Little bit of music

I've been working for the last hour trying to get a playlist into Grooveshark that you would be able to access with little success. I'll work on it again tomorrow. In the mean time here is Liam Finn on Letterman from a few years back. P.S. Coming soon: some sporting memories.

Two Women in Auckland Part II

On Sunday we went to the Auckland Art Gallery for a cultural aperitif after Saterday's show(see part I). We were rapt to find that a Rita Angus collection was being shown. We were always going to go, so we had never bothered to check what was on display, so this was a big bonus. We thoroughly enjoyed the collection. It was nice how they incorporated sketches from the artist next to the completed piece for comparison. Then on top of that there was another collection being shown of New Zealand's history through art. Here, some of the big boys in NZ art were also being shown. The Goldie's and the McCahon's are part of the permanent collection and we had seen them before but there were also other iconic pieces that we hadn't seen in person, but knew of. I guess the big winner of the day was being able to seen Shane Cotton's iconic piece Te Wai Whariki in person. I was surprised by the size (it was massive) and the brightness of the blue. Another one that stood out for me was Marian Maguire's Attic Volute Crater, 1779, Depicting Scenes from the Odyssey of Captain Cook. The drama came just before we were going to leave. There was a piece. I forget who it was from but it was titled 3.33. It was twelve axes hanging in a line and above each was a bishops cap. It was a representation of twelve axes that were traded by the English to the Maoris for 30,000 acres of land. The piece was hanging in a corridor between two galleries and I was standing there reading the description of the piece. This guy came along to look at the piece and grabbed one of the axes, I suppose to see if it was real. I gave him a "what the fuck, dude!" glare. Don't get me wrong, I'm not elitist when it comes to art but you don't touch them do you? I went around to the other side of the wall to have a look and there was an almighty clang on the floor. When I came back around, the axe and the bishop's cap were on the floor and the cap was broken. The guy I had seen was gone and there was an older gentleman and his wife were standing there absolutely mortified. A crowd gathered and the older man swore he hadn't touched a thing. I went to look for the guy I had seen and found him upstairs in the Rita Angus collection. I told him what happened and said that I thought that he should go back down and fess up to what he had done to at least let the other guy of the hook. I don't think he believed me until he went back down and saw everyone gathered around the piece on the floor. Bummer, dude.

Eddie Izzard and the Death Star Canteen

Rena Owen, the subject of my last post, also played a role in Star Wars II Attack of the Clones. Here's Eddie Izzard talking about the Death Star Canteen. I can't quite figure Eddie out. All I know is that he is fucking funny!

Two Women In Auckland Part I

Mrs Finndego and I went this weekend to Auckland for a getaway. We went to see Bruce Mason's "The Pohutukawa Tree" which is an iconic New Zealand play about the European and Maori relationship in the 1950's. The lead role was played by Rena Owen who you may know as Beth Heke from "Once Were Warriors". The whole play is quite a slow burn which made it quite intense and I gave myself quite a headache by the end of the play. I intentionally stayed away from too much information about the play itself before we went because I didn't want any preconceived notions before I got to see it and I was glad. I just got very focussed on not only the play itself but also the craftmanship of the actors and watching their every move and how they delivered their lines, how they picked up their cues and how they behaved when they weren't talking. I hadn't been to a play for a few years and that side was part of the kick for me. I guess in the end the most important thing that I got out of it was that pride can be a good thing or a bad thing and too much of it is definetley a bad thing. It was kind of ironic but in a lot of ways but the pride displayed by Rena's character Aroha was similarly destructive as that of "Jake The Muss" in "Once Were Warriors".

A Piece of Work

It was my 40th birthday recently (thank you, now let's move on) and I decided to buy an art print from the artist Kitty Kilian who is from Utrecht in Holland where I used to live. I think it's a beautiful piece (http://www.kittykilian.nl/collageoppaneel/cputrechtschecourant.php) that will go nicely in our house. It was a bit of a drama getting it here but now that it's here we need to get it into frame and get it on the wall. It is based on the work of C.C.S. Crone(http://www.inspiringcities.org/index.php?id=1&page_type=Article&id_article=18146) who was a writer in Utrecht from the 1930's who wrote about normal everyday life.

Where is the love for the Hermaphrodites?

First is was South African runner Caster Semenya (http://deadspin.com/5356717/caster-semenya-is-a-hermaphrodite-ballsy-aussie-paper-reports) then Lady Gaga (http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2009/08/lady-gaga-hermaphrodite-picture-sparks-rumors/). Neither of them wanting to claim the title of Worlds Most Famous Hermaphrodite which still remains vacant. Do I really care? No. Do I get excited by the thought of a Hermaphrodite? Not since I was 15. What I'm more worried about is Lady (if that's her real name!) Gaga's fashion sense (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRV0w7aW8vI).
And since we're lowbrowing it at the VMA's do you think that after Kanye's music career is over that he'll hire himself out to be a personal event interrupter? Would he do weddings and interrupt the groom's speech? Kanye: "Yo Doug, I'm really happy for you and I'll let you finish but Brad would have been a much better partner for Sally!" More Hennesey for that man!

Grooveshark

One of my favourite websites is Grooveshark (http://listen.grooveshark.com/). note: I haven't completely figured out hyperlinking yet but I'm getting there but the posts can't wait so bear with me. Anyways, Grooveshark is a free online "radio player"where you can create playlists from the songs they have and stream online. You're not downloading them ala iTunes but streaming so it just cost you bandwidth. To be perfectly honest, I prefer Last FM (http://www.last.fm/) but they require a fee after a trial period and I'm just not into that. Grooveshark falls into that gray area where they do have some agreements in place with record companies but not for all of the music that they have listed. They do have a lot of music. I have some pretty random tastes and I have been able to find most of the songs that I've gone looking for. Right now I'm into everything from the Rolling Stones to The Specials to Horace Andy to Gypsy/Roma music to New Zealand music not made by Flight of The Conchords. My goal is to make up some playlists that I can attach to posts so that you can listen to a selection while reading my blog. I'm not going into the whole argument about whether it's right or not. The way I feel at this stage is that it has been around long enough (music downloading) without a suitable solution either way that I'm just going to wait for a decision either way and then stick to that. But in the meantime if bands are going to stream songs on their myspace site or radio stations are streaming live online or I can find videos on youtube then I will stick to streaming and not downloading. You can make the choice when I put a playlist on whether you want to listen to it or not.

What to pack

In a former life I used to read books. Before computers and Sky TV I could read two or three books a week. I consider myself well read just not relevant because I haven't read anything lately. The last good book I read was "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson about five years ago. Anyway, my reading is now done vicariously through Mrs Finndego who does manage to find the time (how, I don't know) and likes to share.
Also, in a former life I used to travel and I've done a bit of that too. Just like Peanut Butter and Chocolate backpacking and good books are two great tastes that go great together. Having a good book or two is essential while travelling even if you're not travelling alone. The worst thing that can happen is getting stuck with a crap book while on the road or reading through everything while your still out there. I have managed to swap books with other travellers with little success but sometimes, something is better than nothing. Here is a link (http://www.bookride.com/2009/09/backpacker-classics-for-journey.html) to backpacker classics and if your a traveller or a reader I think it's a good list to compare to your own booklist. Some are a bit pretentious (Ulysses, War and Peace(puleeeze) and The Prophet, for example). Some are no-brainers (Catch-22, The Hobbit & Lord of the Rings , Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Repair or even The Beach) and a few local favourites (again, The Beach=Thailand, Snow Leopard=Nepal). It's a good list and I don't disagree but there are a few glaring omissions. First of all, and it's mentioned in the comments, is that there is no Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I would have put a top three at Catch-22, Zen and Hitchhikers. Secondly, there are very little biographies. At the least, I would have thought that Mandela's Long Walk to Freedom or Anne Frank's Diaries, for example, would have gotten a mention. Then again, no list is perfect or complete. I suppose that my top three that I've taken on the road would be 1. Wrestling with the Angel/Michael King (South Island,NZ) 2. The Exodus/Leon Uris (Spain) 3. Hitchhikers/Douglas Adams(London).

Manifesto

I want to use this first post to set up some goals for this blog. I've just turned forty and my life is work and family. In the evening, I get to spend a few hours behind the computer and I thought that maybe it was time do something more useful with my time.I don't expect to get many followers outside of people I already know but since they are spread out everywhere from Florida to Massachusetts to New Zealand to Holland it seems like a good way for me to connect to all those people at once. I don't trust Facebook and I will never Tweet and in reality a blog is either "new old school" or "old new school" as far as connecting with people goes, I just can't decide which. As far as content goes, I expect it will be a little bit of just rambling, links to good things I've seen or read and probably a few top 5 lists (I just love top 5 lists) and some trivia thrown in. I love sports and they will probably feature but I'll try to keep a balance that will be of interest to just about everyone. All I can say is that I'll post things that are happening or things that are going through my head and hopefully you'll enjoy it. All I can say is that I hope we can share and I hope it's fun. Mark