issue 4 - working from home

Welcome to clipboard, a weekly newsletter by Reilly Hodson about Auckland, culture, food and other good things.

wfh tips

I don’t have a real job. I pay my bills making and selling coffee, and I spend my days doing university work, writing a frivolous newsletter and occasionally writing copy or articles for money (if you’re hiring or commissioning, don’t hesitate to get in touch). All that means is that my working from home situation is a complete mess, a situation which has only been made worse by lockdown. As a result, I’ve had to muddle through some strategies to get my bare minimum work done from my dining room table, which I’m going to share here, in the hope that it will help you, if you have a job that involves more than a couple of hours of work a day.

drink water

I cannot recommend staying hydrated enough. It’s the one thing my mum (hi mum!) has instilled in me my whole life, and it genuinely improves my mood and productivity. I fill my drink bottle (this one from S’well) in the morning and make sure it’s full through the day, which for whatever reason encourages me to drink more than a glass does. It’s also apparently really good for your skin, and honestly anything that can help with the inevitable mask-induced breakouts is a win in my book.

sit in a comfy chair

Our workspace in the flat is our dinner table, and our dining chairs were a brilliant TradeMe find, but although they are extremely pretty to look at, they are in dire need of new stuffing and so sitting on them for long periods of time is not ideal. I can’t get any work done while I sit on the couch or in bed (and I’ve tried), so the other day I moved one of our arm chairs to the spot that I work from, and it has improved my mood immensely. Of course, an ideal world would involve a fancy office chair, but in the mean time, this has worked very nicely. 

actually do that daily walk

I’m not going to lie, I’ve been guilty of skipping my daily walks a couple of days this week, especially since the weather has been up and down, and those days are noticeably less productive ones. No matter how nice your home space is, escaping every once in a while will remind you that there’s a world out there, even if it’s just on your block. So keep an eye on the weather, get out there for a good length walk, and if you are desperate for caffeine support your local cafe, it’s been a rough second lockdown for hospo businesses.

clips

• The Spinoff’s Youth Wings video series is a fascinating insight into the minds of the corniest politics nerds in the country.

• If you enjoy that series, watch Boys State on Apple TV+, a documentary about a very strange teenage politics summer camp for boys in Texas and it will blow your mind and make you both hopeful and completely frightened about the world’s future.

• Albert and Joseph Yen, brothers who both do double shifts as practising dentists and Karangahape Road shop proprietors, spoke to Index for a rare interview.

• John Campbell did kava with Melodownz, and it’s every bit as awesome as you’d expect.

• Loading Docs have a short documentary about MP and style icon (I bought those Checks overalls in a state of style hubris and have never been able to pull them off) Chlöe Swarbrick. If you live in Auckland Central, consider giving her your electorate vote alongside a Green Party Vote (not an ad, but if anyone at the Green Party wants to pay me for promotion, get in touch).

• My favourite band the 1975 went on the excellent podcast Song Exploder to break down their fantastic, eclectic tune ‘The Birthday Party.’

• My favourite reselling instagram page Rubbish Bin (run by clipboard subscriber Mitchell Tan) is doing a fit pic competition to celebrate hitting 1,000 followers, hit it up, and I hear there are some giveaways coming too.

• Food for thought on the radical self awareness of millennial fiction protagonists.

• The NBA playoffs have begun, and if you don’t pay for live sports I hear you can watch all the excellent action at nbastreams dot xyz on your browser of choice.

• Ponsonby Road’s best restaurant Ockhee just launched their first run of merch.

music

• Auckland synth-pop duo Imugi have a new song called ‘Somebody Else’ which is every bit as vibey and chill and listenable as every other song they’ve released til now. Their new EP ‘Dragonfruit’ comes out October 30.

• I don’t really know anything about Shannon Matthew Vanya, only that he has a needlessly long name and is signed to A Label Called Success, but his new song ‘Stuck’ is a hit. Bright and shiny with a sick falsetto hook, this will be a feature of any beach trips this summer.

• Your periodic reminder, on the anniversary of Blonde, that this Justice remix of Frank Ocean’s ‘Dear April’ exists, for when you want to cry a little bit but also imagine that you’re in a very cool nightclub.

• Pharrell and Jay-Z have been criticised for the intense capitalism of their new track ‘Entrepeneur,’ and indeed what else could we expect from two of the great businessman of the music industry? Still worth a listen, as is anything those two collaborate on.

• Former YouTube it boy and current excellent pop artist Troye Sivan released his new EP ‘In a Dream’ on Friday and it is everything you’d want from a (maybe) break up album from Sivan.

• The Killers (of ‘Mr Brightside’ fame) have a new album! It’s called ‘Imploding the Mirage’ and is much better than I expected!

you can listen to all of my recommended tunes, new and old, on the soundboard playlist on Apple Music.

watch club

After a binge through Netflix’s extensive selection of mob movies, chronicled in this post on clipboard, my partner and I have begun a new genre binge: murder mysteries. We went to watch Rian Johnson’s Knives Out (pictured) in the cinemas when that was still a thing you could do, and were completely stoked. If you watch no other movie I mention in this section, watch Knives Out. It’s a brilliant comedic social commentary disguised as a murder mystery, with twists you will be genuinely surprised by, stacked with brilliant actors that will have you going “oh, they’re in this!” over and over. Anyway, after that we both decided that we needed to go deep on the genre, and we’re working our way through the canon of whodunnits. Murder mysteries are particularly fascinating, because the genre was essentially invented by Agatha Christie, and every subsequent interpretation is intensely referential to previous efforts, and so you end up picking up on all sorts of borrowed shots and themes, not to mention that a ton of actors seem to have made a decent career off ensemble murder mysteries alone. Any suggestions for next steps are welcome. I’m also open to suggestions of genres to go deep into the canon on for future issues.

Recent enjoyable watches include: 

• the new Murder on the Orient Express, directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh, which is lush and stylish and quite funny

• Gosford Park, a very Downton Abbey-y film by the writer of Downton Abbey and the director of M*A*S*H*, which is not available on any streaming services or for digital purchase anywhere I could find in New Zealand but is worth seeking out through ~ahem~ other means.

• The original Death on the Nile, because Agatha Christie does murder mysteries better than anyone else and Branagh’s sequel remake isn’t out yet.

• Clue, which is campy and ridiculous and all of the cast members were definitely on cocaine the whole time.

wish list

Lockdown brings out the worst side of my acquisitive, consumerist mindset, and I want to buy stuff to ease the existential dread that can enter the house, like when I heard that a student at my university tested positive, or when I see too many people who aren’t wearing masks on my daily walks. Here are a few things on my wishlist at the moment.

• These 70s-inspired New Balances that might be the best monochrome sneakers you can get for $160

• This cap which does a double shift repping Auckland’s best road and covering up unruly lockdown hair.

• This water carafe would also be perfect for cold brew or iced tea in the summer

• I’ve never been a big collared shirt guy, but I want to bring them into the fold for summer. This “giant” shirt from Entireworld is the perfect casual style for summer days, and if anyone knows of a locally-made shirt that’s similar, hit me up.

notices

• now that the election has been postponed, you can still enrol to vote if you haven’t (and you should!) vote.nz

• Continue to support local businesses if you have the means! Anecdotally, this round of lockdown has been a struggle for hospitality and retail businesses, so share the love where possible and keep the local economy ticking over. Make sure you’re supporting the people that don’t have shiny online or Instagram presences, too. If you like a place in normal times, now is the time to spend your money there and make sure they’re still around later.

Thanks for reading this week’s issue of clipboard. You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram, and send me an email if you’d like. I’m always open to feedback, queries and requests. If you enjoy clipboard, forward it on to your coolest friends, and if you received this email as a forward, be sure to subscribe for new issues every Sunday. See you next week.