I'm in a wonderful mood this early Monday morning flicking between Morning Report and the VBC Breakfast show, so I thought it may as well be a good time to start blogging again.
If you were successful enough to find this page again you'll notice the URL has now changed to a very fitting http://www.mrbearsshadow.blogspot.com. You'll also find the font has been changed to a lovely Trebuchet.
Status update:
Caffeine level: minimal
Nicotine level: minimal
Lamington level: optimal
Morning Report level: excellent
I've finished my final trimester of uni and am now frantically looking for full-time work, which I'm hoping may be more straight forward now that the status of my degree has gone from "completing" to "graduand" on my CV. It's a long, dark ride if you're an undergrad without hospo experience - too qualified for some working class jobs, not qualified enough for the rungs just above you. I've had so many casual and short lived part time jobs over the past three years I feel like I have an employment tummy ache that usually only follows an overdose of gummy bears.
I've been following politics with a growing disillusionment but no quantity of dispassion. The blog will continue to follow politics and media leading up to the 2011 election, especially concerning the different campaigns for electoral change/maintenance. I'm going to have more time over the next sixth months for personal background reading and research so I hope that extra time will add the blogs quality considerably.
I think that shall be all for now. I will return to Geoff Robinson's attempt at an air of British regal superiority. Until next time, here is a picture of a giant gummy bear.
Ryan and I now have a blog for our VBC Show Word Salad. We already have interviews with two high profile artists up: Neil Gaiman and Dean Wareham. Many more to come I'm sure, as well as other awesome show content.
Although a consistent reader of that emphatic critic Martin "Bomber" Bradbury's blog Tumeke, it is with great surprise and sadness that I read Tim Selwyn'sill-thought through responseto a poston FrogBlog.
The Green party blog attempted an - I admit somewhat silly - argument on how 1.5billion invested into ultra-fast internet would be wasted money. They argue this on the grounds that: 1. There is no need for such fast speeds. 2. Attention should not be taken away from those consumers who only need the very basics of broadband 3. the economic benefits are uncertain and 4. international bandwidth is the bottleneck.
Selwyn utterly discredited himself with his response:
the Greens are proving once again that they are at their core nothing more than modern day 'Flat Earthers' and that they will use any argument at all (even if it is internally incoherent) in order to align everything to their mantra of stasis
Such knee-jerk reactions are usually loathed on Tumeke. But he gets even worse. In response to the Greens claim
We tend to think that more of a good thing is better and that the things which worked well for us in the past will continue to work well in the future. I see ‘ultra fast broadband’ as a small part of that pattern, along with SUVs, iPads (with $30/mo 3G connection!) transmission gully and Airbus A320s. I see blindness about infinite economic growth on a finite planet (with it’s side effects of climate change and peak oil) as part of that too.
Sometimes, more is just not necessary and simply becomes an extra burden to carry
...Selwyn comments...
This is so moronic it is no wonder the four arguments put up to support the proposition were so flawed. Do they deserve to be in parliament? It is one thing to claim that sometimes more of a good thing isn't better - it's just a burden (we may agree this could apply to chocolate, cocaine, fossil fuel devouring engines and so on); but to claim that this applies to the speed of the internet - the flow of communications and the means of displacing wasteful alternatives (eg. having to commute to work) - is possibly the most idiotic thing I have ever heard from a political party.
I do not presume to defend FrogBlog's argument. And in part I agree with Selwyn: the communication of information is now one of the major crutches of the developed world. Business especially hinges their success on their tele-communication abilities.
What I have trouble with is the "moronic" nature of Selwyn's response. He has jumped straight onto the old bandwagon of painting the Green party as out-of-touch lunatics, putting no thought into what the backdrop to their argument is.
It is always difficult to play the prophet, but the Green party correctly understand the trap that is technology - even technology that seems such a blessing. Whether they are correct in their specific suspicion of the pursuit for greater, and faster internet is questionable. But they can see how the world can no longer sustain itself on the amazing technologies that have offered little except short-term consumer satisfaction and greater Co2 levels in the atmosphere. Their place in parliament is to push the reality than we can no longer think of "more, bigger, faster, better" in terms that are parallel or synonymous with prosperity and happiness. We don't know how much of a trap our evolving tele-communications technology can be, just as the early architects of industrialism couldn't see the dangers that lay in the assembly line, or the factory. But - even if they are wrong - the Green party is still trying to look through the darkness, to offer something constructive.
And for that, Tim Selwyn, they deserve more respect. I expect better from Tumeke.
One of my flat mates told me recently of her Big Day Out 2010 experience. The unfortunate scoundrel missed an entire evening of bands to queue to see Muse. She missed the Decemberists, Girl Talk, The Veils and countless others for this reason. An explanation is easy: a peek in her room betrays an entire shelf of Muse paraphernalia gleaming like hidden treasure: photos, signed EPs, B-sides, box sets, DVDs, documentaries, the whole shebang. Such an extensive range of collectors loot is a fine display of what, or who Muse have become.
When I first started listening to them, Muse were still playing the Green Stage, 3pm at Big Day Out. The music was so dense and intense, screaming some sort of manic paranoia which - at the age of seventeen - I felt a part of in some no doubt lame, cliche way. When I saw them in 2007 I witnessed one of the greatest sets of my life thus far, and of course that was the set that exploded them like a rash of teenage acne all over New Zealand. Another year of touring, a live DVD, another LP and by 2009 they're the worlds biggest band.
This is sort of cool, but it seems can contribute to a heartless live set. My poor flat mate missed half the day to see what she calls one of the biggest disappointments of her life. Despite the enormous screens, amazing special effects, and dream like light show, Muse were - when holding them to their own standards - flaccid. I thought while watching them that the spectacle was what so many bands in the past had striven to destroy: glorification of an act so enormous, that with each new fan the band become that much more tiny on stage. Musicians the size of pins, distant, unreachable, and totally without connection to their audience.
My friends and I danced along to some of our pastime favourites: Time is Running Out, Stockholm Syndrome, Starlight, Plug in Baby. But much like their new album The Resistance, the band now seem to be a mess of ideas and identities. To me, at Big Day Out this made them shallow.
It doesn't turn me off them however. It am not repulsed and repelled as I am to the new Kings of Leon records. I can still listen to Muse in moments of guilty pleasure and times when I secretly pop on Absolution to return to my teenage angst. The wonderful things the band have achieved in the past cannot be taken away from them... this applies to any band.
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I'll briefly comment my thoughts on the other acts I saw.
The Decemberists won the award for Most Charming Band of the day. They were simply wonderful. I don't like to enter the "crowd banter: good thing, bad thing?" debate , but on this occasion it was definitely a good thing. Colin Meloy was as lovely as his music. He thanked the audience for being so warm and receptive (one person had even prepared a banner with his face on it, asking for them to tour NZ) strangely admitting that he "wasn't sure anyone was going to turn up". They played a lot off the Crane Wife, a little off Picaresque and Her Majesty, and only 'The Rakes Song' off their latest (and quite sensational) release The Hazards of Love. During the final song, 'Chimbley Sweep', Meloy crouched around the stage going "sshhh ssshh" as the band all down around him. He approached the mic and went "shhh ... they're sleeping" and then proceeded to lure the entire audience down on their knees as well. The music started again, and grew, and climaxed as the crowd jumped to their feet dancing. It was a great set.
Girl Talk was pretty awesome. The only thing I have to say about him is if you want to know what he's like live listen to his albums. Or see the documentary RIP: A remix manifesto (damn good watch).
We watched thousands of hands move in unison to Dizzee, and impersonated Lily Allen from the stands. And I got to see the Mars Volta for the first time, which was long overdue. I have always struggled to get them. Every time I think I've got a grasp they slip out of my clutches. But seeing them live was much like the Horrors experience - I understood the band a little better. Plus yaknow ... they're fucking amazing live.
After Muse we sat in the grass by the Green Stage (a BDO tradition for me after the headliner has played) and listened to Fear Factory and ate some weird flavoured ice shit.
BDO isn't the horrible commercial event it is made out to be. Ok well yeah maybe it is commercial, but that shouldn't discredit the experience. I hope my rambling recollections of the day have shed some light on that fact. It is, in Auckland anyway, a really lovely peaceful day which is about the music as much as it is just about chilling out and enjoying the sun. The lineup may not be amazing every year, but I think every year it is worth the trip north ... if just to get away and listen to some tunes with your friends.
Another Auckland Big Day Out became history last Friday, and I was there.
So much is made of the lineup before a BDO, and almost nothing of the music. The two have an interesting and complex relationship. Reading a lineup can be like scrolling through the artists on an ipod looking for something to listen to, having only your imagination and memory of an artists music to make your choice. I realised on Friday that a lineup means almost nothing at Big Day Out. The day by itself is, dare I say it, sort of magical.
The festival has an undeserved reputation for being common, insensitive and commercial. In reaction to such a reputation, the annual music festival Camp a Low Hum never announces a set list prior to the event, believing that taking the focus away from the bands playing will contribute more to the experience of the music. Perhaps this is true. Maybe forcing your audience to attend on trust and love for music adds extra mana to the experience for some. Whether it does or not, the festival I experienced on Friday had no lack of atmosphere or duende considering the "commercialism" of the event.
As I said, the day was magical, one of the most lovely experiences I've ever had. As a friend said to me at the time "I really freaking love Big Day Out... and I don't know why". Out of context, another friend supplied a possible answer, pointing me to the incredible diversity of people Big Day Out draws. Wellington can be a suffocating clusterfuck of competing social groups and sub-cultures, but at Big Day Out they were all there together, enjoying the sunshine, getting along, having a wonderful time: the jocks, the hipsters, the geeks, the sluts, the indie kids, and the straight up regular kiwi. My personal favourite however is the veteran. We spotted three of these at just behind the D-Barricade during the Mars Volta: clad in leather vests with grey hair and beards reaching down below their shoulders. We commented at the time how much respect we have for these people, what and who they must have seen in their time, and how they're still here, engaging in the same history we were experiencing in 2010.
To me, the reputation of Big Day Out mentioned earlier seemed complete undeserved. It was so much more welcoming and friendly than anything I'd witnessed at Camp A Low Hum.
Now to the bands. The acts I saw again reinforce what I said about the relationship between lineup and music. Seeing "Muse" on a lineup gives no hint of the monstrous sound they produced, and the stunning nighttime light show. "The Decemeberists" does not offer any clue to the wonders their set contained. "The Horrors" does not tell of the brooding Faris, dressed in Hawaiian shirt and leather jacket, leaning maliciously over the audience, his bagged dead eyes fixed on some distant, imaginary truth as he bellows 'I can't control myself'.
These last two bands in particular taught me what it meant to love music. It isn't just the endless playing of an album, or the collection of posters and tshirts. It is the love for who the band are, what they represent, what they think, and how they treat you. In the weeks before the event I re-fell in love with Nick Cave after reading a lecture of his on the Love Song. I saw into his mind, and behind his music. I understood him a little better, and was pulled that much closer to his music.
The Horrors pulled me closer. But not into a hug - they're not huggers. More into a staring contest. Like looking into the eyes of a beast before it devours you. They came onto the stage. They didn't talk. They conformed in black, behind sunglasses and instruments, at home in the sanctuary of the music they have crafted. They were still and confident. Their 'new sound' echoed in their expressions, Rhys Webb rocking back on his bass staring hypnotically into what seemed to be the entire audience. God knows what was going through his head. They opened with two tracks from their stunning new album, 'Mirrors Image' and 'Three Decades'. The rest of the set followed suit, all new material. 'New Ice Age' was frantic and manic. Faris thrashed his arms around, futilely seeking some kind of consolation from his lyrics. He found a dry oasis on 'I Can't Control Myself'. The live version was raw, atmospheric, and slow. It dragged wonderfully. Each gasp of the guitar was a plea for relief and release, Faris begging for some sort of understanding from the audience: 'I dream of lost desires / Fingers running through fur / I drive myself insane/ I can't control myself / I try and I try but I can't control myself'. In contrast, 'Sea within a Sea' and 'I only think of you' were simply gorgeous. They echoed peacefully yet sorrowfully across the field, despite the poor sound of the Converse Stage. And at last, what I'd been waiting half an hour for, they finally played 'Who Can Say'.
Before the gig I'd heard stories of shambolic fifteen minute sets from the Horrors, and Faris throwing black paint onto anyone in the audience who wasn't dancing. But I saw nothing but absolute certainty; a band with collected determination in who they were and what they were doing. It pulled me closer. It was one of the greatest sets I've seen. There were no theatrics. There was nothing that really made it stand out as 'amazing'. But the band themselves, they were so full of menacing potential and energy. It came out in every shriek and chord. I thought of a post I'd made a few months ago on the Handsome Furs, and how they were the future of "indie-rock". I believed, looking at the men infront of me, that surely the Horrors were the same. Their next album will be everything.
Tomorrow is Part Two: The Decemberists, Girl Talk, and headliners.
I find it interesting that the blog for party hack David Farrar's polling companyCuria Research, while showing polling results from other sources,doesn't actually display any results from Curia's polling activity.
I'm wondering whether this is simply because his results get pooled together with other polling companies.
Or is this because his poll results are for the private use of the National party?
