Treehouse Restaurant

Treehouse project turns heads overseas

Treehouse restaurant! Gorgeous!!

I hope they reopen this, what a fun place to go to fill your belly.

Braaaains

Submissions flock in on mining scheme - "More than 33,000 submissions have been received..." Awesome that so much activism is happening around this issue. HEAPS of people are pissed off at the government right now, eh? | Saudi woman beats up virtue cop - Awesome! | McQueen's right-hand woman inherits his empire | Australia launches court action over whaling - "Australia will initiate action in the International Court of Justice, seeking to prevent Japanese whaling in the Southern Ocean..."



By Iv Solyaev, via Coilhouse

Track of the week: Alien Sex Fiend - Boneshaker Baby. Hell yes!!! Ms Fiend is totally one of my secret girlfriends. I'd almost forgotten about this track. Goth bands try to be as mind-boggling and cool as these two and fail at first synth.



Nik Fiend and Mrs Fiend (aka Alien Sex Fiend). FTW.

90s one hit wonders recently downloaded and being loved to lil bits: Citizen Kane - Better Days, Harvey Danger - Flagpole Sitta, The Lemonheads - Mrs. Robinson, Blind Melon - No Rain, Butthole Surfers - Pepper, Marcy Playground - Sex and Candy, Wheatus - Teenage Dirt Bag, 4 Non Blondes - What's Up?, New Radicals - You Get What You Give

I shall spare you the '90s Dance Hits' track list... ;-)

I'm on a mad nostalgia buzz with music lately.

Course is going well, going well. I'm trying to pour all of my energy and focus in to the work I'm doing at any given moment. It seems to be paying off, the tutors tell me that I'm on track to get through all the work I need to before the course ends. There is only four weeks to go so it's going to be pretty full on, but I'm super-motivated and thinking positive-actions. Yay! Patternmaking will be so amazing, I can't wait!

Enjoying: Researching Rosemary Kennedy, the T2 Blog, the Surf Canyon Firefox add-on (so good), Lost Not Lonely Hundreds and Thousands wedges (!!!), rediscovering Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, candlelight every morning, kitten bestowing cuddles upon thee, homecooking (DIY is so satisfying!), Snow Showers body wash from Lush (it smells like orange sherbert, yummm).

Small Steps

Via Myry2009

Just when I thought I was back up running, my body yells slow down. Two steps forward, a half step back. Considering three weeks ago I was struggling to get out of bed by myself, that's not too bad, really!

Monday-Tuesday. Work experience.

Work experience has been intense, frustrating, eye-opening and great so far. Diving in after having over a month lost in the illness-surgery-recovery triangle, I can do far less than I thought I would be able to. Both physically, because I am still healing, and skill-wise, because I have missed so much practice while away. It has been a challenge to accept that my sewing skills aren't up to scratch, and fully focus forward on the things that I can do well and really help out Janet with.

This week we began photographing/editing some of her collection, which was awesome - most of my day involved putting outfits on a dressform, positioning lights and taking photos at various angles - and I also did some handsewing, and brainstorming around different fun ways to add fur accents to a couple of coats. The entire workspace is a treasure trove of fabric and recycled goodies. Working in such a creative, unique environment with someone who is so completely dedicated to her work and her vision and her ethics is incredible. Hard as I have found it so far, it is also goddamn exciting!

Wednesday. Phew.

Today I am supposed to be at Tech, however the aforementioned telling off I am receiving from my body is keeping me home. Even though it is frustrating being physically incapable of working on what I need to, and time is running out for me to squeeze in everything required to pass my course, and be accepted for the July intake of Tech's patternmaking course, I am trying to be patient, stay positive and give my body the downtime it asks for.

Everything happens for a reason and I have found a hundred silver linings to this cloud already. I REFUSE to let anything wear me down low. I'm up! Even in bed with a hot water bottle over my belly.

A handful of low-physical, productive projects for the day:
+ Mend Paul's jeans (handsewing ftw)
+ Continue industry research (am currently reading Form, Fit & Fashion which has been awesomely useful so far)
+ Continue business plotting
+ Find a coupla yummy-sounding recipes to trial this week, possibly including apple crumble (yummmmm)

Airlines use plastic cutlery up to 10 times - Well done, Air NZ and Qantas, that's some sensible shit right there. If a product can be cleaned thoroughly and safely reused again, airlines (and every other entity, including ourselves) should be applauded for doing so, right? It seems absolutely crazy to me that anyone would have a problem with this.

Mysterious ball lightening may be a hallucination | Maiden voyage for first true space sail - "If all goes to plan, it will be the first spacecraft fully propelled by sunlight." Awesome!

Sunday

Via Haute Macabre. Apparently these are from a 2009 Italian Vogue spread. Amazing, beautiful images!

Tomorrow I am back at course. I've been out of action since work experience began, so it's all very exciting. Monday and Tuesday I'll be helping out Janet Dunn in her workroom, and Wednesday through Friday in class starting to get back up to speed with everything.

Japan's Brainwave Initiative: Mind-Reading Robots by 2020 - "While the U.S. Army actively pursues “thought helmets” that might someday lead to secure mind-to-mind communication between soldiers, the Japanese are going after the consumer market. The aim is to produce BMI technology to change TV channels or to use mobile phones to send text messages composed by thought alone."



Medicina Rossa by Alberto Seveso, via Sweet Station. Click through to Sweet Station for larger pics! This is so captivating, I love it.

Mother's Day today. I took the train out to the Hutt to hang out with mum and dad and my brother for the afternoon. Wellington harbour makes me smile every time, it's a sweet ride for someone who isn't a regular commuter! It was a fun visit, we drank tea, ate lots of caramel slice and sifted through a bunch of old clothes while the boys watched sport on TV. Courtesy of my amazing mother, I now have an overlocker on loan! And a press! And a bunch of clothes to rip up and throw back together! Exclamation marks! It's going to be so great to have a little workspace at home with everything I need.

Enjoying: Wellington Wall Street, lacey things, hot chocolate with lots of milk, binging on episodes of American Dad, being almost-100% after three weeks of recovery from surgery (:-D!!!), sleeves-over-knuckles, world maps, waking up in time to see the sunrise

GothNet 2000

Sites stumbled upon in the course of googling for this post:
The Cabinet
County Asylums

Also, I notice that Divaluxe.com is currently, rather than being home to a purveyor of uber dreadfalls, host to Murder City Nights, a sweet-ass rock n roll podcast!

Indeed, onwards...

I am so disappointed to discover that Darklinks doesn't exist as a database anymore. Lame! That was an amazing resource! There is now an associated awesome blog, however: Dark Side of the Net.

Darklinks loomed so large during my goth internet years (also the heady days of camwhoring and AOL instant messenger, but I digress). Good times, they were. Good times.

Countless hours were also spent building "spooky" Angelfire pages with cheesy animated gifs and an abundance of htmlgear add-ons.





Seriously.

Ten years ago. Wow. I was also likely be found reading the alt.goth archives; giggling at the expense of people, who were probably no more tragic than I was, on Goth Goose; dreaming of the ultimate goff wardrobe via Batgear Beyond; obsessing over Batty, Sinnocence and Goddess of Freak; tracking down everything Sexbat ever published on the net and pouring over image galleries of elaborate outfits and gravity-defying hairstyles.

Wouldn't have had it any other way!

Wednesday

John Stewart's punching bag, Fox News - I adore John Stewart! | Why robots? - "Wouldn’t a machine possessing Consciousness be more interested in collapsing the wave-function with its thoughts? Wouldn’t the machine be more interested in… magic?" This made me smile. | 'Holy grail' of cancer vaccines one step closer | Trent Reznor starts new band with wife - Called 'How to Destroy Angels', apparently. I'm intrigued to see where he goes with this!

Stencil by C215

Today's playlist includes Bikini Kill, Dead Kennedys, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the White Stripes, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Le Tigre, Zombina and the Skeletones, Kyuss, Siouxsie and the Banshees, M.I.A, the Doors, Diverse, Gorillaz, Dilated Peoples, Marilyn Manson, Ol' Dirty Bastard, the Fugees, Astronautalis, the Horrors, RJD2, Yak Ballz, Blue Sky Black Death & Jean Grae, Tool, Nirvana and Babes in Toyland.

If you haven't heard Zombina and the Skeletones, I recommend that you remedy the situation immediately.

Levin For Beginners/Black Boned Angel

"Levin isnt a small town 84km north of Wellington, with a population of 19,550 and a prominent sock factory - its a place inside of every New Zealander."

Levin, for beginners. As an ex-Levinian (Levinite?), I can't wait to see this show! It's part of the Comedy Festival and runs from the 5th - 8th May at Katipo Cafe on Willis.




Black Boned Angel.

This is such an amazing project. Hypnotic, heavy, deep, dark. Campbell Kneale is talented as hell. I hardly listen to metal anymore, but if I had to pick a favourite subgenre within, drone would be it. One of my Favourite Gigs Ever was Sunn O))) (with Attila from Mayhem on vocals!) in Melbourne in 2007. Bass so low it rattled your atoms. Amazing.

Local on Etsy

I can't wait 'til I'm able to start up my own Etsy store!

Here are some Wellington folks who are doing cool things:


Jet black Tea Pot and Tea Cup pendant

By Super Very, who makes laser cut jewellery. Teacups, trees, keys, unicorns, birds, bunnies. I love the Chat Noir cat pendants, too. Cute!

You Rule greeting card

By Katydid Paper Goods, who make... paper goods :-D There are a whole bunch of cool things on the website, too: www.katydid.co.nz


Cobalt flower bobbi pins
From Hope and Anchor, who are also the beautiful minds behind Devol clothing.

Sruli Recht

Sruli Recht Umbuster umbrella.

Yuss!!!

Saturday

Happy J-Day!

Two weeks home from hospital and I'm still not back at course or work yet, but am trying not to take it all too seriously and start moping. Can't force my body to heal, I've just got to chill out and be patient. Having said that, goddamn! I can't wait to be able to move freely again.

I have been reading, watching, resting, plotting. A little cooking. Chocolate cupcakes, and banana cake with lemon icing. Sharing baked goods with friends is one of my favourite things. Mmm, baked goods.

One of these days, I'm going to buy a second-hand record player and have a sweet-treats & vinyl dress-up party. I shall add that to the List.

Music yesterday, pottering: M.I.A, Eels, Amy Winehouse, Dilated Peoples, Dead Kennedys.

Do you have any idea how goddamn fucking amazing Eels are?

Music today, lazing: Raindrops, distant traffic.

Been planning big, it's all very exciting!

Huge protest says no to mining on conservation land - "An estimated 50,000 marchers joined one of the biggest protests in Auckland for decades today, to give the Government a firm message to stay away from mining on conservation land." Rad, that's even bigger than the anti-GE protests were.

101 Quick Meals - Vegan, so healthy for humans and kind on other creatures! This is awesome. I like cooking, but am also lazy.