daisy chain zines—chain 1
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In the Hawaiian section at your local junk store, grab as many plastic Tiki and fake flowers as you can carry. Extend palm tree paradise with some cheesy Island-inspired posters for your walls and pink flamingos. As for that mini blow-up palm tree? Definitely need this. You could consider focusing all your knick knacks into some sort of Hawaiian bedroom shrine, one which offers a warm Aloha to all visitors.
Find thrift stores with old post cards, maps and travel posters. The best way to stumble across these are on road trips through small towns. Rare Books on High street in Auckland has a range of vintage postcards you can collect as sets or be selective about. You’re the curator here! Scatter your walls with only the best vacation post cards, Island maps and posters you find. Don’t forget you can print stuff too, frame beautiful maps or hang postcards with pegs to string across your room.
Create Shangri-La vibes in your place of complete bliss! Paper laterns strung from the roof will be a delight when the sun sets, enhancing that peaceful paradise atmosphere. You should no longer feel stressed while in your room. Hang the lanterns from hooks for diversity and swap colours as your Hawaiian taste changes over the summer. Pencil Boutique on High street stocks bright traditional paper lanterns as does trusty Look Sharp.
Pool or no pool, have you considered a blow-up lounge chair? You can indulge in this Hawaiian luxury anywhere–carpet or wooden floor. If you’re pressed for space you could venture out to the lawn or local park. Don’t be embarrased, you look cool. Once again check out thrift furniture stores for old pool lounge chairs. You could also check out Look Sharp or Geoff's Emporium for a blow up pool for the complete ~sea punk~ experience.
Now you’ve got the basics look out for little knick knacks to complement the overall theme. Pineapple or coconut shaped cups, Hawaiian lei bunting, cocktail glasses with mini umbrellas and paradise stickers all look great through the eyes of a room owner wearing cheap colourful sunglasses. Looking pretty sharp there.
Olivia Trimble in
Palm Tree Park by Georgia Johnstone
Somewhere Sofia Coppola (2010) Set in a hazy L.A. summer, a Hollywood star meanders through mid-life crisis, when suddenly saddled with sole responsibility for his daughter. Predominantly based at the alluring Chateau Marmont, there’s lounging by the pool, guitar hero and lots of gelato. The empty, quiet nature of the film is beautiful to watch, and a unique take on what would otherwise be a clichéd story about the emptiness of money and fame is refreshing. The story feels real with an absence of conventional Hollywood glamour allowing for a fresh depiction of celebrity culture. Coppola is often criticised for favouring style over substance, though it seems here she is a step ahead. Somewhere is a film about Hollywood itself, breaking its own conventions. Stranger than Paradise Jim Jarmusch (1984) Willie is a self-identified hipster living in New York, eating TV dinners and occasionally winning money in poker games. When his cousin Eva arrives from Budapest his friend Eddie develops a fondness for her, and the three move from a boxy Manhattan appartment to a miserable winter in desolate Cleveland. Split into three acts, the film winds up at a cheap seaside motel in deserted Florida. Supported by a deadpan comic tone, the shots are filled with an emptiness which forces you to notice intricate details. Stranger than Paradise is an experience of discovery. It moves steadily and before you know it, ends in a surprisingly perfect
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Moonrise Kingdom Wes Anderson (2012) Two lonely twelve year-olds who feel misunderstood fall in love and dodge authorities to create a world where they make the rules. Moonrise Kingdom isn’t too cutesy or self-indulgent given what could be a simple plot. It’s about escapsim but transends the clichéd narrative of running away. The kids are too emotionally troubled and unusual, the adults too wrapped in their own affairs to notice, and the action far too cleverly composed to be predictable. Those unfamiliar with Anderson’s direction may also be surprised by the story’s darker moments. Visually striking cinematography coupled with rich symbolism will leave you wishing for a photographic memory and printscreened shots to plaster your bedroom walls with. Pierrot Le Fou Jean-Luc Godard (1965) Ferdinand Griffon (Jean-Paul Belmondo) is an unhappy, married man living in Paris when one particularly mindless and shallow party triggers his desire to escape. Partnering in crime with babysitter and ex-girlfriend Marianna Renoir (Anna Karina), the pair head toward the Mediterranean Sea. Their ways of thinking begin to differ until the relationship becomes difficult and strained. With blood and violence driving the narrative, the script provides philosophical dialogue as a refreshing contrast. There’s a certain playfulness from Godard in Pierrot Le Fou. Defying standard rules of filmmaking, the fourth wall is broken to make a postmodern statement with unconventional editing styles. It feels timeless and way beyond its years, still defying film conventions today.
Badlands Terrence Malick (1973) Loosely based on a true story, 15 year-old Holly and 25 year-old garbage man Kit fall in love, and embark on a disturbing yet beautiful depiction of a cross-country killing spree. What follows is an odd but gripping blend of love story, road movie and crime-thriller. Somehow it's never presented as being perverted or glorifying violence. The young couple have a romance in isolation and live in a dream world until reality catches up. Malick portrays the characters as confused kids, not screwed up murderers. Visually the film feels dreamlike with Holly’s narration adding to the overall poetic style. No one captures the essence of American landscapes like Malick making it a must-see, transcendentally stunning story.
The Descendants Alexander Payne (2011) Surrounded by the breathtaking landscapes of Hawaii, workaholic lawyer Matt King (George Clooney), is stuck in a melancholy, presumably set in contrast to his environment. After his wife falls into a coma from a speed boating accident, King becomes the back up parent to his two estranged daughters. Each hold a distant relationship with him, bitter and derided toward his sudden interest in their lives. This film could’ve simply played out as a series of unfortunate events, but Payne somehow manages to evoke an entirely different feeling, pushing beyond postcard Hawaii. Set to a soundtrack of traditional and modern Hawaiian music, The Descendants strikes the perfect balance between subtle humour and heartbreak. Payne provokes the thoughts of defining family and identity, in a low-key approach audiences can connect to on a new level. Be warned, you will probably  cry.
A straw sunhat A cricket bat
w Knap-sack packed lunch A pottle of punch
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Kites to fly in clear blue skies
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o Good books to read while eating sunflower seeds
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A swimsuit, a towel, a checkered picnic blanket to enjoy a roadside honesty box fruit banquet
Sunblock, sunglasses, sunbath and dial Mango strips to snack on for a while
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A roadmap for directions A sticker album with separate sections
A journal to record all you see A thermos to carry Rose and Vanilla tea
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n Raincoat just in case it rains Stain remover in case you slip and it stains
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Tunes to play while on the road A tent to pitch a humble abode
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Guitar for nights spent under the stars A camera to remember where you are, now.
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Panamรก
Samuel Trimble
We were at Piha yesterday
salt soaked skin, scratchy black backs.
The sand gets everywhere when you lift your towel like that.
We saw a dead fish floating in the water.
John Dory, you told   me. Home time, I said.
We arrive at Courtney Harper’s home with the promise of traffic-light popsicles on a warm afternoon. She meets us on the deck with three ice-blocks, a hoarded bag of keepsakes which prove three months worth of travel and a grin.
So with loose connections scattered across England, they were friends of friends of friends and some distant cousins in Paris, Courtney’s adventure began first in France.
I did well at keeping a lot of junk! Courtney doesn’t speak French, but in December last year she boarded a plane alone to Paris. Taking only a mouthful of phrases with her, Bonjour, je me parle en peu francais, she wanted an adventure. Not everyone was as optimistic. People doubted the likelihood of her trip because it was so soon, with no real itinerary. In the middle of her degree at Whitecliffe, she was nineteen years old and living on a tight budget. But doubt only made her more determined to do it. I thought,
Paris was my first week alone in a foreign city and it felt like no one spoke English. I didn’t know whether I’d get there and want to cry like what am I doing?! But she didn't cry. She didn't have time. Walking everywhere, Courtney quickly became inspired by the architectural repetition of what she was seeing, her mind translating it all to clothing. The window shutters, the gradual tones, I became obsessed. An obsession built upon during tedious 30-hour bus trips, where she made the most of Europe’s cheapest mode of transport.
I’m going somewhere! Having captured the essence what the city had shown her, It needs to be far away ofCourtney remembered Paris with and it needs to be a dreamy rose tint. somewhere I’ve never been. I don’t have any money but I’m gonna do it anyway.
Memory is a distorted thing. I had remembered Paris as a painting with all the colours, the tones. From Paris she saw London, Bath then Chamonix, where she flatted in the French Alps for two weeks before getting bored with the small ski town and taking the train back to Paris. From there Fontainebleau, Brussels, Amsterdam, Bruges, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Venice, London then Paris again to fly home. Cutting her trip two weeks short to be back at uni on time, she returned to Whitecliffe the day after arriving home. Back in class she faced her focus for the next eight months: creating an end of year collection.
Constructing five outfits from 15 pieces, Courtney used shutter-like detailing and gradients to reimagine the buildings she remembered. The show was a success. Yet somehow the clothes now feel secondary to the reason she went at all. The trip gave me clarity, I needed to know how to be alone. She tells us how important it was to feel out of her comfort zone. And her advice to someone toying with the idea of travel? Get out and do it. Some people can never just lift off and leave everything. But if you can, you should. She tears the wrapper of a now near melted Popsicle and smiles. I love these things.
Daisy Chain Zines: Chain 1 daisychainzines.tumblr.com
Olivia Trimble olivias-pizzazz.blogspot.com
Georgia Johnstone ssneak.blogspot.com
Contributors Samuel Trimble Graphic Design and Photography Ricoh nz Printing