sunday morning

– Postcards from vyanne in vienna, jenny in new york: hidden amongst the junk leaflets. like a Wonderful Treasure Find. note to self, check mail pile more often.

– Early to rise to catch NY Export:Opus Jazz @ ACMI. oh to be fantastically lithe and powerful like a ballerina. Jerome Robbins is a genius.

– consuming JSF’s Everything is Illuminated, coffee and unmentionable @ centre place

– meditation @ st francis: I passed by the orthodox church last monday on the way to Page One and although I was running late to meet AW, the thick wafted of incense drew me in like a moth to flame and I realised how much I missed being in a house of devotion. Whatever that devotion may be. Reading JSF’s synagogue allusions is probably a good prompt too.

– then due back @ ACMI tonight for Korean Film Fest and Park Chanwook’s film JSA. Makes me miss Ash of course.

Happy sunday all…

Oh and happy birthday CB. xx

beautiful summer’s day for…

… vintage kimono fabric, porcelain jewellery, old school 60s and 70s art deco poster prints, organic coffee, photography students, rmit textile design grads.

Otherwise known as melbourne design market and my now vacant wallet.

Love melbourne.

—- Sent from my 3 mobile

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Bar’na pickings

So lovely to be home in the Melbourne cold but not so great to be hit with a load of work….
Most nights are spent at the gym and in recovery mode atm so I’m still super behind in processing travel pics but here are a few Barcelona pic(k)ings in the meantime…

letters to your future self (LTYFS) 3

Grey morning sunshine. Its Saturday, Sept 4, 2010.

You’re @ the australian centre of contemporary art (acca) around the corner from your home in Southbank. Its the second weekend since your return from Europe and you’re still mulling the issue of roots or more specifically your lack thereof. But this feels like a home of sorts. Like love in a bun. For now.

You venture into the Bianca Lester exhibition. Its mounds of dirt, concrete slabs, stone walls, broken plywood, balancing objects and playthings you’d expect in the projects or downtown Sarajevo circa 1997. The artist with her pink quif and rectangular glasses sits in the corner observing. We fiddle and poke. We disappoint her with our lack of creativity. The internet has ruined our sense of play and heads hung low, we retreat to the video installations in the adjacent gallery.

You’re watching a video installation piece by Francis Alys ‘Paradox of Praxis 1’ (1997). A man is pushing a slab of ice across the streets of Mexico’s DF (Distrito Federal). Its so hot, the water trail evaporates instantaneously and after a while the block is easy enough to kick aimlessly along. Finally, with the ice barely a shard, he stops and some boys crouch around laughing as it melts into the concrete.

‘Sometimes creating something leads to nothing.’

True. But your reading is perhaps slightly less fatalistic (artists have such god complexes). Rather than the man, you project yourself as the ice block. We’re fresh and obstinate to begin with but as our youth fades and the environment we’re born into takes hold, we glide, we’re kicked. By our 30s we’re diminishing at a faster rate and by the time you seep into the ground, you’re lucky if you manage to leave a little happiness as you do.

Yesterday, you sent around a recording/video of a Brooklynite couple, Annie and Danny recounting their love from their first date to the poetry of goodbye as they deal with terminal cancer.

You still cry thinking about it.

You’re a little insatiable, a lot impatient, and while you doubt that this generation is capable of such love and joy, you realise that’s all you really need to create in this life. And you shouldn’t aim for anything or anyone that seeks less.

Create, inquire, blossom. And love yourself a little more darling.

Lv, N

—- Sent from my 3 mobile

Gaudi bliss

Gaudi’s La Sagrada Familia sent me into a spiritual and visual rapture this morning… so you’ll forgive me for waxing a little lyrical. I have TG to thank for dragging me back to earth and staying functional but somewhere inside, I think I have yet to really recover. It just makes you believe in all the glorious depths of the human heart and mind. And the need to make sure you do something right with the each you’re given.

It took me an odessey of 6 airports, 3 airlines and 42 hours on the road to get here. But I would do it again. There is nothing overrated about Barcelona. I don’t want to leave.

N. x

London calling

In transit in KL this morning and am still not quite excited about this Europe trip…
I will say this though, I have an enduring love affair with airports (possibly why I loved George Clooney’s ‘Up in the Air’ and my housemate said it depressed her).
I’m comfortable with transcience and I definitely think it brings out the best and worst in people… farewells, warm embraces, prejudices, &c…

But I shall have to leave you at this half-formed thought because as I type this, I’m being paged to the boarding gate – how I loathe to leave a place… until I realise there’s something far more exciting on the horizon.

Let’s talk soon, you and I.

N. x

Mcleod Ganj 3

Another quick and dirty update.

Amritsar was an absolute joy. I haven’t felt more serene in a long while and you would think that could only improve upon our next destination but unfortunately not so. Its day 3 of our stay in Mcleod Ganj, the official residence of the Dalai Lama. The altitude and cumulative affects of street food and eating anything that takes my fancy caught up with me here (pity cause I miss the Tibetan vege dumplings with chilli sold at our corner street stall). The girls have been doing most of the walks around here because I simply can’t bring myself to be upright for too long (TVGB knows my weakness for goats and has plenty of gorgeous pics for me as I live vicariously through her). But the times I have, I’ve made up for it with more serious retail because Tibetan jewelry is my weakness.

The people here are wonderfully gentle and friendly and we like the older Tibetan men and women who are so joyous despite everything they must have gone through to come here. Because its a backpacker hub, we’ve managed to get some decent tips from a couple of nice guys who were heading off on an overnight bus to Rishikesh. We’re forfeiting our 3rd class sleeper train tix (because we barely survived 2nd class) and heading off tonight. Pray my tummy holds up. Antibiotics seem to be kicking in well enough.

Pics from Agra, Fatehpur Sikri and Jaipur are up at my FB account.

Hopefully more soon.

N. x

Four cities in four days

… soon to be five cities in 6 days:

6th Bangkok
7th Delhi
8th Agra and Fatehpur Sikri
9th Jaipur and Amer
10th Delhi
11th Amritsar

Just arrived back from a jam packed first few days in ‘Incredible India’ (TM). It’s been filled with the kind of chaos that everyone tells you about but you’re unable to fathom in your wildest nightmares… until you get here.

I’ve just arrived back in Delhi tonight with SK and TVGB – two colleagues and all-round strong women whom I’m traveling with for two weeks in India before I head off for a little exploration of my own. We’ve just completed a whirlwind round of India’s (in)famous golden triangle – also known as the most touristy, tout-ridden, heat-scorching ride of my life.
…
But like how I believe all meaningful, passionate relationships to be, there are equal parts hate and love here in my India affair. And we’ve intentionally confronted the brutal, over-exposed side of India first to get the complicated out of the way, display each others’ flaws (and I mean mine too because this place can bring out the best and worst in you). Perhaps that way, we show a little more of our true selves and give a chance for our infatuation to grow into something… more… yes?

India, you should know I’m exhausted by this spectrum of emotions you force me to feel and I suspect in a week’s time, we’ll hit that landmark where we discuss a need to maybe take a “break” and explore our options. But for now, I lust for all the spice and intrigue, romance and artistry your complex soul has to offer and I want to love you more.

Don’t disappoint me.

N x

p.s. I’m off on the early morning express train (5 hours) to Amritsar. Hasn’t been easy to access the net and I can’t upload pics through this computer but hope to in due course. Will keep you posted as best as possible.

p.p.s. I wouldn’t recommend attempting the above itinerary (particularly in 44 degree heat) unless you had a driver and a comfortable aircon vehicle on hand. We had an interesting dude from the state of Himachal Pradesh, which we’ll be visiting when we head up to the Tibetan enclave of Dharamsala-Mcleod Ganj. Though our vehicle did split a valve in Harayana and we were forced to wait for a mechanic to weld it proper. Lesson to revise all your expectations of this country. We’re on rubber time now.