Posts by Venetia King
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Good for you. I own a copy of Postcards from Elsewhere and re-read it recently, so I'm looking forward to the new one.
I enjoyed listening to your conversation with Kim Hill on the weekend, although I didn't hear the whole thing. Felt rather pleased with myself for having worked out it was you as she didn't give your name till quite a while after I tuned in.
Talk of prizes always reminds me of a Billy Connolly show I went to some time after he'd missed out on a bunch of awards for Mrs Brown. I don't remember much else of it, but his "gimme th' fookin' shiny thing!" still has its place in our household's collection of catchphrases...
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Thanks to Russell for linking to Tony's Neil Young set list (and to Tony for producing it!) - that tells me I only missed two of his songs in order to catch 9½ from Headless Chickens. They were well worth it - "Choppers" was my song of the day :)
Did anyone else find a lot of this year's sets were too loud? I had proper music earplugs, but they only worked during Neil Young (best sound EVER at a BDO I've been to), and I had to get some of those foam ones that turn you deaf to conversation. Wished I'd got them earlier in the day.
It's a young peoples' game, largely, isn't it? Loud music, and mashing and stuff.
we went with a friend's 70 year old mother who had a wonderful time.
Well, that settles it. Now I have to go to one. I am officially in awe.Please do! I predict that you won't feel out of place at a BDO. Sure there are plenty of young people, but there are also plenty my age and older (I'm 38) and everyone always seems to be having a good time. Moshing is definitely not compulsory - or mashing for that matter :) It's a pretty easy place to be for the most part. Sometimes it can get a bit squashy - I was glad this year's headliners failed to appeal to quite so many people as a band like Metallica might, since that meant it was easier to move around. But there's always something else interesting that you can wander off to see when there are too many people in your way.
Oh and I recommend not waiting till an act you love is playing BDO - often the experience is not what you'd hope for, under the constraints of the festival setting. It's sometimes better to miss your fave band than to see them perform a disappointing show. I'd pick an indoor headline gig over a BDO slot any time, but we don't always get that choice... Anyway, in my experience of BDO it's better just to show up and enjoy what the day throws at you, than to pin your hopes on one or two acts.
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Sneaky were awesome though - Connie Mitchell would make the best aunty ever.
Hmmm, not sure about the aunty thing (I suspect she's younger than me!), but Connie was definitely the best vocalist I saw at BDO.
And to anyone who enjoyed Sneaky Sound System - may I also recommend Connie's earlier efforts with a band called Primary? They released two albums, both worth listening to. As far as I know they only toured here once - a summer tour supporting Tadpole (should've been the other way around in my opinion).
I agree with Mr Reid about Bionic Pixie - I liked them rather more than a number of the acts I caught later in the day. I remember someone having written that no one genre seemed to dominate this year's line up, but from my perspective it seemed to have an electro-pop theme that started with these guys.
I was sorry to miss the Ting Tings but the size of the crowd made it impossible. I wonder what it would've been like to have them on the main stage and TV on the Radio on the smaller one?
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@Giovanni:
Yes, although in that case it's a pun (it's a ribbon - get it?).
Saw the pun, of course, but would still bet good money that whoever made the joke thinks 'wrapped' is the correct spelling of 'rapt'...
@Josh:I was interested to discover a while ago that "rapt" comes from "rape", whose original meaning was just "to be carried away"
- that is interesting, I'd never bothered to check where it came from. Just assumed it was short for 'enraptured'. The etymoloty site I tend to refer to (http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=rapt) said it came from 'L. raptus, pp. of rapere "seize, carry off" ' - slightly less unpleasant!
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My husband hates that he doesn't have time to write up his hate lists, so I'm taking a turn...
**Ads being louder than telly programmes.** Can someone sort this out please?
I second that emotion. Fervently.
And on that theme - TV channels that advertise the show I'm about to watch, within 5 minutes of it coming on, with spoilers. Followed closely by TV channels that show a condensed version of next week's episode, just before the credits of this week's episode.
'Unscripted' television. It might be a perfectly legitimate form of entertainment, I just can't bear to watch it.
People who walk their dogs around the weekend markets (especially when there's barely enough room for the humans to squeeze past each other, more so when the owner clearly isn't there to buy anything). There's a reason pets aren't allowed in food stores.
People who go into print with the wrong homophone: baited breath, wrapped (instead of 'rapt' - seen the huge ad on the Il Casino building?), phased (instead of 'fazed'). Real estate agents are some of the worst offenders, advertising a property as being sort after and/or having a view that includes a peak at something (usually the harbour, not a mountain in sight). And I keep seeing adverts offering a sneak peak. Grrr.
Websites that have the sound on by default. Usually encountered when someone else in the room requires quiet.
Websites that ignore dial-up users like me and make their pages excruciatingly slow to load. MySpace, I'm looking at you! Actually I'm not, because I just can't be arsed waiting.
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Love this idea - I can think of quite a few times I've thought "that was really great service". Don't know that many names though (sorry about the bolding but I wrote too much & am hoping that makes it easier to skip through).
Hilary mentioned Thorndon Pharmacy earlier - I'd just been in today. Took my purchase to the counter, was asked what I needed it for and shown a less expensive item that was more suitable. They're great.
Also in Thorndon, the man at Molesworth Shoe & Bag Repairs not only does an excellent job but is just generally helpful. I took a vest with a stuck zip in one day & he unstuck it, no charge. Then I went in looking for inner soles and he pointed me at the ones that are just the heel so my toes wouldn't get squished.
Gail [sp?] from the BNZ Fraud Team rang on Friday to let us know that some villains were charging false online transactions to our credit card, and sorted everything out for us quick smart. Ricky from the same team has also been very helpful.
Andrew Bain from Fur Patrol emailed me on Monday to let me know that Smoke CDs were not getting their shipment of the new album that day after all (due to a production fault apparently). How many band members would do that for a fan?
The English guy who was working at Pasta Pasta on the Terrace knocked a dollar off my stuffed potato when I didn't want any 'extras' (e.g. sour cream, plastic container, cutlery...). Yesterday I saw they'd closed down, where will I find the best stuffed spuds and Russian fudge in Wellington now?
Kate and Joe of Aubergine restaurant on Tinakori Road serve some of the finest food in Wellington (try the duck confit!) and they know how to make their regulars feel special. They even gave us some of their moon cake for the Chinese mid-autumn festival this year - an acquired taste I think, but it was really thoughtful of them.
I've been lucky so far with my baggage, the only time it's gone missing was when it stayed in Paris without me on the way to Copenhagen a couple of years ago. The Copenhagen airport people were brilliant, had everything tracked and traced and my bag arrived at our hotel that night.
Graeme's story about the bus driver reminded me of the Cable Car operators who often used to clip your ten ride ticket over an existing clip. I guess it can be a lifesaver for a cash-strapped student but it eventually occurred to me they could be doing their employers out of a fair amount of money. Never quite worked out how I felt about that (and can't remember who owned the cable car at the time which would influence my thoughts on the matter).
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Reading this earlier today made me laugh so hard I could barely breathe. I was glad I'd gone home for lunch as it's not a pretty sight... Thanks, you cheered me up no end after a rather trying morning.
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@Andrew:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Riband_(disambiguation)
:-)
@Haydn:
Thanks for the awesome panorama shot. May I politely request that you do that thing that the other PA writers do to make their links open in a new window? -
Ashes of Time left me cold though - maybe more happens in the new cut?
I saw it on Sunday, haven't seen the original so don't know if more happens, but what did happen I found rather confusing. Each segment was prefaced with the name of a season, as though we were watching parts of a year in order, but the events seemed to move back and forth in time. I couldn't figure out what was going on; it's one of two screenings so far this festival that I needn't have bothered with. But you never know till you try, and it wasn't as tedious as last year's Matsugane Potshot Affair (which I chose because I loved Linda Linda Linda the year before).
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Tip for making hiccups go away: drink a glass of water backwards - works about 95% of the time for me.
Get the glass of water, lean over the sink/basin and drink out of the opposite side of the glass (i.e. the glass ends up kind of under your chin while you're drinking). People look at you funny but the relief is awesome :)
p.s. cheers for the lamb galette / pastry making tips & the potato bucket idea