Rain, rain, rain, tapping at your window on a grey morning means....
huddling in bus shelters with dripping strangers and itchy damp toes from hidden puddles. It means green sprouts popping out beneath the drain-pipes-gush and foggy drip-stained windows. It means squeaky wheels that skid and crash. Rain means empty streets except for one bright red umbrella and heels haphazardly dashing past puddles in the distance.
Rainy days: a battle against the primal urge to curl up where it is warm and dry and watch countless episodes of your favourite show…
Friday, May 20, 2011
Sunshine
This is the most spectacular time of year, full of empty afternoons bathed in the smoky golden light of slightly shorter, cooler days. These are the days when I most adore being a penniless, part-time student with eons of unscheduled minutes. In the late afternoon of Perth’s fine autumn days the ducks gather and settle in a quiet curve of the river while I skate slowly along the flat, pleasantly smooth paths built for terrible skaters like me.
Cities would be unliveable without parks. Without trees, windy paths, fields of spongy, lush grass and bodies of water. The first victim of droughts in suburbia is the grass. The newest solution to this is to roll out plastic grass. I’d rather just have dirt. Who wants grass you can vacuum? No. Grass is meant to be laid upon in an idle hour when watching an ant disappear into the jungle becomes the highest priority. When I was little I used to imagine how amazing it would be to be 10cms tall, like on that movie Indian in the Cupboard (anyone remember that?) What an awesome playground the grass would be then. But back here in the now of an adult May, my mind blissfully ignores the call to search for work and revels instead in the last few hours of autumn sunshine….
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Civil Disobedience gets easier everyday
Did you know we do not have the freedom to put ourselves in harm way should we so choose? It may seem odd that I think this important, but take this story in the papers today. A Sydney man scales the Sydney Harbour Bridge to draw attention to his plight and raise awareness about the kids who suffer in broken homes when families fall apart. He was arrested and appeared in court on charges of obstructing traffic, climbing/jumping from buildings or other structures and climbing on bridges. The Magistrate then ordered him “not to disrupt the free flow of traffic/people or act in any way that risked the safety of himself or others.” Further, as punishment for his actions, he banned the man from contacting his ex-wife and his children (who he hasn’t seen in months). And as if this wasn’t enough, the Premier of that state then called for not only an increase in security on the bridge but an increase in the severity of criminal charges illegal bridge climbers face.
Are you god-damn kidding me? Where in my tacit agreement to be a good citizen of this country do I forfeit the right to put myself in a dangerous situation if I so wish? Certainly, putting somebody else in harms way is always reprehensible, and no doubt if someone choses to do something so crazy, they should hardly be entitled to free help if they get themselves stuck. Stopping traffic is a little selfish, sure, but criminal? What I think these laws function to do, other than interfere with someones control over their own actions, is to put as many barriers in place to scare protestors, all in the pursuit of the greater good of Civic Order. Chaining yourself to a coal mine at the inconvenience of the multi-million dollar company will see your arse charged and your name ‘black listed’ as a nuisance activist and striking is virtually illegal. Whether or not Random Citizen is allowed to climb a public structure or not is, I suppose, that battle over the use of public space that we see the likes of street artists and skateboarders facing. We the people make up the country and the government. We all, and therefore no one, owns public spaces. But the government, elected by us, then make laws to keep us out of it and tell us what we can and cannot do in it.
I remember once coming across an interesting article on urban geography which told the story of the clearing of the slums in Australian cities last century. To remove slums and riff-raff city streets were redesigned to eliminate small lanes where people would loiter by building wide (shop lined) streets. Thus the city streets were redefined, becoming primarily a space for transit. To bring this tangent back to the present day, this story demonstrates the way we can be punished for undertaking dangerous acts, that we in fact do not have the freedom to act in any way that may bring harm to ourselves or do anything in a public space but walk politely, head down, from A to B.
There are people out there that challenge the way public space is allowed to be used. For example, Parkour, or free running, (I read about a PhD student who proposes urban spaces be redesigned to encourage this kind of play). Reverse graffiti is a process in which street walls have designs ‘cleaned’ into them, challenging notions of illegal graffiti. Flash mobs, in which a group of people assemble suddenly in a public place, are quirky and subtly insubordinate use of the public space. (which often come up against legislation which demands a permit for ‘public events’) This type of creativity in public spaces is, I think, more exciting than charging a man for climbing a bridge.
Are you god-damn kidding me? Where in my tacit agreement to be a good citizen of this country do I forfeit the right to put myself in a dangerous situation if I so wish? Certainly, putting somebody else in harms way is always reprehensible, and no doubt if someone choses to do something so crazy, they should hardly be entitled to free help if they get themselves stuck. Stopping traffic is a little selfish, sure, but criminal? What I think these laws function to do, other than interfere with someones control over their own actions, is to put as many barriers in place to scare protestors, all in the pursuit of the greater good of Civic Order. Chaining yourself to a coal mine at the inconvenience of the multi-million dollar company will see your arse charged and your name ‘black listed’ as a nuisance activist and striking is virtually illegal. Whether or not Random Citizen is allowed to climb a public structure or not is, I suppose, that battle over the use of public space that we see the likes of street artists and skateboarders facing. We the people make up the country and the government. We all, and therefore no one, owns public spaces. But the government, elected by us, then make laws to keep us out of it and tell us what we can and cannot do in it.
I remember once coming across an interesting article on urban geography which told the story of the clearing of the slums in Australian cities last century. To remove slums and riff-raff city streets were redesigned to eliminate small lanes where people would loiter by building wide (shop lined) streets. Thus the city streets were redefined, becoming primarily a space for transit. To bring this tangent back to the present day, this story demonstrates the way we can be punished for undertaking dangerous acts, that we in fact do not have the freedom to act in any way that may bring harm to ourselves or do anything in a public space but walk politely, head down, from A to B.
There are people out there that challenge the way public space is allowed to be used. For example, Parkour, or free running, (I read about a PhD student who proposes urban spaces be redesigned to encourage this kind of play). Reverse graffiti is a process in which street walls have designs ‘cleaned’ into them, challenging notions of illegal graffiti. Flash mobs, in which a group of people assemble suddenly in a public place, are quirky and subtly insubordinate use of the public space. (which often come up against legislation which demands a permit for ‘public events’) This type of creativity in public spaces is, I think, more exciting than charging a man for climbing a bridge.
(Temporairily) Phoneless.
To be honest its about time I detoxed from information overload by surrending my phone. But while my mobiles life hangs by a thread in a nokia service center, I have to find a way to live without having google at my fingertips 24-7, without being able to spend my hours at work reading blogs and following up on news and commentary, text my every second inconsequential thoughts or send/share pictures of the wierd and wacky things that are encountered during my day.
Suddenly I have whole epochs of time to fill. That's a whole lot more talking to myself and watching dust fall.
Even now I've organised my back up phone I have discovered that it's 'like sooo old' and is incapable of doing about 90% of the things I require it to do. Such as find me the lyrics of that damn song! Hence I feel a little disabled, a little isolated. It's hard to participate in the information technology age without the appropriate gadgetry and know-how. This got me thinking about people who actively avoid mobiles, internet and/or social media. Like for instance a good friend of mine who I talk to rarely because they aren't involved in the convenient mechanism of Facebook. This is both good and bad I think. It's like a kid growing up without TV, they probably benefit manifestly from that (assuming they aren't in some cult anyway) but they will unfortunately miss out on chunks of contemporary culture and general knowledge that their peers will be privy to.
People are empowered by technology. Take for example the recent Egyptian revolution that found its spark through online social networking. Revolutionary ideas that are making a difference in the lives of the worlds poorest are those that provide the means to access education, ie. technology. Thus the 'One Laptop per Child' scheme distributes small, robust laptops to countries throughout Africa and the Middle East, while in slums in South America and India philanthropists fund community computers.
But are we also enslaved and dumbed by technology? When we spend hours taking pictures of ourselves and watching the stream of facebook feeds ebb and flow (or perhaps I'm talking for myself) and otherwise loose hours upon decades to one addictive square box or another, a world such as that of the blubbery, totally technology dependent humans floating in outer space represented in the animated movie Walle springs scarily to mind... Just ask any old folk, they’ll be quick to inform you the world is going to hell because of us texting, headphone wearing internet users.
then again, old people always have reserved the right to scorn the future and bemoan the loss of the past.
All I know is that I am remarkably uncomfortable without the safety blanket of my mobile at hand, without it I feel a though I am inhibited, mournfully missing my connection to the rest of the world.
Suddenly I have whole epochs of time to fill. That's a whole lot more talking to myself and watching dust fall.
Even now I've organised my back up phone I have discovered that it's 'like sooo old' and is incapable of doing about 90% of the things I require it to do. Such as find me the lyrics of that damn song! Hence I feel a little disabled, a little isolated. It's hard to participate in the information technology age without the appropriate gadgetry and know-how. This got me thinking about people who actively avoid mobiles, internet and/or social media. Like for instance a good friend of mine who I talk to rarely because they aren't involved in the convenient mechanism of Facebook. This is both good and bad I think. It's like a kid growing up without TV, they probably benefit manifestly from that (assuming they aren't in some cult anyway) but they will unfortunately miss out on chunks of contemporary culture and general knowledge that their peers will be privy to.
People are empowered by technology. Take for example the recent Egyptian revolution that found its spark through online social networking. Revolutionary ideas that are making a difference in the lives of the worlds poorest are those that provide the means to access education, ie. technology. Thus the 'One Laptop per Child' scheme distributes small, robust laptops to countries throughout Africa and the Middle East, while in slums in South America and India philanthropists fund community computers.
But are we also enslaved and dumbed by technology? When we spend hours taking pictures of ourselves and watching the stream of facebook feeds ebb and flow (or perhaps I'm talking for myself) and otherwise loose hours upon decades to one addictive square box or another, a world such as that of the blubbery, totally technology dependent humans floating in outer space represented in the animated movie Walle springs scarily to mind... Just ask any old folk, they’ll be quick to inform you the world is going to hell because of us texting, headphone wearing internet users.
then again, old people always have reserved the right to scorn the future and bemoan the loss of the past.
All I know is that I am remarkably uncomfortable without the safety blanket of my mobile at hand, without it I feel a though I am inhibited, mournfully missing my connection to the rest of the world.
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