The Question of Intention (by Chris Raine)

Someone was telling me about a film which had a Samurai that was about to chop the head off a man he had defeated. However, just before he went to strike, the victim spat in the Samurai’s face. The Samurai became angry and noticing that anger within him, he stopped, put his sword in it’s sheath and walked away from the kneeling man. In that moment, the Samurai recognised that to kill him would have been done out of anger, not duty and thus he could not take action.

—

Having given several presentations about Hello Sunday Morning to different groups around Australia the single most frequently asked question I get at the end is…

“So, do you drink now?”

The frequency of this question has prompted within me quite a considerable amount of thought towards it. I’ve come up with a few theories of my own as to why this question gets asked, but that doesn’t matter – the point that I really want to get across is that whether a person drinks or not is immaterial to what Hello Sunday Morning is about.

… Continue Reading

HELLO SUNDAY MORNING – AN INTRODUCTION

Thanks to Justin Horsfall from Synapse Digital for creating this video.

Hello Sunday Morning – An Introduction from Hello Sunday Morning on Vimeo.

CK Raine HSM video post – ‘flattering lights’

Chris – flattering lights from Hello Sunday Morning on Vimeo.

A SNEAK-PEAK INTO SUNSHINE!

A little van of Sunshine! from Hello Sunday Morning on Vimeo.

The purpose of HSM (interview with Ben Hamley)

Finding a Rhythm (By Chris Raine)

A couple of months ago I had lunch with my good friend and mentor, Ben Johnston. Benny is a 6 foot tall, t-shirt wearing corporate hippie who runs and advertising agency with heart. That all sounds like a juxtaposition, but take one look at him and the agency (JosephMark) he has created and you will understand. Let me digitally introduce you to him (in a way that he would probably modestly introduce himself) by sharing a series of anonymous links as to what is doing or has been apart of here, here, here here and here.

Benny has long blonde hair which is usually cradled in some sort of fluffy, Rastafarian-style beanie. But it isn’t his polar bear looks that make Benny the special man he is. What makes Benny truly special is that he’s the kind of person that believes in ideas. Actually, even better, he believes in people with them. If you have a dream of doing something great, talk to Benny about it. He’s the kind of person a school should have as their careers councilor. He really makes it safe to share your dreams with him.

… Continue Reading

Conversations with a smokey port-a-loo mirror – (Chris Raine – Splendour Review)

The real value of festivals comes down to one thing. One possibility. The possibility of imagination. For just a weekend, people are free to become the person they spend most of their life hiding from. Free to express daemons and angels of their inner desires. Some people need drugs to achieve this ‘becoming’ and others (like myself) probably take them vicariously – for this I think society has conceited debt of gratitude for the substances we put to work.

… Continue Reading

Introducing UWA HSMer – Simon Noordhoek

THE LISTS WE COMPETE ON (By Chris Raine)

There is an episode in South Park called ‘The List’ that I thought was a very interesting insight into the way we are about popularity and beauty and our failure to recognise the fleeting temperament of both. In the episode, a list of the best to the ugliest looking people is created and put out to the student population. I remember that an identical list was created at my school (that’s high school by the way!) so I found the concept explored on South Park to be quite fascinating.

The funny thing is, that although these types of lists are always self-serving to the person/people that create them, we seem to believe them on some level for some reason. (Note: in the episode, the ballot was rigged by the girls so that Craig would win in order for it to be acceptable for the girls to go out with him and ultimately get free shoes from Craig’s dad who owned the local shoe store). Our desire for social inclusion is so often led by the arbitrary whims of others. Kind of like a peacock’s feathers or fashion or mainstream media.

The episode has a cameo by Abraham Lincoln who talks about how being ugly helps build character and resilience over time, which beautiful people don’t have when their looks fade. It is this thought that makes me think about an interview I did with a Sydney record label owner – Martin Novosel earlier in my HSM. He talked about how the successful people he knew (musicians, artists and the like) were nearly all outcasts at school because they invested all their energy into their purpose, not the social hierarchy that surrounded them.

I see the same thing happen when I go out now. It’s the exception that I want to stay out for long at all. By the very nature of my life, I simply don’t go out (in the massive way I used to) that much anymore. I used to invest my weekends (my 10,000 hrs) into making the top of the party list but I just don’t have the time or energy to invest into that list anymore. I’ve found other lists that I feel are more rewarding, more challenging and only have one person on them. ME!

I guess the further you are at the bottom of one list, the higher you get on another.

Birthday Hurdle (By Mariko)

I spent my 25th birthday sober.

Yes.

Sober.

If the first sentence sounded inexplicably morose in your head, (not dissimilar to a doctor giving a patient bad news), we could be related.

If the words that followed were steeped in melancholy, well! Pull up a chair and sit by me. We’ll drown our sorrows in a couple of G + T’s. Hold the G.

When it comes to words, there is nothing as cruel as the word lisp, or more sobering as the word sober.

Except for me.

… Continue Reading