SESSION ONE: At Home With Rose

As a preamble to my show tomorrow morning, I want to quote part of a review of PseudoArcana's compilation, The Tone of the Universe (= The Tone of the Earth) on Pitchfork:

“Drone is liturgy. Since its mid-century installation in the repertoire of experimental music, drone has been coded with naked aspirations: people looking to the holy East; people looking to the archaic; people looking into deep space, into the pure machine, into the stranger mind. Drone has always been enamored of the faraway. The sacred, as always, must be imported from there.

“Its devotees are few but fervent. But the faith has always seemed strangely incommunicable: It doesn't seem to get many converts, just initiates and infidels and no commerce between them. Missionary work is a slog. Those who have made stabs at evangelization know the response is usually incredulity rather than hostility. Minimalist classics have been returned to me with a blankness bordering on incomprehension, as if I'd handed out videotapes of television snow and demanded an assessment of character arcs.”

Drone is not to everyone’s taste - that's a given. When I first listened to drone and noise, I found I could only take it in bursts. Sometimes there was some that I just didn't “get” in the least. It's taken a while to get to the stage where I can happily listen to a couple of hours of back-to-back noise and drone. I think that what drone has done for me has helped me find the “music” in the everyday. The sound around us everywhere. The divine noise of life. Listen to the words used in the quote: liturgy, fervent, converts. I went to see the final performance of Birchville Cat Motel in Christchurch and there's such a hush, such a feeling of communion, that you could feel you were in a church. There’s a feeling of reverence at a noise gig. Noise and drone have opened up my aural appreciation, my aural senses. It's helped me to “listen” and it has a meditative quality. Pauline Oliveros uses a term “deep listening” that I rather like.

My playlist is (and will be every week) solely New Zealand. Every other week I'll be playing other NZ music – a mix of genres, but generally away from the mainstream. Radio23 is international, so I want to get some NZ music out there that I'd like people to hear.

I hope it all works according to plan because the station is still in Beta mode and this is a test run for me.

Tracklist for my first session:

‘Metal Feathers Can Fly’, Peter Wright, Invisible Pyramid: Elegy Box , 277 seconds, 2005, Last Visible Dog
‘Lull’, Swung, Voice and Key, 130 seconds, 2006, Pseudo Arcana
‘Junkshop Rainbow Superserpent’, Birchville Cat Motel, Second Curved Surface Destroyer (Disc 2), 1739 seconds, 2008, Celebrate Psi Phenomenon
‘Hong Kong Abracadabra’, Birchville Cat Motel, Second Curved Surface Destroyer (Disc 2), 1189 seconds, 2008, Celebrate Psi Phenomenon
‘Use’, 1/3 octave band, Sub Lumina, 870 seconds, 2006, Humbug
‘Antarctica Download (Edit)’, Seht, The Tone Of The Universe (=The Tone of the Earth), 421 seconds, 2005, Pseudo Arcana
‘Mem’, Swung, Voice and Key, 137 seconds, 2006, Pseudo Arcana
‘And Where The Colored Planes Are Rafts’, Antony Milton, Sirens/And Where The Coloured Planes Are Rafts, 252 seconds, 2005, Last Visible Dog
‘Amber Eyed’, The Nether Dawn, The Tone Of The Universe (=The Tone of the Earth), 212 seconds, 2005, PseudoArcana
‘Catchpool 01’, Seht, Invisible Pyramid: Elegy Box , 815 seconds, 2005, Last Visible Dog
‘Requiem For John Fahey’, Seht, The Voice Of The Taniwha, 657 seconds, 2003, Last Visible Dog
‘Dudi’, Swung, Voice and Key, 265 seconds, 2006, Pseudo Arcana

Radio23.org

I'm doing a weekly radio show for Radio23 - live tomorrow morning from 7-9am NZ time - called At Home With Rose (of course). NZ noise-drone-ambient. Radio23 is still on test drive. Hope it all goes according to plan!

It's going to be a weekly show. Kinda exciting cos I've never done anything like this before.

I'll post the playlist here in the morning.

http://radiotwentythree.wordpress.com
http://radio23.org
http://www.myspace.com/radiotwentythree
http://twitter.com/radio23

Old School and Proud

Listening to: Nouns, No Age

There's something incredibly wholesome going on in my house. I've taken up the fine art of preserving, and here's the results of my efforts. Well, not the entire results, cos we've eaten some already, and it was delicious, I tell you. I remember helping my Mum to do bottling and I did some years ago, but I've had to resort to the old Edmonds book to job my memory. So far I've made tomato relish, pasta sauce and bottled apricots. I think the apricots are best - they look great and taste better. I rang a few orchards in Central Otago because that's where the best stone fruit comes from. Got a pretty good deal and bought about 18kg of fruit, so I have to get busy and bottle them before they get too ripe. There's something about living in this cottage that makes me want to get back to basics. Yesterday I made a massive pot of vegetable stock that is now in the freezer. Fuck, I feel so bloody virtuous! Next I'll be knocking up a little calico dress soon out of flour sacks! Nyah hahahahaha!

Dr Eugene Chadbourne @ Happy

My friend asked me along to see a touring US performer last night - Dr Eugene Chadbourne – who was playing at Happy. Dan Beban was playing his electric cake-tin guitar first, and that was a very nice and apt leadup to Eugene's performance. Dan's guitar looks very rudimentary, but the sounds that emanate are nothing but. The mesmerising and uplifting big big sound that came out of that baby were fantastic. I'm keen to see him play again. He had started off on the banjo and that was cool too, but that cake-tin blew me away. I could see he had some pedals on the go, so I guess he had some looping and delay going on which helped build up some gorgeous sonic layers. Sweet!

I didn't know much at all about Chadbourne. I had seen some info about him because of the tour, so all I really knew was about his innovation and experimentation with instruments, the electric rake being the most intriguing. I never got to see the electric rake, and although a bit disappointed at the time, in retrospect I don't really care, because the innate beauty and humanity that eminated from Chadbourne's music had little to do with his home-built instruments. Rather, he was the instrument of all this. I'm interested now to listen to some of his recorded music. I wonder if any of his playful grimaces and laughing, amused delivery will be apparent through recorded sound. He was a joy to watch - he had a complete lack of self-conciousness or guile. His songs talked about real-sounding people, and reminded me a lot of Daniel Johnson's songs, both in delivery and content. I hate that word ‘quirky’ but it seems to fit here. His banjo playing was playful and he makes it all look so easy. Obviously it's not! Most of his songs forced me into a constant smile, and, on more than one occasion, I laughed out loud. I couldn't take my eyes off his constant change of facial expression.

To say he doesn't run with the mainstream would be an understatement. Now I've read some more about him, his list of collaborations reads like an A-list of outsider experimental musicians.

The solo stuff was fantastic, and I wish I could go again (well, I could cos he's playing again tonight, again at Happy, but I have other things planned). He then went on to some noodly improv with the usual Wellington Happy crew, which wasn't really my cuppa tea. Dunno why, but improvisation never really does it for me.

If I had to describe Chadbourne with a quick phrase, it would be "Daniel Johnston reincarnated as an experimental bluegrass jazz freak". Perhaps without the afflictions that Daniel lives with.

Me and the man

I've just been scrolling through old pics on my phone. I used to have my laptop at work which was very handy - I could bluetooth them across to my laptop straight from my mobile. But without that I'm a bit stuck. I just tried emailing a pic from my phone to my desktop computer, which doesn't have bluetooth. Annoyingly, the images are now only 16k! But usually they are a decent size. Anyway, I thought this was a nice photo of me and Dave. Grainy, but in a good way.

Yes, yes, this is my first blog for a VERY long time. Recently I have been wasting a great deal of time on Facebook. And now I have discovered Twitter, and that’s even worse. They are both rather stupid. They are far too distracting from the work I should be doing.

I think I would rather upkeep my blog. It's far more enjoyable. And not quite as distracting.

The Legendary Newtown Dots

Listening to: Themselves, The No Sound

Have you seen the dots. I love the dots. Come and put some on the lampposts on my street. Go on.

I took the dog for a big old walk to the zoo and back last weekend and snapped these.

Another couple of pics

Some more views of the living area. Still some boxes to unpack, but we are fully settled in. Next step: purchase some DIY books!

Home Owner at Last

Dave and I have bought a turn-of-the-century cottage. We moved in just over a month ago and we are very happy indeed. Feeling right at home.

My cat has been typing secret messages

I left my keyboard unattended, and came back to find this entered into a dialogue box: ''''uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuCVUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU8999mmmmm7cccc----ccccccccoyyy oo fd p[--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------v o9b vvvv0

Is my cat sending me secret messages? Can anyone decode this?

Perhaps it's : "If you've gone to the supermarket, you better come back with some bloody catfood!"

Wild Combination

I've just seen a wonderful wonderful film. And I know I'm going to spend the next while seeking out the music of Arthur Russell. Cos he's amazing. And so is this poster.

80s day at the office

We're having an 80s theme day at the office!

Explanation of Absence

Okay, back to mid-2007: here I was happily engaged with my design business, Parlour. Self-employed for over 5 years. Sharing an office with two friends. I get an offer from one of my print suppliers, totally out of the blue, to come and work for him as creative director of a small design company he owned. My immediate reaction was “no way”, but I started thinking about is his offer, and after about a month’s worth of negotiations, and a month or two of getting Parlour sorted, I moved across, winding up Parlour and taking my clients with me. I made a pretty sweet deal and am now on a pretty substantial salary.

But there are some BUTs - I miss working for myself. I've given up a great deal of autonomy. It feels different - I don't feel the ownership I used to feel about my work. But there are some pluses for sure. The people here are great - it's fun to work in a team environment again. It's nice to hand work over to my designers when I get really busy. I'm looking forward to taking holidays (in fact, I'm heading off in a week's time to my first proper holiday in 6 years). It's good to know there are sick days there when I need to take them. I don't have to deal with the stinky IRD any more (big big plus!). The cashflow is easier, of course. Salary paid weekly. Nice.

So, life is quite different these days. I only have one kid left at home - my two girls have moved out and are now in the adult world, working and flatting. My son is at university and has a girlfriend so I don't see much of him. Dave and I are together (for those that don't know) but we live apart now - seems to work for us. All in all, things are pretty smooth. I work some silly hours still, but then, I always have. It's part of me, and I recognise it's of my own making. I probably need to change this. I will. In time. Right now, I need to make this new job work, and to make this design studio a success. It's a bit daunting really. Design and print are competitive industries, and I'm pretty much left to my own devices. Fingers crossed I can make this work.

Oh, and I'm hoping to buy my own house by the end of the year. Sick of renting. Time to grow put down some roots.

Surprise Post

Well hello there. I have not died. No. I've just had my life taken over by my new job which I started back in August '07. About the time I stopped blogging.

Okay, this is just to say that I'm alive.

Next instalment soon. Very soon.

Watch this space.

Feeling special

Yes, I'm feeling special. I just won a design award, which is a very nice thing. Indeed. The award I won was for the Best Educational Book category. Yay me.

Here's the press release:

Graphic Design : 2007 Spectrum Print Book Design Awards winners announced

Eagle's Complete Trees and Shrubs of New Zealand, written and illustrated by Audrey Eagle and published by Te Papa Press, swooped away with half of the awards on offer in the 2007 Spectrum Print Book Design Awards. "The judges unanimously agreed that this magnificent two-volume set easily met, and indeed surpassed, the criteria by which the entries had to be judged," said convenor of judges Denis Welch.

Designers Neil Pardington (Base Two) and Robyn Sivewright (Afineline) won Best Illustrated Book, Best Cover, and Best Book overall for their work on this landmark publication. This is Pardington's third consecutive win.

Audrey Eagle's botanical drawings were first published in 1975 by William Collins (New Zealand) Ltd; with a second volume following in 1983. As well as all of the artwork from the previous two volumes, the new volumes contain over 170 new paintings and drawings by Eagle, and showcase every presently known tree and shrub in New Zealand.

The treatment of Eagle's Complete Trees and Shrubs of New Zealand by Pardington (covers) and Sivewright (interiors) has also helped to earn Audrey Eagle and Te Papa Press a nomination for Best Illustrated Book at the Montana Book Awards.

Brief Lives (Auckland University Press) won designers Sarah Maxey and Katrina Duncan, along with artist Brendan O'Brien, the Best Non-Illustrated category of the awards.

The other winners were Cheryl Rowe, awarded Best Children's Book for Legends of Ngatoro-i-rangi (Reed Publishing), and Rose Miller, awarded Best Educational Book for Te Kete Kupu (Huia Publishers) – the first children’s dictionary completely in te reo Māori.

"The high overall standard of the entries indicates a publishing industry in remarkably good shape," said Welch, who was joined on the panel by bookseller Beth Davies and William Chen, founding Art Director of Metro and Art Director of Cuisine.

The book design awards have been run annually since 1997 by the Book Publishers Association of New Zealand.

30/7/07

Notes on the Festival

We're fortunate to have some intelligent filmwriting on the Festival - see Lumière Reader. It has excellent reviews throughout the year, but during the months of June and July it devotes itself to the New Zealand Film Festivals screenings. Good on them.

Triple bill

First up today: Tuli , a film by Philippines director Auraeus Solito, who's debut feature The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros screened at last year's Festival (I think it was last year's but the years get a bit mixed up!). Anyway, this was a strange and sweet film about a girl in a Filipino village, growing up as the daughter of the local village circumciser, who is also a drunk and generally a real asshole. The film includes views of simple village life and the story plays out to a happy ending. I'm looking forward to seeing more from this filmmaker. I really enjoy his storytelling.

Secondly was These Girls, quite a short documentary focusing on the life of a bunch of girls living on the streets of Cairo. These are different to our streetkids though - vastly different. The law does nothing to protect the girls from rape and kidnapping - the local guys make a habit of this and leave the girls scarred on their faces as a sign they have been “marked”. The girls bring up their babies on the streets. It was pretty grim, but getting to hear the girls’ stories made you realise that life on the streets is preferable to being beaten by their fathers back home.




Lastly, experimental film by Leighton Peirce. Explorations of Folded Time is a collection of painterly domestic macro-moments – slices of small moments of beauty, slowed down and repeated and lush with emotion. His children are observed in small detail - hands in water, small gaudy indistinct figures running down the back stairs. Sound is amplified and detailed. I smiled often during this screening, with the sweetness and beauty of the unfolding images. Just gorgeous. Quite a few people walked out. Why do people go to experimental cinema and not know what they are in for?!

Phew - pretty tired now. A few hours of work now then off to bed. Three films tomorrow.

Battles

Just had to share this: Battles with 'Atlas' off their album Mirrored.

Film Festival madness (again)

It's that time of year again. The Film Festival started today. The big gala opening was last night, with Taika Waititi's Eagle vs Shark. Jury's out on this one. Some fun moments, but left me with nothing. I think I was expecting so much more after his quite beautiful short films, Two Cars One Night and Tama Tu. Oh well. Hope he does better next time. The Americans are not saying very nice things about it. Redeeming feature: the soundtrack. I guess mentioning Napoleon Dynamite to Taika might get him a little riled right now.

Tonight I saw A Mighty Heart, Michael Winterbottom's latest (starring Angelina Jolie as Mariane Pearl, wife of murdered journalist, Daniel Pearl), then Head, the Monkees film from 1968. Apparently it was a box office flop at the time. It was really fucking funny. Loved every minute. Here's something I just read: Rumors abound that the title was chosen in case a sequel was made. The advertisements would supposedly have read: "From the people who gave you Head." Now that's funny, huh? I loved the Monkees when I was a kid. Of course, I never got the drug references. I guess they were there in the series - they certainly abound in the film.

A Mighty Heart was pretty affecting – the streets scenes in Karachi, the very believable Jolie as Pearl's wife, the fantastic cast - it all added up to a great film. I missed Road to Guantanamo last year, but have seen plenty of Winterbottom's films before. It was great to follow this with Head. I was feeling a bit emotionally wrung out.

I have three films tomorrow and a meeting at 9 am, so I'd better get to bed.

Oh, and just thought I'd add that Battles are coming. Fucking A, mate! I'm over the moon. 22 September at San Fran.

Watch this space

Listening to: Bramble Radio download. Highly recommended. My friend's online music show - find some new tunes.

Well, life has taken some funny turns of late. I found out a wee while ago that I had been shortlisted for a design award. Freaky deaky. I'm planning to head up to Auckland for the awards dinner and see if I'm a winner. That would be strange. Just being shortlisted is a bit of a buzz.

Another odd turn is that I have been offered a fulltime job. I should still be able to retain my current clients under this new regime, but essentially I won't be working for myself anymore, which means no more irritating tax compliance (goodbye, paperwork!) and a solid stable income. Not that it's been financially tricky too often, but this way it's far more likely that I'll be able to buy a house. That will be pretty cool. And there's some new challenges in the job too - some of them a bit scary, but I think it's time to bring some new things into my life. Can't have things getting too comfortable!

I've been doing my usual Film Fesitval stint (my ninth and, probably, final year). There's some great films this year, including a bunch of 70s films made by US maverick filmmakers. Most of them seem to be starring a young (and rather attractive) Jack Nicholson.

So. Watch this space. I'll fill you all in on this new job when I know more about what the hell I'm gonna be doing.

The Dark

Okay, so the show went okay. It was kinda fun actually, and I wasn't as nervous as I thought I would be. Here's how it looked on the gallery wall on the opening night. Had a few wines, went out for dinner… the usual drill.

Here's my artist statement:
"I’ve been photographing light for a while now. I’ve always loved the dancing reflections of light on walls and ceilings. Capturing it seemed a fun thing to do, especially on my new digital camera - the results were instant. I ended up with a collection of abstract forms. I thought about light and shadow. About how delightful the play of light bouncing off a shiny object onto a ceiling could be. And then about how, as a child, dark shadows in my bedroom at night could be so menacing. I tried putting the two of these things together. The dark. The light. My light/shadow creatures were born. They’re not scary. But they have a slighly dark side."