A Letter to Melbourne

Dear Melbourne, It’s been a while. Sometimes it feels longer than a while, others it feels like yesterday. I live in a world of opposites to you and sometimes that leaves me feeling like the abyss between us grows with each day. When I wake up, you’re finishing your day. I sometimes wake up and wonder how that day was, the day that I’m just beginning. How was your day today? When summer rolls around and the city I now live in is heaving, I think of the crisp mornings where you are, the never-ending drizzle and the chill that…

A Letter to My 16 Year Old Self

Hey there you, You look great. No, really, you do. Please stop thinking you don’t. I’m keeping this simple but I need you to listen very carefully and remember it all. I’m offering you the wisdom that 10 years will give you. A decade. Jesus. 1. YOU. LOOK. GREAT. 2. No, you don’t have love handles, those will come later and you will regret every moment you spent looking in a mirror at your flat stomach. 3. Sex will turn out not to be as big a deal as you thought it would be; but don’t underestimate the power of it.…

November Yankee Charlie continues…

It’s been over a year since I moved to New York. A time frame that I just can’t seem to get my head around. When I try to think of all that the past year has encompassed I have to shake my head vigorously to stop the flickering movie (always in black and white) that plays in my mind on fast forward. I think that’s simply the effect that New York has on its inhabitants; as much as we can try to appreciate the moments we have within the bubble we call home, it’s simply unrealistic in a city that…

A Night With Annie Leibovitz

There can’t be a better way to return to the WordPress world than with a tale involving Annie Leibovitz. For as long as I can remember I have obsessed over her images. ‘Images’ doesn’t even begin to cover the creative material she produces. She creates art, art that defines generations, defies the norm and carves it’s way into history and just as importantly, our hearts. She has photographed the most influential people of our time, capturing who they are in a simple moment. Her resume leaves you in awe and wishing you could be a fly on any wall at…

One day with Vladimir

I currently have no electricity. No power whatsoever. I also have no internet. It’s like the early 18th century has come to haunt me as a reminder that my usual state of being is so privileged. Three of my housemates agree that this situation is unacceptable for a $1400 a month apartment, one of my housemates (who regularly eats organic kale and calls “Starbucks”, “Starfucks”) thinks that we’re all learning a valuable lesson. That lesson is still lost on me and he refuses to explain it (likely because he has no idea what the said ‘lesson’ is or he is…

Listening to Active Child is akin to speaking to God.

*side note* Being an Atheist in America isn’t ideal… However listening to Active Child ‘I’m In Your Church At Night’ really is akin to speaking to God. I have been absent from the WordPress world for  a couple of weeks now. There is a valid reason behind it however, my laptop decided to say goodnight and never woke up to say good morning. My old, white, heavy, trusty MacBook decided it no longer could go on, quite literally, the power button stopped working and like any good carer I decided not to prolong her pain and I let her go.…

MIA and other abbreviations

Seeker Lover Keeper couldn’t have put it better when they sang “I love the danger in distance”. It’s a two fold experience being far from those you call family and places you call home. I love where I am but I’m getting ever so used to the distance from what I previously called my ‘real life’. It’s a challenge not just to myself but to the life I once led. Distance gives us perspective, allows us to grasp the issues at hand. I asked in a previous post “When does away become home?” 6 months doesn’t seem long enough at…

A cynical rant from just another cynic.

THAT person. You know THAT person. The person that pretends to not want, let alone need attention. However they pause for effect when telling a story and have an answer for everything. They claim not to care about image but ask for a vodka lime and soda at your local bar EVERY TIME. They most likely live overseas in a bustling metropolis (their words) and tell anyone that will listen that they’re  just going with the flow, making sure they say it loud enough for people to pick up on their accent, which is most likely Australian or English. Don’t…

The idea of YOLO with a dash of FOMO.

FOMO. A term I hold in the same regard as YOLO. I don’t despise it like many friends of mine do, however in saying that I don’t like it either. YOLO, you only live once, has become an excuse for our generation to be the most selfish, self absorbed creatures that have ever walked this earth. It’s an excuse for anything and everything we do. It’s a ‘live in the moment’ mantra that our parents and grandparents didn’t have the luxury to experience. We apply it to everything from a big night out on a Wednesday, to that summer we…

What’s in a smile? Apparently a lot.

Look straight ahead. Those three words I heard from a random stranger, an old man on Avenue C when I first arrived in Manhattan, have proved to be an invaluable lesson. But not in the way he meant. At the time, I took him for just another delusional character that made me love my downtown neighbourhood even more. Now, after four months of living here I realise he wasn’t delusional at all, he was a god damn prophet. Back in Melbourne I would have made eye contact with any average joe on the street, in particular any above average joe on…