In the neighbourhood

For some reason (i.e. one not known to me) the retailers in Eden Valley have decided to join forces against tagging. What has resulted is some colourful and interesting new graffs, which are sure to scare those tagging hooligans away.

This one is so clever, I only just got it now!

It may well have been inspired by the efforts of Dan Tippett and DLT at the Kingsland Train Station. Unfortunately if you want to see this mural you'd better get there quick, 'cause its days are numbered due to numerous changes being in our neighbourhood made for the Rugby World Cup. A real shame if you ask me.

Thanks to Timespanner for making sure this was brought to our attention and for the photos. On the plus side thanks to our forward thinking community board has made sure their will be plenty of new art works from Dan and his crew gracing our neighbourhoods blank walls in no time.

What I have been doing while not blogging

Here's a brief update:

Have seen two movies - Coco Avant Chanel and Sunshine Cleaning. I liked the first one more than the second one.

Coco Avant Chanel is not a good movie if you actually want to know about Coco Chanel. But it is a biopic so I guess a bit of embellishment is to be expected. I really liked the costuming and set design. Audrey Tautou is fantastic. I like the sincerity she brings to this role. But I thought the ending was a bit abrupt and over-laboured.

Sunshine Cleaning was just okay. Once again a poorly ended movie. I am guessing it must be a hard task to come up with a good ending for a movie... maybe?

Also went alone to one of the talks in the series of Mayoral Conversations. Last night was Rita Justesen talking about the revitalisation of the Copenhagen waterfront. Unfortunately, the venue was truly appalling. Aotea Centre 'conference facilities' are not good at all. The room was the wrong size and shape, so no one could properly see or hear the speaker. The screens for projecting the presentation on to were too low. As a result everyone was bobbing side to side, up and down and arching their necks to see. I would like to point out that it is advertised on The Edge's website as being "New Zealand’s premier conference destination, an unrivalled complex in which to do business." I beg to differ. So as you can tell this was a big distraction in being able to enjoy the event.

My conclusion on the mayoral conversation series: Don't go. The wine is no longer good, the venue isn't likely to be either, the speakers are okay, and the dumb questions people ask are likely to annoy you. In the future I am planning to watch them on YouTube.

On the up side, I am now thinking of adding Denmark onto my list of places to go. It looks pretty. Copenhagen - "It's Chic. It's Exciting." And it has interesting architecture. Maybe my love of architecture and interest in urban planning is thanks to my Danish ancestry?!

Some photos of Copenhagen from: VisitCopenhagen.com

My new favourite icey treat

Don't think I am trying to sell you something (just sharing, honest) but...

I can't wait for summer so I can fully enjoy Smooze. They are vegan, gluten free and delicious. I am totally addicted. Turns out I am not the only one either. My only hope is that the claims they make on the package are all true!

Source: New Leaf Vegan Society

Garden of Eden

Here's a story about something interesting that I have been keeping an eye on over the past few years. It starts with an inner city site, known as 17 Kelly Street, Mt Eden. A site that could best be described as prime estate. Being considered prime real estate has meant this site has been fought over by various parties for many years and like all good battles it has not been without its controversies and victims.

I don't really need to tell you all this because if you go here it tells you all you need to know. But in case you don't here's the long and short of it:

In a previous life this site was home to a dental training school. Before the site was a dental training school it was earmarked as a public reserve (pre 1940s I think) but it never happened.

During it's time as a dental training school in the 1960s and 1970s they used to "throw spare amalgam out the window." As a result the soil, plants, and trees on the site become contaminated.

Fast forward to 2000 when ESRI (a crown institute who became the lucky owners) decide they no longer want the site and begin the process of selling it. A process which becomes the subject of much controversy. Before they can safely sell it they spend about $1 million on decontamination.

ESRI then sell it to a developer (who just happens to be the former CFO of ESRI) with an elaborate plan to develop the site into 22 high-density 'luxury' townhouses. The City Council was thrilled of course, because this area of Mt Eden is zoned for population growth and the development ticks all their boxes. The local residents were not so thrilled because they don't want a high-density development next door, they want a park. The local iwi are also not impressed because they have a Waitangi Tribunal claim related to this area.

Nearly ten years after the debacle first began, several resource consents and angry resident meetings later, in 2008 the developer pulls the plug on the development and the site goes on the market, later becoming subject to a mortgagee sale.

In the meantime, the unused site has been surrounded by a 100m wall. Far too tempting for taggers, the wall is soon covered in graffiti, which the owner paints over with grey paint every few days. The residents become annoyed by the tagging, but even more annoyed by the ugly grey paint. So they arrange 2 mural painting parties, inviting artists to come and help cheer the place up. The owner paints over them in the grey paint. The residents paint more murals, the owner paints over them again. The Council gets involved. It starts to get nasty.

Photo from NZ Herald article about Kelly Street Walls

By now you can probably appreciate the history of this site is long, complicated and involves a lot of angry people. Now one year on from the development plans being scrapped, the future of the site is still unclear. The local residents continue to fight for the site to become a park, a decision which the Council is yet to accept. And then just when you thought enough has happened here, one last development has occurred in the past few months that gives you the sense that this story is far from over...

The Garden of Eden Project

The Site

Blue Tree

Yellow Tree

Birdhouse

Earth Drum

Wall of Life

Pechacha!

So I wanted to write about this yesterday while it was still fresh and buzzing me out (that's an old skool term!), but I ran out of time.

I went along to Pecha Kucha at Galatos on Wednesday night. What happens is there are between 8-14 speakers (this time the full 14) and they each have 20 slides and are allowed to talk for 20 seconds per slide so 20/20. Pecha Kucha (roughly translated to mean 'the sound of conversation') has become a world-wide phenomenon and is now happening in 221 cities, including 6 cities in Aotearoa! Which really is quite impressive.

The good thing about having 14 speakers is that you are bound to like something and if you don't it doesn't matter because they are finished in 6 minutes and 40 seconds. I could talk about all of them, but I won't cause that would be boring. But I will just mention some I think you guys will like.

Janet Lilo, an artist was talking about her recent residency in Japan. You can check out some of her work on YouTube. I also liked Stacy Childs, she has an online magazine called disco underworld. It has loads of cool music, art stuff, you know cool things. I am currently working my way through the back issues. Simon Oosterdijk talked about some cool projects he is involved including PiePaper. I thought the presentation given by Matthew Salapu Faiumu aka ANONYMOUZ was choice! You can see who the other speakers were here if you are interested. There's bound to be something you like!

My favourite found object

I like found objects and this is definitely the best thing I have found for a while. I found it when I was walking to the supermarket around the time it gets dark so it was hard to spot. It doesn't really seem like it tells you much, but it does really - you'll see. Here it is:

Here's what I like about it: it is a colour chart of my favourite colour blue, I have always wanted to a paint a room a really deep shade of blue.

I live in a relatively 'middle-class' neighbourhood with lots of large villas and for a long time now a common middle-class pastime in NZ has been renovating and redecorating your villa. So it is no surprise to find a colour chart lying around really.

I also like to read about architecture and design, so I know that painting rooms in these shades of blue, particularly living rooms, is quite popular right now. A trend that was fueled by the makeover of Carrie's apartment in the Sex and City movie and recently recreated in a NZ TV house makeover show. This makes me laugh because I think that from what I've seen some of the people who live here, they would mindlessly follow trends and not really consider what they really like themselves. But that's just what I think anyway.

Here are two websites of with other people's interesting found objects. Found magazine and Passive Aggressive Notes.

Look out for more found objects coming soon....

Gardens make me happy

My garden is small, like really really small (I think about 2m by 4m) and it's a container garden. So when things grow I am amazed because it's actually quite difficult to garden on such a small scale.

Here are some photos of things that are making me happy in my garden at the moment:

Calendulas

Broad Bean flowers on my first ever broad beans!

A gorgeous Camellia in the driveway

Pita pocket pizza with rocket from my garden

My next garden project involves saving. I am coveting an outdoor table and chair set so I can sit in the afternoon sun and enjoy my little courtyard garden. So when/if the budget allows I would like to have something like this:

from Bunnings

or this from Recollections.