Before I Die I Want To..

Ride an elephant. That's what I want to do. What do you want to do?

A Polaroid Project is a collaborative project between Nicole Kenney, KS Rives, and the world. They take a polaroid photo of the person and get them to finish the sentence 'before I die I want to..' and so far they've got albums from New York, Chicago, LA, India, and heaps more. Mostly America though.

Here are some of my favourites:

I just really like this guy's hand writing :)

this guy is a trickster.

I haven't even read half of all these yet.. a lot are funny, most are really sad and touching. Almost all of the kids from India said they'd like to study before they die, and that's just such a beautiful thing to wish for. I wish every kid had the opportunity to learn. Also, make sure to look at the Hospice > Patients section. That killed me :( Especially the photo of the frail old man.. I couldn't bear to post it on here, it's so heart breaking.

Check out this amazing project: http://beforeidieiwantto.org

I'm real shit at..

REMEMBERING TO WRITE ON HERE! SORRY!

so my last real post was during.. CGen? yeah. so CGen and Brisbane was FANTASTIC! I really should have written up up as soon as I got home so it was fresh in my mind.. our awards ceremony was on the last day of our trip and my beautiful friend Zoe came! it was great, I didn't realize how much I'd missed her, so we got a sweet Polaroid of us together, being gangster and all:



and got a Polaroid of the CGen kids with Grant Marshal.. doing his trademark pose, ROCK WARRIORS! totally lame but also, totally kickass!



going home was sad :( and I didn't even get to have another look at GOMA. stupid Tim Rogers distracting me!

anyway, I've been back home for around 3 weeks and so much stuff has happened since then!

I had a workshop on Sunday as part of the REACH art program, and the piece we created that day will be exhibitioned in the local indie hip art gallery in town, Crate59! it's at 7pm this Friday and local indie band The Medics are playing so all you local kids should come down and check out some sweet art created by other local teenragers.

THEN next Friday night is the opening of the Energy Art Exhibiton at the Tanks Art Center in Edge Hill. not sure what time it starts but my photos of Kayla in the dinosaur suit will be there so come along and make me feel loved :D

that's all I can really think/be bothered writing right now. plus, my neighbor has been making Chewbacca noises for the past 20 minutes and I can't concentrate on what I'm actually writing.

sometimes I think we're insane.

PHOTOS WILL BE UPLOADED TOMORROW!

Saturday.

I had work at 9, and I still love my job. I love who I work with, and I even love it when I fuck something up, because I know I'll get it right next time. Adrian found out that he won the People's Choice award in the Port Douglas Carnivale art competition, Naomi told us about her crazy boyfriend and his night out, and Noni is just so damn helpful that I don't know how I'd be able to get on without her being there. My job is still #1.

After work my gorgeous mother picked me up, and we drove to Centrals via Saint Augustines. You see, as a part of my photography assignment, I'm documenting SHOEFITI (google it) and I happened to notice a pair of lime green and sky blue shoes hanging from the powerline opposite the school, and on Friday, while on the bus home, me and Robert saw Ergon Energy workers with a huge pair of chompers, cutting off this other pair of shoes from the powerlines at Barlow Park, so I took a polaroid of it.



NOW, either they didn't manage to get them, or someone threw a new pair back over the same powerline, probably to taunt them, but they're back. ANYWAY back to the pair at Saint Augustines, I went there to take a photo and THERE WAS ANOTHER PAIR THERE! 2 pairs hanging next to each other. I don't know if it's coz I really get into things, but I freaked out and almost exploded from excitement and happiness, and it took me about 10minutes to find exactly the right angle to take the photo from.



I can't waste shots, seeing as I'm using my polaroid. Anywhoo, I took a photo and I love it; SHOEFITI polaroids to date: 2.

We went to Centrals and I met up with Laura, and left mum. We ate us some Hungry Jacks, played some Guitar Hero at JB-HIFI and met up with Robert. We stalked around town till we got to Off Ya Tree and met with Ellie! She had just gotten her moustache tattoo on her finger, and since that's pretty much the most insane thing ever, I took a polaroid of it.



We left Ellie (seeing as she was still at work) and promised to meet up with her at Massacre of May later. I then got man tackled by Adrienne, and seeing as she's been on of my best friends for, what.. 7 years, I got Robert to take a polaroid of us.



Robert left, and me and Laura bought Maccas slushies and mixed goon with it, sat by the lagoon and watched tourists. Laura remarked on the amount of Asians around, and in fear of getting bashed for sounding racist, we walked around for a bit, and eventually got on a bus to Laura's house.

We listened to some Pop Goes Punk (I think?) and then went down to Raintree's Bottle-O to see if we could get someone to buy us goon. We ended up meeting this guy called Josh, who was pretty far beyond the state of wasted. He tried to buy us goon, but the people in the Bottle-O knew what was up, told him to leave, and he started abusing them, something like "if you don't give me my fucking goon, I'm gonna give you a fucking piece of my mind, and you'll be sorry you were such fuckwits to me" and obviously they called security, so we had to bolt. We ended up back at his house, and he got his friend, also named Josh, to go back to the Bottle-O for us, and we drank his UDL's in the meantime. After about 5 minutes of Josh #1 telling me and Laura that they weren't going to molest us, the other Josh came back, we paid him for the goon, and sprinted. We caught a taxi from Red Rooster and finally made it to the gig, which had started at 6pm, and the last band was playing.

We paid for our entry, got our mother truckin goon tipped down the drain by the security lady, and didn't end up going inside again- pissed of, PLUS a waste of money. I paid $15 to use their toilet, get my alcohol taken off me, and to get stamped by a stamp that claimed I'd been "entered". Fantastic. Though I got to see Maryanne, meet Angus, hang out with Ellie some more, met some lad called Ash (and stole some note out of his pocket. I think it was their set list), hung out with Lizzie and Aruna, talked to some random called Liam and hugged this little kid called Aiden. I always see him at gigs and he always says hello, so he deserved a hug. We got about 50 group shots of us on Aruna's camera, and one on my polaroid.



We all look really good, I love that photo.

Anyways, the gig ended and people started leaving, so we called a taxi. Ellie, Lizzie, Aruna and some other lad left to go clubbing in town, so me and Laura, and for some reason that Liam guy came with us, caught a taxi to Henry's place in Kanimbla. Our taxi driver had "Don't Trust A Hoe" playing, and we found out that back in Africa (mhmm, he was from Nigeria) he had 6 wives, whadda pimp. Don't know if he was lying, but it was still impressive. Anyway, we hung out at Henry's with James, Will and Artem for about 20 minutes till I decided to go home, so mum came and picked me and Laura up, dropped Laura back at her place, and we went home. God only knows what happened to that Liam guy after that.

Even though I ended up spending near $90 last night, I don't really regret it. I only know now, to plan things well before hand.

I love Laura and Ellie :)

I love meeting randoms.

I love dumb arse philosophical talks with Laura at the bus terminal.

I love the sound a polaroid camera makes when you take a photo.

and I love that people remember me from other gigs.

right now, Cairns is pretty great. this weather does things to people.

Undara Art Camp '09!

yes, the school art camp this year went up to the Undara Lava Tubes! we left on Thursday morning and got back yesterday afternoon, and it was so much fun, and I did so many things I would NEVER have even imagined I'd ever do. I'm so glad I went.

we left Cairns at a bright an early time of around 8am. turns out that Mr. Honeywill shaves his hair a different way each year as his boarding pass (we had to make a boarding pass to get on the bus, to show that we'd started our artistic journey) but this time his shaver had cut out half way and he had huge tufts of shaven bits and.. goodness it was terrible. I don't have a photo, but I have video of it which I'll be uploading soon enough. but yes, we left Cairns at around 8am:



Marisa felt a bit sick on the bus and we had to stop on the Gillies to let her out. we watched Spirited Away on the tv on the bus; I hadn't seen that in ages, and eventually made our first stop at Ravenshoe (pronounced 'Ravens-hoe'). We stopped at the wind farm first! the huge wind towers spin in the wind and generate enough electricity to power all the homes in the area, which is good, seeing as Ravenshoe is the highest town in Queensland and they're using their wind resources quite well. Kayla got out to take a photo:

Then we stopped in the town itself so people could grab something to eat. I was waiting for Marisa to get out of the public toilets, when an old dirty man walked past me, brushing his teeth. He spat out his water onto the footpath, continued down the walkway until he got to the bin, and threw in his toothbrush. I thought THAT was a little fucked up, until he reached his hand into the bin, pulled out a straw, started chewing on it and continued down the path. The Ravenshoe locals are a little.. well.. not all there I'd say. We then got assigned to send postcards back to people at school. I chose to write one to Laura, and got told to write one to my ftv teacher Mr. Weston:



when we got back on the bus, Kayla showed me something she'd picked up, which she thought was a strange piece of twisted bark. I informed her that it was actually a piece of dried up poo, and she cried "EUGH!" and threw it. it landed on Henry. poor Henry hahahah!

our next stop was a quick 5 minute one at Innot Hot Springs. the thermal volcanic energy underground warms the earth in certain spots (some bits are warmer than others, and the water is boiling hot rather than just warm), and you can go for a dip in the creek that runs through the town, and it feels like bathwater! Mrs. Williams didn't believe the water was going to be HOT hot, so she stuck her whole foot in and burnt it! she walked off her pain:



our last stop was at Mount Garnet, and we stopped there for a bit and continued making our postcards:



and I finally finished mine, once we were back on the bus:





we finally made it to Undara! after we'd eaten some food'zies, put away our bags into our tents, applied the sunscreen and got ourselves into 'art mode', we all ventured up to a mountain peak called The Bluff to do some landscape painting with oil paints. V messy but V nice. me and Bec in our tent beforehand:



me and Tasia, sitting on the highest rock painting. Jack in the corner:



we got to eat dinner in some old renovated train carriages! Tasia liked my Sunday school hat, so she wore it throughout dinner. she looks very.. proper hahah:









just me, fixing my 'do.

that night we did some painting with light. my photography teacher Mr. Honeywill joined our troupe, and I love the results; these are all COMPLETELY unedited:













got back to our tent/cabin, and I was so dead tired! Kayla thought it'd be lovely to get a photo of me from her top bunk. aren't I such a gorgeous thing before sleepy time? thanks Kayla:



the next day we woke up 6:30, and had breakfast at 7. we ate breakfast down at the campfire, which is about a 5 minute walk into the bush from the campsite. hot breakfast; toast, baked beans, egg, bacon, sausage and cooked tomato. me and Kayla posed in the morning sun:



then we split into 2 groups for the day activities. we were in group 2, so we stayed behind at the camp and worked on creating an installation art piece. our group made big ants out of grass:





but we ended up hanging the grass balls from a log, and only keeping 2 of the ants we made:



and we found a VERY WEIRD little bug that looked like a miniature kiwi bird! we don't know if anyone has ever seen one before; I've never seen this in a book/the Undara souvenir and information shop before:



then we went back to the lodge and ate lunch. the groups then swapped activities and it was OUR turn to go on the lava tubes tour. I'd already done it before so I was already expecting a lot of what happened, EXCEPT FOR THIS:



THAT'S RIGHT! the cave was flooded out from all the rain we've had recently. not only was I not expecting that, but I also didn't expect we'd be allowed to swim in it. only a brave few ventured forth into the darkness, since we'd forgotten our torches, and we only had the handrail to go by. so me, Kayla, Sarah and Mr. Honeywill went out into the water, and it was so lovely and cold:



that afternoon we had 4hrs of free art time. I sat with Kayla and Junie on the footpath down from the lodge; Junie is one super cutie face:



then we shot the photos with the dinosaur costume I made. our photography assignment at the moment is to pay a sort of homage to an artist we admire and I chose Michel Gondry and how he uses low-grade materials to create things in his projects. Kayla was my model, and the final results will be uploaded later (when I've finished editing them). so we walked up to The Bluff in the afternoon to shoot, and Mr. Honeywill tagged along. I'll have to remember to grab a copy of the photos he took of us with his lomo camera. us journey'ing up there (from Kayla's point of view):



Kayla wanted a Polaroid of her and me taken, so Honeywill took a photo but it didn't work, so he took another one and the photo came out WEIRD! Kayla had three arms, I think the first photo developed over the top of the second one:



third time's a charm:



that night we made our souvenirs for our mystery recipient. Mrs. Williams thought that instead of buying a gift from Undara each, we'd make our own and give it to someone else in the camp. I got Marisa of all people, and made her a pair of novelty glasses with paper, see through plastic, Undara dirt and grass and a gum nut, and had "Undara Art Camp '09" written on them. they were only supposed to be ornamental, but being the dag she is, she wore them all the time. I got a gift from Samantha, and she made me this cute as barrette with buttons glued on, and a bracelet. during craft time, Mr. Honeywill decided to shave off the rest of his hair AND THE SAHVER CUT OUT AGAIN! he was left with an even more horrible mullet, and afterwards Kayla ran off and stole his shaven hair, and made moustaches out of it! truely disgusting, but truely hilarious! me, Kayla and Jordy then retreated to our tent and had a little 10 minute gathering:







some people left, but me, Kayla, Jordy, Danelle and Bec all stayed. it was moustache time! we put them on and made a video diary (which I'll also be uploading soon enough). I think we made a very fine bunch of sexy as Mexicans, though I sort of look like a pedophile:



time to go home. we got up early, ate breakfast, packed up our things and sneaked in a couple of tent group photos:





after lunch we went on this HORRID walk up to the edge of a volcanic crater, which I forget the name of. we sat on a nice bench up there in the sun and did some sketches. well I did, Kalya took this sneaky photo of me. note my lovely posture:



before we left Undara to go home, we ate some afternoon tea then got our group photo; here's everyone! I like this photo of me by the way:



then we left, GOODBYE UNDARA! everyone was very sleepy on the way home:



here's a good shot of both Mr. Honeywill's horrid hair, and the fringe of our bus driver, which was also horrid. I don't know what she's thinking: