Pulp Throwback: BULL Magazine
Ellie Stephenson remembers a world before Pulp.
During a spate of recent iso home improvements, I was going through the contents of my bookshelf. I happened upon a shiny copy of BULL Magazine: Issue 8, 2014. I picked it up in Year 9, when I was at USyd for a debating day, and thankfully my hoarder tendencies mean I’ve kept it until today.
BULL preceded Pulp as the USU’s publication - though it was in print. It was discontinued in 2015, receiving this fond obituary from Honi Soit. “USU’s BULL out to Pasture”, writes Alexi Polden, mourning the loss of “your second favourite campus rag.” The monthly magazine was culled for financial reasons, with the editors at the time posting to Facebook that they “had hoped that a not-for-profit organisation would not be so heavily driven by its bank balance.”
Here’s how that article suggested we remember the ill-fated mag:
First, as an oasis for failed and prospective Honi tickets, but more importantly as a cautionary tale about what happens when you shorten your name one too many times. The publication started as ‘The Bulletin,’ became ‘The Bull,’ and leaves us as ‘BULL‘ (in substance and in name).
As far as we know, Pulp isn’t short for anything in particular, so hopefully we’re safe!
Anyway, for those of you who weren’t nerdy enough to collect campus newspapers aged 14, let’s have a look inside:
Page 5: Pure, Unadulterated Nostalgia
On this page, there’s a weekly guide to USU outlets. “$4 tap cider and $4 spirits Happy Hour, 4-6pm, Manning Bar”, it reads. “2 for 1 schnitty, 6-8pm, Manning Bar”. The ghost of campus culture wails overhead.
Page 6: Bro? No.
A Q&A with then USU President Tara Waniganayaka raises a hot button issue from 2014: the rejection of the Brotherhood, Recreation and Outreach Society (BroSoc). The USU Board decided “to send BroSoc back to the drawing board” after controversy surrounded the club’s formation. As Honi said at the time, BroSoc, more like NoSoc. BroSoc certainly remained contentious; in 2017 it was seen organising a screening of The Red Pill, which was marked by a clash with protestors.
Page 7: Pick of the Month.
Page 7’s regular ‘pick of the month’ features a profile on Facebook group Sydney Avo watch, a “group solely dedicated to finding the cheapest avocados in Sydney”. Ah, the good old days of 2014, where people didn’t yet know that avocados thwart your home ownership chances.
Page 10: The Modern Mugger
This feature sees Emily Shen exploring shoplifting in the 21st century. It profiles online communities of petty kleptomaniacs operating under pseudonyms like ‘Lifting Cutie’ and hashtags like #fivefingerdiscounts. These online thieves have standards, with one writing: “I’m far too good for the H&M stuff I’m used to lifting and this community deserves more from me”. Indeed, Mike, 27, explained his pilfering tendencies as a social justice mission: “If the company is going to lay off staff and replace them with machines, it’s totally fine to steal a few things from them here and there”. Admirable.
Page 13: Dramatic irony
You can tell the 2014 editors didn’t foresee the demise of their publication the very next year: they’ve run a story (Reading the Fine Print) with the line “All this shit about the death of print is really… it’s garbage!”
In this feature, Erin Rooney writes about independent magazines interviewing James Branson, editor of Sneaky magazine. Sneaky’s last Tweet was published in 2015, so we doubt it outlived BULL. 2015 was a bad year for print media.
Page 17: An Interview with Squidward
Tom Joyner interviews Rodger Bumpass, the voice actor who plays Squidward in SpongeBob SquarePants. Bumpass, then aged 62, tells BULL about the alarming experience of being declared dead (twice) by IMDb (in both instances, someone by the same name had died). “According to the Internet I am married to Amy Stiller, who is the sister of Ben Stiller”, he told the magazine.
Page 18: Digging for Answers
This feature is written by Sam Langford, a former editor of both BULL and Honi Soit who sadly died last month. They were recently given a posthumous USU fellowship and the Honi office was renamed in their honour at the last SRC meeting. You can read their obituary here.
Their article explores the University’s investment in fossil fuels (which regrettably is still an issue in 2020). It challenges the University’s million dollar investment in Whitehaven Coal, which was behind the controversial Maules Creek Mine project. Langford interviewed Steve Talbot, a spokesperson for the Gomeroi people upon whose land the project was taking place. When asked about whether the University had consulted the Gomeroi community about their investment, Talbot told BULL “When have you ever known a university to sit down with a community?”
Frustratingly, this remains a pertinent question. The article refers to a referendum in the 2014 SRC elections asking students whether they supported divestment from fossil fuels; “nearly 80% of voters were in favour of divestment”. In 2020, the campaign for a Fossil Free USyd continues.
Page 25: The most brilliant of blunders
On this page, Zoe Hitch attempts to lull the reader into academic complacency by listing accidental discoveries and “four kick-ass scientists without degrees”. It turns out Post-It Notes were the product of a failed glue recipe, Viagra was meant to treat heart disease, and if you’re failing your science degree you could be like fellow lay people Gregor Mendel, Mary Anning, Michael Faraday and Caroline Herschel.
Page 35: Fashion
On this page, three SRC campaigners’ fashion choices are profiles. Tangy Li, a campaigner for Hest, was struggling with the “loud colours” of campaign t-shirts, while Riki Scanlan (Grassroots) was democratising fashion, responding to ‘where do you take your inspiration from’ with ‘From the street. Street fashion yo - keep it real!”. Monique Newberry (Stand Up!) was keeping it fictional, identifying Wednesday Addams as a style icon.
Off the campaign trail, the fashion team told readers to don “chunky watches… in every colour - gold, silver, black or even rose gold.”
Page 37: Cow and Horns (sure?)
This strangely named page features a defence of the goon sack and a debate about Bachie vs Big Brother (Bachie, duh). James Hennessy counterposes the goon sack (“the last enduring icon of Aussie fairness”) with the worst excesses of neoliberalism, telling the reader “It doesn’t matter whether you were born in Bondi or Rooty Hill - every man, woman and child in Australia is entitled to the same goon.” Editor's note: do not give your children goon!
Then Jordan Mullins and Eden Caceda lock horns on the important issue of reality TV. While Caceda argues Big Brother is “over the top, contrived, stupid and inane stuff that is so bad, it’s good’”, Mullins argues the Bachelor is “groundbreaking in its feminism”. All hail feminist icon, Osher Gunsberg!
Page 41: Some things never change
BULL’s ‘Short & Tweet’ section shows us 2014 isn’t so different after all: their tweets highlight the universal truths of:
“Stupol hacks post-election: All the pyjama shirts” (am I writing this in a Switch for SRC shirt? perhaps…)
FKA Twigs killing it
“Mid-semester break: the dream of getting ahead and doing those 15 readings you’ve missed this semester isn’t real”
Page 46: Dear Pulp’s predecessor
If Dear Pulp is your humble USU-provided agony aunt, BULL’s ‘ask Isabella’ is your sadly deceased agony great-aunt. Someone by the name of Ben asks how to let his girlfriend know he doesn’t appreciate being called ‘honey bunch’ and ‘sugar plum’. Isabella’s personal assistant, Colin, responds “put on a smile, and take what you can get”.
How things have changed. These days, the Bens of the world get called things like “pseudo-intellectual fraud”. Sad.
Well, that’s all from this trip into the archives. I hope you’ve enjoyed these glimpses into the days when people visited campus.