Items

• 
  2020-10-26

  "Get on the beers" Dan Andrew

  Victorians saw their freedoms and their complacency eroded as the Andrews government introduced a second lockdown. As it continued past the expected four weeks, many found enjoyment in the meme of the Andrews government allowing Victorians to “get on the beers”. The meme started during the first lockdown after Daniel Andrews stated on the 22nd of March that the closure of the pubs was not an excuse to “have all your mates ‘round to home and get on the beers…”. Since then, it has become a joke on the internet about when Daniel Andrews will finally allow Victorians to get back on the beers. Since the easing of restrictions, the joke has morphed from a desire to get out of lockdown and back to pubs, into a celebration of the success of the second lockdown. One musical duo, MASHD N KUTCHER, made a remix of Andrews from different press conferences from the second lockdown to be played at bars and clubs now that Victorians are able to go out. Through the creativity of such people, an admonishment by the premier has evolved to a shared joke, and then into a celebration of the persistence and patience of Victorians to go through a second lockdown successfully. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0NFqOHFJvw
• 
  2020-09-30

  Living through video games

  During the first lockdown, my flatmate introduced me to Sims 4. The Sims is a life simulation game wherein you create a character and live their life, making certain decisions such as where you will live, what career you will have, who you are in relationships with and so on. In the second lockdown, friends introduced me to Stardew Valley. In this game, your character lives on a farm and has to manage the land to make a living. There are also mines to explore and mystery to uncover. I would play this game with my friends online, hanging out virtually when we could not in real life. These games provided a reprieve from everyday life in lockdown where I had little control over my life, allowing me to live vicariously through my characters.
• 
  2020-10-30

  Victorian sporting pride

  I am not a sport person; however, during the second lockdown I became increasingly invested in the success of Victorian sporting teams as their finals started taking place. Victoria saw three major wins in October: victory for the Melbourne Vixens in the Super Netball competition on the 18th; two Victorian teams competed in the AFL Grand Final on the 24th with Richmond ultimately prevailing; the Melbourne Storm defeated the Penrith Panthers on the 25th in the NRL Grand Final. This string of sporting success from Victoria gave a sense of pride to many Victorians, including those of us who do not normally follow sport. This pride came as success from the second lockdown was becoming evident, adding to the sense of achievement for the state. The ability for sport to bring people together ought to not be underestimated as the sense of community and pride for Victorians, after going through a second lockdown, made many of us feel confident again.
• 
  2020-07-29

  Jewish Melbourne: Performance of a Shakespeare monologue in Yiddish, by Kadimah

  Performed by Evelyn Krape, this monologue from Hamlet was performed in Yiddish as part of the Kadimah Theatre's lockdown programming
• 
  2020-10-28

  My Sister Graduated Year 12 During a Pandemic

  My younger sister went through Year 12 (the last year of high school in Australia) in 2020. When she showed me her yearbook, most of the graduation quotes were either TikTok references, sarcastic remarks about being at home for most of their final year of school, or genuine amazement that they made it through a notoriously crazy year in an actually crazy year. Due to the tight restrictions in Victoria for most of 2020, this Year 12 cohort did not get to go to formal, dress up for sports carnivals, have an in-person graduation, or even enjoy the basic senior-year pleasure of having a microwave in the exclusive Year 12 common room. One of her friends summed it up quite well in her graduation yearbook statement – “that was nothing like High School Musical.”
• 
  2020-04-17

  (HIST30060) Quarantine Beauty

  (HIST30060) With lockdown lasting for many weeks and hairdressers and beauty salons being closed (even for a while as restrictions were eased), people's well-kept and manicured looks went out the window, being replaced with long, untamed hair and eyebrows and tracksuits. We went from looking like Princess Mia to ordinary, bushy-haired Mia as in the image. Many people resorted to giving themselves and family haircuts at home (I cut my hair twice and fringe multiple times throughout lockdown), which had varying results and became an essential covid experince on social media.
• 
  2020-11-04

  A Puzzling Distraction

  HIST30060. Millions of people picked up hobbies during their respective lockdowns, mine happened to be puzzles. A few in this photo I had before lockdown, but most was bought in the lead up to, as well as during. I bought my first colour puzzle about a month before lockdown started, when I first discovered the board games store Mind Games in Melbourne's CBD, though I did not touch it until study at home began. These puzzles gave me something I could be good at, with only one still incomplete months after I first got it (in my defence, it changes colour). They allowed me to multitask, I would watch movies for university while I had a puzzle in front of me, I discovered so much music through my Spotify recommended playlists that have become solid favourites, I've caught up on podcasts that were usually relegated to my daily commute to university. They gave me something I could control, in a time of change and confusion, a welcome distraction from everything happening outside of my house.
• 
  2020-09-30

  Jewish Melbourne: ABC Religion and Ethics - Tyla's Story

  ABC's Religion and Ethics program created a video series 'Lockdown Stories', inviting people to submit their videos and stories. On 30 September they shared on Facebook 'Tyla's Story': a film made by Tyla about being locked down at home with her family, conducting Pesach via zoom, having family shabbat dinners on zoom and then reuniting with her siblings for shabbat once the lockdown lifted.
• 
  2020-09-28

  Carrot in a box

  During Lockdown in the search for routine and some sort of normality, usually my weekdays finish with ABC News at 7pm followed by 8 out of 10 Cats does Countdown at 7:30. Being a news snob I have always watched ABC, but recently 8 out of 10 Cats has become a new daily routine that provides regular humour relief from a bleak day inside. Hosted by Jimmy Carr and filled with stupidity as well as 'play-at-home' Countdown gameshow rounds, I have really fallen in love with it. The show is reliable, positive and immature, three things that are hard to come by at the moment. Further to that a pipe dream of mine is to one day live in the UK, and with borders closing until the end of 2021 that feels like a very long pipe, but getting to watch it even now makes me feel like maybe I'll watch it with a cup of tea in London somewhere. This particular clip was one of the funnier things I've ever seen on TV, let alone on this show, and made a mediocre night watching TV a conversational piece about a carrot in a box.
• 
  2020-09-10

  Retirement in the Rumour File

  My Dad used to listen to the rumour file every morning for work, I remember one time he had to work all day on something that broke on the rumour file that morning. As I've tried to be setting a new routine and waking up early, I've been listening a lot to Ross and (recently) Russell in the morning. It's nice to use live radio to feel connected during this lockdown, particularly when AW is so Melbourne based. I'm nowt alone either I think their ratings have gone up something like 30%. This guy rang up with a rumour about a former number one draft pick retiring this week. As a Carlton Fan and a receiver of many a failed number one draft picks, I thought it had to be one of ours. Sure enough, a few hours later news broke that Matthew Kreuzer was retiring. Another draft pick hampered by injury that never hit his prime into the Carlton graveyard. I still even now think of Kreuz as a pimply eighteen year old. At least I got to break the news to my mates and feel ahead of the curve, and the rumour file is really helping me get through.
• 
  2020-09-03T12:24+10:00

  Billie's House

  Over the past few weeks, my girlfriend and I have been watching the Australian TV Drama 'Offspring.' When I say watching, I probably mean obsessing. With nothing to do we would watch a few episodes a day and finished all seven seasons in around a month. We like the show particularly because it is shot in and around Fitzroy, a place where we would often catch up with out mates over a beer or in the park at Edinburgh Gardens, I think seeing the characters in Offspring be able to go for a pint at the Union Club Hotel gave us some sort of comfort, and the pub is top of our first visit list when they open again. As we tried to create entertaining walks we would look for some of the houses they shoot in and this photo shows one I stumbled upon on a run, Billie's house in later seasons. Like any show you like to be where they were, becoming part of the story yourself, and particularly when there was not really much of a story in our lives in lockdown, it was good to be part of theirs. Now that we've finished all seasons and are adrift in endless Netflix menus, seeing the houses returns me to that place of belonging I had.
• 
  2020-05-07

  Humans of Covid-19 AU: Garth Davis

  “COVID19 has had a huge impact on the film industry, in fact it wipes it out completely. Pretty much every production has stopped right now, which is massive, almost like the airline industry with all the planes lined up on the tarmac. Many people are doing development work to fill the time and adjusting some projects to make them simpler. Content is like fast food at the moment, people are devouring it and are addicted to it. It is likely that simpler movies, with fewer characters, will be shot sooner. This situation will also create innovation, many people are coming up with ways to direct remotely and we could see a lot more animation and visual effects. For me, films are always ahead of reality. There are so many movies about COVID19 already, look at Contagion, almost bizarrely similar - it's crazy! This event may inspire people to connect more to the story they are telling. Some of the greatest art has come from moments of trauma and difficulty. Sometimes such circumstances can push out really inventive, amazing things. This virus is a dress rehearsal for what is really coming, one of the offspring of our journey to the elephant in the room, which is global warming. We do have the capacity to act as one people and work together globally. There is hope - but we need to get ahead of this, not be reactionary.” Instagram post on Garth Davis, film director, and his experience during the pandemic, which was created by a psychology student living in Melbourne who was interested to hear about how COVID-19 was impacting on different peoples’ lives.
• 
  2020-04-27

  A Postcard From a Friend

  Sent to me by a friend who lives less than half an hour from me, this is an example of how the world has reverted in some ways during the pandemic. Written letters and postcards are largely objects of the past, yet this was an effort at analog connection in the digital world, one that required thought and care to produce.
• 
  2020-05-26

  Disclosure quarantine music release

  My favourite UK electronic band, Disclosure, released a new single from their forthcoming album "Energy" during lockdown. The track, also called "Energy" is a work of house/electronic music art that reflects the times we are currently facing. It's uplifting, direct, exotic, punchy and a lot of fun to listen to.
• 
  2020-05-06

  Falls Festival social media post

  HUM402 This is a screenshot of Australian music festival, Falls Festival, announcing to their followers that they are endeavoring to put on the festival at the end of the year, as per usual
• 
  2020-03-29

  Pandemic Monopoly

  HUM 402 The image depicts the creation of Pandemic Monopoly by a Hobart resident. The homemade board game uses toilet paper as currency, referring to the toilet paper shortage seen across Tasmanian supermarkets. The board game presents players with the opportunity to 'own' key Hobart locations. However, instead of mortgage, houses and hotels, the game allows players to buy hospitals and clinics to place on the properties. Centrelink, the Australian governments social security service, features heavily on the board game, indicating the rise in unemployment due to the pandemic. Whilst being used for comical purposes, the game also critiques the Tasmanian governments early handling of Covid-19 crisis via a chance card, which states "You have a fever, dry cough and Pneumonia to boot but despite having all of the symptoms, you haven't knowingly come into contact with a known carried so they won't test you for Covid-19. The Royal Hobart Hospital sends you home. Get out of iso [isolation] free." This refers to the Tasmanian government in early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic refusing to test individuals who had not been in contact with a known case, or had not left the country.
• 
  2020-04-01

  12 Monkeys

  The Astor Cinema, an Arthouse cinema, has put up 12 Monkeys posters in its poster windows at the entrance of the cinema. A tongue-in-cheek reflection on our times.
• 
  2020-04-15

  Concert cancellations and postponements

  HUM402 A number of concerts, festivals and other forms of entertainment have been cancelled or postponed due to the impact of Covid - 19. This email screenshot from concert organisers, OzTix, shows the cancellation of the Luca Brasi tour, representative of the wider sacrifices made by the entertainment industry during this time of social distancing.
• 
  2020-04-02

  Ad for Play School Covid-19 tv special

  Play School, a kids program made by the Australian National Broadcaster (ABC) screened a COVID-19 special explaining the situation to kids.
• 
  2020-04-07

  2020 Melbourne International Film Festival Cancelled

  Announcement of cancellation of the 2020 Melbourne International Film Festival due to the pandemic
• 
  2020-03-31

  Until the mirror ball spins again

  Melbourne Fringe Festival revised dates now 12-29 November 2020
• 
  2020-03-24

  Concert rescheduled to 2021

  Our Billy Bragg concert on 7 May 2020 has been confidently rescheduled – to 12 February 2021!
• 
  2020-03-09

  The Ballad of the Dunny Roll

  The video satirises the 'Australian spirit' and the panic buying of toilet paper which is still - 23 March - a feature of the response to the Pandemic in Australia
• 
  2020-03-21

  Facebook advertisement for satirical TV show Shaun Micallef’s Mad As Hell on the ABC.

  A photo of Francis Greenslade’s character Liam O’Malley, Chief Deputy Medical Officer Intern with the text reading “The important thing with panicking is we don’t want to rush into it. We want all Australians to wait until we can declare a state of national panic and we can have an ordered, timely descent into chaos.” This resource shows the comedic response to panic in the broader community.