The Toy Box

Mrs. Finndego has a few things going on in her life that we are really positive about. Her recent etching course has panned out into a full blown business proposition from her teacher John Mulvey. Originally called the Smallest Art School in the World and now tentatively called The Toy Box, John's vision calls for an art space where people can come and do art. It's that simple. It's sort of supposed to work in three different ways. 1. People can come off the street and use the space and the studio at their leisure. 2. John will tutor specific courses (etching,printing,life drawing etc.) for tuition. 3. There will be accommodation where people can come and stay and also have use of the studio. Mrs. Finndego aka Keri Ann aka Girl Friday has been asked to help out in exchange for free studio time and mentoring from John (in addition to copious amounts of plum wine). Since it's all early days and there is a lot of work to be done I wasn't planning on saying anything about it at this stage but John has put it out there in his blog here and we are really excited about the possibilities. We'll see what the future brings.

The Dutch Club

Here in little ol' Waihi they have their own Dutch Club. They meet every last Friday of the month at St. Johns Presbyterian Church. I decided to go today for the first time. I was a little nervous. I was worried I might have to stand up in front of everyone and do the obligatory "Hi, ik heet Mark en ik kom uit Amerika" speech. On the drive over, I was trying out different versions, talking to myself in Dutch. I probably sounded like a complete idiot. Two things were in play here:
1. I'm not Dutch. My entry/exit story is complicated and I didn't want to babble on trying to explain. I'm guilty of being a Nederphile (I made that word up, please don't confuse it with any other word.) Would it be OK with them if I sat in on their little meetings? Even though I don't have a Dutch passport I still feel a little bit Dutch. Would that be enough? I thought I could convince them of that and it wouldn't be a problem. At one stage in my rehearsal, I even considered using Joop Fischer's line " Ik hou van Nederland, Ik ken geen beter land" (translates: "I love Holland, I don't know of a better country"). Unfortunately, the next line is "Waar je rustig langs de weg kunnen plassen" (translates: "where you can easily piss on the side of the road") and it would be my luck that someone would actually know the song and bring that up. I didn't need that first up. In the end, I got myself all mucked up and decided that I would just wing it (usually not my best option!)
2. My Dutch language skills are deteriorating. It's been almost ten years now and I struggle sometimes. My mate Ivo will call me unexpectedly and our conversation will go something like this:

"Hello, this is Mark"

"Hoi, met Ivo"

"....................(me switching to my dutch brain)......... He! Ivo! Hoe is het!"

" Goed, met jouw?"

".....................(trying to form a full sentence now) ((remember Mark, first verb in second position in the sentence, all the rest at the end!)).....Uh, Ik ben rugby aan het kijken. Jouw?

" Goed."

Eventually, I warm up and things start coming back to me and I can have a normal conversation but for a while I'll stammer and look for words, throw in an English word if I can't the Dutch one and struggle to get my point across. I was worried that I might get the same thing here at the Dutch club and look like a complete idiot.

Anyways, I got to the church and found where I needed to be and there was a group of eight people standing around with a cup of coffie and a cookie (dead giveaways for Dutchies). I asked if I was in the right place anyway and introduced myself and everyone was really nice and actually I needn't have worried. Firstly, no one asked my to stand up and make a speech and secondly we spent most of the time talking English!

It was lovely anyway to talk to Ruud and Ans and Gerard and Bas and the rest. They were all lovely people and made me feel welcome although there wasn't one of them who was within thirty years of my age. Most of them had come to New Zealand in the 40's and 50's and Nederland was very far away indeed. I heard that they used to get 75-80 people at their meetings back in the old days but that members had moved away or were too ill to come or dead. I really did enjoy my koffie en koekje and I do look forward to next month. I wonder what they think of Hans Teeuwen? In Dutch but really no translation necessary.

Misinformation: The Devil's Volleyball

With an issue as complicated and confusing as Misinformation (after the jump look at the examples) it's difficult to know where to start. For me the confusion only started fairly recently. It's funny how having kids can change your perspective on so many things but suddenly you start caring about things you never cared about before. All of a sudden you start looking into things and you realize how much bullshit is out there that you never even paid attention to before. When it came time to get Baxter's first immunization shots the midwife gave us a booklet about immunization and the pros and cons. Inside were two pamphlets. One, said that immunization was safe and of great benefit and the other said that immunization was dangerous and of little effect. We hadn't even got rid of that "new baby smell" off of Baxter and as new parents this wasn't a great way to help us make an informed decision because one of them was full of shit.
A lot of the big issues today are rife with misinformation whether it be Healthcare in the States (Obama's death squads), Genetic Modification (using rat testes in drought resistant wheat), Foreshore and Seabed (NZ) (Maori's will charge us to use the beach) or Climate Change (chose either the deniers or the exaggerators.) I believe in the effect of man made climate change but don't try and scare me with 6 meter sea level rise and 3 billion people displaced. Mate, you had me already at 1/2 meter and 500 million displaced. The only reason people tend to exaggerate is to pull in people that they haven't been convinced already. When it comes to climate change though, if you haven't convinced people already you're not going to. Don't worry about them, let natural selection sort them out.
Now lately, the mining debate has come up in New Zealand. The local paper ( I'd link to them but they haven't yet caught on to the interweb) has been full of letters to the editor about mining. I may be on one particular side of this argument but I do have a brain and I'm not afraid to use it. To see the bullshit that has been written just frustrates me for a few reasons. If a person makes good points, has sound arguments and makes ,what I feel reasonable assumptions, I'm inclined to believe them. That's not me being gullible or anything but people who tend to do those things tend to be right. Veer from those ideas and start personalizing or passing on someones idea as your own or say that you read something on the Internet and my bullshit meter starts going off. Rehash old ideas or as I said above exaggerate beyond reasonable belief and you start losing me pretty quickly. All of a sudden this misinformation starts turning into disinformation and you start to get into this territory.
What bugs me the most when I read these letters is that I know that they are false. I could never do public relations because I'd be calling "Bullshit!" all the time. I don't like to be wrong but I can accept that I can be, but what bugs me the most is when I know I'm right and I fail to convince someone of that. Wait, that came out wrong. It's not about me being right, that's not the point, but I don't want the other person to have the wrong information or believe something that isn't right because that bugs me. If someone says that Redwoods are the largest trees in the world, I'll say "No, Sequoia's are the largest, Redwoods are the tallest." I can't help myself, even if people will think I'm a smart-aleck-know-it-all prick. I can't let it slide. That's the price you have to pay for good information.
And don't even try and tell me that we didn't land on the moon because I will go all Buzz Aldrin on your ass!!!!

Shock And Ore

60 Minutes New Zealand has done a piece about gold mining in New Zealand in response to the government's recent release of it's report of precious metals held within conservation land here. You can watch the video here. They were on site for two days filming so you can get a could look of where I work. Like most reports I've seen lately it is slightly imbalanced reporting with more weight given to the scaremongers amongst who think that there will be huge open casts mine dotting the landscape. Let's just say that at this point you're more likely to see nuclear power plants dotting the countryside than opencast mines. I won't go into too many details about what I dispute about the report but suffice it to say that some of the arguments are old and tired. I'm already planning another post about misinformation which seems to be the modus operandi of opposing sides to most of the more complicated issues here. It's funny sometimes that Newmont here in Waihi get a lot of the coverage. We aren't the biggest mine in New Zealand and there are already mines in operation that are on conservation land (82!) but little ole Waihi keeps getting the face time. I'm sure it has nothing to do with being only two hours from where the major newscenters are based in Auckland. But I digress. Anyways, enjoy the video if you haven't seen it already.

The Strip Joint

I have no particular affinity for strip joints. They are reason number 12 why I'm glad I don't have girls. The last time I visited one was about 7 years ago for a mates stag party. They are a fantasy world that often brings out the least in people. That said, when I was 18 and in Guam I gladly swam in that fantasy. Try and tell an 18 year old that he shouldn't go to a place where he could drink beer, play pool and see boobies. There is a difference to being 18 and 40. If your 40 and still going to strip joints, just stay at home and play Dungeons and Dragons with your mates and I'll have more respect for you. I thought if I would go to one now, I'd want to know how I could make the most it, in my own way. So, I've come up with my Top 5 Most Awkward Songs To Get A Lap Dance To. I don't want to be there, the girls don't want to be there, so let's make it as uncomfortable as possible. So here they are:

5. Macarthur Park - Richard Harris "Someone left the cake out in the rain"

4. 2112 - Rush "20 minutes of Geekitude"

3. Once in A Lifetime - Talking Heads "Same as it ever was, same as it ever was"

2. I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) - The Proclaimers "And I would walk 500 miles!"

1. Luka - Suzanne Vega "No Comment"

Naturally, I made a playlist in case your not familiar with the songs or if you want to put your man off lapdances for the rest of his life.

The Better Half

Living with an aspiring artist isn't always easy. Lucky for me, Keri Ann finally decided to seek professional help. She took a course in etching/printmaking recently that's just been completed. Her tutor John Mulvay posted his thoughts on the whole process here. Keri Ann's print is titled Paper Doll and can be found at the bottom of the page. While the first up results were OK, Keri Ann loved the process. Sourcing the design, working with and the actual etching of the metal, choosing the format and working the press entralled her. Cover her with ink, acid and terps and she's as happy as a tornado in a trailer park.