chartered trips

What's going on?

2008-01-08T18:26:00.001+13:45

Don't panic!

I've moved charteredtrips to richardirvine.net.nz

All charteredtrips posts are marked as such over there

Redirection should happening... about... now.

Thanks

Bressa Creeting Cake appreciation day

2007-11-25T15:36:00.001+13:45

Bressa Creeting Cake recorded my fav NZ album ever - here's my entry to Public Address System's Soundtrack competition. It's a fuck of an album.

Bressa Creeting Cake for the most part went on to become vineyard and
orchstra salwarts Goldenhorse, after releasing my favorite NZ album, the eponymous Bressa Creeting Cake. Dodgy name (and cover) aside, BCC is choka with fine tunes, great playing and cheerful bizarreness. Track four 'Superstation' is an ode to buying petrol station pies, while 'A Chip That Sells Millions' tells the tale of a boy taking his food scientist Dad's new chip flavor sachets to school to 'blow his friends out with flavors they don't know about'.

It's a rilly summery album, complete with cicadas running throughout 'Zenax', and the perfect pop opening of track one 'Palm Singing'. The band took over a studio in Devonport to record it - having recently moved to the Shore I love that this ace album was recorded here (hey, Frank Sargeson lived on the shore too, hey? And Warwick Roger). Rocky Mountain is a fantastic laid back pop song, and was chosen for Flying Nun's 25th Anniversary Box.

This is one of my most-listened to albums ever, and I'm still discovering little noises and lyrical phases. I love that this is BCC's only recorded output, giving it the same 'we made one perfect album and that's it-ness' of say, The Stone Roses (IF you don't count Second Coming, which I don't). I love its' intelligence, sly humor, unabashed pop - I only wish I'd got to seen them live, and enjoy catching little BCC moments in Goldenhorse songs.

Further BCC resources here.

New Cloverfield trailer

2007-11-20T09:16:00.000+13:45

Empire has the latest trailer for Cloverfield, the mysterious monster mashup movie that 's got interweb nerds ordering an extra case of Mountain Dew and towelettes for extra long nights' online debate. It's bought to you by Lost's JJ Abrahams, and has loads of hand held camera stuff, plus shit blowing up - The Blair Godzilla Project, if you will.
Fill yer big monster fighting boots here
Bonus link: Is this the monster?

It lives!

2007-11-06T08:10:00.001+13:45

Aaaaand... I'm back. Since January, I've been mostly blogging at sportreviewnz.

sportreviewnz started with links to sports stories I found interesting, and reviewing my old sports books. Then I started doing my sporting 'cartoons' (I always put that in quotes. It doesn't seem right to include my farking around with photoshop, powerpoint and swearing in the same genre as what Tom Scott, Bill Watterson and Charles Shulz do/did).

There were two World Cups this year, Cricket and Rugby, and I started writing satire - I really enjoy this, NZ sport takes itself very, very seriously indeed and needs more stupidity, I say. Here's one of my favs. And another. And another. And another. One more. Some of them got pretty random and got no reaction, like the All Black body parts and 'Tagotown. I thought they were funny. Heh.

Right now, I'm a little burned out on it. Real life work keeps getting busier also. I've dipped me toe in the water here, and it's OK, but I'll stick to the 'keeping up with me mates' angle rather than the 'OMGZERS, I got BIG MOTORBIKE, Come RAce ME and BUY me a DRINK' stuff.

What about all the other stuff in life, like my new imac, my tightfisted approach to buying movies and music, and the sad fact I've spent much of my free time in the last week re-genre-ing my itunes library? Where does that fit on a shoddy sports parody blog? It doesn't, so I'm getting the band back together here on Chartered Trips. I've missed it, and it'll hopefully kickstart more writing on the other channel too.

Update : I've just looked through the archives, and this blog has only ever had one comment! What a beauty.

That's about it...

2006-12-15T10:46:00.000+13:45

This blog is OVER. When I started off this blogging lark I wanted to keep my sporting and 'other' interests seperate. I can't be arsed doing that anymore, and have decided to have one blog for everything - sport / review nz. So get in there, quick smart.

Thanks for reading Chartered Trips.

What I haven't been doing

2006-11-30T15:32:00.000+13:45

Nope, none of this for me lately. And here's a list of non-blogging excuses too - this should cover everything. My favorite is: "I just don't enjoy it as much as I convince myself I do".

Procrastination is a killer, team, I've switched to the new blogger beta template and then spent ages making it look like it did before. I've got labels now, though, but I'm having real trouble coming up with a label for this post. How about narcissism?

Hello again, anyway.

God bless the Croatian fishies

2006-09-27T22:35:00.000+12:45

Originally uploaded by richirvine73.

Pretty, innit?

2006-09-17T00:28:00.001+12:45

Originally uploaded by richirvine73.

Pretty, innit?

2006-09-17T00:15:00.000+12:45

Originally uploaded by richirvine73.

Blog neglect

2006-09-06T17:22:00.000+12:45

I'm on holiday in the UK, Italy and Croatia until early October. If I get any decent photos, I'll post them here - the most part will be on Flickr.

Righto

Alright, just one

2006-08-18T09:57:00.000+12:45

Link pinched from Spare Room

This is like a documentary. One of the things I enjoyed about working life in Dublin was getting TOTALLY shitfaced with your colleagues on a very regular basis. Usually on a Tuesday. It was typical for our director to declare over a nightclub table swimming with drink - "If I see any of you in before 11 tomorrow, you're sacked". Luckily the company went bust shortly after, so drink induced tardiness wasn't a problem for long.

Score! Report

2006-08-15T00:06:00.000+12:45

An ongoing series in which the blogger shares his budget orientated music and / or movie purchases, revealing something of both his refined taste and an unwillingness to shell out any decent cash for it.

What? Beatles Box Set - 11 albums, plus the Yellow Submarine and Rarities making 13 bits of Beatles vinyl, all in a cool gold box.

Why? I've been after one of these for a while. I first heard The Beatles at David Nichols' place when I was about nine - his parents had The Beatles box, and we'd listen to them over and over. David was a mine of information - "they're all recorded in Mono... this bit's so high pitched only dogs can hear it..." and so on. My favorite song then was 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer', the horrible little story of a serial killer with a whimsical melody from Abbey Road.

A few weeks ago I sat down (after a few beers, something I never had at David's place), and listened to Abbey Road again, and yes, side 2 is the best side in the history of music. And when I had a day to listen to the whole box in one go, it was quite overwhelming. There's just so MUCH of it, and the difference between then and now is I've got all this Beatles lore floating around my head - the post-touring ones are the 'real' Beatles records, they did 'Let It Be' hardly speaking to each other and let Phil Spector rescue it, 'Rubber Soul' is the stoner record, not to mention the whole lot was done in ten short years give or take (THAT blows my mind). There's the subsequent history to consider as well - John and George are dead, Paul did Wings and Ringo is Thomas the Tank Engine.

Still, I've got them all now, and forever to listen to them - I never bought Beatles albums or CDs, I made do with '1' and 'Imagine' on my iPod, becuase I knew one day I'd want the whole lot in a box like this. I love seeing it in the shelf and thinking "I've got all The Beatles".

Best bit Fark me. I'm going to go for last track, side 2 Abbey Road - The End.

Damage? $130 bucks from TradeMe

Surf Spots 080806

2006-08-08T18:18:00.000+12:45

- 14 Classic Tom Petty opening lines I'm a big fan of Tom and his nuggety, honest songs that always use the same three chords - they take me back to road trips from The Mount to Tairua and back again listening to Full Moon Fever over and over and over. Or maybe just Silence Of The Lambs.

- Ari Gold I've read a bit about this highly stressed, profane, nihilistic, mobile phone addict Ari Gold from Entourage. This is very popular in the US, and thanks to YouTube, we can have a look now, too. Looks like fun, not to mention the lamented Action.

- Delia's Half Time Snacks For the recent football World Cup, Guardian unlimited optimistically provided these recipes for UK footy fans to whip up at half time. Now I've experienced Brit 'cuisine' and if it's not fried, battered, in pita bread or Chips, you're struggling, really. Plus many of these require preparation pre-match, so she's cheated there, but still, there's some nice looking recipes.

Napster '99 all over again

2006-08-01T17:49:00.000+12:45

Remember when Napster was a free for all? It was bloody magic, I was working in Dublin at the time downloading CRAPLOADS of music on a Celtic Tiger-provided high speed connection. The best bit was thinking "what about that one song I liked back in '86?" - a quick search and there it was, you could go get those memories back.

Now YouTube is doing the same with video, so get in there before killjoys with talk of 'copyright' and the like get it shut down. You'll find all your own crap in no time, but here's a selection of mine:

Ricky Gervais' band.
The oft-mentioned, never seen Seona Dancing. Paul Merton's Room 101 show forces Rick to sit through his bad 80s haircut nightmare, he's not all that amused by the look.

Atari Ad. (nicked from Boing Boing)
All Ads should be like this. The usual disparity between promises made on the ad and / or box for old video games and what it actually LOOKED LIKE holds true here.

Sigmund the Seamonster
Here's one of those 'Do I really remember that, or was I that jacked up on sugar as a child I just hallucinated it?" questions answered. Yes, Sigmund exists.

1-2-3-FOUR-FIVE-6-7-8-NINE-TEN
The numbers / pinball song from Sesame Street - you know what I'm talking about.

Swearing Hamster
This is just really rude. And funny. (NSFW audio).

Go nuts - it won't be like this forever, there's endless music videos on there, as well as your favorite bits from your favorite films. Just don't expect to get much done in the near future, you've been warned.

Anthony Bourdain's Lebanon perspective

2006-08-01T12:33:00.003+12:45

Shee-yit, I've got a blog!

Anthony Bourdain is the anti-celebrity chef with a taste for Steak and The Ramones - that alone makes him my kind of guy, but he also does deadly keyboard. I pilfered copies of "Kitchen Confidential' and 'A Cook's Tour' last Thursday, and have read the first and am halfway through the second. The former is his trip through the many kitchens he's worked in and celebrates the merry bunch of rogues he's worked with in his career, showing you what happens through the kitchen doors - the pressure chefs are under and the extremes they go to when it's time to unwind.

It's heady stuff, interspersed with simple hints for cooking better at home for hacks like you - and you DO feel like a hack after reading of his pursuit of not just excellence, but consistent excellence in the midst of a mad rush of customers when you've just sliced your hand open. Borudain's a big believer in the team ethic, from his 'never call in sick' motto to loving passages on the language chefs use to rip piss out of each other. He's so cool it hurts, and his books make you feel hungry, which is good food writing in my book.

Bourdain went to Lebanon to cover the city's rejuvenation, walking right in the middle of that fucked up situation - this report (shitty registration required) is light on food, but high on the frustration of the Lebanese, and his own with his President more interested in bread rolls than a Middle East solution. I think I've got a new hero.

Blog neglect

2006-06-16T15:01:00.000+12:45

It's World Cup time, so any blog effort is over on the other channel.

I DID make nice Creme Brule with blueberries, though.

Mount QB weekend 040606 002

2006-06-15T13:26:00.000+12:45

Mount QB weekend 040606 002
Originally uploaded by richirvine73.

Bullet Points

2006-06-02T16:59:00.002+12:45

It's a beautiful blue sky day in Auckland. Here's some bullet point for the long weekend.
- Thinking of original stuff to put on your blog is HARD.
- We came third in the quiz this week.
- Mother of all Score! Reports is coming soon.
- Go out and buy Samuel Flynn Scott's album 'Hunt Brings Us To Life' immediately.
- What was the Super 14 all about? Part of me wanted to turn off and play Singstar, but it felt un-kiwi to do so. Blah. What happened to playing during the day, eh?
- If you like FARK's photoshop competitions, this is the best for ages (warning - bandwidth sucker here).
- How do YOU explain blogs to people who've never heard of them? Would they work at your place of business, either for customers or for people within the company? I have just launched blogging for the extended team (about 2000 people) at my work, feeling kind of nervous...

Being there : Danny Bhoy at the St James 170506

2006-05-18T14:36:00.000+12:45

He's almost too NICE to be a comedian. He came on with a big smile that never wavered, even when a god squadder took vocal exception to his (really, very inoffensive) ruminations on religion. In response, he sung a 'typical hymn' - "God is Great, we're all shit". Bull's eye, I think he may have encountered this kind of heckler before. I thought the interruption would fire him up, but it didn't break his meandering stride - Danny is a good humoured and very (very) laid back character.

His observational comedy gently took the piss out of the Scots, Aussie cricketers, Kiwi men buying drinks, himself and, hilariously, chickens, to name just a few. He has the same trick as his fellow Glaswegian Billy Connelly of going on monumental tangents that make you worry he won't finish stories he started - but like BC, he always came back.

DB is a physical comedian, skipping about the stage in delight for much of the show, particularly during his musical routines. Charmingly, he finds himself very funny, and gets away with it - he had the audience queueing up to eat from his hand. He seems like a lovely bloke, the kind you'd like to drink heavily with, and then have on your side when talking your way out of trouble. A highly recommended and refreshingly positive comedian.

link

Surf Spots 170506

2006-05-17T11:41:00.000+12:45

- Every week, since about oh, 1998, The Onion has made me laugh. That's a lot of laughter, and this warning that people's drunkenness does not impair the Alligators' ability to inflict enormous physical harm made me spray the screen.
- Here's a fairly comprehensive list of the 50 worst songs ever recorded. Was compiled before 'My Humps', obviously, and being American, they'd never heard Fat Freddy's Drop.
- At this years' Oscars, the Wilson brothers talked about the Wes Anderson short that became Bottle Rocket that started it all. Now, thanks to YouTube, you can see the original version. I'll say it again - God bless the internets.

Bitchin' in the Kitchen

2006-05-15T14:57:00.000+12:45

No matter what you think of Jamie 'aw-wight? Luv-ah-lee' Oliver, the guy can really cook. Inspired by a quick rifle through one of his books, I whipped this up last night:

First, get:
1 Chicken Breast
1 strip Bacon
1/2 Red Onion, cut up
1 Green Pepper, cut up
1 Red skinned potato (cut up and microwaved for a couple minutes first)
1 splash white wine
1 knob butter
Rosemary / Garlic / Pepper / Fresh Basil

Then:
Fold the whole lot up into an airtight tin foil 'envelope' and bake for 25 minutes or so.

That's it - no washing up, etc. Apparently JO used to make these parcels the lovely Jools and leave them for her to heat and eat. It's bloody inspirational stuff, and now I have visions of making parcels like this and bringing them to work, taking them to friends' places and forcing them to eat what I made, and so on. The chicken was sooo tender, everything was infused with Rosemary and wine, it had a nice creamy sauce to pour on, and the whole thing took about 5 minute's prep. I've gone with the Italian herbs this time, but with a bit of Coriander you could do an Indian or Malaysian parcel...

I'm not cooking anything else ever again. Probably.

link

Championes

2006-05-11T15:04:00.000+12:45

We WON the quiz last night. This seems to be happening more often.

Interesting points to emerge:
- There were only three of us in the team.
- We got out to a huge lead in the first half, then steadily got crapper as we went, but somehow managed to hang on and get into the crucial tie break question, which AP got exactly right.
- When 'Theresa Gattung' was read out as an answer, the crowd booed and hissed. Public apprvoval isnot high on this evidence.
- That's $50 for next time. Schweet.
- To quote Richie from Filthy Rich and Catflap - "We did it all by being stupid". Sums up Katz FB most weeks, really.

What's Katz FB, then?

link

Surf spots 090506

2006-05-09T15:49:00.000+12:45

- Rob Manuel, co-founder of B3TA is an inspirational kind of guy, as you can see. I've been thinking about creativity and burnout a lot recently, you will find all the answers you need here. Possibly.

- I'm a WICKED procrastinator. I sat down to write this blog post and... and... Hey that was COOL, I wonder what happening over on the internet? You see? It's as easy as that. Lifehacker's got all the answers, though, this post reminds me of being at Uni and couldn't possibly THINK about studying until my bed was made, my room was tidy, and that pesky box full of old Rip It Ups under the bed was all cleared out.

- Sesame Street pinball video, the one that goes "One, two, three, FOUR FIVE, six, seven, eight, NINE, TEN, etc etc. I use to hum this for ages as a child, usually while kicking shit out of something. Happy days.

Resume transmission

2006-05-09T15:12:00.000+12:45

.....aaaaaaand we're back.

BTW, how come blogger's spellcheck doesn't recognise 'blog'? I think we should be told.

Blogging about blogging

2006-05-01T13:55:00.000+12:45

Blogging is huge - there's an endless array of stats out there about how many there are, how many are being created every day, how many people are reading them, how the traditional media outlets should be crapping themselves, etc etc etc.

A lot of blogs posts it seems are about, well, blogging. I didn't want to get into that, but I'm kind of at the stage where I've been posting fairly regularly for a month or two, and nothing's happening. The New Zealand blogoshpere with one or two honorable exceptions are obsessed with shitfights or measuring dicks.

I didn't want to get involved in that scene. I'm not a politcal guy, and it's been years since I was at high school, so cliques and sucking up are out too. I want Charterd Trips to be a little site about what interests me on the hope that others might find it interesting too. There's got to be more to life than New Zealand's politics, and made up stories about what you did on the piss last night. Hmmmm...

Wes Anderson TVC

2006-04-26T14:09:00.000+12:45

This is class. I didn't like The Life Aquatic, but I'm a fan of Anderson's films generally, esp. The Royal Tenenbaums and Bottle Rocket. He's got his own style alright (geeky obsession with detail and using the same actors all the time) and this ad is like a WA film in miniature.

link

Napier at Easter

2006-04-24T15:31:00.000+12:45

Napier06 042
Originally uploaded by richirvine73.

Napier (short) report:
- Craggy Range vineyard is a spectacular place to have lunch
- Te Mata peak could do with some rails on the road to the top
- Hastings gets a really raw deal being next to picturesque Napier - no wonder they hate each other
- Kim Crawford winery is a really chilled out and had a guitarist playing on the front lawn when we were there. Lovely
- How the hell do you get around to Cape Kidnappers?
- Don't take your jandals off on the beach - the stones will hurt your feet
- They're PERFECT for skipping stones though

There's more photos on my Flickr page

Life begins at thirty

2006-04-21T15:06:00.000+12:45

Having leapt the 30 hurdle (ahem) a couple of years ago, I was interested to read this article, 59 things a man should never do after 30. I don't agree with all of it (I quite like hacky sack and air drumming, and what's wrong with fireworks?), but they're basically on the right track. Let's add a few more.

Things Men shouldn't do after 30, numbers 60 - 72.
60. Drink alocopops (actually, men shouldn't do this at all)
61. Switch which sports team you support - this goes for Rugby, Football, whatever. Moving cities or countries is simply NOT an excuse for this
62. Know what the number one song is at the moment
63. Go in a mosh pit under any circumstance, except losing a contact lens
64. Wear jewelry
65. Rollerblade
66. Get anything waxed
67. (Hey, this easier than I thought!) Goatees = bad
68. Same goes for pony tails, hippy
69. And piercings
70. Canvas belts are out, too
71. Use a ring tone from a (s)hit song on your mobile
72. Spend more than $25 on a haircut

link

Linkin all over the world

2006-04-19T14:45:00.000+12:45

Here's a feeble attempt to do some Kottke style linkage.

- I've started hankering after electric guitars again, which is a dangerous, slippery slope. Large parts of my yoof were spent loitering in and near Hamilton's music shops looking for mythical bargains - but in this age of TradeMe, the ol' bargains just aren't around anymore. Anyway, Telecasters are winning right now, so here's Ten Terrific Telecaster Guitars.

- Big fuck off buildings are cool.

- Argentina looks like my kind of place.

Back from the weekend

2006-04-18T17:25:00.000+12:45

Thinking Caps
Originally uploaded by richirvine73.

Welcome to scenic San Andreas

2006-04-13T10:17:00.000+12:45

Grand Theft Auto : San Andreas is a pretty sweet game. I don't have the commitment (or the time) to really charge through it, but at the moment I'm in an 'interesting bit', so I'm playing a little more. You get to run around (and create mayhem) in amazing replicas of Los Angeles (which I've FINALLY done), San Francisco (where I'm up to now), and Las Vegas (looking forward to it).

This article looks at the similarities between GTA SA and real life buildings. In a very cool move, there's even a replica of John Lautner's Chemosphere (left) - my dream house.

Actually, in the spirit of journalistic disclosure, I should point out the most fun to be had is finding large groups of people to wipe out, as messily as possible, and taking photos of the carnage with the camera that's so thoughtfully provided. Should I be worried?

link

Aphex Twin's Fenix Funk MP3 online

2006-04-12T16:09:00.000+12:45

I love Aphex Twin - and here's a taste of his new compilation kindly provided by MP3 blog music for robots. It's a typical 'Twin track, with all kinds of electronic squiggles and weird voices - then just when you think 'what gives? This thing's not going anywhere' it all comes together nicely with strings and that. Then it does something completely different. Three or four times.

Here's the MP3 link - get in quick.

I'm not sure of the ideal time to listen to Aphex Twin - it's bloody impossible to dance to (I've never really tried), and your mum is going to hate it. I tend to go for listening to when working - the headphones are ideal for picking up all the hidden intricacies (and there are a LOT of hidden intricacies), and he inevitably takes you off somewhere else - just the thing for concentrating.

link

Pangalactic Katzblaster coming right up

2006-04-11T13:50:00.000+12:45

Katz_hitchhikers
What's Katz, then?

Originally uploaded by richirvine73.

Score! report

2006-04-10T17:14:00.000+12:45

An ongoing series in which the blogger shares his budget orientated music and / or movie purchases, revealing something of both his refined taste and an unwillingness to shell out any decent cash for it.

What The Covers Record by Cat Power
Eh? Cat Power is Chan Marshall, who makes quiet records with mainly just her voice, a Guitar and Piano (although her new one, The Greatest employs Al Green's band). She's got a bad-ass-powerful mournful voice, and while female singer songwriters aren't usually my cup of tea, I'm willing to make an exception in this case. This record is all cover versions, and is highly recommended. She's one of those artists that makes you want to go out and buy all their records on the way home from work.
Best bit It's a toss up - her slowed down, sinister version of the Stones 'Satisfaction' is sexy as all hell, but I'm going to go with 'I found a reason' by Velvet Underground.
Damage $17
link

On the other channel...

2006-04-07T15:34:00.000+12:45

Over on my sports site sportreviewnz there's a new rugby cartoon, all about Richie McCaw, who's got a lot of coaches bleating about his style of play.

I'm going to try and do one of these every week if I can.
link

Burnt house

2006-04-06T17:02:00.000+12:45

Burnt house2
Originally uploaded by richirvine73.

So, so Lowe

2006-04-05T09:18:00.000+12:45

The Guardian's not too impressed with Breaks Co-Op:

"...their turntable-enhanced, take-it-easy folk-rock is for anyone who wishes Crosby, Stills & Nash had stuck around for trip-hop".

Fair play, Zane has done really (really) well in the UK as a DJ and MTV host, but Breaks Co-Op are still shit. I was at the New Year's Eve show at the Town Hall (An all ages, dry event), and found them pretty sucky, musically they're sub Dad-rock at its lowest point, and you can see why it was the soundtrack at this summer's blandest BBQs at the homes of those who don't really care about music. Anyway, Zane walked on stage waving at the crowd like the long lost returning hero, forgetting that very few people there a) knew who he was or b) cared. He didn't shut up either, which was predictable. He does play a mean bongo, though.

PS The writer has totally nailed Zane's patronising "I know SO much more than you about shit" style on the radio, too:

"Zane Lowe, a man whose endearingly stern enthusiasm can make the release of a new Razorlight single sound like a matter of national import".

Nice shot.

link

Shall we talk about the weather?

2006-04-04T14:45:00.000+12:45

Auckland's weather has been bloody crazy lately. What about this?

Friday - it's OK, just an average cloudy day, then about 9.30, BAM - the rain drums so hard on the roof you have to turn the TV up to hear, and even then you're struggling. It's just RELENTLESS, and I had to go to the window to watch it come down. The Greenlane sky looks kind of alive and glowing, the road is flooding, and I'm wondering if driving to the shore is such a good idea. Don't fancy being on the bridge in this.

This lasts about half an hour, then stops completely. I make it to the shore in one piece. "What about that rain?" "What rain?"

Saturday - it's sunny and fine. And humid. So, so humid. I play Tennis for an hour and I'm dripping. It takes a good two hours and a very cold shower to stop being so, well, red. We sleep with the fan on.

Sunday - rains all day. Tennis is off. I get cabin fever cooped up in the lounge, and it's still too hot. We go out for a walk on the beach to blow the cobwebs late on, and it gets dark very quickly. Go to bed that night, and it's still humid, even late.

I love the weather here.

link

Must Love Jaws

2006-04-03T08:54:00.000+12:45

There's been loads of these cut up trailers going around lately. Most of them are Brokeback Mountain ones (someone should do Leathal Weapon), but this Jaws one is the best of the lot, I reckon.

link

The Sky is falling!

2006-03-31T16:55:00.000+12:45

Speaking of Sky, what about the problems they're having with the satellite? It's all very well missing a Thursday night's telly, but the question on everyone's lips is of course, WHAT IF IT GOES DOWN IN THE MIDDLE OF AN ALL BLACKS TEST? EH? I think we should be told.

Sunset on Waitaks

2006-03-30T15:13:00.000+12:45

Sunset on Waitaks
Originally uploaded by richirvine73.

This photo is actually a year old - but we're getting some lovely Autumn weather at the moment.

On the other channel...

2006-03-29T11:50:00.000+12:45

Over on my other blog there's a new rugby cartoon for your viewing / laughing pleasure.

I wonder sometimes where I'm going with this blogging thing, and I think these rugby cartoons might be that place.

link

Hellzapoppin

2006-03-28T14:13:00.000+12:45

Here's another article I'm posting just 'cos of one great quote, from Alex James, Blur's bass player :

"And that's what pop music is, really, a big relentless grin. That your brain just finds irresistible."

Yep, Pop music is great, as anyone who's ever listened to a song 12 times in a row can attest to. See also:
- Crash by the Primitives
- Heavenly Pop Hit by The Chills
- Don't Call Me Baby by Voice Of The Beehive
- Alimony by the Hummingbirds
- Heironymous by The Clouds
- That Ain't Bad by Ratcat (What IS it with Aussies, eh?)
- Just What I Needed by The Cars
- Atomic by Blondie

I could go on and on... Go! Team do a nice line in this kind of thing, also.

link

Last BBQ of the summer

2006-03-27T15:54:00.000+12:45

I held the last BBQ of the summer at me flat on Saturday night. I reckon it's a safe bet it'll be the last because a) no-one else would be foolish enough to hold a BBQ in the dark and b) summer is bloody over, as yesterday's monsoon / hurricane in Auckland proved.

Anyway, where's what I learned:
1. If you invite 30 people, and spend the day panicking about feeding everyone and rushing about spending all your cash getting enough food, only half will actually turn up
2. And the vast majority that food won't be eaten anyway
3. Putting ALL the steaks and sausages on the BBQ at once will ensuring mediocre BBQing all round
4. There is definitely a man shortage, if the number of single females (quite a few) to single males (none) is anything to go by
5. Putting a sign on the door telling people to go around to the back door is a bad idea when there's no lights out the back
6. If you think you're running out of beer, and get latecomers to bring you more, you won't drink any of the new stuff
7. Sing Star is a lot more fun when you've had a few
8. It's one thing to learn a whole lot of songs on the guitar people can sing along to. YOU have to be able to remember WHAT THEY ARE when you're drunk
9. Getting up early to clean up then going back to bed is a great idea

I really enjoyed myself,and I think everyone else did, too. It's a good feeling to put a whole bunch of your mates in a room and see if they get on.

Top 3 cults currently operating in Auckland

2006-03-24T14:33:00.000+12:45

3. Young Mums in baseball hats pushing prams at 25 kms per hour. Where are they going so fast? Where?

2. People that work at Real Groovy. You can imagine the interview:
Any tattoos? Nope.
Any facial piercings? Nah.
Freaky-ass down with the kids haircut? No.
Get Out Of Here You FREAK!

1. The Warriors 'faithful'. I mean, COME ON. There's got to be something going on there. I wouldn't eat or drink anything at Ericsson stadium if I were you.

Katz FB pub quiz update

2006-03-23T18:01:00.001+12:45

We WON.

We haven't done that for ages. A cool(ish) $50 to the good.

Katz #1

2006-03-22T11:05:00.000+12:45

Katz_ET
Originally uploaded by richirvine73.

That's #1 as in 'number one Katz cartoon published on this blog', that is. We haven't won for ages.

We'd probably win the drinking, though.

Who's Katz, then?

Coupland / Morrissey uninterview

2006-03-21T12:21:00.000+12:45

If you've never checked out the Observer Music Monthly, you're shit. I really miss my London Sunday morning coffee / panadol / Observer mission, there was just so MUCH to read once you'd lugged it home.

Thankfully, the Guardian unlimited website is excellent, and you can get all the magazines online. This month I was excited to see Douglas Coupland interviewing Morrissey - one of my teenage heroes. Seeing him at the Logan Campbell Centre just after his first solo album was memorable for a) NO Smiths songs, b) his refusal to speak to the audience, despite pleas from the crowd, and c) the kids in the line beforehand singing "Morrissey, Morrissey, Morrissey" to the tune of "Here we go, Here we go, Here we go". You've never heard anything so pathetic as a bunch of indie kids wearing cardigans over band T-shirts trying to do terrace chants.

Anyway. The Chinned Wonder is a notoriously difficult interview, and this is an entertaining piece alright, but Coupland's wussed out here, making up the word count with the same old quotes we've read a thousand times. Surely, having gone all that way, he could have got some new ones.

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Top 5 NZ songs

2006-03-20T14:23:00.000+12:45

Wallace on bFM's breakfast show is running a competition to name your top 5 NZ songs ever. As everyone knows, New Zealand music beings and ends with my personal collection of Flying Nun vinyl, but that aside, here's mine.

5. Scorpio Girls - Supergroove. You can't hear the opening guitar riff without flinging a jug of Waikato over your mate's head and heading for the dancefloor. These guys kicked ass at the Riv - bands obviously enjoying themselves onstage ROCK.
4. Victoria - Dance Exponents. They went on to become the best pub rock band ever, but I preferred them **FOGEY ALERT FOGEY ALERT** as the plain ol' Dance Exponents. I just learned this guitar line, too.
3. Skin - Bailter Space. They are more of an 'album' band, but I can't make a top 5 list without including 'ver Space. Here's one off Thermos that you need to hear live for the full effect (which is roughly the same as listening to a plane take off, standing on the runway). I've never heard a louder band, but then I was up front checking out Alistair's pedals.
2. Nerves - Doublehappys. ...and you can't leave out Shane. I love SJF, and Dimmer? Dunno, so I've chosen a DoubleHappys number. This one has a chorus featuring a who's who of that Dunedin Lot, so you're getting heaps here for the price of one.
1. Slow Sad Love Song - The Verlaines. Graham Downes at his best, from the melodic start to the primal ending. Treads a fine line by having a touching lyric that speaks to all men in their early 20s directly, but also perfect for shouting along to with yer mates. Should have been huge.

Yeah, so there's no Finns, Rungas, Hip-Hop-ers, and no 'new' NZ bands (just how many feckin sub-Blink 182s does the world NEED?), but it's my list and I get to choose. Nyah.

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Calvin and Hobbes

2006-03-17T13:48:00.000+13:45

A few Calvin and Hobbes cartoons, because it's Friday. Here's Slate's version, and an appreciation from Progressive Boink with some quite heart rending commentary.

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Dork of the week

2006-03-16T20:44:00.000+13:45

You have received a Telecom Photo/Video Message
Originally uploaded by richirvine73.

This award goes to the guy in this Rover spotted on Contstellation Drive. Yep, that says 'HO BA1T'.

Disturbingly, the use of a '1' instead of an I means there's someone else cruising around with "HO BAIT'. The mind boggles.

Omaha

2006-03-15T17:16:00.000+13:45

Omaha
Originally uploaded by richirvine73.

Middle Of The Roadkill

2006-03-14T10:45:00.000+13:45

I really like loud electric guitars and all the dirty-as noises they make. I used to spend hours with distortion pedals trying to make sounds as f**cked up as possible, and the opening chords of Mudhoney's 'Sweet young thing ain't sweet no more', one of the dirtiest, shittiest sounding bits of distortion ever recorded... well, it doesn't get any better.

But really, I love the soppy stuff. I knew there was something badly wrong when I listened repeatedly to the Boogie Nights soundtrack. Night Ranger's 'Sister Christian'? Alright, it's played when Eddie and crew rob the lunatic druggie guy, one of the coolest bits in the film, but ELO for f**k's sake? Come ON.

But when you think about it, it all kind of makes sense. I love the Beach Boys, and Pet Sounds with all those layered 'eeeeehhhhhs' 'ahhhhhhhhhs' and 'ohhhhhhhhhs' is just a beautiful, beautiful record. And even Husker Du, underneath all those squalls of black noise, really, really want to be a power pop band. Check out their version of the Mary Tyler Moore theme for exhibit A.

Anyway, all this rambling has only lead up to me being able to copy and paste this quote from this Guardian article. Apparantly there's a soft rock revival on at the moment: "If kids grow up with their dad listening to the Jam and the Clash, where's their rebellion going to come from? How are you going to wind your dad up? Well," he chuckles, "playing fucking Supertramp will really wind your dad up."

Magic.
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Meet Katz FB

2006-03-13T17:48:00.000+13:45

Katz FB is the logo of the mighty Katz FB, the pub quiz team I've played for in the last couple of years.

Katz FB came about on the first night I played - I'd had a couple of pints already, and thought "we need a logo" - and lo - Katz FB was born. Katz FB stands for Katz Front Bottom - so this is basically a view of a fat cat from behind. God bless Guinness.

Since then, I've drawn a new one every week. Then I even started keeping them (!). They're done on 10.5 x 7cm bits of paper ripped from A4, with whatever ball point I happen to have on me. I have a lot of fun with it, they seem feckin hilarious after a few beers, and some of them are even funny the next day. I'm going to share some with y'all.

Astrolabe at the Mount

2006-03-13T16:00:00.000+13:45

One of the upsides of Mount Maunganui's transformation from bach-y getway into a kind of little Auckland complete with property price obsession is that there's now a fine array of eateries - a far cry from what used to be there.

Anyway, just quickly, if you havn't been to Astrolabe lately, a restaurant / bar that was one of the first to arrive on the scene and has been there ever since, go again. I had the Grilled Chicken Breast on Tomato Risotto, which was just fantastic. I never get chicken when I'm out 'cos I have it at home so much, but this thing was so tender it fell apart from just looking at it. The Bruchetta to start was magic also, and my girl's Eye Fillet was also the business. We also tried The Back Porch in the midway shops for breakfast on Sunday, which was very nice also.

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On the other channel...

2006-03-10T15:31:00.000+13:45

I'm not really sure what Chartered Trips is going to be yet - at the moment it's just a place where I can write some stuff, show some photos, and keep the ol' brain active. Right now, I'm trying to keep up a post every week day - we'll see how long that lasts. I have some cartoons I've drawn for my pub quiz team I may share also, stay tuned.

If you haven't already, you might like to check out Sport Review NZ, a 'sport' blog, but more a vehicle for my rugby cartoons. As you know if you live here in NZ, rugby is a deadly, deadly serious game. I thik there's some milage in poking some fun at the (very) sacred cows our national game offers us. Check it out.

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It's rilly pretty at the Mount

2006-03-09T14:58:00.000+13:45

triathalon 070106 001
Originally uploaded by richirvine73.

I'm almost never up early. So when I did, I got it on film.

When it's not as much fun

2006-03-08T15:08:00.000+13:45

So it tipped down last night in Auckland. Nothing unusual there, but for cycle commuters, it's game on, in the shit hour.

When it's sunny, and the pavement is dry, biking home is great fun. You've got the sun on your back, and you're ripping in and out of the traffic like no-ones' business, youc an go faster than the cars, and you're happy they're jealous of you zipping through the rush hour traffic. Tires are singing, you can stop in a jiffy, the visibility is clear, it's all a bit of a game, really.

Then it rains and it's a totally different story. Everyone forgets how to drive, they can't see as well (especially those pesky cyclists), everyone's in a bad mood and it becomes vital to be FIRST to the light, and don't want to stop for the red ones. They're angry at everyone else in the road, and want to BE HOME NOW.

You've waited at work 'til half six to avoid the worst of it, but it's now that little bit darker. You forgot to bring your jacket and are sopping wet. Your glasses have rain all over them and your lack of mudgards means shit is flicking up in your eyes. Your brakes aren't quite as good in the wet (although modern V-brakes are a fuck of a lot better than the old 10-speed ones), and you're thinking 'is that little red light on the back going to be enough to stop someone ramming into the back of me'?

Now the game is to get home in one piece.

Hooray for Hollywood

2006-03-07T10:55:00.000+13:45

My highlights from the Oscars before I got tired and went to bed.

- John Stewart is a really funny guy, even though some of the early political jokes didn't go down too well with tinsel town's finest. Still his Bjork and Scientology jokes made me laugh a lot.
- Ben Stiller killed in the green suit with his freaky amateur drama student schtick.
- Jack Nicholson wangled the seat next to Kiera Knightly. He's still got it.
- Nice to see the Wilson bothers giving the award for best short live action movie, and describing how it all started for them with Bottle Rocket, a fine, fine film.
- Will Ferrell is the funniest guy alive, and you know why? Because he plays it absolutely straight.
- Nice to hear Howard Berger who won Best Makeup reference Where the Wild Things Are, obviously the best kids book ever, and soon to be a Spike Jonze film apparently.
- And it was funny to see a shot of the NZ coastline in the King Kong 'nomination' montage for Art Direction. Not a lot of actual art direction there, presumably.
- And while we're on the topic, it makes me really proud to see all those NZers winning multiple oscars (Weta's Richard Taylor's up to five now), but TV3's Belinda Henley was stretching it a tad to say "New Zealand's REIGN at the Oscars continues. A handful of technical awards is hardly a reign.

- I loved the montages of Film Noir, Biographical, and 'Social Conscience' films. I know it's rilly hip to be all cynical and that, but can I just say (quietly) aren't The Movies magic?

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It's funny 'cos it's true

2006-03-06T10:37:00.000+13:45

I liked this on thegapingvoid, one of the blogs I read. Replace 'New York' with 'Auckland' and you're instantly around a BBQ with men in Hallenstiens shirts on talking house prices, bubbles, patio paving, and which Bunnings Warehouse is the best.
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Score! report

2006-03-03T09:05:00.000+13:45

An ongoing series in which the blogger shares his budget orientated music and / or movie purchases, revealing both something of his refined taste and unwillingness to shell out any decent cash for it.

What Steven Spielberg's Jaws
Eh? It's Jaws, man, the one you think of when you're swimming and you step on something funny, see a fish, hear someone cry out, in fact pretty much anything that happens in the water, you think of Jaws. This one comes with a 50 minute 'making of' doco. Plus, it's Spielburg, and for all the cute kids and aliens that followed this one, the guy knows how to make you shit yourself.
Best bit "We're going to need a bigger boat".
Damage $10
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It's blurry as all hell but I like it

2006-03-02T10:09:00.000+13:45

quiz 014
Originally uploaded by richirvine73.

Fitter, Faster, Get OUT of my %@*&!!ing way!

2006-03-01T11:02:00.000+13:45

I attended the Auckland City Bike to Work breakfast this morning - it was well organised, and I got a free yummy breakfast of Vogel's Scroggin Muesli, which was totally excellent.

It was very strange seeing all the cycle commuters there. It seems to me that it takes a certain (utterly mad) type of individual to cycle through Auckland's rush hour traffic. And that type of person doesn't play well with others - there were loads of people there (like me. ahem) on their own, avoiding eye contact with their fellow cyclists, talking to no-one. But themselves. It was like a convention for high school science teachers.

Fair play, though. Cycle commuting, when you take out the random car doors opening, drivers on the phone, or worse, TEXTING, Auckland's driving rain, road filth flicking up in your eyes and all over your clothes, the heat, the stifling humidity, your utter invisibilty to cars... Yes, when you take all that out, cycle commuting is great fun. You get to notice and appreciate all kinds of details about Auckland you'd never see. You get to actually look forward to your commute home. You get to arrive at work clear headed and ready to go (ish).

And funny stuff happens. I somehow provoked a driver in their 50's (this happened to me a couple of weeks ago) to give me the finger when I got in the way of their reckless right turn before the oncoming traffic. I gave them the thumbs up.

Sometimes life is sweet.
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Mess me up

2006-02-21T13:55:00.000+13:45

Now you can go here and mess with Chartered Trips. Or anyone else.

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Rare guitar / zombie crossover

2006-02-07T20:42:00.000+13:45

Drooooooool.
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A Kite!

2006-02-03T00:57:00.000+13:45

BBQ 261205 002
Originally uploaded by richirvine73.

Big Day Out 2006 - we came, we saw, we kicked its ass

2006-01-23T12:57:00.000+13:45

Musical highlight one. "I'm Iggy and you're Kiwi MotherF--kers!" Glad I got to see this lizard-like legend play with the Stooges, who pumped out the big dumb Flintstones-style Rock n Roll like they invented it, which they did, I guess.

Musical highlight two."Remember, Meg's not happy unless you're all happy!" There's some mixed reviews of the White Stripes show, but I loved 'em. Yeah, Jack should shave his goatee, and yes, he played more instruments than he should have, but the little bugger never stopped rocking hard, and produced some noises from his guitar that I didn't think were possible. What the knockers need to remember is that Jack and Meg did it all for us - they just wanted us to have a good time listening to their bad ass, dirty-as, swamped out Rock n Roll. We did. And I loved the feedback.

The other musical highlights. The Go! Team were great once they settled into their set. Bollox to The Heralds' Russell Baille for obviously watching just the first two songs, then buggering off to check out the Lynx Jet tent. Sleater-Kinney were great, as were what I caught of Kings of Leon. And fair play to 2Many DJs for dropping AC/DC in the Boiler Room late on.

Festival punters' band T-shirt spotting report. Nirvana (several), Ramones (loads), Doors (1), AC/DC (1), Metallica (1). A BIG bonus to Ian for spotting Megadeath, some very sweet action there. No Pearl Jam, though.

Old git's logistics report. "Nah, I'm not going to drink that much". "You'll have to queue up for ages for a beer, eh". "There's no bogs there". "We'll be the oldest ones there". "Whine, whine, whinge", etc, etc.
That was all bollocks, of course. Yeah we did have to queue a bit to get into the Wave Bar, but once we were in we could sit on the grass, talk crap, and pound a few Lion Reds in the sun while listening to the Magic Numbers (derivative shite). Lovely. And once we got down to the main stage area, there were some great loos with no queues in the grandstand. This is important, you know.
As for being the oldest ones there - not even close. I even spotted Roger Sheperd and Colin Hogg taking their places at the back of the herd for Iggy, and those guys are REALLY old.
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God bless the Internets

2006-01-17T10:57:00.000+13:45

This could change your life.
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Tag your itunes library

2006-01-06T23:57:00.000+13:45

Tagging is everywhere that matters on the internet, so why not tag your itunes library as well? Here's how I've done it.

com / comedy / comedy tracks followed by the comedian

ele / electronic / anything electronic, ie. drum machines, no guitars, faceless souless techno, whatever.

fav / favorite / My favourite tunes, usually by genre such as gat, ele, or anything. You'll think of better ones than me.

gat / guitar / Anything with a six string on it. Lighters in the air, stage dives, brush cotton shirts, you get the idea.

new / new (geddit?) / Just new stuff you want to listen to, to see if you like it. New songs from Mp3 blogs go on here.

rnd / random / If you have plenty of a paticular artist, make a list of all their albums and set it shuffle for untold random Saxon, Debbie Gibson or George Benson. It's up to you though, those are just examples, like.

trip / trip soundtracks / When you make a list for a trip, you might like to save it and name it to remember that car journey / plane ride / whatever. Does that sound soppy?

Other tips:
- I use the 'my top rated' function a lot to tag songs I want to mess with later. This often happens when you're shuffling all your songs, and it's really easy to on the go, too.
- Try and keep tags short, so you can read them on your iPod screen.
- Set all the lists to random, while you're at it, it's loads more fun.

And season's greetings to y'all

2006-01-01T16:20:00.000+13:45

newyears 311205 009
Originally uploaded by richirvine73.

The view west from the lovely Coromandel peninsulsa

2006-01-01T16:15:00.000+13:45

Thames 311205 001
Originally uploaded by richirvine73.

Ahhhh.....

Spinal Tap taints 'Zep forever more

2005-12-16T11:12:00.000+13:45

So I wound up watching the new Led Zep DVD on Saturday night after the show. And couldn't stop laughing. Now, I know Led Zep's music pretty well - all the bogans at my school were into it, and eventually I got it as well. I own a copy of IV. Got a few songs in iTunes. But I'd never really watched a video of them, until now.

And now they're ruined, because Spinal Tap got it so right. The mental drummer. The bass player standing there looking all serious. And especially David St. Hubbins / Jimmy Page. It's all there from the ridiculous poses to scary facial expressions during the solos. I couldn't stop laughing. And when he bought out the violin bow to play his guitar I almost had to leave the room.

I reckon it's a great example of where a sharp parody makes the original material redundant, and reminds me of when I used to read Mad's movie satires, which were so dead on you didn't really have to see the film - and when you did, it was never as good. It's all in the details - you have to study your 'target's' expressions, tones of voice, their 'ums' and 'ahs', and then just crank it up a notch without going too OTT - it's why shows like The Office, Fawlty Towers and Seinfeld were as popular as they were. What's your favorite parody or satire?

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Token Effort Office Xmas party outfit for under NZ$23.00

2005-12-14T15:44:00.000+13:45

NEVER go to a costume hire place for your Office xmas party outfit. Not only are they always rammed with harassed mothers, their bratty children going nuts over all the toys, and annoying Sales-y types ("HEY! I need a bigger wig for this Edina outfit! MISS!"), but it takes at least 35 minutes to serve each customer, meaning you'll be in the place for three hours minimum. And air conditioning is rare.

No, show a bit more imagination by making a Token Effort costume at a fraction of the price. There's a myriad of advantages:
1. No need to return it the next day with a hangover in this sodding humidity
2. No worries about spilling shit on it and losing your deposit
3. People will be more impressed with something you've thrown together in an evening than those with hire costumes costing $100s
4. Token Effort costumes are usually worn over your normal clothes, so you can chuck it in the bin when the party is over, and you don't have to go to the pub dressed as a Wizzard / Postal worker / Pirate

Great weather we're having

2005-12-13T15:28:00.000+13:45

rangitoto 002
Originally uploaded by richirvine73.

Hot December night with JC

2005-12-12T11:17:00.000+13:45

John Cleese — His Life, Times and Current Medical Problems show. Auckland, 10 December review.

This was one of those 'What's the show about? Got no idea, but he's a legend, so let's go' ones. Our group warmed up by sampling the tapas at Vivace (the pig's belly was the big highlight) and walking through the humidity to the theatre. It's a bizarre transition to step off muggy, dirty old Queen St into the Civic, with the elephants on the walls and intricate detail everywhere you look. From there it was into the theatre itself - FUCK it was hot. I thanked the lord it's OK now for males to wear sandals almost everywhere, in that long honored Kiwi-male tradition of 'I just don't give a fuck what I look like'. Anyway...

Then he came out. The show is loosely autobiographical, touching on his childhood, his relationship with his parents (his mother in particular), the Pythons, Fawlty Towers, and his life now in America. Also in the show is Cleese's daughter, Camilla, who apparently had a hand writing the show. Brave girl. In all honesty, hers were the weakest bits, like 'get off the stage, and bring back JC', and so the audience never really warmed to her, but she suffered from, well, not being John Cleese.

So what we got in between was the life and times of a very funny man, complete with supporting AV material. The Pythons got the once over lightly treatment, with emphasis on the death of Graham Chapman, and how the remaining team still miss him and consider him part of the group. There was much on Fawlty Towers and the hotelier who inspired the Basil character, JC's pride in the success and universal love for this short lived program was very evident. The best bits were the audience participation section, where we got to have our own personal moment with JC, and the dead parrot sketch re-worked especially for New Zealand audiences. With not a parrot, but a NZ national icon that had ceased to be (not a kiwi!).

As it was the last show of the tour, we got introduced to the other cast members twice, and learned they were his tour manager, PA, and tour secretary in addition to his daughter. While you've got to love someone who goes to such lengths to include those near and dear to him, these bits jarred with the rest, and might have been better left out. Still, even from the back of the Civic, you can't help but feel like you'd been let into JC's world for an hour or two, and a fascinating and very funny world it was, too.
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Man of habit, me

2005-12-10T15:24:00.000+13:45

shoes 004
Originally uploaded by richirvine73.

Old shoes (on the left)
New shoes (on the right)
No point changing, innit?

THIS is a Wednesday afternoon

2005-12-08T15:53:00.000+13:45

Wenesday afternoon
Originally uploaded by richirvine73.

It's been ages since I've had time off - I'd almost forgotten what it's like. Maybe it's just me, and a sign of how I haven't quite evolved since school, but it still feels kind of funny and almost naughty cruising around during work hours. Who ARE all these people, and what is it they do so they can sit around outside cafes and shoot the shit? Shouldn't they be at work?

Chubby rain

2005-12-07T09:19:00.000+13:45

Chubby rain
Originally uploaded by richirvine73.

Tricky Ricky

2005-12-06T10:10:00.000+13:45

If you're down with the podcasts and all that, or just have broadband, you'll be interested to know Ricky Gervais of 'The Office' is doing a podcast on the Guardian's website - with Stephen Merchant (co-writer of The Office) and another bloke. If you want to get clever, here's the .xml feed.
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The movies! The Stats!

2005-12-05T16:31:00.000+13:45

In June I started keeping a 'film diary' of all the movies I've seen - and between then and today, I've seen 37. Highlights / points of interest include:
- Ratio of cinema going / watching at home is 9 : 28
- Oldest film on the list: 2001 A Space Odyssey
- Newest: Serenity
- Biggest heap of shit: Faaaaaat Albert. The horror.
- Most disappointing: The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
- Best to see at the cinema: Sin City and Batman Begins.
- Best re-watch: A three way tie between Colors, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and Tremors
- Most likely to be a big, big all-time favourite of mine: Shaun of the Dead.

And on the other channel...

2005-12-05T16:10:00.000+13:45

On the other side of my web empire is my latest effort at a rugby 'cartoon'. You can see it at my flickr page or at thesilverfern.

No, I don't know why NZers rarely see the massive potential for humor in our national game, either.
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That's the xmas pressy sorted

2005-12-02T17:22:00.000+13:45

I want one of these. I watched the making of Dawn Of The Dead last weekend - they had a lot of fun making that alright. I first saw it at about 14, in the prime of my horror watching / violence de-sensitising, and it still holds up pretty well today (except the pie fight?). I watched the remake with me mate that I watched the orginal with way back then - it's become our little tradition. "You wanna watch a DVD Friday night?" "Yep, what do ya fancy?" "Something with heads coming off?" "Righto".

You pick up loads of Peter Jackson's influences watching Romero's films - more in the Bad Taste era stuff obviously, but if you squint, you can make out a bit of Zombie in the Orcs I reckon.
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Kent St

2005-12-01T13:06:00.000+13:45

Quiz night 301105 011
Originally uploaded by richirvine73.

Score! report.

2005-11-29T14:28:00.000+13:45

Just so you know, Real Groovy is having the best sale at the moment. Here's the results of my lunchtime stroll (21 degrees today in Auckland BTW).

fIREHOSE - Mr Machinery Operator. A very underrated band from the SST label (eg Husker Du, Sonic Youth, Black Flag, etc etc), I got into these guys after hearing them on an old skateboard video. They feature Mike Watt, who's probably the best bass player in this kind of band around. Damage: $4

Primal Scream - Screamadelica. With songs produced by Andy Weatherall and The Orb, this is seminal stuff. While I'll always think of Bobby Gillespie as the one armed drummer from The Jesus and Mary Chain, this will do nicely, been meaning to get it for ages. Damage: $15

Grant Lee Buffalo - Fuzzy. This guy's got the best voice. See also his cover of 'We've only just begun' from that Carpenters covers album. Damage: $10

Ride - Carnival of Light. Alright, it's no Nowhere (I frantically searched through the racks for that one - no dice). Hey, it was $4. Damage: $4

Big Red Letter Day - Buffalo Tom. Hint: the best BT songs aren't by main singer and guitarist Tom Janovitz, but the quieter, more country-ish ones by bassist Chris Colbourn. Try 'I'm Not There' from Let Me Come Over. Damage: $6

Get in there.
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Wellington weekend II

2005-11-28T05:20:00.001+13:45

link
Originally uploaded by richirvine73.

Wellington weekend

2005-11-28T05:20:00.000+13:45

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Originally uploaded by richirvine73.

Say hello to my little friend

2005-11-27T17:12:00.000+13:45

I bought my iPod (plain vanilla - 20gig, 4G) a few months ago, and frankly, I don't know how I lived without it. Its just fitted right in to the way I do stuff, and now I'm going to become the 1,000,000,000th person on the internet to say OH MY GOD IT TOTALLY TOTALLY RULES. The three best things are:
- Being able to shuffle my 2850 songs (so far) in the car is amazing, stuff you haven't heard for ages, but loved 10 years ago pops up right after your new favorite song. It's like having a radio station you programmed yourself, but you're still not sure what's coming next.
- Setting up your own playlist of songs to jam along to on the gat is something else - YOU! LIVE AT WEMBLEY! AND YOU CAN JUST PAUSE AND GO TO THE LOO!
- With an iTrip you can take over stereos everywhere from Taxis to yer mate's place. Highly recommended.

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Thank you, thank you very much

2005-11-21T23:28:00.000+13:45

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Originally uploaded by richirvine73.

Tauwharanui

2005-11-21T23:04:00.000+13:45

Tauwhranui 001
Originally uploaded by richirvine73.

Hey, Jude, don't make it bad

2005-10-05T16:11:00.000+13:45

I fairly refuse to watch TV1's 'news' or 'current affairs' (Susan Wood?!? I'd rather watch a wheelie bin for half an hour weeknights) because it's a load of patronising braindead shit. Still, I'm really happy to see the back of the 'Mummy of the nation'. Sure, we all loved her and John Hawkesby on 'Top Half' in the olden days, but is $800,000 justifiable for reading an autocue? On TV News that's so abysmal?

Take those promos with Jude in a meeting with the 'news team' - I'd love to have been at the filming, just to see them rolling their eyes at JB for four hours ("I'm off to get a story, where are you off to, Jude?" "Make up"). She's a NEWSREADER, not a Journo. Fair play, she only negociated the biggest pay packet she could, but her bloated salary is symptomatic of the general malaise TVNZ are going through under Fraser and Ralston (go back to the politics reporting like you used to on Nightline, Bill!). They've just lost it.

TV3 were all over it last night, pulling out such Jude quotes from the promos like 'it's a shocker, a real shocker'. Now they're really making TVNZ piss blood - it's great payback for all those years of being caned and having their talent pinched. TVNZ's problem is their slavish apeing of American news networks, where presenters are the stars instead of the stories. If I want my intelligence insulted, I'll wait 'til my weekly pub quiz, thanks.

To quote Nathan Rarere - "I love the Olympics - it gives me a chance to use the 'one' button on my remote".
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Shining Happy People

2005-09-30T14:03:00.000+12:45

This is genius. God bless the internet for bringing us stuff like this. (Link is a ten MB quicktime movie, pinched from waxy.
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The Warehouse kills Letraset

2005-09-27T11:45:00.000+12:45

I see The Warehouse has a new logo (on the left). I really liked the old one (on the right), because it looked like a last minute job by a twelve year old. I can just see it - the day before Stephen opened the first Warehouse he thought "Shit! We need a logo! Here, little Davey, you're good at art and all that, why don't you come up with something?". And little Davey went off and got his pencil, ruler, rubber (er, eraser), and Letraset and went to it. It's got all the elements - the painstaking angles, the 'almost out of room!' bits on the 'R' and 'W', and best of all, the shadow. You can almost hear the cries of pain from Parnell design studios.

Letraset books were IT in our school. If you had one, you were easily the most popular kid in class, with offers of K-bars, Rashuns and Big Bens for a loan of it. You could spend hours looking at all the fonts and figuring our which ones would be easiest to trace. And then you'd use bubble writing anyway. Bit different to firing up Photoshop or what have you.

So it's a shame The Warehouse's logo has changed, it used to give me warm fuzzies looking at such a throwback logo all over the country in this day and age. I'm heartened that their new one still has an inherent kind of, well, shit-ness to it. Some things never change.
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K.R. is a Fuck. Wit.

2005-09-22T12:23:00.000+12:45

What is up with this guy? 'KR' is one of my most loathed people in the world, and now he's chipping in on fighting terrorism? I'm going to write my own 'motivational' business book one of these days and make squillions off it too. It can't be that hard if fucktards like this can do it, now can it?
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Top 5 - James Woods

2005-08-24T17:28:00.000+12:45

Been busy, so here's a quick 'n' easy post.

1. The Specialist. This film is shit soup, but JW's 'bomb' speech is his finest moment.
2. Virgin Suicides. From the ridiculous to the sublime. He can do understated.
3. Vampires. The opening scene is one of my favorites also.
4. Cop. I love 80's cop movies set in LA, Colors being the other prime example.
5. Salvador. Yeah, this movie is typical Oliver Stone-bombastic, but imagine hanging out on set with Ollie and JW so close to Columbia.

Checking IMDB, I've added several films to my must see list. Like Cat's Eye, the film made from three Stephen King short stories. JW is in Quitters, Inc, the company that makes Allan Carr look like a total pussy.
And now I really want to get to James Woods' bit in Grand Theft Auto : San Andreas. Can't wait.
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Desperado, why don't you come to your senses?

2005-08-04T19:15:00.000+12:45

I loved this article. Gotta say, my own taste is getting less about what's new as 'What have I missed?'. And it's pretty MOR for the most part. Eagles. Springsteen. Stones. Teenage Fanclub. Beach Boys. Cash. Especially Cash. I could never tell you who's number one, nor do I care. The new NZ bands for the most part leave me cold. Fair play, but where was everyone when NZ Music was at its' peak - the Dunedin sound, Auckland Punk, Bailter Space? But I digress.

So give up. Accept it. You screamed along to 'Summer Of '69' at your work do like everyone else. Deep down, you know you drove just a little faster that time 'Thunderstruck' came on the radio. Embrace your roots, and stop trying to keep up. Because at the end of the day, you bloody know better than kids these days. /Fogey
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You're Dead Meat

2005-08-02T12:39:00.000+12:45

I've been bookmarking some cool (well, cool for me. Shut up.) pages lately, and been slack about blogging them, so I'm clearing them up. I know, you'll just have to bear with me.

First up - Zombie mob. These hipsters terrorised downtown San Francisco, George A. Romero style one Saturday morning, just in time for Land of the Dead. Anyone wanna storm Aotea Square, The Viaduct, or a Destiny Church parade like this?
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Kia Kaha London

2005-07-27T13:28:00.001+12:45

Some of my fondest memories are within the M25. Like a picnic with me mates on Hampstead Heath one grey Saturday afternoon, Tequila Sunrises in the Adelaide's garden bar in Swiss Cottage, drinking six bottles of cheap French red wine with Aidan then going to a party all night before waking up on the Piccadilly line on the opposite side of town, Sunday Cumberland Feasts with pints in The George in Clapham South. It's an extremely long list. Reviewing it, they all involve alcohol. But I've moved on. Kind of.

So when Carly Kirkwood interrupted my Thursday night's telly to tell me the Tube was under attack, I panicked. I'm awfully fond of my friends there, and London as a city. It turns my stomach what the tube passengers went through that day, and what it's doing to the world's greatest city, a microcosm of the world.
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It doesn't get any Groovier

2005-07-18T14:52:00.000+12:45

If you're lucky enough to live in Auckland, then you can go to one of the world's great record shops. The slog up Queen St to Real Groovy is one of my favourite Auckland rituals. When I was growing up in Hamilton, no trip to the big smoke was complete without stocking up on vinyl in RG ("OH MY GOD they've got ALL The Pixies' Eps! AND The Smiths! Shit-shit-shit.").

Their website now offers one of the coolest services I can think of. Just get an account with them, enter all the names of the bands you like into the 'Secondhand Music Faves' section, and Viola! You can track the rare and wonderful second hand goods that your fellow RG patrons have cashed in on. And order them right from your desk.

Cool. But dangerous.

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Atlantis

2005-06-23T12:27:00.000+12:45

Heres some really wicked pictures of Russian Buildings that were designed but never built. Some of them look like what I imagine The Lost City Of Atlantis would look like. If it were true. It's not. Cool if it was. I'll go now.
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Tears of a clown

2005-06-14T15:22:00.000+12:45

The Family Guy is a great cartoon, but SHIT you've got to check out this blog, in paticular the post "Mamas, don't let yer babies grow up to be cartoonists", in which 'Spike' reveals the flipside of what for may people appears to be a dream job. Hey Spike - welcome to the world mate! 9 to 5 ain't easy - at our work, the coffee machine has been broken for, like, months!

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