I suppose it one of those times where you really begin to understand deeply what you like, and what you can cope with. Compromise, patience and all those things that I am not good at come to the fore along with the differences between  you and any significant other involved.

For us, another complication is the very small catchment we are looking in. I’ve always loved mid century modern but no case book houses here. In fact my favourite New Zealand houses were designed by Ernst Plischke and the number of houses he built/designed in Mosgiel or even Dunedin = 0 (please correct me if I am wrong)

There was one, a late deco beauty but a tad out of our price range and we weren’t quick enough. Can’t find a pic online but the bathroom gives you the idea

So I find I am all about character and gardens…..and that soul-less beige 90s – present day houses terrify me.

Actually this shouldn’t have come as a surprise as my latest online obsession shows. I have become a little addicted to Pinterest which is basically online old fashioned scrapbook (as opposed to craft scrapbooking *shudder*). What my Pinterest shows me over time is a fairly well rounded picture of my tastes. I haven’t included art much but over all I’d say it is very telling. There is probably psychologists analysing people’s profiles now. It might also prove to be a valuable relationship tool (if you both had accounts) instantly showing up ‘chalk and cheese’ situations.

Cumberland Street, Dunedin (2013)

Anyway a photographer whose work I really like, Ferg Campbell, happens to live locally so he and his is able assistant Paul Le Comte came by and did their best  to capture me on film. I say did THEIR best because I inadvertently did my best to squint, slouch and look angry.

Part of the deal though was to recreate a ‘famous’ New Zealand photograph. I hope that the original photographer takes this as a compliment or at least doesn’t cringe.

Pauline and Florence (2013) Ferg Campbell [click pic for larger image]. Ferg created a B&W version too but I like this one.

Self-portrait with rooster. (1977) Peter Peryer

I love the symbolism that the blurb on the Govett Brewster page attributes to this photo

“Self-portrait with Rooster has a brooding anxiety that is offset by a touch of the theatrical. Man and rooster look equally ill at ease. With an injured expression, Peryer clasps the rooster to his chest protectively. Roosters, with their associations of virility and machismo, are usually depicted strutting proudly, displaying glossy plumage. The rooster that Peryer clutches so anxiously seems rather bedraggled. As well as their popular association with male sexual potency, roosters also suggest the Biblical story of St Peter. When Jesus was arrested, St Peter escaped arrest himself by fearfully denying his relationship with Christ :before the cock crowed” as Christ had predicted he would. The two Peters, photographer and saint, are conflated into a tragic-comic figure who stands, back against the wall, as if before a firing squad, glaring anxiously down the camera’s lens.“

As for my photo, I am a midwife and I am holding a hen. Hens lay eggs, eggs are fertility symbols. As an aside, Saint Bridget is the patron saint of midwives and poultry farmers (and lots of other stuff). I’ve recently found out that her feast day is my birthday. You know…whatever.

And yes we got a few great shots that I can send out with my work bio, but I am really tempted just to go with the chook photo.

NB – all my best wishes and love to Peter.

I then read a biography of Neal Cassady and Carolyn Cassady’s Off the Road and on and on. I’d really like to read this book about LuAnne Henderson – MaryLou in On the Road.

However the revelation this time was Big Sur… I thought I’d read it but I can’t have as it is just devastating. A term that sounds dramatic, but really I was so moved by Kerouac’s story. The enormity of it perhaps. There is a moment when Jack, feeling positive, takes a “huge deep Yogic breath” on the beach but instead of sea air is overcome with “a horror of an eternal condition of sick mortality…I see myself as doomed, pitiful“

It’s worth a read

I have also been quietly working on a long-time project to be able to recite Ginsberg’s Howl. To this ended I follow @howltweeter on twitter which recites the poem endlessly in small chunks.

I have also been working on simply noticing

A walk down Bond Street with my daughter explaining tagging and street art (As best I could)

This neon cow in Mosgiel has long fascinated me. It should be tidied up and preserved.

and this in the window of the local Christian bookstore

Found Art (click for larger image)

Ralph Hotere White Drip to Mister Paul Holmes (2003)

Interesting who ended up owning it. Image taken from here that does do some explaining

And then there’s this from Banksy. Image from here

Books on my spinning chair. In no particular order

My full list of inspirational people is/was

• Tom Waits
• Leonard Cohen
• Sam Hunt
• Jim Baxter
• Janet Frame
• Keri Hulme
• Philip Clairmont
• Colin McCahon
• Frida Kahlo
• Rita Angus

Iggy Pop was on the sidelines

Colin McCahon by Sarah Laing (2013)

Kilmog Press is back and with exciting plans for 2013. ALso STARCH Vol 2 is out

“This might come as a surprise, indeed, also for some of the contributors themselves, but Kilmog Press has returned to publishing and has just this moment published STARCH: VOLUME TWO – 96 pages, hardback, hand sewn & stitched & bound, letterpress cover & titling, letterpress contents page : 18 contributors of poetry, short fiction, etc – Sarah Bainbridge, Iain Britton, Pauline Dawson, Bill Direen, Lynley Edmeades, Martin Edmond, David Eggleton, Henry Feltham, Roger Hickin, Mariana Isara, Hamish Keith, Jessica Le Bas, Maris O’Rourke, Bob Orr, Mark Pirie, Vaughan Rapatahana, Elizabeth Smither & Lani Wendt Young.

RRP $50.00 - For copies: kilmogpress@hotmail.com or Kilmog Press PO BOX 1562, Dunedin.”

You may note I am one of the contributors.

Kilmog books are such beautiful objects, which brings me to a conversation I had with the Editor and another bookish friend recently about e-books. I got a tablet for Christmas. I was wanting an e-reader but decided in the end the tablet would have more use and I hardly ever read outside (something to be corrected probably). I downloaded a few books on a topic I was studying but then I found myself at Scribes (separate post to come about THAT) buying real copies of the books. It seems I have a need to actually handle the book as object, to smell it (and this simply won’t do), to absorb it in a way the e-book doesn’t lend itself to. Also I realised that with e-books there will be no opportunity for second hand purchases and no inscriptions.

I have found reading research journal articles in the .pdf format really good though , so there are uses for my e-reader and I am working my way through Swann’s Way again.

I have friends who love the format, but then I love my bookshelves. which brings me finally to this…

What is your ideal bookshelf – your 10 best? Photos are all over the internet of people photographing their top 10