The Hunt For KOVEN JULES
J.D.D.F gets on the trail of one of Adelaide's most infamous and audacious graffiti duos...I couldn’t move. I just stood there; neck arched back trying to take the whole thing in. The cold evening air punched the back of my throat, making it difficult to breath. What did it mean I wondered? Surely, these people that were walking by me could s...
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This is Iraq
Story and photographs by Frank Weyer.Adelaidian Frank Weyer recently spent some time as part of a truck convoy driving from Kuwait City to Baghdad. The adventure ended when he was blown up. Here's the first of three parts of his story, told exclusively to Merge over a few beers one hazy Sunday arvo.Black and brown flickered in my sight.I couldn&rsq...
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Obruni girl in Africa
Story and photographs by Kim Robertson.Whenever Kim Robertson told someone she was travelling to Ghana, she was met with blank stares and enquiring looks. Despite this, Kim has arrived safely in the land of cocoa and is living in Cape Coast - a fishing village of one hundred thousand people on the West coast. She is volunteering in an orphanage bef...
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Charity, Click - BOOM!
JoshuaFanning finds four young men who are blowing up charity.Charity is dead, and consumer whores are the only hope poverty-stricken people have of getting out of the rut. This unbelievable scenario is increasingly becoming the reality, although slightly played out here for dramatic effect. Living costs more and more each year but with the spike i...
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Inside North Korea III
When we last saw Colum Graham,he wasmaking nice with gun-wielding North Korean soldiers after surviving his first few hours in Kaesong. How will the rest of the trip go? Well: onward we go, deeper into the demilitarised zone where the rules get stricter, the people get dirtier - and everything starts to look the same. (Remember, read from the start...
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Inside North Korea II
Story and photographs by Colum Graham.Colum Graham's just crossed the border into North Korea and things are about to get a little awkward. How hardcouldit be to make a North Korean laugh? (Remember: read part one first)A small military jeep containing four Korean Peoples Army (KPA) soldiers arrived to greet our motorcade and we proceeded along an ...
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Inside North Korea
Story and photographs by Colum Graham.If there's a man you want to send into North Korea it's Colum Graham. A dang-blasted great writer as well as a good buddy of Merge's, when we heardhe was headed to Kaesong in thedemilitarised zone for apoke around, wemade surehe took a pen and camera. Here's the first in a three part account of what he got up t...
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Dubious Moments in Australian History: CANBERRA
The year was 1908 and the newly formed Commonwealth of Australia needed a capital city. Unable to decide between Sydney and Melbourne, the powers that be decided instead to create an entirely new city located between the two. Little did they know that this bold plan would one day lead to the creation of one of the planet’s true wonders: the w...
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Welcome to Blackwater III
Story and photographs by Wolfgang Hackman.Wolfgang Hackman isMerge's kind of guy. He spent a lotof timein the Queensland outback getting baked and thenflooded (not drug references), and now he's telling all.In this final installment,we bid farewellto oldBobbity Brown andthe angry townsfolk - and ponder the future for atown with none.(Remember: Read...
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Welcome to Blackwater II
Story and photographs by Wolfgang Hackman.Wolfgang Hackman is one of Adelaide's best up-and-coming authors. Here is part two of his superb story about hisexperience as a newshound in a small town in the Queensland outback. This time around:angry farmers, angry Bob Browns, and an angry, angry sun. (Remember: Read part one first!)Half an hour early, ...
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Welcome to Blackwater
Story and photographs by Wolfgang Hackman.Wolfgang Hackman is one of Merge's favourite Adelaide authors. Recently he spent time in outback Queensland at a small newspaper with only the outrageously-sized horseflies for company. Here is the first in a series of three installments hehas written about his brush with the big boys of Federal Politics. W...
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Why We Like to Be Arseholes
by Richard Pichler. Illustrations by Owen Lindsay.As I sit writing this in the outdoor garden restaurant of Singapore’s Changi prison chapel museum there is a calm sense of peacefulness in the air. The sun is shining and a balmy breeze blows while smiling bar staff and chefs bustle about. This is a stark contrast to what lies within the priso...
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Dubious Moments in Australian History: BATAVIA
The year was 1628, and the Dutch were still a relevant world power1. Like all world powers at the time, Holland’s primary focus was sending extravagant ships crewed by hundreds of people half way ‘round the world in search of a pinch of paprika. The grandest of these ships was the Batavia; a 24 cast-iron cannon monster, commissioned by ...
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Videogames As Art
Henry Jenkins once famously said "Videogames represent a new lively art... They open up new aesthetic experiences and transform the computer screen into a realm of experimentation and innovation that is broadly accessible". We're not entirely sure who Jenkins is but Merge reckons he's onto something. So too does the Australian Centre for ...
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DJ Krush - LIVE!!
By Joshua Fanning.Like some inner-city cathedral, the Producers Bar on Grenfell Street took in Adelaide’s impoverished Hip Hop souls last Thursday night so that they might be touched by the healing powers of world-renowned Japanese DJ/Producer - DJ Krush.Before the gig, I tried to explain to a woman at the bar who Krush is, and why I was pret...
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Rock out witcha God out
by Farrin FosterThe bass fades out and with a final cymbal crash, the crowd pulls out a last pitchy scream of appreciation. As the band file off stage the crowd follow suit, dispersing into clusters throughout the club. I head to the bar, just managing to beat the inevitably enormous queue. An hour, and several drinks later, I wander over to see my...
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The Bartender
By Joshua Fanning.Where do you work? The Bayswater Brasserie opened in 1891 or ‘92. In the past 5-6 years the bar has become a bit more than a waiting room for the restaurant. Last year the Bayswater was voted the fourth best bar in the world.Do people drink to get drunk? There are some people out there who do have a sense of culture about th...
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Beer: The Great Australian Ambassador
By Farrin Foster.It’s obvious that Australia’s development as a nation has been fuelled by the development of a great drink: beer. We’re almost at the point where the two can’t be separated; our beer has actually become an ambassador for our culture. The qualities of our people are reflected in the qualities of our favourite...
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Dubious Moments in Australian History: Nueva Australia
Nueva Australiaby Ken BellThe year is 1893, and all is not well in the colony of Australia. The mining boom of the 1850s is over, and the lower classes are at the mercy of wealthy businessmen, who were all too aware that there weren’t enough jobs to go around. With poor wages and horrid working conditions the order of the day, a number of soc...
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Conversations With A Club-Owner
By Owen Lindsay.10 year-old Jimmy* arrived in Australia not speaking any English, and made the vow at 14 to get a million dollars. By 29 he’d succeeded, and then did it again and again. Without any experience running a club, Jimmy and his friends opened one up – and it quickly became the hottest nightspot in Melbourne.Bill versus the re...
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Why The Hos Love Ricky Rose
By Juliet Osborne.Who is Ricky Rose? Well he’s fictitious. His real name is something less impressive but his reality, his effect, is the same as someone whose name would have to be… Ricky Rose.Ricky Rose is desire, a lust, a crush, a shag, a mistake, a love affair, a heart break. Ricky Rose is a musician; a 24-year-old rock star on th...
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Cross and Sword
By Nelson Hedditch.When the Spanish invaded South America in 1519 with the goal of colonization, they brought with them their most powerful weapon; the Catholic Church. Catholicism was forced upon the native people of Central and Southern America to allow the Spaniards to build their empire. However, the Revolutionary fervor which is sweeping throu...
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