2021 Faves – January

Favourite sights, sounds and reads of the month.

PUKAPUKA

TITBIT, COCKBLOCK, AND CLAMJAM

PODCASTS

• Shannon Faulkner and sex discrimination at The Citadel – You’re wrong about
• 158 The case of the Missing Hit – Gimlet
• Death of a starlet – Dorothy Stratten
• Two Minutes past nine: Oklahoma bombing
• The Guilty Feminist – Sandi Toksvig
• What a creep
• Inside the Walls – Chameleon: Hollywood Con Queen
• Dorking out – Flatliners
• Guru: The Dark side of enlightment – James Arthur Ray
• Grounded with Louis Theroux – Michaela Cole
• You’re wrong about – episodes including Princess Diana, Jessica Simpson, Chandra Levy, Courtney Love

STREET ART

OUT & ABOUT – TODAY, TOMORROW, TIMARU

LYTTELTON AND CHRISTCHURCH AND HANMER SPRINGS

ART IN THE FOREST – HANMER SPRINGS

OOTD – OUTFITS OF THE DAY

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Day 39 of lockdown – Sunday 3 May

Bernardine Evaristo in the first episode of the Auckland Writers Festival Winter Series.

A bike ride into town.

Margaret Mahy Playground.

The Christchurch Swing.

Detour pump track, back in action.

New Regent Street.

Mrs Higgins Cookies, open for contactless pre-orders.

Tūranga.

Oxford Terrace.

The Bridge of Remembrance.

Victoria Square.

Bollard signs near Te Pae, the convention centre.

Rydges Hotel, fenced off.

Day 37 of lockdown – Friday 1 May

I saw this tweet:

Book lucky dip – 20 books for $20 from St Christophers Dove Bookshop in Christchurch, delivered to your door. You won’t know what you’re getting until it arrives. (My box is weighed towards murder mysteries though as requested) pic.twitter.com/1tXD8jLBHe

— Nicole Mathewson (@NicoleMathewson) April 29, 2020

Mum and Dad are out of books, so they got a special delivery.

Mum and Dad just got a delivery of 20 books for $20 from St Christopher's Dove Bookshop. Times two, a box each! And I only ordered them this morning! Order here: https://t.co/DiimRVVKNm Thanks @NicoleMathewson for the tip. pic.twitter.com/dDnH9qRAWH

— Donna (@kebabette) May 1, 2020

Lock Down Lucky Dip Books- Dove Bookshop St Christopher’s pre-loved bookshop

20 high quality recycled books for only $20!
FREE DELIVERY within Christchurch City
Payment via online transfer .
Email dovebookshop.nz@gmail.com
today for your Lucky Dip Books

The Boudoir Bookshelves edition: Day 25 of Lockdown – Sunday 19 April 2020

I thought I would do a Sunday job of rejigging the bookshelves in my bedroom. But I didn’t, just dusted them a bit and took photos of them.

Threads

If you remember the 1980s, you’ll remember how the threat of nuclear war was as scary as hell.

There was an educational segment in the local newspaper on what would happen if Invercargill was nuked (its risk was as a food production area) and I did a bunch of computer calculations on the half life of various radioactive materials for school.

I read about Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Was fascinated by radiation. Watched The Day After, the American blockbuster (I remember seeing a horse’s skeleton lit up at the moment of the blast). I read The Greenpeace Book of the Nuclear Age. Don’t forget the plutonium fuelled Edge of Darkness with Bob Peck.

When the wind blows by Raymond Briggs broke my heart as an old couple endured nuclear war.

Threads came out in 1984. It was a BBC programme that showed nuclear war, and the leadup to and its effect on Sheffield, England.

1980s – I remember the sheer horror of it.
1990s – at Otago University they had an AV room, and I rewatched I Claudius. And Threads.
2000s – after meeting my bloke, we went on a dystopian movie bender. Day of the Triffids. The Stand. Survivors. And Threads – Alice in Videoland has it.
2010s – S. was watching it a couple of nights ago. I sat and watched. Had forgotten how skilfully it blended the banal everyday, with the menace of imminent war in the background – on the news on tv, on the radio, in the newspapers. Then the speed at which everything unravels, and war comes, B52s fly off, and the government and authorities go to the bunkers. I watched the bomb go off, the dad is on the loo with his pants around his ankles. Nana is being escorted down the stairs into the cellar. A woman on the street turns this way and that, puts her hand to her head. Another woman in the street stands there and the camera pans down to her feet and a pool of urine floods out across the concrete.

I stop there.

Christchurchiana: 2014 in pictures

I’ve picked a few of my favourite photos of this year. It makes me realise – we have seen a lot.

January

Street art to the max. It was in the Canterbury Museum, it was on the streets. Brilliant stuff.


Christ’s College gargoyle.

Hydrangea reflections in the Christchurch Botanic Gardens.

February

Sand sculpture at New Brighton.

The trams are back.

Hereford Street reopens.

Last day of kindy.

March

Flood.

Sans camera for a while as it was water damaged by flood. Used the camera on my phone.
A tribute to Mellory Manning.

Blue lady.

Pallet Pavilion, with Dan Rhodes’ book.

April

Owen Dippie’s ballerina mural on the back of the Isaac Theatre Royal.

The Price Waterhouse Coopers site, Armagh Street.

Bye bye to the Pallet Pavilion.

The ladies bike through town, and past the new Botanic Gardens visitor centre.

May

The demolition of the Majestic Theatre.

NZSO at Central Library Peterborough.

Dad and author Camilla Läckberg.

Bizarro Christchurch, Southwark Street.

Ronnie van hout on top of C1 Espresso/Alices.

June

A ghost sign on the way out.

Eel in the Botanic Gardens.

A demolition at sunrise.

New art by Mike Hewson.

July

I am no Urbex explorer, but I did nearly fall through a window getting this photo. Tip – don’t lean on earthquake damaged windows. Lichfield Street.

Matariki at Rehua Marae.

Eastgate sunrise.

Light and trees.

Dairy at sunset.

The re-opening of Cuningham and Townend Houses in the Christchurch Botanic Gardens.

August

The beautiful sunrises and sunsets this year counterpointed bits of ruin.

Dirty Politics by Nicky Hager.

These guys popped up out of nowhere, and later disappeared as easily.

Another temporary glory – the graffiti house on Cranford Street.

Bad sign.

WORD Christchurch.

September

Probably my favourite of Christchurch’s new buildings – this stately reflective beauty on Cambridge Terrace.

Christchurch Art Gallery family fun day.

Reading in the Houses for Swamp Dwellers (a photo to promote a FESTA event)

A spiderweb on Smith Street.

October

Heritage Day.

FESTA – Festival of Transitional Architecture – City Ups.

November

The Kid meeting Kate Sheppard.

December

A very Christchurchy Christmas in the Re:START.

• New Year, new art: January 2014
• From Edgeware to where: February 2014
• Floods and blue ladies: March 2014
• Everything must go: April 2014
• Bizarro Christchurch: May 2014
• Suddenly strange: June 2014
• No signs, except this: 2014 in pictures: July
• Ain’t what it used to be: 2014 in pictures: August
• Ice and flowers: 2014 in pictures: September
• Fun and FESTAtivities: 2014 in pictures: October
• Summerstarters: 2014 in pictures: November
• A few favourite things: 2014 in pictures: December

• 2013 in pictures
• 2012 in pictures

A few favourite things: 2014 in pictures: December

One of my favourite things to take photos of this year has been cranes and the sky. The variation comes from the background and the sky, the cranes are always cranes, though sometimes they dip their heads in conversation to one another.

And another thing we enjoy are markets. This is one of Anissa Victoria’s Vintage Market at the Commons, formerly the Pallet Pavilion, formerly the Crowne Plaza, formerly the Park Royal …

New art

This is by Jacob Yikes on Manchester Street, an upcoming Mexican restaurant.

Wongi finished his piece on the side of the new Corianders in St Asaph Street.

Cathedral Square

Chess.

The Wizard, not in.

Romanesque ruins in Armagh Street.

Tuam Street, no.

Christmas in town and the Re:START

Cosmic Corner unicorn.

The Canterbury Museum

One of our happy places. There is a great exhibition on currently called Selling the dream – classic New Zealand tourism posters.

The dolls house.

The chandelier in the Costume Gallery.

Antarctical licks.

The skidoo.

A holiday in Bishopdale

You get used to your own neighbourhood, it is a holiday to be somewhere different.
Dove second hand books.

The Life of Pi, lenticular styles.

Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year.

More December photos.

• New Year, new art: January 2014
• From Edgeware to where: February 2014
• Floods and blue ladies: March 2014
• Everything must go: April 2014
• Bizarro Christchurch: May 2014
• Suddenly strange: June 2014
• No signs, except this: 2014 in pictures: July
• Ain’t what it used to be: 2014 in pictures: August
• Ice and flowers: 2014 in pictures: September
• Fun and FESTAtivities: 2014 in pictures: October
• Summerstarters: 2014 in pictures: November

• 2013 in pictures
• 2012 in pictures

Yes

“I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used or shall I wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish Wall and I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes. “

Molly Bloom in Ulysses

Summerstarters: 2014 in pictures: November

The sun came, the blue skies. The rebuild.

But still the oddities and the signs of the times to catch your eye.



Giraffe invasion.

The Kid met Kate.

A shadow of myself.

The last of the Central Library, Gloucester Street. In her demise she bared her rather beautiful bones, and took on the look of a beached oceanliner.

Fair season.

Sydenham delights. Romance in a window at the Colombo.

And Jacob Yikes street art.

A visit to Rehua Marae.

Fill a bag of books for $2 – don’t mind if I do. Courtesy of the Still standing op shop on Warrington Street.

A chance again to watch Wongi do his thing.

At the ArtBox – fab Julia Holden exhibition with some recognisable people from Christchurch arts.

A first birthday, at the Edmonds factory gardens.

And on the last day of November, my Dad and me enjoyed The Press Summer Starter.

More November photos.

• New Year, new art: January 2014
• From Edgeware to where: February 2014
• Floods and blue ladies: March 2014
• Everything must go: April 2014
• Bizarro Christchurch: May 2014
• Suddenly strange: June 2014
• No signs, except this: 2014 in pictures: July
• Ain’t what it used to be: 2014 in pictures: August
• Ice and flowers: 2014 in pictures: September
• Fun and FESTAtivities: 2014 in pictures: October

• 2013 in pictures
• 2012 in pictures

Fun and FESTAtivities: 2014 in pictures: October

Demolition, man

The Bus Exchange.


Government Life.

Central Library.

Fun stuff

Frozen.
A thousand Queen Elsas.

Craig Smith and crew in Cathedral Square.

New dude in Hereford Street.

Zinefest.



Heritage Week – City Day.





Birthday.

Ah, spring

The best of blues




Victoria Square plantings.

FESTA – Festival of Transitional Architecture






Exclesior facade.

 

More October photos.

• New Year, new art: January 2014
• From Edgeware to where: February 2014
• Floods and blue ladies: March 2014
• Everything must go: April 2014
• Bizarro Christchurch: May 2014
• Suddenly strange: June 2014
• No signs, except this: 2014 in pictures: July
• Ain’t what it used to be: 2014 in pictures: August
• Ice and flowers: 2014 in pictures: September

• 2013 in pictures
• 2012 in pictures