frankie magazine subscription

LETTERS@FRANKIE.COM.AU Dearest frankie, I’ve been reading your magazine since I was a high school student in San Francisco – I’m now a 20-something in New York City, married and have a dog named... Frankie! Yes, my little beloved is named for your magazine (it’s also a great name for a weenie dog). Since shipping troubles to the United States mean I can no longer get my fix directly, I’ve taken to having back issues sent to my brother in Switzerland, to bring whenever he visits. xx Claire (and Frankie) Dear frankie and Shannon, When I sit on my couch, I have the pleasure of facing my wonderful bookshelf. There are three particular books which catch my eye every single glance: Wizardology, Dragonology and Egyptology. Imagine my surprise to read the…

ENNUI There’s something so special about being able to hold a piece of lovingly made art in your hands – the kind of art that isn’t destined for landfill and hasn’t been touched by gross e-commerce overlords like Temu and Amazon. Ceramics biz Studio Ennui makes exactly that kind of special stuff – handcrafted, slowly made ceramics that are pretty to look at, designed to be used, and feel oh so nice to hold. studio-ennui.com HEAD SCRATCHER Fact: it’s scientifically proven that people who rest pencils behind their ears have bigger, juicier brains than the rest of us non-pencil-wearing folk. (Source: peer-reviewed study featuring one tired frankie writer.) To support your noggin in coming up with great ideas (like what to have for dinner), might we suggest you don these…

elizabeth magie (1866–1948) MONOPOLY Next time you find yourself endlessly going around a board, trading real estate, passing ‘Go’ and having the odd stint in jail, you can blame it on the Illinois-born Elizabeth Magie, a sometime short-story writer, poet and comedian. In 1904, the political advocate and first-wave feminist received a US patent for The Landlord’s Game, a board game designed to demonstrate the evils of capitalism. A later patent included two sets of rules: one to demonstrate the unfairness of a capitalist system that was known as Monopoly, in which the winner was the one who had forced everyone else out of business; the other, known as Prosperity, advocated the benefits of interaction with opponents. Prosperity, unfortunately, wasn’t nearly as popular as its more ruthless counterpart, and fell…

Hi Sophia! Without mentioning your work, please tell us a bit about yourself. I live in Auckland, New Zealand. I recently moved back to the same street I grew up on. I live with my partner and our border collie Ruby. She is the sweetest dog: super-smart, and the best provider of oxytocin I’ve ever met! When I’m not making art, I love creating other things with my hands: cooking, gardening – I have my own little veggie patch – and I’ve started sewing again. Spending time with loved ones and being in nature is always right up there, too. How did you get the idea for your Simple Pleasures series? Simple Pleasures is all about that childlike wonder of finding joy in the smallest and simplest things, like a floating…

Seven years ago my friend and I travelled overseas. One drizzly day in London, we rested our gams at a rooftop bar, perching on stools overlooking a bustling street of lorries (trucks), bobbies (police) and geezers (I just wanted to use that word). A perfect perch for people-watching. My attention zeroed in on one person in the crowd: a pair of skinny legs stood at a pedestrian crossing, arms wrapped around an enormous potted fern whose sweeping branches covered the plantholder’s face. A Sideshow Bob silhouette waiting at the lights in the rain. Silently, my friend and I exchanged a look of “Are you looking at what I’m looking at?” And yes, we were. The plantholder’s arms began to shake. The pedestrian lights went green but instead of moving, the…

DAN Hi! Tell us about yourself and what you do. Hi, I’m Dan! I’m a Melbourne barista and newly published author. What colour do you feel like on the inside at the moment and why? Forest green. It grounds me and symbolises growth, even if that growth is happening quietly and slowly. It reflects a sense of calm strength – learning to trust myself and stand steady through whatever comes. And it holds a little bit of magic, too, reminding me that even in stillness, something meaningful is always unfolding. What have you been really into lately? My debut novel Spencer Sparkles, a magical LGBTQIA coming-of-age tale, based on my own experiences, blended with fantastical elements. ISOBEL Hi! Tell us about yourself and what you do. I’m Isobel. I co-founded…

PHOEBE POWELL @phoebepowellphoto This film photo was captured at the end of a long, hot, dirty day in rural New South Wales. I was there for work, starting my days in cow sheds way before the sun was up. I took it in my motel room while sitting with a cold bottle of Coke, right after I had a dip in the motel pool. Two small windows spilled the golden afternoon sun into the room; one made the bathroom tiles glow and the other perfectly silhouetted the glass bottle in front of me. Film photography, for me, is the ultimate way of holding on to photography as a hobby. I enjoy the contrast of taking just one shot – the inability for review keeps it feeling really different to my…

I can almost pinpoint the exact moment I fell in love with Pond. It was 2017, the spring of my last year of high school, riding the tram home as it skated under electric cobwebs and stalled for rogue passengers. My headphones were in, the world my own, and somehow I found The Weather. The seasons of my life changed. Then it’s 2018, hot as heck, I’m on someone’s shoulders in the Supernatural Amphitheatre, flying high to Tasmania. Next – 2022, I’m visiting my grandparents in Western Australia, 9 in my ears and my eyes on the red horizon, autumn like something else out here. And then 2025 and I’m jittery like a teenager again, somewhere in the Otways, packed in with the rain and Stung! on the stage. It’s…

Space smells. Yes, we said it. Even though we think of it as a whole load of nothing – a great big vacuum – astronauts from multiple space agencies, across decades of missions, have been coming back to Earth to say there’s a distinct whiff of something or other up there. ASTRONAUTS DON’T SMELL IN THE USUAL WAY How on earth would astronauts know what space smells like, when they’re all sealed up in their spacesuits. The thing is, no one has ever “smelt” space in the traditional sense – if they tried, they wouldn’t live to tell the tale. It’s more that, after returning from spacewalks, they have reported unique odours clinging to their spacesuits or lingering in the airlock once it’s re-pressurised. During the Apollo 11 mission, Buzz…