THIS WEEK ONLINE – Matty Healy's Sordid Lore

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• Hillsong is imploding
• Preston Market to close, billionaire developers say
• $$$ how much does a night out cost $$$
• Matty Healy’s Fascinating, Terrible Lore
• More…

One of our biggest exports, the Pentecostal Christian behemoth that is Hillsong, appears to be on its very last legs. With a list of scandals longer than Jesus’ miracles, membership appears to be waning. Who will take its place? Hillsong perfected the megachurch, and there are plenty would-be global superstars waiting in the wings, ready to gobble up wayward ex-Hillsongers searching for a new place to call home.

But let’s not get so dark, shall we? Faith is a beautiful thing, and parishioners cannot be villainized in their pursuit of it. Only ex members can tell you what it’s really about. And that’s where Marc Fennel comes in. His documentary, The Kingdom, explores the waning influence of Hillsong, and questions how Australia was able to produce the grandest megachurch in the world. 

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Stallholders at one of Melbourne’s most beloved and vital markets will not have their leases renewed, with the market to close in January.

Not to be dramatic, but this is completely fucked. The Preston Market in Melbourne’s inner north services suburbs from Reservoir to Doncaster. It is the lifeblood of Preston, and the plan at the end of a years-long fight from community, activists, and council, is that it will, after all, be razed. The plan is to build high-rise apartments, a minuscule fraction of which will be classified as affordable housing [the legal minimum to get this thing passed], and in the market’s place will be a boutique shopping mall. Anyone with a brain knows the word “boutique” is the tolling bell for heart, personality, and community.

This must be stopped. Do you want to live in a gigantic horror shopping mall of a city? A shiny disappointment that nobody can afford? That’s where Melbourne is headed. This goes without saying, but it is so, SO crucial Melbourne doesn’t become ANY MORE like Sydney than it ALREADY HAS.

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It isn’t easy being young, fun and trapped in an endless cycle of inflation and interest and the horrors the horrors. But we still go out. It’s one of the only reprieves with the ability to support a few necessary industries at once: music, hospitality and transport. We need to go out, to find community, eat, drink, enjoy, dance, and celebrate life. All the good stuff. 

If you’re thrifty, you can have a great night out, dancing on a tiny coin. But how much are you actually spending? That’s where Night Out Receipts come in. Peer into the spending lives of your peers on their nights out, and assess your own emotions. Are you feeling smug, sure you’d never spend that on a night as shit as that? Or are you feeling guilty, ashamed of your own excesses? Do you feel fear? Like there’s not a chance in hell you’d dare to tally your own receipts on any night out? Do you not give a shit? Feel curious? Let's go.....

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Here is a dazzling portrait of the man… the myth… the star of the fantasies of so many young girls. I didn’t have many feelings about Matty Healy until I attended the 1975's Melbourne show, and was actually shocked to find it horrible. If I’d wanted to see a broken has-been drowning himself in cheap wine and talking utter shit I’d go to Millneys. He looked unwell. I suppose that’s the appeal. But Jia Tolentino has done it again. I enjoyed this cavorting, comprehensive deep dive into Healy’s soul and his sordid lore. It’s the details. They’re completely batshit. 

See: “On night two, the fans reached for him with grasping fingers and tormented faces, a tangled mass of limbs, like a scene out of Hieronymus Bosch. Healy kissed one, then his face was grabbed by two others. He did his pushups and crawled through the TV.”

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Brad explains exactly why our rental crisis is only worsening and not a soul is doing anything about it.

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