In a teensy tiny digression…

I feel my relationship with Hannah Horvath from Girls is super indicative of my transition to maturity and fabulosity, but not in a good ‘wow its great to see real bodies on tv’ way.

At first, as a wide eyed young dryad with a carefully tailored kind of quirkiness erring more on the side of Kinki Gerlinki than the Flinders St steps I looked at Hannah as a shiny beacon of realness. I aspired to be like her, a funny obscure writer living in nyc with a buzz killer bff and a string of american apparel playsuits. I would internally dance each time she said or did something totes relatable or told a guy like it was. I admired her taste in equally quirky attractive sociopaths who treated her badly but never enough to warrant any quaint decisive action.

And, well Marnie was an absolute bore. She was too pretty and perfect and cruel to her loving boyfriend and so smug about having a real job at that curator place.

How things have changed. Now I think it must be Lena’s intention with this, but in the past two seasons I have found Hannah scenes absolutely unwatchable. I carefully time the movement of my vlc track so as to not miss any major plot points but this is hard as she is THE MAIN CHARACTER OF THE SHOW. I find she personifies everything I hate about being a mildly 20 year old girl with baggage, she lets her mental illness be her kitschy defining feature, in a horrible act of fetishizing it to make it appear simultaneously whimsical and ‘oh I’m so deep no one will be able to ever understand me’. Mental illness is a topic which should be dealt with in mainstream media, but the way Horvath fetishises it to make it kitschy unsettles me so much and forces a lot of parrelels between people I know (perhaps this is Lena’s intention, good job gal if this is what you are going for).

In the first season I loved how she was all ‘I struggle to make ends meet as I’m a writer who can still afford a macbook air’. Her parents were totally lame and cruel for cutting her off, and Marnie was super high and mighty about finances. Jessa was so cool and worldly too and I loved her hair. Today, I would be ashamed if I was 25 and still coasting off my parents and had no source of income in the event of a departure from being a struggling artist. This is probably the most reflective thing of my maturing over the past years and trying to complete uni and delve into the world of internships whilst still having money that exists. Marnie is a completely sympathetic character, because she was ambitious and tried to have it all together early and wasn’t rewarded for it later on. Plus each time I think of things to wear to work I try and dress as her. Jessa is frustratingly selfish and self involved, again too kitschy for school and unaware how her carefully tailored care free nature impacts adversely on others.

I guess I’ve gotten to know a few Jessas and Hannahs over the years, or watched people I know become them. In fact in real life it wasnt cute and HBOish at all to be like these ‘Girls’ as self involvement and a tolerance for sociopathic boyfriends looks good on no one, no matter how artfully tousled their hair is.

I think now, surely now, Lena is trying to position Hannah as an unsympathetic character. With her being kicked out of a funeral for requesting a publishing contact from her ex publisher’s grieving wife, her instant ‘but how does this affect my ebook’ reaction on the news of said publishers death and the incredibly disturbing scene when she tells Adam Caroline’s fake story about the disabled cousin… I feel surely the tides are turning against an affection for everyone’s fave gal in a mind blowingly unflattering play suit!

I think it’s definitely an interesting exercise to analyse my tv role models from age to age and write agro critiques about them when my attempts to duplicate them cause me to fail at life in a non kitschy way!

What a week of hectic newness, I loved it all.

My colleagues treated me like an actual human person, which I didn’t quite know what to make of at first having been at times treated as a non living faux desk plant at previous internships. I wasn’t just a person young enough to only recently get their braces off/bunsen burner licence, I was an actual member of staff which was just bewildering!

To have responsibilities, to really feel like if you didn’t come to work today some one would notice and the task you are specifically being assigned to do would not get done is also a crazy concept. Interns are sometimes involved alot more in the menial implementation jobs than the important ones, but the stuff I’m doing is actually of value and my task alone to do. If I didn’t come in to work “girl with the mousey brown hair number 1″‘s absence would actually be noted here, being more necessary to the general mis en scene of the office than the fly on the wall this time!

All those desk plant experiences were life affirming in their own way, but I like the version of self actualisation wayyy better at this job.

I can tell this job will challenge me and force me to learn important things about life and my reaction to certain situations. For example, stuffing up. No one is there really to police you and hold you accountable for taking shortcuts, it’s just you doing a disservice to future you who will have to pick up the pieces YOURself.

I found this this week as the institution I’m working at issued a press release about a smoke free policy they are launching on campus. What was a small tree falling in a forest with possibly little chance of people to hear it release, turned into a mass of media enquiries and opportunities. As a side note, how fabo that journalists are actually coming to us for stories, instead of spin doctors pestering journos on ‘how the feck did you get this’ numbers. Anyway, tasked with the role of monitoring the amount of media hits the story had received I’m sad to say I let a mid week stupor (bought on by waking up before sunrise and leaving calm, sterile office environment to tutor schreechy children) cloud my capacity to do the task well.

Oh well, I thought, I’m the intern and no one will notice. The fact was, this had a big flow on effect as those higher up in the institution requested figures of media exposure, on hearing that the comms work had done the trick. Having not compiled the hits well enough, my heart dropped as the comms director told me we couldn’t send the work that I’d done. But this was no all girls school attempt to haunt me forever and make me feel crappy on my third day, this was an impersonal mistake made in a professional setting which needed to be rectified to prevent a flow on crappy effect on others- a weird mix of sterile business things and consideration for other people.

So I sucked it up and fixed it without any excuses or lingering sense of ‘oh lord an ex journo from the London Mirror thinks I’m a twat’ because I think that’s what adults do!

But this account is feeling too smug and ‘I’m very blessed thank you Kabbalah God’ celeb tell all. I did some seriously lowly things which are more important to gush about in keeping with this blog.

I wore asics netburners with my work clothes on the train for fear of being late for work/suddenly having to compete in an 800m/steeple chase.

I became best friends with the receptionist over our mutual dislike of Schapelle Corby’s eye brows.

I wolfed down my hanaichi in my short lunch break, to the horror of fellow patrons in shock over the amount of fried chicken a girl in head to toe ASOS Daily Work Edit could ingest in 15 minutes.

And finally, most lowly…

I mistook a Media Academics name to be spelt Fred, when it was really Phred.

Stay tuned for more adventures from the flashy girl with the hanaichi stained pencil skirt.

After a saga Stephanie Meyer could not have even dreamt up, I have finally secured a fabulous internship at a place I love. My summer has been a smart casual hued haze of right brain/left brain qualifying questions, self conscious licking over my front teeth in the event of lipstick fails and careful analysis of the bridges of interviewer’s noses due to my total inability to maintain eye contact. However, through a fair bit of rejection and Thursday night bevs I am happy to have stuck it out and waited for the world to make sense in the form of a perfecto opportunity coming my way just when I thought I hadn’t even a hope of being any office’s lowly intern.

So, my lowly intern adventures will continue! My foray into an actual paying job will be documented here, hopefully with humour and vitality, a little bit of trepidation and a lot of plum lipstick. What i think is really key is appearing confident and assured, I am no longer a pimply 16 year old stamping envelopes at a publishing house after all. However menial/stressfully life affirming my work will be, every experience I have at this age is valuable ‘I told you so’ fodder for the fabulous Bobbi Fleckman incarnation of years to come.

Oh the things one must face in a field where sometimes real world experience is more valuable than contact hours.

Decked out in Jeffrey Campbells, a carefully sculpted donut bun and the constant sweaty palms of a life long over achiever, we media and comms interns have a lot more in common with the humble tradie than the heroines of our girlhood (for me, Bobbi Fleckman from Spinal Tap). Though King Gee might merely be a nickname for John Galliano to us, we put in more hard yakka in a real life environment than we probably ever thought we would after getting that idealised ATAR (note Jamie King wants to do my exact course).

If we are lucky, we are paid for our days work.

I don’t make an argument for hologram tote sporting asos nymphs suffering the slings and arrows of life financially more than people who really deserve our sympathy. I am merely saying that though we might be tasked with menial residual tasks appropriate for the lowliest and least qualified ‘practitioner’ of the office, sometimes we actually run media campaigns, get abused by a regional south australian radio personality, enjoy the cacophony of shrieks of a mainstream print journo pressed for time and perhaps soon a job….. we organise people, we ground creative people’s amazing ideas in reality and we act as intermediary punching bag between talent and media outlet.

Honestly, as an intern more appropriate office wear isn’t something funky/cue-esque from your Mum’s wardrobe (preferably cowl necked or with a pussy bow), it should be workman’s boots and high vis gear and perhaps ear muffs for the journos.

It’s a little unsettling how well it has been instilled within us that we are lucky to have a job, any job, regardless of how well we are treated there, or compensated for time which could be spent earning money that exists and could help set us up once we leave uni and are flummoxed by life’s harsh possibilities.

We have very low expectations, and sometimes these represent a major killer of ambition. Would Roxy Jascenko have taken a job reorganising the office alcohol supply as a minor or stamping envelopes for 8 hours? I’m not quite sure, at least it’s so difficult to see someone like that ever being the lowly intern with a run in their stockings.

I guess we are told to believe that Roxy did have to do crappy things to get to where she is today, and to be so grateful for even being bestowed the honour of stamping those envelopes or being abused by Wally from the Wyngeree Community Broadcast service for stealing him away from his commitment to quality agricultural journalism.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about all this a lot and I’ve gotten cocky.

I put forth this argument to myself, “well I’ve done media relations on two campaigns so far, and have gained an unprecedentedly thick skinned approach to liasing with regional journalists, surely I deserve better in my final year”…. and I usually sign off with something like “dahhhling” and then “btw fetch me a Jarrah underling” and then “christ, this chunky conceptual jewellery really isn’t that practical, I can’t feel my neck”.

But then I have the furry rug made up of my late pet polar bear pulled from under my JCs as I stare down the humbling, yet terrifying barrel of interning for a few more years and not getting paid to do what I want to do with my life, and sometimes not even getting sought after positions involving things like pay or a well loved familiar environment.

I think interning is one of the most potent of all white girl problems but at that same time, these girls aren’t just bobble heads with an obsession for fro yo. They are hopefully the future’s answer to Bobbi Fleckman, with high IQs, excellent ATARS and a bit of charm. I just wish we were taught to respect ourselves and our potentials a little more, so we don’t end up metaphorically settling with that high school boyfriend who wore socks with sandals on your one year anniversary.

It’s so easy to visualise the scenario I put forth as, “you guyssss, make me feel special… I’m a gen y which means I can’t do anything without validation or praise….I need money for my dip dye retouching”

We shouldn’t expect to be running Artist Relations for Polymer Records overnight, but we deserve to at least expect to be treated well in the first experiences of what our career will look like.

My notes from the lecture didn’t make too much sense, I just had ‘BE KEVIN BACON’- not too trivial since the strains of ‘Footloose’ could wake me from a coma and his last name is my favourite food-but not super helpful either.

But then I tracked back to my thinking about how this statement related to my future goals in PR. As PR practitioners it is our duty to be like Kevin Bacon, to be hubs of information and communication liaising with a myriad of contacts, our links in the system. The stereotypical representation of PR people as social denizens who throw alot of parties isn’t actually that far off, as we are charged with the responsibility of central schmoozer/liaser within networked systems.

That’s right, it is my raison de’tre to be the modern day version of Spinal Tap’s Bobbi Fleckman- think Fran Drescher in an Easton Pearson Moo Moo, a chunky bangle and a passion to make sure everyone there has enough Champers. The nasal voiced mover and shaker whom everyone feels comfortable enough to circulate around professionally.

These are my professional goals, and I think it is my passion which makes them noble.

However, starting out in the PR game means that it will take me a long time to reach the dizzying heights of Bobbi in her leopard skin Loubitans as a centre or hub in the system. But in the lecture we were told that big hubs can deteriorate and be replaced by new hubs, ie. how different search engines have become more popular over the years. Could this in turn mean that I have some hope in reaching my hub like goals?

We were also told that it no longer takes a big leap to get to these big hubs with less intermediaries to go through on the ‘Long Tail’. The democratised nature of the decentralised distributed network means that new nodes like me playing intern office dress up may flourish!

-It doesn’t take a big leap to get to these big hubs, less intermediaries to go through. new nodes may flourish.

-Big hubs can deteriorate and be replaced by new hubs, ie. how different search engines have become more popular over the years.

-Importance to determine limitations of networks alongside their expansion and growth

-The internet is scale free- you can add to it and it doesn’t fill up

-No one knows what the structure will be which emerging out of new networks. The structure will predefine the content. once We move online we cannot predefine the structure.

-As PR practitioners it is our duty to be like Kevin Bacon, be hubs of information and communication liaising with a myriad of contacts, our links in the system.

-SMS, a business application giving out memos… completely appropriated now as means of communications

-Apple as publisher and vetter of content, now the world’s largest media company as opposed to the worlds largest technology company

-technologies have a certain agency which restrains and enables.

-we are subject to the technical materiality/conventions of things, who cares who you are you have to play be the rules of art and practicality

-to be good at technology we have to respond when the technology pushes back and shows its agency. You have to completely understand your discipline you can’t make anything. Just because things  are digital and virtual doesn’t mean you can do whatever you want with them. Its not the imposition of your will and intention, its your understanding of the technology you are summoning. We cannot obtain mastery over the technology.

-technique is a response to developments in/of technology

• Anderson states that infinite access to entertainment media is accommodating more niche tastes, encouraging exploration away from a hit-driven culture that thrives on “brain-dead summer blockbusters and manufactured pop songs”. Why are these still the most popular, mainstream and successful in our entertainment culture?

Elliot insightfully spoke about how popular culture positions audiences to disrespect mainstream content so its more disposable. We don’t engage too specifically with anything in the mainstream, rather we get tasty sugar fixes when convenient, leaving us thirsty for more. An example Elliot gave was his own analysis of a Katy Perry song (which I’d love to read), which uses a myriad of metaphors in each line, enabling the lyrics to have broad, objective appeal. I wonder which one he’s thinking of, perhaps Roar? A jam of mine recently. In fact, I’d disagree a bit with Elliot in the case of ‘Teenage Dream’ which will one day represent the beautiful stupidity of my teenage years.

I definitely see mainstream culture tapping into certain tropes and conventions in order to appeal to a mass audience, enabling a cosy one size fits all effect. Elliot is right that Katy’s use of metaphor is one of these, but I see One Direction’s use of inclusive language as another potent example.

There is absolutely nothing giddy, hormonal t/weenage girls respond to more than fodder for an imagined romance with a strapping boy band hero. Go back to The Beatles, revisit Poison and douple dip into some Backstreets Back Alright. We have some beauteous examples of boy bands marketing themselves in this way. Sorry, I mean boy band in the literal sense, it perhaps isn’t fair to lop The Beatles in otherwise. However, One Direction have taken this to the next level even from its inception. They started out as a manufactured pop group, thrown together for maximum khaki crispness to drive the ladies wild. Their first song “You don’t know you’re beautiful”, had lady’s hearts swelling due to it’s highly personalised nature. Katy took a general approach, One D did the polar opposite, speaking directly to their audience in the most generic way possible. They positioned the listener as their own insecure dream girl, and if One D fan fiction is anything to go by, created an incredible wave of sexual hysteria. If you ever get a chance, and have a cold shower handy (inwhich to rock fully clothed in), have a look at the stuff ‘directioners’ come up with, a confused collision of sexual inexperience and poor grammar skills.

“You’re insecure, don’t know what for…”

“You’ve got that one thing…”.

Imagine the differing effects of having these songs as

“She’s insecure…”

“She’s got that one thing”

Less heartthrobby and more like a subjective narrative about some girl to send threats to via twitter (Directioners have been known to launch some serious online hatred at love interests for their boys).

In conclusion, I think good on them for tapping into an appeal that absolutely works. Ed Sheeran, who has written some of their songs, does this too ad I saw him live and wept. I claim no superiority.

Hubs as cities, why/how have they become so dynamic in the system?

Creative hubs, Austin, TX. City of Melbs tries to invent itself as a creative hub/city. Melbourne vs. Sydney vis vis social/cultural capital.

2 types of networks

Centralised- Hierachical. Traditional/heritage media. Fixed.

Non Centralised/scale free/distributed. Like the internet which has no limit. Media and creative practice must move on to this system and it has.

Hubs- defined by how many connections in and out. Immediate friends do not get you jobs, acquaintances do, power of peripheral connections. People seem to know everybody, not quality friendships but acquaintances however they are a hub/centre defined by these connections.

Nothing virtual about the internet, Google’s power farm runs on more power than the city of Melbourne. It’s infrastructure is based in the physical.

Spamming is a gigantic carbon footprint.

Parts of the world a leapfrogging the infrastructure problem by going straight to wireless technology- third world countries.

Positioning audiences to disrespect mainstream content so its more disposable. Metaphors in Katy Perry song can be quite broad. One Direction: You don’t know you’re beautiful- using certain tropes and conventions in order to appeal to mainstream, not niche groups.