21 March 2011

AntiSocialFifteenYearOldFire (otherwise known as: Yes!)

| blind
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On the last night of You Are Here, we held a party to coincide with FM 104.7?s Skyfire. Skyfire is a free fireworks display over Lake Burley Griffin synchronised to the sounds of a special music mix broadcast by FM 104.7.

As much as we would have loved to attend Skyfire, You Are Here decided not to attend Skyfire. Instead to hold a free street party in Civic behind the Merry-Go-Round. Starting out with a contemporary dance performance choreographed by Sarah Kaur to the sounds of the FM 104.7 Skyfire broadcast, FriendlyFire soon kicked into a mash-up set by Dead DJ Joke and DJ Volume. Using the 104.7 mix as raw material, the duo punched out a glorious set of trashy, overloaded pop and FM 104.7 radio call signs (up to and including a remix of a Harvey Norman commercial).


Sarah Kaur’s choreography at work. Image by Holly Orkin.

Was it outstanding? It kind of was. First of all, we were lucky enough to score a swathe of teenagers on their way back from SkyFire (ALL OF THEM SOBER, ALL OF THEM) and charmed them into surrendering any remnants of dignity or self-control to the mercy of the dancefloor. Secondly, we had some awesome family action from passers-by who stopped to dig the atmosphere and ended up staying until 11pm, rocking out with their young children. Thirdly, and best of all, we temporarily canned the event in the face of an AntiSocialFifteenYearOld assault.

So around 10.10pm, about 20-25 boys cruise up to the party, mostly around 14-16 years old. I met them and checked that they had no alcohol, then when they climbed onto the Petrie Plaza garden for a better view, asked them to step down. They straightaway refused, and more climbed up to annoy me. Our genius security guard Mohammed defused the situation with a minimum of hassle, and the teens immediately swarmed on to the dancefloor.


DJ Volume (left) and Dead DJ Joke (right), aka Scotty and Nige, aka Nick McCorriston and Reuben Ingall. Image by Joe Brock.

The thing about a circle mosh is that there’s actually no problem with it. Moshing is both a legitimate and pleasant form of dancing, and a circle mosh is a natural and aesthetically pleasing means to facilitate it. It’s like the dance formations in the drawing rooms of Jane Austen novels, and it has its own rules and structure. The problem is that a bunch of aggressive and hyped-up fifteen year-old boys don’t know or understand those rules, and the result is a clumsy, dangerous mess.

After a couple of minutes of awkward flailing, I was both bored and underwhelmed by their lack of style and technique. In order to draw their incompetent revels to a close, we temporarily cut the music – or rather, cut to Dead DJ Joke’s collection of Call Waiting music. The soothing synth lines and repetitive melodies acted like insect repellent to the tribe of fifteen year-olds, and they swarmed off into the night as quickly as they came.*


Max Barker, also lifting the pace up a notch. Image by Joe Brock.

At this point, Dead DJ Joke and DJ Volume lifted the pace up a notch, slammed into a mash-up of Coolio’s Gangster’s Paradise with Mambo No. 5, and proceeded to take us all the way home.

That more or less concludes the festival – more wrap-up stuff coming in the next few days. In the meantime, huge thanks to anyone and everyone involved – coordinators, artists, supporters, audience… all of you rule, and thank you thank you we are grateful.

Talk soon –
– David

*Presumably making their way to an all-night cafe for a Warhammer 40K tournament.


Image by Joe Brock.

Video by Holly Orkin.

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colourful sydney racing identity11:27 am 22 Mar 11

I fyou wanted scathing comments why didn’t you start a ‘recumbant bike riders deserve their own lane on every Canberra road thread’. You really need to learn to use the right bait.

simonleeds said :

Keijidosha said :

So the entire purpose of this event was to elicit negative responses en masse from RiotACT readers? Seems like a pretty elaborate way to thumb your noses at the herd. You could have saved all that effort and simply posted a smug paragraph about being a cyclist on Canberra roads and yeilded a far more impressive result.

I chuckled at your request for scathing comment though – it is either a grab for attention, or obvious trolling to provide lulz for you and your mates. Whatever the motive, my response is an emphatic “meh”.

The main problem with Keijidosha’s YouAreHere-are-smug-elititst-hipsters argument is the fact that these pictures show YouAreHere have put on a free public party in Garema Place – seems like a pretty unusual way to “thumb your noses at the herd”.

You’ve either not read the OP and first comment, or have missed the point entirely.

shadow boxer7:54 am 22 Mar 11

georgesgenitals said :

What the f*** is a hipster?

He is the rareky seen cousin of the better known hipster doofus, both require a degree of coolness that is sadly lacking in these activities.

LadyoftheLake8:26 pm 21 Mar 11

How many hipsters does it take to change a lightbulb?
….
It’s a very obscure number, I doubt you’ve heard of it.

gospeedygo said :

Damn it your jedi hipster mind tricks are confusing. I don’t know if I’m not supposed to be looking for these droids or not. I.e to make snakry comments or not make snarky comments.

When in doubt, stick to form and just go the snarky comment, me thinks. From what I can tell, it is nerds using defensive jedi mind tricks (fitting really) to try and make us think they don’t not want to be identified as hipsters. Or something.

They really have gone to a lot of effort to post on here in the vain hope of copping abuse, though. Strange.

Keijidosha said :

So the entire purpose of this event was to elicit negative responses en masse from RiotACT readers? Seems like a pretty elaborate way to thumb your noses at the herd. You could have saved all that effort and simply posted a smug paragraph about being a cyclist on Canberra roads and yeilded a far more impressive result.

I chuckled at your request for scathing comment though – it is either a grab for attention, or obvious trolling to provide lulz for you and your mates. Whatever the motive, my response is an emphatic “meh”.

The main problem with Keijidosha’s YouAreHere-are-smug-elititst-hipsters argument is the fact that these pictures show YouAreHere have put on a free public party in Garema Place – seems like a pretty unusual way to “thumb your noses at the herd”.

neanderthalsis said :

I thought hipsters weren’t smart enough to be nerds but were just in it for the look. No self respecting nerd would have an asymmetrical hair cut and those black rimmed glasses without lenses.

Honestly, a nerd would be at home playing WoW or cruising 4chan, not in Civic for a “street party”.

I’m not sure what a hipster is, but I don’t think anyone in that video was a nerd. The parties frequented by nerds generally tend to have far more junk food and far fewer people than what was shown in that video, e.g. movie night, board gameathon or the classic Lan Party.

That said that street party sure does look like quite a lot of fun.

creative_canberran4:59 pm 21 Mar 11

neanderthalsis said :

I thought hipsters weren’t smart enough to be nerds but were just in it for the look. No self respecting nerd would have an asymmetrical hair cut and those black rimmed glasses without lenses.

You’re confusing nerds with geeks. Hipsters are smart enough to be nerds because nerds may know a lot but don’t know how to use that knowledge. Geeks know lots and know how to use it. Hence the nerd will be at home playing World of Warcraft on the expensive computer he bought with cool fins and lights in the case while the Geek will be building his own computer from scratch to play on.

blind said :

I don’t want to put the pressure on or anything, but the entire reason for putting on this event was to give you Riotactors material for some really scathing comments about hipsters and etc. There’s enough gold in just that 1:43 minute clip to mock for the next 10-20 months, if you ration the comedy out.

We’re all pretty excited to see what you guys come up with, so consider this an opportunity to really school some hipsters. Just, for god’s sake, don’t go off half-cocked. If you think you’ve got a funny observation, just say it out loud a couple of times or maybe try it on your dog before you submit – it will be awkward for us all if you fumble this unique opportunity.

Who’s up first?

Damn it your jedi hipster mind tricks are confusing. I don’t know if I’m not supposed to be looking for these droids or not. I.e to make snakry comments or not make snarky comments.

Hipsters are sooo 1960s . . .

georgesgenitals4:04 pm 21 Mar 11

What the f*** is a hipster?

Is “hipster” the new word to use for anyone who isn’t dressed in Oakley and Adidas?

You might want to research what a hipster actually is, because none of those people are hipsters. It’s about the music they like, the things they are generally into and the clothes they wear. All of these define a hipster.

The number of times I hear people using “hipster” to describe someone simply because they wear one item of clothing that a hipster may actually wear (checkered shirt, black jeans, particular haircut, whatever….) is ridiculous.

I hate hipsters as much as the next person. The way they act far too cool at gigs to show any enthusiasm for the music being played. Their expressionless demeanor as they stand there looking bored, depressed and generally embarassing whilst wearing an outfit that looks like they scrambled though a salvo’s bin and just threw on whatever they found.

But these people are a particular, ridiculous breed and must be correctly catagorised.

I thought that hipsters were geek chic but nerds were geek orthodox

neanderthalsis3:36 pm 21 Mar 11

johnboy said :

shadow boxer said :

I hate to burst your bubble but real hipsters do not do the Macarana or listen to FM 104.7.

Nerds however ………

Depends if they’re being ironic or not. And hipsters are pretty much nerds.

I thought hipsters weren’t smart enough to be nerds but were just in it for the look. No self respecting nerd would have an asymmetrical hair cut and those black rimmed glasses without lenses.

Honestly, a nerd would be at home playing WoW or cruising 4chan, not in Civic for a “street party”.

Pommy bastard3:28 pm 21 Mar 11

Oh can’t you just imagine how hip and ironic and cool and trendy they thought they were?

blind said :

I don’t want to put the pressure on or anything, but the entire reason for putting on this event was to give you Riotactors material for some really scathing comments about hipsters and etc. There’s enough gold in just that 1:43 minute clip to mock for the next 10-20 months, if you ration the comedy out.

We’re all pretty excited to see what you guys come up with, so consider this an opportunity to really school some hipsters. Just, for god’s sake, don’t go off half-cocked. If you think you’ve got a funny observation, just say it out loud a couple of times or maybe try it on your dog before you submit – it will be awkward for us all if you fumble this unique opportunity.

Who’s up first?

That is actually impossible, blind. Why? Bare with me; there were never any legitimate hipsters at YouAreHere, including yourself.

The first rule of being a hipster is to deny oneself of being a hipster. In fact, a true hipster never even acknowledges the existence of a hipster sub-culture at all.

If a local society is publicly aware of a hipster sub-culture in their presence, then said hipsters must disband immediately and never speak of their hipster pursuits or accomplishments again.

Canberrans always seem to be late on trends, or just do it all wrong. I suggest you burn all evidence of the failed Canberra hipster, and wait quietly for the next trend. I’m sure one has already begun outside the ACT.

Good luck with the next festival. I’ll let you know if a new trend is coming, consider it a friendly ‘heads-up’ in the shared interest of Canberra saving sub-cultural face.

shadow boxer3:23 pm 21 Mar 11

johnboy said :

shadow boxer said :

I hate to burst your bubble but real hipsters do not do the Macarana or listen to FM 104.7.

Nerds however ………

Depends if they’re being ironic or not. And hipsters are pretty much nerds.

Yeh fair enough…can’t argue with that

So the entire purpose of this event was to elicit negative responses en masse from RiotACT readers? Seems like a pretty elaborate way to thumb your noses at the herd. You could have saved all that effort and simply posted a smug paragraph about being a cyclist on Canberra roads and yeilded a far more impressive result.

I chuckled at your request for scathing comment though – it is either a grab for attention, or obvious trolling to provide lulz for you and your mates. Whatever the motive, my response is an emphatic “meh”.

shadow boxer said :

I hate to burst your bubble but real hipsters do not do the Macarana or listen to FM 104.7.

Nerds however ………

Depends if they’re being ironic or not. And hipsters are pretty much nerds.

I don’t think anyone cares, blind.

shadow boxer2:41 pm 21 Mar 11

I hate to burst your bubble but real hipsters do not do the Macarana or listen to FM 104.7.

Nerds however ………

I don’t want to put the pressure on or anything, but the entire reason for putting on this event was to give you Riotactors material for some really scathing comments about hipsters and etc. There’s enough gold in just that 1:43 minute clip to mock for the next 10-20 months, if you ration the comedy out.

We’re all pretty excited to see what you guys come up with, so consider this an opportunity to really school some hipsters. Just, for god’s sake, don’t go off half-cocked. If you think you’ve got a funny observation, just say it out loud a couple of times or maybe try it on your dog before you submit – it will be awkward for us all if you fumble this unique opportunity.

Who’s up first?

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