Public Address - Club Politique (Home)

Money or the Bag | Mar 27, 2006 20:11

We've had a bit of a blog-hiatus here in Wellington on account of general exhaustion and busyness. Life continues apace in a blur of barbeque duck and unrequited cravings for beer.

But this evening we have a little free time, and I thought I'd add to tomorrows normally numerous Public Address posts. So I've put 'Mali Music' on the stereo and thought I'd share some good news with you all.

Back when I was in Melbourne I had this routine worked out where I'd haul my carcass out of bed at 6.30 or 7am every day, often also on weekends, shower, then make a strong, strong black coffee, put together some muesli, and read the newspapers online in my tiny little office. Normally by the time I'd scanned a few blogs, read The Age, the NZ Herald, The Sydney Morning Herald, and sometimes the Guardian I'd started to come awake, and was in the right frame of mind.

It was then that 'Mali Music' would get put on. The other favourite was 'Finally we are one'. Finally I'd be set.

So why the routine? Because after a few years of a more haphazard, some would say existential approach to trying to write the thesis I heard somewhere that Einstein had 10 versions of exactly the same suit. He'd save his brain space for the really important job of science. Now, I'm no Einstein, but if it worked for him, it would work for me.

The key to the music is that if you need to do the same job every day for over three years, you're going to need something going in the background that keeps your mind turning over, but doesn't intrude too much. Listening to 'Teaches of Peaches' wasn't going to help, for example.

Jesus I listened to these CDs a lot.

But tonight I listen to Mali Music for maybe the last time. And why? Because I'm in the unenviable position of being in possession of a three hard-bound copies of my PhD. A day I thought would never come.

This means of course that the degree is in the bag. A sceptic might say that the degree isn't real until it's conferred, but it would take an act of god to stop it happening now. And I think the big fulla has more pressing things to interfere in, like the Tasmanian state election for example (for those conspiracy theorists out there, note how much money is alleged to have been spent in Tasmanian, and how much is thought to have been spent here. American 'small-nation slush fund'? Who knows).

So Dr. Che it is.

As far as results go, I'm pretty pleased. The process at Melbourne Uni is that a couple of external examiners are approached to read and review the thesis, and then get to mark the thesis on a scale from 1 to 5 (five being a clear fail). Obviously I would have liked two '1's, but two '2's is something I'm more than happy with. In a nutshell the only changes recommended were a few typos corrected (examiner one), and a couple of thousand words of clarifications (examiner two). Neither mark required me to return to the examiners with the changes, and after a week's discussion with the supervisor and the University, one thesis is bound and sent to Melbourne!

You might note of course that when I departed Melbourne in March of last year I said all my thank yous and that. But when I departed I had submitted the final copy. The last year has been a cycle of minor changes, copy editors and at least six months of just plain sitting on my hands.

Thank christ it's all over. There's been plenty of times when I wished I had taken the cushy job way back in '99, instead of six years of self-imposed misery. Christ, everybody told me it was a bad idea, but I did the thesis anyhow...

Even though I've already thanked you all endlessly, and also pooh-poohed those who said I just wasn't good enough to complete, once again thanks to all the people who chipped in to help out in little and big ways.

I'll try not to leave my byline the way it is for toooo long. Maybe just long enough to really rub some salt in some old wounds. Heh heh.

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Too Much of a Good Thing | Mar 20, 2006 20:25

I've heard a few people comment over the last week that they're a little tuckered out by all the festival atmosphere around town, and while I can understand how you can have just a little too much fun and good times, it has to be said that the last few weeks have well lifted my opinion of good old Wellington.

Much of the festival itself was outside of my budget, but I tried to take in as many of the free or just plain interesting events going on around town, mix it up with the people, all that kind of stuff. I thought then that I'd put on a dusty old copy of 'Amnesiac' to get the cerebrum moving and tell you all about it.

For starters the Patricia Piccinini exhibition at the City Gallery is a must-see, being both compelling and repulsive. The way in which she has contrasted banal interaction with animals with her exotic creatures is fascinating, and evokes dread in people I've spoken to, while also instilling a need to discuss their reaction to her work.

By way of example, one sketch depicts a baby with this creature kind of lying on it. It's awful, and immediately causes the viewer to assume the creature is predatory or 'evil'. But the position it's lying in is essentially the same as a well-known and vicious predator like a cat would indeed lie on a baby. Amazing stuff.

The next thing is the Earth from Above exhibit that's been showing in the new and very flash Waitangi Park. I'll return to the park, but for now lets say that the crowds who've turned out to see this captivating series of pictures has been well and truly good for the city. There's something about heaps of people bringing friends and family out to see some art that just makes me think good of the world.

Putting the one-world undertones to one side, I saw almost every kind of person out looking at the exhibit over a number of visits to the park during the past few weeks. It's something of a pity it can't stay, they've drawn what seems like a huge number of people down to the waterfront, Wellingtons newest great place to be.

I was living in Auckland when the viaduct started to kick off as a place to socialise and it's only on the most recent trips to Auckland (specifically last month) that I've thought it had any real feeling of cohesion. I should add that my status as a visitor meant I was only gaining glimpses of what it is 'really like'. But it did always seem like it was a little too angled at people with cash to spend, and not so much like a public space? As opposed to say Mission bay, which while also angled at cash was more of a place to hang out.

When this impression of Auckland was being formed, I'd not long left Wellington, where the waterfront was nothing short of appalling. I was having lunch with a mate from 'back in the day' on Sunday and neither of us could remember actually ever heading down to the waterfront for anything. I did however recall a New Years Eve party being thrown in some place called 'Shed 5' and remembered thinking, "why in the hell would you head down all the way over there for a party?" So many both the Wellington and Auckland waterfronts are coming along nicely at around the same time.

And coming along the waterfront is. The walk along from near the government end of the city to Te Papa and Waitangi Park has become pretty much the standard trip for a lot of people, and it's a great public space. There is sculpture galore, for instance the fantastic new Len Lye 'Water Whirler', which I've thus far only seen in the daytime, space for cyclists, roller bladders, skaters, joggers, walkers and jogger-pushers alike, the harbour in all its glory, and a lot of surprisingly good weather.

I seem to remember Wellington being freaking miserable, but if anything the past year has nothing but surprised me. The last winter was comparable to Melbourne, just a little windy. Unsurprisingly. The main difference is the way in which the city has brightened up. Again, having spoken to a couple of people who remember what the place was like in the late 80s and 90s, the sparkle and glitz around the place really does make a substantial difference to the place's liveability.

Finally, in the 'surprising amount of knowledge' category, I joined Tom from Well Urban, Hayden from Grabthars Hammer, and couple of the attendees at the BlogHui in a tour of Wellington architecture this past Sunday. Tom should run that event again, because it was fascinating. More detail about what's going on and the reasons for things than you could shake a stick at.

What else is there to say? With all this and my underwater jungle gym breaking into three distinct pieces despite being in great condition just before Christmas, things here aren't too bad.

Still hankering for the gelato at Gelobar on Lygon Street though.

Ah well.

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