btw

merry xmas from the shack

day in review xmas 2K11

woke up at 7.30am with a tummyache and realised i had a txt from steaky asking to skype early so i hid under the covers and did a sneaky convo with her. had a nice chat, felt a bit weird about it being the end of her xmas day though. went back to sleep and got up properly at 10.30/11. skyped my family. missed my lil sis a bit. my cousin made us a small portion of scrambled egg which we decided was a 'scrambled egg canape'. drank some prosecco. did presents about 12pm. i was happy cos i crocheted hats for miriam and steph (girlfriends of my cousins) and they both liked them. got a few bits and pieces. began helping make the christmas dinner, peeled carrots, parsnips and got the brussel sprouts ready. hung around watching telly and pencilling things into my 2012 diary. aladdin was on. singin in the rain was on. dinner was ready about 3.30pm. was tasty. ate a fair bit. had a break in between dinner and pudding where we just watched more christmas tv, i think. oh we all got really sleepy and i went upstairs to listen to 'blue christmas' by first aid kit and write sentimental things in my notebook. then it was puddin time. it was lit on fire cos it had brandy on it. kewl. basically dinner took about 6 hours. we had the pudding at 6pm then we watched more tv, more 'top gear' than i feel comfortable admitting. then we played a cool game that miriam knew which lasted for probably 2 hrs. then we had champagne jellies and cheese at probably about 9pm. theeeeen we watched the new ab fab episode which was really funny. watched a 'man lab' christmas episode where they were trying to make it snow. went to bed. couldn't sleep so went on facebook and had a chat to fraser. was nice to chat with dat guy. pretty good day, except for it felt like it lasted about a million days in one, i'd give it a 7/10

day in review 25/12/11

woke up at 7:15am and had a piece of pb toast and checked internet stuff. drove 20 minutes to get to work at the cattery where i met my cattery cohort. we both rubbed our eyes and made loud grunting sounds to indicate that talking was not a thing via tiredness. there were lots of cats in the cattery, maybe 25 or something and i mean it's a pretty good way to start my xmas morning because i really like cats. a cat called tilly scratched my hand, a cat called titus attacked my leg and left scratches on it and a cat [whose name i can't remember] bit me p. bad when i went to give her medication. lil shits. was in the cattery for about 3 hours, cranking solid gold fm all the while. drove to my parent's house to have a shower and get ready. mum was really stressed out about everything and me and dad were a bit scared to go near her. got to my sister's and she was real sick in bed, real bad b/c it is my niece's 1st xmas and she was really excited about it. i drank beer and played with the baby mostly and then we ate food which was a++. more family came and we ate more. got real real into dat pav. opened presents, got some money + underwear + socks + a field guide to nz birds which i geeked out on for the rest of the day. helped my bb niece, nova open all of her presents. my sister bought her a book called 'whose poos'. skyped my aunty and little cousin in sydney for a bit, drank more, called some friends, talked to family, played with baby, ate more food. then most of the family left and it was just me, my parents, my sister, her boyfriend and his dad. drank 'champas' and listened to some sweet beats until my mum was like 'what is this...' and put on steely dan. was going to see my friend off at the airport but she got the time wrong so i couldn't and then i felt sad but maybe okay because goodbyes are dumb anyway. got into a fight with my dad because he was drunk and being a dick. standard family gathering stuff really. ate more food and then went back to my parents. all up i drank 3 beers, 2 red wine and 2 champagne. welcome to xmas day family-related boredom drinking. skyped susie for a wee while and did internet things. didn't want to go out b/c i was tired and had work early the next morning so i just read my book (today and tomorrow by ofelia hunt) for about an hour and then went to sleep.

maybe 7/10 overall

my 2011 life via tweets/retweets (part 2)

august

chewing air waves chewing gum as a distraction from crippling loneliness

My Top 3 #lastfm Artists: Pavement (84), Sparklehorse (19) & A Tribe Called Quest (12)

sitting on my floor by the heater listening to Julie Doiron is how I always want to be

can the doctor who theme song be played at my funeral


september

just opened the TC article "How To Be Happy" and closed it 3 seconds later

"how you get all dat ass in dem jeans" is a thought I think almost every day re: nothing in particular

imagine if ricky martin was in coldplay

feel like my new sweater validates my existence

any social situation where it is okay to wear slippers

the world is scary, gonna eat a brownie


october

typed "reasons why i don't want to die" and below it typed "hummus"

RT @zacharywhalen: i'm worried about people who i don't like liking me

already had 4 cups of tea today, life is bloody nuts

ctrl f the words 'bloody' and 'mate' in my inner monologue

today i showed my work colleagues how to do a 'tim-tam slam'


november

dank ass emoshuns

i want to record the sound of rain and always be listening to that in my headphones

friday night action twitpic.com/7fowgx

RT @madisonlangston: sex and the city and beer forever


december

i don't understand why everyone doesn't wear backwards caps all the time

told a friend me and other friends were going to see 'how to dress well' and he earnestly asked if it was some kind of conference

too much socialising, need to spend all weekend alone in my room reading and watching gilmore girls

RT @spencermadsen: so much of being human is doing nothing

@feeeeeeel baby move your butt butt butt

life things

i think the reason i haven't been able to write a lot lately is because i feel too 'in' things/life, i am finding it hard to step out of my body and look at things i am experiencing

is it wrong to want detachment?

all i am doing is the things i am doing and other than that, trying to distract myself from the implications of these things

thinking about boys

the other day me and huna were in her car and she said something about not thinking anything at all at that particular moment and we paused and then both starting rapping to a biggie song

a lot of the time when i go to write something i just try to describe what it feels like to be in my body and how that relates to things in my head

i just watched grey gardens and i cried twice

i made a xmas card for my boss at bird rescue, it has a picture of a bird on the front, is that too obvious

there are a lot of things i need to do and none of them are particularly unpleasant but there are just a lot of things

i like cats the most out of all the things

read an interview with Haruki Murakami in the newpaper and he said "If I'm taking a walk and I see a cat, I'm happy." then i cut out the picture of his face that went with the article and stuck it on my wall

tonight i feel like there is a tiny animal inside of my chest

things are about to change i think

explosions in the sky: best gigs of 2011

going to go a series of 'best gigs of 2011', starting with a gig i went to last night

- more good/sweaty memories from the kings arms, they never check ID so i spent a lot of my underage ass time here
- at the bar asked for 'the cheapest red wine', cute bar guy seemed to 'get' it and not judge me, felt cheeky
- me and xinia discussed the lack of bar peanuts etc in new zealand, this is always in movies, how do we not have this
- the sweat factor was palpable, the heat, combined with the wafts of marijuana made the room unbelievably dank, it was just so dank..
- walls and walls of sounds comin' atcha
- i thought it was cool how they just went from one song into the other without really stopping/pausing for applause but it made people really confused about when to clap
- they have 3 guitarists, p. unbeatable
- spent time focusing on each member of the band individually to see what they were up2
- reached euphoric heights during 'birth and death of the day'
- sometimes just closed my eyes and let my body move how it wanted to
- they played for an hour and half but i felt unaware of time as a thing
- i wasn't aware of much else apart from when this guy stood next to me and kept looking at me, step off, trying to enjoy music here bro/also kept nearly tripping over this guy's bag which was down on the floor
- just really good musicians who know their shit, which is real good to watch
- really want to hear them play sitting down in a field somewhere
- managed to skillfully avoid all people i knew at the gig, seemed like a plus, sorry it just seems like an awkward place to run into people, when the music is really loud and you are trying to be like SO HOW HAVE YOU BEEN LATELY
- stopped in at the petrol station where some jock bro asked us if we had been to eits and said it was 'fucking sick aye'



btw, around the 5:25 mark is when euphoria happened

FL

(belated ass post, sorry jake)

- driving around town a lot, listening to various 90s rnb, but also rihanna and lmfao
- bucky the dog
- hot ass weather (coming from DC anyway), having to buy a new dress from h&m
- first wholefoods experience
- trivia on wednesday with jake's friends taylor (?), regen and her mum, failing at all the sports questions
- watching 3 twilight movies with jake's mum (2 on dvd, 1 at the movies)
- talking to jacob's family about australia
- stealing leftover halloween candy from near the front door
- watching country music channel
- listening to country music in the car with jake's mum
- jewish vibes
- watching macy's thanksgiving parade
- thanksgiving foods: sweet potato pie, green bean casserole and stuffing specifically. mmmmmm

- going out on thanksgiving night and talking to a girl who went to australia, promptly hating her because she said sydney was like america
- lolling at super buff shirtless guys dancing upon a ledge
- feeling strange about people smoking indoors
- going to the beach to make zines and just getting sleepy and walking around a bit
- annoying jacob by not posing/smiling in pics
- walking down fancy part of palm beach, people smelling really nice (read: expensive) as you pass them
- impressive houses in palm beach
- sweaty feet
- making peanut butter cookies with regen at her impressive ass house and eating snacks by the pool
- sunday night poetry reading in boca feat. jacob, me, dave greenspan & gregory sherl. was p bemused by how drizzunk gregory sherl was. thought dave was a genuinely nice guy and swapped some hlm with him
- driving to miami, checking out 'design district' which turned out to be just a long street with a few interior design stores and cafes with valets, but having nice chill tizzimes on south beach watching ferries go out
- secretly letting jacob say 'mates' in a silly way
- getting sick on the last day, forgetting to eat key lime pie =(

london

- british airways having cushy ass seats, wondered to myself whether i had accidentally been put in business class
- always getting seated next to slags on planes
- gasping openly at shit going down in the midseason finale of gossip girl (watched via laptop)
- getting into heathrow at 6.30am, 1.30am ny time, having to spend 1.5 hrs on the tube getting to ellie's place on zero sleep
- spending sunday napping at ellie's
- watching hours of christmas cooking programmes with her nice flatmates
- going to westfield, inc first visit to topshop
- pretzel & smoothie samples
- feel bleak about london being expensive
- hanging out on brick lane with my cousin olly and his girlfriend
- noodles
- help ellie make truffles on tuesday for her christmas dinner with her mates
- expensive covent garden cupcake
- have beer in an establishment with crispin
- get more beers and walk around/across river with crispin
- visit m&m store
- at some point listen to a tim & eric song in the middle of the street to clarify lyrics of 'doo da doo doo'
- ask strangers for cigarettes
- crispin's impressive tesco antics
- ben lives >10 min away from ellie, take wine to his place
- nora the dog
- walking to the park to see if we can see meteors but it being too cloudy so just doing talking
- ~3 foxes in the park
- rolled down the hill a lil bit
- got tripped a few times by bennie, a bit muddy
- falling asleep watching 'i love you man'
- buying an egg & cress sandwich for the bus to somerset, vaguely considered being impressive about it

the met

egyptian art... so refined. my fave is the jewellery
1800s graffiti found via spencer madsen. feel astonished by how much of Egypt's history has been displaced

european art/medieval treasures
ornate italian dip/triptych
feel like i'm just looking at some rich people's stuff, but i do love a good tapestry
i should like a snuffbox, feels real 'gilded'

in contemp. american art some lady says 'i could do that'
feel angry b/c she doesn't understand 'flat colours'

chinese travel poems (asian art)
beautiful landscapes
'rivers & mountains without end'
funny that japanese & chinese artists were doing beautiful, simple & sparse paintings/drawings on long ass scrolls while in europe things became grotesquely gilded & such

[feel so weary / concentration lacking]

flute/oboe, also walking stick, made from narwhal tusk. wtf m8

european paintings... lol u guys, just chill out
yo it's the pearl earring gal

old ass swords, sharp lookin
idek what to look at

hometime - just thought 'tatts me out of here'

brooklyn diary 7 & 8

day 7

this day i woke up, wrote postcards and readied myself to go to the Met. this was an intense decision. the Met is HUUUUUUGE. i knew i wouldn't be able to see it all and remain sane so i decided that there were things i wanted to go see specifically and i ended up walking through assorted exhibits because i couldn't find the things i was after. the trajectory was like this: egyptian art/artefacts, , european stuff (like knick knacks and interiors), contemporary art.. then i got to what i wanted to see: asian art , musical instruments, a detour through european paintings (frankly i got a bit lost in this part) and finally armour and weaponry. saaahhh cool.

then i went back to 3b maybe, i can't remember. yes. i did. i had a lie down and watched parks & rec. then i got cheap ass dumplings for dins. and then i went to meet up with brodie at the union pool. anton and his lil bro oliver came along with oliver's friend ainsley who was actually staying at 3b too!!!! we drank coopers and chatted about various things, then went to kellogg's diner to have late dinner. it was nice to hang out with aussies (and anton's boyfriend). farewells at the train station..

day 8

this was a boring ass day because i walked around looking for presents and a post office failing at both of these things. biggest success of the day was buying a cupcake from a place called 'butter lane' where they were playing jens lekman. and getting on my plane with little fuss.

now i am in england. yaaaaaayyyyyy.

a room of one's own

my room is an important place to me. it is where i feel the most comfortable, a place where i don't have to be anything other than what i am.























in this picture:
- tao lin art
- zine collection
- a picture from national geographic of a huge ass zen garden (one of my favourite things in my room)
- pic of a t-rex from a zine i bought in chch zine fest of found images
- a pikachu hat
- a polywhirl my friend recently gave me
- all of the makeup/beauty/hair products etc i own = 1x deoderant, 1x make up remover wipes, 1x mascara, 1x 'curl definition' anti frizz serum, 1x sunblock, 1x hair dye 'red passion', 1x hair brush
- various knick knacks inclu. swan that holds loose change/hair ties/bobby pins, knitted tram, bow tie
- daisy chain i made in chch and pressed in a book hung up on the wall
























old photo of hat wall, there are new hats now























my mail wall, makes me real happy to look at























'shelf' displaying various zines/chapbooks, made from a broken picture frame i found on the street and clear fishing wire to hold them against the wall. made this because i have a lot of books but i never get to see them in my bookshelf etc























the window next to my bed, i like to feel the morning sun























what i do on sunday nights: listen to comforting 90s music, write blogs, write bad poetry and eat horrible pasta

brooklyn diary 5 & 6

5

this was a funny old day, as m'colleague gemma used to say. woke up and it was raining and i didn't want to go anywhere at all but i went for a walk into cobble hill. had a conversation with a lady in by brooklyn, my first one in days. wanted to get coffee and make zine somewhere but couldn't find anywhere i enjoyed so i got the train like 2 stops to park slope and sat in kos kaffe for a couple hours. went to century 21 in bay ridge lol and bought a coat. felt like giving up on life. was super drained from doing nothing at all. had dumplings and a pork bun for dinner, this cost me all of $2.25 whaaat. the lady seemed perplexed when i told her i wanted to eat in the restaurant. came back to 3b and found this book called the 50 best places to find peace & quiet in new york. read that cover to cover and found things to do the next day. had a cuppa. had a conversation with the girl from texas who was staying in the dorm too. nice gal. she used "ya'll" in a singular sense which amused me. more talking. talking feels strange because most of the time i'm alone. but also in the dorm at the moment is a nice italian girl. so we talk about what things we have done each day.

later that evening spencer madsen called me. we arranged to hang out and walked through miserable weather to a pizza place first, then a cool ramshackle bookstore then had a drink at some bar i don't remember the name of and then we went to the brooklyn inn which was super cool. spencer is a nice chap. real good tizzimes. um then i came home and went to bread.

6


another weird day, as i did not feel like doing anything. but i decided i would trust the guide to finding peace & quiet and went to this place called 'poet house'. prior to going in, i had a sit by the hudson river in this nice park, writing some stuff. in poet house they have an extensive library of poetry anthologies, independent chapbooks, literary study books, general interest poetry, poet biographies.. so much goodness. there were heaps of couches and cushy chairs. when i entered the guy was like 'you gotta sign in, oh i like your ring' and i felt happy and he said there was an 'amazing exhibition about emily dickinson' and guess what, he wasn't lying, it was so cool. a bunch of letters she wrote. real things that she touched.. apparently emily d loved to press flowers, and in another book i learnt that there's only one 'authorised' photograph of her. so reclusive.. i read a book about poets/writers and their houses. nice work, poet house.

after this i was hungry and i didn't know what i should do for lunch so i dithered, looked in my guidebooks but they failed me so i just went to the wholefoods cafe as there happened to be one nearby. go wholefoods. i considered doing some other weird activities but ended up going uptown to central park to suss out strawberry fields, which is the john lennon memorial. when i got there, i saw a huge crowd and heard singing. turns out a whole bunch of people just congregate there and sing beatles songs there. i'm sure it happens daily. they are all huddled right on top of the mosaic that says 'imagine', which is slightly inconsiderate i think but i guess beatles fans probably appreciate it. lots of people were singing along with the people who had brought their guitars. it brought a true smile to my face but i couldn't stand it for long and left promptly. my other central park thing i wanted to see was the statue dedicated to alice in wonderland. people kept climbing onto the mushrooms of the statue to get cute pictures with her. i wandered back down to the subway and got a train to soho, where i wanted to check out another thing from my peace & quiet book, a walter de maria sculpture in a gallery in soho. the sculpture is called the broken kilometer, and is essentially hundreds of brass cylinders lying on the ground in this giant ass room, but it really takes you away from the bustly streets of soho. nice.

i went downtown to meet jacob steinberg at the world trade center memorial. we had made plans to do this when i stayed with him at thanksgiving. the site where the towers used to be has been made into this plaza with trees and two giant square fountains set into the ground. these are lined with names of people who died on september 11, corresponding to the appropriate tower - the fountains represent each tower. it was pretty striking at night, as in addition to the fountains being lit, they are building 3 new towers to surround this plaza and one of them is half built and is the brightest tower on the manhattan skyline. and everybody likes a good water feature. jacob and went to the holiday market at union square to have a look round then to wholefoods to grab some dinner. it was nice seeing him again, felt like i had a proper frand. we walked around some streets near nyu and then i came home.

2011 in tweets and retweets (part 1)

january

curly hair liberation

my life mainly consists of driving other people's cars, eating chips/dip and cats in general

RT @and_susan: "I'd like to show him my lower Manhattan" #satc

RT @tobiasbrockie: when people shorten january to "jan" it just makes me think of middle-aged women with short hair


feb

pasta for two for one

calling winz and singing the hold music when the guy answers #shamebro

RT @anikainpink: e-you and e-me.

oh man, crying so bad RT @CheeseontoastNZ: 6.18pm: PM Key confirms 65 dead

i just thought 'stir fry and laurie' #gchatconversations


march

RT @linguish: wanna wrap myself in the internet like an oversized hoodie

Uh! I'm a nice dude, with some nice dreams #dropitlikeitshot

actually had a dream where i was scrolling through my twitter feed

my job title is "Avian Rehabilitation Assistant" #legit

today my grandma said i should "play the field"

i just thought "what is this strange sensation on my legs" and then i was like "oh, i'm wearing pants"


april

not good at "irl"

@and_susan re: my new baby niece: "FRESH LIFE"

RT @holiecrap: hey guys get with the program this isn't ice hockey this is life

alarm went off at 6.45am and i immediately thought I H8 LIFE whilst trying to avoid pillow drool

a danger to society whenever i ride my bike


may:

let's just pretend i haven't spent the afternoon listening to phil collins songs on youtube

RT @crispinbest: drinkin some coffee-ass coffee

RT @and_susan let me come to a foreign country so i can go on the internet with you

"i wish we could do a friendship montage of us" - @and_susan

listen to nothing but 90s r&b

thought "wow, this person has exactly the same taste in music as me!" whilst looking at my own last fm profile


june

RT @and_susan ok i just spent the entire day on effing tinychat

open @sweningsings in browser

i cuddled a swan today #hehe

seems like everything is going to be okay when i have my hot water bottle

when i say i'm "writing poetry" i mean i'm sitting in silence, staring into space & barely typing for 45 mins


july

been listening to nothing but this mount eerie album for about a week

how am i a thing

live tweeting Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls with @sweningsings @and_susan http://twitpic.com/5v20li

RT @spencermadsen: livetweeting being alone in my room

considering the merits of waking susie up by playing "i wanna fuck you" by akon

JQ254 CHCH to AKL

got a window seat, never get a window seat because i always have to pee so i choose an aisle seat to be less annoying to other people

as we took off i watched the water droplets moving on the window and as we moved through the clouds i felt nice

below me the clouds are like mountains and i want to spread my arms as wide as they can go and jump out onto them yelling 'woo hooo' really obnoxiously

feel kind of ill as we are ascending and why aren't there any barf bags wth

imagining the plane falling out of the sky and me still calming reading 'selected unpublished blog posts of a mexican panda express employee' by megan boyle

i like megan boyle, she seems funny and cheeky

they are serving shepherds pie it smells horrible

i can feel the sun

always regret drinking coffee before i get on a plane but i never ever learn

bloody hell i am actually in the sky, seems fucking crazy

sitting in the window seat makes me more aware that i am actually in a metal box in a sky but it makes me feel kind of good, like feeling really positive about nihilism or something

lil cloud city, where are the care bears

there are actual mountains below me omg why is the world so beautiful hot damn

i put my headphones on to listen to two sparklehorse songs, 'sea of teeth' and 'apple bed', the lyric at the end of apple bed is

'i will feel the sun

i will feel the sun

i will feel the sun coming down'

a guy sat in the empty seat next to me and ordered a can of pepsi, step off bro

bomb ass window seat

kind of just staring out the window thinking about death a lot, somehow not morbid

air hostesses must struggle to maintain their online presence

just went to the toilet and it smelled like noodles, in a good way idk

i always plug my ears after i press the flush button because it is loud and alarming

remember telling alice and jackson this and alice saying 'what if you flushed the toilet while you sat on it' and i said something like 'butt suction'

shame aisle seat suckas

pj harvey says 'i can be your fog'

looks like i am approaching mordor re: red/black ominous clouds

think the way they say 'mordor' in the lotr films is really funny

could not control my laughter while reading this line in megan boyle's book: 'when i think 'dave eggers' in my head it's in the same tone of voice jerry seinfeld uses to say 'hello newman'

definitely going to download the soundtracks to both the charlie's angel films when i get home

what part of new zealand is this, where am i, i feel concerned

oh we are in auckland now

i have never seen auckland from this angle, lookin' good babe

cool i didn't die

morocco

the other day i received 'morocco' a poetry chapbook by matthew savoca and kendra grant malone

i really liked it

i read it in my bed and then at the beach

i read some of it out loud to my friend xinia

i read the first two poems out loud in front of my computer

buy it here

brooklyn diary 4

woke up and dithered for a while. ate raisin bread pudding for breakfast. i like that pudding is a legit breakfast food at 3b. seriously their breakfasts are so great everybody has to stay here if they go to ny. i feel like it is affordable and pretty close to the cit too. wanted to purchase headphones before going on the train to astoria so went to bestbuy in the city and got sennheisers for $32.50!!  (this is more than half the price they are in australia.........wtf). did some other moseying around shops before getting train to astoria. feel like i'm nailin the subway by now thank god. got a slice of pizza for lunch on the way to museum of moving image. astoria seems nice, sorta quiet.

museum of moving image.. i lingered for so long reading everything about how tv technology works (just thinking of that scene from willy wonka the whole time tbh) and looking at old ass cameras and tv sets. all the cameras & tvs looked so beautiful made in wood. i enjoyed that. the museum had heaps of fun activities for kids, you could dub your own voice over scenes in movies and yea heaps of fun stuff. the chief reason i went was because they currently have an exhibition on about jim henson and the muppets. i would have liked to see more actual muppets but i learnt a bit more about jim henson as a guy, turns out he made a few experimental/progressive films in the late 60s (well who didn't) but they showed some clips from a few of them and they were pretty funny. the muppet sense of humour and all that. he also made silkscreen posters and did other printmaking when he was in college. really dug it. then downstairs they had stuff about 'behind the scenes' and there was makeup used in the film 'sex and the city 2' which made me laff. there was also mrs doubtfire's masks, bodysuit and a costume she wore. also costumes from chicago. then there was lots of merch. historic merch from like 1914. crazy. then there were videogames. i played a few levels of sonic. the entrance to the museum, btw, is this really amazing white. the stairs were so white. stunning white. so great. this museum is highly recommended. only $9 if you're a student, but a must for media/comms students i feel. just walked around it thinking 'god i love tv/movies'. left and popped into salvos near the subway before heading back into town.

got a burrito for dinner and chilled for a bit. chatting to new arrivals in my dorm. considered going to a poetry thing in the evening but decided to go to an entertaining lecture thingy about the russian revolution in williamsburg. this was a good idea. it was v funny and reminded me of things i had studied a while back. the final person who spoke talked about the development of the cyrillic alphabet. he knew a lot about language and was pretty funny, but didn't try too hard to be funny. i felt good that i was learning and having a good time. left feeling real stimulated, still pretty on point.

brooklyn diary 3

woke up and GUESS WHAT I'M TIRED!!! ate more tasty breakfast (frittata and apple crumble) and thought maybe i would go back to sleep but decided to battle on and get up and start my day. figured i would go to moma because it's one of the only things open on a monday (most other galleries/museum in ny close on monday just fyi errybody). got the subway to manhattan and felt good about being back in the city. omg australians/melbournians: they are building a pieface on 7th ave just up from times square.. walked past where they film letterman. arrived at moma. free coat check. coat check was intense, rows and rows of coathangers with numbers. key in a number on the machine and then your stuff comes back to you. never seen that before yo. and the art was even more mindblowing.. (see unedited moma notes post) just had such a great time. so many people there on a regular day, couldn't imagine what their free fridays are like. started to get hungry and lethargic and didn't want to spend big $$ on food at moma cafes. left feeling supremely good about life.

decided to walk down 5th. went into st patrick's cathedral to have a sit down as i was v tired from walking around moma for 4 hrs. had a sit and wrote a lil thing in my notebook. felt pensive in the church. it was warm and hushed. people should go in churches more b/c nobody questions what you are doing plus it's pretty kewl architecture and nice lighting. left just as a service was starting lol. stopped at rockefeller centre because there was some big ole projection on a building opposite, i don't remember what it was, probably some department store. it was cool anyway. there was this one bit where the projection matched the windows but then the windows fell away and the crowed went oohhhhh!! the christmas tree in rockefeller plaza was lit up and people were skating below it, and the top of the ge building was covered in clouds. felt christmassy for the first time and generally happy. kept grinning at everything.

went in some stores. saw a really nice jacket in esprit. really wanted to purchase it, but this could be because i experienced the first genuinely good customer service in nyc. taken us 4 weeks to get there!! but also it was an awesome jacket. got the L train to williamsburg with the intent of having awesome meatballs on bedford ave for dinner but figured i should try different food so i went to dumont burger and had a chickpea burger and an irish hot toddy. came back to 3b and did some reading, went to bed. wooooooooo

moma notes

the dream & sleeping gypsy - rousseau (studied the dream)
starry night - van gogh (all van gogh quite beautiful)
georges braque
cezanne (so dreamy, so nice)
matisse
demimoiselles & three musicians (& analytic cubism.. omg)
mondrian
states of mind - boccioni
duchamp lol

kurt schwitter

chagall
4 panels - kandinsky

feel i may weep in front of a monet

russian supermatism
the bauhaus?

really did not anticipate getting this much joy from moma
mondrian...
persistence of memory - dali (aka melting clock painting, totes really tiny)

want to go eat my banana in the bathroom
lawrence weiner, removal exposing wall, reminiscent of art at dear patti smith

lichtenstein
warhol
i still use brushes - aman
'assemblages'

no 10 - rothko
bacon
one: 31 - pollock

beaming when i recognise a painting, full on grinning at art

hanna wilke
literary paintings - marcel broodthaers (conceptual belgians)

i got up at... - on kawara (postcard series)

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what happened to design in this country? feels like it just stopped =\
love seeing early german/austrian design esp utensils/glasses - can see where today's design comes from

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andré breton
sol lewitt drawings
eva hesse =)

lol.. wtf is fluxus

more gross stuff than usual happened to me today

- got garbage juice on my leg whilst taking out the rubbish

- there was a cockroach crawling on my arm while i was at bird rescue, felt like things were crawling over my skin for ages afterwards

- held a duck whilst my boss picked a thick layer of crusty dead skin off the duck's head and when she peeled it off you could see a bit of the duck's skull, real real brutal (but it heals better that way) (also only objectively gross, i get used to seeing stuff like this)

- at the cattery there was a weta that one of the cats had bitten the back off of and when i went to put it in the bin it was bloody alive, felt like a comedy of errors trying to pick it up and put it outside

- pickles the cat was sitting on my windowsill looking at something for ages and then i saw him jump out the window and gobble up a mouse! was more proud than grossed out

- came home and hannah had something in the oven which smelled nice so i put it in my mouth but it was not good at all and made me want to vomit (sometimes she makes weird austrian food)

- generally saw more gross bugs and spiders than i usually see idk

brooklyn diary 2

allowed myself a sleep in, ate delicious breakfast of baked eggs and bread pudding (3b... dmw) then got a bus to williamsburg to check out the waterfront flea market. it turned out they move the market under cover during the cold months, to somewhere in fort greene. which is funny cos it's closer to me. anyway it was fine cos i wanted to go to some galleries and hang around w'burg anyway. sat by the waterfront for a while and enjoyed city views across the east river. found myself writing things in my notebook next to some girl who was drawing/writing in a notebook. hope she wasn't weirded out by this. was a super nice day to just walk around the pier etc. wandered back to the streets with a vague intention of hitting up the other beacon's closet location. needed to pee and felt alarmed because usually when we were together, and caz, emma or i needed to pee, we would just hit up a starbucks. i felt like my chances of finding starbucks in williamsburg were rather slim, though i did come across an american apparel. took a chance and went into some gallery and accidentally missed the turn to the exhibition space, ended up going upstairs where there were obviously studios and found a toilet. had to pee in the dark b/c the light wasn't working but overall a successful mission. had late lunch at cubana social. ate at the bar and read my book which is the newest obernewtyn book (will only have relevance for australians) and the cover looks like some dumbass fantasy novel. not that it's not fantasy, but i probably should have stopped reading the series by now. but i need to know what happens in the end! felt amused by eating alone at a place called 'cubana social'. beacon's closet in williamsburg is better.. bought a leather handbag of some brand. went into some 'vintage' stores, general nice stores. really got the williamsburg vibe this time as opposed to last time when i thought it was just a bit bleargh. got the bus back downtown.

had a lie down. felt pretty strange when i awoke. i was hungry and i got a cupcake from robicelli's at dekalb market and i didn't like it as much as i hoped i would because the 'frosting' was too synthetic. walked to BAM to see 'the descendants' which is a film that made my friend caz cry. it was a really good movie and george clooney is still looking mighty fine. if you need to go to the cinemaaahh then this is what you should see because it is both funny and moving. afterwards i got a piece of pizza from a place called 'not ray's pizza'. i walked back into downtown and got a burrito for real dinner and ate it back at 3B. then i read. obernewtyn is getting good. i tried to sleep but there were people in the common room thing watching snl and playing music very late into the night, i don't know what time, and i was too hot in bed so i couldn't sleep and i became anxious that i was going to be tired.

brooklyn diary 1

got up and ate breakfast silently alongside couple from DC and mum & daughter team. felt like i should have made conversation with them but was pretty sleepy so failed at this. decided not to go back to bed despite sleepiness. went to the mall at atlantic ave to look for an ipod cord and some headphones in bestbuy. didn't buy any. walked towards beacon's closet in park slope. bought shoes. checked out various shops in park slope all morning, felt like it was akin to northcote via there being lots of hip looking couples with children. bought 'vintage' looking postcards. had soy latte + banana muffin in some coffee shop then decided to walk towards prospect park. felt happy cos there was some sort of market on at the grand army plaza. felt amused by grandeur of the monuments on the arch. sat in prospect park watching and wrote a letter. it was pretty sunny. kids were playing. i was amused by them. grew cold and went into the brooklyn public library, which is an equally 'impressive' building. looked up some books about jean rhys that i have considered purchasing. read introductions to a few of her books. best one was a collection of letters she wrote. decided to walk back to where i'm staying before it got dark and before i decided to buy things.

had about half an hour back at my place chatting to stacey then went to get dinner at dekalb market. thoroughly enjoyed viewing  various stores in shipping containers, but didn't actually enter  any because they were intimate looking and i was too hungry to pretend i wanted to buy handmade stuff. had some filipino chicken on rice for dinner. got excited because i noticed robicelli's cupcakes have a store there. considered getting cupcakes but instead got mini donuts. went to macy's to see if they had apple stuff because for some reason i really don't want to buy an ipod cord that is not apple (oddly enough don't feel too annoyed with myself for brand loyalty) and seriously considered buying a handbag for ~$70.

came back to b3 and skyped fraser and looked for things to do. decided to go to the brooklyn museum to their late night opening. people were dressed in 20s clothing via the current exhibition, american art of the 20s. there was a big band (not size, like the style yo) playing in a big ole hall. the brooklyn museum had a really varied collection. there was egyptian and 'near east' art. i only looked at the near east stuff (which is like persia and turkey etc) because egyptian stuff weirds me out plus i have seen a lot in my time. then i saw some feminist artwork, stuff by eva hesse and then this giant installation called 'dinner party' by judy chicago which was really impressive and i learnt about different feminist/women who were progressive before feminism was a thing. i kept thinking that my friend gordon would really like it. also that it seemed like a really good date night. i looked at some contemporary american artwork and looked down at the people dancing on the lower level. people were having fun and the band was really good, i was filled with joy. then i went to look at these recreations of early american architecture which became pretty freaky. empty old rooms, totally weird. impressive, but weird. from there i went into this exhibition called 'hide/seek' which was about the way identity and sexuality have been represented in american portraiture. there were a lot of portraits of authors and poets, like frank o'hara, allen ginsberg, gertrude stein, susan sontag and some more. they also had a bunch of those andy warhol screen test films. there were lots of brooklyn-y looking people at the museum and then interspersed with hipsters were people in 20s getup. nice juxtaposition. i grew tired after my day of walking and decided to go home. smoked a cig then got the subway home. watched 2 episodes of snl because i felt sad that it was on and i wasn't able to stream/watch it.

christchurch things

- \mn/ (hang loose)
- singalongs to solid gold fm in alice's car
- led zep
- surf rock
- pulled a hammy dancing to piha rescue
- zine fest rad cool times
- first swim in the ocean
- more bogans than i have ever seen in my life
- log cab livin'
- book fridge (fridge on side of road filled with books you can take, i took 'the ultimate sandwich book: over 700 delicious sandwich creations')
- corduroy
- backwards caps
- corduroy backward caps (!!)
- nice people
- did a poetry reading
- mostly ate bananas
- gin and ginger beer
- salty hair
- synchronized naps
- feeling real real emotional seeing 'the red zone' (seemed weird that it felt like a tourist attraction)
- picnic in the botanical gardens
- pretzels and peanut butter
- getting excited about seeing different types of ducks
- goat puns
- went on a 'zed' binge after seeing the drummer at a cafe
- did a ustream, rocked out to some club bangers
- hot chips on the lawn
- sweet friendship

travel poem #1

my head rests on different surfaces
hitting strange pillows
but full of the same things at the end of each day