Love is... PULP!
By the end of the issue, I was rolling my eyes with a smile plastered across my face, realising that although I’d never really had an original experience, my god, isn’t it wonderful that we all find love and joy everywhere?
PULP’s editors sure know how to throw a party, kicking off the year with their newest issue launch at Hermann’s Bar on the University of Sydney campus.
The energy in the air was electric. Rocking up around 7pm, an hour after the party had started, despite the bar tab reportedly running out only 45 minutes into the party, I found myself stuck in an astronomically long bar line that crawled out onto the footpath. No one can resist celebrating student media… or the opportunity to get pissed for free. Either way, chattering mouths filled Hermanns's Bar, sitting at tables that shortly became littered with empty glass cups, cigarette butts and a glossy, peach-coloured ISSUE 12: LOVE IS….
It soon became so crowded that people started spilling out of the bar and onto the greens to enjoy the cool evening breeze. As if editing a magazine isn't enough, a handful of the editorial team casually took turns manning the DJ decks... show offs. My personal favourite banger of the night was a fire Wii remix that interrupted conversations in order for tipsy creatives to jam out to this massive throwback.
It was heartwarming and encouraging to be surrounded by so many beautiful and talented students who are so passionate about student media – its past, present and, most importantly, its future. PULP’s transition from strictly online to print in the last couple of years is a huge win for student media. Senior editor Kate Saap remarks that seeing people with PULP merch and their own copies of the magazine “reaffirms the team that we are doing something meaningful in the student journalism space, and people seem to want to support it."
“We've been excited to play with the presentation of the magazine in a way that evokes the intimacy of the pieces themselves. And hopefully, the more magazine-y feel of ISSUE 12 has enabled people to connect with that aspect,” says PULP editor, Justine Hu.
PULP’s inaugural issue for 2024 is short, but sweet in every sense of the word. A Valentine’s-themed edition, LOVE IS… is an ode to love’s different shapes and forms.
As someone who loves love, I was giggling and kicking my feet through the entire magazine.
Lameah Nayeem’s dark and sensual poem, Cherri Rype, encapsulated the tantalising, thrilling, yet mildly terrifying feeling of being the subject of lust and desire. Her words slithered from its crimson backdrop onto my tongue – I couldn’t shut up about how this poem made me feel for days.
Less than 100 words were needed to feel Long Huỳnh's infinite love for his mother. Scalp is a story of his solidarity with his ill mum in the best way he knew how: shaving his head. Although she didn't completely understand the sentiment, it never really mattered, because of the infinite love she has for her child.
I collapsed on the floor after being shot down by Audrey Nesdale’s piece – the title alone, MY WARDROBE IS VERY FULL BUT I CANNOT SEEM TO LET ANYTHING GO, being a personal affront to 90% of my personality. Nesdale touches on what it means to be a lover of clothes, the highs and lows of bordering on a shopping addiction, but ultimately how for many, it's a means to connect with moments in time.
By the end of the issue, I was rolling my eyes with a smile plastered across my face, realising that although I’d never really had an original experience, my god, isn’t it wonderful that we all find love and joy everywhere? On bathroom walls, in our closets, in each other, in art, poetry, film, hair, in nature; in creating.
You can catch PULP’s ISSUE 12: LOVE IS… on the USYD campus… while stocks last (or online, through PULP’s ISSUU account), so go pick up one soon! If you do end up reading, I encourage you to make your own Army of Lovers – a collation of things in life that bring you joy and ecstasy, as Estelle Vigouroux inspired me to.