Dunedin was great!
I went out that night to see the final round of a battle of the bands with some others that jumped off the bus. After that was over, we wandered over to the Robert Burns Pub. They had a jazz night and a talented quartet playing dixieland era music. I was dancing in no time and stepping on toes of everyone else. They were all sitting or standing. Oh well. BUT, I did run into a hitch hiker the bus picked up near Fox at the pub. That was cool! Finally, we made it to the hip hop club. The DJs played proper hip hop, no thug or gangsta muzik. I danced until the fashionistas showed up and left because I wasn’t cool enough.
The next day I toured the art gallery which had amazing German video art. One artist transmitted a video signal across the room in a clever way. He took two small palates and put copper tape on two of the cross members on each palate. He soldered a tradtional co-ax cable to each palate and used the copper tape as antennas with the palates as the framework!
Another installment was called “Take me down to your dance floor.” An artist took a room in the gallery and installed a dance floor for people to move in! Plus, there were a few scheduled performances. I went to a hip-hop demonstration from a group called Nu Ztyle, who recently were granted $40,000 to perform in Adelaide’s festival next summer.
That night, I went back to the Arc cafe for “Tainted Love” - an off-kilter disco - all the 80’s indie and punk. A great group of people showed up, and it reminded me of the hipster joint Illegal Pete’s turns into on the weekends.
The rest of my time in Dunnes was relaxig. I went to the library and read a few books - one on Japanese culture, and another Ancee Min (Wild Ginger). I also saw Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind, another Kaufman masterpiece benefitted from a superb Jim Carrey performance. This movie did things in imagery that I’ve never seen before. Go see it now! I know it’s been out for a while in the US, but go anyway. Maybe it’s at a cheap theater near you!
Now I’m in Christchurch and looking to cruise here for the rest of my time in NZ (which is under a month now!). I’ll go to the mid-week swing dances here, and take weekends away in the surrounding area (if I can get everything organized).
I’m getting excited for Japan. And I’m still eagerly awaiting more information about it. I only know my region, not my city/town or school. I’m crossing my fingers that comes through in the next week.
I’m also getting tired of NZ. There are heaps of young travellers here. It’s a nice and safe place, so a lot of first-time travellers come here (ie me). But also a lot of greenhorns - kids that haven’t left Mom or Dad before, kids that grew up in a country where the drinking age is 21, kids that are only here for a week or two to snowboard or ski. You quickly pick up if someone is traveller or a holiday maker.
Plus, not working means you have a lot of time on your hands. Staying in one place makes you bored and lonely rather quickly. You can only go to tourist places in an area for so long: soon you’ve been to all of them. Travelling in a country whose main industry is tourism also breeds another kind of disposable culture that sours after a few months. To stay here and enjoy it, I would need to get a job and then make friends and get a community. That’s what I’ve learned makes a place a good one: the people around you.