Posts by Robyn Gallagher
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Righto, I have written about my Big Day Out experience, which is quite different to yours, kind of like yours, and has a lot in common with yours.
But what I'm maybe even more excited about [camera nerdery starts here] are the photos I took. I brought along my new Canon G9, which is more powerful than many of the lower-end SLRs that were being turned away at the door, because the G9 is a compact digital and didn't match the SLR mugshot the bag-checkers were using to to weed out the undesirable cameras. Ha!
Anyway, the G9 has a digital zoom that let me get some decent photos far from the stage, including a spooky one of Kate Nash where she appears to be staring right at me, and this awesome one of Mr Scott of the Phoenix foundation doing the shouty "It's a lie!" bit from Nest Egg.
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Billy Bragg (the line about his backing tapes was a JOKE about other bands' over reliance on them!)
Heh, I'm a live Bragg virgin, so I didn't know what to expect (or not expect). I was standing nearer the back, so I suspect the joke was taken at face value by most surrounding me (i.e. non fans = no lolz).
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We went over to Billy Bragg, who was a bit lacking.
Were you there right at the beginning of his set? Cos he said that he'd left his backing music at the hotel and he wasn't sure how it was going to work. It did come across as being more sparse than it should have, but I enjoyed him.
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There's a thesis to be written about the house as the last respectable locus for Kiwi snobbery and class consciousness
In Alain De Botton's The Architecture of Happiness book and TV series, he has a theory that people build that which represent what's missing. So in England that means that former farmlands turned into sprawling suburbs have houses that are a pastiche of a ye olde farm cottage style.
I've been trying to figure out what this means for New Zealand. It's interesting that we get all these old villas that are renovated into uber sophisticated homes that scream "Look at me! I'm all modern and shit!!!" Fear of being accused of being a backward country cousin?
And then there's the curious case of the Britomart Transport Centre, the interior of which seems to be trying very hard to not be a train station in a metropolis and instead being a lush, green native forest. It's almost like there's some sort of guilt for having to build a train station there in the first place.
I don't even want to think about how this theory would apply to John Key's beach box.
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I like buying old books on the island.
Me too. When I was last there I found a dinky little cookery book, circa 1974, with recipes for young people who might have found themselves cooking for the first time. Everything looked like hospital food.
I also like old magazines - and in the world of magazines, "old" kicks in after only about two years. Even magazines with more humble goals than The New Zealander end up being a mirror on the world they were part of, and in ways they probably didn't expect.
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How do you feel about homicidal line-dancing clowns in Paul Holmes masks singing songs from the 'Paul Holmes' album while dancing along Mt Eden road with your head on a stick?
That would be rool awesome. Mt Eden needs something to put itself on the map - something big and monumental. I think this is it!!!!!!!
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I'm on the cusp of Sagittarius and Capricorn. Does this mean I will get two books and CDs? If so, is it OK if I give the extra set to the Red Cross op shop? And if they refuse them, can I just throw them in the bin?
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I don't ever post under my real name because of shit like this.
The message of that article is a bit sad. It's sort of saying that you can go out and live your own life and do stuff... just so long as you don't chronicle it online.
Because God knows what a prospective employee would think if they saw a photo of you - gasp! - drinking a beer or - double gasp! - snogging your sweetie.
Sam Morgan: "We ask prospective employees if they have a MySpace page.
Maybe this is actually a trick. If anyone reads this article and then goes out and sets up a MySpace account to help with their Trade Me job prospects, they'll get a shock when at the interview they'll actually be asked if they have a Bebo account.
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A few months ago my parents went away on holiday and Mum gave the cat-feeding lady the wrong house key, so the lady had to buy her own food for the cats. When my parents came back, they were in soooo much trouble with the cats. One of the cats barely even came inside for a couple of months afterwards.
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The BDO timetable is up
I like the cutlery pairing of Spoon followed by Grinspoon. Not that I'm likely to see either. (I'll be off seeing The Forks!!!!!?)
Perhaps it's possible to survive without Immortal Lounge passes after all!
I have heard stories of this wondrous place where there is airconditioning and cold beer. I have survived without it for 14 years, but the idea seems really appealing this time round...