Auckland trip

Had a nice time in Auckland last week with my good friends Matt and Jo. The reason for the trip was to all go to see the La Clique burlesque show that was part of the Auckland Arts Festival. I loved the show - it was a lot of fun. It was also really cool to hang out with my lovely buddies. But I've decided that I do not particuarly like Auckland. I would never want to live there. It's too hot, there are too many people, and I witnessed some pretty upsetting gang violence on Queen Street that completely freaked me.

Here we are about to head into the venue to see La Clique.

The Office!

Finally! Here are some pics of the new office. I've been here for two weeks today. So far, I'm loving it. My office friends are lovely and I'm managing to stick to my new regime of leaving work at the office and having some time to myself in the evenings. Of course, this means I have to be efficient during the day and get lots of work done, which is why I've been slack on the blogging front.

Berlin @ Wellington

Some great music nights coming up at Mighty Mighty as a collaboration with the Goethe Institut. I plan to get to these three...

Friday 2 March - Bonaparte - Bang Bang Berlin Live show - solo new-electro-trash-punk darling Bonaparte via Bern, Barcelona and Berlin and now….The Mighty Mighty, 10pm www.myspace.com/findingbonaparte
DJ Steffen Schoeler from Berlin’s beloved quirksters dwfb. He’ll be coming straight off the plane from Berlin to Cuba St central, 12pm
The infamous Bar 25 Vodka Slide - The hottest craze from the Party Capital straight off the ice. It’s a license to pash as well as being the most fantastic way to drink vodka! www.bar25.de

[Hmm, this Vodka slide sounds like it could be amusing... Apparently it involves vodka, lots of ice, and pashing]

Thursday 8 March - Micro-pop Queen Barbara Morgenstern (Berlin) www.barbaramorgenstern.de and Fred Avril (Paris) www.fredavril.com for a night of lush sounds with “The Society For the Promotion of A Fantastic Way of Life” who’s electronic music is drawn largely from German labels including Morr Music, Monika Enterprise, City Centre Offices, Alien Transistor & Dial Records." 10pm.
PPC from 5pm

Friday 9 March - Blood Sausage, Leather and Beer featuring
Kapitan Krautrock und Freunde with German beer and sausage specials for lovers of Tangerine Dream, Faust, Can, Amon Düül

If I have only one night to choose, it's gonna be Barbara Morgenstern.

File this!

Listening to: On the Beach, Neil Young

I've taken an office in town. I've had to put all work on hold for a day to get myself into my office and I just started the gruelling task tonight of archiving my files. This is five years of files to sort through: bin what will never be needed ever again, archive into boxes what will be possibly be needed at some later date, and put aside the files I want to take to the new office. It's not a pretty sight in my dining room right now - so far there are three two-foot high piles of A4 paper that is the "bin" category, seven archived boxes of files and I'm up to T. So almost there. I'll get this cut tonight and then tomorrow is tidying day and then it's onto packing down computer gear and figuring what else I'll need to shift down to the office. Then at some stage I'll need to clean up the resulting carnage in my sunroom. I'll be glad when this is all over and I'm ensconced in my nice new office with my two friends (who are well organised and have already been there for a week). And then I'll be posting some photos, oh yes I will.

Oh and the highlight of the evening was finding something unpleasant that a cat had done behind the filing shelves. Nice.

saturday night at the movies…

Listening to: Tony Conrad. Tim Barnes. Mattin. on PSI Phenomenon (thank you Campbell Kneale)

MaoriTV has been programming pretty good movies. I just watched Daytrippers, a film by Greg Mottola. (Although in The Listener this was attributed to Noah Baumbach!) A nice indie film about an unravelling marriage and a (slightly) disfunctional family, mostly set in a family stationwagon. A wife finds a love letter and goes to her family for advice. Along with her mum, dad, sister and sister's boyfriend, she goes in search of the answers and eventaully finds the truth. The whole event happens within the space of a day, so it has the feel of a short story. It was a really neat and satisfying little lo-fi film. I really do wonder how The Listener got its facts so wrong. Mind you, I don't mind, because it was the Baumbach connection that persuaded me to watch it.

I should tune in to MaoriTV more often for their film choices, obviously. Some time ago I saw another little gem, Heater, a Canadian indie well worth watching.

I got along to City Gallery today to check out the Prospect Show with Dave. There were some good works there (of course, some real shite as well, but that will happen...) Hmm, well, interestingly the navigation menu for the show doesn't work on the Telecom site I have marked for you just yet, but hopefully it will soon. After all, the show has only just started, and sure, Telecom is meant to be the national telecommunications provider... Go figure. It was a lovely day in Wellington today, and a chance to sit in the sun and drink beer. Oh, late summer!

5 things you didn't know about me

I've been tagged by Ms Webweaver!

Here are five things you didn't know about me (and probably don't want to).

1. When I was about five my brother threw a piece of coal at my sister. She ducked. I copped it in the eye. Some little chunk of the coat actually ended up under my skin beside my eye and I could feel the little gritty thing in there for ages while it worked its way down the side of my nose till it just disintegrated and disappeared. It was kinda freaky.

2. I went through a stage at around the age of ten of pulling out my eyelashes. I don't think I was a maladjusted child, but it was a strange habit. I once had long curly lashes. They never grew back the same. I remember having bald patches in my lashes where I had pulled all of them out. I assure you, I grew out of this one.

3. I can't stand rodents. Rabbits, guinea pigs, rats, mice. They all creep me out, especially en masse. There's a guinea pig enclosure at the zoo and it makes me feel sick looking at them. I used to have pet mice as a kid and I put it down to the bad experiences I had with the little blighters.

4. My favourite pet was a goat that I got as a Christmas present when I was about 9 or 10. I loved that goat so much that one night I snuck out and curled up next to him and slept there. His name was Bilbo Baggins and when we had to leave him behind when we shifted up north when I was 14 I was pretty devastated. I would love to have another pet goat again one day.

5. I performed in an operetta when I was at primary school. I can't remember what it was called but I was one of the leads and I had to speak in a German accent. My parents thought I was great. Or so they said.

Mystification

Listening to: You Forgot it in People, Broken Social Scene

I was checking my blog stats today (not something I do very often) and found that someone in Invercargill looked at 43 pages. I don't think I know anyone in Invercargill. Maybe life is really boring down there. Maybe they were having a dull day at work. Anyway, Invercargill person, if you are popping back to see what exciting things I have been up to... well, hello there!

It's almost three in the morning and I have come to a grinding halt. I have a multitude of jobs to complete at the moment and I'm looking forward to a day of quietness tomorrow when I can get a big chunk done with no interruptions. What with it being Waitangi Day (link for the benefit of those non-NZ readers) and all, it's gonna mean no phone calls or email. Sweet.

Today I finally had my accounts guy over to get my 2006 tax return in (just a wee bit late!) I found that I had another boomer year for Parlour, but where the hell does all my money go! I mean, I don't do any overseas travel, I don't eat out all the time, I don't buy lots of fricking fancy expensive clothes. It's a bit depressing really. I'm just not a saver. This has to change! I hope to make this the year I get my financial shit together. My accounts guy has advised me to keep a log of all my spending. Now that could be scary.

Well, I reckon it's bedtime if I'm gonna have a productive day tomorrow (today?).

Yeah, I'm a Believer…

Listening to: Ghosts of the Great Highway, Sun Kil Moon

Just got a nice surprise in the post today: my McSweeney's order. No actual McSweeney's Quarterly Concern yet, but since I subscribed to their package deal, I have the DVD magazine Wholpin and The Believer which this time round is a visual arts edition. Yeeha! Now I just have to find time to read the stuff…

The almighty flea

We saw this outside a pet shop in Crofton Downs this afternoon. I just had to share. In case you can't tell, it's a very large papier maché flea. Awesome. I want one for my lounge.

These are a few of my favourite things...

Listening to: Howard Hello, Don't Drink His Blood
Tagged by Paintergirl!

Okay, I find the whole "favourite" thing really really hard, because I'm not very loyal to my favourites. I can change my mind about these things way too quickly and today's favourite becomes tomorrow's "oh, yeah, I used to like that quite a lot". But here goes for today.

Favourite movie - Donnie Darko
Okay - very mainstream and all, but I just loved this film and have watched it about three or four times which is very rare for me. It's a great whole package and the soundtrack took me way way back.

Favourite guilty pleasure movie - Nell
Syrupy sentamentalism, yes, but I have memories of watching this movie with my kids. They loved it and I loved watching it with them. It used to make me cry.

Favourite book - A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
Okay, this will change I'm sure. I can't think of any "classic" books that I know and love - there are just so many - so this is my favourite of the moment. I will try and devour anything by Dave Eggers and have just subscribed to McSweeneys.

Favorite guilty pleasure book - Snowflake by Paul Gallico
A book from my childhood that I pick up again every now and then. See the sentimental seam running here? Scary. I also love the cover. It's a slim little hardback novel.

Favourite song - "A Pillow of Winds" by Pink Floyd
Just a really beautiful love song. Makes me close my eyes and smile. Meddle is one of those albums that my big brothers listened to when I was about 11 or 12 and I loved it and listened to it so many times and still can. It reminds me of laying around on a summer's day in our lounge on the cusions in the bay window in the hot sun with the breeze blowing in... But a very close second is The Chills' "Pink Frost".

Favorite guilty pleasure song - Afternoon Delight by The Starland Vocal Band
I can still listen to this song and sing away - know all the words. But only in private. This one's just plain embarassing. I can't believe I'm 'fessing up.

Hey, this was fun! Cheers Paintergirl!

Commes des Garçons

Listening to: Cat Stevens, Teaser and the Firecat

Paintergirl was doing an interesting exercise in nostalgia, taking a trip down the olfactory memory lane by recounting the perfumes she has worn over the years. I could immediately remember the scents I've worn over the years. My latest perfume was not even chosen by the scent but by the concept - I read about it in a magazine and thought "yep, that's for me". Good grief, don't I sound like the most despicable consumer. Anyway, here's the description of the scent. I've been wearing it ever since and have to send away for the stuff since I can't buy it anywhere in NZ.

Odeur 71 by Comme des Garçons
Stray from the traditional and opt for the extraordinary. This bold "anti-perfume" combines 71 modern and classic "odeurs" to yield a unique and provocative fragrance for men and women. This ultraurban scent spins together the cloned inorganic smells of modern daily life and mixes them with natural ingredients for a futuristic fragrance.
Moss, Bamboo, Bay Leaf, Willow, Elm and Birch, with Photocopy Toner, Dust on a Lightbulb, Electric Toaster and Ink.
A cool, contemporary scent for the modern man and woman.

Anti-perfume? Where the hell do they come up with this stuff?

Gonna be an office girl

Listening to: sunnO))) & Boris, Altar

A friend of mine asked me last week if I'd be interested in sharing some office space. I went and checked it out and it's absolutely perfect. It's pretty lonely with just me and the kids, and even though it means I'll have to fork out some more money, I think it's worth it so I've signed up. Very exciting. It's in exactly the right part of town for me and is very handy to the Film Festival where I'll be working again this year. Yes, I know I said last year that I was giving it up, but I will need the money and really, I do enjoy it, even though the hours are stupidly excessive. I'm moving at the end of the month. I'll post some piccies when I get myself installed. Me and two friends who are web designers will be sub-leasing from a small film production company, so it'll be a whole floor of creatives. And there's even a shower there! Really looking forward to it.

I've been motivated enough lately to manage twice-weekly gym sessions. I'm not the gym type at all, but I know it's the only way I'll get any excercise and I really want to look after myself this year - lose some weight, get fit, eat healthily. Doing well so far...

I've been to see a few films lately. I saw The Valet last night. Fun French comedy. Pretty light, but entertaining. My fave film so far this year (although I haven't seen many) would have to be Sofia Coppola's latest, Marie Antoinette. A flirty frothy piece of girly bliss. Totally lightweight, but so gorgeous. I loved it. And then there's the soundtrack - I got home and downloaded immediately, and it's been on heavy rotation in my car. After listening to 'Hong Kong Garden' by Siouxsie Sioux, I will be no doubt revisiting some of her albums for more than nostalgia's sake. I forgot what an entrancing voice she has.

During some of my Soulseek downloads this week, I found a stash of images. Amongst them was a folder full of images of old Russian posters. The designs are so cool, I just had to share one.

Health Regime a-go-go

I've been really into looking after myself lately. Weekly massages (including some nice healing reiki); eating properly (no sugar - well almost!); taking B vitamin complex, antioxidants, and four times a day a quite disgusting herbal concoction that tastes worse than it smells (and it smells pretty foul). This herbal mix is what is really keeping me going. Among other things it contains a good belt of valerian (nature's very own valium!). It's non-addictive and helps you sleep. During the day, it just helps me deal with the jittery body stuff that comes with grief and loss - a form of anxiety I guess. So really, I think I'm doing bloody well, all things considered.

Today I'm off to see a well regarded homeopath to get a constitutional remedy. More on this later. It'll be interesting to see how this goes. I envisage I will have a large list of questions to answer about my bodily functions and general health.

Work is going well, although there is an awful lot of it. I'm enjoying my work though. Very busy. It's good!

M. Ward is a Guitar God

Wahaaay. Just got back from seeing M. Ward. What a fucking treat. The place was packed. The man was amazing. And I managed to spend the entire gig just two from the front (even though my feet were killing me). It was a pleasure just to watch this guy play, let alone listen to his poignant guitar and beautiful voice. His own songs were brilliant, but it was pretty damned cool to hear his version of Daniel Johnston's "Story of an Artist" (off the Discovered Covered tribute album) and David Bowie's "Let's Dance" (who knew it was such a touching love song till they heard M. Ward sing it?). The best bit was his cool trick with his loop pedal. He was playing solo and you'd suddenly realise that he was looping what he had just played and adding new guitar over the top. At one stage he had two loops of his acoustic guitar going and then played some electric riffs over the top of that. All done seamlessly. Wow. He was so impressive.

Okay, guess it's about bedtime, being 1.30 am with work waiting in the morning. Still, I have a nice massage booked for the afternoon. That's something to look forward to.

Now I have to decide if I'm gonna go see The Veils on Saturday night. And coming soon are Calexico and Joanna Newsom (playing with Smog). Too much!

And life goes on...

It seems that I'm starting to pick up the pieces now, thankfully. I've been getting out and about. Went to see Cansei de ser Sexy the other night, which was a lot of fun. I actually went with my 19-year-old son! How sweet is that. So So Modern were the perfect support band. They are one of the best things on the Wellington band scene as far as I'm concerned. I bumped into a guy I haven't seen for 12 years! That was way cool. He was a close friend and we had completely lost touch. Bit of a surprise. He hasn't changed a bit.

I went to see Babel last week. Definitely worth seeing. I've really been seeing so many movies lately. It's a good way to keep my mind off other things, but of course, it's always great to get along to the movies. I'm heading along to Marie Antoinette tomorrow night.

I'm somehow managing to get through my work. I really am still quite behind, but I think I can wing it somehow.

I'm still feeling like I have a bit hole in my life, but I'm feeling stronger every day. Life goes on. It has to.

new blog. should i bother?

I can't quite bring myself to make the effort to start a new blog. Even just thinking of a new name seems like a lot of work. I'm not quite managing to keep up with the work I have to get done at the moment. It tends to be interspersed with little crying breaks. It's very annoying. I want to get back to being "me" again - getting on with things - but it's hard going. I guess I have to be patient with this grieving process. It's not easy getting over the shock of a sudden unexpected split. So many questions. So much pain. My kids are amazing to have around. We've been getting along to see movies, or going out for something to eat (having been feeling like cooking much either. Just been to see The Queen, which I enjoyed (surprisingly!) and The Departed (Scorcese's latest), which was also very good.

So, a new blog is not imminent. This one will just have to continue I guess until I have a bit more energy.

all over rover

This is not the kind of post I want to be writing. i would like to be saying that it's been a fabulous Christmas and all is happy in my world, but instead I'm writing to say that Dave and I have just split for good. After over two years of trying to make our relationship work, and recent counselling sessions, we are now saying farewell. Dave moved his stuff out today. I must say, I'm pretty devastated. We have just missed the ten-year anniversary mark, which would have been in February.

Because our blogs have been so much something that we've done together, I've decided to can this one and start a fresh one to log the journey of my new life. I'll do one more post when I have that set up and post my new blog address. I'm not sure how this new journey will be. I'm not looking forward to it at all. I'm a battler though, a survivor. I know I'll be okay in the end, but at the moment the pain is very overwhelming and the future doesn't look too bright. Dave and I plan to stay friends, but for me I know it will be hard. But I'm keen to give it a go.

So, farewell to this blog. I hope some of you will follow me on my new journey and keep in touch.

Au revoir.
Rose

been a long time, been a long time...

Listening to: Stars of the Lid, The Tired Sounds of

Hey there everybody! Although everybody is now just the most loyal readers, cos really, who's gonna bother when I only seem to be blogging at what seems a monthly rate?

Sooo, what's been happening in my world? Well, quite a bit really. My dear SOD has just moved back in with me. Oh happy days. We are going to counselling, which I thought was going to be awful but has turned out to be pretty damned useful. I heartily recommend it!

I have made the momentous decision to cut back on the work I do with the Film Festival so that I can pursue some of the other things I'm interested in - producing some art, getting physically healthier (ie, actually using the gym membership I have been paying for over the past year!), and possibly doing a part-time publishing course which starts in February.

I'm about to embark on the exciting project of redecorating my bedroom. I'll have to post some before and after shots I guess. It's a very small room and really cluttered. I've bought some new furniture. Next step is painting the room and sleeping on the couch till it's all done. It's gonna be fun.

Okay, so what else? I have been spending way too much time on MySpace. I haven't been blogging, just meeting a few peeps and sussing out the music. Every now and then I stumble upon people I know and that can be funny.

The film festival has been and gone and most of it seems to have disappeared completely from my memory. I got so busy during those weeks that everything from then has become a blur.

well, I will try to keep up with my blog a little more often. I just don't know where the time goes...

super-mum

What an exhausting day this has been. It's now after 1 a.m. The 21st birthday dinner party has happened and I'm alone at home finishing off the last bottle of bubbly. The throng of drunken kids have headed off into town. I was invited but declined. Maybe I should have gone. I think I would have regretted it. The bars they like to go to are not the bars I would like to go to. ANYWAY! It's been a great night and all the food went down well (except for the two slightly off-the-wall noodle salads that I anticipated may not be eaten, but I made cos I thought they looked kinda fun - guess they are lunch for today).

The room looked lovely - all asian inspired like the food. My darling sis helped out with some money for flowers. Here are some pics. My darling 21-year-old Chloe is on the left.

The birthday girl...

SHEESH

Oh cripes, where do I start? It's been a gruelling month. Film festival work, my other client work, then my mum gets really really sick. Just got back on Friday from a hard week of dutiful daughter action (I like to think I did pretty well on that front, but mother may tell a different story), then into a weekend of films. Well, kinda. I crapped out on Saturday. I preferred spending a quiet night at home with my man, chilling out. Missed a couple of films, but what-the-hey, I'd just missed a whole week of 'em anyways, what with the week with mother. I'm proceeding now with catching up on what I've missed via tapes from the festival office. I'll try to add a list of what I've seen in my next blog. It's gonna be a lot shorter than last years, that's for sure. My daily never saw the light of day. What a waste!

Mum is doing okay. Her morale has taken of bit of a battering after three weeks in hospital, but she is getting back to her old self. It was a hard few days down there. I'm not the most patient person. I'll leave it at that. Mother–daughter relationships are never easy.

Speaking of which, my eldest just turned 21 and I'm putting on a dinner party for her and her friends this Sat night. One of her requests is cocktails, so we went shopping for the ingredients today and had a little trial run tonight. I'm now feeling a bit tipsy after sampling a Mudslide, followed by a couple of glasses of Sex On the Beach. I think there'll be some sick young people at my house come the weekend, especially after the bubbly they're having with dinner. I'm freaking out about the cooking side of things. Ahhh! Haven't done this for a while. I hope it all turns out okay.

one more procrastination post

A list - via Paintergirl, via Acumamakiki

yourself = tired
your partner = smart
your hair = needs a cut
your mother = difficult
your father = honest
your favorite item = ring
your dream last night = odd
your favorite drink = gingerbeer
your dream home = seaside
the room you're in = warm
your pleasure = touching
your fear = paralysis
where you want to be in 10 years = healthy
who you hung out with last night = nobody
what you're not = girly
your best friend = dave
one wish list item = picnic
your gender = woman
the last thing you did = ate
the last thing you ate = pasta
your life = tiring
the last person you talked to on the phone = prepress manager
who are you thinking of right now = mum

Film Festival-a-go-go

Whew. It's been a hard slog but I'm coming out the other end of the festival-publication-machine and I'm not too battered about. The Auckland programme has been out for a while and the Wellington programme just hit the streets on Friday last week. My copy is already well-worn and has around sixty blue asterisks adorning the pages of the films I want to see. This will need to be whittled down to about forty once I work through the logistical complications of fitting this many films into 17 days and dealing with the inevitable clashes that will occur between two films when they happen to screen at the same time. Decisions, decisions! Scheduling my films is almost as gruelling a process as laying out the programmes.

Dunedin went to print last week, Christchurch went to print today and the next thing is the slick Souvenir Programme and the two Schedule Updates (horrible, horrible things to lay out because they are so fiddly and time-consuming).

What's been so crazy about the last couple of months is that without the Film Festival work I would still have been really busy with other clients. As Dave observed, I've essentially been doing two full time jobs. Lunacy, sheer lunacy. I'm going to have to make some tough decisions. I have been doing the film festival contract now for 8 years and my business is growing, so every year I have more "other" work to fit in around the festival work and it sometimes feels like I'm trapped in a bloody nightmare. I get so stressed I don't sleep properly and I get so used to not seeing people on a social basis that when I finish the contract I feel unable to relax, unable to adjust to normal hours and find it very hard to function at a normal level, including normal conversation. I have nothing to add to conversation except festival and film talk cos that's all I've been living and breathing for the past three months. It's very boring! So, do I throw it in? It's a distinct possibility and it feels pretty liberating just thinking about it.

Okay, it's 1.30am and i've just caught up with my admin. Paid bills, typed up invoices, input account data. I guess it's time for bed. If I could just switch off my brain...

I live (in some kind of sense)

My life is work. And it's going to get worse. I'll be spending almost every waking moment behind the computer, only taking breaks for eating and sleeping. Note: eating will not usually be preceded by meal preparation unless involving a can or packet or heating up something frozen in the microwave.

So, last night I worked till 3am. I will be endeavouring over the weekend to finish the 230-page book that I am typesetting (my first typesetting job - yes, some of you won't even know what this means or entails but too bad). Um, then there are a few other ongoing jobs that I will be slotting in while I work on my big contract of the year, the production of all the print material for the Film Festivals. I think it's thirteen programmes all up. Anyway, I move in to their offices on Monday. I think this is my eighth year now doing this work, so I know what I'm in for. It's a hard hard slog and we all go a bit mad. Mostly I feel sorry for my kids, although they are all teenagers now and can mostly look after themselves. But they will be eating badly and keeping up with their own laundry, blah blah. My eighteen-year-old son told me last night that he was looking forward to an endless party while I was gone. I think he was trying to wind me up.

I've just got up and so now it is straight back to work. Groan.

On Luis Buñuel

Listening to: Mink, For My Mink (Flying Nun)

The two Luis Buñuel films I recently saw at Wellington Film Society screenings were wonderful. I'm going to get hold of his memoirs I think: My Last Breath, 1983. He had a wry humour in his films that I found very engaging and a great take on social mores and hypocrisy.

He's also a very quotable man from what I've seen so far of his writing. Here's some great lines from the man himself:

"God and Country are an unbearable team; they break all records for oppression and bloodshed."

"All my life I've been harrassed by questions: why is something this way and not another? How do you account for that? This rage to understand, to fill in the blanks, only makes life more banal."

"Age is something that doesn't matter, unless you are a cheese."

"The decline of the aperitif may well be one of the most depressing phenomena of our time." (This from the man that featured the correct method of making a martini in the brilliant The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie.)

" I never miss my daily cocktail: where certain things are concerned, I plan ahead."

"Children and dwarves make the best actors."

Just found these great quotes in a neat little book I bought recently: The Rough Guide to Cult Fiction. Good little reference to have on the shelf.

in the yesteryear

I've been doing one of those massive purges that you've got to do on your computer every now and then. The music and the photos have been blitzed - if it's not needed, then into the trash it goes. If it is needed, but is finished with for now, then burn to DVD. It's a tiresome process which is why it only gets done when absolutely necessary. So tonight I've been burning and trashing.

During this purge I found some pics that my sister put onto disk for the whole family about a year or so ago. Dad was always snapping away, but he only used slide film, so almost all our family photos were on transparency. It was really emotional seeing all these images again that I hadn't seen for so many years. We would have these amazing "slide nights" every now and then when Dad would get out the projector and we would all sit in the dark cracking up over the funny family pics. Mum and Dad split when I was 21 so I hadn't seen any of these again till my sister got them put onto CD. Anyway, here's a bunch of them. The ones standing in front of the car would have been taken just before driving off somewhere on holiday - this was a traditional Miller family photo. I'm the littlest of the family.

Brown Bunny

Listening to: Taj Mahal Travellers, August 1974 (on the headphones - this is doing something weird and wonderful to me)



I've just (finally) watched Vincent Gallo's Brown Bunny. This film was slated at Cannes. Roger Ebert said it was the "worst film in the history of the festival". Since then Gallo has trimmed 26 minutes from the film. I haven't seen the untrimmed version. From what I have read it's a good thing that Gallo took it back to the editing room. Anyway, I kept an open mind about the movie and I really liked it. Yeah, one of the reasons I wanted to see it was for the much-talked-about fellatio scene between Gallo and Sevigny, but the story was sweet and sad. It was nice to have a simple "soundtrack" rather than a movie score - that was a blessing. I am SO sick of film scores. And the long takes were not at odds with the story. I won't go on about the story itself - you'll find that plenty of other places. It's said to be the work of an egomaniac. So? It's all part of the PC craze - people aren't allowed to have egos any more. I hope Gallo keeps making films. The trouble with egotists is they don't take criticism too well. And there has been plenty of criticism over this film.

There are people out there that love you though, Vincent.

Okay, Taj Mahal Travellers are getting a bit funky now. It's sounding like a jungle boogie. I'm loving this shit.

two drawings about love

Listening to: Current 93, swastikas for noddy (in particular, Beausoleil)

Listening to this because of the link to the Kenneth Anger films. The song is, of course, about Bobby Beausoleil, who produced the soundtrack for Anger's Lucifer Rising. I just saw the Magick Lantern Cycle last week and it was pretty mind-blowing. I designed the posters, programme and advertising for the event - it was cool to be involved. I wish I could watch the films all over again. My faves were Rabbit Moon, Eaux d'Artifice and Invocation of My Demon Brother.

It's a late night at the computer - almost one in the morning. Work is banking up so late nights are a necessity. Just having a little bit of time for myself though - been downloading some more music and doing a little bit of drawing.

I did this the top one on my weekend away to Martinborough. Did I have something on my mind? I hope nobody finds this offensive.



I just did the following one tonight.



"How can there be pleasure, how can there be joy, when the whole world is burning?" - David Tibet, Current 93

Is this a mullet?

I had my hair cut yesterday and my daughters both say it's a mullet. Is this a mullet?

Lame-o Frontseat

Listening to: DJ Spooky (feat. Dave Lombardo), Drums of Death

Hah! As if we needed proof that Frontseat is a lame-ass time-waster (which I must admit, I sometimes watch and always regret it). Check out this article on Stuff about the stupid "New Zealand's greatest paintings" poll. Gee, heaps of Colin McCahon paintings. What a surprise. Well, it was always a lame and pointless exercise anyway.

Pitchfork on Daniel Johnston

Listening to: A History of Shoegazing: The Lost Tracks, Various Artists

Pitchforkmedia has an excellent piece on Daniel Johnston. It's a long insightful read. It's good to hear that Daniel is well again after his kidney illness that hospitalised him.

My tarot card

This is weird:

You Are The Lovers

You represent ideal love: innocence, trust, exhilaration and joy. You demonstrate the harmony of opposites, two sides coming together. At times, you also represent the struggle between what is right and what is tempting. Control is an issue for you, especially when you don't know your reasons for choosing something. Your fortune: You have an important choice you need to make about love, and it will be a difficult choice to make. You are likely struggling between the love you crave and the love that is right. In the end, you will choose what you crave, even if it's bad for you. Because without what you crave, you will feel empty and incomplete.

What Tarot Card Are You?

I'm pumpkin pie apparently

Tasty. And this happens to be my favourite pie, so I am my own favourite pie. Get that.

You Are Pumpkin Pie

You're the perfect combo of uniqueness and quality Those who like you are looking for something (someone!) special

What Kind of Pie Are You?

I'm not as weird as I thought I would be...

Lilly, I saw this on your blog and just had to do it. You were 70% Lilly. I knew there was a reason I liked you.

You Are 30% Weird

Not enough to scare other people... But sometimes you scare yourself.

How Weird Are You?

wish I was there...

Damn coming back home after a lovely weekend away. I could happily have hung out in Martinborough for a couple of weeks, no problems. The little cottage we stayed in was great (apart from the neighbours having a shindig till 4am - grrr). Anyway, the rest of the time was perfect - lots of wine, nice food (Saturday night at the French Bistro) and lots of reading. There was a big old clawfoot bath there that was wonderful to lay around in and a fireplace along with a huge stash of firewood right outside the back door. Brilliant! I did a little bit of drawing too. Here's my map of a dismal country. What do you call it SOD? Pychogeography. Or something. There was another drawing I did that I like better but I think it's a bit pornographic for this blog.

it's getting to THAT time of year again

Listening to: Beans, various (now defunct band from Canada - thanks to fellow blogger and Canadian music afficionado, Rube Lubener, for the tip on these guys)

Oh my. Only around 5 weeks to go till it's that crazy old time of year again - the Film Festival. For those who don't know, around two months of my year are spent working from the office of the New Zealand Film Festivals. It's fun, but it's hard. The nice thing is being part of a team. Usually it's just me on my own (and the dog), hanging out at home, working busily away in the solitude of my sunroom/office. So for two months I get to hang out with other people. Not that there's much chat! Oh no, we all work hard and for long long hours. But it's all worth it, even if I do feel completely shattered for most of the time. For most of the time I don't really get to do much else except work, eat and sleep. That's NO exaggeration.

So, I have now, over the next few weeks, got to get stuck into the projects I have on the go now and get as much done as I can. Plus, I'm going to try to make sure I get some "me" time as well and keep myself well and happy. I'm heading off this weekend for some R&R to a cute little cottage over in - log burner, claw foot bath - lots of books and wine and food. Nice.

Still downloading like a crazy MF. Got the new Pretty Girls Make Graves, Élan Vital (not yet released). Yet another band that has played in Australia lately and not made their way across the ditch. Along with Les Savy Fav, Broken Social Scene and countless others. Shame.

ohhhh new music I love you

Finding new music is like exploring another world. I've been trawling the net, following leads, downloading. Soulseek window on one screen, browser in the other. Stumbled upon Do Make Say Think and thought, hello, these guys sound a lot like Broken Social Scene only to check and find that indeed, there are common band members involved. There's so much good good music coming out of Canada (Broken Social Scene, Feist, Do Make Say Think) and Scotland (Boards of Canada, Mogwai). It's so easy to find new music that you like on the net. Which transversly (sp?) makes it easier for the makers of music to reach an audience. Doncha love it? Okay, I've just downed a bottle of wine and I'm raving. It's time I went to bed.

[Just check my downloads first... still queuing...]

I've been obsessing over Broken Social Scene now for over three months. Where will it end?!

Oh, just downloaded early Dntel and it's so so making me happy. Soulseek is making my world go round.

I'm going to be hungover tomorrow.

What Post Punk band are YOU?

You scored as Throbbing Gristle. Throbbing Gristle are probably one of the most notorious and controversial bands of all time. Their proto-industrial music is self-consciously confrontational and alienating whilst their lyrics often deal with disturbing subject matter. Their best album is probably 1979's deceptively-named Jazz Funk Greats. The Slits 86% Throbbing Gristle 86% The Fall 67% Cabaret Voltaire 63% Joy Division 60% Public Image Ltd. 57% Gang Of Four 50% Wire 43% The Teardrop Explodes 37% The Pop Group 27% Which Post Punk band are you? created with QuizFarm.com

Rebirth of a Nation

Listening to: Pajo, Pajo
[Loving this album - seems almost a homage to the late great Elliot Smith (RIP)]

My last festival event last night - DJ Spooky with his re-/de-construction (he says remixing) of D.W. Griffiths' Birth of a Nation, 1915, Rebirth of a Nation. He's a bit cool, old DJ Spooky (that subliminal kid). His wry intellect comes across whenever he speaks. He has these smiling eyes that have that laughing look like the Dalai Llama. Like he's found his place in the world. Maybe I read too much into people. I dunno. But I think he looks he knows what he is about, in a general sense. If he does, then he is a lucky man.

Anyways, the gig. It was brilliant. He had three screens - one main one and two slightly smaller ones on either side. The two side ones were generally showing the same image although not always in sync. He layered up the images and closed in on some, added filters, deconstructed, pixellated, slowed down, degraded, coloured, moved the time structures - all the things a DJ does with sound. (I'm interested in the way software approaches sound and image - I was thinking about this a while ago and the way Spooky remixed the film has brought me back to it. There's a similar approach and language with both sound and image on the computer. Getting rid of "noise"; layering; reversals; distortion; loops; adding filters; opacity; transparency; adjusting curves; overlays. I could go on.) Added to that, the soundtrack, mixed live, was wonderful. I had never seen the original film - depicts the rise of the Ku Klux Klan in the southern states of the US after the Civil War. It was a contentious film - the KKK shown as the heroes of the day. Very nasty stuff. I'd like to see the original. It starred the divine Lillian Gish.

Here's an article about Rebirth of a Nation from the Harvard University Gazette.

Blog housekeeping

Just been tweaking some of my links on the right hand side over there. Added an excellent film review site that I stumbled across as well as a new blog I've been reading as well as hauling out one blog that seems to have come to a standstill.

film society

Just been checking out the lineup of films that the Wellington Film Society are offering this year and I think that I just might join up. 6.15pm every Monday night at the Paramount for most of the year. Oh, first up are two films that I really want to see, both by surrealist filmmaker Luis Buñuel. Some time ago I watched The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) which I loved. So getting to see some more of his work on the big screen will be cool. Diary of a Chambermaid and Belle de Jour.

For five weeks after that there are films by Jean-Luc Godard to look forward to. It's all looking good. Worth the year's $85 subscription, I tell you.

I am a giant moth!

Cheers Lilly (and before that, Adam)

Rose is a Giant Moth that spits Ice, Fears Nothing, has Very Sharp Fangs, and Screeches when Angry. Strength: 3 Agility: 7 Intelligence: 5 To see if your Giant Battle Monster can defeat Rose, enter your name and choose an attack: fights Rose using Strength Agility Intelligence

Discover your inner spammer

My spammer name is Dogfish W. Monocotyledon.

Enter your name to get yours:

huh?

Is this guy for real? It's a funny read anyways. Including the comments.

entertainment glut

Man, I've been a lucky one lately. Last night it was Talvin Singh, the night before it was Holy Sinner (both Arts Festival envents) and last week I got to see David Pajo (ex-Slint and Tortoise and many other connections).

Talvin Singh was good. I'd describe his music as ambient bhangra or India-infused electronica. He plays the tabla - a traditional pair of Indian drums - and teams them with electronic instruments and a nice sparing dose of vocoder vocals.

Holy Sinner - well, it was gorgeous to watch and had amazing staging values which were really very beautiful. But the story was kinda weak. The first half was good, but the story lost the plot especially at the end. Glad I went though. It was worth it for the visuals. And of course, to support our local theatre.

David Pajo - awesome. His solo work is reminiscent of Nick Drake and Elliot Smith. He had some funny pooh jokes. You had to be there.

I've still got another Festival event to go to on Saturday night - DJ Spooky with Rebirth of a Nation. Should be good.

Three facts about Brian Eno

I didn't know that Eno wrote that startup sound for Windows. This is one of the things I found out today on Wikipedia about one of my heroes of music, Brian Eno. But there's more!

1. The Windows 95 startup sound (not the faster melody in later versions) was composed by Brian Eno.
2. He once guest appeared as Father Brian Eno on the television sitcom Father Ted.
3. He reportedly has a passion for word games. A song on his album Before and After Science is entitled "King's Lead Hat", which is an anagram of "Talking Heads", a band that he has worked with. (His own name, "Brian Eno", is an anagram of "One Brain".)

India Bharti

I saw this guy a few weeks ago busking in Wellington. He was really intrigung. I kinda liked his music (not really the new-agey lyrics, but the musical content). Didn't have any cash to buy a CD so I asked him if he had a web site. He does. I loved the pics on his lyrics pages of him hanging out with his fellow Hindi devotees all painted up and doing yoga and shit with their matted hair and skinny bodies. I feel like being one of them. Strict vegetarians, meditating and practising yoga and singing and whatever else they do with their days. Sweet. I'm hankering for that kind of simplicity. I'm getting really tired of making money and spending money.

Dis-ease

Just when I thought I was "coping" along comes reality to shatter the illusion. I've been keeping busy, going out, working hard, then check my balance today to find that I'm completely skint until I get some cheques coming in which won't be until the 20th. And I still have the family to feed.

I didn't go out last night - I had something I was meant to go to but decided a night in was a good idea. Feeling a bit tired after going out nearly every night. Then my world felt like it was crashing in. I'm not happy with the situation I'm in. It's not how I want things but it doesn't look as though my world is going to change so I guess I will have to get used to it. Soldier on and all those other interminable platitudes. What does my mother say? Pick yourself up, dust yourself off and carry on. Oh yeah, it's so easy. Well, it isn't.

Okay, today I'm just feeling sorry for myself. Tomorrow will be better. Tomorrow will be better. If I can keep saying that to myself, maybe the illusion will seep in...

Dasha Shishkin

Stumbled upon this woman's art site through Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's site - she did the cover art for their début CD. She rocks.

Scoop!

Just heard on National Radio that Fairfax have just bought Trade Me (now the most visted site in NZ) for $700 million. They're keeping on founder Sam Morgan for "some time". I wonder if it will last? Will they keep all the facets of the site? It won't feel the same using it when it's owned by a multinational.

Watch out where the huskies go...

Listening to: Hollie Smith E.P.

Just got home from the Film Archive - went to see Nanook of the North, an Inuit "documentary" from 1922 with live music performance by Mike Cooper. As explained by Mike Cooper, it was not quite what we would consider a documentary. Surveyor and prospector Robert Flaherty came to live amongst the Inuit and was so taken with their way of life that he wanted to capture it on film. Along with normal day-to-day activities (hunting and building igloo), he had them re-enact many of their old customs that were no longer practiced. Mike's electronic accompaniment flowed alongside the iceflows with it's chilly organic pings, pops and drones. Real nice. Finished the night with a nice Thai dinner and now home with the rain on the roof.

Cézanne to Picasso

Popped in briefly today to Te Papa to check out the small exhibition of paintings from the Julian and Josie Robertson collection from New York - Cézanne to Picasso. There were only fourteen works but it's always brilliant to see original works like these. My favourites were the Braque and the Redon. Redon is one of my favourites, being a symbolist and all. I've just been looking at some of his work online - amazing. Unfortunately the piece in the show was one of his vases of flowers - not as engaging as his other work. Here's one I love.

stop playing with your food

Tonight: the opening of the Contemporary New Zealand Photographers (including Mr Ben Cauchi) then on to dinner at Satay Kampong where I rearranged my delicious and colourful Nasi Lemak. Isn't it a cute looking dinner? Then I ate the little fucker.
We took a trip to Boogie Wonderland and drank more wine and danced to silly 70s and 80s music. I dropped my poor dear Angie on the floor during a Fame kind of moment. I hope she recovers.

Tarot cards

Wow. I've just been to see a tarot card reader for the second time in the last two weeks. Something she told me four years ago has come to pass so I thought it might be helpful going back to see her again. She just blows me away. I have received the most helpful words from a woman who doesn't even know me. I feel like I am getting my life back on track. I won't go into detail cos it's all pretty heavy stuff, but I just have to say that tarot cards are a very useful tool, especially in the hands of an experienced and intuitive reader. Thank you Antonia.

trekkie

Thanks to Lilly for this one.

Okay, I used to be quite a Star Trek fan, but only really the original. As a kid I had a bit of a crush on James T. Oh, and that one with the thick Russian accent that looked like Davey off The Monkies. Anyway, on with the silly quiz. I was almost my crush - James T. Kirk! Oh my.

Your results:
You are Deanna Troi

Deanna Troi 75% James T. Kirk (Captain) 65% An Expendable Character (Redshirt) 60% Beverly Crusher 55% Will Riker 55% Chekov 55% Spock 54% Worf 50% Uhura 50% Mr. Sulu 50% Data 48% Jean-Luc Picard 45% Mr. Scott 35% Geordi LaForge 25% Leonard McCoy (Bones) 20%

You are a caring and loving individual. You understand people's emotions and you are able to comfort and counsel them.

Click here to take the "Which Star Trek character are you?" quiz...

Global situation

There's a guy on National Radio just now talking about our global situation and how we are all ignoring it. We all know the oil is going to run out soon. Well, apparently 99% of the cost of our food production is directly from oil - tractors, transport, storage etc. The implications of this are pretty grim. The world is screwed.

Service and creativity

I love going through old journals. Just a few pages after the last one I found is this quote. I love this one.

Service… is love in action, love "made flesh"; service is the body, the incarnation of love. Love is the impetus, service the act, and creativity the result with many by-products. Sarah Patton Boyle, US civil rights activist

quote of the day

I've realised it's not feasible to move to an office. Looks like I'm on my own for a while again. SOD and I are having a break from each other to sort out our lives. I had everything mostly packed for the move to the new office which I was going to be doing today, but instead I'm having an almighty cleanout and reorganisation of my home office. I went on a huge cleaning binge yesterday around the house - this is something I seem to do when I need to purge feelings. For some reason I find it quite therapeutic.

Today I found an old journal from my first year in Wellington - 1994. I had a quote I found somewhere that I still really like: "Art is an axe for the frozen sea within us". Ain't that true.

I'm finding at the moment that concentrating on the practical aspects of life is very comforting. If I stop and think too much today I start falling to pieces.

Postscript: It seems this was a quote by Kafka - had to google it since I never made a note of the source at the time.

Pens and paper

SOD's given me a little book and I nabbed one of his pens to play around with. The second drawing also includes some of my lipgloss.

My De Facto Husband is a Bitch

When a play fight turns into a something else.... and he thought the resulting welts were funny. I'm gonna get him back, don't you worry.

Deerhoof

Okay, I have just been to one of the best gigs of my life. Deerhoof just kicked off their world tour and how cool it was to be the second international gig of the tour. These noise popsters have moments of weird jazz bridging straight into rock guitar riffs that drill into your head like a machine which then switch to quiet moments accompanied by the sweet voice of the dimunitive asian singer. I think it's this constant swing between the hard and the soft that I love about Deerhoof. Yin and Yang. Cutesy one moment, hard-arsed rockers the next. A pop melody suddenly jarred apart by big big drums and darkly deep bass guitar thrum - then back to sweet-voiced pop again. There wasn't a big crowd at Indigo, but everyone there was loving it. I've had Deerhoof in my head now since the gig. They are so much fun. I wish I could do it all again.

The support of So So Modern was a good match.

Time

Time gets away on me all the time. Too many things to do, too little time to do them. One of the things that never gets done, of course, is updating this blog. So I'm taking a few moments out of my work schedule (yes, it's Sunday, but I'm working) to do just that.

I've been to see a few movies recently and I'll have to try and remember what they were. One was River Queen which SOD and I both enjoyed. It had an uneven start - it seemed as though the introductory narration was going to go on forever (I was starting to think the whole film was going to go on this way and I was starting to feel very uneasy) but then it swung into the story. It would be great to see the film in its entire length - apparently there was a huge amount of footage that had to be canned to cut back the length. Another grizzle would be about the score - I'm getting sick of turgid emotionally manipulative scores in films. Less is more, people. Let the story speak for itself. However, the war action was amazing and the storytelling pulled through. I liked the happy ending too - you don't get those much these days (oh, except in schmaltzy mainstream cinema - does this fit in there?) and I don't mind a nice happy ending every now and then.

Walk the Line, the biopic of Johnny Cash, was essentially a love story with his musical career as a background. Joaquin Phoenix was pretty impressive as Cash and Reese Witherspoon surprisingly good as June Carter. I just couldn't help but feel sorry for his poor first wife though. Cash's daughter, Roseanne, felt her mother was unfairly portrayed, and it wouldn't surprise me at all. Good film, recommended. I won't go on about it too much - there have been plently of reviews. I've had friends who haven't liked it at all and others who have enjoyed as I have.

Brokeback Mountain - sweet simple love story. What the hell is the fuss all about? I find it extremely perplexing that people would ban this film. Why does the notion of two men in love cause people to be so fearful and bigotted? There is nothing explicit here. The sex scenes are unrevealing, short and necessary to the story. And so what if they weren't? There are parts of society that just need to grow up and get over themselves. It makes me so mad. I loved this film. It was poignant and beautiful.

25 things you may not have known about New Zealand

From the NZ Herald

1 - Cook's cure
Captain James Cook, the man who navigated New Zealand, is said to have discovered a cure for scurvy, a disease that results from Vitamin C deficiency, when he played around with medicines.

2 - More births
New Zealand births exceeded deaths by 29,890 in the September 2005 year.

3 - Older brides
New Zealanders are getting married older. The latest statistics show that the median ages of men and women marrying for the first time is 29.9 and 28.1 years. These brides and grooms married, on average, nine years older than their parents did.

4 - Big on butter
For each person who lives here, New Zealand produces 100kg of butter and 65kg of cheese each year.

5 - Clever Kiwis
A New Zealander invented the tear-back velcro strip, the pop-lid on a self-sealing paint tin, the child-proof pill bottle and the crinkle in hair-pins so that they don't fall out.

6 - Olympic gold
New Zealand has won more Olympic gold medals a head than any other country.

7 - Sheep dip
In the early 1980s, New Zealand was home to more than 70 million sheep, but now has 40 million, or about 10 sheep to one person. This decline hasn't stopped New Zealand from bringing in 50 per cent of all international trade in sheepmeat.

8 - Golf swings
Measured by club memberships, golf is the most popular sport in New Zealand, followed by netball.

9 - Curious Kea
The kea, native to New Zealand, likes to eat the strips of rubber around car windows.

10 - Quick work
The shortest interval between separate births in the world is 208 days. New Zealander Jayne Bleackley gave birth to Joseph Robert on September 3, 1999, and Annie Jessica Joyce on March 30, 2000.

11 - Why bother?
Two Massey University students broke a Guinness World Record in December for the world's largest tape ball. The ball, which weighs 53kg and has a circumference of more than 2.5m, was made by winding Scotch tape continually around itself.

12 - Spelling test
The longest place name in the world still in use is Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwenuakitanatahu, a hill in Porangahau in the Hawkes Bay. The Maori name translates to "the place where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, who slid, climbed and swallowed mountains, known as Landeater, played his flute to his loved one."

13 - Middle age
The median age of New Zealanders is growing. In 1901 it was 23. By 1991 it was 31 and in 2001 it was 35. By 2021 it is expected to be 40.

14 - Rising prices
In 1984, $43 in New Zealand would buy approximately the same as $100 today.

15 - Blacked out
The longest blackout in the world was on February 19, 1998, when the four main power cables supplying Auckland city, broke down. The disruption, which lasted 66 days, affected 7500 business and residential customers and cost businesses an estimated $300 million.

16 - The sea, the sea
No part of New Zealand is more than 128km from the sea.

17 - Lost in space
In the scene of Star Trek: First Contact, when Picard shows Lilly she is orbiting Earth, Australia and Papa New Guinea are clearly visible but New Zealand is missing.

18 - Bottom line
No capital city in the world is further south than Wellington.

19 - Animal farm
Less than 5 per cent of the population of New Zealand is human - the rest are animals. This is one of the highest ratios of animals to humans in the world.

20 - Pipebands galore
There are more Scottish pipe bands per head of population in New Zealand than in Scotland.

21 - Big readers
New Zealand has more book-shops per head of population than any other country; one for every 7500 people.

22 - Bad behaviour
New Zealand has the third highest rate of deaths in the developed world from maltreatment among under-15-year-olds; third to Mexico and the US.

23 - Freshwater spring
More fresh water flows up from cracks in the limestone at Waikoropupu, near Takaka, than from any other freshwater spring in the world - more than 2100 million litres every 24 hours.

24 - Trout heaven
More rainbow trout in the 2kg to 3kg category are caught annually in New Zealand than in the rest of the world put together.

25 - World-beaters
New Zealand is home to the world's smallest dolphin, the Hectors Dolphin, the rarest sea lion, the Hookers Sea Lion, the largest flightless parrot, the kakapo, the oldest reptile, the tuatara, the heaviest insect, a weta, the biggest earth-worms, the smallest bats, some of the oldest trees, and many of the rarest birds, insects, and plants in the world.

* Facts sourced from Statistics New Zealand, Strange Facts & True About New Zealand, Guinness World records, The Kiwi Site and the ENZ New Zealand Immigration Guide.

Do I have to change my blog name?

Good news - I have an office! I'm heading back into town and setting up a nice little cosy home away from home on the corner of Woodward and Lambton. Got a wickedly nice view (to be posted in due course) and it's sunny to boot. I'm pretty damned pleased about this. The price is not bad either and it includes broadband. It's one of these "serviced offices" - there's a whole floor of them in the building I'm in. My friend Siobhan (who I've been doing some work with) is two doors along. She told me about the office a couple of weeks ago and I signed on the dotted line yesterday. I'm going to try to move in early next week. Can't wait! The house is going to be short of a few paintings - I'm gonna be raiding the place for anything that'll turn it into a styley designer office space - I'm going for black and white. Must do some "before and after" shots to post on the old blog. Dave is going to take over my office space at home and turn it into a painting studio - it's really ideal as it has great light - windows allr round - and a really nice outlook. I'll miss my little room, but it'll be so so nice to get out of the house. Now it'll seem lovely to "come home" at the end of the day.

My question: is it okay to keep my blog name?

Provincial New Zealand

It was good to get out of Wellington for a few days - back into work mode again now.

Here are some of the sights of New Plymouth - I was amazed by some of the old buildings (hopefully they don't get ripped down in the name of development).





This one is the old Nurses' Home connected to the old hopspital which is now disused. I hear the land and buildings are now owned by local Maori. It seems to be used for art and craft classes at the moment - the future for these buildings is still up in the air. I was blown away by it - such strange architecture for New Zealand.

I spent my first evening down at the local park watching an outdoor show of NZ short films put on by the Film Archive. First up, of course, were a couple of Len Lye films. Here's the Len Lye designed wind wand that wobbles about on the waterfront.







I go a shot of Mount Taranaki on my sunny morning drive out of New Plymouth.

Below that is another beautiful old building - an old hotel. It looks as though it's mostly unused. Probably an earthquake risk I guess.

(Yet) another list

Cheers to Paintergirl for this one:

4 places you've been on vacation
Bali, Sydney, Moeraki (NZ), Maubisse (East Timor)

4 websites you visit daily
lillyslounge,Pointless and Absurd, Paintergirl, Mick O'Grady

4 favorite foods
fresh strawberries, oysters, french cheeses, belgian chocolate truffles

4 places you'd rather be
London, Prague, Paris, Rome (although I have never been to any of these - one day!)

4 albums you can't live without: Broken Social Scene (You Forgot it in People), Neil Young (On the Beach), Bob Marley (Kaya), Bailter Space (Tanker)

4 vehicles you've owned: Toyota Starlet (pooh brown, according to my kids), Wine Red Rover (current vehicle and much improved on the pooh brown Starlet) and some old thing I can't remember before that. I think it was a Vauxhall...

4 jobs you've had in your life: waitress at Cobb & Co, shop assistant at an antique and gift store, manager of the Reprographic Department of a polytechnic college, evening job laying out ads at the local newspaper

4 movies you could watch over and over: Donnie Darko, Coffee and Cigarettes, Songs from the Second Floor, Labyrinth (spelling?!)

4 TV shows you love to watch: Shortland Street, The Office, Trailer Park Boys, Malcolm in the Middle

A brief excursion

I thought that since Dave was away I would head off for a little break myself so I'm currently at my sister's house in New Plymouth. I enjoyed the drive up - I love driving through countryside and turning the music up as loud as my ears will take it (usually involves some ringing in my ears at the end of the trip). I don't know quite how to describe how I'm feeling at the moment - I guess you could say "all over the place". My emotions seem to really up and down and tears spring unexpectedly. I hate feeling like this - it makes me feel weak and silly. Hopefully this is a passing thing. I think there has just been so much happening in my life at the moment that I'm suffering from emotional overload. I'm sure that everything will settle down soon and that life will settle down into some semblance of normality, whatever the hell that is! Well, everyone else seems to be venting at the moment, so I thought it must be my turn!

Anyway, heading home tomorrow morning and will try to upload some photos of the local scenery. Straight back into work upon my return (naturally!).

King Kong vs. Narnia

Have seen both of these films recently. Both have of course been hyped up to the extreme.

For a start, I'm not one for mainstream film and my prime objective when heading off to the cinema is not to be entertained (although there are occasions to the contrary when I'm feeling a bit jaded), so I guess I am not the target audience for films of this type. However, I have to say that I think King Kong misses the boat. Too long. I can sit through long films - the length itself is not a problem, but the film needed tighter editing. The action scenes (obviously set up as action sequences for where the real money is - Playstation and PC gaming) should have been half the length and I quickly lost my interest. Too much time was spent on Skull Island. There was a slow-mo action technique interpersed through the film that seemed unneccessary and poorly executed. And too many calculated close-up of expression-filled eyes. Yawn. Wide-open scared eyes looking into the distance - cue scary monsters coming to get someone. Maybe this is a nod to melodramatic films of the 30s, but I found the devices overused and shallow. Naomi Watts and Adrien Brody did shine though and Kong himself was a surprising success. I was glad when it was over though.

Narnia however, I did enjoy. I loved these books as a child and the resulting film fitted with my imagined world of Narnia amazingly well. Although Mr Tumnus looked more youthful than my version. There were many schmaltzy moments, but that was to be expected. With a book full of valour and virtue and personal sacrifice what else can you expect? I had the occasional lump in my throat, but I didn't feel manipulated into my emotional reactions. Tilda Swinton as the white witch was an inspired casting.

Braindead. Is this a new year kinda thing?

Listening to: Broken Social Scene, Broken Social Scene

I put a brown rice teabag in my cup. Came back five minutes later to pour in the water and added sugar and soymilk like I was gonna have a normal cuppa. Had to throw the whole thing out and start again. This must be a new year thing after having a break from work. Brain. Not. Engaged.

Hey, hey, Broken Social Scene might be coming our way this year! This excites me more than I can say. I sussed out that they were going to be playing a few gigs in Australia so made some enquiries via the tour manager over there to discover that there are negotiations underway for them to finish their tour with a show in Auckland. Unfortunately they don't think a gig in Wellington is a possibility sadly, but I am willing to travel the six hours necessary to see them. Waiting for comfirmation of the show. Hope they get it booked.

so here's a silly joke...

Why are people so tired on the first day of April?

Try to guess - go on. Answer on next blog entry.

So... Merry Christmas and all that. Lots has gone on since my last blog. Lots. Too much to mention here. All I'll say is that I have just gone out and bought three self-help books. Let's hope this coming year improves upon the last two.

christmas tree oh christmas tree

It's going to be a funny old Christmas. I'm not sure if we are all going to be together so it's a bit hard to plan, but whatever happens it will be a quiet one that's for sure. Haven't done any shopping yet, but I did manage yesterday to go and acquire a small pine tree and stick some glittery nonsense up on it. Here it is in all its finery.
I have been very spoiled by the Auckland printer that I use for my magazine work. He has sent me the most amazing bunch of flowers - so big I could barely fit it in the largest vase. What a lift it gave me. I almost wanted to be a florist when I was a teenager - my nana was a florist and I thought it would be cool to follow in her footsteps, but somewhere I gave up on the idea.

King Kong

I managed a birds-eye view of the red carpet at the New Zealand premiere of King Kong. Not a ticket to the actual premiere unfortunately, but I was watching from the 2nd floor of the Embassy Theatre where it was being screened. The Film Festival office is up there, hence the special staff security pass (I have one from when Lord of the Rings screened too - nice memento). I spent my time critiquing the fashion faux pas and picking out the celebrities whilst knocking back a few glasses of bubbles. Jack Black wasn't there but Jamie Bell, Naomi Watts and Adrien Brody were. I nearly didn't recognise Peter Jackson - he's such a shadow of his former self. He wasn't wearing the usual purple shirt - I guess it's too big for him now.