daisy chain zines—chain 2
insider when it's cold consider this by yourself seeing things which are new dwelling on the present shutting out an inevitable future to york and away being someone who'll say i'll try that pumpkin outsider
How to have the best night in Day-to-day-to-day we’re mindlessly worn away but, inside our rooms and our heads let’s recognise instead the importance of internalising. And the way regular, un-rushed thinking influences everyday life. Be an outsider immigrating to the inside of your room tonight. Stepping in: turn off your cellphone and computer. How are you feeling?
Alert and Awake
Needing to Rejuvenate
Sit down in the far corner of your room or lay down the middle. It’s important you start from a foreign perspective.
Walk into your room and shut the door. Stare at the roof then drop your gaze to the floor. This is a place you can create comfort.
What can I see? Let what’s right in front of you inspire a D.I.Y project this eve.
Fairy lights strung along curtain rails look like urban glow-worms, a thick scent of lavender oil might leave you mistaken about where you really are.
You could; pull everything out from your wardrobe and start again. Fix the pieces you’ve always been meaning to— hems, buttons, tucks and nicks. Take all the bulbs from your roof and replace them with multi-coloured ones. Re-shuffle the books dusted on your case by colour, type or stack by size. Rearrange the way your bed faces, switch the bedside table accordingly. Find some fresh flowers, a vase. Decide to understand what you like and why. Make your room that way. You are the curator of this space, what do you wish to find tomorrow when you wake?
I enjoy my own company. It gives me time to think. Calm thoughts, brought about with a chance to breathe and catch up. Work out what matters to you with a journal, who do you admire and why a list of 5 people you appreciate. You might like to add scissors, glue, scrapbooking, stickers. Sleepy thinking and oil-spill eyes. Before slipping into slumber heat a teapot and curl around the book you always wanted to finish but never started. Do not awaken from your dream. It is too soon.
SUB MAR INE
Richard Ayoade (2010) Oliver Tate is an intelligent, neurotic school-boy from suburban Wales who lives entirely in his head. Anxiously narrating his thoughts, Oliver separates himself from his ordinary surroundings by envisaging dramatic consequences to hypothetical scenarios he makes up. On the outside he leads a life of monotony, but inside his head each moment is a curated scene. Adapted from the novel by Joe Dunthrone, Submarine is set to an atmospheric soundtrack by Alex Turner of The Arctic Monkeys. All the characters are lonely and on some level filled with sadness, from his idiosyncratic parents picking at their strained relationship, to a feisty girl named Jordana who Oliver becomes besotted with. The dark-comedy portrays the pains of adolescence through one boy’s direct thoughts, a glimpse at someone indifferent to being an insider or outsider.
Rushmore Wes Anderson (1998) Oddball Max Fischer is the 15 year-old focus in this bizarre depiction of a compulsive liar in love with extracurricular activities. Not fitting the strict structure of Rushmore Academy, Max’s grades are beyond bad due to a case of trying to do everything and he's a precocious geek with an attitude of unearned superiority. Befriending a school benefactor and eccentric millionaire named Herman, the pair connect as fellow outsiders but become sparring partners in a strategic duel when they fall for the school’s first-grade teacher, Rosemary Cross. Max's life crumbles. He is forced to grow up, sullen at first to accept the consequences of his actions and lies. Anderson adds startlingly originality to his films, elements of Rushmore inspired from his experience at an all boy’s boarding school. Each frame is meticulously constructed in detail, with a terrific soundtrack of British Invasion hits to capture the anger roiling beneath Rushmore's tranquil exterior.
The Spectacular Now James Ponsoldt (2013)
The Spectacular Now is a coming-of-age film exploring the delicate fractions between living in the moment and existing solely for it. Based on the book by Tim Tharp, the story is a refreshing take on the peaks and valleys of adolescence. Dubbed our generation’s Say Anything, protagonist Sutter lives in the now, a likeable life-of-the-party type who can’t see past tomorrow. Contrasting a dreamy Aimee who’s also armed with ambition, the two fall in love despite their different approaches to what matters when you’re still young. Raw and unaffected, the teen-centric story captures the tension between anticipation and reluctance to grow up in a candid, uncontrived way. “Everybody’s telling me to move on, I don’t see what’s so great about becoming an adult… Are you happy?” In a culture fetishising youth, This film comments perfectly on how people are both content with the present and unsatisfied with stagnancy.
Perks of Being a Wallflower Stephen Chbosky (2012) Based on the cult novel and even directed by its’ author, this is another honest coming-of-age-film avoiding the clichés of teen movies. John Hughes would be proud of this piece set in 1990s Pittsburgh to an excellent Brit pop soundtrack. The story follows Charlie, a troubled wallflower with a haunting past as he struggles to fit in during freshman year of High School. As an inspiring writer on the outside of everything, Charlie identifies first with his sympathetic English teacher before being taken under the wing of an eccentric older student named Patrick and his nonchalant step-sister, Sam. Suddenly and unreluctantly he experiences friendship, falling into the throes of typical teenage antics and finally uninhibited by his thoughts for the first time. Watching Charlie wind up in the same painful and complex situations since interacting outside of his head is sad. The loneliness he’s thought to have left behind has an indelible hold on who he is; a wallflower seeking to see life through the lens of an insider.
An Education Lone Scherfig (2009) In 1960s England, post war and pre The Beatles, Jenny is an intelligent 16 year-old who dreams beyond her study of art and culture yearning to exist in it. Seemingly trapped by middle-class conservative parents, the three share a small house and monotonously discuss the importance of good finance. There are plaits, plaid and boxy brick buildings. Jenny longs for an entirely different life. In sweeps David, an older man offering a ride home to save both Jenny and her precious cello in the rain. He effortlessly swoons Jenny’s traditional parents, with his suave, polished and most importantly, educated manner. Venturing Jenny to nightclubs, the opera and weekend trips to Oxford, 16 soon feels like 26 years-old, and Jenny has nearly recreated herself completely. Her picture of contentment cracks when she learns there’s more to her hero than he’d like revealed, and she must decide what an education really is.
Ginger & Rosa
Sally Potter (2012) “We had a dream that we would always be best friends.”
Directed as a semi-autobiographical film, this is an arresting account of two girls whose friendship becomes glaringly fraught after transcending so much. Fanning’s performance is brilliantly restrained, her reticence in no way indicative of her character’s thought-process or understanding. Ginger’s brooding, self-reflective nature is intensified by the narrative backdrop of a very real nuclear threat in felt in 1960s London; the wider global disarray a metaphor for complete social disintegration. But it’s not all doom and gloom. There are reflective conversations, perfect matching outfits, and the ironing of dishevelled hair with actual iron. The colours, patterns, the wonderful cold feeling. It’s all strung together to deliver a painfully beautiful, chilling depiction of the love and loss felt in best-friendship.
Watch how uninterested people are with each other next time you’re out alone. Café coffee arrives steaming, sits unnoticed and grows cold while eyes are blindly attached to tiny rectangular screens of black magic. Where did this obsession with the instantaneous, the validation found in shared experience come from? We’re tethered by the mysterious umbilical cord of social media, unable or unwilling to grow on our own. We break conversations with friends mid-sentence to speak with five non-physically present ones, take repetitive toilet breaks during work to clear persistent notifications and force our eyes open in the middle of the night to read messages we’re not going to remember in the morning. Why are we so dissatisfied with being present in one place?
Maybe it’s scary, but there’s something frustratingly refreshing about being cut-off from technology. The symbiotic stress and serenity of forgetting your cell phone is a good example. There’s a weird juxtaposition of anxiously knowing you’re missing calls with equally enjoying how out of reach you are. When you’re screen free, it forces you to evaluate how much time you spend online without social media filling the void. People joke, but the fear of missing out has had a crippling effect on our desire and ability to be entirely alone. We’re compelled to craft specially edited versions of ourselves, obsessively curating our showcased Internet lives as ever entertaining and dramatic. It feels like social media now centers around self-promotion and first-party endorsement created entirely for others to notice; our idealised selves, the best version.
Facebook is often the scapegoat for social media slamming, long criticised for blurring the realms of public and personal space. A concise analysis of the site, among an array of prolifically published research, is it’s one part narcissism, one part voyeurism. Not only do users get to project a constructed version of themselves, but can creep on every one else doing the same. These websites have firmly wedged open the door for self-promotion and rely on shallow relationships prevailing over more intimate, longterm ones. Facebook has ensured that frenetically gathering online acquaintances is now favoured over investing in a few close friends who know your middle name. It seems the rise of social-climbing, apparent shamelessness of selfies and validation found in micro-fame all stems from some incessant niggling to be a part of something bigger.
Of course the Internet holds a firm and warranted place in our lives. But are we using technology mindfully and meaningfully? One way of considering time spent behind a screen is reassessing whether what you’re engaging with is task-oriented. When you’re intentional with your time it rarely feels wasted. Design programs, using and following particular blogs, even seeing Twitter as a copywriting challenge–it all lets us use technology to our advantage as multi-purposed platforms which can be user-controlled, curated experiences. Being an insider spider on the outside wider web could mean thoughtfully creating, as well as consuming online content. Minds are full not less. Or could it simply be we need to realise how effortlessly the world goes on without our online involvement? How fascinating and freeing. Next time your Internet is down, let it force your real-life productivity up. Insider Outsiders are people who can strike the balance between being alone and social immersion.
90's Wallflowers
Can I just stay indoors today? Rose and French Vanilla, Dilmah
Orange Spice, numi Organic Tea
We spent a lot of time in the past year convincing people to try this tea. It cannot be over-endorsed!
Orange Spice is a white tea with lower levels of caffeine, making it perfect before sleep and dreams.
You can find it affordably in the Supermarket. Fill your teacup close to the brim with boiling water, allowing the tea bag leaves to steep before adding a touch of milk to bring out the Vanilla flavour.
Once reserved for the royal palates of Chinese emperors, white tea is the least processed, rarest and most treasured of the tea classes.
We took great delight in this drink while creating Chain 1, drinking it fixatedly. It feels even more appropriate now in winter. African Autumn, Harney & Sons Most of Africa does not actually have an autumn season, but this tea makes for a lovely combination. The mix of herbal Rooibos, Cranberry and Orange smells like scarves and scattered leaves on the pavement. Enjoy the thick fragrance which will cause you to find the nearest person and convince them to smell this! Beware: the bags in each box are intended for teapots, not individual teacup use. Wish we knew that earlier.
The fresh Cinnamon, Orange peel, Hibiscus flower, Ginger and Lime are hand-picked early in the spring and dried to perfection by the time it gets cold. The bag suggests pondering ancient myths for 5–6 minutes while waiting for the tea to steep. Red Raspberry Vanilla, T Leaf This treat arrives at Florentine Tea House on a beautiful tray with filter and pot to brew yourself. All the spoons are one-off and sit elegantly on the side of slender china teacups. It’s very, very hot upon arrival, so you can take your time chatting, reading, before filtering the leaves for a lovely scent and an even nicer after-taste. Careful not to burn your tongue, let the aroma waft.
Daisy Chain Zines: Chain 2 daisychainzines.tumblr.com
Olivia Trimble o-tee.blogspot.com
Georgia Johnstone ssneak.blogspot.com
Contributors Samuel Trimble Graphic Design Ricoh nz Printing