I am the blank page before you, I am the fine idea you crave (London Grammar)

Book 39

The latest Mojo Magazine tells me that Steve Winwood got his first guitar in 1957 and Jamaica's first vinyl pressing plant was established in Kingston in that year as well.

They say it's your birthday, well it's my birthday too yeah!

Yes, something huge happened 59+1 years ago in Auckland Nu Zild. Dulcie Mary Purdy went into labour and produced her first son. I emerged right on tea time on October 1.

Ta daar!!

But enough of that, here's another episode in the Wozza Culture Breakdown y'all. Starting with a gift from my staff at school - the Dr Seuss book was great!!

It's been a while since the last catch up. So, grab a coffee and settle in.

Books: Amazingly, it's week 35 and here are books 35 through 39.

35 - Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood being Eric Burden's autobiography (J Marshall Craig helped him with the words). 

What a (loveable) dick he is! Ripped off and forever chasing non-binding relationships, Eric comes across as a rambling man who never feels like he belongs anywhere for long. Sad in a way.

There's nothing much about his talent on offer in the narrative (whaaat??). Basically, he's a Geordie who can't hold down a steady crew. The only constant being his glorious voice but he's very silent about the effect his voice has on the various bands he's fronted. Curious.

He loves Hendrix, hates Alan Price, loves Chas Chandler, hates Mike Jeffery and every other manager he's (willingly) signed his soul to. Oh, and he loves a long line of bad girls!

I got the book from the Piggery. At the same time, picked up one of Frank Richards' Billy Bunter adventure, Billy Bunter and the Crooked Captain (book 36).

I used to read these voraciously when I was younger. Reading it again is still a treat!

Richards is a master plotter if you know what I mean.

Book 37 This Is Where I Leave You (Jonathan Tropper).

It's been made into a movie and I'll catch it on Netflix at some stage. It reads a little like the Steve Carell movie Dan In Real Life in parts. 
The main character, Judd, is like Michael from Thirtysomething.  

Which means I liked it!

Seth Godin is the man! I get his daily blog (which feels like chips off a bigger block). Some of those blocks of wisdom are compiled into Tribes (book 38).

Netfix series: we are currently battling Grounders, Mountainmen and Reapers on Season 2 of The 100. It's pretty graphic - flesh eating zombies, everything is a threat, violence is a way of life - that sort of thing.

Sport: I've watched a few NFL and Arsenal games. However, in the lead up to the end of the term, that has been a sporadic endeavour. 

I'm part of the Gooner tribe so it's been a roller coaster ride this season thus far. I am also of the Steeler tribe - have yet to watch one of their games though.

Music: With my birthday came a mammoth visit to Real Groovy in Auckland, Being in Queen Street it has also taken in JB HiFi (poor selection there now) and Marbecks Records in the Queen's Arcade.

One of my many purchases was a new copy of West Bruce and Laing's second studio album from 1973 - Whatever Turns You On. My original copy was pressed really badly in NZ and was almost unlistenable.

The latest copy from RG is an American version with a better cover and pristine sound. It's like listening to a new record. Jack Bruce and Leslie West and Corky Laing emerge clear as a bell from the murk of my memory. 

It has only taken me 44 years to find a better version and it only cost me $4.95.

Best birthday present ever!!

Love and peace - Wozza

Everyone of them knew that as time went by they'd get a little bit older and a litter slower (The Beatles)

Photo by Ruth Caron on Unsplash

To paraphrase Paul McCartney, New Zealand, you are tremendous and no one knows like me (sarcasm).

What a joke. What a bunch of dithering turkeys we are.

Thanks to our inability to support either of the main political parties we are left with the smug narcissism of Winston Peters in government for the foreseeable future.

In case you haven't been keeping up in the back, we voted on Saturday and came up with...no result. 

Neither the stodgy Bill English or the probably too youthful Jacinda Ardern could get enough seats for their respective parties to govern alone.

Which leaves the only certainty of NZ First leader Winston Peters in a government. OMG.

What an irony - we northlanders voted him out of his constituent seat! But we're stuck with him.

The only bright spot - his perculating botched old boy allegiance with National (my prediction) will clear the way for some dynamism with Jacinda Ardern getting a clear majority in the next election. 

Coming soon to a theatre near you!

Jerry, I just don't know sometimes...(Marlene)

Jerry meets Beetle (Grace was playing hard to get) while Tango rides shotgun

Roch-dene is slowing filling up with animals. As I knew it would.

At the moment it's a bit of an ark - two horses, two wild turkeys, and two dogs (the six canaries kind of ruin the effect but what the hey).

Tango, Jerry and Wozza's
world famous legs.

Yes, Jerry has arrived. Jerry is a wee pedigree Border Collie puppy and cute as a button. 

In addition, we have Tango lodging with us to help socialise Jerry and for us to look after while William and Jade holiday in Bali.

This last weekend felt like we had a new toddler on the property - door barrier, chewy toys, fencing the back yard and fencing the front yard!

All to no avail because Jerry is also a Harry Houdini who just wanted to be with me or SWMBO.

Let the fun begin!

Love and peace - Wozza

Old friends, memory brushes the same years (Simon and Garfunkel)

Photo by rawpixel.com on Unsplash

Pals, buddies, mates, chums. 

Friendship. That's what this post is about. 

Hooked? Well - lay on, Macduff, and damned be him who first cries 'hold!'

I love Jerry Seinfeld's riff on friendship: 

When you're in your thirties it's very hard to make a new friend. Whatever the group is that you've got now that's who you're going with, you're not interviewing, you're not looking at any new people, you're not interested in seeing any applications.  

As for someone like me in my late fifties (for a few more days people, for a few more days), I largely stopped hiring decades ago.

My whanau list below has a number of people on it who I love but many I never hear from anymore. Yet, I know, for a large number of them, as soon as we reestablish contact...bam. Instant connection.

A connection forged from shared history.

My oldest chums that I pal around with via Facebook and email are few in number but incredibly important to me. Frinstance, GK (a.k.a. Billy Wallace) and I have been mates since 1974.

Recently, he reminded me of a time we collapsed into hilarity over a story in Craccum - Auckland University's student newspaper. 

Collapsing into laughter (with Kevin Simms usually on board as well) was an occupational hazard in those days.

Recently, I was in Real Groovy wading through the vinyl sale bins when three young male hipsters walked in loudly. For the next half hour they laughed their private jokes, kidded each other about certain albums, and engaged in a wide variety of banter. All pretty loud and obnoxious.

I was immediately presented with a picture of how Greg, Kevy and I must have looked as we visited Real Groovy back in the day.

Good times, Billy. Good times.

Love and peace - Wozza

Welcome to Meadsville.

This one rocked me.

It's taking some time to come to terms with.

Colin Meads was super human. Immortal.

Pinetree. 

If Colin Meads can die, then I can too, and that's a sobering thought.

I knew him well. We all did. Like my mother, from the King Country. We grew up watching him. Shared the triumphs. Chests puffed out - nobody can beat the All Blacks!

Images: carrying the ball in one hand, locking the scrum for New Zealand with his brother Stanley, playing a test match with a broken arm. 

From then via farming adverts for hay bale twine, and fence posts, he epitomised the ruggedly brawny, quietly spoken, humble, words-are-cheap-deeds-are-dear New Zealand male we aspired to be.

And now, number 583's gone and gone too is some of our youth and our invincibility.

Remember him this way:

A motorcycle's throat-clearing rumble disturbed the road, drumming against the windows (J G Ballard)

Currently, I'm really enjoying the work of J G Ballard in Millennium People (week 31, book 34).

Front cover's Daily Mail pull quote says it's "seductively compelling". Right on, brother! 

It's nice to read a book without literary pretentions that feels like literature.

Try this bit - 

Sitting forward, he massaged his cheeks, trying to bring colour into the gaunt bones. 'Look at the world around you, David. What do you see? An endless theme park, with everything turned into entertainment. Science, politics, education - they're so many fairground rides. Sadly, people are happy to buy their tickets and climb aboard.'

Love and peace - Wozza

Tell me how do you feel (New Order)

Watching Dunkirk last week drove me back to the original Winston Churchill speech and then, in typical surfing the interweb fashion, on to another movie version. Interesting to compare the two for emotional impact. 

For me, the biopic's visuals and the editing of the speech from the supposed writing to radio delivery is the more powerful, but, you be the judge.






What I really did love about the above scene was the moment Winston's young female secretary, typing the speech, noticed he'd entered another room. Her immediate reaction to follow him with a notepad said so much. No eye roll or sign of annoyance. Just obedience to the speech. 

Absorbed in the moment, masterful in thought, Winston's wandering was also a great character moment. 

My literary goal continues into the start of week 31 with the latest books: #33 - Notes on a Scandal (Zoë Heller) - a doozy story with a twisted narrator; and I've just started number 34 Millennium People (J G Ballard). 

Love and peace - Wozza