knows it – we know very well what this riot “was” – and yet the media, none of it, has had the guts to outright call this… hello… a race riot. It’s also a class riot, yes (we’ll discuss how aspirationalism has given birth to a new monster in a moment), and certainly there’ll no doubt be plenty of white looters and rioters. But class and race are ultimately inseparable in this society of ours, anyway. And if there is shown to be no element of race in the rioting – taking note of the current absence of race in the actual reporting (as opposed to the op ed pieces, where it’s perfectly acceptable to basically invoke genocide) – we have taken it upon ourselves to imagine it was (hence the mountain of racist op eds and abominable forum comments) – and that in itself says so very much about the racial divides in Post 9/11 West.
CHANGING CHANNELS – LIFE BEYOND COPENHAGEN
Jan 6th
The world is saying no to the question of a green future. Sorry to the Greenies who frequent here – you know that even though I’m not exactly a placard-carrying Greenie, I’m utterly sympathetic to your cause, and good on you – but that, my friends, is the case. Copenhagen was the end, as far as I’m concerned. Firstly, because the world’s leaders basically showed the reality of that somewhat innate human instinct of numero uno that will, when push comes to shove, be the reason why, if our world is going to die, it will. And secondly, because we didn’t even care. Because, truth be told, we’re all numero uno, too. “What about our fathers and sons?” asked John Farnham. What about them? Screw ‘em. That’s what we’ve said, now. That’s how it will be.
SHE IS NOT A MAN
Nov 9th
“The current classification as it stands is perfectly fine. If they wish to compete in some kind of catergory then they should find one in the special olympics.” Peregrine (abc.net)
So says the wisdom of Peregrine, from the abc.net forum boards, in response to today’s salacious news that world champion runner, Casta Semenya, does not perfectly fit into the scientific categorisation of what we call a “Woman”. Naturally, gender is more than nature, itself – beyond the science, it is cultural. And one has to wonder what is more at play, as we watch the world so self-indulgently lap up this incredibly sad scandal. The question of what this story “means” to people is not a simple one that I’m going to answer in entirety, during a blog I’m penning on late Friday afternoon. There’s the deep-seeded role of gender – but, so too, is there a case for racial undertones, particulalry when viewed in light of the culture clash that had already erupted when South Africa defended its beloved champion against the white detractors who had so viciously claimed their star was invalid. But all it meant to me was a distinct sensation of pain: a sympathetic moment where I couldn’t help but sigh for Casta Semenya, an individual who will undoubtedly be lost in all that follows. Through absolutely no fault of her own, her road to glory has led her to a very dark place, indeed. You thought the devouring of Susan Boyle was sickening? I have a feeling this is going to eclipse the public consumption of the developmentally challenged Scottish Christian who just happened to have a decent voice. The public consumption of the African hermaphrodite who happened to be able to run like the wind is, I dare say, going to be a far bloodier affair.
MONEY MATTERS. BUT THE CLIMATE SEEMINGLY DOESN’T.
Nov 5th
Mr Darc decides to reconnect, and finds more of the same bad TV, and a clever new documentary series, in a world still grappling with the changing economy and environment.
Goodness, it’s nearly Christmas. It’s nearly the end of 2009. What about that? Sad about that? Glad to be rid of it? It’s been a fairly big year, on so many accounts. For me, I’ve been torn away from this website, this year – and I have disliked that, immensely – because my own world has been so… compelling… I’ve found myself pulled from the world beyond the little bubbles we each live in. This week, I decided I wanted to reconnect a little. What a year it’s been for me – intense highs and some of the most intensely difficult situations I’ve been in since I don’t know how long (ever, for a couple of them). Lightning-bolt shifts in the ongoing struggle of career in the middle of a recession (at first, it was terrifying – in the end, I’d done extremely well); dealing with the simultaneous demise of the two loves in my life – my Great Grandmother who raised me (why, oh why, oh why did it have to be this year?!), and my partner I had spent almost five years with (sometimes, you decide to break up with people because you kinda have to – it doesn’t necessarily bring the moment where the smiles break out again); juxtaposed with my sudden departure for Europe, and my experiences with a young German I had met, my old party pals from London town, an old friend from those very good old days, a bunch of fresh faces, and those beautiful, beautiful cities (that was… well… pretty damn cool!). Great ups and great downs, really – I couldn’t say if 2009 was a good or a bad year in the cellar rack of my life. It’s both. But what about the rest of the world? I decided to see how it had been going, and had heard about a new series with something to say about not only that, but where we’re heading into 2010.
LEST WE FORGET: MICHAEL JACKSON
Jun 27th
“Jackson had amazing dancing legs. Watching him perform Thriller is amazing – He stays with the beat and never misses a quaver. Michael was pure genius, and his death is nothing short of a tragedy and a shocking waste of his wonderful talent.”
Bruce Forsyth
Uh-oh, he’s about to speak about a dead celebrity. Michael Jackson fans, run, run away! Now! But the thing is – hear me out, here – my fascination and condemnation of the frenzy that follows the death of a celebrity has nothing to do with the actual celebrity. Everybody carries on in this bizarre state of delusion – one that pretends to be about the dead celebrity in question, but is nothing of the kind. And it is no more illustrated as such, as when someone dies who has had, let’s just be real here, as questionable a life as Jackson’s. I pointed it out with Irwin’s death, because he was simply unremarkable and largely unimportant until his death. Ledger’s neared closer, as we all chose to romanticise a damaged Hollywood heart-thob who partied just a little too hard. But now, we have the death of Michel Jackson. It seems bizarre to write it. But he’s dead. And when he was alive – for the longest while now, at very least – he wasn’t the kind of man we rejoiced the merits of. He was one of the most hated celebrities of the last decade – and, beyond that, for the last few years we had basically forgotten him (although it would seem he did not forget us). Every now and then, he would pop up (on places like Australian Idol – of all things!) to be indulged as nothing more than a fleeting symbol of yesteryear – we would consume him with a fondness every bit as self-indulgent and meaningless as symbols of yesteryears are for us. But now, he’s dead. And open up any paper, and you’d think it was one of the most shocking turning points of modern civilisation itself. I mean, really. Michael Jackson, the tortured, fucked up monster that we made – the guy who had all but mutilated his body in a manner that wasn’t anywhere near as amusing as we so viciously exploited him for – died. Go figure. If anything, that he made 50 astonishes me.
THE WAR ON CHASER
Jun 6th
While I’m aware this website pools a similar demographic to The Chaser (so I’m not expecting this to go down too well), I’ve never really been a fan. Yes, the team come up with the odd mildly amusing piece; but they sit amongst a lot of crass skit-comedy that, to my mind, is no better than any of the other compilation shows aired on commercial networks. In fact, some of their rivals are much better; but they fail to create the cultural context that deems their work so supposedly intelligent and socially cutting, as The Chaser has so successfully cultivated. And I’ve always had a problem with the legitimacy of their staple “pranks”, because so many of them are fake. I personally know one of the “actors” hired for one of the stunts that was, like all of them, aired as a supposedly riotous scene that not only were we expected to believe was “real”, but one that’s entire comedy revolved around that realness (the Borat style of watching real people respond to absurd situations). In this particular skit, an unsuspecting Japanese businessman shares a cab with two of the boys; but, truth be told, there was nothing unsuspecting about him – he had a friend who was part of the production team, who called on him after the casting department had difficulty finding the right unsuspecting Japanese businessman for the role. He knew nothing of the television show, and – unbelievably – did it for free, as a “favour”. Needless to say, he never heard from them, again; but the sketch became one of their most notorious – a sketch that was (particularly considering that it was completely scripted) unnecessarily racist. But that’s The Chaser for you – peel away the feeling we have that, as lefties, we’re supposed to see it all as some searing social portrait or, worse, an important warrior in an ideological crusade (I mean, really), 80 percent of their work is filled with nothing more than dressed up toilet humour. They forever crucify the Bogans, but they have more in common with them than they presume. They just wear nicer clothes, and hang out in cultured areas of the inner city. Oh, and they’ve made a lot more money. But this week, a week into their latest series, the similarities have been highlighted.
ALL TOGETHER NOW…
May 21st
“One down,” my friend laughed with me, upon the fall of NRL legend, Andrew Johns; “O
ne more to go.” That’s that, then, I guess. Or is it?
Long, long ago, in a far away land, the feisty, 30-something writer – who feels so strongly about his ability to navigate this life, he spends a great deal of time writing about it for others – was a very different person, indeed. People often say to me, “I bet you were always this feisty!” and I generally laugh wickedly, in character, and say, “Well, yes, I must confess I was!” And the bizarre thing is, I often convince myself. It is very true that I was always a very bright car that tore down the road at a thousand miles an hour. But my feistiness, as charismatic as it is, as entertaining as it is, as effective as it can often be, is really born from a kind of anger. And anger comes from pain. It can come from all different kinds of pain – but it is a reaction to pain, nonetheless. I went into my teenhood very much in love with life. I left it very angry. More >
WHAT ARE WE REALLY LIKE? THE DATA TELLS ALL….
Mar 26th
The Australian Bureau of Statistics today unleashed its “Australian Social Trends” report, featuring a snapshot of our lives as a collective, from a variety of angles. The press will run with some, disregard others, and probably spin what is there. The actual report is only released to the public in a watered down collection of articles, and admittedly also has its fair share of subjective bias around some of the hard data. Not to mention that some of that data is just plain dull! So, I thought I’d outline some of the more interesting findings. They do definitely offer an indisputable dissonance between cultural beliefs and the actual reality of our lives (and of others, who we may very well be mistaken about), and provide us with a chance to remember that sometimes, the things we think, hear or read are very, very wrong; and, something I’ve repeatedly pointed out here, that intentions do not necessarily translate to actions. Let’s get real… More >
CHINA GETS GAME
Aug 15th
The greatest sports men and women of the world are currently a part of the greatest show on Earth. Let’s stop in on The Beijing Olympics and peek behind its shimmering silk facade.
As if you haven’t guessed, I’m not really the sporty type. Shocking, isn’t it? I lived in the middle of Sydney for Australia’s Olympics, back in 2000, and the only fond memory I have is how nice it was to get smashed with my friends on my Darlinghurst rooftop, watching the lasers shooting off Centerpoint Tower for the nightly Olympic light show. I do also remember being in a cocktail bar, during the opening ceremony, where I unfortunately looked up, over my gin & tonic, to a plasma, just in time to behold Nikki Bloody Webster and some ridiculous rock-eisteddford-on-acid representation of Australia as a country which had long achieved harmony with its Indigenous people – who we all loved very much, and who loved us back, in return. Yeah, right.