Bowerbirds, a family of 20 species in eight genera, are a fascinating bunch of birds who range from New Guinea and Australia.
Some are flashy, others drab, but all are named for the "bowers" (
avenues, huts, or towers of sticks;
source) that the
males craft and decorate to attract a mate.
There are regional styles (PDF) in the design of the bowers, and
the male Greater Bowerbirds even employ optical illusions. Some, like
the Vogelkop Bowerbird, add mimicry vocal to their repertoire of courting methods.
Add accidental cultivation to the list of fascinating features of the bowerbirds.
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Apr 26, 2012 -
44 comments
"
Rhyece O’Neill is an intense young man. A polemical folk singer, a producer of bass-heavy dance music, a protester, and a digital media worker for a major record label. He’s unlike anyone else in Australia’s dubstep landscape."
Cyclic Defrost interviews O'Neill, aka
electronic/dub/dubstep producer Westernsynthetics, and head of the
Sub Continental Dub label. You can skip the rest and hear
two streaming mixes from Westernsynthetics,
19 tracks from the Sub Continental Dub label, plus
the label's first three singles, or continue inside for background, context, and even more music.
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Feb 27, 2012 -
9 comments
"Normally subcultures in Australia are taken from other countries and just reproduced here.
Sharps or sharpies are an Australian specific subculture, developed in Australian specific conditions." Sharpies were members of suburban youth gangs in Australia mainly from the 1960s to 1980s,
particularly in Melbourne, but also in Sydney and Perth to a lesser extent. "Everybody was in a gang. Everybody. Every second street there was a gang. Um --
there was like you were either in a gang or you were the victim." The time of the sharpies is part of Melbourne folklore. Forget JFK. Where were you when Frankston erupted after the
AC/DC concert in 1977? While the violence was legendary, so were
the fashion and the music.
Lobby Loyde and the
Coloured Balls,
Buster Brown,
Skyhooks, Fat Daddy,
Hush. And nobody
danced like the sharpies (which resembles
skanking of
some sort).
Anyone over forty who grew up in Melbourne has at least one story to tell about the sharpies (PDF). Some stories are about
gang leaders with missing teeth and shit-eating grins, while others
look back with some sort of fondness.
posted by filthy light thief
on Apr 14, 2009 -
23 comments
