6 months in 6 pix (Pt 5)

November went from this:

 Through the looking window glass...

Book clearance shop in Cashel St, opposite the CTV building site 

Untouched since February 2011.

to this:

 Bougainvillea walkway, Southbank, Brisbane 

(hooray for conferences! IASPM-ANZ this time)

View of city from Southbank

Sunday morning market

More building jewellery! Even carparks can be pretty

 4ZZZ , Fortitude Valley, Brisbane 

You just know that any organisation with this kind of seriously funky artwork has an attitude to match... no wonder this community radio station has been rocking since the 70's

creative communities FTW!

My visit coincided with the Valley Fiesta - great atmosphere & fantastic local talent

if only they could turn down the temperature a notch or two...

6 months in 6 pix (Pt 4)

NIGHT & DAY 

1 weekend in October

Canterbury Tales puppet parade

Sound garden launch

Tree houses for swamp dwellers by Julia Morrison

6 months in 6 pix (Pt 3)

SYDNEY STREET ART - September

- Enmore & Newtown -

6 months in 6 pix (Pt 2)

Aug-Sept

Any day above ground is a good day

Unbelievably good 

Amanda Fucking Palmer & The Grand Theft Orchestra, rocking The Enmore, Sydney

Awww... gone but not forgotten

Our first significant landscape feature planting: future shade

(Albizia julibrissin 'Summer Chocolate')

Self-sown feline

6 months in 6 pix (Pt 1)

Life: it got busy.

Too much to write up so I'm going to let the pictures do the talking :)

JULY - Seattle, WA

EMP and the Space Needle, Seattle

Musical sculpture, EMP (aka hog heaven)

'Poetree' at Bethany Presbyterian Church, Queen Anne Hill, Seattle

Funky artist's studio, Queen Anne Hill, Seattle

Jewellery for buildings! Fremont, Seattle

The troll under the bridge... Fremont, Seattle

Time for ABCs at CCC

There's a song for every moment and today's post is no exception. In fact, I highly recommend that you click play and hum along as you read.

"Communication let me down..."

Truer words have never been spoken in Shakeytown. 
In fact I'd like to nominate this song as the theme tune for our troubled city council.

image credit: @James Hayden

Before we begin today's lesson let's recap the last few months shall we?

Home Sweet Whare

Winter came a little early this year...

May 29th, still officially Autumn. Yeah right. Tell that to the polar blast that ripped through, chilling us all to the bone and dusting us with snow/hail/sleet. Mmmmmm, tasty. NOT!!

Hope it's not a sign of things to come this winter... I'm kinda over snow dumps to be honest. Although I must admit to a slight feeling of smugness when I read articles about how to keep your home warm this winter. There are many advantages to a new house - insulation, double glazing and a complete lack of cracks should make this winter a good one to stay at home with me on the inside and the weather on the outside.

I've spent most of my life in Christchurch and this winter will be the very first one I've ever spent in a new house. Our previous home - a gorgeous, character-filled, dark wood-interior bungalow could equally have been described as draughty, poorly-designed, amateurishly built, and well past its prime. Often colder inside than out, it was similar to many homes built in the first 50-100 years of Christchurch settlement. I loved it to bits but now that I'm here on the other side of that physically & mentally exhausting process, I'm no longer sad that the earthquake/s munted my cute but dodgy old home.

If only everyone was in a similar happy place.

Considering Desiderata & Disaster

There have been many occasions recently to ponder the vague randomness of the universe, to collect my thoughts on various things, to seek out those whose opinions or interests echo my own. It is always nice when your gut feeling is explained or reinforced by experts, and such was the case recently when an opinion piece appeared in The Press (22/4/13).

In 'Dance through disaster's small joys', clinical psychologist Gini McIntosh and psychiatrist Caroline Bell extolled the benefits of appreciating life's little joys - things like humour, exercise, feeling connected, engaging in hobbies, trying new things - as a way to improve coping and wellbeing after a disaster. These were the types of activities or mechanisms utilised by local residents who rated themselves as coping well with the stress of the last 2.5 years.

McIntosh & Bell were commenting on results of a recent survey, conducted as part of a wider mental health campaign called All Right?, in the greater Christchurch area. While many respondents reported that the double-blow of earthquakes and EQC/insurance had made life difficult and that they were struggling to cope with it all, there were some who, despite the adverse effects of the quakes, felt that their lives had been positively impacted overall. It was these people who were more likely to have been engaging in activities with a positive, feel-good factor.

This has long been my theory about going out to see live performances - not just music but also poetry, theatre, comedy, dance and magic shows* - they make you feel happy to be alive, whatever the circumstances are outside, beyond the venue doors. Just like a good book, a live show can take you to a different place, enabling you to lose yourself in the moment while sharing it with those around you.
*all this and more have taken place just this year at the darkroom bar

Confessions of a trainee academic

Any day now I am sure I will be outed, exposed as some kind of pretender to the throne of academic thought. So I’ll get in first with a confession: I’m making it all up as I go along. Or at least it feels like it.

In conversation, I often struggle to remember the names of those authors whose writing speaks to me. My head sometimes feels like it’s so full of ideas that crucial information just doesn’t stick. Sometimes I feel like a total fraud, unsure of my own fledgling arguments and wandering lines of thought.

But it's okay, because I am not alone in this.

One of the best things I did at the start of 2010 was to attend a short course run by the Learning Skills centre at uni. It was called ‘Making a first class start to your Honours year’, and one of the first things the presenter said was that each and every one of us sitting there probably felt like a bit of a fraud. That we somehow weren’t worthy of the expectations associated with postgraduate study and couldn’t attain the levels of discipline and knowledge required, but that we were also quite wrong. I can still remember the audible sigh of relief that rippled around the room as we turned to the person next to us and gave them a nervous, understanding smile.

We’d been rumbled – but it was okay, it was normal, we weren’t alone in having these anxieties. Maybe we could do this after all.

And yet, the self-doubt remains.

Blue's views

Oh, hai there :)

Thanks for dropping by. As you can see, I really like the new pad - especially the deck. I think the humans have done rather well.

But, I have to tell you, there have been some strange things going on lately. Firstly, mum spent ages putting up all these little marker flags on the walls & ceilings, and then she got grumpy at me when I proved to be awesome at catching them. I liked the ones halfway up the wall... they were especially fun.

Every smile counts

Today is census day here in NZ - it was supposed to happen 2 years ago but a rather disruptive earthquake sequence put paid to that. It was quickly realised, by the powers-that-be, that any data collected was going to be horribly skewed by the mass exodus of people escaping Shakeytown, and tracking down everyone left behind would be near impossible. So, we do it today instead.

I filled out my census form online - quick and easy! I really liked the fact there was a helpful explanation on how to account for time spent off-site due to earthquake issues. It's a good feeling to be back on our little plot o'land - taking into account the two years spent away, we've been living here for 11 years.

There are a number of other things that have made me smile in recent times so, in no particular order, here's a few:

 Cafe in Hobart, Australia
(the name was waaay better than the coffee)

Cat busting out Tetris shapes on the bed

In the key of B

Bad blogger

Naughty, irresponsible, slack-ass blogger. Yep, that's me.
By the end of 2012, after about 2 years of almost-constant deadlines & responsibilities, I took total advantage of the lack of external deadlines in January by ignoring all the self-imposed ones as well. It's not that I wasn't doing anything - I got all sorts of stuff done over the Xmas break - I just became temporarily averse to writing of any kind.

So, to make up (a little) for the deafening silence of late, here's a rather long and rambling update in the key of B.*

(*Why? No reason really, just 'cos)

Poptimist ahoy

Earlier this month, I spent a few days in Hobart while attending the IASPM-ANZ conference.This is my favourite photo from the trip, taken on the first afternoon during a random walkabout. In the background is the conference venue, the UTAS School of Art - a converted jam factory on the waterfront.

Old rockers never die, they just move to Hobart :)

Brightly painted fishing boats and floating restaurants dominate Hobart harbour - rather a nice change from the hulking great container ships that are prominent in Lyttelton. It was also nice to spend some time surrounded by old buildings again, wandering anywhere the mood suggested and not having to constantly worry about cordons, road closures and demolition sites.

Great trips always feature the unexpected - that moment or place that will stay with you for ever. This trip had two - a moment and a place that were both surprising and memorable.

2012 Days of Xmas

Another year, another version!
(a bit late in the season, but never mind... cheers!)

On the first day of Xmas, my true love gave to me...

A payout from the EQC.

On the second day of Xmas, my true love gave to me...

Two shining rainbows, 

and a payout from the EQC.

On the third day of Xmas, my true love gave to me...

Three fearless leaders, 

two shining rainbows, and a payout from the EQC.

Radio With Pictures

I spent most of last week thinking and talking about music, radio, music, documentaries, music, research and more music. With a little bit of 'life-after-devastation' thrown in for good measure. Many people I spoke to asked how the rebuild was going, and most were taken aback when I replied that, for the most part, we aren't up to the rebuilding bit yet - we're still in the demolition phase.

The ongoing effects of disaster don't usually filter through to overseas news outlets. People living in other countries would be forgiven for thinking that we must be over it by now. We've got funky container shops and a new sports stadium - we've even hosted a rugby test - so if Lonely Planet says we're cool, then it must be all better, right?

I wish it was.

To do or not to do...

Oh yep. Got that last one down pat.

Lights on, lights off

Lights on

Last Saturday night we went to check out the LuxCity light show in what's left of our CBD.

In transition

The house-building process is kinda like any human relationship except that the equivalent journey of  meeting/dating/planning a wedding is squashed into a much shorter timeframe, with a few different people involved.

There's the courting phase in which you check out all the suitors/building companies, spending considerable time eyeing them all up and comparing their good points. During this phase your potential partners are all on their best behaviour, calling regularly to see how you are, emailing you with updates and options, and always excitedly looking forward to the next meeting.

As you head towards formalising your relationship, you may find yourself under a reasonable amount of pressure to 'put a ring on it' and sign the contract. Like any pre-nuptual agreement, this document needs to be carefully worded and thoroughly checked. Cynical friends may tell you that your future partner is only interested in the ring/contract and won't be nearly as attentive afterwards but you brush those thoughts aside and head off to another catering meeting/material supplier. So many choices need to be made at this early stage of planning the event that the momentum of constant decision-making carries you along.

You may sense a change in your partner after the signing of the pre-nup/build contract, a growing gap that wasn't evident earlier in the relationship. There could be phone calls that aren't returned, emails that aren't responded to, or questions that go unanswered.

For Want of a Nail

Spring has sprung, the grass is riz, I wonder where this blogger is?

 A demolition survivor in my garden

Apologies. For a while there, life got well and truly in the way. But, having emerged (just yesterday) from the binary black holes of house and marking, I finally have time for an update.

Anniversaries

There have been a couple of notable anniversaries since I last wrote... the most obvious being the second anniversary of the Sept 4 (Darfield) earthquake. It was the first weekday observation - the original event was early Saturday morning, and the first anniversary was on a Sunday. Being the middle of term, I was busy with tutorials and workshops at polytech for most of the day before dashing across town to the university for a meeting. I barely had time to stop that day, but it was lurking in my thoughts the entire time. 

Although it was noted in the day's news bulletins and current affairs shows with the predictable two-years-on stories, the fact that this original event has since been overshadowed by the Feb 2011 quake will see it fade sooner from the nation's collective commemorative moments. I don't think it will be too many years before the Sept 2010 quake becomes merely a footnote to Feb 22nd, and those of us who suffered most in the original event will forever be pointedly reminding people that we got munted first.

Power to the people

For the third time in just over a year, I've felt compelled to write a letter to the editor of the local newspaper. It's a good outlet for venting, for publicity, and for offering a counter-argument to articles/other letter writers. So far I've written letters about waiting for insurance decisions and the Save TVNZ7 campaign. Now I can add "disputing other academics' research" to the list (if they print the letter, I'll scan & post it). Oh dear, I'm turning into that archetypal over-educated suburban noisemaker who likes seeing their name in print.

It's not that I think the research in question is wrong, it's just narrowly-focused. It's not what's in the research, it's what isn't. I shifted from Media/Communications across to Cultural Studies because I felt I needed to understand and look at not just media, but the wider social environment in which it operates. The research in question (from a Marketing lecturer) looked at the use of social media during and after the Chch/Canterbury quakes, and found that social media platforms served as virtual community spaces where people could meet and share information.

Which is all well and good - if you have access to this electronic world. My own research in this area also found some positive uses for social media and the internet but, overwhelmingly, respondents reported difficulties in accessing any kind of electronic media - mainly due to lack of power. It's hard enough to watch television (let alone surf the 'net) when you have no electricity, and some respondents to my survey were without power at home for over 8 weeks.