Dudley Benson in Akaroa

On Sunday I went to Akaroa for the first time, to see Dudley Benson perform. It was an incredible day. I went over with Gina, Rose and Hannah. We walked around town, explored the wharf, ate chips for dinner, and met up with some friends of Gina's.
The concert was in Gaiety Hall, and the crowd of about forty were in for a treat. It was the most amazing show I've ever seen - the best concert I have ever attended. I'm a big fan of Dudley's, and he was just spellbinding; so heartfelt and talented, and a fantastic performer. The show was entirely a capella (he was accompanied by a four-part choir and a beatboxer) and all the songs from his new album Forest: The Songs of Hirini Melbourne were performed, as well as a few from The Awakening. The older songs were amazing, as they were re-arranged especially for the tour, and sounded incredible.
Dudley was such a warm, earnest performer, who clearly loves what he does. It felt like I was covered in shivers for much of the show, and tears welled up occasionally. At the end of the show, the audience were invited to share a tea or coffee with the performers. I'd interviewed Dudley in the previous week (recording online soon), and he was so nice to meet

The drive home was dark and quiet. We stopped near Little River to look at the stars; the sky was incredible. It was such an enjoyable day.

Flying

I was sitting on the porch. It was hot and clear, and I looked up at the sun overhead. The awning obscured its orb, but it was radiant, and illuminated a large part of the sky in a pale blue.
To my amazement, I could see angels. An uncountable amount, gliding in all directions, interacting with each other. They were tiny and white - the closer you looked at them, the harder they were to perceive.
Way way way higher up, they moved around the sun in slow circles, and in that moment I knew that everything was going to be okay.

Denouement

Last night I was in town, and it was warm and I was wearing short sleeves. And I biked around by myself.
I like being in town. I really enjoy the urban environment - it feels like it's all filled with so much promise of things to discover, people to meet, and occasions to stumble upon.
I made a couple of pastings that I wasn't happy with, and I started feeling really bummed out. It was frustrating because the rational and irrational parts of my mind were at loggerheads, and I knew which part should've won, but it's never that simple.
I rode home as fast as I could, listened to Matt and Kim, read Shoplifting from American Apparel and fell asleep, still not feeling quite right.

The Paper Heart Project

This has been going for a long time, though it's taken ages for me to actually post about it. It's pretty straight-forward though. A bunch of hearts, with nice messages, on the streets of Christchurch.
The two in the middle column were the first I put up, months ago. A few are left for people to add their own touches, like those on the right ('I Belong To Johnny -Bianca xoxo'; 'Dear Tracey... Love, Vincent').

Oh, love.

Authors

Note: this post is a bit different. First, listen to the story in this post if you've not already. Then, when you get to the triple asterisk (***), please stop reading, click on them, and listen to the story.
With uni finished, I've been reading a few books that I've been wanting to get in to. I find that the author I read always have a strong influence on how I write, and how I think. The style of their writing that I hear in my mind tends to carry on after I've closed the book.
I'm making a start on Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything, a book I've read once in the distant past, but is so wondrously interesting that it's drawn me back for further inspection. I'd highly recommend this book - I thought I had a handsome grasp of science, but Bryson is more than proficient at explaining lofty subjects.
Another I'm revisiting is Mark Danielewski's House of Leaves. It's a multi-faceted book, with narratives that frustrate and lull the reader. And a structure that                 tries                      to                      re   flect                  the
e
v
e
n
t
s           in the book. Plus - Short punchy sentences. And ones which are long and drawn out like an old tangled rope winding their words around your brain and holding it, transfixed and unmoving with a thrum of ideas in the background that can't emerge, but no, no rope at all, there never was a rope instead a pile of ancient dirt surrounding and ultimately compressing your body until with no other option, your eyes follow these words, my words, in a hypnotic stream.
And then Tao Lin, who I've been reading recently, and who's had a big impact on the way I think ***

And I wonder if this kind of post will eventually catch the attention of Tao Lin, and I realise that 'hey, the internet is a pretty connected place. It seems like there is a reasonable possibility that it will'

Falkor!

I recently bought a large roll (100m!) of newsprint, so large scale pastings are pretty much imperative. First up was Falkor, the luckdragon from The Neverending Story. I was really impressed with how he turned out. I first found some pictures online, and traced it from the screen to a transparency, before using an overhead projector to get the image on to some newsprint I'd stuck up on my wall. Then out to the driveway to poster-paint the lines, and cut him out.
T'nealle and I stuck him along the edge of a carpark building. Neither of us are very good at heights, so it was quite exhilarating, but it turned out so well!
If you'd to see him, head to the Lichfield/Madras corner, and look up Lichfield (he's above The Bedford)

We've made a dedicated paste blog at PasteCity. I guess there are questionable legal issues regarding pasting, so check in there for future updates (though I'll certainly be letting you know about the other awesome projects as they unfold!)

University completed

My exams are finished, and for the foreseeable future, I am done with uni. It's been quite a long path (briefly: I went to Massey in Palmerston North when I left high school and studied bio, dropped out for a number of reasons, got a degree at The School of Life, moved to Christchurch to study astro, and finally swapped over to bio (bless cross-crediting)), but I have finally completed a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science. Neat.
In the days following my last exam, I felt a number of inevitable feelings: what now? what is my degree good for? how to occupy the days?
I guess the main one is that I feel very 'open'. All sorts of things can happen, though I guess I'm quite scared that inaction will be the winner. At the moment, I'm trying to occupy myself with creative endeavours, and I know that things will work out okay. To sum up and try deal with these feelings, I made a wee zine. It's nothing much, but if you'd like a copy, send me an email at superchai@gmail.com (I need to use my uni printing credit)

Happy birthday Daneila

Today is my friend Daniela's birthday. She's a pretty great person, and seems to be able to express herself in ways that I'd like to. She's fun to hang out with, and is wonderfully conversant; things just seem to flow so nicely.
Daniela lives in Dunedin, and a while ago she had to read White Noise, by Don DeLillo. I offered to record myself reading it aloud, but fell through because, well I don't think I had the commitment to dictate an entire novel.
For her birthday, I read her a few short stories, which were more interesting, and wholly more achievable. My favourite one is I Am Unemployed, by Tao Lin. I was very happy with how it sounds, and if you'd like to listen to me reading it, click here (and read along with it here).
Happy birthday!

The Love Police

This was my first large scale wheat-pasting - it's based on a screen shot from this video, a montage of activity from The Love Police. It's pretty cool; some pretty inspirational and awesome quotes from a guy talking through a megaphone.

I used a bunch of sheets of A4, 6x4 of them. The paste was probably too thick, but overall, I'm really happy with how it turned out. Thanks to T'nealle for being my Wing-Paster. I was going to make a speech bubble, but wrote in chalk - I intend to change his message nightly.

You can head down Aberdeen St in Central Chch if you'd like to see him...

The last few days

I'm in my last week of uni, ever. I'm very close to finishing a Bachelor of Science in Biological Science, and I don't have any plans at the moment to do any post-grad work. I think I shall write more about uni another time; for now, here are a few things I've done lately.
-The other day, cycling to uni, Kim caught up to me on her bike. We cycled the rest of the way, then I bumped in to her as she was leaving, and her, Eamonn and I cycled home. It was a perfect day for a bike ride, and Kim and I used our bells, which just seems like the most cheerful, spring-like sound ever (Eamonn has no bell, but squeaky brakes).
-Gina and I have been meeting up at uni. It's been nice spending time together, but more specifically, we've been partaking in Don't Forget to Write - writing letters to strangers in the library at uni. I've received some interesting ones, and I think I may just start writing to strangers in the phone book.
-Hannah, Eamonn, T'nealle, Jono, Melinda and I went and saw Spirited Away at the Academy Cinema in the Arts Centre. It was a free screening as part of the Japanese Film Festival, and was much better than I remember.
-Eamonn, Melinda and I watched Donnie Darko. It was about as good as I remember.
-I made a large pasting which will probably go up tonight. Out of newspaper, I also made a few pictures of little tufts of grass, and flowers, which I pasted around the bottoms of power poles etc near my house. A man walked by and said 'you're doing a great job'.

Flying/falling

Have you ever seen a horse running? At a gallop, for the tiniest moment of time, it is airborne - flying with nothing touching the ground.
Have you ever seen a bird flying? In the air, some passerines flap a few times, before retracting their wings. For the tiniest moment of time, it is coasting - ready to fall through the air like a rock
Horses flying; birds falling. Sometimes I feel stuck in the middle. Stuck between flying and falling.

Street workers

I've lived in Christchurch for about four years now. The first two were spent in the dull, student-centred suburbs around uni. Then I moved in to town, and discovered real Chch. Which includes prostitutes. I live on a street parallel to Manchester, the main street for such business. It was an odd thrill seeing these women - I could conceivably pay them for sex. Walking home at night, I've found most of them to be very friendly and polite, and I return the courtesy.
For the most part though, things seem pretty terrible. Hearing people yell things at them from their cars is disheartening, as is seeing single men driving past, doing U-turns to reevaluate their options. Knowing that substance abuse drives a lot of women to the street is also really sad, and though it's decriminalised, it still seems very dangerous.
Most of the action takes place between Armagh St, and near Bealey Ave. One night, friends and I counted 17 women along this stretch. T'nealle and I pasted some messages last night, which read '11: Love Thy Street Worker'. I think it's a nice message (to clients, and the general public (they are part of our city)), and perhaps also suggested being an 11th Commandment - I'd like them to be treated nicer, and judged less.