Robbo’s blah cont. .. after the game. Anyway the gig went well – I wore a TONY SHAW mask during the 1st set and after the gig rushed home and watched the replay and partied on! I’ve also been there the last two GF’s – OUCH! I had a gig on with Spectrum after the…
..religiously writing down your every dream, especially since dreams are by their nature exceptionally elusive and easily forgotten, and you really have to do it hot off the press. But the writing down or relating of it is the important part – because another thing I’ve noticed is that the dreams are often visual puns,…
.. I mean the advent of the Howard and Pauline Hanson years- the conspicuous flaunting of the flag was not a common vice. Overt patriotism as a method of cultural division was not an established d practice Unlike the United States where one of the first thing that a visitor notices is the constant display…
Mike’s Pith & Wind cont. .. that it was the background music for the show that really gave her the creeps. Now, the background music for Doctor Who is not to be confused with Ron Grainer’s theme music, which is one of the all-time great TV series’ themes. No, this is the background music, the…
It’s not that the female characters aren’t fleshed out either, but very few of them even attempt to challenge the male dominance that was an accepted part of life in the early sixties. However, they do get their own way by various ways and means, mostly sexually, an arena where the men positively flounder. As…
When I was much younger (which of necessity was a long, long time ago) these values and their importance were drummed into my impressionable skull by a vast array of the minions of the state from parents, grandparents, school, church and children’s literature. This brainwashing was both overt and covert but as an outcome of…
At the moment multiverses and string theory are the ’go to’ explanations of the world as we don’t know it. Intermittently I console myself with the thought that we are a young species with that has only recently confirmed the existence of the Higgs boson so perhaps there is a way to go yet in…
Dick’s Toolbox cont. ..too expensive to make. And they were still seriously, seriously good. So when I returned this year, once again with Elizabeth, to find ‘For Rent’ signs in the window and the view inside of an overturned table and scattered newspapers on the floor; I felt desolated. The world, my world, was diminished….
Mike’s Pith & Wind cont. ..without advertising their presence to the hapless motorists gliding below. I’m not absolutely sure what the thinking is – I’m pretty sure the traffic would more obediently slow down if the cameras’ presence was advertised, because I’ve seen this working in Auckland, and I believe it operates this way in…
..a priority for humankind since the year dot. Wikipedia tells us that: ‘The first mirrors used by people were most likely pools of dark, still water, or water collected in a primitive vessel of some sort. The earliest manufactured mirrors were pieces of polished stone such as obsidian, a naturally occurring volcanic glass. Examples of…
..some sadistic minion of the state. Even given the intermittently risible state of our politicians it is still worth voting as your vote does count. The opportunity to vote early and often for the highest bidder is no longer an option – we have long traded $2 and all the beer you can drink for…
.. Pepper could well have used Bill as their model and I’m sure you can think of many more examples. He was actually once asked if he’d consider playing the role of Derek Smalls in a Spinal Tap musical – or was it a Spinal Tap tribute band? Either way he wasn’t interested – in…
..global political domination. Or to hide their affairs with attractive members of either sex, dreadful schemes with the tobacco industry or some financial skulduggery. These ‘terminated with extreme prejudice’ people may not have stood before any tribunal to have their crimes weighed in the balance of Justice, but extinguished they are with the single bullet…
..Love. Perhaps it is fitting that in 2009 Spector was convicted of the second-degree murder of actress Lana Clarkson and is serving a prison sentence of nineteen years to life. There was a dude who surely changed the perception of popular music but just as surely believed his own publicity citing him as a genius….
Dick’s Toolbox cont. .. argument that global warming is not just happening, (surprise), but is happening at a rate far greater than expected. We have an expanding population, (yes Virginia, there are far too many people), opting for the cheapest (coal fired) solutions to energy generation. Couple with virtually no power conservation, garnish generously with…
..from a couple of old geezers venting about how things have deteriorated since ‘our day’. Vaguely apropos of that, I usually have no idea what I’m going to write about when approaching these P&W follies of mine and so I have adopted a standard preparatory procedure. First I have a quick squiz at Christchurch’s The…
.. on the highway at speeds so slow that they could be confused with reverse why break the habit of a lifetime? We were quite young and so the intrepid band of fisherfolk set off from the west bank of the lake and some considerable time later reached the east side trout free and sunburnt….
Dick’s Toolbox cont. I normally don’t look after roses, relying on their sturdy ancestry to see them through the seasons. My theory has always been that if a rose has been around for a few centuries it must have a reasonably rugged disposition but, in truth, some have survived because they are so dammed beautiful…
Mike’s Pith & Wind cont. .. moderately galling to find something one had thrown out as worthless selling for a handsome price at such a market. Or not. I don’t know – presuming I have the cash to squander I have the same dilemma at markets as I do at shopping malls, perhaps even worse…
..condition, in this version at least, than just the specified young-man-driven-to-suicide-by-faithless-lover motif and of course the dancers themselves are simply spectacular, with Marie-Agnès Gillot imposingly impressive. I’ve watched it a few times now (I even showed it to Bill) and I’ve shed a few tears every time – it’s that sublime. An interesting sidelight; when…