Up to my neck in you (Mark Kozelek)

Keegan surprised me with a lovely gift recently - a Vandelay Industries T shirt.

On quite a few levels - that is so cool! That someone somewhere decided to actually make one and that Keegan would know about it somehow and that he would get one for me. All very cool!



Love and Peace - Bob Sacamano

Do ya feel lucky punk? (Dirty Harry)

Chalk and cheese. The earliest citation of the phrase is in John Gower's Middle English text Confessio Amantis, 1390:

Lo, how they feignen chalk for chese

It's a phrase used to indicate the differences between things.

Unbroken and American Sniper are two movies SWMBO, Jade (visiting for a few days) and I watched over the last few nights: both American made movies about the effects of war on people (in Unbroken - set during WW2 - just on men) and the motivation on men to do what they do (in post 9/11 American Sniper - multifaceted and complex).

Angelina Jolie and Clint Eastwood - chalk and cheese.

Jolie goes for the BIG MESSAGE (um - the title gives it away) while Clint's a much more nuanced series of messages.




There is a ring of authenticity around Clint's movie (and his other movies) that other directors struggle to have. American Sniper feels gritty, real. Steven Spielberg is a great director but he couldn't have pulled off American Sniper (like Clint couldn't do ET). Man's gotta know his limitations.

I bought Unbroken for potential use with my Year 11 class (ditched that idea after seeing it), but American Sniper I bought for us to watch.

Can't say I actually enjoyed either one and pretty sure I never need to watch Unbroken ever again. 

American Sniper will join Zero Dark Thirty, The Hurt Locker and Apocalypse Now in the Wozza DVD library under 'War'.

Love and peace - Wozza

Who calls the English teacher daddio? (The Coasters)

With all my worldly possessions from Abbey Road Two in boxes I went to grab some fresh DVDs/ CDs from The Warehouse and what a disappointment.

I'm always optimistic that I'll find something cool to buy but I couldn't find any new issues in either category that excited me enough to lay down the cash.

My focus then shifted to finding a suitable new film for my Year 11 class to watch for a film study (you'll remember my criteria I'm sure re nudity, sex, language, drug references, worthiness of characterisation and theme). This has become a bit of a hardy perennial.

I ended up buying Imitation Game for a senior class, Unbroken and Jupiter Ascending potentially for my Year 11s based on the blurb and the M rating. Channing Tatum is a big hit with the girls usually.

Got back to school, checked Common Sense media for their thoughts and deflategate settled in: luke warm reviews for Angelina Jolie's Unbroken and they reckon Jupiter is 'laughably bad but slick looking'. They also pointed out some nudity which wasn't indicated on the box. Shucks - I may have to stick with Save The Last Dance again.

Back on point though - what a lousy selection of product out there at the moment. I guess there are always peaks and troughs in quality and we are firmly in a trough in 2015 baby.

The CD market appears to be in a coma on life support. Very sad.

Love and peace - Wozza

There are some things you can't cover up with lipstick and powder (Dave Edmunds)

Downsizing. I like it!

As a concept, you don't hear about it much these days. Generally everything has to be bigger. McDonalds don't ever ask me if I'd like less coke and fries with that.

SWMBO and I have completed our 'less is more' themed downsizing move to a smaller lifestyle block (we've named our new place 'Rochdene'); still within the Central Hawke's Bay area.

• We had 13 acres of hilly land, we now have 9 acres of flat paddocks.
• We had three water tanks, now none (town water supply means no more nagging Jade to 'get out of the shower!!' when she visits)
• We had a huge stable block that could have held four horses comfortably with a tack room, now - a very small stable for one plus a tack room.
• I had a massive ART room, now I have a more modest one.
• We had a large three bedroom house, now it's a cosy three bed.
• Two toilets, one.
• A three bay storage, two bay.

...you get the idea. 

I like that we have had to pare down, throw away unnecessary junk, and generally scale back. We needed to do this, for many reasons.

Downsizing is the bomb.

Love and peace - Wozza

Love it seems I just can't find (Status Quo)

Introducing the twins: Jean and Judy!

Yes - we have had twins.

In a shock move: SWMBO and I find ourselves doing 4 hourly feds throughout the day and night. Yes - NIGHT.

This has come as a bit of an affront to the system. I thought those days had gone forever after Jade started sleeping through the night about...oee...22 years ago. But - no. No, I was wrong.

The back story?

One of our ewe's - we suspect the one who had triplets last year and then abandoned them all - has done it again. This time twins.

You know the drill - worst possible conditions: freezing weather changing to rain and she delivered two girls. By the time I got to them one (Judy) was on her last legs curled up under a tree. The other one was more nosy and demanding (Jean).

We tried all sorts of things but the stoopid mother abandoned the wee mites - with a full one head butt to Judy that dazed and confused her as a parting gift.

So - SWMBO and I have had to step in. The twins now recognise us as mum and dad!

They are super cute which is just as well as we trudge down to Hababi stables at 2am!

Of course, we are also in the middle of moving house this week but what can you do? We can't abandon them as the stoopid mother did, can we?

Oh - and the names? Jean comes from Fringe (the name of the cow!) and Judy is for George Martin's other half - the lovely Judy Lockhart Smith.

Love and peace - Wozza

P.S. Yes - you're right - there are three lambs in that photo: Judy and Jean have a step brother as of yesterday - Lazurus (in the foreground) was one of triplets but pretty much dead. Miracle Max (a.k.a. SWMBO) and I got him back to the land of the living somehow.

I still see your bright eyes (Fleetwood Mac)

This one's sending out some prayers to the big guy for Andrew Strawbridge. 

Straws and I were at Cambridge High School together a few years back. I was DP and my first day delivering morning briefing to the staff was met at the end by Straws asking me, with a cheeky grin, to tell a joke!!

A lovely, funny guy and a great teacher - everybody loved him at CHS.

I hope he's okay - the latest  news on his condition sounds hopeful - at least he's back in the Waikato.

Get well soon Andrew! The world needs that spirit and that sense of humour.

Love and peace - Wozza

I find it kinda funny, I find it kinda sad (Tears For Fears)

After packing the vinyl, before the CDs

Wahey - 6.05 am! My first sleep in of the holidays.

It always takes me a couple of days to detox the teacher in me; for my body clock to start resetting a little later each morning. 

So, YES, it's the second term holidays and you find me dismantling Abbey Road Two (a.k.a. the A.R.T. room).

As I mentioned, we're on the move and I'm preparing to get my stuff into Abbey Road Three (a.k.a. the A.R.T. room) at Rochdene.

A few thoughts struck me as I started taking down the Beatle posters, peeling off the blue tack, loading my vinyl into boxes, and generally creating mess: 

• Man - I have a lot of stuff; 
• Man - I love my stuff; 
• I should play that album - now; 
• I need to read that next; 
• I hope this all fits in ART(hree) [a smaller version of ART(wo)]; 
• How the hell am I going to cope with all my music in boxes for a few weeks? Yes Wozza - there is the ipod and it can go through the stereo...still...

ART in disarray

My overriding thought: I really am still a-wide-eyed-naive-teenager-collecting-things-I'm-passionate-about at heart.

I hope I always will be!

Love and peace - Wozza

Pack up your fork and spoon (Carole Bayer Sager)

I like shedding a skin.

I mean, I like the idea of shedding a skin - throwing old clutter away, being mindful of what's important to keep, and packing that up to move to a new location.

SWMBO and I do it reasonably often.

It'll soon be goodbye to the 13 acres of 'Red Phoenix Farm' in Otane and hello to the 8 acres of 'Rochdene' in Waipukarau. Ten minutes further south in effect.

This means a week to pack your toys away, your 45s away, your alibis away, your Spanish flies away, your one-more-tries away, your old tie-dyes away.

SWMBO has been in full swing while I've been living the death throes of an end of a school term. 

Ends of terms are always like that - the walking dead; the sick and the lame; school shows to sit through; goodbyes farewells and hearty well done everybody's get us done and dusted - now it's just see ya soons and we're outta there.

So - lettuce raise a glass to the packing and the moving and the unpacking of the next two weeks! To the shedding of skin!!

Love and peace - Wooza (in a fit of lethagy)