hap·pen·stance

(hāp’ən-stāns’)
n. A chance circumstance.

Issue #2 is out now, and we’re ready to bring the ruckus!

Come and get dirty with us on Thursday 12 November from 6pm at GOODGOD Small Club, 55 Liverpool Street, Sydney (entry through La Campana.)

$15 on the door nets you a copy of Happenstance issue #2, and the chance to check out bands like Pee Wee and Dora Maar. Plus,… our cover girl the lovely Del Lumanta will DJ.

And of course, there’ll be complimentary refreshments and Grolsch happy hour for a limited time! Yeah! But get in early to avoid disappointment.

See you there!

SNEAK PEAK HERE
ORDER ISSUE 2 HERE

64 PAGES OF PUNS, NOW WITH MORE CATS

Nah, we wish we could make a magazine that awesome! But the second issue of Happenstance comes pretty close, if we do say so ourselves. We’ve absorbed all the feedback from our inaugural issue, and crammed it all in to make the second Happenstance a bigger, badder media experience.

FAT IS BACK

Back fat, not so much. Happenstance is now a whopping 64 pages, filled with more of the things you loved. In this issue’s Bedroom Safari, local artist, printmaker and all-round nice girl Del Lumanta invites us into her prizewinning bedroom. Rough Pages is back due to popular demand, with sketchbook submissions from Luke Kopycinski, Jacob O. Rolfe, Rodrigo Luff and Evan Shipard. Meanwhile, Michael Bay’s slopfest Transformersgoes tête à tête with Stephen Sommers’ GI Joe in the latest Versus. But most importantly, we’ve kept it all homegrown, yet expanded our minds a little: most of our content is Sydney-sourced, but we’re keeping an eye out on a national scale.

ADDED GOODITIVES

Our second issue takes us into previously uncharted territory with new sections. We’ve bumped out a sweet little gallery section for you to ogle, treasure, rip out, stick up, or make origami out of: whatever floats your boat, it’ll be prettier with work from Rebecca Murphy, Sean Batchelor, qwux, Jessica Klingelfuss, Renee Anne, Megan Dell and Natalie Perkins. And we’ve fattened up on the fashion stakes, with a visual story highlighting some of Australia’s best and brightest clothes crafters, featuring Saint Augustine Academy, Pedro Garcia, Ellery and heaps more.

SAME SAME BUT DIFFERENT

Like any good time, the feature stories in issue two are longer, stronger and more satisfying. Rebecca Leaver talks to Sydney-based street artist and mindbender Adam Norton to explore the effects of art attacks in public spaces, Oliver Downes turns off MTV to find out what’s happening with local independent music labels, while Henning Kirkeby ponders why a pretty young lady is cutting and stuffing dead rodents.

LEAN, MEAN AND GREEN

Have you pre-ordered your copy of issue 2? Because chances are it’ll show up at your place on the back of a bike. We’ve teamed up with the good folks at the Sydney Bicycle Film Festival to go green, and they’re very graciously delivering the first 25 pre-orders in Sydney via push bike this weekend (17th-18th October)… Nice!

WE STILL WANT YOU

Like our first issue, all our contributions, both written and visual, are sourced from local up-and-coming creative types. Do yourself a favour, and pick up Happenstance to see how you can get involved in celebrating a creative local culture. We’re here for you.

SNEAK PEAK HERE
ORDER ISSUE 2 HERE

This has been one of the best line-ups I’ve seen in a while. I usually don’t grace festival type events (seeing too many 15 year olds smacking out at Earth Dance a few years back turned me off), but Flip Out Festival definitely calls for me to come out of retirement.

“FLIP OUT is all about crazy good time fun with loads of killer bands from around the planet perfoming over two stages, a record fair, merch market, BBQ (with vegan options) and the first 200 people to arrive will receive a FREE copy of the super limited FLIP OUT 2009 CD containing rare and unreleased tracks from every band playing!”

With a massive lineup of local and international goodness alike, you can expect an audio feast from bands such as Eddy Current Suppression Ring, Pink Reason, Ooga Boogas, The UV Race, The Stabs, Super Wild Horses, and Royal Headache (pictured). And that’s just naming a few! (In my opinion Royal Headache are one of the best around at the moment. See them.)

Make sure to book your tickets in advance HERE. Or you can pick some up in person from Repressed Records, Red Eye, or Mojo Music. You can also grab them through www.oztix.com.au (Ph 1300 762 545), www.manningbar.com (Ph 9563 6000), or even at the ACCESS Centre at the venue.
Honestly, it couldn’t get any more convenient.

Did I also mention that there is a record fair on the day, with stalls from Mojo Music, Paint It Black, Repressed, Tenzenmen… the list just keeps going.

And just when you thought there couldn’t be any more, turns out there’s a Sydney and Melbourne show this year, with the lineup varying for both (Sydney details listed above).

View the full details of Flip Out on the Flip Out Myspace page.

Ice Cube really is a pimp. First made evident via the Goodyear Blimp (or at least Ice Cube claims) and now by the new Nike SB ad. A throwback to 1993, being 10 years old, single kick skateboards, scuffed knees, and Ice Cube on that ironic tip.

Look out for the alternate endings.

According to her MySpace, Flutter Lyon (you may know her as Robyn Wilson) has been dreaming about light and sound and vision for as long as she can remember. Now she is making marriage of these elements into one special little experience for her audiences. Collaborating with other musicians and video artists, Flutter often plays improvised sets, creating some rather stunning live, interactive, unexpected moments. Not to mention the killer eclectic costumes and hypnotic guitar style to match.

This video was a special audio visual collaboration between Flutter Lyon and video artist Lukasz Karluk. What’s most impressive is that it’s a completely live improvised track with audio interactive projections! This was filmed at Black & Blue Gallery, in Sydney Australia.

Flutter Lyon is hitting up New York in August, we wish her the best of luck!

www.myspace.com/flutterlyon
Views of Courage blog

Sometimes I get a little edgy going to jam sessions. For the simple reason, I’m jealous as all hell that I don’t have the talent to work magic on an instrument like the guys who play at them. At the end of the day though, it’s great music which generally has you bopping your head and tapping your feet. Throw good company and tasty food in there, and you pretty much have a win/win situation.

Batik Cafe is a pretty recent addition to Sydney’s food community. They are self-proclaimed as being inspired by the hawker food kitchens and street vendors of the South East, as well as a place for refuge from the inner workings of hustle bustle, urban, metro, ghetto sprawl. Serving a variety of delicious foods from Malaysia to Indonesia, you can guarantee the food matches the coffee in excellence and quality.

Batik Cafe are hosting Sunday Afternoon Jam Sessions, with the next one taking place on Sunday 26th of July, between 1-5pm. All kinds of music and sound are welcome from guitarists, keyboardists, horn players, bassists, drummers, vocalists… you name it!

So tune your instrument, get down to Batik, share your tunes, and relax with a great crowd and atmosphere.

Batik Cafe located Cnr of Goodlet St and Elizabeth St, adjacent to Satay House, Surry Hills Sydney. BYO is welcome too.

www.thebatikcafe.blogspot.com

facebook group

Our countries most favoured MC, the handsome drake known by his adoring public as the Purple Duck, has decided to bless the east coast with a celebratory tour for his long awaited debut album ‘Duckside of the Moon’ recently released by dualpLOVER recordings. The Maroon Loon will be dispensing some of his ‘implausible vocal dexterity’ on the road this june / july flocking together the most motley mob of hip hop artists ever assembled in this country, for simply the best packaged deal you will ever be likely to hear.

Joining duckmania are a crew of wogs known as Curse Ov Dialect, who are nothing if not an anomaly on the Australian hip hop scene, their non-homogenized tapestry of world music and hip hop sensibilities fused with a costumed show of unrelenting energy makes for a very interesting time indeed.

And then we have the professional savage who taps the jugular of hip hop bleeding from it everything you once held dear. This Mexican with a distinct distaste for white Australia will make the Caucasians in the house say ‘SQUIRM’ while raising the roof on our countries genocidal history and present.

Together these three acts are the vanguard of experimental hip hop in this country their humour, joy and dread offer varying perspectives on life, its hip hop son, but not how you want it.

Kicking off in Sydney on the 30th of June, the tour moves through Newcastle, Lismore, Brisbane and finally Melbourne. See the facebook event page for dates and times.

purple duck www.myspace.com/mcpurpleduck
curse ov dialect www.myspace.com/thecurseovdialect
the professional savage www.myspace.com/whosaysrecords

We love our dubstep here at Happenstance. With the birth of Void back in 2007, lots of international dubstep DJ’s were brought to our shores on a regular basis, keeping us in tune (pun totally intended) with what’s happening on foreign soil. Sick chops.
As great as international artists are to see, we think it’s even better to see the dubstep scene start to grow locally and form a loyal following. So when Subplot approached us about their new night, we gave the two thumbs up and welcomed them with open arms and ears.
They play a mix of future beats, dubstep, and the odd bit of dubtechno with a great lineup of local artists. But they aim to do more than just give us another ‘club night’…

Subplot’s ultimate goal is to start integrating with the art world, from live painting or performance, to pieces hung, installations, video art… you get the picture (+2 shit puns).

The next Subplot takes place on the 19th of June at Brighton Up Bar. DJ’s playing are Jonny Faith, Monk Fly, Portait, Blablake, Vanilla Gorilla, and Gilsun with artworks by our good friend James Jirat Patradoon. $10 for dubstep and art? Hell yeah.

Subplot
Friday 19th June
Brighton Up Bar / level 2, cnr Oxford & Riley Street
9.00pm – 3.00am / $10 on the door

subplotsounds.blogspot.com