No, you can't stop the music, nobody can stop the music. Tell the sun don't shine, stop Old Father Time 'cause that's easier to do (Village People)

Wie geht's?

It's the last week of Term 3 - the winter term in New Zealand.

The week, our second with new brother and sister duo Roland and Stevie pictured above, got off to a flyer yesterday with Arsenal beating North London neighbours Tottenham Hotspur 3 goals to 1. After a dire start to the season this win was a real tonic.

Aside from that the records I ordered some weeks ago from Auckland stores during the level 4 lockdown have finally arrived!!

And, in other news: I've pre-ordered my copy of The Beatles Let It Be - 5oth anniversary deluxe 5 record boxed set. It's due out around October 15th so I have a few weeks to wait impatiently.

I'm really really looking forward to this and Peter Jackson's six hour Get Back documentary later in November.

Aside from that - we now have three days left before we head off for a two week break - hoping to get to New Plymouth to visit Vinyl Countdown and...something else...what is it? Oh yes, and the in-laws!!

Love and peace - Wozza

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare

Wie geht's?

News and communication is pretty instantaneous these days.

I went for a walk around the adjacent sports park at lunchtime yesterday (it's a frequent thing on nice weather days and a great way to clear the head), came back and went to the staff room for lunch where they were talking about a big earthquake in Melbourne; sent a quick message to Adam on the family chat and got an instant reply that he and his wife were shaken up but otherwise fine.

Great feeling knowing that instantly. Otherwise Jacky and I would have worried until we heard some reassuring news.

I'm very thankful for that aspect of the phone and modern technology.

It also allows me to keep in touch with friends like Noel Forth.

My recent Goo Goo G'Joob blog post reminded me of a time when I was about 18 (still a schoolboy) and Noel asked me to pick up a record for him (he still lives in Adelaide): The Radha Krsna Temple London album on Apple Records (pictured above).

He gave me an address in Ponsonby and I drove there after school on a Friday afternoon. It was a fairly grungy student flat, bottom floor of an old house - this is around 1976 so Ponsonby was still a run down part of central Auckland at that time.

A bearded young guy wearing sandals, I presumed a drug crazed University student, answered the door, invited me in and went to a pile of records stacked in an old beer crate. I grabbed the record, and beat a quick retreat before he and his drug crazed friends abducted me, shaved my head, and forced me to smoke some illicit substance or pop a pill that would alter my consciousness for ever (I'd read about this sort of thing and Paul McCartney had indicated his reticence for drug taking in that he might end up in a state that he couldn't return from). Oh my!

I have an active imagination!

I guess that's why I remember this isolated incident from the late seventies so vividly.

I asked Noel for details around how he knew the record was there and he couldn't remember anything about it at all!! Laugh out loud!

Love and peace - Wozza

Come dance all around the world (Blerta)

B side to Get It On - T Rex. I bought this 50 years ago!

Wie geht's?

Seriously. How are you?

Lockdowns in Auckland, Melbourne, the UK and elsewhere have affected our mental health.

Last year, very early on in the global pandemic, the University of Michigan conducted a survey during which researchers asked the participants to choose three words that best described their attitudes towards the pandemic. “Anxious,” “nervous,” “scared,” “stressed,” and “uncertain” were those that came up most often.

The same survey found that 38% of people were feeling tired or lacked energy, 36% were having sleep disturbances, and 25% were feeling down, depressed, or hopeless. Around 24% also reported having difficulty concentrating, 43% felt nervous, anxious, or on edge, 36% reported not being able to stop worrying, and 35% said that they were finding it hard to relax.

A year on, according to the article I read on the Medical News Today site:

Scientists are starting to see a global “surge” in depression. According to a December 2020 survey by the U.S. Census Bureau, 42% of people in the country reported symptoms of anxiety or depression that month. This was a huge increase from the 11% they recorded in 2019.

Another study that MNT reported on found that cases of depression in the U.S. had tripled over the course of the pandemic.

The picture looks similar worldwide. One recently published Nature article notes an increase of 9%  in depression rates in June 2020, compared with pre-pandemic times, among U.K. adults.

Another study that looked at residents in the U.S., U.K., Australia, and Canada found a 14% increase in anxiety as a result of the pandemic.

If I was to survey my work colleagues, friends and family I'm sure that I'd find roughly the same findings amongst them too. 

So, what to do to counter these feelings of anxiety, stress, depression, lack of concentration, lack of energy, difficulty sleeping, and unhealthy eating habits?

Ahem. 

I'm pretty sure I did a similar post to this last year during our first round of severe Level 4 lockdown. A case of deja vu all over again, and I'd be interested to see if the advice that follows is the same. Kinda, sorta think it will be. But hey ho!

Here goes, and remember this is just stuff that works for me - I'm sure many readers will have their own coping strategies:

Laughter. Two of my best mates while away zoom breaks by engaging in a flow of dad jokes. 

Top three recently:

The worst time to have a heart attack is during a game of charades.

I put up a massive net in my garden to try and catch the Grim Reaper. The council has told me to take it down. Apparently it's a death trap.

I just swallowed a feather..and now I'm feeling a little down in the mouth.

Music. It's the best mood altering ethereal thing I've ever found (it almost feels like a substantial thing I can touch taste etc). I'm currently listening to The Marshall Tucker Band's Greatest Hits album while I type this. Pure joy! For me, that is. If Kamal, Slayer, Abba, Barry Manilow, or Lorde are your thing - chuck it on! No judgements!

Sidebar - I've been collecting records for roughly 50 years. It's an itch that I need to scratch. I do it because A) I love the music and appreciate the beauty and creativity that has gone into its creation; B) I'm have a slightly obsessive side to my personality; C) I have an emotional connection to a band or piece of music; D) I am nostalgic for my youth; E) there is some prestige attached to owning a piece of history that is hard to find;  F) It relaxes me. 

Exercise. Whatever and however you can - get away from that screen from time to time and walk outside and breathe. WHO recommends 150 minutes of moderate-intensity or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity physical activity per week, or a combination of both. But do what you can. 

Hobbies. We all have something we are passionate about, or highly skilled at, or would like to find out more about. For Jacky it's horses specifically but she's an animal magnet; for my brother it's highly skilled engineering of models; for Adam it's making music; for Keegan it's photography; for Samantha it's drawing; for Jade it's baking, walking and gardening (she's an old soul); for a work colleague it's arts and crafts of stunning beauty. Maybe for you it's collecting spoons, or drawing and painting, or stamp collecting. Don't care. If you find it therapeutic forget about the cynics, doubters, and haters. Just do it!

Good luck. Stay safe. Be kind (assume that your workmates are doing the best they can!) 

And get vaccinated (it's the only alternative to lockdowns).

Love and peace - Dr Wozza (no charge for this session btw).

 

 

We had no idea that it couldn't be done (Tim Finn)

Wie geht's?

Having just returned from a shopping expedition north with the lovely Mrs Purdy, I have to say that mask compliance is looking pretty good in the Central Hawke's Bay/Havelock North/Napier areas.

Not only that, people seem happy to it.

Made me feel good, actually.

I had to wait a spell for Jacky, so I finished off the latest Mojo Magazine.

While reading it, I came across this great quote from that diamond Primal Scream geezer, Bobby Gillespie:

It's so easy to get angry over the way a dishwasher is loaded, while outside there's a full moon. Life is such a beautiful thing, and it's so easy to lose sight of that.

He's right isn't he! Keep safe. Keep wearing your mask.

Love and peace - Wozza

P.S. What did we buy? Shock horror probe: JFP - cushions. Me - CDs, books, a record.

I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work (Thomas Edison)

Wie geht's?

Some random thoughts as I've transitioned from working from home to working back on site at my campus:

Boy, I can relate to Mr Edison.

Sometimes teaching feels like that - a continual process of trial and error, and the same feeling that it's not working, so let's try this and the vague feeling that it could always be better.

Same with most things, I guess.

Musicians must feel like this too. I often read articles featuring musicians who are never satisfied with their product - who want to redo it endlessly to get to some mystical place that exits only in their head.

My students must feel that too - Mr Purdy is never satisfied with my work - he's always looking for me to improve it.

Okay - so all humans then.

I guess animals never feel this. Tango, Jerry and Rey appear to be very happy with their lot: love and attention; some grub at regular intervals, and a run around. Every day - the same thing. No thirsting for an improvement. Oh sure, Jerry is never satisfied with the amount of time he gets to chase a stick or a bubber ball, but that's not really the same thing, right?

Jacky and I have finished watching the third season of Wanted.

It ended at exactly the right time (I hope they don't mess around with it and make season 4 - t'would be a big mistake).

We've moved on to watch a documentary series on the 9/11 terrorist attacks in America.

It's been 20 years since that day. Twenty Years!

As we watch again those scenes, the whole thing still seems wildly unbelievable. 

I stood open mouthed in our Alpha St., living room, watching as this happened live on SkyNews.

Unbelievable.

Twenty years later it's a series of documentaries on TV. And my students in Year 10 research it to write a formal report.

As Jacky and I watched we couldn't help reflect on the example of the meddling in Afghanistan; from the Soviet invasion to the recent withdrawal of American troops, we're still adding to Edison's tally of ways that won't work.

Love and peace - WNP

I can give you the present, I don't know 'bout the future - that's all stuff and nonsense (Split Enz)

Wie geht's?

Those of you who aren't that predisposed to my rantings and ravings on topics related to music can look away now.

Come on! You know who you are!

Okay. For the rest of you who want to stick around: this one is going to be inspired by my thoughts while reading Mike Chunn's latest memoir - A Sharp Left Turn.

Let's get the Wozza review over with quickly - although he still has an idiosyncratic floral writing style at times, this is a much more rewarding read than Stranger Than Fiction - his previous attempt to chronicle his life with the Enz. 

Interested in life in Auckland in the second half of last century? Or NZ music? Or delving into the troubling world of panic attacks and agoraphobia? Or a Split Enz fan? Or a Citizen Band fan? Go buy a copy!

As I was reading it I had no trouble identifying with Mike Chunn. Like him - I grew up in 1960's Auckland, went to a traditional boys school in the seventies, then Auckland University, and I've experienced some debilitating panic attacks through my life.

Unlike him, I'm a couple of years younger, I was a day boy, I did an arts degree, I can't play any musical instrument, and my panic attacks weren't frequent enough for me to seek medicinal assistance.

While reading, it turns out that our lives also intersected in the audience at some seminal gigs during those Enz/CB years.

We were both at the After Hours/ Waves gig at the Maidment Arts Theatre (Auckland University), watching Geoffrey Chunn and Neil Finn play in After Hours before Waves performed. I was there with my mate - Greg Knowles.

Greg and I also went to the Auckland Town Hall on May 25th to see the Enz on their 1979 Give It A Whirl tour (ex Enzer Phil Judd's next band - The Swingers were the support and I remember complaining to Greg that they were too damn loud), then we were all at His Majesty's Theatre for a sublime Enz gig.

I watched the Enz and CB perform at Nambassa (truth to tell I remember watching the Enz but was too knackered to fully focus on the Citizen Band who followed them).

Finally, Greg, Kevin Simms and I watched the slicker Enz at the Logan Campbell Centre (I remember us discussing what song they'd start with as we waited).

While reading I dug out my Enz and CB recordings (including a bootleg concert CB Live at Mandrill Studios) and enjoyed reliving some amazing musical memories.

Thanks for that Mike. 

Love and peace - Wozza