One in One.

I'm completely in-complacent with most things at the moment. I'm listening to Lorde's Tennis Court on repeat in a some what nonchalant hypnotic way. I'm craving Summer where everything and everyone in it have priorities and topics that are only ones that dwell on how lucky they are in the lives they are in. Right now little is ringing the usual bells and it's starting to frustrate me on a new level. And because of this I'm completely and utterly determined to go back to being inspired and content in my own doing. 

BECAUSE WE LOVE THIS CITY, WE WANT IT TO

BE BETTER. BECAUSE THE BEST SCHOOLS AREN’T

GOOD ENOUGH AND THE WORST ONES NEED

A REVOLUTION. BECAUSE THE POLITICIANS

GET IT WRONG AND SO DO THE ACADEMICS

AND THE LAWYERS AND THE COPS AND THE

ARTISTS AND THE BANKS. NOT ALWAYS, BUT

TOO OFTEN, SO THINGS NEED TO BE SAID.

EXPOSED. ARGUED. LAUGHED AT. BECAUSE

THERE ARE SO MANY GOOD THINGS TO EAT,

AND WEAR, AND SEE AND HEARAND BE A PART

OF (AND SOMETIMES THEY’RE NOT AS GOOD

AS THEY SHOULD BE EITHER, WHICH ALSO

NEEDS TO BE SAID). BECAUSE WE CHERISH

SO MANY OF THE PEOPLE OF THIS CITY, AND

WE WANT TO TELL YOU ABOUT THEM AND SHOW

THEM TO YOU. 

Finally, CAANZ.

Thank you CAANZ. Couldn't have put it better myself.

A theory for Want.

This weekend I had a well overdue catch up with a friend who, whilst telling me about her regretful drunken antics (of which I continuously tell her to claim) also told me about a new revelation she has had in terms of life goals. 

Whilst neither her or I are ones to sit down and write a life plan with coordinated colored sharpies, we are however, ones to discuss (pointless or not) life and particularly our career dreams.

She has a theory. One that theorizes the success of wants. 

A want cannot be achieved if you do not state you want this want. Both of us have got to where we are by wanting things, doing what we have to do get that want, and then getting there. But what if you were to never state that want. If you say, put it into a category of unrealistic or not likely, then naturally of course that want would never eventuate to anything. 

But what if you wanted everything you wanted to want. The likelihood of achieving at least half of those wants is high. Merely because you put it out there and said you want it. 

Ergo, write a list. A list of wants. Of anything, however realistic or likely. Surely wanting so much can only eventuate to success. Even if it's for only one of those wants. Better than none. And better than only achieving those obvious goals like a promotion at work. There are so many better wants out there. 

1. Have a blog go viral
2. Feature in a film on the big screen
3. Read a new book every month
4. Go to a new country every year.
5. Create my own magazine
6. Become the youngest Managing Director in New Zealand
7. Paint my front door red
8. Live by myself
9. Own a VW
10. Have a coffee with Claudia Batten
11. Work on a Bruton Stroube Studio set
12. Get my full license
13. Go to Bali with my best friends
14. Meet George Lois
15. Walk through Vietnam
16. Publish a book
17. Be awarded in the Companion of the Order of New Zealand (CNZM) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to Arts Governance and Philanthropy (just to be sepcific...) 
18. Make a childrens clothing line
19. Make a childrens book
20. Win over $20 from a scratchie
21. Open my own cafe
22. Use a briefcase
23. Have an interview with Rory Sutherland
24. See every film from the 2013 NZ International Film Festival
25. To be continued...

Easter Does Vietnam

Upon the first few days of my Taupo Easter getaway, em gái tôi (that is 'my sister' in Vietnamese)

 who is visiting from abroad, brings out from her suitcase a dvd for our evening entertainment.

Whilst my love for vietnamese history began when I first watched Robyn Malcom in Intrepid Journey during my  2006 high school history class, this man Ahn Do inspired a different part of me through his comedic doco of Vietnam. 

Ahn Do &  his family fled Vietnam during the Vietnamese war to Australia on one small ship which they were attacked twice by pirates on and went without food & water for days.

However, they made it to Australia and the fugitive became the happiest man alive, I'm convinced. Just watch this dvd and you'll see. 

Ahn Do is an Australia comedian and it is only natural that with his past, he also has the most wide heart and the most beating smile.

It is with his story that he made me excited about life. Life, which there is so much more to see. I have these feelings all the time. Feelings that encourage positively generic dreaming, aspirational youthful career plans and all the stuff that non intentionally creates award winning TVCs. 

That's what led me to the Ad world. An absolutely genuine convincing of what someone can do to something to make it extraordinary, and some.

 But somehow, and I can't pinpoint the exact reason- or even whether it is worth being pensive over, somehow it seems like these times of extreme dreams and winning plans are becoming more sporadic. 

That's not to say that the dreams and plans are any less awesome, if anything they're more realistic which is wonderfully exciting. But it does bother me that the occurrence of such animated mind explosions are less often. No matter how big the emotional orgasm, I wonder if I should be mourning the feeling-or more accurately the lack of it. 

Or should I merely be taking this as the perfect time to be using these now seemingly sporadic dreams to actually create said dreams...

Succeed On with Afghans, Long Blacks & Pyrotechniques.

Every weekend I cross the road from my sweet wee rental only to sit at one of the most lovely cafes I am glad to have become accustomed to. 

However, as of late my routine weekend visits have diminished due to a certain other who I have been getting to know. Sorry to inject some personal sopiness in, but as per my last post I feel it is only natural to speak of real romance when it offers itself-it's what Austen would do.  

But alas, that other has given his time to the working world this weekend. Which has left me in a place only to return to my usual one. And it is, I have now realised, a much overdue return. I have been neglecting a side project which had me so excited about ever since the thought turned aspiration turned destined reality became itself. But the said other has stolen the place of excitement, leaving the project neglected and sitting in the back of my mind-but never out of the mind I assure you!

So with this familiar time given to me, I picked up my laptop, whatever issue of Frankie I could find in my lounge and walked across the road and through the doors of my dear Foxtrot Parlour cafe. 

And because I'm sure you would like to know, I ordered a long black and an afghan. Both of which were damn lovely- even though when trying to brake the afghan in half, one of the halves decided to make an escape...to the floor. Sigh. 

Finally, after dipping the afghan in the dark silk that was a long black, and flicking through my own, and Foxtrot's own Frankies, I wrote... And wrote... And wrote. And I feel like I finally hit what I have been trying to hit for months. It seems the return to routine only awoke a searched for hit this wee project needed. And now, once again, I am excited and feel as if I belong next to Brian Blessed typing away on my laptop as part of an ASB Succeed On TVC. 

I just love this damn feeling. And I can't wait to share more about my project. 

Also, just as an added loveliness to this day of wonderful, when leaving Foxtrot, the lovely Foxtrot man himself passes me a small brown bag and as I say to him in a rather perplexed manner "sorry, what is it?", he casually replied "another afghan, to make up for the half that ran away".

And lest we forget, there is no size or criteria for success, it's all success! And we must give praise with pyrotechniques!