A chat with Ned Russin from Title Fight

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Destroy, White Boy

Ned Title Fight

Image via GQ

Hot on the heels of the release of Title Fights new album Hyperview. I got to have a conversation on the phone with Ned Russin. I pretty much what I did in every interview, sound weird and nervous and most likely scared them. This especially happens when I actually like the artist, and I like this one. My friends in London dragged me to shows, and I was in love. Check out my interview below.

How’s the press going? Do you ever get sick of it?

This time around it’s been good. The last two albums we’ve done there was a lot of the same type of introductory question, but hopefully we’ve gotten to the point where hopefully people know us now. So we can skip all of that, this stuff I like, talking about the music and the record.

How long did it take you…

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How not to be a racist asshole

Posted in Opinion, Uncategorized by

Pauline Hanson

Pauline Hanson demonstrating you’re only Australian if you wear the merchandise in the bush.

I’ve been wanting to write something about race for a while, but I’ve never really known how to articulate my feelings but here we go anyway. I’m half Vietnamese and half English (white) and it seems as though I have to put up with idiotic comments on a weekly basis. I’m not claiming that I have it rough compared to others, but because I wasn’t born white, I have to put up with some bullshit. I’ve had racial slurs like gook yelled at me, I have assumptions of my interests, IQ and demeanour placed on me based on my skin colour, I had to delete Facebook because people kept outing themselves as racists and when I confronted them they either told me “well not you” or they seemed completely ignorant to the fact that calling for a genocide of an entire race was somehow racist and “just a joke”. Sometimes when I feel like I’m overreacting I just remember this quote from ‘It Takes A Lot To Laugh’ via Rookie

THERE IS NO WAY TO OVERREACT TO RACISM, BECAUSE RACISM IS A SYSTEMATIC DEVALUATION AND DEHUMANIZATION OF ENTIRE GROUPS OF PEOPLE. I repeat: RACISM IS A SYSTEMATIC DEVALUATION AND DEHUMANIZATION OF ENTIRE GROUPS OF PEOPLE, AND NOT REACTING TO IT ONLY HELPS PERPETUATE IT.

So I decided to write this; of course I’m not speaking for all people of colour. These are just my thoughts on a topic I find incredibly hard to put into words and something that shouldn’t even be an issue, but it is, and it is something that should be discussed, even it is uncomfortable.

Here’s how not to be a racist asshole

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My father was a boat person

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Boat People

Image via – History Learning Site

A small rundown fishing boat crammed with 77 people on board, drifting in the South China Sea, escaping persecution, fleeing for their lives and searching for freedom.

One of those on board is my father, Chau Minh Than Le.

He was one of many Vietnamese refugees that built a new life in Australia.

Only in the past five years or so has he started opening up to me about his life in Vietnam, whether it was to shelter me or because he didn’t want to relive the past he had left far behind him.

To be honest it was probably the latter.

Even though he has been in the country for 36 years, his voice still holds remnants of his life before Australia. His accent is a mix of old and new, using Australian colloquialisms with a Vietnamese twang.

Born in 1960, his mother, my Ba noi (grandmother) Mrs Thi Khanh Than said that his birth brought about great excitement for her, her husband and my dads great grandmother, as even though he was the eighth child born, he was only the second male in the family.

“Everyone loved him for he was such a cute, chubby baby. He looked exactly like the baby in the Nestle milk advert which was popular at the time,” my Ba noi said.

DadPraying

My father as a child

“As he grew up he was a very studious student and a well behaved boy. He was healthy and sporty and everyone loved him.”

My dads older brother Than Chau Le, shared similar sentiments.

“He was a chubby and well behaved baby and child. In his teenager years, he was a well-mannered and hard working student and also a passionate sports fan”, explained my uncle.

“There was a generation gap because I’m 7 years older than him. But we had a good relationship between brothers! We both were passionate sports fans and played in the local volleyball (team)”.

While childhood brought happy memories, the spread of communism across the country threatened that happiness, and their lives.

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The Rise Of The A League – Destroy, Whiteboy

Posted in Destroy Whiteboy, Sport by

I’ve always liked playing soccer and more recently I’ve enjoyed watching A-League games. Where the grandeur may not equal the heights of the EPL, I find it more interesting than the EPL (go Tottenham). Here’s the article I wrote about the A-League where I looked at its growing popularity and had a chat with one of the hosts of The B League, Jules Schiller.

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It’s Perfectly Fine To Hate Skyler White – Destroy, Whiteboy

Posted in Opinion, TV by

If you’re a fan of Breaking Bad you may have read about the “Skyler White Effect”. If not, it’s described as being: “The cognitive dissonance that happens when a female character is presented by the narrative as absolutely correct in their judgment of a male character, and yet the viewers assume she’s the bitch”.

Creator Vince Gilligan even addressed the topic of all the Skyler hate and said;

We’ve been at events and had all our actors up onstage, and people ask Anna Gunn, “Why is your character such a bitch?” And with the risk of painting with too broad a brush, I think the people who have these issues with the wives being too bitchy on Breaking Bad are misogynists, plain and simple. I like Skyler a little less now that she’s succumbed to Walt’s machinations, but in the early days she was the voice of morality on the show. She was the one telling him, “You can’t cook crystal meth.” She’s got a tough job being married to this asshole. And this, by the way, is why I should avoid the Internet at all costs. People are griping about Skyler White being too much of a killjoy to her meth-cooking, murdering husband? She’s telling him not to be a murderer and a guy who cooks drugs for kids. How could you have a problem with that?

via – Uproxx

I call bullshit.

I’ve been guilty of hating on the character of Skyler, but it’s not because she’s a woman and I’m a misogynist. There’s a multitude of elements that make her one of the most unlikable characters in a world full of drug dealers and murderers.

Not sure if I’ll give away any spoilers, but just in case: SPOILER ALERT

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My Top Memes of 2012 – Destroy, Whiteboy

Posted in Internetz, Opinion by

Another year, another long list of my favourite memes for the year. Last years seemed to be received well so I thought I’d make another pointless list. People did a good job of ruining memes for me this year, but the good thing about memes is that they don’t stick around for long. Unless of course you have your parents or older relatives on Facebook and they get to extend your experience, 6 months later. Or y’know the people that don’t trawl Tumblr, browncardigan and BuzzFeed all the time (like me).

This year my list is a good indication of what I spent most of my time doing while I was studying; watching TV, following American politics and watching the Olympics.

And in no particular order

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