Maria Majsa Back bedroom, Pakuranga, Auckland 1978I held the popsicle to my left ear while my brother stabbed away at my right. It was a warm day and I could feel the popsicle oozing down my neck. Blood and raspberry, an indistinguishable mess.
Maria Majsa One bedroom apartment, Herne Bay, Auckland 2007You can fall in love with songs just like you can fall in love with people and because I discovered Elliott Smith after he’d died, it was like falling in love and breaking up at the same time.
Maria Majsa Hammersmith Palais, London 1980After all the attitude and swagger of punk, here was a band with the courage to be vulnerable. And while admitting to vulnerability is never comfortable or easy, it is necessary for real human connection.
Maria Majsa Pakuranga, Auckland 1967There is a radio in a brown leather case on the bench. My mother turns it on during the day when my father has left for work and the house feels different.
Maria Majsa University of London Union, Malet Street, WC1, 1986He smiled, stared at his shoes and said Hello. He looked so pale and young. I said Hi in a voice I didn’t recognise.
Maria Majsa Auckland, New Zealand, early 1970s Western Springs College, Auckland 2012Inheritances run in families like a seam through generations; swallowed hopes and ambitions which sometimes find their full expression decades later.
Maria Majsa The Marquee, Wardour Street, London 1984I headed for the place I’d seen him last, but all I found was blood on the floor. People had scrambled through it leaving sticky prints in every direction, like a contaminated crime scene.
Maria Majsa London, 1985I used to go for rides with a friend who was a fellow Smiths fan. We stopped at a riverside pub called The Old Ship to order drinks and compare favourite lines and I fell momentarily in love with him.