The Normal Index

DISPATCHES FROM THE EDGE OF “NORMAL”

What even counts as normal anymore? Doomscrolling into 2am oblivion? Dropping $12.50 on a croissant? Singing with 96,000 strangers at a Taylor Swift show, then going home to cry into Uber Eats hot honey pizza? If this is “normal,” we figured it was time to take a closer look.

Enter The Normal Index — a new zine from Heaps Normal, edited by Frank Sweet, part cultural dispatch, part survival guide, part fever dream. Think essays, interviews, horoscopes, rants, and food fights, all bound together in print you can actually spill a beer on.

WHAT'S INSIDE

The Normal Index is less “annual report” and more “chaotic diary of our times.” We’re addicted to screens, but secretly aching for messy IRL moments. The cure might just be dancing in a half-empty pub or belting karaoke badly. Hot honey is everywhere, croissants are basically a luxury asset class, and restaurants are collapsing under late-stage capitalism — yet we’re still queuing up. Live music is underfunded, overworked, but also, somehow, still magical. Even when only seventeen people show up.

WHO DID WE TALK TO?

WHY WE DID IT?

Heaps Normal was never about doing things the usual way. Beer without booze was the start, but the bigger mission is rethinking what “normal” looks like.

The Normal Index is our attempt to document this weird cultural moment — the contradictions, the late-night chaos, the cracks where community still sneaks through.

It’s not definitive.
It’s not neat.
It’s not normal.

And that’s the point.

WHERE TO FIND THE NORMAL INDEX?

The Ace Hotel – Surry Hills

Tattoo Rosies – Surry Hills

The Cricketers Arms – Surry Hills

Golden Age Cinema – Surry Hills

P&V Paddington  – Paddington

P&V Enmore – Enmore

Marrickville Hotel – Marrickville

Crowbar Sydney – Leichhardt

My Flower Man – Bondi

Bar Planet – Newtown

Ramblin Rascal – Sydney CBD

Sea Sea Hotel – Crescent Head

Hope St Radio – Collingwood

Everyday Coffee - Collingwood

Corner Hotel – Richmond

Lulie Street – Abbotsford

Section 8 – Melbourne CBD

High Tide – Melbourne CBD

Walrus – Brunswick

Honey Bones Gallery – Brunswick

So What Stereo – Fortitude Valley

Crowbar Brisbane – Fortitude Valley

Netherworld Arcade – Fortitude Valley

The Scratch Bar – Milton

The Stag – Adelaide CBD

Such & Such – Canberra

Preachers Hobart – Hobart

Grinners Dive Bar – Hobart

Boodle Beasley – North Hobart

Rude Boy – Hobart

THE NORMAL INDEX IS FREE, PRINTED, AND BEST ENJOYED WITH STICKY FINGERS OR A HALF-SPILLED PINT.

GRAB A COPY, ARGUE OVER IT WITH FRIENDS, FOLD IT INTO YOUR BACK POCKET, OR LEAVE IT ON A BAR TABLE FOR SOMEONE ELSE TO FIND.

BECAUSE “NORMAL” MIGHT BE OVERRATED — BUT BEING HEAPS NORMAL? THAT FEELS JUST RIGHT.

PUBLISHER

HEAPS NORMAL

EDITOR

FRANK SWEET

PRODUCER

ANNIE CARROLL

CREATIVE

M. CO STUDIO
HEAPS NORMAL

COVER PHOTOS

YEAH RAD