Posts by jon_knox
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I'd think Bob is sufficently unassuming that if asked nicely he would work a barbie doll and/or a rubber chicken into it. He may not entirely understand, nor be interested in the reasons why you want him to do so. Then again he may consider it such a ridiculous a request that he just refuses.
Bob has a tremendous passion for the weather and in some regards may be on a different plane (perhaps I'm on a different plane to him/you/society), but I think Bob knows that people enjoy his delivery and enjoys that himself without having an appreciation or concern for people like me considering it a form of quintessential NZ performance art.
The world is a much richer place for the likes of Bob McDavitt, a guy that probably grew up as part of a generation that wanted to be like Pinetree Meads/Buck Shelford and in his own way is.
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The Auckland Coastguard has for many years put on a couple of education cruises around the Hauraki gulf on a midweek evening in the early part of December. They are great learning experiences/entertainment/fun/value.
Get shown around the gulf by some old salts, who not only reveal some great spots and a bit of history, but also have an interest in ensuring that you are best prepared for own adventures later (even if you're not a boatie). Graham Reid's favourite Weather Ambassador Bob McDavitt generally gets an hour rocking the microphone, covering some interesting (gulp) weather stuff, even if the PA system on the boat is a bit ear shattering and Bob's style of delivery is...um...a little unique....undoubtably it is performance art!
As I recall one cruise heads north to Maharangi and the other cruise heads to Coromandel. Year to year there is a bit of variation in the routes taken, so interesting even if you have been before. There is a bar for those of us, who feel the need for a drink and a sausage sizzle for those who need a bit of kai and did not bring their own sandwiches.
Details of how to get tickets (which are generally snapped up fast) are generally provided via the Coastguard website a bit later in November. I think it was $30 for a ticket last year, though I'm not entirely sure. Departs from the Downtown ferry terminal at 6pm sharp and returns about 10:30pm. My tip is get someone to pick-you up afterwards.
Though the Coastguard team involved are volunteers, I have wondered why there are not a few more of these cruises put on, such is the great demand and the high level of value that they provide. I think they could easily double the number of cruises, be a little more active in the advertising and still have a surplus of demand, particularly as the same punters attend year after year.
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@ Steve, Joe and Shep...81stcolumn...
I'd be delighted if you would join me as foundation members of Pee'd PR.
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The more we fiddle with the market, the less efficient it becomes and the more inequality and distortion of market forces that is produced, thus justifying more intervention, which further distorts the market forces....
As Islander says the "dreaded bureacracy".
Now I'm not entirely advocating the free markets, that would be more than a litte ironic, but I am advocating a process by which the amount of fiddling with the market is minimised. Solutons that are light on the amount of artificial bureaucracy (coz there does tend to be a natural amount of bureaucracy even in functioning marketplaces...if such a thing exists anymore), in which the process has natural flow & rhythm, tend to go the distance/last a bit longer, requiring less ongoing maintenance, reducing market distortion.... For me the existing copyright situation is an example of a process that is optimally light on the bureaucratic side of things, or seemed to be until...
I'd like to advocate a solution that has a simple elegance, but currently can't see one beyond the current copyright system being retained, the screams of the music industry ignored prior to their extinction and some smaller, more motivated players (perhaps vultures) moving in to the void afterwards. (Maybe after reading so much of this thread, I'm needing to take a step back as I can't see the woods for the trees).
The arts will suffer to some degree in the interim with the marketplace for artist works suffering a bit of a dry patch. The number of people participating in the arts may decline, as only those that are creating artistic works for their own pleasure/purposes with sufficent means for survivial will continue to do so in the style to which they/we've become accustomed. Those people who otherwise might participate in art might be scared off/unable to overcome some of the (financial) barriers that exist.
But is participation not a two way street. There is the artists in one direction and the consumers of that art in the other direction. If the costs are too high on either side, there is a risk of the that side being put off by that barrier to entry, in terms of both supply and demand.
The value of art to me is more than simply the price that's put on the piece of art. A society without art, is a society on the decline, as the aspirational power of art overcomes the glum reality of this increasingly overcrowded litte corner of the cosmos . Makes me wonder to what degree is the significance of art increasing (in terms of the feel good factor), as realistic worldviews (perhaps) rise over supernatural ones?
Is there some sort of natural model that applies, works well and that we could borrow a few ideas from, as the overly complex, bureaucratic solutons don't seem to do anyone much good and are perhaps the policy of last resort.
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Sophie wrote:
Also music stuff for me is all about seeing it live, (Neil Young yay!!!)
I agree with her and I disagree. And it reminds me of something that Robbery said heaps earlier.
The comment amount the 2 different types of animal, between playing live and recording. And the whole disservice to the recording engineers/peeps.
I'm also of the understanding that there are bunch of muscians, who aren't into live performance. Simon will probably correct me, but I think Toto is an example of a band that was not so much hung up on Live performance (perhaps initially....or perhaps they were simply trying to pay the bills whilst trying to make being a musician work for them).
I think the world is a much richer place for the likes of Toto. Though maybe I'm talking through a hole in my arse when I say that there's a proportion of musician's who don't enjoy the performance component and using Toto as the example.(As I'm typing this Bob Marley is singing "Get up stand up, stand up for your rights. don't give up the fight")
Seeing Neil Young play fulfilled a long held aspriation for me earlier in the year and subsequently I have purchased a minidisc recorder & mic, so that I don't have to rely just upon my recollection of a gig. However I'm still beating myself up about not having taken this step prior to seeing Neil. So gig's now for me a little bit more sombre and I do get a bit wound up by the f*&%#^s that stand next to me and talk inanely with their mates throughout the gig....not that I've acted upon that at the gig as I am generally so entranced by the music and wondering if the recording level has been set to manual at the appropriate level.
It takes a few hours or so to do the file conversion, splitting the recording into tracks, identifying and adding the track names, let alone attempting to remove noise. I was at a "The Cinematic Orchestra" gig a few weeks back, (which actually a bit yawn inducing), but I did really like the fact that you could buy the live recording of the gig that was ready 10 mins after the end of the gig (if you bought a pre-sale and I dare say if you decided after the fact)
. I chose not to buy, as I had my minidisc with me (pity about the almost flat battery) and was looking forward another night refining the art of being a taper. Though looking back, it would have been a great opportunity to get a recording against which I could compare my recording....like a scientific control.My recordings on the other hand have a bit of crowd noise, the levels might get a bit bung and the gaps between songs get truncated, but they represent the moment that I was there. Other than sharing them with the missus who uses the same laptop, they don't get out onto the net, though I totally enjoy listening to live stuff that other people have made available. The little variations and sometime quite big self-indulgent solo's that get peformed live, are magic and make a live peformance special and for me are the the reward for the hours of listening to the same old album version.
If the gig is a good one, and providing I've not be burnt by other gig's putting out bad live post concert CD's I'd have no hesitation in handing over $10-15 for a CD of that night's gig (as I do if the concert merchandise is good, not to mention buying a bit of liquor at the venue-bar). I can totally understand the need to attempt to manage demand by pre-selling CD's for a gig you're about to see, but if the gig's been a cracker what you've just had is an hour or so of primo advertising.
Simon made a comment elsewhere regarding asking himself, if the albumn he is considering purchasing is worth the money given that it may only get a couple of listens. Great point. In determining the price point for any (live) CD, you have to consider that it may only get a couple of listens. Alternatively the album may become a firm favourite. Where do you want to set the price point? Too high and you cut yourself off, too low and you don't make any money, which you'd normally pour into the next project. What is the price elasticity of music, or a given band? And what factors may impact this?...Ah fuck it's a barrel of worms. Anyone got any decent advice on this? I've currently got the time to have a look at this, but don't want to simply start with google...Actually as I have been writing this comment, Sarah has had to interrupt me to get on skype to talk to her sister back in NZ, who is trying to be an artist, but keeps on struggling with the whole food on the table thing. (Yoda saying "Do or don't there is no try" pops into my mind, but despite the inherent wisdom of little green puppets, putting food on the table is kinda important). I've spent a little bit of time in Austria visiting oldest childhood friend, who is out there on the creative path. Austria is interesting to me in that they seem to have a lot more emphasis on supporting the arts, than I'd expect for a nation that I'd regard as not having a whole lot of love for the arts, or being associated with warm fuzzy feelings...But I guess they know better than some what can occur when artists turn bad.
righto I have to go outside. Real weekend is passing me by.
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I don't quite understand the context of those last 2 comments...but perhaps it was a case of subliminal blog commenting. I'll re-read the thread after I get the tasty goodness of a 27 piece pack with extra 'slaw.
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@ Steve, Joe and Shep
You dicks, you just had to it.....Now I have to make the comment about wanting to start a PR firm for myself.
It's gonna be called "Pee'd PR". It's a guerilla PR firm, that goes and pisses on organisations that give bad customer service, or organisations (like loose associations of bloggers) that do something bad when they should know better. ( There, I feel SOO much better now!)
The PAS team have worked hard to make this a good/interesting place and have I think worked hard to turn it into something that will put a bit of bread on the table and perhaps support/progess their other creative endeavours. Then dicks like me come along and mess it up. Maybe Hadyn needs to try a bit harder at being the "honeypot", or include a few more links to that other blogging site where being a dick seems to be...well more the norm?..so we don't end up with this occurring all the time.
I don't see why a WINZ story couldn't be a winner. Cho-ice!
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(sshhh - what's happening over here?
W'e're watching Damain's star power. Willing it to grow and willing those dicks who keep disrupting this sensitive semi-commerical thread to buzz off...Oh Why's that then? The thread actually seems to be a proof-of-concept regarding the indirect monetization of PAS for the guys....I think they're trying to use it as a stepping stone to bigger and brighter things, if only people wouldn't get interrupting....so please be quiet unless you've got a great story regarding good customer service.) -
Kyle wrote:
I've sometimes had to uninstall and start from scratch.
I can live with "view source" or firing up IE on occassion...it's kinda good to have a reason to use it, to see if there is anything that's actually been upgraded on it....and it also then makes the other browsers look good by comparison.
Safari - seems to look nicest on the screen.
Chrome - seems to be leading the tab independence movement, plus some memory utilisation stuff...and has incognito mode...for people who haven't yet moved onto pron of the mind
Firefox - took on where Netscape left and is Open Source.
Opera - the Alpha-geek's browser. -
Robbery wrote:
I smell drugs
A startlingly frank admission there from Robbery...If you're only "smelling" drugs, you're probably quite like people that are talking to their drugs (you know the crowd that "just say 'No' to drugs"), which means you're not sufficiently lucid enough to really need them.
Steve wrote:
Ok then Drugs and ponies too.
WooooHoooo :-)Steve needs to be referred to a couple of posts I've made previously regarding his behavour and facial ticks & secret smiles.
Sacha worte:
where I made a suggestion
Yip, I did see that. I think you were perhaps the first to bravely do so. I also see that you're advocating sniffing ponies, which is a great idea for the anthem vid.....Well get Morgan to help with that....well "help" may be the wrong word. We'll try to get Morgan to do it...Actually scratch that, I've just seen Morgan with some Stella and then there is the Cheeseburger & sausage vids....edgy...er.."very"edgy.
Perhaps we need to close out the thread. Perform a review to identify the gold, summarise and have the thread re-launch with a synopsis of where we have already been and what we're agreeing to set aside/let go for the moment. I'm aware that with the sheer number of comments, it's gonna be hard for new participants to participate and add value without perhaps picking the scab off an issue that had been dealt with, or that perhaps is best left alone. 29 pages of comments and not all of them are entirely relvent...(my bad).