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...