disco

under
world

issue #4
february 2009
 www.discounderworld.com. issue #4 contents. page 3

issue #4
contents

Mike’s Space: Page 52 Dallas

Clayton: Los
Angeles
based writer
and illustrator
of “An
Awesome
Book”, check
it out on
Websites to watch: Page 22 page 42
Editorial piece: Happiness.
Page 36 Afua Richardson: New York musician
and comic illustrator. Read about her,
watch her video and listen to her music
on page 10

Phillip Papadis:
Australian
Page 68 photographer
who has Sudhir
captured parts Duppati: An
of Eastern Indian artist
Europe through sharing his
his camera, you multi-cultural
can read his work and view
Who was your favourite last story and see of life. Read
issue? Page 78 his shots on about him on
And lots more! page 24 page 59
 www.discounderworld.com. direct address. page 5

direct Edition at the end of each year.

address
Hi there,
thanks for tuning into this
month’s issue of disco
underworld!
Last issue we conducted a
survey to find out more about
you all. Thank you to those of
you who took the time to
answer. Some of the results on
pages eight and nine.
We had awesome feedback like
in reply to the question “What
is your favourite part of
disco?”: “Sorry - all of it/
Artist’s profiles and interviews/
Great photos and
presentation/Love your
writing style” and “your
magazine expands the mind and
it challenges your thinking,
presenting the reader with an
opportunity to visit new people
For only $50 NZ + GST, you can advertise your
from an internal perspective”.
We also had great constructive
feedback, one we would like
to address here is “I still don’t
quite understand the ‘vote for
this person’ thing”.
We have a few reasons for the
vote for the person feature.
Firstly, the votes decide who
will be featured in the Gold
Secondly, if one person receives
over 100 votes, they will also
win $500. Thirdly, we are a
small freely published magazine.
We don’t have a huge budget
to get out and market our
fantastic product to people all
over the world. The votes are
a way for people to rally their
friends and help to spread the
word about us.
You can also help us spread the
word! Tell people who you think
would enjoy reading disco, by
posting us on your
blog/facebook/bebo/myspace
pages and sending our link
through email. We really
appreciate any help we can
get! (which is also why we have
started advertising advertising,
but we have made it
affordable for even the smallest
of budgets to utilise, see
opposite page.)
Speaking of help spreading the
word, the websites featured
in this month’s “websites to
new cities and countries. Even
if you are not traveling, you will
know someone who is. We need
people in cities all over the
world to create profiles and
become potential friends. Read
all about it on page 22
“websites to watch”.
We have also begun posting
each edition’s feature stories
on our blog:
www.discounderworld.blogspot.
com, so you have the option of
reading disco in blog format as
well as the digital magazine
format, PDF format, and slide
format on scribd.
Enjoy this issue!
Stacey Childs
Editor
disco underworld is published by
Online Insight Limited © copyright
2008. We welcome you sharing the
information in these pages, but
contact us for permission to
reproduce.
Editor: Stacey Childs
stacey@discounderworld.com
Sub-Editor: Tessa Prebble

FOR
products and services to thousands of people all over watch” are a work in progress
the world. Included: and your help is needed to Coming up in the next
few pages:
create them.

E
• Hyper links to your websites and emails

A L
www.bromeet.ning.com and Survey thanks

Sll this space

• Timeless advertising: all issues of disco
underworld are archived on the website forever
www.girldate.ning.com are two
• Design including your logos, images and message. brand new websites Afua Richardson: music,
helping people from all around illustrations and story
A Email stacey@discounderworld.com to find out more. the world find platonic friends in
Our contributors are where you are. Tessa Prebble
tessa.prebble@gmail.com
And if they’re not, then they should be!
Agnieszka Parr
Get in touch if you have something to contribute to disco www.mouseonaleash.blogspot
underworld: stacey@discounderworld.com. slashdotmad@gmail.com

She’s in New Zealand, but oh, the marvels of the internet... Mike Woodruff
www.mutinouswombats.blog-
spot.com

Anya Veryaskina
http://www.metaphora.co.nz
anya@orcon.net.nz

featured contributors
Rebecca Cole: Front Cover Design
Hailing from England, Rebecca
recently finished a four year degree
specialising in Graphic Design. She
constructed the front cover scene
with card and string, manipulating
the light to get the effect she was
after. The concept is based around
following your dreams and climbing
to the top despite the odds. You can
contact her at: cole.rs@gmail.com,
or visit her website here.
See page 50 if you would like to
design next issue’s cover.
Philip Papadis
exposedframe@gmail.com
Dilie Baria
Afua Richardson
Working in a mundane sales admin www.afuarichardson.com
role for a day-job, Dilie is excited to Jeremy Leatinuu lsioux@gmail.com
unleash some creativity as a
jayleatinuu@hotmail.com
contributor for disco underworld. She Becky Cole
is a fan of classical and modern cole.rs@gmail.com
poetry, chic-lit novels, Jon Bon Jovi, Dallas Clayton
www.dallasclayton.com http://whitecliffemedia.
dark Belgium chocolate and her
boyfriend's jokes. Her current goal dallas@dallasclayton.com ac.nz/2008/becky/index.html
entails saving up to escape the
confines and comforts of home to Sudhir Duppati
savor the big wide world. This month
www.sudhirkduppatiprofile.blog-
she wrote an article on Philip Papadis,
you can read it on page 24. spot.com
sudhir2868@yahoo.com

Tracey Kearns
traceykearns@yahoo.co.nz

Jo Sowry
josowry@gmail.com

Dilie Baria
dame.della@gmail.com

Thanks to those of you who
answered our survey in the
last issue.
Your post cards are in the mail.
We found out a bit about you like:
-Age-wise you are a very diverse
bunch, We had responses from people
aged 19-59, With the average age
being 30, the median age 25.
-You are retired teachers and army
cadets, mums and marketers,
masseuses and property developers...
It goes to show you never can tell.
www.discounderworld.com. survey thanks. page 9
-47% of you counted drinking as one
of your hobbies...
hanging out with friends and
family was also up there. You like
reading, travelling, writing, surfing
the net, watching movies and taking
photos. Shopping, eating and creating
also rated a mention as did music
festivals, gardening, dancing and many
many more.
-You come from 45 countries in total,
but Predominately New zealand, the
united states, the United kingdom and
australia.
We love to hear from you and about
you, keep in touch, and let us know
what you think of us. we are here to
keep you happy :)
 www.discounderworld.com. afua richardson. page 11

Afua Richardson
 www.discounderworld.com. afua richardson. page 12

L


et me introduce you
to Afua Richardson, a
self-taught comic artist,
singer, songwriter, beat boxer,
bass player, flutist,
graphic artist and voice actor.

Based in New York City, Afua’s

art alias is Lakota Sioux, in
honour of her Native
American heritage. The name
means "little snakes" and also
pays homage to an African
symbol called Nkyim
Kyim which represents
manoeuvrability and
adaptation.

“I’m a city girl, born and raised

in NYC by two brilliant country
folk from Alabama. I’m
essentially the ‘artist’ of the
family. My mom was a war
planner turned
Buddhist/political ghost writer,
my father, an oil painter turned
physicist/military officer, whose
original research helped develop
string theory and MRIs. My big
sis is a wedding planner and Coming up in the next
interior decorator turned few pages:
electrical engineer at Lockheed
Afua Richardson music
Martin. I’m not exactly the black and video
sheep, I’m just the only one
who took on the arts as a Websites to watch
career. “
Not Quite
Press play to watch a short video and then
not every
preacher is
a saint/not
listen to the full version of ‘Not Quite’. every
leader goes
the right
way/looks
can be
deceiving/
there is
more to
this
believe me/
cuz what
you thought
aint what I
am at all/I
am not
quite/what
you thought
“Not Quite is about the I just want to be my own artist. I am/not
judgments people place on But it’s not just about me, or quite what
others. As a black woman from even stereotypes and racism.
New York City with dreads, It’s about ignorant assumptions.
I seem/ one
people assume I’m ignorant, Assuming that just because a day too
angry, and only into ‘black leader shares your beliefs he late youll
music’. No one sees me and has your best interest in mind. know
thinks I’m a professional comic Or that a person who claims to exactly
book artist. Or that I read up be righteous is always right and what I
on fractal geometry and sing moral. Or that religious people mean/Cuz
rock/soul. Music executives try aren't believers of science. Or
to tell me who I could be. ‘You even on a smaller scale, that
im so much
could be the next Lauren Hill; because someone broke your more than
the next Erykah Badu; the next heart or let you down, everyone what you
(enter black neo-soul singer will try to hurt you. These make me
here)’. assumptions keep us divided.” out to be.

“My parents tried Afua’s eclectic background
exposed her to a variety of
to make me avoid artistic influences, but her
parents wanted her to “avoid
drawing like it was drawing like it was the plague”.
the plague.” They were trying to protect her
from the disappointments and
barriers they had faced in the
www.discounderworld.com. afua richardson. page
segregated south where artists
were passed over for awards
and scholarships for being the
wrong colour.
“But I had my crayons, and my
love of colour, so nothing was
stopping me.”
17
Afua was determined to
succeed artistically, and her
unrelenting passion for music
and knack for drawing meant
she soon turned her passions
into a professional career.

When she was 17, Afua joined
an all female hip hop crew called
the Anomolies as a human beat
box artist. She then went on to
co-form the singing duo
Scarletblue, which ended up
recording dozens of songs and
opened for artists like Alicia
Keys and Parliament Funkadelic.
www.discounderworld.com. afua richardson. page
“I wasn’t going to
let anyone tell me
I couldn’t do both
music AND art.
Her art career started to take
off soon after, when she began
publishing works with comic
giants NBM, Marvel and
Image/Topcow Productions.
19
“I wasn’t going to let anyone
tell me I couldn’t do both music
AND art. I look at musicians like
Nat King Cole and Frank
Sinatra and Josephine Baker:
singers, musicians, actors,
dancers. I know their success
revolved around their capability
of doing so many things really
well.”
 www.discounderworld.com. afua richardson. page 21

“With recession
Her artistic, illustrative and
smackin’ us in the
musical influences come from a face, everyone is
variety of sources, reflected in
her diverse portfolio. For music hurting. We are
alone she names groups and seeing the
artists which include everyone
from Stevie Wonder to Sade; importance of the
The Stone Temple Pilots to well being of the
Sarah Vaughn; Everything But
the Girl to Portishead. Hendrix greater population,
to Vivaldi and Journey.
not just the select
“Now-a-days I'm just trying to few.”
establish a brand that says
‘Expect everything from me.’ You can find out more about
This is a great time for artists; Afua at
it leaves the power in their www.AfuaRichardson.com
capable hands. There is no If you would like to vote for her,
longer a reliance on a label or enter your email here and hit
big company to back you for vote. Your vote will count once
any reason other than your email has been verified.
distribution.” Only one vote will count per
email.
“The shift in the state of mind
of people with recession
smackin’ us in the face,
everyone is hurting. We are
seeing the importance of the
well being of the greater
population, not just the select Coming up in the next
few pages:
few. With my works I want to
help instill that shift. I want to Websites to watch
say something with my abilities.
Give back what so many great Phillip Papadis captures
artists and musicians gave to Eastern Europe
me when I had nothing.”
 www.discounderworld.com. websites to watch. page 23

websites
to
watch

Both these websites have been The idea is that no matter

created for those of us where you are in the world, if
travelling and living in new you are a girl, you can find a
cities, and the difficulties of girl to drink wine and talk chick
finding decent people to hang with, and if you are a guy you
out with. can find a mate to drink a beer
with.
For
trav
elli
ng b
oys s
g g irl
v e l lin
o r tra
F

For boys: This is the official launch of bro

www.bromeet.ning.com
For girls:
www.girldate.ning.com
These websites let you browse
potential platonic friends
facebook/bebo/myspace
profiles, and decide if they look
i l d t hese
u like your cup of tea before you
Help b ew sites agree to meet them. That way
n
brand you can avoid weirdos and
people looking for love.
meet and girl date, so we need
your help to grow the
websites, providing more
options for all members and
yourself. Log on, write your
social profile details on the wall
of the country you are in and
watch people add to it. Tell
your travelling friends to join in,
we all need a chic chat or a ball
scratching session every once
in a while!
phillip papadis

In 2007 budding Australian

photographer Phillip Papadis
left the comforts of home and
traveled to Eastern Europe, a
part of the world he had only
heard about from friends who
had fled as refugees of this
war-torn region. During his year
travelling through the former
Yugoslavian states of Bosnia,
Serbia, Montenegro and Croatia,
he found himself gradually
correcting misconceptions he’d
held about this part of the
world.

Interview by Dilie Baria.

“I didn't set out with the intent of ‘capturing life's beauty’, but
the beauty of the people and their cultures, and of the nature
that surrounds them is overwhelmingly apparent and very hard to
ignore.”
 www.discounderworld.com. phillip papadis. page 29

“Despite being in several

countries where the scars of
war are still evident before your
eyes, the true essence of the
people and their culture is really
apparent,” Phillip explains.
“There are happy communities
enjoying life amongst a poor
economic backdrop.”

The socioeconomic climate,

coupled with the past and
present political unrest in
former Yugoslavia, mean the
standard of living in most of the
places Phillip visited, namely
Bosina and Serbia, is not as
high as the rest of Europe.
The quality of education,
infrastructure, and health
services are very low or
nonexistent.

The condensed geography of

these places means that most
villages and towns lie in close
proximity to each other. This
adds weight to the dilemma of
fewer jobs being available for
the locals.
 www.discounderworld.com. phillip papadis. page 31

Coming up in the next

few pages:

Phillip Papadis cont.

“But they are some of the
happiest and most care-free Editorial piece:
people I have encountered,” Happiness
says Phillip.

Phillip puts some of this
care-free attitude down to
people’s independence from
money. Unlike most
Westerners who are bound to a
nine to five, Monday to Friday
desk job, the majority of people
in these countries have to make
do with minimal income, Phillip
says. Money then becomes
secondary to family, friends,
and a laid back lifestyle.
“The whole philosophy of the
life we know is that you live to
work. In these parts of Eastern
Europe it’s more centred on the
idea that you work to live.”
www.discounderworld.com. phillip papadis. page 33
If you want to see this
care-free lifestyle in action, you
only need to go out at night,
Phillip says. In Serbia,
particularly, the country comes
to life at 4pm when everyone
heads to bars and cafes, and
doesn’t stop till 2am. This,
Phillip explains, is the norm,
seven days a week.
“There is no place that I have
been to in the world that knows
how to party as hard as they do
in Serbia – it is in their culture.”

In the former Yugoslavian
states of Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia
and Montenegro, amid the
war-torn architecture and
destroyed and rebuilt lives,
Phillip managed to find people
of compassion and generosity,
and experiences never to be
forgotten, all captured by his
camera.
Coming up in the next
few pages:
Editorial piece:
Happiness
Dallas Clayton
You can contact Phillip on this
email:
exposedframe@gmail.com
If you would like to vote for
Phillip, enter your email here
and hit vote. Your vote will
count once your email has been
verified. Only one vote will
count per email.
www.discounderworld.com. phillip papadis. page
For those keen to visit Bosnia
and Serbia, Phillip recommends:
Serbia:
If you visit Serbia definitely
attend the Guca Festival, a four
day Gypsy beer and brass
instrument event which draws
Gypsies from all over the
continent. While Gypsies draw
their own misconceptions, don’t
be fooled, they are a welcoming
people.
Go to the EXIT festival in Novi
Sad (one of the best festivals
in the world) as well as a really
nice city (pictured below).
35
Bosnia:
Visit Sarajevo and Mostar. Be
prepared to witness a lot of
buildings that have not been
repaired since the war, some
that have bullet and mortar
holes scattered all over them.
Also be careful when trekking
through the hills as some of the
mines laid down by both sides
of the conflict have not been
safely removed yet (found out
after trekking for a whole day
through these fields). Also leave
any religious dispositions at
home as these places are
heavily divided between Muslim
and Christians.
 www.discounderworld.com. happiness. page 37

We (the human race) have different levels of needs and wants. For
r a i n ,
i n t h e .
some cultures/countries/people, the basic needs and wants are a

e w a l k M i l l e r given, and happiness is what they strive for in life. For others,

p e o p l R o g e r happiness is an unexpected bonus: they just want to survive.

“S o m e t w e t ” All kinds of
j u s t g e factors lead
othe r s to different
perspectives
of happiness.
Things like
religion, race,
country of
birth,
country of
residence,
town/city/
state lived in.

In this
article we look
at three of
the factors:
country of
residence,
religion and
country of
origin, and
how people
view
happiness
differently
depending on
these factors.
 www.discounderworld.com. happiness. page 39

Differences in expectations Wealth in terms of dollar signs

of happiness are illustrated in is relative to society. Whereas
many forms, but the most wealth in terms of happiness,
obvious are illustrated cannot be measured with
nationally and internationally. something as simple as a
People are measured to be dollar sign. It goes without
‘poor’ or ‘wealthy’ depending saying that when it comes to
on their monetary position in true happiness, the ‘poor’ can
society. This level of financial be rich, and the ‘rich’, quite
wealth varies between penniless.
countries. Someone in Sierra
Leone may be wealthy by
national standard, but poor
internationally. The poor among
Great Britain would probably
find themselves quite wealthy if
they moved to Sierra Leone.
 www.discounderworld.com. happiness. page 41

get to know
ways we can The small landlocked nation of friends, access to quality

each other a little better

Bhutan in Southern Asia has its
own unique way of
measuring the wealth of its
country. Instead of Gross
Domestic Product, or GDP that
most countries measure and
Follow our blog and compare their wealth on,
Bhutan has a GNH or Gross
we’ll follow yours! National Happiness.
In 1972, King Jigme Singye
Wangchuck, decided that for
the country to be ‘wealthy’,
s
Add us a prosperity had to be shared
education and health care, and
maintaining a fair and just
government.
The underlying idea is that
despite the amount of money
the country produces, a more
complete summary of the
wealth of the country is in the
happiness of all the people
living there, not just the top
few earners. Coming from a
small, isolated and till lately,
largely unvisited nation, this

JPG
t
a contac across society, and weighed up redefines the right of every
on against non-economic person, no matter where they
and values such as the preservation live or how much money, or

Join us on
of cultural traditions and the how many possessions, they
environment, the ability to have, to happiness.
spend time with family and continued on page 74

@discounderworld

a
become
fan
p you cool
ee
It’ll k
Bhutan’s flag, depicting Bhutan’s
Buddist name of The Land of the Dragon.
 dallas
c
l
Dallas Clayton lives in Los
Angeles and is a

featuring his poetry and a

writer/illustrator. His latest
project An Awesome Book,

drawings, has been a big hit the

world over. The beautifully

y
illustrated book encourages
children to never stop dreaming.

disco underworld has been

lucky enough to be able to
showcase some of the pages of

t
An Awesome Book. The full
version is available here

o
n
 www.discounderworld.com. dallas clayton. page 45

“I wanted to make a
book for kids that I
thought dealt with
adult themes and
answered questions
that all the people I
know are constantly
asking themselves.
Also I wanted there
to be unicorns in it.”
 www.discounderworld.com. dallas clayton. page 47

D


allas began
publishing books of
poetry and illustrations in his
early teens, selling them in
front of the concert halls, art
galleries and movie theatres
of Los Angeles. His handmade
books soon attracted a
following from prestigious book
and art shops, and earned him
coverage in the LA Times.

He says he draws inspiration

from simple aspects of life that
others might not appreciate at
the time.

Coming up in the next

few pages:

Dallas Clayton cont.

Mike’s Space: Life

lessons from Flea
 www.discounderworld.com. dallas clayton. page 49

Dallas’s son is his greatest

source of motivation, and
keeping him happy is the
inspiration behind Dallas’ work,
poems and lifestyle choices. When asked what a normal day
threw his way, Dallas
responded:

“Today my son and I went to the

ocean, went on a ferris wheel,
rode bicycles, ate crepes and
made alien masks. Yesterday I
played kickball and went
bowling. Tomorrow I’m
planning on drawing pictures all
day. If you take an average of
the three I’m sure there’s some
normalcy in there somewhere.”

Have a crack at designing
our front cover, and we will
thank you publicly for your
effort. We may even use
it on a future issue, which
then means you will have
a choice story to tell your
friends, and lots of people
will see your design. Email
stacey@discounderworld.
com to find out more.
www.discounderworld.com.
www.discounderworld.com.
www.discounderworld.com.dallas
Agnieszka
dallasclayton.
clayton.
Parr. page
page
page 51
27
5
You can read the entire version of An Awesome Book here:
http://www.veryawesomeworld.com/awesomebook/inside.html
Visit Dylan’s website and read more of his poetry here:
http://dallasclayton.com/
If you would like to vote for
Dylan, enter your email here
and hit vote. Your vote will
count once your email has been
verified. Only one vote will
count per email.
 www.discounderworld.com. mike’s space. page 53

Mike’s Space: Mike Woodruff

lives in Los
Life Lessons from Angeles. When
not writing, he
Flea enjoys playing
basketball and

A
eating Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. You can
Words and images find him on the internet at
www.mutinouswombats.blogspot.com.
by Mike Woodruff Read last month’s Mike’s Space here.
fulfilled live requires I play the drums. Despite the
a healthy dose of
dreaming. Some very profound
things happen when I sleep.
Amongst other things, I
occasionally get life lessons
from celebrities. Once I was told
to look for a new job by Daniel
Day Lewis in a pink bathrobe.
Another time, Clint Eastwood
helped me think up a short
story. One dream, in particular,
though, stands out from all the
others.
I remember it like this:
I walk into the bathroom. There
are tiles on the wall, baby blue
and covered in wavy soap scum.
And windows. Lots of windows.
Windows covered in grime so
thick the colours are as slippery
and loose as the inside lining
of a clamshell. A faint sheet of
steam rises off the floor.
Somewhere, water drips softly.
On a platform, above the
showers but just below the
windows, is a drum set.
fact that they are not real
drums, but in fact, Rock Band
drums, they sound good. Sharp
ticks and bassy clangs of wood
on plastic echo off the walls on
either side, overlapping
somewhere in the middle of the
room as crisply as a
well-prepared Venn diagram.
After a few minutes, a man
walks in. He’s nodding his head,
gently, with his hands tucked
neatly in his pockets so that his
thumbs hang out over the
edges. He’s smiling at me.
Hey there, Flea from the Red
Hot Chili Peppers, I say.
Coming up in the next
few pages:
Mike’s Space cont.
Quick quiz and
Opportunity navigator

disco
www.discounderworld.com. mike’s space. page
under Flea doesn’t say anything back.
world
Nobody except myself ever
speaks in my dreams, but I
know what he says.
Sup dude, telepathic Flea
telepathically tells me in my
d ly publishe dream.
ou d corner and begins warming up
p r Oh you know, just playing Rock
Band drums in the bathroom.
by
is
Yeah, I heard. You really wail.
Two questions I plan to ask Flea
but never actually do:
1. Why are you talking like
Wayne from Wayne’s Over by the paper towel
World?
2. Are you serious?
Somehow, Flea asks me if I want
to play drums for them at their
upcoming show. I say that I can
barely play their song on
medium on Rock Band, let alone
the real songs on real drums. I
bang clumsily on the pads to
persuade him. He just keeps
Contact them first for all your digital publishing needs. nodding his head and smiling.
A few seconds later, Anthony
They will collaborate with you, or create for you, from start to finish, Kiedis and John Frusciante walk
anything from digital media kits, travel brochures and annual reports in. They also nod their heads
to regular publications such as magazines and newspapers for you to approvingly.
share with the world.
What the hell guys, I say. I suck
Visit www.online-insight.co.nz and request an something awful.
obligation free quote.
55
No, dude, you rock! the Red Hot
Chili Peppers say in harmony.
Don’t make me play the drums
in a concert!
They don’t pay attention to me.
Anthony Kiedis goes off in the
his voice. He starts saying
nonsense words, followed by
state names like California,
Mississippi and Delaware,
followed by more nonsense
words. I can’t tell if these are
actual song lyrics or if he’s still
just warming up his voice.
dispenser, the dull murmur of
ten thousand people waiting
for the show seeps through
the walls. Panic starts ticking
its own metronome deep in my
stomach.
Don’t make me play the drums,
Jon Frusciante!
John Frusciante is sitting on the
floor near the toilets. He picks
the dry nub of a cigarette out
of the web at the bottom of a
urinal and lights it. He nods his
head peacefully, ignoring me
while he plays a few riffs. The
crowd starts to chant.

Quick Quiz:
1) Who invented the words
“assassination” and “bump”?
2) What is the most common
mammal in the US?
3) What is the longest word you
can type using only one line of
the keyboard?
4) If a statue of a person on a
horse has two legs raised in the
air, what does this mean?
5) What is the only food that
doesn’t spoil?
Answers on page 58
www.discounderworld.com. mike’s space. page
Flea picks up his bass. He plucks
a heartbeat of a rhythm.
You ready dude?
Hell no, I say, even as I go to
hit the pads. The crowd roars.
The lights blind. The snap of the
snare grabs my eyelids, and I
wake up.
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
Two minutes later, I’m in the
shower, lathering a dollop of
Irish Spring into a sponge and
swishing water in my ear to
rinse out the clinging wax.
I’ve never played drums. If I
practiced really hard, I probably
could play decently. But I don’t
have the time, the patience or
the money to play drums.
Besides, this isn’t about playing
drums. It isn’t about an
unfulfilled dream, either,
because I never really wanted
to play the drums growing up.
This was a dream, but only in
the sense that my brain took up
something I just finished doing
a few hours beforehand,
playing Rock Band, and decided
to go buck wild with the idea.
Still, I came away with an
important realisation from it all.
57
And that is this. Sometimes
it doesn’t matter what you
think about your own talents.
If other people say it’s good,
then sometimes it pays to trust
them and just go for it. Sure,
you might be a miserable failure,
but at least you put your
talents out there for the world
to see.
That’s what matters in the long
run. People who are successful
in life take out those business
loans to start the coffee shop
they always wanted to own.
They’re the people that spend
every day of every year in a
swimming pool to win a heap
of gold and fame. They’re the
people that run for President
despite not having the
experience everyone thinks
they need. They take risks with
what they have in the hopes of
having more.
Let’s face it. A talent hidden is
a talent squandered. It needs to
be seen by people in order to
be considered a talent.
So if Flea’s saying that you’re
good enough to at least try
to do something that sounds
daunting, then why not try?
What other motivation do you
need?
 www.discounderworld.com. sudhir duppati. page 59

p p o r t u n i t y N a v i gator
O

If you or someone you know has a unique story to

tell, get in touch with us, we may be interested in
telling the story in an issue of disco underworld.

If you are an artist who would like to gain exposure

for your work, you can be included in The Be Seen Zine.
See page 68 to enter.

Maybe you think you could design our front cover?

Read more on page 50.

Fancy yourself as a writer? We can provide you with

experience and advice in researching and preparing
articles for publication.

Email stacey@discounderworld.com to find out more about

any of these opportunities.

an ev en t or op po rt un it y to promote to
If you have
pe op le , co nt ac t st ac ey @discounderworld.com
1000’s of
ou t ho w to pr om ot e it in the pages of disco.
to find

Answers to the quiz on page 56 Coming up in the next

few pages:
1) Shakespeare
2) The mouse
3) TYPEWRITER
Sudhir Duppati

The Be Seen Zine

sudhir
duppati
4) The person died in battle
5) Honey
 www.discounderworld.com. sudhir duppati. page 61

S


udhir Duppati grew up
in a working class
family in a small town in the
south of India. He calls himself
a wanderer and a nomad, and
likes to keep moving around the
world, sharing his experiences,
and learning about the different
people, cultures and traditions
he encounters.

Sudhir’s native tongue is

Telugu, and he also speaks the
national language of India; Hindi,
as well as English and French.

Out of high school Sudhir had

wanted to become an army
officer and during his time as a
student he took up
paramilitary training, which he
thinks, “disciplined me a bit too
much”. Somewhere along the
line his creative impulses took
over, and after three attempts
he was accepted into art school,
(at the time there were 45
seats for 1500 applicants).

“The Flower Vendor”, BFA Year 5

 www.discounderworld.com. sudhir duppati. page 63

He left university with a

Master of Fine Arts in Art
Criticism, and worked for
universities and various other
art institutes in India for three
years. He was then offered the
opportunity to develop and
teach art for the UN in Eritrea,
North East Africa. He stayed
there for five years before
applying and gaining his current
job as an art lecturer in Dunedin,
in the South Island of New
Zealand.

He finds Dunedin rich in culture

and the arts, but admits it is
difficult to establish himself as
an artist, so he is not sure of
how long he will spend there.

Sudhir’s military background

is apparent in his paintings.
He says his army background
taught him to seek order
socially and politically, and his
paintings reflect this search
through their orderly
arrangement. His multi-cultural
and multi-lingual experiences
are also portrayed as he
searches through his art to look
at the world from
different points of view and
perspectives.
 www.discounderworld.com. sudhir duppati. page 65

“This collage ‘Ashes’ was done

in 2005 while I was in Eritrea.

It represents privileged and

underprivileged societies and
the way they share power. The
cigarette connects both the
faces and creates an illusion of
sharing an object that
transcends history and society.

The photograph is of a German

high court judge who choose to
spend her retirement as a social
worker. An article about her in
Time magazine fascinated me
because as a judge she had
worked in a position of ‘power’,
but chose to spend her
retirement as a social worker.

The overlapping drawing is of a

person representing the
‘underprivileged’ in Eritrea.

During this time the British-

American Tobacco Company
closed their operations in
Eritrea due to a political agenda
passed on foreign companies
operating there. The ensuing
situation resulted in mass
unemployment and this was
also when the European Union
released the Euro forcing the
markets and stock values to
fluctuate, affecting economic
conditions around the world.”
 www.discounderworld.com. sudhir duppati. page 67

“My paintings also engage in a

religious and scientific
reasoning about the process of
evolution. My ideas are drawn
from aspects of the theory of
evolution proposed by Charles
Darwin, the big bang theory
proposed by Stephen Hawking
and religious ideas about the
creation of life.

My research is about
identifying the ideas within the
theory of evolution which are
based on belief and faith.”

You can read and see more of

about Sudhir’s work at:
www.sudhirkduppatiprofile.blog-
spot.com
If you would like to vote for
Sudhir, enter your email here
and hit vote. Your vote will
count once your email has been
verified. Only one vote will
count per email.

Coming up in the next

few pages:

The Be Seen Zine

“Happiness” cont.

be seen
zine
Created to give every
artist exposure to people
who appreciate a good piece
of art when they see it.
Be in the next one:
The Be Seen Zine, introducing you to a wider range of styles and
arty types. Proudly brought to you by Online INsight.
{Jeremy Leatinuu: Visual Artist}
Jeremy Leatinuu
is a visual artist who has just Name: Jeremy Leatinuu
completed a Bachelor of Visual Arts
degree at the Manukau School of Style: Visual Artist
Visual Arts in Otara, Auckland. I
‘found’ him at Pecha Kucha, where
he talked about his final project
Email:
temporal human occupation series.
jayleatinuu@hotmail.com
He made many valid and
amusing points about the ownership
of public space and whether it could
be bought or sold, and whether it
actually is ‘public’.
The concept of ‘ownership’, more
specifically having ownership over
physical space is what ignited and
drove Jeremy’s investigation.
“This work was a response to land ownership, something that is quite
embedded in New Zealand’s history and continues to be discussed
today. Who owns public space? Do I have temporary ownership over
a car park space because my car occupies it?”
f “This was an experiment that involved trying to find an
answer to whether space can be purchased or hired. I took a
plastic bag that was large enough to cover the space of one
seat and offered to pay a fare for it. The ticket guy wouldn’t
take me seriously and wouldn’t give me a ticket even though I
told him I wanted to pay. I wanted to be able to say ‘it’s been
paid for’ if someone wanted that particular seat. He replied
‘there are enough seats for everyone so it shouldn’t be a
problem’, so I stapled my ticket to the plastic bag.”

{Tracey Kearns: Narcissistic portraits}

Name: Tracey Kearns

Style: Narcissistic portraits
Email: traceykearns@yahoo.co.nz

The Be Seen Zine, introducing you to a wider range of styles and

arty types. Proudly brought to you by Online INsight.

{Becky Cole: Constructed Realites}

Name: Becky Cole (this month’s cover

designer).
Style: Constructed Realities
Email: cole.rs@gmail.com
Website:
http://whitecliffemedia.ac.nz/2008/becky/index.html

The Be Seen Zine, introducing you to a wider range of styles and

arty types. Proudly brought to you by Online INsight.

continued from page 41
l k i n t h
p l e w a
p e o
“Some st get wet”
e r s j u
oth
And this is paying off. In 2006
Bhutan was named the
happiest nation in Asia, eighth
happiest in the world. (Thanks
Wikipedia). It goes without
saying however, that not all
the people in Bhutan enjoy the
same level of happiness. Just
because you share a country
doesn’t mean that you share
the same views on happiness.
e r a i n ,
.
r M i l l e r
R o g e
Religion plays a large part in our
happiness. People choose or
don’t choose religion for
different reasons, and if we
believe Aristotle when he says
that it is man’s governing right
to pursue happiness, then the
gods we choose (or don’t) help
us reach this in our every day
lives.
www.discounderworld.com. happiness. page
There was a programme on the
documentary channel
produced by ABC Australia,
called ‘The Abbey’. It’s a pretty
bad programme (not
recommended) but it follows
five ordinary women who have
agreed to live in an Abbey, two
hours outside of Sydney, for 33
days as Benedictine nuns. The
show highlighted the conflict
between needs, wants and
levels of happiness where
religion was concerned. The
country or origin was the same
for the women and the nuns,
but their religious points of
view put them at opposing ends
of the spectrum of happiness.
The nuns daily routine goes
something like this: 4am
wake-up calls followed by seven
daily visits to the Abbey church
to sing in collective monotone,
all the while living life following
the 1500-year-old Benedictine
Rules of Silence, Obedience and
Renunciation. Every waking hour
of every day is filled with either
prayer or chores, without any
interaction with the outside
world, except for in
emergencies. To most of us,
and to the five women on the
show, this sounds like hard
75
work rather than the good life.
It would be very hard for many
of us to find happiness living
this kind of life, but the fact is
that these nuns are happy.
On one programme they had
the women give up their cell
phones, which one nun said
"freed up a little piece of you
to be filled with good". This
raises an interesting point: if
not having a cell phone frees
you, then why do so many of us
have them? The nuns may see
them as evil, and most of us
may agree at some time during
the week/weekend. We don’t
need them, but we have them
because they make our lives
better. Therefore happier? The
same could be said about their
seven trips to the church to
pray everyday.
Coming up in the next
few pages:
Happiness cont.
Last issue’s favourite

These nuns were born and
raised in Australia, with the
same upbringing as the rest of
their generation, but chose to
become Benedictine nuns. If
Aristotle was right when he said
“no man desires to be
unhappy”, then the paths the
nuns have chosen are the ones
which provide them with the
most joy. Whether this is
personal or on behalf of a
greater being is irrelevant.
Compared to the modern
women on the show who
experienced the life of the
Abbey for just 33 days, these
nuns live with just the most
basic human needs being met,
within the same country, but far
outside the culture.
Our country of origin, not to be
confused with our
country of residence, also plays
a large part in our expectations
of happiness. This issue we
interviewed Philip Papadis, from
Australia who travelled to
Eastern Europe after
having heard about the area
from friends who immigrated
to Australia because of war.
Speaking on behalf of his
friends now living in Australia,
he says that they are in
general, happier than the
average Australian, because
“they can recognize that their
life is better off in this country
compared to if they were still
living in the other”. If in fact
people who have moved from
www.discounderworld.com. happiness. page
a war-torn country to a
peaceful one, are happier than
the people that have lived
in the peaceful country their
whole lives, this then suggests
that to have a deeper sense of
happiness, you must first
understand sadness, or
unhappiness. Like Pluto’s cave,
where to know what is outside
of the cave you have to first
be able to live it first hand, the
same laws apply with happiness.
To truly know it, you must be
able to know what it is like to
live without it. This idea
certainly supports the idea that
happiness is relative,
personally/locally and globally.
Experience is key.
Happiness is as objective a trait
as something like taste. From
person to person, country-to-
country, culture-to-culture, we
all measure it differently.
Someone in poorest Africa
77
would be over the moon with
a couple of goats, three meals
a day and a hut to house their
family. Someone from London
would have no clue what to
do with the goats; expect the
three meals a day as their right;
and freeze in the hut (never
mind it looking out of place on
the city streets). All this would
add up to a pretty miserable
existence, local standards.
The point is, no matter where or
how we live in the world, once
our basic needs are
covered, we all strive to find
happiness in our lives. The
levels are very extreme, but
the underlying fact is how they
make us feel: Happy.
Celebrate the ordinary
Rejoice in the extraordinary
And enjoy life itself.
Stacey Childs
Your favourite from last issue, and the person to be
included in the Gold Edition at the end of the year is:

Slimeface
He wins a spot in The Gold Edition 2009, a
publication which follows up on your favourite
people from the year before, and provides you
with interviews and spreads of other cool cats
from around the globe.

You can read his article from last month’s issue

here.

“Respect”.