Fly fat ass fly!

This Christmas I knew all but one of the gifts I was receiving prior to the day - which I was kind of a little dirty about, not that I wasn't happy with what I knew was under the tree for me, but you know the odd surprise is a good thing.

But said gift that I didnt know made it all ok - a four dvd set of the "An Evening with Kevin Smith" series. For those who dont know - Kevin Smith is a fanboy film director who served up two of my all time favourite films - Clerks and Chasing Amy, and the excellent Mallrats (the title of this article is of course a line from Mallrats), Dogma, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and of course Clerks II.

The DVDs feature Kevin Smith going around colleges in the US, and then shows in London and Toronto where he basically takes questions on anything from the audience. Jay turns up in parts - where we learn his charming pick up lines "Yo you want me to get up in them guts?" and his favourite moves - Half, half, whole, swirrlllll.

But its Kevin Smith who kicks ass - delivering witty annecdotes on how he and his wife met, why Prince (as in Purple Rain) is a nutbar, why Tim Burton is an ass, what the good/obvious ending of Lord of the Rings should have been (with the added extra of Sam sucking Frodo off followed by Sam "bricking" in.... nevermind), why Mel Gibson sucks and has destroyed his career, but the best bits are Smith ribbing Affleck.

When signing copies of Dogma, Smith started writing "Is Gay" with a big arrow pointing to Affleck - Affleck found out about this and started doing the same thing (obviously with arrows pointing to Smith), so now when ever Smith gets a copy to sign where Affleck has written his bit on the cover - Smith now just writes "GIGLI" with an arrow. Touche.

But my favourite burn for Affleck was when he saw some article about himself which said how Smith and Affleck no longer get on, and he rang up Smith mildly shocked to talk about it, when Smith said "No dude I havent read it, I've been too busy dodging falling stars". BURN.

If I had a Top 5 all time present list - this would be up there.

Although now I think of that getting Tomahawk and Havoc one Christmas was bad ass, and then then all four Ninja Turtles one year rocked as well. Hmmmm may have to think over that statement a little further.

2006 was, 2007 will be?

Welcome to Blackbird Singing's innaugural annual awards (categories will be made up as I go along)

Song of the Year: This was a tough one, but in the end there was a clear winner - Blue Sky Blues from 29 by Ryan Adams. Sooo good.

Album of the Year: Lots of good stuff this year - Arctic Monkeys, Ryan Adams (x3!), even Sonic Youth's new album was outstanding, but by years end there is only one left standing - The Life Pursuit by Belle and Sebastian. Man theyre just great, and they continue to grow on me.

Newcomer of the Year: Only one candidate for me - Arctic Monkeys. They are outstanding, everything Oasis was around 1994/95.

TV Show of the Year: Again another tough one - some great new shows came on the scene - Harvey Birdman, The Daily Show (new to NZ at least), Extras, plus shows like Family Guy seemed to come of age. But the one for me is Curb Your Enthusiasm. Some people just dont get it, but I love the show - Larry is my hero! And you know deep inside Larry is lurking within you just waiting to unleash socially inept skills on everyone you know.

Movie of the Year: Lots of good stuff this year, No. 2 which I watched last week was great. An Inconvenient Truth was stunning and definitely the Political film of the year. But Little Miss Sunshine takes the cake for me simply a stunning film.

So there you have it. A pretty good year all up, I should write some great introspective piece here, but frankly im not nearly drunk enough for that!

2007 should be another great year too for sooo many reasons. A new job, with any luck Little Britain Live in Sydney, and then three weddings!

First up is Angus and Karen in Foxton (according to the welcome signs it's the Fox-town of New Zealand, Karen had her heart set on a Fox fur dress, so really there was no other option*).

The second one is very exciting (not that the others arent) - Dot and Georgia are getting Civil Unionised - which is my first Civil Union ceremony, im very excited about that! and thirdly is Misty and Michael at Wharerata in Palmerston North (the only people who took my advice on venues, so I have a vested interest in saying this will be the best one!)

So bring on 2007.

* - To any animal activists scouring the interweb for animal genocide, or other such horrors - before you get the red paint ready to throw - I am joking about the Fox fur dress!

Hallmark hookers

Normally im anti Christmas Cards - well greeting cards in general.

Why you ask? well whats the point? A whole industry has been created where you effectively have to add $5 to the price of gifts - so why not just say "merry christmas" or "happy birthday" when you hand said gift over?

The only other situation you normally use the card in is when you dont want to talk to someone, or buy a gift for someone, but feel the need to keep up that annual contact. If this is you - i ask, why not pick up the phone? Jerry Seinfeld calls greeting cards - Hallmark Hookers, you basically pay hallmark to do the job for you cause basically you can't be bothered.

Well anyway against my better judgement - I have made an exception and sent cards out this year. Tinks (Antony)- a friend of mine has made some cards that feature a piece of grafiti that he saw in Melbourne earlier this year - someone had written "Santa isnt real kids" on a wall, but someone had gone to the trouble of going back and twinking out the "nt" so it read "Santa is real kids" - isnt that great that someone would go to all that trouble? Bah well I thought so anyway, maybe im just getting too sentimental in my old age?

You can see the image here currently

What a day

Well its currently afternoon tea at the cricket - and im sunburnt! Loving that, but anyway Wellington has turned on a stunner for the first day of the test match and as they say - you can't beat Wellington on a good day!

Also Kumar Sangakara scored one of the best centuries ive seen. So all in all a good day.

What an ass

Well I did my christmas shopping today (well most of it at least), and while out and about I finally remembered to get measured up for Angus and Karen's wedding (relax theres plenty of time!)

But so readers dont embarass themselves like I did - If youre trying on clothes or getting measured up - plan this trip well - ie Dont wear socks that have holes in the end! It turns out staff at such places arent afraid to make fun of your holey socks.

In other news, I have taken tomorrow off to spend the day at the Cricket - what better way to spend a day in the sun than watch the first day of a test match?

Review: Lord Don't Slow Me Down

Well I have literally just watched the New Zealand premiere of Oasis's doco - Lord Don't Slow Me Down, as part of C4's Music Doco series - The Cut.

It's not bad and serves as a reminder of how great they were and still are - at times.

Their career to date has been bookended by great albums, my opinions on their other content is well known so there is little point going on. But what I will say is that I still feel some kind of ownership of Oasis, so when I criticise them, its almost like arguing with your family.

There is little new in the film for fans of Oasis, and the doco Live Forever is far better in terms of examining their impact, but this is still fun. There isnt the wheels falling off of the Metallica/Dandy Warhols doco kind's (usual arguments are present of course!) but what stands out for are the live snippets of the Definitely Maybe back catalogue - best album ever!

If I was reviewing any other band's doco this would get a 3/5 but this is Oasis.....

****

(PS. Note my kick ass perspex christmas trees in the photo - my first decorations for years! Oh and on another note Ive sent cards out this year - another first!)

(PPS Yes Angus just like Return of the King..... before you Angus, before you.)

Review - No.2

I have just finished watching Toa Fraser's debut feature film No. 2.

After having Sione's Wedding talked up all year as the pacific culture film to see, and being largely disapointed by it - i had put off seeing No. 2. What was I thinking?

No. 2 is the story of Nana Maria the matriarch of her large Fijian family in Mt Roskill, who is making one last attempt to pull her family back together by asking her grandchildren to put on a party for her.

Fraser captures almost perfectly the nature of extended families - long-standing unresolved arguments, general envy, brothers and sisters/aunties and uncles that just don't get on, and the grand children who all seem to be on the same level.

The performances are outstanding - the excellent Ruby Dee (Mother Sister in Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing) plays Nana Maria and captures perfectly the mana of the role, not to mention hiding her New York accent to convincingly pull off a Fijian New Zealander. Taungaroa Emile (Boogie in Once Were Warriors) is also fantastic, and for me almost the entire principal cast is great.

No.2 is a warm and funny story of a divided family pulling out all the stops and getting over their petty dislikes of each other to come together for their Nana.

The film transends being just a 'pacific' story, it has a real modern day New Zealand feel to it, and is well worth checking out.

****

Bravo Bravia

In the last 12 months Sony have produced two of the best TVCs ever. (As I write this on my Sony Vaio I feel like im doing an endorsement!)

First there was the excellent "Balls" advert and at the moment they are running their new building colour explosion one. In this age of CGI I had assumed that the Balls advert has fake, but it wasn't - Sony (well their agency) actuallyfired thousands of colour balls down a street in San Francisco.

So when their new advert began, I thought - hmmm i onder if they actually fired all that paint for real? Well kids they sure did.


In total it took:

70,000 litres of paint
358 single bottle bombs
33 sextuple air cluster bombs
22 Triple hung cluster bombs
268 mortars
33 Triple Mortars
22 Double mortars
358 metres of weld
330 metres of steel pipe and
57 km of copper wire

If you havent seen the ad - check it out at bravia-advert.com

Oh I almost forgot - Lord Don't Slow Me Down!

The very excellent C4 has been running a great series of music docos of late, including the very excellent Dandy Warhols doco, and of course Metallica's "wheels fall off disaster epic".

But next week - the band who "still" claim they are the most important band in the world (hmmm not sure who they're kidding!) Oasis!

C4 are playing the brand new Lord Don't Slow Me Down on 12 December, and the following the new Beatle's doco - LOVE!

What a kick ass way to finish the TV year.

The tie and Elton

The blogger thingy hasnt worked for me this week, so this is a belated update.

Pictured is the tie mentioned below. Enough said really. Mind you as gutted as I was, its funny how other developments and events continue to put things like this in perspective.

In other news - Elton John was in town this week for his one off show, and I heard quite a funny story about this.

Now a friend and colleague of mine's teenage son works for Ruth Pretty Catering who catered for Elton. Now Elton 'required' a personal waiter for the evening......

Naturally being teenagers this guy got loads of shit from his mates for acting as this waiter - along obvious lines, but im not sure you would expect your parents to be mercilessly taking the piss, and when you drop into their work having to put up with "hey rent boy" calls from just about everyone! But said mother had the best call on this - speculating on a potential Elton quote - "Errgghh, pass us another, this one's split"

And on that bombshell ill leave you again.

Absolutely Gutted

This actually happened on Thursday, its taken me a couple of days to come down from the pain to blog about it.

Listeners may recall I paid over $200 for a tie by (in my humble opinion) one of the greatest mens designers in the world - Ozwald Boateng while I was in London last year.

Boateng (pictured) is the leading British tailor - he does wicked suits. If i had 20 000 pounds lying around, or if i won lotto id totally have him make me a suit. (thats the price for a private one on one session with him).

Well my prized tie - red, orange and yellow angled stripes has been basically destroyed.

It had a small mark on the bottom of it, so i thought I best get it dry cleaned. Stupidly thinking - theyre professionals, im sure they know what theyre doing.

The silk is now all loose, and the stitching along the back has come free, on top of this the diamond shaped fold at the bottom is now ripped.

To top this off - they stapled it back together. Who would notice a two staples holding your most designer (irreplacable in NZ) tie?

This is the VandA museum description of Ozwald which kind of sums up why im so gutted:

Acclaimed menswear designer Ozwald Boateng has successfully united the skills of British bespoke tailoring with his own distinctive approach to menswear design and forged a new appreciation of Savile Row.

Self-taught, Boateng began tailoring at the age of 16 and in 1994 became the first Savile Row tailor to show during the International Menswear Collections in Paris. In 2003 he was appointed CreativeDirector of Menswear at Givenchy further securing his dominant position on the world fashion stage.

Boateng’s attention to detail and finish are most clearly demonstrated in his superb bespoke tailoring, for which he was developed a stellar clientele, amongst them Jude Law, Jamie Foxx, Will Smith and Daniel Day Lewis.

Today Ozwald Boateng’s distinguished and award winning designs are sold and celebrated internationally and his unique approach to cut, colour and detail has created a new ‘look for men’-stylish, beautiful and sexy.

Oasis Live in Paris - ROCK!

Some might call this selling out – but hey who cares MSN webcast Oasis live in Paris the other morning. It was actually an acoustic set by Noel and Gem – and it kicked ass.

How great is this songlist?
Its Good to Be Free
Talk Tonight
Fade away
Cast No Shadow
Importance of Being Idle
Listen Up
Half the World Away
Wonderwall
Whatever
Slide Away
Strawberry Fields Forever
Dont Look Back in Anger
Married with Children

You can still watch video of the concert here – I fully recommend it!

Kennedys

Ive just been watching an excellent doco on the Kennedy's - Jack Bobby and Teddy specifically.

Naturally im a big Kennedy fan, theyre what everyone in politics wants to be. Amazing orators, who do the work to match.

Teddy is kind of the forgotten one (he didnt get shot!), he replaced Jack as Senator for Massachusetts in 1962 (when Jack became President) and is now the longest serving senator and I had forgotten about his greatest speech ever - and its right up there with Jack's innauguration address. So here is my favourite Kennedy line, its taken from Teddy's concession speech when Jimmy Carter defeated him in 1980 for the Democratic nomination (Reagan of course won the election proper anyway):

For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.

The Hollow Men

I spent most of today sitting at Oriental Beach reading my photocopied version of Nicky Hagar's new book - The Hollow Men. The book is based on emails leaked from the National Party from late 2003 right through to August 2006.

Hagar (who is from Levin originally) isnt held in high regard - he has tended to exagerate in the past, and is pretty big on conspiracies (eg he was convinced the SIS were spying on the Maori Party - they werent and why would they??). So I was a little sceptical when I heard he was behind the highly anticipated Brash Email book.

But Hagar largely sticks to the facts in this latest outing - he does go off on the odd tangent, but largely he hasnt blown anything too far out of proportion.

There are some absolutely explosive parts to this book, and with the benefit of hindsight, its clear that Brash was sacked last week in advance of this. But maybe because I am in the environment which these emails were written, but some parts which are obviously meant to shock - didnt.

Things that shocked me:

Brash is a lier: He still says that he has only met the Exclusive Brethren once (August 05), when his diary and emails he wrote show he met them as early as December 2004, and was frequently meeting them. He and his whole campaign team knew exactly what the EB had planned and had signed off the pamphlets.

National were prepared to lie about their policies: Realising their policy to increase the age of eligibility for Superannuation (to cut down the numbers on it - making tax cuts a bit more affordable) would piss everyone over 60 off, Brash said "we should just keep that hidden, even possibly lie about it."
Essentially National were looking to avoid talking about anything but preferential treatment for Maori, and tax cuts.

Big big money: We've known for years that the National Party uses Trust funds to launder donations by well known business people - who dont want it known they support National (even though everyone assumes they do anyway). One donor that stood out for me though was one who gave $1m - but is friends with us. Btw the name of the Levin Trust used to launder money locally is Electoral Holdings Ltd.

Dodgy Big Money: Getting donations is fine. Getting donations in return for policies - not fine, in fact illegal. Insurance providers giving money so long as ACC is privatised again. hmmmm.

Things that didnt really shock me but probably will for other people:

Crosby/Textor involvement: Everyone could just tell this as soon as the Orewa Speech was delivered. C/T are an Aussie firm who specialise in running right wing negative campaigns- they are reknowned for their push polling (ringing people and asking a leading question to sow a seed in their mind - eg Would you still support Marian Hobbs if you found out she was a lesbian? - now thats not true, and there is no evidence to suggest that, but a seed is sown).

Orewa was a deliberate ploy: This wasnt an innocent speech that struck a chord, the book shows that Brash was advised to only use half facts, and misleading statistics - which he did.

Things that surprised me:

Level of ACT Party and Backbone Club involvement in positioning Brash for the leadership: These are the people behind the policies of the 80s and 90s which drove NZ into the ground. These people are sooo far extreme right that they even said he shouldnt acknowledge their help as that would lose support. Essentially it was a coup run from outside the party.

Too many know it alls: Brash had like 5 - 10 advisors all giving him different perspectives. No wonder he was dithering. The PM has one key advisor - sure she has others and people outside that she uses as guages basically. You cant have 10 people telling you how to operate you need one clear direction.

Brash got too tired doing visits two days a week: Not up to it basically - the PM does two regional days and then Sat and Sun in Akld - full days of visits and pressing the flesh - thats the job.

Things that Hagar trys to make an issue of which I dont think are:

Framing the debate: Its stupid to think there isnt a concentrated communications strategy prepared around issues. Framing is basically about positioning what you say and how you present it. (eg recently the latest unemployment figures came out - they were up slightly from 3.6% to 3.8% - the govt would say "Unemployment remains the lowest in the OECD and around the lowest rates for 20 years" the opposition would say "Unemployment is beginning ro rise this is an indication the economy is slowing - govt is bad").

Key Lines: Hagar trys to suggest its sinnister that their media staff were preparing what the lines are that they are running on a given issue. No thats their job - they provide good lines for MPs to say. This is the best way of getting the right thing to say out to your whole team, so theyre all singing from the same songsheet - otherwise its chaos!

Brash had a deliberate visit strategy to meet with big business: Well duh. Of course you have a visit strategy - again if there is no plan or system you have chaos, and you wont maximise the time you have available.

I do wonder how someone outside the system would react to this book. I was shocked at their willingness to just lie about their policies - people dont like asset sales so we wont mention it.

I can say with hand on heart that when it comes to actual policy, we are up front. We learnt in 1987 (where the manifesto was released - after the election) that misleading and bullshitting doesnt work (Labour got deservedly smashed in 1990), which is why this govt has had what is almost a motto - Under-promise and Over-deliver. Its better to promise a bit and give people a lot, than promise a lot and give nothing.

National come out of this looking deceitful, and misleading, whether it does any damage outside of the Wellington beltway remains to be seen.

Getting back at the scammers

I often get sent those scam emails from Nigeria and what not - basically looking for cash.

A site has been launched in the UK where basically they detail the scams and pranks they pull on the scammers. Its funny stuff, they get them to send pictures of themselves doing stupid things - holding stupid signs etc (pictured) in order to get the cash.

Here are a couple of my favourites - This one where they convince the scammer that they are running an art gallery and are looking for ethnic art - which they will pay hundreds of thousands for.

And this one - where in order to get a "donation" they convince the scammer to join their church - The Church of the Holy Tattooed Saint. Of course to join the church (and get the dosh) you have to get the official Tattoo done...........

If you've ever been hit with spam and these stupid scams, you'll get a kick out of this.

I'm just a cleaner

This is from today's Herald. A guy tried to rob the Broadway branch of the National Bank in Palmerston North on Friday.

After closing on Friday he tied up the last remaining staff member and demanded she open the vault for him. Reasonable plan to this point, except - she was the cleaner.

The cleaner just laughed at him and said - "I can't open the vault. I'm just the cleaner!"

Bank robbers are almost always dumb, I cant think of a single case where they havent stuffed it up, or at least got caught.

The "robber" fled the scene - with nothing. Awesome.

Butter Boys

North Shore band The Checks, who opened for REM in New Plymouth last year and Oasis in Australia have just finished recording theirdebut album. These guys are probably one of the first New Zealand bands whose CD I would actually buy.

The Checks were spotted by the editor of NME when he was out here for NZ Music Month a year or so ago. NME then took them on their New Music Tour in 2005 - which was being advertised while I was in the UK, which was quite surreal as we had used the Checks to open our 2005 Congress a week before I had left.

Ed the lead singer has incredible stage pressence - of the Mick Jagger kind, I rate them pretty highly.

Check out a sample of the new single Butter Boys at their MySpace page here. What You Heard is also worth a listen (pretty sure its there) this is probably their best single at the moment.

The Apocalypse will be catered

At the moment - Wellington is undergoing a major disaster practice. The situation is that Petone has been hit by a 7.8 scale earthquake. Operations are being run out of the Beehive bunker, known as the National Response Centre, and when I walked past the entrance I couldnt help but laugh that their catering trolley from Bellamys had been left outside. So dont worry when disaster strikes - Bellamys will be on hand with their concrete-muffins and disgraceful sandwiches!

In other news - Al Gore was in town yesterday, well Auckland at least and presented his slide show on global warming. Even though everyone present had seen it before it was still apparently very entertaining. The right wing are running the line that Gore is just a self-promoter who is deliberately misleading. (unlike the man they all voted for in the US?).

The stadium issue is still bubbling away. Former All Black Ian Jones summed it up well last night on Sky's Re:Union show. "This is a chance to completely re think the way Rugby is presented, we could have parades down Queen St, street theatre - have a real party atmosphere before the game begins and then carry on through the night at all the clubs and bars close by. Its a no-brainer."

Sir Ron Scott (the guy who organised the 1974 Christchurch Commonwealth Games) has backed the new stadium also saying that this is a chance for Auckland to have an accessible venue, that not only hosts Rugby and Cricket, but like Wellington will host concerts, conferences and trade shows. Unfortunately Auckland seems divided on the issue and at this point seem to be against it - Talkback host Leighton Smith said it would encourage "lowlifes and unsophisticated types" to hang around the central city - eh?

Russell Brown has written a great piece on the Stadium issue here. Its worth a read.

Borat bashed

Apparently Sasha Baron-Cohen or Borat was punched repeatedly in the face on the streets of New York after after telling a stranger that he would like to have sex with his clothes. Baron-Cohen had to be saved by his friend and House actor - Hugh Laurie.

Wrong time and place I guess!

Wander

I spent the day wandering around, here are some pics from my travels around town. Enjoy.

Waterfront vs Eden Park

People are hilarious, NZ will be hosting the third biggest event in the world in 2011, and people dont want to spend any money on it.

Basically we are having to come up with a stadium that can hold 60 000 people for the major games.

The options are do up Eden Park or build something brand new and better on the waterfront. (Essentially what Wellinton did when Athletic Park was ditched).

Now normally the corporate sector would contribute to this - but not in NZ, basically they're too greedy. So when the organisers came to the government - the government asked, why on earth would you upgrade a venue in a residential area that has absolutely no parking, and is difficult to get to, when you could spend a bit more and have something world class, next to all the bars, clubs etc and Britomart (the suburban rail hub station) and has 30 000 car parks within a 15 minute walk.

This is why the government has come out in favour of the Waterfront "Stadium New Zealand" option over Eden Park.

As for people complaining that the govt should be spending more on health and education than this. The Rugby World Cup is going to be worth close to $3billion to NZ, the Cricket world Cup $1billion - think of how the Olympics put Sydney on the map - this is about national identity, and saying to the world we can hold world class events. I say have some pride in NZ, if the NZ economy is doing well, then government will be able to afford more joint operations, and money for schools etc.

This is about taking New Zealand to the next level. As Mike Moore once said - "Singapore is the size of Lake Taupo. Think about it."

Herald story - pictures and video

Dems in da hizzay

Yes Ive been planning that headline for sometime!

The US are in the middle of their mid-term elections today and the Democrats have won back control of the House, and at this stage it looks like they could scrape through in the Senate.

This is great news, and sets things up perfectly for 2008. CNN has the up to date details.

For those of a less politics-is-everything mindset, the Senate is the upper house and the House of Representatives is the lower house of congress, basically they are a check on the President - as anything he wants to do, has to pass through both houses. Essentially this lops his bollocks off - Bush will have to work with the Democrats to get anything done.

But on the flipside, if the Democrats are seen to do nothing in the next two years - winning the white house in 08 could be difficult, but its all there for them to do.

Some new links

Thought I should just draw attention to the new links i have added in the navigation bar.

Laurie David is a well known Climate Change activist, her background is actually in comedy with HBO, she also produced An Inconvenient Truth, and is of course married to one of my favourite commedians - Larry David. Laurie is also leading the Virtual March on Washington, which you can join at the next link down (world class segue there).

The next is Landcare Research's innovate CarboNZero site - you can work out how much emmissions you make, and then you can buy carbon credits to neutralise your emmissions (basically you invest in the forests they are planting in Marlborough).

Other links Ive added are to Zack Exley's blog - Zack was one of the people behind MoveOn.org, and I dinner and quite a few beers at a smokey pub with him while in the UK. I grabbed so many ideas from Zack in terms of online campaigning - many of which we implemented here, he also contributes to the Huffington Post and Daily Kos (leading Democrat Blogs).

I'll continue adding sites as I find them, whether they be a bit of fun (This is a Local Shop), plain nuts (Ceiling Cat), or have a serious message.

Do check them out.

Time for bold action

I was in Levin at the weekend, and the NZ Film Festival has reached there (as it always does) so I took the old man to see Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth at his suggestion.

In all there were only around 5 or 6 empty seats in theatre - which gives me hope. Climate Change has been all the rage this week - this screening was framed by the release of the Stern Report in Britain - which backs Gore up, and the NZ Labour conference where Helen set out her vision on the issue as follows:

I believe it’s time to be bold in this area.

Why shouldn’t New Zealand aim to be the first country which is truly sustainable? Not by sacrificing our living standards, but by being smart and determined.

We can now move to develop more renewable energy, biofuels, public transport alternatives, and minimise, if not eliminate, waste to landfills.

We could aim to be carbon neutral.

I believe that sustainability will be a core value in 21st century social democracy.

· I want New Zealand to be in the vanguard of making it happen – for our own sakes, and for the sake of our planet.
· I want sustainability to be central to New Zealand’s unique national identity.

And fostering our unique national identity is central to the purpose of our government, and to my purpose in being in politics.

Our country is special, and our people are special.

Oh and Brash says he's still not sure there really is an issue. Winner.

Save the africans!

Earlier this year Bob Geldoff turned up in NZ to criticise us for not giving enough to africa in aid - ignorring the fact that we're running East Timor and the Soloman Islands with Aussie - and a whole province in Afghanistan on our own! No we're doing nothing!

Well fellow Time MAN of the year and in my opinion - tosspot, Bono, who with Geldoff have been leading the Make Poverty History campaign, has been caught out being a tad hypocritical.

U2, despite having extensive tax breaks in Ireland has moved their business to the Netherlands to avoid paying tax. At the same time Bono was lobbying Mary McAleese (president of ireland) to give more money to africa in aid.

Now, Bono, how do you think the Irish govt gets money to give away in aid? How can you criticise a government for not spending enough - when you deliberately avoid paying the tax that would be spent on aid!

Wanker!

STORY HERE

100 Greatest Films? ahh no

Total Film magazine have produced a special edition 100 Greatest Movies of All Time issue

The top 10 is a disgrace frankly, below are some highlights and the top 50 films.

98 Casablanca (should have been higher)
97 Trainspotting (ditto)
96 Stand by Me (ditto)
95 The Usual Suspects (again what is wrong with these people?)
91 Dekalog (yeah you wouldn’t want to miss that one)

83 The Wizard of Oz
82 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

78 The Graduate
71 North by Northwest

69 Sideways (if it was about women, it would have been dismissed as a chick flick)

59 Blue Velvet
56 The Shawshank Redemption
54 Millers Crossing

50 It Happened One Night
49 Pulp Fiction (top 10 easily)
48 Singin’ in the The Rain
47 Blade Runner
46 Nashville
45 Mean Streets
44 Annie Hall
43 Heat
42 One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest
41 The Last Picture Show
40 ET

39 Monty Python and the Holy Grail (bollocks)
38 Badlands
37 Touch of Evil
36 2001: A Space Odyssey
35 A Matter of Life and Death
34 The Searchers (never heard of 35 or 34)
33 Star Wars
32 Les Enfants Du Paradis
31 Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid
30 Reservoir Dogs

29 La Regle Du Jeu (hon hon hon)
28 Raging Bull (should have been a good 10 places higher)
27 Some Like it Hot
26 The Third Man
25 Sunset Boulevard
24 Rear Window
23 The Godfather (top 10)
22 Sunrise
21 Crash (bollocks that that film is the 21st greatest film ever)
20 Apocalypse Now

19 Texas Chainsaw Massacre (oh please – its funny)
18 All About Eve
17 Once Upon a Time in the West
16 The Apartment
15 It’s a Wonderful Life (fair enough)
14 Taxi Driver
13 Manhattan
12 Chinatown
11 Persona (eh?)

10 His Girl Friday (yeah wonderful film….. ??? maybe?)
9 The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (fair enough grouping them - same director/shot all at once, and fair ranking)
8 The Empire Strikes Back (good call)
7 Tokyo Story (Gus and Karen’s fav film – theyre in Japan, so they must like it right?)
6 Citizen Kane (pretentious rubbish)
5 The Godfather Part 2 (good call)
4 Fight Club (it had meatloaf… top 4 I think not)
3 Jaws (fair call)
2 Vertigo (its great but 2nd best film? Hmmm)
1 Goodfellas (I don’t think so)

Just not a great list – no Spike? Full Metal Jacket? Dr Strangelove? Only one Coens film!?!? (54), Platoon? Too many good films for this to be taken seriously I’m afraid!

42 Below viral ad

Little Miss Sunshine - (possibly my film of the year)

You could argue that I have rushed into that headline, with little thought for other films ive seen, but hey im putting it out there - top 5 at the very least.

Little Miss Sunshine, is the story of the disfunctional Hoover family who are attempting to get their little daughter to the Little Miss Sunshine pageant.




The ensemble cast is stunning, Greg Kinnear plays the father who's a wannabe motivational speaker in the Tony Robbins mould - only he can't get his 9 step programme produced. Toni Collette plays the mother with a focus on open dialogue and honesty - this is easily her best effort ever. The "it" man of the moment Steve Carell features as the suicidal gay academic uncle - who even failed at suicide, Alan Arkin almost steals the show as the dodgy heroin snorting grandfather - without ruining the film, the dance routine he teaches the daughter had me in tears. Then there are the two stars of the show - Dwayne and Olive, the two kids. Olive is the glue that holds the family together - she dreams of winning Miss America, and Dwayne is the teenage son who "hates everyone" and has taken a vow of silence until he gets into the airforce.

The story follows the family from New Mexico to California in their VW van, which ends up having to be push started, and at one point the horn won't stop!

Its one of the most touching/hilarious films you could see this year. Little Miss Sunshine is a great film - i give it a big 5/5. Check it out

Official site
IMDB site

Christmas Party

Normally our office Christmas party is one of two things - dinner at a restaurant, or a bbq at Prem House.

The bbq is better - as people can bring their families etc and we can play Cricket on the backlawn, but it means someone has to cook it - ruining the evening for someone. The downside is that you always get people who complain about both anyway.

So this year it fell to me to pull together our party. So this is the plan - its gonna kick ass btw. I have organised a spit roast company to do the food - $23 a head for 3 meats, 5 diff salads and desert (pav) a kick ass price - and $17 under budget! Instead of Cricket, we're gonna play Kilikiti (Samoan Cricket), everyone will get a lei (flowery thing around the neck if ive spelt it wrong) and a lavalava! And the ultimate part - I know a woman in the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra (pictured) so im trying to get them to perform!



How kick ass does that sound?? The boss probably wont be there for the Kilikiti, but im sure she'll love the Ukulele's!

NB Note Bret McKenzie of Flight of the Conchords, hard left in the pic!

Brilliant!

Got to love those North Korean's!

Apparently they are locking up handycaps and midgets, a human rights report has said "Midgets are not allowed to reproduce and they are rounded up and relocated."

As funny as it sounds (dont lie you know it is) these are real human rights abuses - one question though - under his own rules, how is Kim Jong Il not locked up in one his own camps!

Herald Article

In other news its a long weekend - Labour Weekend, celebrating the fourty hour working week and other such great workers achievements. Im doing sweet FA to celebrate (I am in Rotorua next weekend though to make up for it).

Wellington play Waikato in the final of the Air New Zealand Cup - part of my role now is to do the Boss' messages of encouragement to NZ representatives (eg Ive faxed off messages to the Kiwi League Team and the Black Caps today) I was thinking should I create trouble by encouraging the Wellington team over Waikato? Well not that they'll need it! Tana and Jerry have been dominant during the playoffs - smashing both Auckland and Canterbury.

Log!

Quite rightly

They call me Mello Yello

You better believe it, its back in all it's goodness

As soon as I had my first taste today all the memories flooded back!

Larry David

Im now seven episodes through Curb your Enthusiasm's fifth season.

Curb is essentially the life and times of Larry David - who wrote Seinfeld and was the basis for the character of George Costanza.

In the episode im currently watching Larry is hosting a seder - a jewish passover function, naturally nothing is simple - a sex offender moves into the neighbourhood, and after making conversation with the offender in the street, Larry invites him to the seder. The best bit though is when he justifies it to his gentile wife Cheryl by saying "What would Jesus do?"

Larry is pretty much my hero and Curb is one of my all-time top 5 favourite shows.

Curb your Enthusiasm
Seinfeld
Im Alan Partridge
The Office
The League of Gentlemen

UPDATE: At the end of the last episode - aptly named The End, where Larry donates his kidney to longterm friend - Richard Lewis. Larry dies due to complications in the surgery, and he meets his guardian angels - played by Dustin Hoffman and Sacha Baron-Cohen. I think this was the first time I had ever heard Sacha Baron-Cohen speak properly with his normal accent - id only ever heard him as Borat, Ali G or the French dude in Taladega. Gotta love those cameos. Oh and btw Larry pisses Dustin Hoffman off so they send him back to earth.

Women dress up when ovulating??

I know WTF?

Check this article from todays Herald - a US study has shown that women dress up when they're ovulating.

A study of young college women showed they frequently wore more fashionable or flashier clothing and jewelery when they were ovulating, as assessed by a panel of men and women looking at their photographs.

"They tend to put on skirts instead of pants, show more skin and generally dress more fashionably,"

Lovely stuff

WRX - Caravaners car of choice!

Subaru may have failed to win the WRC since last century, but they've got something to show for their work.

The WRX has been voted 'Towcar of the Year 2007' by the Caravan Club of the United Kingdom.

Hell yeah!

I imagine its rather like being crowned a Lego champion - not exactly something you're gonna note in your CV is it?

Song of the week

Time for something a little lighter...

Ive just been re-listening to Ryan Adams' latest album 29. I bought it months ago, and gave it a bit of a go back then - but didnt really rate it. On second listen its grown on me.

So my song of the week - Blue Sky Blues - absolutely stunning, it almost matches La Cienega Just Smiled from Gold.

Now I would link to his website - but what a load of old bollocks that is, yes it looks cool - but just try to navigate it! Go on then Google it!

InDecision 08

No not NZ, but the US. Today I picked up a copy of The Daily Show's InDecision 04 - their coverage of the 2004 Presidential election.

As usual with The Daily Show, its fairly cutting satire - and with candidates like George W and John Kerry - they had a fair bit to work with!

W. cant stand again in 2008 - so there will be completely new candidates - which is nirvana for people like me!

So who's gonna run for the Republicans? (Bush's/bad guys)and what about the Democrats? (good guys)

Republicans
Arizona Senator John McCain is my front runner - stood against Bush in 2000 for the nomination. Former NY Mayor Rudi Giuliani is the other option, I think he's too close to the war/terror image. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice has been talked up, but I dont rate that idea. Governor Jeb Bush (the younger brother) could be a dark horse.

My pick - either a (President/Vice Pres) McCain/Bush or McCain/Rice tickets, although my money would be on the McCain/Bush - it covers both the centre/liberal ground (McCain), while keeping the religous right happy (Jeb Bush).

Democrats
After selecting such a pathetic-no backbone candidate in 2004n(John Kerry), they can only get better!

The current front runner is New York Senator and former First Lady Hillary Clinton. In theory this would be fantastic - forgetting the blowjobs, Clinton was a good President, and Hillary was a key ingredient of that administration. However im not convinced Hillary is electable - dare I say it, she would be just as polarizing as Bush, which doesnt solve anything really. Other options include John Edwards (VP candidate in 2004) and John Kerry (Useless Presidential candidate in 04) neither is particularly exciting.

So who? Al Gore has stormed back into contention following his surprise doco film hit An Inconvenient Truth, and after winning the popular vote in 2000 (but not the vital Electoral College), I rated Gore in 2000 - he didnt campaign that well, but he was probably the best VP ever. I wasn't sure he could come back though - but I think the film has been a useful vehicle. Illonois Senator Barack Obama could be an outsider - he's a first term Senator, but an incredible speaker - high profile and relatively young, not to mention - Black! He is only a first term Senator though - so maybe VP looking to build for a later Presidential run?

So my Dem picks - Gore/Obama would be fantastic. Clinton will be strong though, Im not convinced she could win though, and after 8 years of W the Democrats must win.

So my pick is McCain/Bush versus Gore/Obama. Now what a race that would be!

Flight of the Conchords- Business Time

Crap line up - even worse headline

Now I am marginally interested in the Big Day Out line up - but the reason for this was TVNZ's headline to announce this, but we'll come to that later.

The bands announced so far are as follows - Tool (a little bit past it?), The Killers (good), Muse (dont really need to comment), Jet (good), The Violent Femmes (great as long as they only play their old stuff.... that wont happen will it) My Chemical Romance (bollocks), Eskimo Joe (are they still alive?) Peaches (who?) and Spank Rock (again who?) are the internationals. Naturally its padded out with a shitload of mediocre NZ stuff - Scribe, Evermore, The Mint Chicks (who people rate), Minuit, The Veils (who are huge in Britain) and the excellent Shapeshifter.

Like most years there are bands Id like to see - but as a package its not worth the effort. Gnarls Barkley are rumoured to be on their way too - but this is unsubstantiated.

Now the headline - The Forecast is for Rock at BDO '07

Champagne sub-editing there TVNZ!

Screw You Orlando

Ive been meaning to post this for a while, but a colleague was talking about how he ruined another film - so here it is!

As the song says he couldnt act his way out of a paper bag - but check out this hilarious track about Orlando Bloom - aptly named F U Orlando, My Girlfriend she wants to....

There's a free preview at Amplifier or you can pay $1.99 for a higher quality full download.

What a nerd

Im putting it out there.

While passing through the airport yesterday.... for my delayed flight to Auckland, I dropped into the CD&DVD Store and bought Off the Rails on DVD.

Now for those who don't know, Off the Rails was Marcus Lush's excellent doco series about trains in New Zealand - while this sounds awfully naff - its fantastic. Im convinced Marcus Lush is like a modern day John Clarke or Barry Humphries.

So there you have it! I like crazy docos about nut case NZers. Also who knew we had one of the great railway engineering wonders - the Raurimu Spiral. Its a classic bit of kiwi problem solving - in short they were building the main trunk line in two groups - one coming down from Auckland, and the other moving up from Wellington - only thing is that where they met was a steep rise - so they built the Raurimu Spiral.

I love these great crazy kiwi stories!

The day today - its all good stuff

Mello Yello has been re-released for a limited time by Coca Cola - Rock the Casbah! But anyway that wasnt what this post was gonna be about.

Well firstly - what was this guy thinking!?!?! It should probably be noted that in New Zealand, or Japan for that matter what this Congressman did would be perfectly legal - not entirely moral, but legal.... and its the moral point thats key. What I can't understand though is why can't they keep it in their pants?? The best bit of this is that the guy who did this, was behind the legislation that banned grooming of minors over the web! Which means he could now be put away under the legislation he created and promoted!

Now for some web goodies - White Heron Dairy in Parnell, Auckland has set up a blog - not sure you could find a more useless/kick ass blog??

While we're on about crap/funny/great websites check this puppy out - possibly the ultimate in design. (make sure you have your sound on - its totally worth it)

Now finally, while posting this I have been watching the very excellent/nerdy Mythbusters they have been looking at whether a Matchbox toy car would beat a real Dodge Viper on a gravity powered downhill run. They also tested how fast a Matchbox toy car could go before the wheels disintegrated. It got to 85mph which is about 136kph, before the car flew off - the wheels were fine.

Also here's something to ponder - theoretically could a plane take off on a conveyor belt??

Oh and the toy car won the downhill run over 100 feet.

Spooks in the Valley

Thirty years on from NZs great spy moment, the SIS agent who snapped a Russian spy is releasing a book on what happened and what a traitor the spy was.

Tonights Sunday show had an interview with the agent, and went into the whole thing. Basically at the height of the Cold War - while Vietnam was still going strong - in 1976 a young SIS agent was trailing a known KGB dude from the Soviet embassy, when he saw him hold a clandestine meeting with another guy - outside the Karori Bowling Club. It turns out the other guy was Bill Sutch, who was a high profile public servant, and former NZ Ambassador to the UN.

The SIS then trailed Sutch for another month or so, and one night was seen handing over a package to the KGB - which is when the SIS struck, arresting Sutch for Treason! The cool thing about this, is that the arrest took place in Aro Valley. The handover was witnessed by the War Memorial at the top of Aro St - where Raroa rd begins, and the arrest took place outside the public toilets, which were pulled down in 2000 - its where the clothing drop off bins are now.

To mark this site, there is a park bench next to the clothing bins, with a plaque on what was the back wall of the toilets.

So there you have it - NZs greatest spy episode took place just down the road from my place!

Sutch was acquited of Treason (the KGB agent managed to get away with the package - meaning there was no tangible evidence). Sutch denied he was a spy right up till his death from cancer a year later.

Watch this space

Well not this space - but the title sounded good.

Over the last couple of days Ive been doing quite a bit of thinking. Since the high of the campaign last year - which basically dominated all my time/thinking from April to October, I have had something of a hole in my existence.

After working in such a high stakes game, naturally a year like this - just isnt nearly as exciting.

So anyway after watching Al Gore's stunning An Inconvenient Truth the other day I think Ive discovered another campaign to work on.

Im gonna have a word to some people about looking at kicking some sort of campaign off.... so watch this space I guess!

Review: Nacho Libre

Just been to see Jack Black's new flick - Nacho Libre.

Its the story of a Mexican priest who secretly follows his passion and becomes a Luchadore (wrestler)

The film has received a bit of criticism as the film was directed by the guy who did the very excellent Napolean Dynamite. Personally I think its ridiculous to compare the two - Nacho is clearly aimed at a broader audience, including kids. It follows the same style as School of Rock, but offers more for adults, has the same sentimentality in the end, but is just great comedy.

Jack Black is fast becoming a modern day James Belushi, consistently producing offbeat hilarious stuff.

This is well worth a watch.

An Inconvenient Truth

Ive just got back from seeing Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. That was easily one of the most important films I have ever seen.

Gore uses simple language to communicate such an important issue - Im completely inspired to actually do something about this.

Nuclear disarmament was our parents issue during the 70s and 80s, I cant help but think this is our issue, and we're at what Churchill called a "Period of Consequence" no longer is talking good enough we need action.

A Bloody good cause

Im always keen to support a good cause, and having worked for rubbish pay and conditions at a supermarket Im with the EPMU and NDU in their current campaign.

As you may be aware, Supermarket workers at Progressive sites nationwide have been locked out of work for the past 20 or so days. At first this began as a 2 day strike, but then Progressive wouldnt let them back.

Progressive are owned by Woolworths Australia, and operate the Woolworths, Foodtown and Countdown brands in New Zealand. In the last 12 months they have recorded a $1.2 Billion profit increase - but are refusing to agree to a nationwide collective contract for supermarket workers (which means all staff get the same conditions - leave etc) and are refusing to increase their pay by the 8% demanded (which is reasonable).

If you have ever worked in a supermarket - you can appreciate how shafted these workers feel. The new Australian owners are treating their workers with contempt, and are attempting to enforce Australian conditions.

These workers shouldn't be forced to give up on their legitimate claim for a single national agreement covering the same work in different parts of the country along with a decent pay rise. Progressive are basically attempting to starve them into accepting their pathetic pay offer.

To show your support go to Shelf Respect or go to this site to donate to their cause - they have been without pay for 20 odd days now - and most of these workers have young families.

Otherwise show your support by boycotting Woolworths, Foodtown and Countdown (their stock isnt getting delivered anyway - so the shelves are empty!)

Exciting stuff

I had a phone call the other night from Craig about getting a ride up to Hamilton for the wedding etc etc, which suddenly made me realise - this is all only really a week away when you take the whole stag-do into account as well. How cool is that?

Unfortunately we have a work team building/planning days next Tuesday and Wednesday which means I havent been able to take the whole week off, but anyway should be wicked.

Half the fun too will just be getting everyone together in a 'new' place - although Hamilton is just a big Palmerston North...... which is a big Levin, so I guess not that new??

Now for an Odd spot - this is classic

Review - Clerks II

Dante - "Never go Arse to Mouth"
Randal - "Always go Arse to Mouth"

Pretty much says it all - more vulgar jokes, more discussions on everyday crap - which is better Star Wars or LOTR? etc.

(LOTR is just three films about going for a walk)

Clerks 2 picks up the story 10 years after the first Clerks, and begins with Randal leaving the coffee on at the Quick Stop, burning the place down, meaning Dante and Randal get jobs at fictional fast-food chain - Mooby's.

After a year at Mooby's Dante is about to leave for Florida with his dominating fiance. Clerks II follows his last day at Mooby's including covering the farewell that Randal organises - an Inter-Species-Erotica show.

Jay and Silent Bob of course feature - apparently they had escaped a drug conviction, and had to do re-hab - which is where they found Christ - which of course is hilarious. Shit dude did you know Jesus was Jewish

If you have seen - and liked Kevin Smith's earlier films, you'll love this, but its not likely to be the film that would draw you into the View Askewniverse.

You could criticise the fact that it basically follows the same format as the original (although the hockey game is replaced by a dance routine - to ABC) but this is good solid Kevin Smith, and I think his best film since Chasing Amy.

4/5

Simple pleasures

C4 now has some competition - MTV is back in New Zealand, which has made me a happy man.

Im not sure how C4 will survive given 90% of their programming - Punk'd, all their cartoons, Jackass, Viva La Bam, Dirty Sanchez, Wildboyz, Pimp my Ride etc is from MTV. But hey who cares.

MTV only features music videos every now and then, focussing on their shows - which is where I struck gold!

MTV Homewreckers - its Ryan Dunn from Jackass' new show, basically people who have had a prank pulled on them by mates, write in and Dunn then goes and "rennovates" their room - like turns it into urinal and such like. Inbetween these he teaches you how to do pranks around the home - like instead of using glad wrap on the toilet, use clear jello! (can only be removed by scooping it out - which if defecated on isnt the nicest!) or filling up the fans in someones car with dots from a hole punch - so they blow everywhere when the car is started.

If I had a top 5 current shows - it would be in there. The best of the shows by former Jackasses.

Steve Irwin

Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin has been killed - not by a crocodile, but by a Stingray.

Apparently his wife hasnt been told yet - she is trekking in Tasmania.

Now I've never been a fan of Irwin but this is pretty shocking. I guess he died doing what he loved - which no one could complain about.

Dangerous driving charge against armless man dropped

Above is a headline from today's Herald

Over the last year or so I have collected daft headlines and stories like this one, and put them on the pinboard in my office.

After finding that gem this morning I though id share some of the small but growing collection...

Blind man kills deaf man in noise row

Cannabis raffled for $10 a ticket

Man of Steel not gay says director

Horse given party pill drug

Computer can read your mind

Schoolgirls vomit together

No napkins..... elderly might eat them

Quick victory for humans in caveman clash

The Lord will tackle National

US dismisses deaths as 'good PR move'

Personality disorder 'no excuse for killing'

and my all time fav is actually a pull quote which featured in the Herald when Air NZ had maintainence issues a couple of years back...

'Our goal is to land with all the parts we take off with' Air NZ chief technical officer, Bill Jacobson

I love the insanity of the media.

Football World Cup 2010 - downunder???

I know WTF? The Sydney Morning Herald this morning has reported that South Africa has dropped the ball with their hosting of the 2010 Football World Cup..... and the replacements would likely be New Zealand and Australia!

Basically theyve been too slow off the mark and are way behind schedule, meaning companies are now pulling out of the tendering process due to the ridiculous timelines.

Its all in the way it rotates around - after Africa, the America's would be due next, then Asia/Oceania, then Europe. But Brazil the lead candidate for 2014 is no where near ready (only has 1 or 2 Fifa standard venues) - opening the way for us - Aussie has 5 Fifa Standard venues - (Telstra Stadium, Aussie Stadium in Sydney, Telstra Dome and the MCG in Melbourne and Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane) plus Perth is currently building another, and New Zealand is of course upgrading venues, so will have 3 (Eden Park, Westpac Stadium, and Jade Stadium) potentially 5 venues (if Carisbrook is rebuilt as is planned and Waikato Stadium is big enough).

Now the final will obviously either be at the Olympic - Telstra Stadium in Sydney or the now even huger MCG, but still even if we only hosted a pool and maybe a couple of quarter finals - how sick would that be!

Its all reliant on South Africa continuing to make a hash of it - so keep up the good work!

My NZ Idol post

Alright yes it is rubbish - and frankly who cares, but hey thats what blogs are for!

Now with Idol, I always watch the first episode - to see the awful tragics, the first show with the whole top 10, and then possibly the last couple of shows.

Tonight was the first night with the top 10, and was also their soul music night, which was basically a Motown night. Soul is one of my favourite genres and is a great test - if you cant bring the funk you will be exposed by soul music.

So for me there were only three good performances and they were actually outstanding. The rest were frankly awful - not much better than karaoke.

Becks who sang Lady Marmalade, Ben who sang Aint No Mountain High Enough and Indira who pulled out Aretha Franklin's Think. One of those three should be the winner - none of the others can sing!

Also the best of the rest - Matt is from Levin! But he sang Stevie Wonder's Livin in the City - he was a bit out of depth, but hey LV represent!

West Side Mofo

Well given the awful weather today I decided to use up the paint I had left over from the bathroom (Resene Geyser) I decided to paint the kitchen cupboards.

Naturally this got way out of control - I decided to also paint the splash back above the sink, but wanted an outrageous colour. So I charged down to Resene and for some reason didnt go with my usual red. (Red couch and rug in lounge, red mat and towels in bathroom)

No no the colour I went for was Resene West Side - which is a bright orange, almost tangerine. I half thought this was gonna clash horribly with the red couch - but it works!

I would link to the Resene site, but the colour shows up waayy duller.

Snapped!

I caught someone red handed this morning!

Doing what you ask??? Downloading "data" at work!

You see I have iTunes loaded on my machine. Now because we're on a shared drive, if someone else uses LimeWire to download free songs etc... everyone with iTunes can see it.

So this morning while listening to some Radiohead - Ok Computer (still awesome), I noticed that one of our IT support people from Unisys had been using LimeWire - meaning I could see his library. Now normally you find some gems for example - one media assistant from another office had a huge Bryan Adams (no no not Ryan) collection and also the Baywatch soundtrack (WTF?) so I was looking for a similar laugh.

HOLY FUCK was what I exclaimed when I saw this persons - five downloads listed, one song - a Justin Timberlake one it was too, and then four video clips - some of the titles as follows

"cumshot jessica fuck"
"blowjobs jessica drake tits" and so on.

You would think an IT guy would know better, and if not at least know how to cover his tracks!

After considering all sorts of blackmail and extortion - I did the decent thing and emailed him to tell him - you do realise everyone can access your LimeWire and see everything you've downloaded....

Fair to say its now an empty LimeWire.

What a dick, although it has provided much entertainment around the office - we have now coined a new phrase too: To do some gardening - his last name is Gardner.

They're small!

Yes it is about time that the Reserve Bank has replaced our coins, and the new coins have made the wallet much lighter - but its the hell confusing when being given change - for example the new 50c coin is smaller than the old 20c! So just about everytime you get given change you give that old are you ripping me off look to the cashier.

Also what is funny about this whole shebang is that people are now selling their old coins on Trade Me. Campbell Live featured an article about the now extinct 5c coins - apparently if you have a 5c coin with the date '2004' on it - you're in the money! well kind of... on average theyre selling for about $50 due to the fact that it was a really limited run in 2004.

Check out www.newcoins.govt.nz

TV Themes

Spareroom has blogged 25 of the greatest ever tv themes - including my favourites, CHiPs and Greatest American Hero.

There are some other classics though - Three's Company, Magnum PI, A Team, and of course WKRP in Cincinatti!

Check it out - theyre a crack up

Freedom! Forever!

This is actually a review of V for Vendetta, the Wachowski brothers (the Matrix) latest work.

V for Vendetta is based on the 1980s comic (sorry graphic novel) of the same name. Its the story of a fictional Britain ruled by a facist dictator - High Chancellor Sutler, and how a revolutionary - or terrorist (depending on your view point) named V, goes about undermining the government, murdering figure heads left, right and centre, and blowing the shit out of places like the Old Bailey and Houses of Parliament.

The original comic was written in the 80s for an 80s audience, using Thatcher's government as inspiration, however the movie takes on a modern theme suggesting that the facist govt is a result of the middle east conflict and terrorism. This works, and makes the story more relevant to modern audiences - it has pissed the writer off though, who distanced himself from the film.

This is one of the best political thrillers that I have seen - it is far enough removed from our reality to be entertaining, and would reach a far broader audience than most in this genre.

Hugo Weaving's performance as V is fantastic - wearing a mask for the whole film meant he really had use his voice to project V's emotions - no mean feat, and this isnt a robotic masked character like a Darth Vader, V is still just a man.

Natalie Portman looks the part of Evey, big innocent eyes and comes across strong, but her accent slipped in just about every scene - I wonder if they should have just abandoned the accent and had her speak naturally?

Anyway V for Vendetta is fantastic, this is definitely another purchase.

****

Rock the Casbah!

What a start to the day I had today! As you will recall, I bought a new car - a Peugeot 206 a couple of weeks back. The top of the line in compact hatchbacks - lovely stuff.

Anyway, this morning when I arrived in the building at work, and was about to storm into an elevator... my phone goes. "Hi is that Andrew? (before I could say anything) Its So and So here from Classics Hits 90-something FM, how are you this morning?" Great thanks I replied, radioman then said - I understand you bought a Peugeot 206 a couple of weeks ago from Shackel Motor Group? I said Yes I did, its fantastic! And he said well your name has been drawn and we are going to pay all your payments on the car for one year!

How cool is that!?!?! basically saving me $4600!

This is probably the first proper thing I have ever won!

Back of the net!

Doco Sunday

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Cuppa Joe's

Now for some good ol' US politics - just to bore the wee wee out of everyone!

Ive just been reading a fascinating article in the New Republic - one of the leading US political journals, talking about former Vice Presidential candidate, Joe Lieberman's failed primary election campaign to hold his seat in the Senate out of Conneticutt (sp? - im sure thats wrong anyway). Lieberman failed in his nomination for the Presidency in 2004, and was as mentioned Al Gore's running partner in 2000. Aside from these loses though, he has held a seat in the Senate for four terms, and was initially seen as a front runner in 2004 (before Howard Dean was endorsed by Gore, and John Kerry took the middle ground).

Lieberman's problem though, is that he is seen as pro-Bush, arguing that people shouldnt criticise the President at a time of war. Which if the country is under attack, or in a situation like WW2, then yes he is right - you don't need an opposition politicking at the sidelines. But the Iraq situation is different, there was/is no immediate threat and the Democrats were needing to act as an opposition (exactly the same problem for the ALP in Australia).

What is interesting though is how this Democratic Party primary could effect the main vote in 2008. Middle America were scared off by Bush's attacks on Kerry's indecisive - limp wristed "flip flop" nature in 2004. For the Democrats to abandon one of their senior players in such a fashion, could leave them open to the same attacks again in 2008.

In saying that Hillary Clinton is looking as solid as ever in the New York senate race, which is promising for 2008. However Howard Dean (avid Clinton hater), has taken over the running of the Democratic national body - the DNC, meaning that Hillary's ride will be rocky to say the least, and expect to see toes being tread on and blood spilt along the way.

The Democrats seem to almost be like NZ or UK Labour in the 90s, to busy fighting each other - therefore losing time and time again.

So looking to 2008, I expect to see the race being between Senator John McCain (Republicans) and Hillary (Democrats), to be honest - I could handle either, neither are nutbars of Bush proportions, and frankly from a New Zealand perspective McCain visits here a lot, and has been our biggest backer for a free-trade deal - he even referred to NZ as an ally, which we havent been called since ANZUS broke down over the Nukes issue in 1986. So while I will hopefully head over to campaign for Hillary victory, a McCain administration should suffice.

This is history

Today is the tenth anniversary of Oasis' landmark Knebworth gigs. The gigs were frankly huge and the zenith of the Britpop phenomenon. 125 000 people attended each night (10th and 11th of August), and to give an idea of how big this was the support acts on the first night were The Prodigy, Manic Street Preachers and Ocean Colour Scene followed by The Charlatans, Kula Shaker and The Chemical Brothers on the second. 1996 was the year that Britpop - and Oasis dominated and the Knebworth gigs became the stuff of legend. They were Cool Britiania.

The next year all the great acts faded - Oasis included, Blur disappeared, Sleeper produced their weakest work, Pulp took nearly three years to produce This is Hardcore and all of the bands listed above never scaled the heights of 1996 again. Knebworth was nirvana.

Also while marking this occasion, Top of the Pops after 40 years has been canned (hence the video) - to be fair I dont think it will really be missed! The world has moved on a bit. You should have noticed something strange with the video - Oasis upset the BBC in mid 1995 with this performance of Roll With It. After being forced to lip synch the lads spiced things up by having Noel act as lead vocalist (with no guitar) and Liam "play" lead guitar - making it obvious that they are lip synching. Great stuff

Stalking

Modern day stalking is soo easy - you can pretty much Google any one and at least be able to track their background etc (dont lie, you know you have) - and if they live in Wellington - get an aerial photo of their home!

But in the US, its got even jucier! Russell Brown in his Public Address column today has covered how AOL has made possibly the worst decision of all time by selling the search history of 500 000 of their clients to market researchers - who promptly put it online. Of course, once somethings online, you can't stop the spread. AOL Stalker has been set up, so you can search what people have been looking at! Trouble is of course - who would now use AOL? and probably the more worrying issue is - AOL is basically Google reskinned, so does this mean Google could do the same thing? Users could basically be held to ransom, or blackmailed with this information. This could ruin people.

Anyway here is a juicy snippet -
Woman searchs for flowers, venues etc for dream wedding... The fiance, not so much - he's more interested in "forced deep throat", "rape stories" and "lolita sex" ..... holy shit.

What a wonderful world.

The best music video ive seen for ages

And arguably the best ever use of exercise equipment!

Its on like Donkey Kong

Well after last week's slow start to my virtual picks for the Air NZ Cup, ive managed to pull a few points back - outscoring quite a few people, and now only sit 11 points shy of Hameadom. The Heartland Championship begins in Round 4, so that should mix things up a little - brings an element of luck - who knows who would win between Wanganui and Thames Valley? North Otago and Poverty Bay? Im actually willing to bet some of my competitors dont know where Poverty Bay is?? (and no googling doesnt count). Am I wrong?

The great Wikipedia Meme

Ok so this is a bit of fun, I saw it on another couple of blogs, and was actually surprised by the results!

1. Go to Wikipedia
2. In the search box, type your birth month and day but not the year.
3. List three events that happened on your birthday
4. List two important birthdays and one death
5. One holiday or observance (if any) - (mine is a cracker)

16 July

3 Events
- 1945, Manhattan Project - First plutonium nuclear bomb tested.
- 1951, Catcher in the Rye by J D Salinger first published.
- 1969, Apollo 11 launches - first manned mission to the moon.
and one more since its a good one
- 1994, Rwandan Civil War ends.

2 Births and a Death
- 1918, Tsar Nicholas II executed by the Bolsheviks during the Russian revolution.
- 1963, Fat Boy Slim born
- 1967, Will Ferrell born

A holiday or observance
National Ice Cream Day (USA) I kid you not, it was set up by who else..... Ronald Reagan!

Some people

Im having one of those mornings this morning.

First of all, the idiot messenger has now knocked over my Rubber plant - dont worry about cleaning it up eh! Though its not nearly as badly injured - may need re-potting at some point though.

On top of this though, and granted this wouldnt normally grate me quite so much - but doesnt it just annoy the tits off you when you say "morning" to someone - and they reply "afternoon" and do one of those heavy breath laughs - the "heeeeeee" while exhaling, as though thats funny. Actually it isnt the afternoon.

Argh

He's aliiivvve

First off the title should be read in a mad scientist style. Now who's alive you ask? My Yucca! With my care he has regained his strength, and has largely straightened himself (and yes he is a he) and the gardeners have (finally) turned up and put a stake in - so he's looking good. I did have to amputate a couple of leaves, but he is now expected to make a full recovery - after the early prognosis of - its a dead duck, and then the "well all going well hopefully just the top half will die".

Pictured is the Yucca, with its Rubber Plant friend on the floor (which as I said earlier has been cut in half) also take note of the David Brent album flyer on my noticeboard - free love on the free love freeway i say! (this was only taken with my phone - so apologies for the quality!

Review: Rather Ripped, Sonic Youth

Over the years ive never liked Sonic Youth that much - a little too avant garde for my liking, and I think arguably a little snobbish or pretentious. But over the years they have also produced some great stuff - 1997's Washing Machine, and 1998's A Thousand Leaves were both great albums - and the song Sunday from A Thousand Leaves would probably make my top 100.

Their new album has again taken the same route as Washing Machine etc, with less bullshit noise, sorry art, and more great songs. Rather Ripped has some great tracks - the opening Reena is stunning with unmistakably Sonic Youth riffs, and Incinerate kicks ass (which they performed on Rove Live last week - hardly the show you would expect to find alt-punk gods like SY), my favourite track though had to be Do You Believe in the Rapture? - a fantastic track.

All up this is a good album. Sonic Youth are a band that grows on you, but at times they're difficult to grasp, Rather Ripped is definitely one of their more accessible works.

****

Let down

Before you think this is going to be about how some people are letting others down by not updating their blog for 12 days - its not.....

No im talking about this years Film Festival. Frankly the quality this year seems down on previous years - not much has grabbed my attention. Of course there was the compulsory Tristram Shandy (its starred Steve Coogan), and im probably going to see the Holocaust drama - Fateless but other than those - for the first time since Ive been in Wellington (7 years), Im just not into it.

Also the other let down of yesterday was my Yucca plant - which I had nurtured, grown to about 1m tall, and had sitting on my desk (blocking the view of my screen to people walking into my office) - the fucking messenger knocked it off my desk - bending its spine in half. Bastard. Its pretty much ruined - the gardeners will be up this morning, and i spent the day watering it etc, but prognosis isnt good. I still have my Rubber plant - but that has recently been cut down (apparently 2.5m is too tall!)and Ive had to bring in another subsititute - its some ugly leafy thing - not in the same ball park of cool as my Yucca. Gutted.

A slow start

Well the new Air New Zealand Cup kicked off over the weekend. The Air NZ Cup is essentially the old NPC Division One, with four teams promoted from the old second division - Hawkes Bay, Tasman (a combination of Nelson Bays and Marlborough), Counties Manakau, and Manawatu.

All teams actually performed pretty well. I went and watched Manawatu (arguably the weakest, and worst prepared - their coach walked out 4 weeks ago) play defending champions Auckland. To be honest, after the Lions (British) put 100 points on Manawatu last year - I wasnt expecting much with a team like Auckland coming to town - star studded backline and all. But Manawatu dominated the break-down, turning over a lot of posession, and won the lineouts - their scrum was weak, but thats to be expected.

Manawatu lock Hayden Triggs could well make the Hurricanes if he can keep performing like that, and the Manawatu loosies were outstanding, outperforming the Aucklanders - who were made up of Daniel Braid, Brad Mika, and Jerome Kaino - all of whom have played for the All Blacks.

My team, the Wellington Lions were too good for Taranaki, and while the other results were predictable, Counites should have beaten Otago - going down by four points, and Tasman pushed Harbour losing 33-27. Good stuff.

What wasn't so good was my performance in the Virtual Air NZ Cup - picking up only 18 points, nevermind its early days yet - and the Heartland Championship should be a leveller once that kicks off.

PS. Its a little odd that the Manawatu team are called the Turbo's - they are suppsoedly named after the Wind Turbines, which dominate the hills surrounding Palmerston North - so why not the Manawatu Turbines?

206 - first class

This is from the 206 online fan club - says it all really

There's nothing like 206. Innovative and seductive, appealing as much to the eye as to the heart, the shape of the 206 symbolizes a new generation of
Peugeot.

With its lean looks and muscular stance, the 206 conveys a sensation of movement even when standing still. The spacious cabin, the high-quality finish and the discerning choice of materials give it a feeling of luxury usually associated with a much larger car.

Thats first class. I'll take photo's this weekend and blog them early next week.

Stop the Clocks

Oasis have today announced via their very handy email newsletter that they are releasing a best-of titled Stop the Clocks. Apparently it will be the bands "ultimate set list" and will feature songs from all albums including "the best b-side ever" (if they say so themselves) Acquiese and also Half the World Away (which I would argue is better!) plus all their major singles.

This is apparently a stop-gap between the end of their Don't Believe the Truth tour and beginning the next studio album. Often best-of's are a sign that the end is nigh, but I hope not - Don't Believe the Truth is easily their best album since What's the Story and while its good to go out on a high, I think the lads still have another couple of great albums in them. Fingers crossed!

PS, in the handy email there wasn't a release date so I assume this is out now?

Tate Modern

Art isnt one of my usual topics I know, but while dreaming of being on holiday this morning, I read an article about how the Tate Modern is going to expand. Tate Modern is the sister of Tate Britain or The Tate as it was known, and was opened in 2000, and because of the UK Labour govts most excellent policy of free entry to museums and galleries; instead of having 1.8m visitors per year - they get 4m! Hence the expansion. Tate was an absolute highlight of my time in London with level 5's Idea + Object and States of Flux galleries holding most of my attention - pictured is one of my favourites Jasper Johns' 0 through 9, from the State of Flux space - which also houses Warhol's Double Elvis and one of the iconic Marilyn Diptych's. Not only the art though, the Tate itself is stunning - it used to be a power station, you enter through what was the turbine hall - which is just massive. Looking at the "Pyramid" extension im not entirely sure about the design, but we'll see, and god knows London needs more stand out contempary architecture. If youre ever in London check that puppy out.