TERTANGALA – To The Beat of My Own Drum

They marched through the city streets, easily differentiated from the other pedestrians. They sported chokers and ankle high boots and immaculately trimmed beards and all manner of fancy hats. They darted throughout foot traffic, all headed in the one direction; the direction of a sort of beating noise. I guess you could say it was like a kind of drumming? The beating of a drum? Yeah, it was definitely Beat the Drum.

And so it was that on the 16^th of January I found myself attending Triple J’s 40^th anniversary celebratory concert in The Domain, Sydney (permission to be jealous now). Music permeated the streets all the way to the edge of Hyde Park (probably because we were running late, as always) and its murmur sent tremors through the crowd so that the general pace of everyone steadily quickened.

Reaching the gates and filtering through, patrons were met with a simple but effective design, with one main stage laid out along the scrolling hills of the main park and surrounded by a horseshoe of food and, of course, beverage outlets. By the time I made it in, the concert was well underway with Ball Park Music kicking it off, just one big name in the amazing lineup. Throughout the short but sweet day, I was graced with a combination of full and mini sets from some of my favourites including Vance Joy, Goyte, The Preatures, You Am I, Cat Empire, Illy, Sarah Blasko, The Presets and The Hiltop Hoods. Not to mention all the other bands I’d never heard of.

Triple J packed as much into the short time and one stage that they could. And good god was it jam packed! The mosh was the perfect combination of chilled out and happy without being subdued and hyped without being violent. The crowd bounced off each other with all manner of dance moves (I personally sported a fabulous rendition of the sprinkler).

High points for the evening were definitely the amazing crossovers and covers that featured throughout the concert, giving the audience a taste of the unusual and unexpected. The peaks of this for me included Ball Park Music’s cover of the Hoodoo Gurus classic Like Wow – Wipeout, featuring an actual member of the Hoodoo Gurus, Dave Faulkner and The Preatures cover of Boys in Town with Divinyls guitarist Mark McEntee.

As afternoon hit dusk, the chilled tunes and odd, smokey haze that began rising from the crowd around Heart’s a Mess by Goyte, gave way to a more party vibe. Stage lights flashed with a new, multi-coloured intensity and the mood only escalated; proving the Barney Stinson theory that you don’t need any falls for a good mix in music, it should just be all rise! The Presets saw me on my friends shoulders, literally screaming (as a short person, I wasn’t prepared for her average height lifestyle) but calming down enough to belt out My People. By the end of the night, The Hilltop Hoods brought me all the way back to my 11 year old love affair with Nose Bleed Section, ending a perfect day on a perfect note.

Stumbling away from the show, it was clear that every attendee’s spirits were high as folks shared cigarettes and laughs from the bathroom queue all the way to Town Hall station.  Honestly, after a long spell of purely rock and metal concerts, Beat the Drum was the perfect combination of everything for me and really encapsulated the aus-centric, something-for-everyone vibe of Triple J in one amazing package. So, happy 40 years, Triple J and thanks for the bitchin’ party.

TERTANGALA – UOW101: Survival Guide

You made it. Take a deep breath in … and out.

The University of Wollongong is possibly the most laid back, friendliest and home to the most duck ponds per capita of any university in the world. And now you totally go here! However, it’s not quite time to relax yet. No matter your background, you’ll find that the transition to university life can be very difficult and stressful. Luckily for you, you’re not alone and you have the opportunity to learn from the experiences of others. So, here it is; your tool to mastering UOW and an ultimate survival guide tried and tested by yours truly.

Lesson 1: Keep your friends close and the friends you actually want to see again closer

Remember a couple of hours ago when you passed your friend outside the library only to realise you’d both be free at one today? Remember how you said “I have to run to class right now but I’ll text you at 1ish for lunch?” and they were all “Yeah sure! See you later!”? Well, it’s time to file your missing persons report because you’re never going to see them ever again.

Unless you’re paying through the nose for Telstra and their coveted reception, you just need to get used to the idea that a university in the shadow of a mountain isn’t going to get along with your phone company. There is ONE spot on campus that sometimes graces students with cell activity and this is directly outside the library. It’s not an easy hot spot to master and you may have to perform a sort of ritualistic dance around the quad, with outstretched arm and phone in hand, in order to beg for the generosity of the reception gods. In short, it’s very hit and miss and be prepared for the judgement of Panizzi onlookers.

I’ve always felt that the social life of UOW is one of the university’s nicest elements and connecting with friends here is a must for a happy, healthy uni experience. So you should make a bit of an effort to meet up and plan ahead. Otherwise you could always try messaging them over Facebook but this leads me to my next point.

Lesson 2: It’s not you, it’s the servers

I know, you’ve been trying to connect to the wifi since eleven and you’re tired and frustrated and upset but I promise the world is not against you! There’s no problem with your laptop so you need to stop bothering the tech support people, they can’t help you either. The truth there’s just more people on the internet than UOW can handle and there’s no quick fix for it.

Between 11 and 4:30 the internet fights a hard battle so if you have assignments you need to finish off, even if it’s just the bibliography, you need to plan out finishing them with this dip in mind because a lack of internet can quickly disrupt your best laid plans (read: my bibliography took me 2 hours).

If you’re desperate for internet and willing to make the trip you could always travel down to building 3 (the computer sciences home ground) and connect to the UOW wifi down there since more people are connected to Freedom wifi and there’s a stronger signal in building 3. The down side of this is that if you’re an arts student such as myself, you’re on enemy turf. You never really say you’re not in computer science but somehow they just know it and you know they know it. If you have a thick skin or find some sympathetic IT students and bridge the gap, this situation is fine. Otherwise, you’ll have to battle it out for a desktop computer with a sweet, sweet Ethernet connection. These can be found all throughout the library and building 14 (the one that links to the library) but you’ll be lucky if you can secure one. I guess you could always go back to playing solitaire on your laptop …again.

Lesson 3: As all roads lead to Rome, all buses lead to UOW:

When I first began studying at Wollongong I had many a misadventure on the bus. I still hadn’t explored the whole campus and when I got off in an area I was unfamiliar with, I thought I was stranded at the mysterious Wollongong Tafe. I was so embarrassed that I had gotten lost on the bus and supposedly ended up at this other institution that I wouldn’t even open up my campus map to check because I thought someone might see the UOW insignia on it and realise what an idiot I was. And then I found the library. I was an idiot for other reasons.

I wish I could say this only happened once. Because the number 9 bus (the only bus that goes to and from North Gong station and the one you want to catch) has two routes and I went made this mistake on both of them. One of the routes leads directly to the main bus bay out the front of uni on Northfields Avenue and one makes its way around the campus to a series of stops on what is called the Ring Road Loop (goes past building 3 computer science, building 41 science, building 25 creative arts, Hope Theatre) until it too also ends up at the main bus bay. But really, anything you’re catching from North Gong station is going to end up at uni so there’s no need to worry about that.

The other buses that run in and out of uni (apart from the Campbeltown bus which I have no knowledge or understanding of) are the free green buses that travel all around Wollongong. FOR FREE!!! There’s a 55A and a 55C, and basically all you really need to be aware of is that A stands for anti-clockwise and heads towards Wollongong hospital and C stands for clockwise which heads to Fairy Meadow (note: disappointingly not as magical as it sounds).

Lesson 4: General advice flash-round

Save money everywhere, even if it’s just by packing your own lunch. Prepare for the possibility that there is no ebook version of that one amazing book you need and take solace in the fact that when you do go to the library to get a physical copy, you will look and feel like Hermione Granger. You’re not a teenager with a teenager’s metabolism anymore; you can’t eat terribly without consequence so learn to love your veggies. Uni is great and parties are fun but you didn’t come to UOW to sport a hangover every morning; you came to learn, so that comes first. But most of all…

Lesson 5: Relax

You have a lecture on in five minutes and you just woke up in your bathtub covered in the remains of your midnight Maccas feast with no time to pack your own lunch. Oh and also there’s no ebook version of the main source you’ve cited in that essay due at 4. Dude, you broke like all my rules.

Once again, take a deep breath in … and out.

My all-time favourite quote originates from the works of Persian poets. It’s “and in time, this too shall pass.” Good or bad, things always do. Somehow things just always seem to work out. There are always professors willing to cut you some slack and always solutions to your problems. If you need some extra support counselling services are available 5 days a week through the uni between 9am-5pm and you can make a booking by calling 02 4221 3225. Just remember, this is not the be all and end all of your entire existence, as much as that one power tripping lecturer would like you to believe. Always keep focusing on the positives and go ahead and enjoy yourself! You earned it.