Update 27

Greetings everyone/Kia ora tatou - highlights this week for those of you who read the first paragraph only - 1) Christine rang from England - yeh Christine - I love you and I love hearing your voice!!; 2) the Football started - yeh football - Rochdale off to a winning start (a draw and a win actually) and the Arsenal kicked off their new campaign with a win against West Brom. Unconvincing but a win nonetheless. 3) The All Blacks smashed the 'boks 19 nil - wow!! 4) kiwis won two gold medals at the olympics 5) I've been listening to some great music this week - I found a fantastic compilation of kiwi music 1970 to 1975 and the memories came flooding back and 6) spring is sprung (kinda).

First up - here's a picture of me getting my hair cut at Headquarters (in New Plymouth) by Jenna. Jenna has the huge honour of being trusted with the dynasty's hair, so that's not only me but Jacky, Jade, Samantha, and Michelle.

This comes to you courtesy of bluetooth technology and Jenna's insistence that I put her on my blog. Job done!

This week generally has been another hectic one - night meetings do me in, especially three in a week - cream crackered, Jacky had to have a cortisone injection in her shoulder (youch!), two more lambs were born, both rams - Jade did a great job saving one of them from the elements - yes it's been raining heavily still, and all the usual school discipline and management stuff including teaching my class - I have a Year 11 Unit Standard English class - not the most able English students but great fun and keen - only three girls which is s.o.p. Currently they are finishing off a unit on practical texts - recipes, newspaper stories etc. During the week I also signed up to Facebook - much to the amusement of the kids, well Keegan, Adam and Jade - Samantha lost her phone and therefore we had no contact with her for the week but she'll be amused no doubt. I'm not sure why they thought it was hilarious I had a Facebook site (link is opposite). It all started with getting Leda's photo which I found on her Facebook, then I was trying to establish contact with Noel Forth - a guy I'd written to and swapped Beatle records with many years ago way before Keegan arrived I think. When I googled Noel I got his Facebook and then had to join up to send him a message. Then the thing snowballed and a lot of former students and friends joined me. I rather naively didn't think these sites had a cool quotient but looks like they do and the younger set don't tend to use Facebook - wow! Txts Bebo and MSN are their networks. I did read in the Guardian (so it must be true) that Facebook is the fastest growing social network site or something like that. So anyway..

My two cents worth on the olympics - one world, one dream, one great viewing experience and a great time to be proudly Chinese (my version of Kennedy's 'I am a Berliner'). I'm not one for watching the opening ceremonies of events so I only caught bits of it - hugely impressive it was though - Jacky watched it all and was amazed and then indignant when she learned of the fudging of fireworks and the little girl who sang except she didn't. I'm not bothered actually - the whole event was put together by Zhang Yimou - the director of one of my favourite films 'House of Flying Daggers' so I wasn't expecting reality - it's the opening ceremony after all. The best comment I saw was in the (surprise surprise) Guardian:

The pyrotechnics were followed by a parade of athletes as all 204 nations waved their way around the stadium. Finally Chinese gymnast Li Ning was hoisted on to the roof to light an Olympic torch. At the closing ceremony the torch will be handed to London mayor Boris Johnson, who is perhaps even now ripping up plans for the morris dancing parade and thinking maybe he should buy some more balloons.

Personally I can't wait for 2012 and London. Bring it on!!

It was great to visit the Warehouse (chain of NZ department stores) and get that CD -called 'Under The Southern Moonlight - The kiwi rock scene 1970-1975'(UTSM). Boy oh boy - I didn't quite realise how strong each song was in terms of attached memory. It's the music of our youth that always has the greatest hold - for John Lennon no one ever bettered 'Whole Lotta Shaking Going On'. 1971 to 1976 are my secondary school years (yes - 6 of 'em thanks to a failed year at School C 1973) and you'll see on my whanau map that this post goes to some old school mates - all of whom love music and humour - why we gravitated towards each other in the first place. The aforementioned Noel is the same and if he was slightly younger and had been at Mount Albert Grammar with us (Greg, Pete, Mike) instead of our opposition (Auckland Grammar) we would've been mates a bit earlier. Roger Marbeck ditto. Rog is our age but not a grammar boy even tho his dad is a MAGS old boy. So for many of us 50somethings then it's the early 70's that resonates.


Actually I have Noel to thank for meeting Rog in the first place. Noel used to send me Aussie currency to buy Apple stuff for him from Marbecks which used to be the greatest music store in the universe and that lead to me meeting and working with Rog. To update Noel - Rog and Murray sold last year. Anyway...I digress (again)...

Here are some random memories derived from some key tracks on UTSM - Where to start? Okay Blerta's 'Dance all around the world'
;

- the NZ Loxene Golden Disc awards were a televised event that were subsequently put on record and 1971/1972 were stellar years. It was the pop idol of its day and along with 'New Faces' was the only avenue for new groups/singers/whathaveyou

( Space Waltz 'Out on the street; Split Ends '129' ) to be on TV so it was all we knew. I loved the eclectism of the shows and the records - Suzanne, the Rumour, Chapta, Lutha, the mighty Quincy Conserve etc etc were my first accessible musical moments really. I didn't know about Chicago or Blood Sweat and Tears when I listened to Quincy Conserve's brass heavy rock. I just knew they were great! The fact that others were New Zealanders from Ponsonby (Dragon) or were playing at our school ball (Th'Dudes) or were playing at the school during lunch (Tole Puddle) or were playing at the University (After Hours/Waves) made these sounds more meaningful/accessible during the 70s for us. Hearing the Blerta song again (I bought it on 45rpm at the time but haven't played it for years)instantly brought back memories of watching those shows.

My other memory of Split Ends, later to become Enz, was Mike Budd giving me a copy of the single when we lived in Asquith Ave (where Pete lived too) in Mount Albert. He was working at the Heards sweet factory where members of the Enz were also working and they gave him some copies for his mates.




Space Farm on this compilation as well. I remember taking this album round to Greg's place for him to listen to - maybe I even swapped it for some Apple singles Greg? BTW - Greg and his brother Michael and I went to lots of shows at places like His Majesties Theatre and heard heaps of NZ bands - the Enz, Citizen Band, Hello Sailor, Streettalk etc. Great gigs!



Headband are also there on UTSM - two quick memories - Led Zep raving about the album when they toured (1972?) and dad playing the track 'The Laws Must Change' incredibly loud to test some stereo equipment in the underhouse garade at 18 Korma Ave, Royal Oak, Auckland. Enuf - and I haven't even mentioned the two best tracks on UTSM - Tramline's ' Villards Song' and Murry Grindlay's Nova's Song'. Excellent excellent stuff.




Nature watch: This week's daffodil photos show that spring is slow in coming - still firmly wrapped up.



I took the photos of some buds and flowers in the garden and Bazil and Finn have finally been able to get out and about in between the showers this weekend. Saturday my boys football lost 3 - 1. I ref'd and in the first half we had hail and sleet! My face hurt.






See you next week - have a good one!!

Love and peace - W

Update 26

Hey everyone – a bit of a departure this post as I reflect on other people’s blogs in a rambling Robert Fulghum kind of way (link opposite is worth checking on Fulghum – one of my favourite writers, that's him on the left). Rambling because I want to try to work out/reflect on a few things for myself and it often takes a little time. This reflection was prompted by an off-the-cuff email comment I made to Leda (that's her on the right - helpful aren't I?) – when she sent me two of her friends blogs for me to have a look at. My comment back was that I couldn’t hear their voices, and I didn’t know them as people so it had a limited impact/appeal to me. But I’ve been reflecting on this, especially after I was shocked to see some red dots appearing on my clustr map from California and Europe! Hmmm…maybe my judgement to Leda was too hasty. Who I wonder would be interested in my blog who didn’t actually know me? Did they hear my voice? Did it matter if they didn’t? Does knowing or not knowing an artist (and hearing their voice) make me appreciate their art any differently? Not that I'm an artist yunnerstand. And what about these connections to other random people? Questions questions connections connections.

Okay – this is going to get a bit bumpy – feel free to forget reading the following rant and jump to Nature Watch and the pictures, I won’t be offended (Jacky and dad’ll hate this stuff). And there is poetry ahead!!!

Right – so if you’re still with me, hey ho – let’s go. The above series of thoughts/questions have been a bit of an old conundrum for me. I remember writing about these very things in an old journal I kept at university during the late 70’s, early 80’s. Those self-indulgent varsity years are making a comeback for me (and others). Anyone (me included) can start a blog now, post their thoughts in a self-indulgent way and…people read them (or not)!! Amazing.

But I digress…I used to think it (knowing or not knowing an artist) did to an extent make me appreciate their art differently, but now I’m not so sure. Many years ago I thought that if I could know more about the person behind the writing I could appreciate/understand it on deeper levels. This is the impulse that has fuelled the celebrity craze since Frank Sinatra made the girls go crazy. These days with the net, sky TV, celebrity crazy tabloids et al we can find out any and all details on any body in a second. But did me buying the Lennon outtake boxset add anything to my appreciation of his released songs?? Did it eck as like. And it's not just celebs - it's all of us. How did I get that picture of Leda? Easy - google led me to her facebook and the rest is a right click/save/cutnpaste. Less is more!

Let me expand on a frinstance – William Wordsworth’s poetry (yes that's a famous rendition of the great man). I used to think (when I was an English student at Auckland University) that if I could understand his background, and his philosophies I’d appreciate it more. After all he wrote the huge autobiographical poem ‘The Prelude’ to know and explain himself and his autobiography is where my teachers started. However when I taught the poem to an A level class in England they had no real desire to know Wordsworth. They wanted to understand the poem and pass their exams but they didn’t care about the person or his voice. Now I think that reading The Prelude doesn’t actually help me with appreciating Wordsworth. Actually that’s not quite right – I love parts of the Prelude and they’ve stayed with me, especially the boyhood/growing up sections in the Lake District but it’s the initial magic connection that is the key. For Wordsworth it was listening to the words as my lecturer (at varsity) read them to the class. Suddenly I got it – I could see the scenes and I could hear a voice behind the words and I could connect.

It was the first time I saw John Lennon with The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show that was the trigger to everything else in music and a life long love affair with Lennon/Beatles. By the wonder of modern technology - here it is for you:



Everything I’ve since learned about him (and believe me I’ve read a lot!!) has not changed that key moment.

I did some writing about it in 1996 – and wadderya know - here that is too:

Warren Ono Purdy

can’t help it
my eyes are drawn towards you
every time

those legs – slightly apart
and the guitar
seems to sit uncomfortably high

the knees bend and pound

out the rhythm Johnny
snake oil
the real deal

even when paul and george
are in the shot
I look only at you

and sense myself
being pulled into the celluloid

the myopic stare
fringe down low and cocky but still
not very confident public face
of the icon
you have become

much much more than rhythm guitar
you are it
all silver and flesh
in the suit

tall and placed slightly apart
from the fab three
you had a mike to yourself
and you controlled my life
from that first 1964 meeting
on the ed sullivan shew

me on the floor with my mouth
wide open and my young knees
tucked up
like I sat and watched you last night
with the same awe and power
to capture all my senses

but it wasn’t so much the music as it
was the sight of you
and the stance you took

that sent me on this spiral which is now
getting on a bit

my children now watch you and ask me questions

not about you but more about my obsessions

you love him don’t you dad

Yeah Yeah Yeah

(1996)

Just one of those random moments in life that turned into an epiphany. Why was I watching Ed Sullivan on a Sunday in 1964 age 7? Why is it that that one moment is seared into my conciousness? I can name for you how I was sitting, where the TV was, what the room looked like etc etc etc and it was 43 years ago!!!

So back to Wordsworth. Isn’t this exactly the same for him – isn’t the Prelude (and other poems), and especially Tintern Abbey, him writing about things that are seared into his conciousness. So it’s the experiences and preoccupations that make his poetry so vivid for me. And it’s his ability to recreate the vision and the epiphany that connect somehow with me.

Actually going to Tintern Abbey and the Wye Valley (pictured) or walking across Westminster bridge is what helped me reconnect with the poems on a whole new level, just as going to Abbey Road or
251 Menlove Avenue in Liverpool (Lennon's boyhood home)with Christine and Fran reconnected me.

I didn’t really truly hear Wordsworth’s voice until I stood in the silence of Tintern Abbey and the Wye Valley's beauty. The solitude is tangible even when you're surrounded by tourists. Then I reread the poem and this shared experience deepened my earlier connection.


Here's some lines from 'Lines...Tintern Abbey' to get you in the mood:

These beauteous forms,
Through a long absence, have not been to me
As is a landscape to a blind man's eye;
But oft, in lonely rooms, and 'mid the din
Of towns and cities, I have owed to them,
In hours of weariness, sensations sweet,
Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart;
And passing even into my purer mind,
With tranquil restoration: -feelings too
Of unremembered pleasure; such, perhaps,
As have no slight or trivial influence
On that best portion of a good man's life,
His little, nameless, unremembered, acts
Of kindness and of love.

The experience was now something I could/can really relate to (and reflect upon here some 18 months later sitting here on a sunny Saturday morning in Stratford, New Zealand - don't worry it rained later in the day). Here's a bit of Tintern Abbey for you (I've scoured youtube for this - there are some truely terrible amateur videos on there spoiled by noise or garish overlaid titles - this one is short and relatively noisefree and miraculously the power of the place shines):



So - back to the blogs of Leda's friends - it is this then - I lack the intimate connection that Leda has with them, I lack the knowledge, experience, or sharing the preoccupations of Leda’s friends that is a barrier for me when I see their blogs. The point of my blog is that it really is Wozza's place - you all know me in some form or other so you can hear me, see me, feel me (um...yeah..apart from those in America/Europe - still not sure about that). Make better sense?

The other prompt for this series of thoughts was a random decision I made a while back – to click the ‘next blog’ sign at the top of this page. I found myself in a strange land - looking through a seemingly (? I don’t know if they’re arranged in any kind of order or how they get there but they change regularly) random sampling of other people’s blogs (maybe that’s how mine was accessed or it was some random action or maybe by mistake?). I actually found this quite fun, way more fun that doing a search on blogger (I tried a search, typed in Beatles just to see what I would find but sadly I didn’t enjoy any of the blogs that the search revealed - that connection thing again). If you get some time try it (the ‘next blog’ click) – there are artists, blogs in different nationalities, blogs on all sorts of topics and in all sorts of styles with surprisingly few nutters present (the layouts too are fantastic – great to see what other people do and paradoxically - I don’t know any of them). The zinger here though was that I didn’t need to know the person to enjoy the blog. None of the ones I came across that were in English were personal to the degree mine is. My tagline above is – ‘a personal blog for family and friends’. Generally these taglines on Blogs are a true indication of theme/content.

Okay so what’s all the point of this? Well this random bumping into people (the internet’s version of body spam) reminded me of Walt Whitman’s poem that I used as inspiration for one of my own poems (called ‘divinist aromas’) many years ago. He (that's him on the left btw) is concerned with all of the people who’ve come before him, all the generations who’ll come after him and how he connects with all of those around him. He was ahead of his time!

The Walt Whitman poem was found in a random way when I picked up my copy of ‘Leaves of Grass’ and opened it at random for some inspiration (I’m big on random). Here’s a bit of what I found, if you want the whole thing go to the link (poetry search):

Crossing Brooklyn Ferry
by Walt Whitman
1

Flood-tide below me! I watch you face to face;
Clouds of the west! sun there half an hour high! I see you also face to face.

Crowds of men and women attired in the usual costumes! how curious you
are to me!
On the ferry-boats, the hundreds and hundreds that cross, returning home,
are more curious to me than you suppose;
And you that shall cross from shore to shore years hence, are more to me,
and more in my meditations, than you might suppose.

The video is on the cheesy side but has it's own charm and includes some of the next section of the poem.



I wrote a poem in 1991 which still seems relevant for me. It contains my thoughts about sending off letters (now posts via the blog) and the person/people (you) who read them. If you’ve stuck with me till now (in more ways than one) you may like to answer my question contained in the poem. Here tis:

From Me To You

I’ve been writing more letters to you.
Sending out little packages of myself
into the unknown.
Little abandoned love birds, with wings –
thrown out of the nest.

I’m waiting for replies.
I’ve postponed reality for a few more days
and I’ll live in the moment
of expectation and fantasy.
How do you feel about this –
this long distance dialogue
between the selves?

Camels in the desert go for days
without drinking.
To me, your letters are water,
my own elixir of life.
I can’t get enough
and I hate having to wait
for my dose of you. (1991)

Just before I get you back on track - Jade just asked me what I was doing. I told her I was sharing some poetry in my new post and so she asked me to include ‘her’ poem. ‘Her’ poem is one I wrote about her when she was two-ish and it’s pretty self-explanatory.
The picture shows that she has always been cute! It was taken by Jeanette actually and this plus one of Samantha (one day Samantha) appeared as pictures for viewers choice on (I think) Wheel of Fortune 14 years ago. Great photo Jyn!

Bun in a bacon shop

The pre-school daughter
taught me this one;

a game she first learnt
in the hurley burley
of kindergarten, I assume.

She makes me stand
in the middle of her room,
then grabs her teddy
to lead me to a seat.

I do as I’m directed,
holding teddy’s hand,
then sitting down, I’m
easily lead.

We laugh, the three of us,

me from a grown up confusion,
she from the pure joy of
seeing daddy joining in her game,
and teddy, yes the bear,
he laughs at my clumsy
grip on his paw.

I love this game, being,
she calls, a bun in a bacon shop.

(1993)


And in other news - as I mentioned in my email - dad (the handsome little tyke pictured a couple of years ago) had his 80th birthday recently. This next bit's specially for him:



Nature watch: Welcome back! Apparently it’s spring! It's blimin' cold for spring!!


I've just harrowed the horse paddocks and my face is numb (beenie/gloves and 25 layers of clothes helped a tad). The daffodils are starting to open in a really tentative way. I don’t blame them – the ground must still be cold (and I currently have one because of the temperatures I’m sure). The sheep are also holding back with their lambs – we still only have three. The ducks and birds have returned to the lake and the trees around the house after the heavy rain abated from last weekend. The Pukekos have clearly been busy procreating during the winter – we counted 10 of them in Duckies’ paddock. I forgot to include a photo of Rambo in the last update. Rambo is our goose.

Currently grooving to Opeth's 'Damnation' album - a Scandinavian death metal outfit usually but Damnation sounds like the Moody Blues (no really) - I love that mellotron sound. It's probably their most accessible album - Blackwater Park is a tougher proposition and their more famous album (I still find it a bit hard to take the guttural vocals at times) and on the whole their best but Keegan put me onto the mellower 'Damnation' and it's great! Riverside remain my fav band in this genre (prog metal) though.

Okay kiddliwinks - that'll do it fer now - take care.

Love and peace - W

Update 25

Kia ora whanau - what a terrible week last week was - not only do the All Blacks lose (badly! to Australia!!!!), my boys' football team played a shocking game and lost 13 nil, and...and I missed both episodes of Coronation Street. Tuesday I had the open evening at school (see my post on the shsprincipal blog for photos and details) but then I had the whanau meeting and rotary music night on Thursday. AAArrrggghhh!!!! So this post's for the old farts and me (no change there then). So we have some rock'n'roll, some sport (after that abysmal All Blacks performance last Saturday it'll be tough) and some other stuff plus nature watch and currently gooving.


For the music clip I can't go past the Beatles and this is a great one - my favourite Beatle song from my second favourite spot in London - for all the trainspotting obsessive Beatle freaks amongst you (yes okay - just me) this clip isn't the one used in the Let it Be film (where John forgets the words and mumbles):


Re the second most fav spot in London? I stood at the foot of this building (number 3Savile Row - just around the corner from the shops in Oxford Street), Jacky took my photo from the other side of the narrow street, I looked up to the roof (where this clip was filmed), and I smiled and I smiled (and I'm smiling about it now). to think that people walk past this hallowed spot in ignorance all the time.
I love the bit in the movie 'Let It Be' when all the shop girls and bowler hats chugging on pipes look around and start moving to the source of the noise - the Beatles on the roof of Apple hq - 3 Savile Rd., London.
Magic stuff.

Beatles Dont let me down
Uploaded by Spookytime

The sport - after the awesome footage of France lately (I believe there was some kind of bicycle race on at the time), I've reverted to searching out the transfer lists in the premier league (couple of good youngsters signed by Arsene Wenger for the mighty Arsenal), marking off the calendar until the first game of the new season, and watching some cricket where the England team are playing catch up to the jappies - Freddie Flintoff is awesome!! The...joy oh joy - The Emirates Cup is on tonight - The Arsenal on our TV!!! Pity about the cricket though - England looked good in patches.

So we're now kinda updated on last week but wait there's more! More good news on Saturday morning - my boys' football team are back to winning ways - a 10 nil win over Francis Douglas Memorial College. And the All Blacks SMASHED EM BRO!!


Photo time: I've put a link to Keegan's photography site on the left hand side - check it out - some amazing pictures there. KW will be a bit coy (and thanks for permission to publish some pictures Keegan) but I agree with one of the comments on his site that he's got talent. Grandad will be proud.
Here are two pics to whet your appetite.

Just so Adam and Samantha don't feel left out there's a picture of Ad on the fridge (wearing a very familiar expression) and some snaps taken by Samantha in the UK.


Nature watch - the rain rain rain continues to come down down down (obscure Winnie the pooh reference there) so I took my camera outside and took some winter snaps.











Duckie (the cow) wondered what I was up to and was severely upset that I wasn't there to feed her. Actually the only time she's not mooing lately is when she's stuffing hay down her gob. The waterway is the release from the lake. A While back Jacky and I put some rocks down to make it look more like a riverbed - pretty cool huh. other shots are of the lambs - three so far. The white one peeking around her mum is 'Rain' the other two are called 'Muddy'(a ram) and 'Waters' (a ewe). I thoughtfully took some pictures of puddles - we've had rain non stop for about a three weeks now (since I returned from the conference). I also went down to another creek running through our border and then saw the horses (Cash and Maddy) trying to see what I was up to. The token arty shot is the rain into the trough with the horses in the background. Jacky's horse 'Will' or 'Willis' is the one on her own looking pretty bedraggled. I also wanted to do a time lapse on the daffodils so I'll aim to update these over the next month or so. As the photo shows they are just poking through the ground at the moment. Oh and that's Ellie - our cat looking like a drowned rat. Ellie is unlike normal cats in that she loves water!! Really. I've actually, I swear, seen her walk on water! She jumped into a trough and danced across the top of the water!! Finally - some pictures of the house in the rain with the buds on the magnolia there as well.


Thanks for the emails - I love all the comments and encouraging words. Denene sent me an awesome picture of Team Taylor (who's Denene/Team Taylor? - scroll down and check out the Whanau map on the left) and she is kindly allowing me to share it with all of you.

I forgot to include this great photo of Fran that Christine sent me too. I was scrolling through some old emails that I'd kept - actually looking for Fran's theatre site to put on my links (can you resend it Fran ? - I couldn't find it) so the photo will have to do in the meantime.

Okay - nuff awready - an epic one I know. Phew I'm exhausted! Till next time...

Love and Peace - W

Update 24

Jade read my last post and said,"Good but not really aimed at the younger age group" - ie hers. So in an unashamed attempt to secure her approval here are some things a 16 year old may be interested in. Apologies to Jenna first(the family hairdresser from Headquarters in New Plymouth) - I promised her a photo (taken on my phone) but our bluetooth technology is not quite working. We'll sort it out and post it soon.



First a picture from the ball that escaped me - shows Jade and some old guy that looks like me cutting a rug (oops that was quite an old expression..let's go with 'moshing').

Next a great promo from the Discovery channel. We've been watching some of the Olympics build up on Discovery (the architecture, the technology, the athletes preparation sort of thing) and Jade and I fell in love with this soppy sentimental video to the extent that it has joined our verbal shorthand (like routines from Seinfeld).



This is an older one but still pretty cool that we can all enjoy.



Finally some Ricky Gervais. The various podcasts (basically a radio show that is streamed to ipods) from Gervais and pals (Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkington)have been doing the rounds with Jade's friends. I started listening to them at home and I laughed so much my face hurt. Here's a taster. Unfortunately you don't see them but that's true of the podcast too so enjoy monkey news.:



I'm off now to a whanau meeting at school and then the local rotary are hosting some of our music students. Ka kite a tona wa (see you soon).

Love and peace - W