I propose a symmetrical quest to Newfoundland:
I would like to fly from Victoria, BC, which is on an island off the far west coast of Canada, to St. John's, NF, on an island off the far east coast.
I have been to Newfoundland only once before, about six years ago. Since then, I have had a sizable array of hair cuts and colours, but lately I have developed the very same hair I had last time I was in Newfoundland.
Thus, I submit that the time is ripe for me to drop into St. John's, delite in the weirdness that is Newfoundland, investigate the hairstyles going on there, search out some purveyors of hair styling, seek some local advice, consider the contextual moment, and find for myself the mother of all Newfie haircuts (symmetricality of haircut = optional). Perhaps I could spend all the money I would have spent on a plane ticket on one towering masterpiece of hair. Perhaps I could spend several weeks getting an ever shortening series of cuts. Perhaps I could find a retired fisherman with nimble net-repairing hands who dabbles in coiffure. Certainly all the fruits and processes of the investigation could be collected online as a document both of Newfoundland and of hair.
The Newfoundland component of this project may require further explanation. The bizarro nature of Newfoundland borders on the mythical; it is cold, grey, wet, icy, isolated and suffering from a declining resource-based economy. Also it is full of viking landing sites, puffins, nuns, highly musical people, brightly coloured houses, woolen hats, icebergs, beer named after french explorers, sailor food (salt pork, dried cabbage, fried batter with molasses, etc), indecipherable cuss words, trigger mittens, strangely shaped wooden spoons, carnivorous plants and a weird accent resulting from Irish and French settlers spending decades blending together on an island in the middle of nowhere.
Further, it exists one half hour later than the rest of North America. When Newfoundland joined Canada, they negotiated to keep their existing time zone but got bargained down to half an hour. Now when the time is announced on national radio it is in the format "2:17, 13 minutes to the hour in Newfoundland." Good, yes?
This is not to sensationalize Newfoundland. It is only to explain how besides being a symmetrically appropriate place to get a haircut right now, Newfoundland would be a sure place to create a dazzling and unique hair experience. Dazzling!
Thinking about this prospective hair, I have quite a commitment to finding the hairstyle that Newfoundland demands, to accessing the opinions and suggstions of a wide cross-section of the population of Newfoundland, and to being aware of what hair-related implications exist in the places and situations that are Newfoundland. Making myself the hair styling vessel of Newfoundland. This is something that is fun to do on a trip :)
As for the web content to be birthed by all this Newfie tomfoolery, I expect it to involve a lot of colouful photos of and discussions with the people I find in Newfoundland, as well as some sounds if I can wrangle it because the Newfie accent is a wonder to behold. I expect it also to evoke the entire context of the operation: the nature of Newfoundland as I experienced it in relation to my hair, the physical nature of hair in Newfoundland's weather, the nature of my hair in the middle of all this focus, the nature of my approach to hair cuts in general and in this specific sitation, the name this hairstyle ends up with and why, and the various symmetrically pleasing aspects of the journey.
The web projects I make tend to be completist in some way (see examples immediately following), and I do think that tendency exists in my desire to make some kind of The Entire Haircut Milieu Of Newfoundland And The Hair I Needed To Get While I Was There story. I have whatever particular energy it is that likes to produce a full, cross-disciplinary explanation or a complete catalog.
Witness:
All About My Vagina (myvag.net) - pretty self-explanatory, but I'll note defensively that it is not a vagina monologue. It is more like a user's manual, or a big collection of little practical notes.
The Aloha Misc. Media House (alohamedia.net) - this is less an online empire than a real world one right now, but it has the property of being a collection of miscellaneous items on a unified theme. I did not make all the miscellaneous items, but I did help conceive of the unifying theme and I did make the website awhile back.
With that, I happily submit my proposal! What a smashing contest!
Love,
Sarah Mundy, Aged 22
Victoria, BC