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My usual writing beats encompass queer politics, local drug cultures, psychiatric research, First Nations issues, colonial history, illegal rave culture, punk, metal, hip hop, literary criticism, urban gentrification, student politcs, squatting, and more. I also like writing about labour issues in Australian media and how fucking broken our writing industry is.

I started this Substack so I could post chapters from my creative essay/mini book ‘Marrickville: Is there no alternative?’ This project began as a 8000 word creative essay I wrote for a creative writing unit at USyd while I was study a Masters of Publishing there. I’ve since expanded it into a 20000 word behemoth of literary journalism and it’s continually growing. It’s both too short to be a book manuscript and too long to be published by any publications, so I’ve taken this step to self-publish my work.

‘Marrickville: Is there no alternative?’ is a sensory history of gentrification in the inner-west suburb of Marrickville (Sydney). That is: it’s a history of how the suburb has tasted, smelled, felt and sounded. I've full launched into seriousness and darkness with gritted teeth. At this point it's pretty much a counter-cultural stance vis-a-vis our Zoomer-orientated cultural zeitgeist. Mourning represents a functional politics. There's no silly, no slay and no irony here. There's simply the dogged pursuit of limit-experience. The yawning fissure.

Part memoir, part archival dig, part gonzo journalism, part oral history, part eulogy. Let's mourn together.

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This online newsletter is more than just an outlet for my own pinball-machine thoughts – I want to build a community behind my writing and the topics I write about. I want you to tell me what to write. Leave a comment. Give me feedback, message me. Don’t be shy. You can find my personal Instagram page here. By signing up, you are supporting both myself and the broader artist collective I represent - Second Skin. By extension, you’re also keeping Sydney’s underground alive.

Pull up a chair, make yourself a g&t and get comfy. I promise a bumpy ride.

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Grassroots Sydney gonzo journalism. Unashamedly in-depth, unashamedly raw.

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Gonzo journalist, freelance writer, armchair philosopher, loiterer, general shit stirrer, usually underemployed. Sydney-based. Sydney repping.