Monday, August 29, 2011

me vs. the tv

my parents were never big on tv. we had one in the house but it wasn't a big deal. when i moved out of home i didn't feel the need to get one, and have never owned one since. i don't really go to the cinema and don't download movies or tv series online. not as any kind of tv rebellion, i just don't really enjoy it. if there's a particular film or documentary that's recommended to me i can stream it online, but i just find tv in general to be, at best, a waste of time. at worst, fucking dangerous.
when cam brought his tv along to the garden i was a little uneasy with the idea of having one in the house. what's the point? is it really necessary? it's been sitting there alone in the corner all week. nice and quiet. off. fairly benign. maybe we can coexist.
last night i cooked up a huge vegetable soup and we invited some people over to help eat it. everything was going well. people were talking. and then it happened. "should we move the tv up here?". we had 6 bright, interesting people together, why bring tv into the mix? the subject changed and the tv was forgotten about. a near miss. then the movie quotes came out. one after another after another. conversation had been replaced with hollywood one-liners and hysterical giggles. maybe it's because i didn't "get" any of the references, but i actively changed the subject now. "miles! play us that song you wrote!" "grace! can you tell me more about that nasal fungus you're studying at uni?". i'd developed a ridiculous aversion to that ominous grey box in the corner. i felt like once it had been opened it would all be over. we ended up singing and playing and talking about nose fungus and maths and futurism and computers, but i felt like i was constantly trying to avoid that elephant in the room. maybe it was selfish of me, but the tv stayed off last night.
ash = 1, tv = 0

Saturday, August 27, 2011

another productive weekend in. the bedroom is all set up now - moved the rest of my stuff in and it's starting to look a bit more like a home.
made a trip to reverse garbage and picked up some more gear. about $50 got me a couple of mattresses, two big carpets, a few chairs and a bunch of wooden crates. set up a living/hosting room for people to use. we've been having a few jam sessions lately. beautiful musical stylings of cam, miles, louise and co., along with sara's videos on the projector.
it seems that saturday night is the best night for dumpstering. had another great find with crates of fresh pumpkins, mushrooms, zucchinis, tomatoes, sweet potato and carrots. going to be a veggie soup week i think.
we're ready to start hosting now, so have posted on CS, bewelcome and friendswiththings

Monday, August 22, 2011

photos of the garden







the rabbit hole

our findings

light play
shadow puppets


the garden walls...













Saturday, August 20, 2011

first night in was a success. moved a bunch of my stuff in and we're pretty well set up with beds and a kitchen. some local squatters came by and said hi. built us a nice firepit and had some good ideas on rainwater collection and reuse. we'll definitely be putting it into practice once we've got a veggie garden going. was nice to share ideas and plans with them.

another local guy popped his head in to say hi. he makes furniture and was interested in using the place for that before we moved in. he was interested in doing some tests on the stormwater that flows in our drain and using it as greywater for plants, so i invited him to come collect some next time it rains. he also had a lot knowledge on soundproofing spaces so is going to come and help us out with that. a friend of our has access to a lot of free professional soundproofing material we can use.

it's about a 10min walk to the nearest shopping centre, which also doesn't lock their bins away at night. so we had a great dumpstering yield with plenty of fresh fruit, vegies, cheese and bread. cooked up a huge veggie stirfry and enjoyed the fire until the rain came.

it wasn't as cold as i thought it would be overnight, but the 6am planes were a bit of a problem. must buy earplugs. what a lovely flightpath we live under...

today's jobs will be hanging some kind of curtain to cover the toilet and shower, building some shelves for the kitchen and bathroom and taking down the wire fence out the back.

Saturday, August 13, 2011

keys!

after a minor money-related delay (commercial properties need 4 months rent as a deposit. 4 months!) the shepherd street key is with me.

i went around there this afternoon to have a proper look and plan what to do next. there's a lot more space now that the landlord moved all of his chemicals and furniture out. it's lit with fluorescent lights, but it looks like they haven't been used in a few years so most of them aren't working. i'll have to get someone who knows something about electrics to come and have a look at fixing the rest. there's a huge switchboard and a whole spaghetti of wires that i don't really want to fuck with. best to leave it to someone who knows what they're doing.
water and plumbing all seems to work fine. big plus. i even used the toilet, just to prove a point.

next steps from here:
- get someone around to look at the lights
- clean out leaves and spidies
- dividing walls for bedrooms
- set up a kitchen
- move in carpets and beds

this should take maybe one weekend of hard work and make it livable for the 3 of us, then we can start looking at setting it up for other things.

i'm not sure what the end result will be, but that's the point. personally, i would like to see a space for workshops, hosting, learning, etc. but more than that, i'd like to see a place that changes to accommodate whatever people do to it. so i do have my own selfish agenda, and i will be pursuing that, but will actively try to avoid influencing the place too much. if that makes sense. i'm just curious to see what people will do when you give them a free space to use without any restrictions or rules.