Weasel War Dance

Phone message

2012-01-25T16:42:00.000-08:00

After 8 years or dormancy, it was time to get the old phone message back out of retirement. Couldn't find the original so I had to recreate it from memory. I think this was roughly it.

Phone message by user5836174

A rant about one of my favourite album covers.

2012-01-08T15:18:00.000-08:00

Figure 8 was the first Elliott Smith album I ever listened to and I fell in love with it immediately. It's still my favourite of his albums and I've always thought that the album cover was one of the best. This is the album cover:

I was always intrigued by the swirl design in the background and, after a bit of internetting, I found out that the wall Elliott is standing in front of still exists and is located at 4334 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles.

Recently I was in the US and on my last day in LA I made my pilgrimage to see the wall and pay my respects.

I got there and this is what it looked like:

It's actually the wall of a independent "Audio, Video and Speaker Repair" shop called Solutions!.

I stood around for a while taking photos of the wall and me in front of it:

In the picture above you can see the McDonalds next door, the American flag and, if your eyes are good, the Hollywood sign on the hill. LA is an interesting place.

It was weird cos on my other pilgrimages to musically significant locations (see my Abbey Road post) there were loads of people hanging around and taking photos. But here at the "Elliott Smith Wall" it was just me. It was nice actually. People walking past must have wondered what the hell I was doing. Meh.

There was evidence all over the wall that a lot of people still visit the wall though. This was in the form of messages and lyrics such as these:

Anyway, so I'd been there for a while and then I was just about to make my way off when the door of the Solutions! opens and out comes a middle-aged man who asks me if I realised that the shop was open and if I'd like to come in. Surprised at this, I just kind of followed him in and admitted that I was really only there to look at the wall. He jokingly replied “What wall?”

Turns out that he, Stefan, this lovely, middle aged, Asian-American man who runs the store, is actually also the person who designed the wall! He told me that Elliott used to come in to the store to get things fixed. One day Elliott had come in and sheepishly asked Stefan if he could take a photo in front of the wall the cover of his new album. He also said that he remembers the day that Elliott’s music video for the song ‘Son of Sam’ was filmed – some of it being filmed outside the

store. In the music video, Elliott follows a red balloon that eventually leads him to a strange door - the door being the one in the wall of Solutions!. Stefan told me that the whole inside of the room behind the door had to be cleared out of the way so that the door could open. The doorway is never actually used regularly as behind it is a wall full of Stefan’s record collection. He said he clearly remembers the huge cooler of beer that the crew and Elliott had just outside to drink in between shooting.

I asked as humbly as I could if I could get a photo of Stefan in the shop but he politely declined saying that he wasn’t famous so doesn’t want a photo. Stefan took me around his shop and showed me what he did. He fixes Audio and video gear and speakers.

We talked about the wall itself and the graffiti that always covers up the design on the wall which he happily refered to as art. He said that he thinks it inevitable as people will always think that their art is better than the design so will put their “art” over the top. After having it repainted once/twice(?), he has decided that what he is going to do is cover the whole wall with a new design entirely made up of circuit boards. He said he would still incorporate the original design of the big “S” pattern. He chuckled as he thought of how Elliott called the album Figure 8 but actually the pattern is a big “S” for the start of the name of the shop (Solutions!). He laughed and said that Elliott must have been drunk. I could tell from the way Stefan talked about Elliott that he was quite fond of him. How could you not be, right? Elliott Smith! Sheesh!

So that was that.

So anyway, while I was in the U.S. I bought a copy of Figure 8 on vinyl...

...which I've been listening to as I've been writing this post. <3

Colorad-snow.

2011-12-22T15:35:00.000-08:00

I opened the door and put my foot out into the snow. It sank a couple of feet and my “new experience”-alarm-bells went off.

I went out and shoveled the snow off of the sidewalk out front. You have to do this by law. For a beginner, I was proud of my efforts and took a photo.
Next I wandered down the street admiring all the prettiness of the snow and watching different people’s techniques at getting snow off driveways and sidewalks. Most just had shovels like me. I saw one woman with a machine that looked like a lawnmower and she was pushing it around and it was spraying snow out the side. Other people had ride-on versions.
I was excited and was taking lots of photos as I wandered around Erie. People must have thought I was nuts. It was clear that I was the only person who was outside for fun. As I walked past bemused Coloradans momentarily distracted from de-snowing their driveways, my funny little accented voice rang out into the chilled air making noises that would have sounded like this: “Gid afta-noon!”, “Thet looks loike faan!” or “Noice day fer ut!”

I got back home and decided that I'd construct a snowperson out the back. It didn't really work out though cos the snow is just too darn powdery and hard to pack! Maybe there's a trick to it. Maybe you just need more than one worker. Anyway, below is my aborted attempt. It's more like a snowmound really.

Butch Vig - Very Mournful

2011-10-03T22:37:00.000-07:00

Haven't posted in a while. It's twenty years since Nirvana release Nevermind and I watched the Classic Albums documentary for the album today. The part where the producer of the album, Butch Vig, talks about the track 'Something in the Way' has always made me laug because of how he talks about the album. So I made this:

Very Mournful - Butch Vig and Nirvana by user5836174

And here's the link to the original clip.

Marco on a swing.

2011-05-03T15:14:00.000-07:00

Miracle Max

2011-03-31T21:07:00.000-07:00

"Yes, absolutely, I would save him, if he had said 'true love,' but you misheard, whereas I, being an expert on the bellows cram, will tell you what any qualified tongue man will only be happy to verify - namely, that the f sound is the hardest for the corpse to master, and that it therefore comes out vuh, and what your friend said was 'to blove,' by which he meant, obviously, 'to bluff' - clearly he is either involved in a shady business deal or a card game and wishes to win, and that is certainly not reason enough for a miracle. I'm sorry, I never change my mind once it's made up, good-by, take your corpse with you."

Little Deuce Coupe - The Clone Choir

2011-03-12T15:15:00.000-08:00

I decided to put my clones to good use today. We all gathered around and sang and sang the Beach Boys and I recorded it. Have a listen.

Little Deuce Coupe - A capella by user5836174

Clone Storage Facility.

2011-01-20T16:25:00.001-08:00

Mercifully, I've been able to find storage space for my clones. It was just getting a bit crowded at home.

OMG, BTW, FYI, it took a while to decide what to title this blog entry. Here were some of the other contenders:

- The perfect office staff.

- Something for the ladies.

- Press photo for my new band: Anthony and the Anthonys.

Can you think of any others? I'd love to hear your suggestions.

Harry Potter

2011-01-11T03:09:00.001-08:00

I was so excited about going to see the new Harry Potter movie that I thought I'd dress up as Harry Potter to go see it.

I actually found the glasses at my flat.

"Lumos!"

I ended up chickening out and not going dressed as Harry Potter. Great film!!

Home Handy-Man

2010-11-10T18:55:00.000-08:00

My right-hand wing mirror on my car has been broken for ages so I finally got around to buying a replacement and all that was left to do was to fit it. It looked like a job for Home Handy-Man.

Here's the shitty old mirror that was broken. I dunno how it broke. I came home from holiday a few months ago and it was broken. I'd even had it in the retracted position so that no cars would hit it off, which leads me to believe that it was something more sinister. Damned drunken students, I'll bet.

Here's a picture of the old mirror and the new mirror. The new mirror (second hand) even has a wee mirror attached to it, reminiscent of a baby koala attached to the parent koala.

Here's what the car looked like once i'd taken off the old mirror. Naked. Am I allowed to show this kind of nudity on the internet?

Finally, heres's the new mirror all screwed on and ready to go.

Home Handy-Man strikes again. Well, maybe not "again". How about just "Home Handy-Man strikes. Inaugurally."

And in this generation of obsessive recyclisation, I even found a use for the old mirror.

Eyes.

2010-11-05T17:55:00.001-07:00

So much to organise...

2010-11-04T22:11:00.000-07:00

Can't Come Out Too Soon

2010-11-02T03:26:00.000-07:00

Hey all.

Francis wrote this song. He hopes you enjoy it.

Anthony

Can't Come Out Too Soon by user5836174

Twin Love

2010-10-26T22:54:00.000-07:00

Untitled.

2010-10-14T03:09:00.000-07:00

The Beatles

2010-10-12T02:32:00.001-07:00

A present for Logan.

2010-10-12T01:29:00.000-07:00

My friend Logan likes David Bowie so I thought I'd surprise him with this:

Right, now back to work on my God-damned assignment.

Blackbird (A capella)

2010-08-03T23:36:00.000-07:00

I was bored on Sunday night so I recorded my own A capella version of the Beatles' song Blackbird. Have a listen below and let me know what you think.

Blackbird (A capella) by user5836174

James Dean

2010-07-29T17:05:00.000-07:00

Hi. So, I tricked you a little bit with the James Dean picture and blog title so that you'd come here and read my largely un-researched rant. It does relate to James Dean though.

Okay so, today I saw a link to the official website of James Dean.

My first thought was: this is strange. Why? Well, because my brain failed to align the idea of James Dean (brain says: old) and the idea of the Internet (brain says: new). I guess more specifically, James Dean died* in 1955 and the Internet wasn't born till the 80s or 90s or whenever. James Dean never saw the Internet, so I'm really racking my brains to try and think of how jamesdean.com could really call itself "the official James Dean website". Surely James Dean is the only person who has ever lived who could say whether a website could be that. Is James Dean alive? No, he's dead.

Okay, so then I thought, well, maybe it's got something to do with his "estate" or whatever that means. Like, his kids or something. Like how Yoko Ono is in charge of John Lennon's estate, there'll be someone in charge of James Dean's. Okay, who? James Dean wasn't really one to have a wife or kids. In fact, he didn't have a wife or kids. So who the hell is in charge of his estate? Maybe he had a brother who had kids. Are they in charge of his estate? Did they ever even know James Dean? How could they possibly be able to give jamesdean.com the permission to call themselves "the official James Dean website"?

Is it official just because their domain name is jamesdean.com, and not jamesdean.geocities.com or some other shitty unofficial sounding domain name? And, if the answer is yes, then is this MY official website???? Yikes!!!

The next thing you know there's jesuschrist.com which sounds "official" enough... SO WHAT THE HELL IS THIS THEN???

* Incidentally, James Dean has been dead for 55 years now and we know what happens to dead bodies after a while...so what do you suppose this would smell like?

Pussy/View/Mac+Cheese

2010-06-16T22:47:00.001-07:00

This is the coolest looking (domestic) cat I've ever seen in person. It lives upon Epuni Street (which is Liz's street and not mine so she's cooler by association). I was talking to some guy who was washing his car and he said that it cost about a thousand bucks to get a cat like this but he didn't know what type of cat it is because he'd forgotten. The guy also said it was always watching him wash his car cos it likes the water. Then he gave me a demo by spraying some water from the hose. Sure enough, the cat was interested.

I've been living at my flat for, awwww, 'bout three'n'a half months now? So anyway, I thought I'd go for a walk up my street (up the hill) and have a gander. Turns out there were some sweet views up there! Check them out:

Cool eh!! Lastly, here's a picture of the Mac and Cheese me and Alex made a few nights ago:

It tasted as good as it looks!!!!

360 degree Panorama of Wellington from the top of Mt Victoria

2010-06-10T21:49:00.000-07:00

This is the first 360 degree panorama I've ever done. It was taken yesterday evening (at around 5pm). It was blustery up there and I was almost blown off my rock at one point. There were a couple of tourists sitting down on the bank below the lookout. One of them had a white acoustic guitar and he was playing Nirvana's Polly. Click on the photo to open it in a new window where it will be (marginally) bigger.

Putting My Thumb to Good Use.

2010-02-25T13:06:00.000-08:00

Part One of a three-part blog entry about hitch-hiking around Central North Island.

(Does the title of this blog entry sound gross? It wasn't meant to. It was just meant to be a witty way of introducing my first blog entry)

I had some time off from uni this week and I wanted to do something spontaneous. I also though a bit of a detox might be in order. So I decided that I'd hitch up to Tongariro National Park and do some walks, and generally stay out of trouble. I had thought that the most enjoyable part of the trip would be the hours and hours of walks that I had planned up and around the volcanoes. Even though that was absolutely amazing (and just what I needed), it turns out that the hitching was something I think I needed even more. Some people might think of hitching simply a means to getting where you need to go. I figured out pretty quickly that it was more about meeting fantastic people who I wouldn't normally really get the chance to meet - much less to get to know. I met such a great bunch of people while hitching around and I kept thinking if I could invite them all around to my place for a party It'd be such a sweet party!

At the end of each ride, I explained to my new friend that I had a wee blog and that I was wanting to get a picture of each person who picked me up so I could talk about them. I thought that if I did this, this might make my family a little less worried about me when I hitch! Pretty much everyone I asked agreed. Some were a little tentative at first, but when I described the size of my audience (small), they were happy enough to participate. Only two of them thought to ask me for the URL of my blog. Another two of my lovely drivers were not photographed. I will explain this when it comes time.

DAY ONE

Ride One: Simon (Johnsonville-Porirua)

(5-10 min. wait) Simon picked me up in a white, trade-person-esque van just past the on-ramp from Johnsonville onto SH1. Simon was the first (and youngest) of three builders I met on my travels. It was a short ride (J'ville-Porirua) so we didn't have much time to converse, but he told me that he'd been doing his carpentry course thing (details - yikes!) for four years part-time while working, and was just coming to the end of it which was just as well because he was pretty sick of it by now. He had the week off because he was in between two jobs. Can't quite remember why he was heading to Porirua, but it was a nice encounter while it lasted.

Ride Two: Grant (Porirua-Waikanae)

Grant picked me up in an ash-covered diesel Corona sedan. Grant is a Diesel Engineer by trade, however, he'd been taking it easy lately and has been working at a firewood yard. Grant had driven his daughter, Bethany, and her daughter, Ophelia, down from Taupo (where they live) so that Bethany could be there at her friend's book launch in Wellington. Grant had been staying with a friend just out of Porirua (near the recent big fire), and this was why his car was covered in ash. He was driving up to Taupo via Waikanae, where he would drop me off so that he could pick up Bethany and Ophelia (that's where they were staying). Grant is a very lovely man, who made me feel very welcome. He is very proud of his family and loves them very much, and believes that Ophelia (his grand-daughter) is pretty much the most wonderful wee person ever. He is also a very conscientious driver, and made sure I knew that if I ever was feeling uncomfortable with his driving to let him know. He even got me to help him out spotting the different speed-signs, just to make sure he didn't miss any. Eventually we got to Waikanae and I met Bethany and Ophelia briefly. I thanked him very much and was on my way.

Ride Three: Grant (again), Bethany, and Ophelia (Waikanae-Rangipo)

As I was waiting for a lift in Waikanae, up pulls a familiar looking car. It's Grant again, this time with Bethany and Ophelia. He reckons I can actually fit in the car after all, which is great news for me because I had grown quite fond of Grant and was quite keen to get to know some of his family. As I said above, they were heading to Taupo so we established that they could drop me off in Waiouru. Bethany is really into horses, drawing and fantasy worlds/imagery. She owns multiple horses, and as a result of spending a lot of time with them, she can draw them really well. She designs tattoos, which usually involve horse-like dragons in various elegant/intimidating positions and she showed me a couple of her sketch books. As well as this, she's just started writing a children's fantasy book and will be doing the illustrations herself. She gave me the URL for her art page, but I can't seem to find any of her drawings on it!
Ophelia, 18 months old, is Bethany's daugher and, subsequently, also really loves horses. She had a few toy horsies which she was waving around in her carseat. Ophelia is really cute, but don't trust her to eat an ice-cream in McDonalds because she'll just end up with most of it in her hair. It was lovely to see Grant with Ophelia. He regards her as a real blessing for the family and he loves her to bits. Really cute!
We got to Waiouru, which was where we were going to part ways, but Grant convinced me that it'd be just as easy to get to Whakapapa (where I was going to be staying) from Rangipo. Rangipo is at the northern end of the Desert Road. So off we went. Just as we got onto the Desert Road, Ophelia filled her nappy. As you may know, there's nowhere you can really pull over on the Desert Road, so we endured the "situation", windows open, until Rangipo. Ophelia seemed happy enough. We got to Rangipo, where a nappy was changed, a blog-photo was taken, and I was given the rest of a bag of cool mints! Thanks guys!

Ride Four: Un-named (Rangipo - Whakapapa turnoff)

After waiting in the hot, hot sun, at the turn-off in Rangipo for about 15 min, a tour-bus pulled up. The driver was a lovely, middle-aged, Māori woman, who was driving her usual afternoon route from Turangi back to National Park where she worked at a Backpackers. The bus was to take tourists back and forth between the various places around the mountains. Her grumpy boss was away on holiday so she decided to pick me up and not make me pay or anything, as she sees no harm in picking up the occasional hitcher. She was really quite cute and lovely. She was so surprised that I bothered to introduce myself, that she giggled a bit and forgot to introduce herself. I didn't push the issue, so she will remain nameless. She told me about her kids (who were now all grown up) and what they were up to. She remind me a lot of my mother, as she was really caring, and she had the same infectious laugh and smile.
We picked up a bunch of weary European tourists from the Ketetahi end of the Tongariro Alpine Crossing on our way and she was very careful in making sure everyone who was supposed to be on the bus was on the bus.
I was dropped off at the turn off up to Whakapapa. I told her about my blog and the photo-taking bit, and we kind of decided that maybe it wasn't the best idea to photograph her for the blog, just in case it got back to her boss that she was picking up hitch-hikers. I know that only a few people read this blog, but it was more to put her mind at ease, really.

Ride Five: Dave (Up to Whakapapa Village)

I think I must have only been waiting for five minutes before Dave picked me up in his truck-thing. He had been called up to Whakapapa Village to repair some car I think, but as we approached the village, a call came through on his radio that the job had been done and that he was no longer needed. So he cheerily dropped me off at my final destination, Whakapapa Holiday Park (where I would camp for three nights), and then Dave headed home to (I think) Taumarunui.

Fun times!! I may post a blog about my walks up at the mountains eventually, but it'll be after my series on hitching. Stay tuned for part two!

Stupid people doing stupid things.

2010-02-20T19:25:00.000-08:00

Check out these stupid, tiny, dumb-ass kids all wearing the same bright green jerkins. Walking around, looking around. Holding hands too! God. I bet they think they're so cute.

I've got no idea who these guys are, but they taught me that grapes in savoury sandwiches seems to work quite well.

Won't make that mistake again.

2010-02-16T13:28:00.000-08:00

I was leaving Alex and Gianna's house with my bass amp in the back of the car. I was accelerating off up the road when there was an almighty thud/crash/smash sound from the back of the car. I pulled over. It was the gods-damned amp. It'd rolled over and bashed itself into the back window of the car. I got out. I got Alex. We swept glass by moonlight. I felt a terrible pain in my wallet.

Turns out the insurance will cover it. Thank the gods for insurance. I'm supposed to be studying for my exam on friday morning.

Another scary photo of Gianna.

2010-02-14T21:59:00.001-08:00

This picture is in reply to this blog post. It's Gianna caring for her skin with a face mask. I was actually quite frightened when she came out of the bathroom wearing it. Especially because she was cackling but the face mask stayed the same.

Some crazy sh*t going down in my 'hood.

2010-02-04T18:23:00.000-08:00

Wowzer! So I was walking down to the supermarket to buy some lemons (I've got a cold and a sore froat) and I noticed about ten cop cars and an ambulance outside this block of flats. All the cops were looking up at one of the flats. One of the cops had a gun as big as my leg!! He was pointing it at the flat. Crazy.

Here are some photos:
When I wandered back home half an hour later it was still all go. I saw some camera people there. It might even be on the news!! Man, I wish I'd gotten an interview. I would have put on a broad kiwi accent. I've been imagining what I would have said:

"Oh em gee. I was just walking down to Woolworths to buy some lemons. I am amazed to see something like this happening down the road. I mean, Johnsonville's so mind-numbingly boring. Nothing ever happens here. I think it's great for the community." - Francis Lander, local poet.

Here's a link to the article on Stuff.

Sneetches on Beaches.

2010-02-03T19:23:00.000-08:00

Since getting back from London, I've realised how many beaches there are around New Zealand, and how accessible they are. In the last two weeks alone, I've been at Waikanae Beach, Moana Roa Beach, Scorching Bay, Island Bay, Makara Beach, and (of course) Oriental Bay.

THAT'S CRAAAAAAAAZY!

I'm still on a panorama buzz so here are a couple of pans.

Scorching Bay. (a Wellington favourite - located on the East coastline of the Mirimar Peninsular)
This was on Monday. Nice sand.

Makara Beach. (On the West Coast - west of Wellington)
This was today. I was feeling low and really wanted to motivate myself to do a reading so I came here and: Success!

While at Makara, I felt the need to take some poser-y photos. Here's my favourite one.

Panorama-o-rama

2010-01-04T01:07:00.000-08:00

I just got back from Dunedin where I spent eight amazing days with lovely friends. While I was there, I took a bunch of panorama photos. I love panoramas. They're so mega-widescreen!!

Here are my favourite ones:

This is in the garden at Olveston (where I was staying with Lei).

Chris, Stu, Logan and I got together at a bar to talk smack one last time.

Playing cricket with a large group of musicians at Woodhaugh Gardens.

I went and hung out with Robbie in his office at the University Bookshop. He works so hard that he was in three places at once when I took this photo!

Logan was recording some of his songs with Stu at the ol' Four Square flat in Opoho.

Standing up on the roof at the ol' Four Suare flat in Opoho with Lei and DJ.

Thanks to all my lovely lovely Dunedin friends for making my trip to Dunedin one of the best weeks of my life!! xo

The view from my desk.

2009-12-23T20:01:00.000-08:00

I've been working at the Ministry of Economic Development for the past two weeks. It's been pretty sweet. I work in the mail room and basically just pick up and drop off mail round to all the people all over the building. Everyone's really nice to me. They all tell me how much they totally loved my Mum (she used to work at MED) and it warms my heart.

Today, we had a lovely Christmas brunch. I drank a lot of champagne, but fortunately I managed to keep my composure which is no small achievement for me. Then I found out I could work there more after New Years. Then I got to leave early. It was hot and I was well fed and well drinked. All these factors contributed to me falling asleep on the train home listening to Bachelorette and it was good.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Strawberry.

2009-12-23T01:50:00.000-08:00

I was going to post a blog about the job I've been doing for the past couple of weeks, but then another idea came up. At the moment I'm working at the Ministry of Economic Development, doing the mail run around the building. The Ministry of Economic Development has a Chief Executive. The Chief Executive has an Executive Assistant. Today, the Executive Assistant had some strawberries. The strawberries had a mutant. Below is a picture of a regular-sized strawberry and the mutant strawberry.
The EA (Jo is her name) said I could eat the mutant if I wanted to. But I just couldn't bring myself to eat it because I knew that if I ate it, it wouldn't exist anymore. So I said I'd just take a picture of it for my blog and she found that amusing.

Thanks to my sister Joanne for thinking of the name for this blog entry.

The (lack of) B-52s.

2009-12-22T01:15:00.000-08:00

So a couple of weekends ago now, a friend, Chloe, rang me up to ask me if I'd like to go see the B-52s play that night on a wine estate, just outside of Martinborough. She and her two brothers, and a friend, had all bought tickets (approx. $100 each, I believe), but another friend of hers (a reporter) was going to be there covering the concert for the Wairarapa Times-Age. He was getting in for free and had a "plus 1" which I could get into the concert on. And then she said that the Proclaimers were going to be playing at the concert too. So, of course, I accepted the offer! Fun road trip + cool people + aging pop bands? sure!

Cut to a few hours later, and five of us were crammed into four car-seats during the hour-and-a-bit-ish drive to our motel at Lake Ferry (not far from Martinborough). There was much excitement in the car about the concert and we listened to some classic B-52s shit on the stereo, while debating whether we would "walk 10,000 miles just to be the man who fell down at your door", or whether we wouldn't.

We checked into our accom, where we met the reporter friend, and all six of us crammed into his five-seater car and headed off to the concert in the highest of spirits. It was 6:45pm, and the support act would be on by now. It was a beautiful clear and sunny day. Perfect for a big outdoor concert!!

Well, when we got to the estate and parked up it seemed like there wasn't really that many people hanging around the entrance to the property. Strange, but maybe there's more parking down the drive, we thought. As we wandered down the drive, towards the stage, we passed a few cars coming the other way. The people in the cars looked confusedly at us and we looked confusedly at them. What was going on??

Finally we rounded the final corner, and by this time, it seemed fairly obvious that there was no concert, and that there would be no B-52s that night. What we were hoping to see was the opening act on stage, mid-set, with a huge and happy crowd talking and laughing and celebrating all around in anticipation of the upcoming bands. What we actually saw when we rounded that final corner was this:
In case you've never seen this before, let me explain it to you. It's a picture of no one gathered around a stage where the B-52s, the Proclaimers and the other support band are all not playing. And if you squint your eyes you'll be able to make out a few people on stage, busy dismantling the stage.

After a bit of asking around (there were all the crew and support etc still milling around by the food tent), we found out that the show had been canceled due to high winds. High Winds?? It was still and sunny and warm!! But apparently there were high winds about an hour earlier when the bands were due to start, so they canned the whole thing and sent everyone home. The only entertainment still going was a drunken old dude playing drunken old Deep Purple covers on the red, strat-type guitar on his lap (to which he'd applied liberal amounts of flange and chorus).

We also found out that anyone who had paid for a ticket could get a full refund from the place they'd bought it from.

After thinking about the situation of the B52s and the Proclaimers canceling because of wind, I did some fairly simple mathematics, and proved the following:

The B-52s + The Proclaimers = NOT VERY FUCKING ROCK'N'ROLL

After eating some free cold hamburgers, we left. Fairly dejected, and fairly sober now. We decided that the best course of action was to try and get at least a partial refund on our accom. expenses, and high-tail it back to Wellington and get plastered in the safety of the city. Unfortunately, When we got back to our accom. the owners were nowhere to be found, so we cut our losses, and we buggered off.

The above is an accurate account of the time I went to see the B-52s and the Proclaimers. Lame-o. Sweet road-trip though.

Arrow.

2009-12-07T22:35:00.000-08:00

Any day now...

2009-12-07T15:03:00.001-08:00

Any day now I am expecting a call to say that my eldest sister, Carolyn (pictured on the right) has had her new baby girl. The due date is December the 8th (today!). Carolyn lives in Helensville (just north of Auckland) with her husband, Damon, and their son, Luca (in the middle of the photo drinking hot chocolate).

Below is a wee bonus photo. It's Marco with an emo wig on. Like, totally no one understands him.

Berneth? Kenadette?

2009-12-06T01:23:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to work out one of those names like Bradgelina for my sister Bernadette and her fiancé Kenneth. Ken is from Ballyshannon, which is an amazing wee town in County Donegal, which is in the northwest of the Republic of Ireland. Ken met Bernie while he was living in New Zealand quite a number of years ago now. Shortly after, he moved back to Ireland. Shortly after, Bernie moved to Ireland, and they've been nerds about each-other ever since. They came back to New Zealand about a year ago and bought a house with a sweet as view of Wellington. They're getting married in March and I'm starting to wonder what I'm gonna wear to the wedding. Ken's whole family are coming over. I'm really excited because he has a really big raucous family and so do we. It's gonna be quite the occasion. Here are Bernie and Ken on the front porch of their new house.

Marco and Luca are cousins.

2009-12-02T01:56:00.000-08:00

Marco (Left - 6 months old) and Luca (Right - nearly 3 years old) are cousins. They are also both my nephews. Marco lives in Wellington and Luca lives in Auckland so they don't see one another very often. They love each other, but they are still a bit unsure of each other. Luca is a sweet wee man and tries his hardest to be friends with Marco. Marco is still too young to really understand much, so all he can do is examine and analyse Luca. This makes Luca unsure, but he smiles anyway.

When Marco is lying on the floor I can't help but lying down next to him so I can tickle him, or kiss him on his chubby cheeks. Marco usually cycles through a whole collection of facial expressions, including: smiling, frowning, shocked, confused, annoyed etc. He's wearing his Pac-Man top. It has a matching bib too, but he's not wearing that.

2009-12-01T02:54:00.000-08:00

The cute little Italian girl in this picture is Cecilia Martelli (my mother). It was probably taken around 1953-54, when she would have been about maybe two or three years of age. She passed away peacefully yesterday at our family home. I am currently putting together a photo-montage-thing for her funeral. I found some pretty awesome photos of her. I really like this one. She is standing outside the family house (on the farm), wearing a little dress that my Nanna Margherita (her mother) would have made for her. Nanna was as seamstress and made most of the family's clothes. "There wasn't a lot of money around in them days", Nanna said to me recently.

This picture of my Mum and her four younger siblings was probably taken around 1959. All clothes would have been tailored by my Nanna. I showed this picture to my Uncle Peter (pictured far right) recently. He laughed, and said something like "God, look at us! We look like refugees!"

A great-grandmother and great-grandson.

2009-11-29T01:15:00.000-08:00

My Nanna Margherita holds my nephew Marco. She remarks at what a big boy he is! She tells him that he'll be a policeman when he's big and that he'll go around clobbering everyone.

"You'll go round clobbering everybody. That's what you'll be doing. Clobbering everybody", she says to him.

I can't figure out which one of them I find cutest.

Some nice quotes relating to weasels.

2009-11-26T20:04:00.000-08:00

Hello. Lately I've been looking around for some quotes involving weasels. Here are some I've found:

"I have come up with a plan so cunning you could stick a tail on it and call it a weasel."- Blackadder (in Blackadder the Third)

"Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines." - John Benfield ( a very wise man.)

"Weaseling out of things is important to learn. It's what seperates us from the animals... except the weasel." - Matt Groening

"Every now and then when your life gets complicated and the weasels start closing in, the only cure is to load up on heinous chemicals and then drive like a bastard from Hollywood to Las Vegas... with the music at top volume and at least a pint of ether." - Hunter S. Thompson (from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas)

As awesome as those quotes are, here's something more awesome:

What it means to be a fan of the Beatles.

2009-05-25T04:24:00.001-07:00

Annie - The Movie

2009-05-02T06:54:00.000-07:00

This is about the 1982 film. For any other Annie things, sod off.

Man, me and my friend Elizabeth were reminiscing about how we used to watch Annie all the time when we were both little. So, a couple of days later, we got together and watched it. It was the first time either of us had watched it in about 15-20 years and we were both freaking out a bit beforehand. When you have such great memories about a movie from your childhood, sometimes it's not a good idea to watch it as an adult. Like, often (as was the case for me with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie), you realise that it's just not that good a film and you feel like you've ruined the idealised memory you had of it. But Annie was just how I remembered it. Awesome.

I think I had a grin on my face through the whole film. Seriously, let me tell you about how I loved the characters:

Little orphan, Annie is really cute. I never realised this when I was little because I guess I was younger than Annie the last time I watched the film. I never realised how optimistic and positive and happy she was. Her best qualities are: a) her smile, b) her singing voice, and c) her ability to beat the living shit out of a gang of boys.

Miss Hannigan, who runs the orphanage and who is perpetually drunk (she brews her own gin in her bathtub), is even more entertaining now that I have experienced being drunk myself. I believe she would be an absolute riot to have as a guest at a wedding reception.

Oliver "Daddy" Warbucks (billionaire) shouts when he talks - like a deaf grandfather type guy, (except me and Liz reckon he's about 50 so he's still got a lot of energy and enthusiasm). He's the ultimate capitalism success story and hates liberals and commies. He owns an Autocopter and he's pretty good mates with the President. The character of Daddy Warbucks really went over my head as a child.

The music in the film is nothing short of genius. My favourites include: Maybe (which makes me well up a bit), Little Girls (sung by an inebriated Miss Hannigan), the heart-warming Dumb Dog/Sandy sequence, and, of course Lets Go To The Movies which is such a bloated epic that it can only exist in a broadway musical setting.

Topping it all though is It's a Hard-Knock Life, OMG what a freakin' sweet sequence. Not only is it the type of song that you can happily have on repeat in your head at work, but the choreography on display in the scene where the girls are singing it, while simultaneously doing advanced acrobatics and cleaning up the orphanage, blew my adult mind.

Other choreography of note is the scene I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here number, where Annie is overwhelmed after arriving at the Warbucks Mansion and finding that the entire staff are really bloody good at singing and dancing.

I don't know whether it'd be quite the same to watch Annie as an adult without having seen it as a kid, but I'd still recommend it. But to all those of you who haven't seen it since being a wee thing (Joanne, I'm looking in your direction), DO IT!

How to grow a Snow Man.

2009-02-10T13:13:00.000-08:00

Growing a snowman is easy! It's good when you have no real friends and need some company. To be perfectly honest, a Snow Man provides little company, but it's better than being Nigel No-mates. Anyway, here's how you do it:

1. Choose a patch of ground where there are not likely to be any people or animals to interrupt the process. I chose my disgusting backyard. IMPORTANT: There needs to be a red bucket near the site otherwise this will not work!
2. Every night, before your bed time, repeat the following rhyme that I just made up:

Silly Billy, Peter Pan,
Jack be nimble, ripped and tanned.
I've got no friends to eat my flan,
Beam me down a real Snow Man!,
or Snow Woman.

Then, the next morning, you go outside into the shitty backyard and this is starting to happen:

3. Make sure you keep repeating the spell every night, otherwise all you'll end up with is a snow Foetus - (not half as fun, and a little creepy).
4. At this point, the Snow Being has reached adolescence. Soon, it will begin frothing out snowy spunk, not unlike human adolescence. One of these particles of spunk will develop into the head of the snowman. In fact, there is evidence of the seed of the head to the right of the photo.
5. Here's what I was describing in point four. I stress, keep saying the spell. You don't want the Snow Foetus to be stuck in adolescence forever.
6. The head is now attached to the body. This is one of the most special parts of the whole Snow Man creation. If you get a chance to witness this moment, bring popcorn.
7. Another violent discharge marks the point when the Snow Man is about to be born.
8. Finally, on day 8, the arms now erect, there is one more violent eruption, and the Snow Man springs to life!

It's easy. Now have a go yourself.

Museums, museums, and, astoundingly, more museums.

2009-01-10T06:00:00.000-08:00

London likes it's museums. Big museums. And so do I cos I'm a nerd! So over the past few days I've been fortunate enough to have some time to start checking them out. And I say "start checking them out" cos I've only really looked at bits and pieces of the museums pictured below.

Rant alert, rant alert:
God, seriously, there are soooooooo many people at these museums who walk around with their digital video cameras and just seriously take footage of everything in the whole damn building. It's as if they're scoping he place out for a raid or something. But not me. I think the whole fun of going to a muesum is that you are actually there and you can see a ridiculously huge dinosaur skeleton right in front of you! As if it's gonna look as cool on your TV screen. To these people I say "Why not just hire Jurassic Park on DVD and be done with it?! You'd obviously enjoy it!" However, I did take a few photos of stuff that just made me go: "wowzer!". And I can justify each one - and I will. End of rant.

This is the ceiling of the middle area of the British Museum.

I thought I'd had enough for the day at the Science Museum when I entered a room with this thing in it. And I thought, hey, that looks like a really big version of the model of a NASA Apollo Command Module that my Dad used to show me when I was small. Turns out, it wasn't just a big version of that model, it was the actual Command Module from the Apollo 10 mission around the moon.

It was even all melty on the bottom from entering back into Earth's atmosphere!

The Natural History Museum was really big. See? It has to be big to fit all the cool stuff inside.

On the day I went to the Natural History Museum there was an Ice Sculpting Festival on outside.

This doesn't have anything to do with museums but I laughted to myself when I saw it. I have a soft spot for silly graffiti.

Greenwich - Not actually a green sandwich.

2009-01-05T04:45:00.000-08:00

I went out to visit my friend Toby in Greenwich a few days ago and he offered to show me the local sights. Of course, I only had one thing on my mind - I'm in Greenwich, show me the Greenwich Mean Time related sight! Damn tourist.

So we wandered over to Greenwich Park (yes, there were squirrels), and up Greenwich Hill (I assume it's called that), to the Royal Observatory, Greenwich (Greenwich sounds quite self-obsessed at this point). This is where old white men with glasses concocted the idea of GMT a couple of hundred years ago I guess. It's also where the longitude is 0 degrees. The "Prime Meridian", it's called. So on one side of that line of longitude is the Eastern Hemisphere, and on the other is the Western Hemisphere. And the touristy part?

THEY HAVE THE LINE DRAWN ON THE GROUND! AND A LASER TO SHOW THE LINE TOO! hehe The perfect nerd-trap. See my sweet photos.

Toby and Myself. The view is out over Greenwich Park, looking towards the Canary Wharf business district (those tall buildings).

The Laser. To the left of the photo is the Eastern Hem. To the right of the photo, the Western.

This is how one ought to conduct one's self when in two hemispheres simultaneously. I considered pulling out the old Simpsons gag of "Now I'm in the West, now I'm in the East, now I'm in the West..." etc, but, in Greenwich, I don't think they tolerate that kind of crap.

This is Canary Wharf as it started to get dark. Look closely... can you see the green laser beam going across the photo?

The London Squirrel Community.

2008-12-06T10:54:00.000-08:00

City life, with all it's hustle and bustle, tends to take it's toll on a person. That's why it's important that there are places around a city where you can go to "chill". In London there are many parks throughout the city and they're usually only a short walk away from any place you're likely to be. I like to go to a park to chill. I also like to go to the park to be entertained by the resident squirrels, and indulge in a spot of squirrel photography.

I'd never seen a squirrel before moving to London, and definitely never imagined that I'd get a chance to see so many. All of the parks I've been to so far have been well endowed with squirrels, and it really makes me happy watching them scurry about, gathering food, and socialising. They're quite friendly wee chaps and seem happy to sit there and chew at a nut or a seed while I take photos of them at a fairly close proximity.

Sometimes it can be a bit frustrating trying to get a good shot however. The squirrels move fairly quickly and often you think you got a good snap and then when you look at it, you find you have a photo of a small brown blur. Sometimes you're just about to get that perfect shot and then an unruly child will spot the squirrel you're photographing and run towards it with flailing arms, yelling and laughing, resulting in another photo of a small brown blur.

Please take time to enjoy the following images featuring squirrels of Queen's Park in Kilburn.

Fossicking about in the grass for something or other.

Munching on some variety of nutritious treat, I'll bet.

Here's one thinking about climbing up a tree.

And here's one thinking about climbing down a tree.

Look! This one's perched on a fence.

Not only is it winter (when there is much less squirrel-food around),

but also the "credit crunch" has left many squirrels tightening

their belts. Consequently, this squirrel is eating a dead leaf.

Possibly the squirrel equivalent of eating dry Weet-Bix.

Times are tough!

A tree to you or me - A house to a squirrel.

Queen's Park, Kilburn - or Upper Squirrelton,

depending on who's map you're referring to.

Weasel War Dance

2008-12-03T12:07:00.000-08:00

I had no-idea/too-many-ideas what to call my blog so I chose to narrow down the possibilities (with an "obstruction" yo) by saying that the title had to include the word 'Weasel' in it.*

My three ideas: Weasel Words, A Word to the Weasel, and finally, Weasel War Dance.

I chose: Weasel War Dance because it conjures up the most appropriate image.

Weasel War Dance (wikipedia): The weasel war dance is a colloquial term for a behavior of excited ferrets.

Weasel War Dance (me): The weasel war dance is a colloquial term for the behavior of excited Anthony when he gets home from work in the evening and gets to hang out with (or annoy) his girlfriend/flatmates while drinking red wine.

*That's not to say that all the posts on this blog will be about weasels or that this will some sort of weasel forum - quite the contrary. This may even be the only post related to weasel(s) I ever write.