Thursday, November 24, 2005
Hi. This was for City Mix, an Auckland magazine.
My Auckland by DD
I live in Grey Lynn and have a habit of pointing out to my family that from the top of Williamson Ave the Waitakeres look magnificent and they never look the same twice. My wife finds this quaintly annoying and fair enough, though she would miss it if I didn’t repeat it. I love the bowl of Grey Lynn – it’s full of life and diversity. As a boy I was intrigued by the villas and the streets and my Dad’s stories of boyhood here. Back then the wilds of the Waitakeres seemed far off and rural. Not so now and comfortingly so.
Should the marvellously unpredictable Auckland weather compel us to wear one layer less in any season I’m delighted to ride to my Albert Street studio office on a 90cc scooter. The wind on Hopetoun bridge lifting my mighty steed over the interchange and swooping downtown through easily negotiable traffic – the nose pickers and cell phoners blissfully unaware of lanes and light changes, rear-view mirrors and two wheeled traffic. I have learnt and accept that we are shocking drivers and I’m resolved to waging road peace which simply involves expecting others to be rude and impatient and countering with over-politeness which has the effect of irritating the already prickly and diluting the general rage.
From my office I look across the roof of the Mexican Cafe to the tower at Sky City from which people voluntarily plummet towards a small platform on Federal Street corner. The bloodcurdling screams of jumpers soon become soothing background urban music and I do get a kick when my guests gulp and point and gasp as another body spirits past the window mid-meeting. I’ve decided it’s a great metaphor for life in such apocalyptic times that tourists rehearse their deaths from the tower of Babel. So I have an odd affection for the tower and even aim binoculars skyward to catch that last look of terror and abandon as the daring topple toward the pavement.
Much has changed over recent decades and I’m apt to think that our diversity is informative of a new culture of peace despite what the media try to panic us with. Unfortunately our architecture doesn’t reflect the worlds within us and it doesn’t speak of generations to come, but of impermanence and fabrication, cost cutting and the bottom line. Surely there are other ways and perhaps that’s why I’m an artist and not a town planner. I do believe we are on the cusp of a revolution in transport that will transform our environment for the better and allow us healthy access to the countryside for years to come without the horrors of congestion. Coupled with that, the internet revolution will manifest its community advantages in quite unexpected and very local ways. It’s already happening with people choosing to work from home, cabin or chariot to be with their loved ones longer – this can only improve and feed a culture of nurturing and the familial. I’m in love with the possibilities and yes I have a dream for Auckland and NZ and the Pacific that we might live up to the ‘pacific’ and show the world how it’s done.
My earliest memories in Glen Innes are filled with pacific island choirs and Latin masses merging across the field of St. Pius 10th Catholic school, echoing in a small boy’s ears as delicious natural harmony and easy melody. Fuel for dreams in sound that distracted and moved me and eventually preoccupied me. In Grey Lynn now I hear the same sweet sounds – like fires of hope the rituals of generations speak life into this town and I see the young moving and struggling with their own identities and cultures in the same way I did though with a different soundtrack and way more movies. The Civic Theatre was my temple of dreams and the rattling Daimler ARA bus from G.I. to town was a ship of delivery, escape and rescue from the savagery of suburbia into the delirious exotica of this theatre where my imagination was set free.
And so I have found a rich culture and a continuing education beneath the mundane and everyday and I see Auckland as an exotic place full of possibilities and adventure.
By the way, the view west from the top of Williamson Ave is a beauty. Those Waitaks never look the same twice. Amazing! Ah, Auckland! As your clouds tumble with silver linings and your waters shine with hope and belonging I’m still discovering you and when I often travel it is the returning to Auckland that gets bigger and more heartfelt………10/11/05 Dave Dobbyn
My Auckland by DD
I live in Grey Lynn and have a habit of pointing out to my family that from the top of Williamson Ave the Waitakeres look magnificent and they never look the same twice. My wife finds this quaintly annoying and fair enough, though she would miss it if I didn’t repeat it. I love the bowl of Grey Lynn – it’s full of life and diversity. As a boy I was intrigued by the villas and the streets and my Dad’s stories of boyhood here. Back then the wilds of the Waitakeres seemed far off and rural. Not so now and comfortingly so.
Should the marvellously unpredictable Auckland weather compel us to wear one layer less in any season I’m delighted to ride to my Albert Street studio office on a 90cc scooter. The wind on Hopetoun bridge lifting my mighty steed over the interchange and swooping downtown through easily negotiable traffic – the nose pickers and cell phoners blissfully unaware of lanes and light changes, rear-view mirrors and two wheeled traffic. I have learnt and accept that we are shocking drivers and I’m resolved to waging road peace which simply involves expecting others to be rude and impatient and countering with over-politeness which has the effect of irritating the already prickly and diluting the general rage.
From my office I look across the roof of the Mexican Cafe to the tower at Sky City from which people voluntarily plummet towards a small platform on Federal Street corner. The bloodcurdling screams of jumpers soon become soothing background urban music and I do get a kick when my guests gulp and point and gasp as another body spirits past the window mid-meeting. I’ve decided it’s a great metaphor for life in such apocalyptic times that tourists rehearse their deaths from the tower of Babel. So I have an odd affection for the tower and even aim binoculars skyward to catch that last look of terror and abandon as the daring topple toward the pavement.
Much has changed over recent decades and I’m apt to think that our diversity is informative of a new culture of peace despite what the media try to panic us with. Unfortunately our architecture doesn’t reflect the worlds within us and it doesn’t speak of generations to come, but of impermanence and fabrication, cost cutting and the bottom line. Surely there are other ways and perhaps that’s why I’m an artist and not a town planner. I do believe we are on the cusp of a revolution in transport that will transform our environment for the better and allow us healthy access to the countryside for years to come without the horrors of congestion. Coupled with that, the internet revolution will manifest its community advantages in quite unexpected and very local ways. It’s already happening with people choosing to work from home, cabin or chariot to be with their loved ones longer – this can only improve and feed a culture of nurturing and the familial. I’m in love with the possibilities and yes I have a dream for Auckland and NZ and the Pacific that we might live up to the ‘pacific’ and show the world how it’s done.
My earliest memories in Glen Innes are filled with pacific island choirs and Latin masses merging across the field of St. Pius 10th Catholic school, echoing in a small boy’s ears as delicious natural harmony and easy melody. Fuel for dreams in sound that distracted and moved me and eventually preoccupied me. In Grey Lynn now I hear the same sweet sounds – like fires of hope the rituals of generations speak life into this town and I see the young moving and struggling with their own identities and cultures in the same way I did though with a different soundtrack and way more movies. The Civic Theatre was my temple of dreams and the rattling Daimler ARA bus from G.I. to town was a ship of delivery, escape and rescue from the savagery of suburbia into the delirious exotica of this theatre where my imagination was set free.
And so I have found a rich culture and a continuing education beneath the mundane and everyday and I see Auckland as an exotic place full of possibilities and adventure.
By the way, the view west from the top of Williamson Ave is a beauty. Those Waitaks never look the same twice. Amazing! Ah, Auckland! As your clouds tumble with silver linings and your waters shine with hope and belonging I’m still discovering you and when I often travel it is the returning to Auckland that gets bigger and more heartfelt………10/11/05 Dave Dobbyn
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