support the things you love
on our collective lack of ambition for the world and how we can help make things a bit better
Kia ora and welcome to clipboard, an intermittent email newsletter about good shit in Tāmaki Makaurau, by me, Reilly Hodson. This time around: a plea to support the things you love, even as the world comes crashing down. If you enjoy clipboard, share it with your cool friend who has been threatening to move to Melbourne since before Covid.
if you don’t support the things you love, they go away
I was at one of my favourite lunch spots the other day, chatting with the owner, who was frankly burnt out. They pour themselves into their work, wanting to provide something unique to Auckland, supporting their community and working insane, 12+ hour days to do so. The problem is, hospitality is a tough business with famously tight profit margins, so they were looking at the numbers and wondering whether it might be easier just to up sticks, move to a place with lower rent and run a cafe that sells gross coffees with flavoured syrups in it.
It’s a bleak picture: the way our capitalist society values things (in dollars) means that, say, a management consultancy which aims to create efficiencies and optimised corporate governance through PowerPoints and coffee meetings, or a fashion brand that allegedly buys dresses on AliExpress or Shein and resells them for 5x the price turn massive profits, while the best place to buy a sandwich, sip on a coffee and meet new friends is struggling. There are not great incentives to do something which is cool and unique and new.
That’s a system that I personally don’t think is working perfectly, but of course I’m just a part-time fashion newsletter writer, not an economist.
The news this year is all about cutting back and tightening belts: cheese is too expensive, the government is going back to “bread and butter,” the mayor of Auckland thinks that “fixing” means “spending less.” We’ve been subsumed into a national narrative completely devoid of ambition for how things could be better, one which instead focuses on how things could be less bad.
If we all agree that money makes the world go around, the way we can take agency in our day to day is to find the businesses and causes which we think make the world better and support them regularly.
For me, that’s buying my coffee from cafes that think of coffee as more than commodity fuel, buying clothes from brands which do their part for the community and the planet (and make beautiful items that last), eating at restaurants that make me feel good regularly, paying for the media I read, and shopping as much as possible in person, at local businesses.
At a work event the other day, one of the speakers said something that stuck with me: “If you don’t support the things you love, they go away.” It’s really as simple as that, so if you’re in the lucky group of people that have discretionary money to spend, let’s do what we can to muddle through in what is an uncertain and sometimes scary world.
PS: if you care about the culture of Tāmaki Makaurau as much as I do, I’d highly recommend submitting on Auckland Council’s budget, which proposes substantial funding cuts across climate, arts, culture, public transport, environment, infrastructure, urban form, community and education programmes (read: important stuff!). Both the Green Party and Stop The Cuts (a group made up of many of Auckland’s most valuable arts institutions) have useful guides to the proposed cuts, and how to submit your views. Democracy, folks! Doesn’t work if you ignore it.
clips
I recently made the significant personal transition from “boyfriend” to “fiancé,” a very exciting and fun development! Here’s a picture of the very cool (if I do say so myself) ring I had made for my wonderful fiancé, and expect to see some wedding planning content in these pages over the next *mumble mumble* period of time…
The friends of clipboard at Platform helped to launch the new brand Rimor Bay, which has a great selection of cool beachy clothes - they sent me one of these jackets and I immediately got a stain on it, but not before I got a lot of very kind compliments on it!
I was really unwell this week and binged Guy Montgomery’s Guy Mont-Spelling Bee on Three Now, it’s great wholesome fun, the kind of show that has someone like me thinking “I would be awesome at this” even though I’d probably be just as bad as everyone on the show.
Checks Downtown continue to be on an insane tear of releasing very cool clothes: I love this gilet, this fun cap, this green patchwork shirt, and they’re even bringing the tie back? As an aspiring suit-and-tie guy, I’m here for it.
I don’t usually post about my day job, but this great article from clipboard reader Sam Brooks is about an event I helped put on, so here’s to patting yourself on the back!
Thom Morison has a sale on, so now is your chance to get the best quality NZ menswear at very reasonable prices: I love these trousers, this stripy shirt and this amazing jacket, which has to be worn to be truly understood.
Hera Lindsay Bird got an advice column for The Spinoff, and it’s an excellent version of the format - big thumbs up!
Been looking for the perfect flannel as we approach slightly colder months? Look no further!
That’s all for clipboard this time, thanks for reading! I promise this newsletter still exists, I’m just a busy guy (Matty Healy voice). If you like clipboard, share it with the coolest people you know, and follow me on instagram or send me an email if you’d like to keep in touch! See ya next time.
normalise supporting the things u love frrrrrr 𓆩♡𓆪
Like going grocery shopping in bakery and deli. Buying bread or cookies baked at store, rather than purchasing what's shipped in. Fresh taste and neighborhood devotion has was better taste. All kinds of everyday ways to express guarding our neighborhood.