Astro Shite for June 2012

Aries (21 March to 20 April)
Jupiter leaves your money sector on 11 June. Financial projects begun under the giant planet’s influence will bear fruit in the second half of 2012 and beyond. Venus, Mercury and the Sun energise your domestic house from 7 June making mid-year the best time to kiss and make up with your family and relos. Mercury helps you discuss awkward issues with la familia between 7 and 26 June. It’s like The Sopranos without the blood splats. The Sun’s influence at the end of the month propels you to withdraw from the world, so curl up with some choice zines and a hot cup of Ecco.
Aries body parts: head, brain, eyes

Taurus (21 April to 20 May)
The bounty of the cosmos of which you have been enjoying since June last year will end on 11 June. The good news is that Jupiter will move into your second house of finance and remain there until 26 June 2013, generating wealth. This is a good time to undertake that Peter Costello-approved economics degree. You’ll be equipped to handle large sums of cash because of this quality training. Mercury enters your domestic zone at the end of the month, connecting you to trades people wearing ridiculously small King Gee drawstring drill shorts. There will be a flow of sparkies, plumbers, and pool cleaners throughout your home resolving DIY dramas of the Bunnings variety.
Taurus body parts: neck, throat, ears

Gemini (21 May to 20 June)
Jupiter enters Gemini on 11 June starting a twelve-month cycle of expansion. You will find Indiana Jones-style adventure appealing as you reminisce about the experiences taken during Jupiter’s last visit to your sign in 2000/2001. This transit brings second chances with pipe dreams that didn’t materialise. Expect new patterns and behaviours in love to emerge in the last week of June. The Universe is telling you that in order to attract the hot peeps you will need to quit pissing on the bathroom mat and farting in bed. Damn. The North Node’s influence comes to a peak under the lunar eclipse on 4 June, releasing fear from past relationships (gotta love those restraining orders).
Gemini body parts: hands, arms, lungs

Cancer (21 June to 20 July)
A new cycle of spiritual growth begins with the occultation of Venus on 6 June and compounded by Jupiter’s entry in your esoteric zone on 11 June. The second half of 2012 will have a chilled-out vibe as you retreat from the madness of the world by dropping acid to Russell Morris’ The Real Thing while being teleported to 1969. Be the twenty-first century radical and do less; you’ll be grateful in your old age that you didn’t work so hard. Your caring nature and calming words will soothe a friend in crisis when Mercury nests in your sign between 8 and 26 June.
Cancer body parts: chest, breasts, stomach

Leo (21 July to 21 August)

The professional adventures of the last twelve months will end on 11 June. This is either a blessing or a curse depending on your situation. The office dramas have been colossal, the wages minimal, and the Arnott’s biscuit tin barren. Thank the Universe that you will not be drinking watered-down No Frills instant coffee for a while. Mercury enters your sign on 26 June so you’ll be documenting your woeful tales of the nine-to-five in a zine. The Sun and Venus join on 6 June to expand your flagging social life. Jupiter’s entry in your eleventh house on 11 June generates quality friendship time that will last twelve months. Curious Mercury arouses the yearning to explore the mysteries of life between 7 and 26 June by burrowing through the works of Joseph Campbell. Face it; there’s dick-all esotericism in The Da Vinci Code.
Leo body parts: heart, spine, upper back

Virgo (22 August to 22 September)
Jupiter enters your professional sector on 11 June for the first time in twelve years. Your public life will take precedence over the next twelve months as you morph into the zine world’s answer to Jennifer Aniston, shiny hair ‘n’ all. The second half of 2012 is ideal for undertaking professional training that will help you reach those large scale zine dreams of yours. The Full Moon eclipse in your fourth house on 4 June spells the truth about home renovations – that they’re not as much fun as that other form of DIY. Baring your soul and flashing your bits between 26 and 29 June will get you laid for a change. You become the go-to peep for the latest gossip when Mercury visits your friendship sector between 7 and 26 June.
Virgo body parts: abdomen, intestines, spleen

Libra (23 September to 23 October)
Jupiter enters your travel sector on 11 June. Large scale travel plans become possible over the next twelve months. If you ever wanted to experience the proverbial ‘trip of a lifetime’ but were too gutless or broke to do it, act now or forever hold your codpiece. Mercury enters your friendship sector in the last week of June. Expressing your most embarrassing and half-cooked ideas to your closest friends without them laughing in your face is possible now, so take advantage of this transit while it lasts, you fool.
Libra body parts: kidneys, skin, butt cheeks

Scorpio (24 October to 22 November)
Remember that Billy Field tune Bad Habits? Yeah, that was written for you, Scorpio. Fortunately, you won’t have to endure that shit song when the lunar eclipse on 4 June energises your money house, helping you undo piss-poor financial behaviour. The Sun and Mercury merge in your travel sector. In true Scorpio form, you expose yourself from behind a grubby water-repellent rain coat to a variety of new and exotic experiences; an offence punishable by death in certain countries.
Scorpio body parts: sexual organs, reproductive system, rectum

Sagittarius (23 November to 22 December)
Jupiter begins a twelve month love cycle on 11 June. Between 26 and 29 June, Jupiter and Neptune flood your dreams with vivid images of the ideal relationship. Wake up my horsey friend; nothing that Technicolor exists in this lifetime. The lunar eclipse on 4 June combined with Venus overlapping the Sun a few days later triggers highly emotional states of consciousness, making you more shrill and annoying than usual. Mercury enters your travel sector in the last week of June. The Gods anticipate that you’ll buzz off and fly away with the bogans on Jetstar. Here’s hoping …
Sagittarius body parts: hips, thighs, liver

Capricorn (23 December to 20 January)
Jupiter enters the sixth house of routine and rotten jobs on 11 June, kick-starting a twelve month cycle. Domestic life gets frantic as you go berserk with the cordless dustbuster and obligatory can of Shake n’ Vac. Mercury energies your love sector between 6 and 26 June when you post gross accounts of your physical lovemaking on Facebook. The intensity of your relationship hits the heights on 12 June when 158,527496 losers ‘like’ your online status. Your psychic awareness peaks at the Full Moon eclipse in your spirituality zone on 4 June. Honour your gut by listening to what it has to say: start dieting immediately, you fat sod.
Capricorn body parts: teeth, bones, joints

Aquarius (21 January to 17 February)
The lunar eclipse on 4 June brings clarity around social situations. You will experience a phase of hyper-sensitivity surrounding friendships, believing that nobody wants to hang out with you. Examine the energy you are radiating. Aquarius is the sign that loves humanity but hates people. June is the month to reform your twisted thinking and appreciate that humans are from Earth and that you’re from somewhere else in the solar system. Your ruling planet Uranus teaches Venus a thing or two about kinky sex which, as you know, is the secret to an exciting love life. Dare yourself to push the envelope like fellow Aquarian Barry Humphries did on Q&A the other night. What a scream!
Aquarius body parts: ankles, calves, circulatory system

Pisces (18 February to 20 March)
You now know what you want to do when you grow up, thanks to the lunar eclipse in your career zone on 4 June. Jupiter enters your home zone on 11 June, followed by the New Moon on 20 June. Plans of relocating to a new home/suburb/state/country have chances of manifesting over the next twelve months. Actions taken under a Jupiter transit are usually favourable, so a new living environment is probably what your battered soul needs. The neighbours are elated that you’re going. Mercury occupies your creativity sector between 6 and 26 June. This is the best transit for zine making so zine away!
Pisces body parts: feet, lymphatic system, body fat

Sextrology

There is already a plethora of material available regarding the current Venus retrograde motion that it’s pointless for me to rehash what has been written repeatedly. Instead, I’ll bang on about the astrology book to consult during this transit.

Venus’ retrograde motion takes place between 16 May and 28 June this year, moving from 23 degrees Gemini back to 7 degrees Gemini. Its movement within the parameters of the third sign of the zodiac is significant in that it asks us to re-evaluate our deepest values on an intellectual level. Our minds are likely to be overactive during this transit, generating curiosity about relationships. As Venus moves towards the Sun, overlapping on 6 June, we learn to relinquish outmoded values of love and sex. I tend to review previous relationships under Venus retrograde in my sentimental Cancerian way. Romping around in the past is something I do regularly, and this Venus cycle intensifies my past-fixation further by urging me to revisit past soul mates spiritually. Sextrology: the Astrology of Sex and the Sexes (2007) is the compendium to pocket during this phase of looking back before moving forward.

Written by New York based astrological consultants, Stella Starsky and Quinn Cox, Sextrology is one of those rare astrology books that deal with the delicate subject of human astrology and sex in an intelligent, entertaining, and slightly titillating fashion. The authors describe it as a zodiac mandala of human sexuality. It sure is.

As an astrologer and creator of an astrology zine – Astrobabble: the Zine for Astrology Nerds - I rarely draw upon material written by contemporary astrologers. For some reason, I don’t warm to the musings of the New Guard in the way I do towards the words of legendary teachers such as Alan Oken, Liz Greene, and Howard Sasportas. Starsky and Cox, however, are different. Apprentices of astrology will agree that the majority of subject material lining the bookshelves of bookstores (virtual and actual) are inferior and cringe-worthy, an ode to the dumbing-down of the Language of the Stars. So it was a revelation to ‘accidently’ stumble upon Sextrology and find that it examines the underexplored terrain of human sexuality with a depth, knowledge, and voice lacking in modern esoteric writing.

So what makes Sextrology special? Most astrology books lump males and females together when men and women of the same Sun sign are energetically different. Sextrology factors in the divide between the sexes and fully explores the sexual distinctions between them. Each astrological character’s chapter is divided into three sections: psychological profile; physical attributes; and sexual attitudes and behaviour. The authors combine the knowledge of classical archetypes with Jungian psychology, the Ancient Wisdoms, pop culture, and splashes of porn. It’s an eclectic Gemini-flavoured education.

Sextrology was first published during the Venus occultation of 2004. The book has re-entered my consciousness during the current Venus transit for good reason: it’s the go-to astro-sex guide that tickles all sorts of body parts.


Sextrology: the Astrology of Sex and the Sexes (2007) by Stella Starsky and Quinn Cox is published by Harper. Their follow up book Cosmic Coupling: the Sextrology of Relationships (2009) is published by Crown.

Starsky and Cox website: www.starskyandcox.com

Astro Shite for May 2012

Aries (21 March to 20 April)
The Full Moon in Scorpio on 6 May has you probing the subconscious, where life is murky-yucky-scary. You are out of your depth in this house, preferring the security of cage fighting or nude skydiving. Mercury moves into your money sector mid-May. You bore the peeps with talk of get-rich-quick schemes. Fortunately, the winged messenger flies into your communication house on 25 May where he feels at home talking prattle. The New Moon eclipse after the MCA Zine Fair on 21 May brings you success in the zine world. Every New Moon represents the potential for the birth of something new; it’s about time you re-discovered the joy of DIY.
Aries thespian: John Gielgud

Taurus (21 April to 20 May)
Taurus, you’ll be glad to know that this month is about review rather than initiation. Venus turns retrograde from 14 May in your financial sector, forcing you to slow down and observe how skint and desperate you are. Looking back at major events in May/June 2004 gives clues to how you became a loser and a disgrace to the human race. Experience delays in Centrelink and zine distro payments. Just when you thought you could burrow into that groaning tub of Baskin Robbins, the Full Moon in your relationship sector on 6 May sends you an intense and confronting super-sexy peep who will force you to face your hidden motives and desires. Don’t you just hate that?
Taurus thespian: Al Pacino

Gemini (21 May to 20 June)
Venus retrogrades in your sign between 14 May and 26 June, retracing cosmic ground she covered in May/June 2004. What have you learned since then? Nothing. How have you grown? Flabby. This month, get introspective and prepare for the next eight-year love cycle by enduring a back, sack, and crack wax. The New Moon eclipse in your sign on 21 May triggers the birth of a DIY project with heart. The appearance of Mercury in Gemini on 25 May consolidates its success. Jupiter gets in on the act, allowing for the expansion of ideas and opportunities to go further than your tiny mind can handle.
Gemini thespian: Ian McKellen

Cancer (21 June to 20 July)
Venus moves backwards in your spirituality zone from 14 May, keeping you housebound in Lowes boxer shorts and a threadbare Black Sabbath t-shirt. Your physical energy is low, your speech is slurred, and your eyeliner is smeared. You are mistaken for Ozzy Osbourne on day release. Your focus shifts inwards as you revisit esoteric rituals from May/June 2004 that involved playing death metal records backwards. Spooky. Mercury’s influence at the end of the month has you craving knowledge about the ways in which you can express yourself spiritually without listening to crappy music. Mastering the mind is the key to developing your understanding of mysticism.
Cancer thespian: Meryl Streep

Leo (21 July to 21 August)
Adventure is the key to success this month, Leo. Your self-confidence soars after 14 May when the Sun and Jupiter join, helping you gain momentum in the professional arena. The peeps love your grandiloquent style as you expand beyond your comfort zone and make a total tool of yourself. God knows how you will handle the Venus retrograde transit through your party sector. This will be a quiet time socially, so put away your star-spangled g-string and reassess your friendships. Fortunately, the New Moon eclipse invigorates your social life from 21 May, so you’ll be twirling those titty tassels in no time.
Leo thespian: Helen Mirren

Virgo (22 August to 22 September)
Venus’ retrograde motion shows a link between work-life balance themes from May/June 2004 with mid-2012. Use this period to review career experiences from the previous eight years. Have you fulfilled your professional goals or has it been a decade of ‘same shit different day’? What changes can you implement to achieve world domination over the next eight years? You ponder these questions while waiting in the Centrelink queue, listening to One Direction on your iWank. The War Against The Poor continues when the New Moon eclipse on 21 May brings you a work-for-the-dole project that gets Nick Minchin sniggering and snorting like the smug Fascist pig that he is.
Virgo thespian: Jeremy Irons

Libra (23 September to 23 October)
Libra, this month is about being a well dressed traveller. There’s nothing accidental about this tourist, darling. The Venus retrograde slows down your trek through the Sistema Penibetico mountain range, so that your almond coloured Chinos remain fresh and crumple-free. The Universe is so thoughtful. You revisit favourite peeps and places and savour the experience without documenting it on Facebook or Flickr. The New Moon eclipse on 21 May coupled with Mercury’s entry into your travel sector brings you high adventure with the shepherd in the Sherpa jacket you see grazing beyond the camping grounds of the Pico de Aneto. Stuff Chino freshness.
Libra thespian: Catherine Deneuve

Scorpio (24 October to 22 November)
A solar eclipse in your eighth house on 21 May heralds the start of a new financial cycle. This will make many Scorpions happy as money is up there with sex, vengeance, and perspiration. Mercury stimulates your curiosity about fiscal information that even humdrum tax accountants look sexually enticing without your beer goggles. This transit connects you with the right peeps to help overhaul your dire debt position. The intense Full Moon in your sign on 6 May encourages you to probe the surface of life and wade through the sewer that is your subconscious. You just wouldn’t be Scorpio without regular confrontations of absolute truths.
Scorpio thespian: Katherine Hepburn

Sagittarius (23 November to 22 December)
Sagittarius, sometimes love means having to say you’re sorry. Venus’ extended visit in your relationship sector coincides with one of her rare retrograde cycles between 14 May and 26 June. Expect misunderstandings with your partner to occur. They finally realise that you’re a useless fat turkey who needs stuffing. A New Moon eclipse on 21 May heralds a new cycle where love themes from May/June 2004 resurface. Now is the time to make peace with your past and move forward with your romantic future by destroying those Polaroids of a nude you covered in fairy floss and ostrich feathers. The barriers that have been blocking your amorous progress will lift.
Sagittarius thespian: Judi Dench

Capricorn (23 December to 20 January)
Capricorn, you won’t be feeling the love at work this month when Venus retrogrades in your house of routine between 14 May and 26 June. Before flinging your Filofax Organiser out the window, wait! The New Moon eclipse on 21 May brings a long awaited professional breakthrough. The alignment with Jupiter shows you career possibilities beyond the bored room. Mercury accelerates your chances for stimulating work at the end of the month when you are blessed with the gift of the gab and swindle your way into the corporate world with jargon such as ‘open the kimono’, ‘sweat the assets’, and ‘bottom out’. Sounds kinda saucy, doesn’t it?
Capricorn thespian: Anthony Hopkins

Aquarius (21 January to 17 February)
You will be adopting a playful, child-like approach to life this month, Aquarius. This meshes well with your puerile personality and intolerable behaviour. The New Moon on 21 May triggers the start of a new cycle in self-expression where you reconnect with forgotten creative passions. Mercury trines your Sun from 25 May and you will be zine-ing from the right side of the brain with ease. Expect primitive crayon drawings with gold stars and coloured pipe cleaners to emerge from this fertile period.
Aquarius thespian: Vanessa Redgrave

Pisces (18 February to 20 March)
The Full Moon in Scorpio on 6 May has you probing the deep questions of life whereby you seek the advice of sages with names like Deepak, Tupak, and Multipak. Mercury gives you plenty of ideas of how to spend your dosh in the first week of May, but is rebuked by lesson master Saturn who constantly reminds you of commitments to debt, taxes, HECS, Newstart, and other boring left brain stuff. Venus retrogrades through your domestic sector from 14 May, politely asking you to change the bed sheets and air the bedroom; chores that you haven’t tackled since the May/June 2004 planetary cycle. Yuk!
Pisces thespian: Michael Caine

More Shameless Self-Promotion (SSP) or The Meaning of Life in Sydney

I need to brag about my donation to the City of Sydney Archives Ephemera Collection while I’m still in SSP mode. I blogged about The Past in Print: Community Ephemera Project a few months ago, encouraging ephemera nuts to donate items that reflect Sydney life. This project is about collecting materials that are usually disposed of (pamphlets, flyers, tickets, beer coasters, and business cards) that tell a story of a certain time, place, or event. In relation to Sydney, ephemera material becomes a rich source of information about the evolution of the city’s communities and suburbs.

This project is therapeutic because it requires me to examine what life in Sydney means to me on a fundamental level. I don't know how to answer this, having experienced what I believe were Sydney’s best years in the 80s and 90s. I remember reading a novel as a teenager by the travel writer Jan Morris who wrote admiringly about Sydney in the early 80s. She professed something about ‘Sydney in 1984 ... this workers’ paradise is as good as it will ever be’. I was too young to understand the underlying meaning, but I did become slightly concerned that my home turf was on the precipice of a moral and social decline that I was powerless to stop. I guess that’s how I feel about Sydney in 2012.

Now that the race to the bottom is underway, the definition of ‘life’ in twenty-first century Sydney has changed remarkably. It's life, but not as I know it. My generation felt the confines of the gilded cage in the suburbs, and so had to flee to the freedoms that awaited us in the inner city. The irony in 2012 is that the gilded cage has extended to the communities that traditionally symbolised freedom, bohemianism, and good times for stifled youth. It’s become a sad fact of Sydney life that only yuppies and bean counters can afford to live in Newtown today. So for me, life in Sydney means having planned and exact movements: cult sinema in Annandale, the esoteric bookshop in Glebe, a friend’s healing centre in Balmain, The Annandale Hotel, Urchin Books in Marrickville, bush tracks along the Parramatta River, the Great Western Highway stretching to the Blue Mountains, avoiding the CBD, avoiding as many people as possible …

On an esoteric level, Sydney holds little meaning for me, but perhaps that’s the challenge I face as a spiritual being living in the mundane world. Living a devotional life doesn’t mean disappearing into the sanctuary of Katoomba but to find the sacred in the guts of the city. The material that I have donated to the City of Sydney archives reflects what I hold as consecrated: ephemera concerning art exhibitions, live music, theatre, films, festivals, markets, and zines. This link provides a blurb about my collection.

It's natural to nurse a nostalgia for our material history and to develop an emotional attachment to our 'stuff'. Most of us use objects to construct our personal narrative. If you're like me and want to preserve your material history as well as the history of Sydney’s communities, click on this link and contact the good folk at city archives.

The Art of Shameless Self-Promotion (SSP)

Being a shy Cancerian gal means that I cower from anything resembling SSP. I require the service of a feisty Leo or Aries to help me with that one. At least the title is a good opening for promoting my latest issue of Astrobabble. As mentioned in a previous blog entry, issue seven focuses on the sign of Libra and her ruling planet, Venus. There is no mention of Nico, but I do bang on about the inventor of SSP, Oscar Wilde, who epitomised the essence of Libra beautifully.

Astrobabble is available through The Sticky Institute and Smells Like Zines. If you live in Sydney, grab a copy from Beyond the Ordinary in Balmain, Phoenix Rising Books in Glebe, and The Buddha Bar in Newtown.

Astro Shite for April 2012

Aries (21 March to 20 April)
Neptune leaves your spirituality sector after 16 April. You emerge from the Underground like the proverbial Lazarus renewed, revitalised, rejuvenated, and other words beginning with ‘r’ that mean more or less the same thing. A new wave of Jupiter energy brings a positive outlook on financial matters that will last until early June. This is an ideal period for starting new initiatives to generate income, so launch that zine distro mecca that currently exists only in your mind and live the dream, baby.
Aries ruling planet: Mars

Taurus (21 April to 20 May)
This month begins a phase of self-understanding that will end in early June. You will need the time to work out who the hell you are and what the hell you’re doing with your life. Expect to find answers to these perplexing questions after 14 April when Mars moves forward in your house of self-expression. The perpetual phase of debauchery that you have been enjoying since the beginning of the year will intensify after the New Moon on 21 April. Reconnect with your physical needs and with the natural world, preferably somewhere within the vicinity of award winning vineyards and upmarket gourmet cafes.
Taurus ruling planet: Venus

Gemini (21 May to 20 June)
Mercury’s second visit to your social sector from 17 April creates opportunities to untangle a friendship quandary by untangling their tangled tufts with a tangle-free comb. Cleo magazine recommends using the three hundred and sixty degree rotating toothcomb. Venus enters your sign on 3 April compelling you to experience double the self-lovin’ which sounds like a cheeseburger Elvis may have eaten. Delays with home renovations continue until 14 April when Mars finally decides to move forward in your domestic zone. Even Kevin McCloud is powerless to help you sandblast the kitchen wall before then.
Gemini ruling planet: Mercury

Cancer (21 June to 20 July)
Venus enters your spirituality zone on 3 April. You plunge into Neptunian territory of energy and intuition, giving your right brain a vigorous work out. You fall in love with a herbalist who hasn’t had a bath, let alone a job, since the Salem witch trials. At least your blood and liver are purified, thanks to that magic weed you’re now smoking. Mercury revisits your career sector from 17 April. Networking, brainstorming, and bullshitting stimulate professional growth. You will get a second chance to dig your claws into work opportunities you missed because of your addiction to that magic weed. Uranus and Mercury join on 23 April. Put on your dry-clean-only Prada business pants and get sucked into the unethical abyss while yelling ‘Margin Call’. What a month!
Cancer ruling planet: Moon

Leo (21 July to 21 August)
Your curiosity about a destination invented by Leprechauns has you exploring Timbuktu when Mercury visits your travel zone from 16 April. You discover the hard way that it’s nowhere near Ireland. Venus transits your social sector from 3 April until early August. This is one of your most popular periods this year. You will be living the celebrity dream of red carpet premiers while stunt dressing and comparing Frankenstein plastic surgery horror stories with other birdbrains. Mars moves forward in your house of finance after 14 April. This is an ideal time to implement new fiscal strategies by planting money seeds in your garden.
Leo ruling planet: Sun

Virgo (22 August to 22 September)
Venus triggers your career sector from 3 April. You swoon over the hot office peep helping you replace the toner in the C3100 copier. You get all giddy when you find love letters printed on baby pink 80gsm Reflex paper amongst your photocopied documents. The relationship progresses from the printing department to the staff cafeteria after 14 April when Mars finishes his retrograde cycle in your sign. Avoid Chiko Rolls and battered savs if you want to remain the nine to five spunk magnet.
Virgo ruling planet: Mercury

Libra (23 September to 23 October)
Your energy levels increase after 14 April when Mars moves forward in your spirituality sector. Your psychic powers may improve but you’re still a superficial git. Venus takes an extended holiday in your travel zone from 3 April and is apprehensive to come home. Fortunately, Mercury visits your relationship house from 17 April. You get romantically involved with twins who enjoy playing mind games to John Lennon’s Mind Games, and the occasional bout of Boggle, Scrabble, and other nerdy board games requiring a sophisticated vocabulary and an insufferable attitude.
Libra ruling planet: Venus

Scorpio (24 October to 22 November)
Establish new social routines from 14 April when Mars finishes his retrograde motion in your friendship sector. You accomplish your dream of running with the cool kids in the second half of the month when the Universe permits you to focus on your most inspiring and stylish friends. Rest assured that there wouldn’t be a dag within a twenty-kilometre radius of you and your chic clique.
Scorpio ruling planet: Pluto

Sagittarius (23 November to 22 December)

The good news for Sagittarians is that Venus will occupy your love sector from 3 April until early August. Expect to enjoy a variety of romantic experiences involving cultivated and intellectual foreigners. Mercury triggers Uranus in your fifth house of creativity for the third time this year on 23 April. Give yourself permission to be spontaneous and experimental with your DIY output. Like the plot to a David Lynch film starring Crispin Glover on No-Doz, there is no logic to your creative methodologies, but that doesn’t stop your zine becoming a hit with the disciples who worship at The Sticky Institute.
Sagittarius ruling planet: Jupiter

Capricorn (23 December to 20 January)
Mercury aligns with Uranus on 23 April in your domestic sector. You become addicted to that long-running family soap sham The Storm Rages Twice. Mars moves forward in your house of higher learning after 14 April. You crave understanding as to why life is unfolding the way it is. Your belief in t-shirt slogans such as ‘bean counters do it better’ and ‘a farce to be reckoned with’ no longer work for you. Expect an overhaul of your personal philosophy this month, so choose to follow beliefs that come from the heart or the gut rather than from some crass marketing company trying to sell you an iPhone application.
Capricorn ruling planet: Saturn

Aquarius (21 January to 17 February)
This month you unleash your inner-alien when Mercury aligns with Uranus on 23 April in your communication zone. Your unconventional thought processes excel under this transit, scaring a few Earthlings away. Assertive Mars moves forward in your cash sector on 15 April after a setback earlier in the month. Venus helps you open your heart and transfer it onto zine format from 3 April. You fall in love with the various printing options available to you: offset-lithographic proofing press with style, stencil printing with emotion, screen-printing with attitude, nine spot colour printing with gusto …
Aquarius ruling planet: Uranus

Pisces (18 February to 20 March)
Mars moves forward in your relationship sector from 15 April bringing firecrackers, throw-downs, and other illegal explosives into your love life. Wow! Mercury and Uranus align in your financial zone on 23 April so expect the green to appear miraculously. Off the planet ideas that emerged while Mercury danced in and out of your sign will take concrete form in the form of concrete after 16 April. By end of the month you’ll have produced a prolific body of work of what inspires you. Fortunately for the zine world, that excludes naive drawings of birds, cats, teapots, and cupcakes.
Pisces ruling planet: Neptune
 

An Evening with Bob King

I know that clichés are obvious signs of poor writing skills, but I will use one anyway: to be in the presence of music photographer, Bob King, is to be in the presence of greatness. At least I avoided using that hackneyed term ‘genius’.

I recently attended a talk given by King at the Rozelle campus of Sydney Community College, a couple of suburbs away from where I live in Sydney. King has been a stalwart of music photography for nearly fifty years since capturing The Beatles live at Sydney Stadium in 1964, so it was a pleasure to see and hear the man tell stories of a world far removed from the one in which I live.

King spoke of his introduction to photography as a child, and the development of this interest throughout high school. He left school in the early 60s to work for Kodak. It was during this time that he started attending concerts in Sydney, shooting touring bands like The Rolling Stones as a hobby.  It was a trip to sit through a slideshow of analogue photos that captured Keith Richards and Mick Jagger as teenagers, taken by someone standing a few feet away from me. Keith Richards as an eighteen year old is barely recognizable. Since then, King has photographed a wide spectrum of entertainers as diverse as Julio Iglesias, Barbra Streisand, Neil Diamond, Kylie Minogue, Pink, Sigur Ros, Tool, Slipknot, Nirvana, The Hard Ons, INXS, AC/DC, Radio Birdman, Iggy Pop, Bob Marley, Sherbet, and Skyhooks; most of whom were featured in the evening’s slideshow. King has also produced record covers and published coffee table books of his work. He is professional, adaptable, approachable, and a genuinely lovely guy. It isn’t surprising that he has earned respect and admiration from the music industry. Who wouldn’t want to work with Bob King?

My earliest recollection of seeing King at work was in the early 80s at the Hordern Pavilion where touring British band, The Cure, gave a somewhat sombre performance. I made the connection that the older straight-looking guy with the camera at the foot of the stage was Bob King, because his book, Rock Lens, was popular at the time. He shot many of the photos that appeared in music rags such as RAM, Juke, and On The Street. As regular live music goers in Sydney will tell you, King is almost as familiar as the venues or the bands themselves. Throughout the years, I have indulged in a bit of King-spotting at Selina's, The Tivoli, Enmore Theatre, The Annandale Hotel, Entertainment Centre, The Phoenician Club, The Big Day Out with Nirvana, and a low-key death metal gig at Utopia Records. During the talk, King revealed his love of heavy metal bands and the energy that their live shows produce. However, the highlight of this rock ‘n’ roll show ‘n’ tell was the stories he shared with the audience: 

• Narcissistic Julio Iglesias’ refusal to be photographed up close
• British band, The Police, taking their ‘positions’ on stage before signalling to King to start shooting
• Barbra Streisand’s management demanding that all photos of the diva had to be handed to her publicist
• King falling off the stage at the Narara Festival on the Central Coast in the 80s and cracking his skull
• King falling off the stage at a Sherbet concert in Newcastle in the 70s and not cracking his skull
• Angry Anderson from Rose Tattoo being the most co-operative when it comes to having pictures taken

He goes on to tell an anecdote that I heard from ‘that other music photographer’, Tony Mott. Both state that since the 80s, photographers have to adhere to a clause that prohibits them from photographing an artist after the first three songs of a live performance. King thinks Elton John initiated it, while Mott claims that it was Deborah Harry (of Blondie). Perhaps it was the mega-vain Julio Iglesias wanting to retain some control over his fading sex appeal.

King has always used Nikon cameras, the first of which he bought in Vietnam after being conscripted into the army during the 60s. His involvement in the Vietnam War has left him partially deaf in one ear. For the last twenty years, his photos have been predominately sold to and available through the international photo library, Corbis.

King turns sixty-six in May (Taurus? Gemini? I didn’t ask) and continues to photograph live performances, the most recent being Duran Duran and Adam Ant respectively. He is animated when discussing heavy metal, although he bemoans the loss of home-grown talent: Vince Lovegrove (of The Valentines and Divinyls’ manager), Harvey James and Clive Shakespeare (of Sherbet), and Michael Hutchence (of INXS) with whom he was close. Although he didn’t mention it, his sadness reflects a deeper loss of a species of artist on the brink of extinction. As I began this piece with a cliché, it’s only fitting that I end it with another: Bob King and the multitude of colourful rock ‘n’ roll characters that he faithfully documents for posterity, well, they just don’t make them like they use to.

Bob King's official website is http://www.bobking.com.au/.