The Professional: Geoff Parkes is working on the beginning of his PhD, focussing on a post-modern, post-nihilist ethics of the self, using selected works of Albert Camus, Samuel Beckett and Michel Foucault. He occasionally reviews books for the Journal of Australian Studies Book Review. Last year he received First Class Honours for his thesis, analysing the discourses surrounding representations of adolescent bodies in Ken Park, The Boy and the Light and Darkness: Caravaggio and his World exhibition. He remains working, very slowly, on his second novel, a work concerning the fragmentation of memory and relationships. His first novel, Fuct and Fiction, was epublished in 2001 and is available, for free, from here.

The Past: Geoff was the literary critic, columnist and interviewer for the national magazine Bent. His features, interviews, reviews, poetry, and columns appeared in Semper, Bizoo, Brother Sister QLD, Sydney's G magazine and Revolver, Disinfo.com, Delusions of Adequacy, Prose-ax and Pinksheep to name just a few. At the age of 25, Geoff was the guest editor and then arts editor of Brisbane's Brother Sister and later the founding editor of Qnews, now QLD's largest gay and lesbian publication. Logged Off was a long-running online publication that reviewed the best and the worst of independent, alternative and interesting music and literature and interviewed some of those responsible. Geoff did not get headhunted by Pitchfork, Bookslut, Rolling Stone or the New York Times. For these small mercies, we give thanks.

He has interviewed, among others, The Strokes, Youth  Group, The Superjesus, Grant McClennan of The GoBetweens, Catatonia, Michael Arditti, Simon Sheppard, Jake Arnott, Hood, The Tigers and many more local and international artists and authors.

Geoff was commissioned in 2001 to write a discussion site on Youth Suicide for the QLD Centenary Foundation ReMYForum. Geoff appeared at the 2002 National Young Writers Festival and spoke on a panel about E-zines, another on the ways narrative and multimedia interact, and at an evening event to read from his novel Fuct & Fiction. He also chaired a panel on music journalism, featuring some of Australia's best music writers. In late 2002 Geoff co-chaired a panel on blogging at the inaugural Straight out of Brisbane festival, and later appeared at a panel along with other distinguished critics and arts practitioners to discuss issues concerning ethical reviewing in contemporary media. Geoff used a water bottle to thump another distinguished critic whose mobile phone kept ringing throughout the session. You've been warned. He has not been invited back

Geoff enjoys talking about himself in the third person.

For personal info, consider what lies beneath:

I have: a serious caffeine addiction
I see: Andi, Patti, Lou, Allen, Bob, Jacques and Michel
I hate: the neighbours whose loud voices await me and their children who steal my plants
I miss: steaming short blacks in Buenos Aires and the sound of someone's laughter
I wonder: why people can't smoke on trains but they can use mobile phones
I find:the world much more strange than I used to
I want: the world, but am happy with a decent cup of coffee
I regret: so much and so little
I need: see I have/want.
I wish: that I could understand
I fear: the inability to think
I hear: "She's an artist and she don't look back"
I love: the smell of rain on my plants, the trees that canopy my street, a flock of birds startled into flight and the anticipation before a new David Lynch movie
I smell: Eschallots and coffee grounds
I crave: the DVD complete series of Twin Peaks that will one day exist
I feel: one of my turns coming on

When was the last time you...
Talked to an ex: the last time her mother dropped me off in the rain
Kissed someone: a week, two weeks ago, on the cheek
Were sarcastic: when was the last time I watched the news?
Laughed: hearing Amanda Vanstone trying to put almost 900 detainee attempts at self-harm into perspective
Cried: watching The Barbarian Invasions, finishing My Fellow Skin
Had a nightmare: 9&1/2 years of Liberal Govt. and it still goes on
Danced: This booty don't do dance though I danced on the inside to a Radiohead song
Smiled: thinking about New Year's Eve, 1999, alone with partner on a balcony
Bought something? Seretide, black jellybeans, milk, fruitcake, Lebanese bread, bananas, eggplant- yesterday.

Favourite Books: D Coupland's Girlfriend in a Coma, Tristan Egolf's Lord of the Barnyard, Warboy, Natalie Goldberg's Wild Mind, The Little Prince, anything by James Robert Baker, Tomas Eloy Martinez's Santa Evita and The Peron Novel, Benjamin Prado's Raro, A Confederacy of Dunces, Chris Fuhrman's The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys, JG Ballard's Crash, Chuck Palahnuik's Invisible Monsters, Barry Gifford's Sailor & Lulu series, Jonathen Franzen's The Corrections and How to Be Alone, House of Leaves, The Basic Eight, Kerouac's Desolation Angels and Some of the Dharma, Don DeLillo's White Noise, My Fellow Skin

 Favourite Films: Betty Blue, Paris Texas, Rocky Horror Picture Show, The Barbarian Invasions, Waiting for Godot, Ma Vie En Rose, Beautiful Thing, Dead Man, Natural Born Killers, Olympia, Once Upon a Time in the West, Farewell My Concubine, All Over Me, Happiness, Hedwig, Hard Core Logo. Mulholland Drive, All About My Mother, The Law of Desire, The Ice Storm

Favourite TV Shows: Twin Peaks, Buffy (esp Season 6), The West Wing, 6 Feet Under, Robin & Friends, Dr Katz, 100 Centre Street, Shameless, Arrested Development, Passions

Favourite Musicians: Patti Smith, Jacques Brel, Lou Reed, Scott Walker, Nick Cave, Astor Piazzolla, Mark Kozelek, Counting Crows, Red House Painters, Frank Sinatra, Nina Simone, Fat Sweaty Elvis, Maria Callas, Leonard Cohen, Sodastream, Gram Parsons, Miles Davis, Mel Torme, Cyndi Lauper, Meat Loaf, John Coltrane, Benjamin Britten, Arvo Part, Bill Evans, Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan, Gorecki

Favourite Releases of 2003: Click here

Favourite Releases of 2004: Purdy's Fairytale Insurance, Youth Group's Skeleton Jar, The Best of This Sidewalk Regrets

Favourite Releases of 2005: Buggered if I know. Purchase of the year was the 1979 Jonestown Massacre 2cd recording for 2 bucks

Last movie you saw at the cinema: Brokeback Mountain

Last video/DVD you saw: Together/Forever Callas
Last thing you had to drink: double strength long black, dash of milk, two sugars
Last time you showered: a long time ago
Last thing you ate: Fruit cake - I am what I eat

Do you...
Smoke: I used to love them,  but they were killing me. And my wallet. When I am rich, I shall resume
Do drugs: none but the ones I'm prescribed, which are fucking plenty thank you very much
Live in the moment: Let me just take a moment to be in the moment - fucking new age questions.
Sleep with stuffed animals: not enough room in my bed or my head, unless you count the dust mites
Have sex: do you really want to hurt me?
Play an instrument: some guitar, some piano.
Have a dream that keeps coming back: lots of stuff about Argentina, people I knew there
Believe there is life on other planets: what a cursed people if there is - life here is bad enough
Believe it's possible to remain faithful forever: To an ideal or to a person? Maybe, though ideals and people change and die or find other people to fuck (with)(over)

Consider yourself tolerant of others: Unless you're a racist/homophobe or make excessive amounts of noise around me when I'm trying to sleep, or you're a bastard real estate agent trying to rip me off
Remember your first love: I have a tattoo on my right arm to remind me
Have any straight friends: Sure, one or two...I think, though it's probably rude to ask them. Mind you, as long as they keep it to themselves...
Read the newspaper: Several online - The Guardian, and occasionally Clarin
Still love your first love: No, and I have a tattoo on my right arm to remind me
Believe in miracles: No
Have a favourite candy? Warheads!

Wish on stars? No, but I did sniff cocaine out Mike Patton’s butt crack
Believe in God: Not since they signed Rove for another season
Believe in magic: No
Believe in astrology: No, but just in case, I'm an Aries
Like the taste of alcohol: When I was an alcoholic, taste was unimportant. Now I don't drink, it just doesn't matter. Coffee is better. Much better.
Hate yourself: Not anywhere much as I used to - I've exteriorised it onto humanity
Talk to strangers who IM you: hell no, I have trouble enough talking to people who know me, and to the people in my head
Have any bad habits: playing with my bellybutton fluff is the least of it
Like your handwriting: Yes, but can you read it?

Collect anything: Magazines, CDs, memories, books, Centrelink letters, weird pieces of cultural detritus, tea, tea cups, caffeine imbibing instruments, cacti
Have a secret crush: everytime you hit me, such a rush, nay I can't resist thee... and yes I do
Have any piercings: Current - left ear, nose, navel, PA and three left nipples where a ring got infected
Former: many up and down my ears, and a labret
Have any tattoos: Che Guevara on the left arm, an ex's name and a rose on the right - no, there is no excuse for stupidity, but I was in a psychiatric clinic at the time
Go to church: only when they're being torn down or struck by lightning
Have any pets: does belly button fluff count? If not, just the spiders. And the ants, but they are my enemies. At least the spiders stay out of my bed and they taunt the cockroaches and the japanese exchange students in the basement
Wear hats: Sometimes - though my head gets too hot when it's enclosed and I am scared by the myth that hats cause baldness. Hence I avoid going out when it's sunny, just to be sure. I'm also a vampire, so I tend to use a lot of SP-15+. At night. But if I do, a white panama or a Che Guevara trucking cap
Pray: No, and not on other people
Believe in ghosts: No, though I am often haunted by my past and my flat makes strange cracking noises in the night, like an S&M poltergeist
Care about looks: Occasionally - mine, yours or theirs? The how as much as the why
Believe in Satan: Currently inhabiting the upper echelons of the Bush govt.
Have a best friend: busted friendships hurt me as much as, if not more than, broken relationships

MUSIC THAT...

Reminds you of an ex-friend: Silvio Rodriguez, the Atlantic Soul Boxset, bluehouse, Garden State soundtrack

Makes you cry: Silvio Rodriguez, Los Rodriguez, Carol King, Lou Reed's "Baton Rouge"

Makes you laugh: Bob Flanagan's Sick soundtrack, "Jesus I Am Loving You (In the shower)" on the Amarillo Records sampler, We'll Retake Saigon, anything off WFMU

Makes you smile: "Piece of my Heart", as sung by two youths at a bus stop, Life is a Lemon and I Want my Money Back

You never want to hear again: "La Macarena", No Doubt's "Don't Speak", "Throw Yr Arms Around Me", "I'm a Survivor", that fucking frog song

Sums up your teenage years: Kiss Off by the Violent Femmes, Disintegration by The Cure, November Rain by Guns N Roses

You want to get married to: N/A

You like to wake up to: Unwound

You like out of your parents record collection: Glen Campbell, Peter, Paul & Mary, Bob Dylan, ABBA, Simon & Garfunkle, Willie Nelson, Frank Sinatra, Dionne Warwick, Cilla Black etc

You love that you wouldn't know about if it wasn't for a friend: Leonard Cohen's "Famous Blue Raincoat"

You love the video more than the tune: Like A Prayer - Madonna

Reminds you of your first love (the person who I first fell in love with, not the tattoed one from above): Electronic's "Getting Away With It", Vivaldi, Faith No More's "Zombie Killers", Wilson Phillip's "Release Me", Go West's "King of Wishful Thinking"

Makes you think of being alone: Nina Simone's "For a While", Counting Crows' "Walkaways", Loudon Waiwright's "The Art Teacher"

Has only been released recently but you love already: Martha Wainwright - Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole

You are embarrassed to admit you like: Hanson, but I swear it's just their good looks... and from 1999, not now

Perks you up: At the Drive-In's Relationship of Command, The Smith's Hatful of Hollow, Meat Loaf's BOOH I&II

You love to sing to: Patti Smith's "Rock n Roll Nigger", Meat Loaf's "(I Can See) Paradise by the Dashboard Light", Janis Joplin's Ball and Chain, Johnny Cash's "Solitary Man", Nick Cave's "I'll Love You (Til the End of the World)"