Reality tunnels (and Airhorn this Friday!)
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Hello all good friends hello!
How are you! How goes your blustery early summer or hopefully chilly winter?
Angelica and I moved at the start of this month, to the pudgy-dragon-turned-mountain that bisects our town, beautiful Hataitai. Our new place has that bittersweet quality that comes with positive change, where its goodness reveals the glum you had been trudging through just fine before, like when you buy a new shirt and only then can see how ratty and faded your former "good shirt" had gotten. Our old place had a quirky charm that was distinctly cave-like(a cozy cave, filled with a lotta love, and probably more than a little black mold). Now we are in a place that gets direct sunlight from multiple windows at multiple angles and it's doing wonders for my mood.
The new place comes with new habits. I've been getting real into simple things, like building primitive furniture or looking out the window. Our flat overlooks the harbor, and I can not only watch the clouds coming over the mountains and wind rippling the water into waves, but also sailboats cavorting and a big freight ship in the Kilbirnie port and cars driving along the coast to Shelley Bay. It is nice to look at something other than a screen that can still hold my interest. My interest is easy, like that of a dog, I like looking at cars and wondering where they are going. The other day I watched as a freightship pulled into the harbor with a tugboat being dragged behind it. "A tugboat being tugged? Now I've seen everything", I sincerely thought, sitting in my little chair by the window, fascinated.
I love the way reality can continually unfold and refold itself to reveal new parts to you, like different origami animals made from the same piece of magically creasefree paper. That sounds big talk, but most of the time it comes in small, soft ways. Like the way history and geography can reform itself behind you after meeting someone, how the Bay Area is not a place you think much about until you fall in love with someone born there. "San Francisco isn't that great these days" you say, "but San Fransisco in the late 80's? Now that must have been incredible." Or when you learn to identify trees a little bit better, and can tell the difference between what's native and what's introduced, and now you see your neighborhood has a mottled green story running through it.
I was coming home from a friend's the other night and got semi-wonderfully lost. Since I have a new home, I have a new bus route, that hits the same city I've lived in for 5 years at a new angle. It felt like I was being introduced to Wellington again, as I frantically tried to figure out if I'd missed my stop.
Last week, Art~Hack had a special outdoor gathering at the park by Rogue and Vagabond. A big, artistic swing and monkey bars had been installed in the greenery and they wanted the art hack folks to play a special gig to celebrate it. It happened simultaneously with a Garbage day celebration, happening in the center sculpture next to our park, where another group of idealistic artists put on a fashion show with dresses made from discarded plastic bags and hats formed from soda cans. And next to this was the regular evening gathering at the Rogue and Vagabond bar, with a bunch of people drinking hazies in the grass and eating big ass piles of curly fries. I don't think there was any planned structure for the three groups, it was just a park that had a permit for public gatherings on that day and multiple groups came in to fill it, bringing music, sharp outfits, and drinks respectively-- a happenstance dance.
The mingling went well-- my friends played dj sets or did sets of improvised modular synth while a group of trash artists danced hippie style in the grass while the rogue and vagabond people wandered over curiously with their plastic pint glasses, or ran over ecstatically to the DJ to thank him for playing some perfectly obscure 2000's dance hit.
At one point, my friend Matt was playing a set on his synthesizers while my friend improvised alongside him on guitar. A guy wandered over with his girlfriend, both in t-shirts and hats and him with a big straggly beard and a backpack. I watched him saddle up next to Matt, looking at his synth setup. This happens often, as it's a rig Matt's built himself and cuts a striking figure. The guy leaned over to talk to Matt, which also happens often, people asking him what the different buttons do or what it's running on or how he's making a noise. After a few minutes of him standing there, occasionally asking a question, the man leaned over, clearly nervous, and asked Matt one more thing. I could see Matt look slightly surprised and then say, encouragingly, "Sure!" and the man opened up his backpack and pulled out a wooden box with cords dangling on either side, then plugged it into the surge protector and mixing board. He had brought along his own modular synth and wanted to play along too.
I saw this and was so delighted. Firstly, cos you couldn't tell that there was a new synth plugged in. He knew what he was doing enough to fit in with the music Matt and Ed were playing and didn't interrupt the flow. If you listened close you could hear him, though. It was the type of synth that was clearly homemade and could make one basic noise. In this case, his synth made dubstep alarm sounds, that he played tastefully alongside everything else. Also, the dude's whole demeanor changed. He was no longer nervous, he pulled out his vape pen and stood nodding with his arms crossed, occasionally tweaking a knob with flair to make an echoey alarm sound ring out, then would blow out a massive vape cloud into the night air like he was g.d. Fred Again himself. Lastly, this interaction changed my whole notion of the people around me. Was this guy just having a drink at Rogue, then heard the music, and his girlfriend encouraged him to get the courage to ask to join in? How many dorky bearded men are among us, hiding homemade synthesizers in their backpacks, just waiting to be asked to play? How long will his high last after the set, driving home elated, saying with Kiwi modesty "there's some things I'll need to tweak, but I think it sounded okay. I think it fit in pretty well!" his heart glowing bright enough you can see it through his shirt, his whole city looking different under the light.
There's not really a point or lesson to this story here, just a sweet thing I saw last week and wanted to tell you. And now, I wanna tell you of other sweet things!
AIRHORN THIS FRIDAY! DEC 1st! NEWTOWN
Oh man, our first Airhorn went impossibly well. Thank you to all of you who showed up. It was truly an ideal crowd, nice and big and already onboard from the first airhorn sound. We had some well-founded nerves going in. We were trying to set a new vibe, and one that had a lot of sound, lighting, and music cues and was hopefully "pleasantly overwhelming". I had a big (fake) black eye and was planning to go out and yell at the crowd like I was Dusty Rhodes cutting a wrestling promo. It v. easily could have fallen flat in the first few seconds, and then I would just be yelling at a crowd who was not digging it for 9 minutes. BUT! The crowd dug it! You were a dream! And the performers each killed it in their own distinct way from standup to sketch to clowning and dance. It was a wonderful night.
And now, we are DOING IT AGAIN.
We've got some awesome performance from Gabby Anderson and Ginge and Minge along with the crew you know and love-- Hoani Hotene, Booth the Clown, Anna Maclean, Lesa Macleod hosting, and yours truly, the humble newsletter writer!
I am biased up and down, but it truly is a charming night, and only lasts an hour. You can see the show and still have enough time to see the Third Party gig happening the same night, or go home and catch up on Taskmaster, whichever fits yr fancy.
You can buy tickets here! Airhorn, 8pm, this friday, Newtown Community Center, awooga, pow pow pow, yah!
Also, Kundalini Yoga this Saturday, 9:30am, Newtown Community Center
Angelica does a monthly yoga workshop on the morning after Airhorn, a calming esoteric comedown from the night before, with tea and golden milk after. Last month's was a delight, this month is gonna be equally great...maybe even better?! Basically, come down to the community center sometime this weekend and you will see us and you will have a good time.
REVIEW CORNER
A couple quick reviews to finish off the letter to you!
I've been loving the new live album from MJ Lenderman 'Live and Loose'. It's raucous, greasy country with fantastic lyrics and an incredible voice. Musically, it hits all the right parts of early Steve Earle, Drive-By Truckers, or the Bottle Rockets but without the growling corniness that can hit all three of those bands. His lyrics are funny, poetic, and disarming and he's got the best, most plaintive voice, sounding like Magnolia Electric Co. played through the shitty radio in your garage on a nice summer day. This one is something special!
Completely different tone, medium, and style but I also love the manga Okinawa, by Susumu Higa. This is a thick tome collecting two books of stories Higa wrote about his home of Okinawa, the experiences of its inhabitants during WWII, and the treatment of the island by Japan and US after. It's a defiantly human history that is incredibly drawn and written and will knock you back. Highly recommended!