Got a burning question or just want to chat about the Make My Horror Movie competition? Then jump on this link now and submit your questions for tomorrow nights live grilling/Q&A with Ant Timpson, Andrew Beattie and host Hugh Sundae:
Make My Horror Movie Informal Q&A (Live at the NZ Herald) Tonight [live-stream]
•September 18, 2013 • Leave a CommentDrug Driving in Aotearoa – NZ TV Ad goes Viral
•September 17, 2013 • Leave a CommentThis drug impaired driving campaign specifically focuses on those who use cannabis.
At face value, this public service advertisement addressing the issue of driving while under the influence of drugs is comical, but it also manages to deliver a strong message, interpreted and carried on the weight of three innocent, impressionable children affected by the issue:
Three Maori boys find themselves in a situation familiar to most kids growing up in New Zealand – sitting outside in the car, waiting for one of their dads to come out and drive one of them home. Watch them change from comical to contemplative as they examine their own awareness of their dads’ behaviour in the raucous, imaginative way only young boys can.
The boys’ performances have made this a social media viral hit with over 300 thousand views and climbing on YouTube since its uploaded on September 13. Their performances really are that good.
If you thought the advert had deliberately adopted the aesthetic of Taika Waititi’s “TWO CARS ONE NIGHT,” you’re not far off; the NZTA (New Zealand Transport Agency) driving campaign launched on Maori Television last week was created by award-winning director Taika Waititi, who found success with his short film based on a similar theme:
Dollars to Doughnuts [F]
•September 17, 2013 • Leave a CommentThis morning I was handed back my first essay of the second semester and once again I don’t think I should have gotten the grade I was given; A– this time. I’m happy but I wasn’t expecting my tutor to, err, understand my sentences I guess you could say, and more so considering I didn’t really get around to revising and redrafting it. I was expecting anything below a B. I shouldn’t complain; it wasn’t a bad start to the day.
Just after one, as I was about to cross Symonds Street to the café, Hamida, a cool chick from the Writing Wānanga last week recognized me and my awesome new haircut and convinced me that I should walk a bit further up the road to get my lunch. She seems unbelievably onto it academic and priority wise — of course she’s doing a conjoint, I might have known. I ate my subway and she her sushi while we watched the girls Round Robin Inter-faculty Netball Tournament in the Recreation Centre. Tried getting some reading done after lunch but the match was proving to much of a distraction. It was a tight game.
Not much else happened today really. Bought some custard and jelly filled doughnuts and the women behind the counter gave me a cream and apple one for free, which was nice. No one was home. Ate most of the doughnuts. Typed this. Probably should have studied more. Checked emails. CWOC (Creative Writers On Campus) have created and activated a public forum @ http://cwoc.boards.net/ for anyone out there interested in networking, sharing and/or peer reviewing and critiquing creative writing. I can’t imagine working at the moment or offering any constructive criticism. Right now I’m thinking about my comment made in tutorial and how much of a stuttering buffoon I must have sounded like. Yep. I’ll cheer myself up tomorrow with tales of graphic super-powered violence and hopefully have another random encounter, or free doughnut. Not fussed.
PNG Independence Day
•September 16, 2013 • Leave a CommentH a p p y I n d e p e n d e n c e !
“AS THE SUN SET on the afternoon of 15 September 1975, the Australian flag came down for the last time from Hubert Murray Stadium, in Papua New Guinea’s capital of Port Moresby. Almost 70 years of Australian governance was coming to an end.
At 9:30 am the next day, a different flag – black and red with a golden bird of paradise – rose on Independence Hill, near a newly formed Parliament House. PNG was no longer an Australian territory but an independent nation.
In contrast to other recently independent states such as Uganda and Kenya, the change of authority in PNG was marked not by bloodshed but by celebration. Sir John Guise, the first Governor-General of PNG, said at the flag lowering ceremony: “It is important the people of Papua New Guinea, and the rest of the world, realise the spirit in which we are lowering the flag of our colonisers. We are lowering the flag, not tearing it down.” – Written by Beau Gamble
DEXTER’S RUDE REMOVAL [NSFW…ish]
•September 15, 2013 • Leave a CommentDexter tries to remove the rudeness from Dee Dee.
Found a cartoon treasure today; the full, unaired, lost episode of Dexter’s Laboratory with bleeped out cuss words. I can see why it was never aired as it takes kids humour to a whole new level. Glad the creator’s made it though, I guess they knew their young audience would appreciate it one day, 10 years after the series ended:
Love at First Sight …Again
•September 13, 2013 • Leave a Comment
Jason Mortensen wakes up from hernia repair surgery to his beautiful “jackpot” wife, Candice, and quite literally cannot believe his eyes: “Did I get you that ring?”
This was my fifth surgery within our six years of marriage and she’s been by my side through all of it. In a previous surgery I suffered a severe complication and we didn’t know if I’d ever function the same again. She is the love of my life.
Noho Ora Mai, Waipapa Marae! [F]
•September 12, 2013 • Leave a CommentKia ora, Tuākana! The writing wānanga workshop finished yesterday and I am proud to say that I actually managed to get work done, more than I had the entire week before this. No television and an extremely weak/nonexistent WiFi connection helped in my progression, but what it really came down to was the encouraging environment that the organizers established, and the vibe of willingness to learn and get a long with each other that the other students who came, helped create and maintain.
I arrived a few minutes after nine Monday morning and met with the rest of the group in the wharekai, which is the dining room of the Marae, a separate building from the wharenui. Three boys, 15-20 girls. We sang the national anthem for our mihi (formal greeting) in the wharenui, then played a fun activity and met each other.
The rest of the day was structured like the others; breakfast, fun activity, general academic writing workshop, private or group study or mentoring, lunch, fun activity, study, study, study, dinner & desert, return to study until finally, bedtime around ten at night. Bedtime for some anyway, I met a girl who was faithful to her internal clock and wouldn’t/couldn’t sleep until after midnight. We swapped iPods one night which was cool. I tried staying up with her but I bailed/face planted into the table. She had an eclectic assortment of tunes on her 180GB iPod classic that I had never heard before. This is the one I liked the most though: Paramore “Ain’t It Fun”
Catchy melody. More students showed up including several more boys the following day which didn’t change my approach to fun activities or meeting people, I guess one could say, if there was an award given for most reserved, my name would be engraved on the plaque. I felt slightly homesick and alienated from being surrounded by lots of people whose cultural heritage hadn’t been completely assimilated living in NZ and who made new friends easy, if that makes sense. Don’t get me wrong, I step out of my comfort zone all the time and love what I learn from doing so, but trying to hide that social anxiety and be one with a group is hard for me, probably why I studied so much these past few days. The wānanga was good for me. For one of my papers, I was struggling to understand the genealogy of majoritarian representative democracy and whether our obligation to obey the state’s laws required our consent. I’m getting a headache from just thinking about it. It’s easy to get confused because the answer is more philosophical than it is a concrete fact. I’m going to wind down and concentrate on something new for a day because I am truly studied out.
The Marae, Waipapa, and the Department of Māori Studies encouraged focus and provided an ideal getaway from the influences of the outside world. Mad props to Sereana Patterson, the Undergraduate Equity Co-ordinator, for her organization skills and for keeping me in the loop. Big thanks to the great team of outgoing and knowledgeable Tuākana mentors (experienced post grad students), all corresponding wānanga supporters, John the chef and his helpers and all you lovely students who greeted me by name, which was all of you surprisingly. Lots of smiles 😀 This was a community event and in a community you don’t feel like a number. The University of Auckland is great, but a programme like Tuākana can offer more for students than any facility alone can. Cheers.
New Zealand Fashion Weekend 2013
•September 7, 2013 • Leave a Comment
I attended fashion weekend last year. Yep, no one knew of my intention to go, but I did; took some time off work, fed my curiosity, totally rocked it. I admire the confidence fashion in its uniqueness inspires in people to be their ideal selves, plus, people looking damn good are just plain pleasing to the eye.
Consider yourself a fashionista? Do you have an eye for style, or are you just looking for something to do this weekend? Then may I suggest you take a gander at some runway shows and the Designer Garage Sale on this weekend at Auckland’s Viaduct Events Centre, in celebration of New Zealand fashion and the dedicated artists who create it:
Fashion Weekend 2012 was an interesting experience for me but I don’t think I’ll attend this year, not unless I’m accompanied by someone of the fairer sex and one of us is packing a credit-card. That probably wont be me; there were a few things there for men, but not much, at all. I’d go again if only to see the Trelise Cooper collection because I think her and her work are amazing, but definitely not alone …Maybe.
I shouldn’t attend, actually. I told an old high-school friend who invited me to airsoft this weekend that I had study to do, so it would be rude of me not to commit to my own words. Besides, I have something quite neat I should be putting money aside for now — my new (old) car! I’ll update you on that story as soon as I find time, in the meanwhile however, you should catch up on the buzz surrounding this year’s 13 anniversary Fashion Week — 3News has been covering the event well:
3 N E W S . C O . N Z / F A S H I O N
SPEAKING IN TONGUES
•September 6, 2013 • Leave a CommentCaught a play tonight at the Herald Theater that I really enjoyed. SPEAKING IN TONGUES is about love and the love people have, give and take away from one another and questions the claim these characters have to feel and go in search of that feeling if their idea of love is not reciprocated.
This is a thinking person’s play but it is in no way dense nor does it try to be smarter than the controversial theme being explored — infidelity and its implication on the ones who want to be loved, who deserve it.
Much to the director and actor’s credit, the execution of the play is sublime and just as important as the narrative itself. The abstract time displacements, synchronized dialogue sequences and minimalistic set design caused me to focus on the bigger picture and wonder, whether the breakdown of relationships causes a domino effect, and are due to a loss of love for one another and the deceitful actions taken to revive that love, or whether the solution to (and root cause of) all love’s problems can only be found within themselves. Every character in SPEAKING IN TONGUES is at some point irresponsible. They are all emotionally connected, yet so disconnected; tragic figures acting on the timeless, universal impulse to understand love — how and why do we love and can we control that — SPEAKING IN TONGUES is a poetic parable on the levels of trust and faithfulness placed in others, monogamous lovers and strangers alike. We all tell our stories and want to be heard, but does anyone truly listen? We may as well be speaking in tongues.
Australian writer, Andrew Bovell, wrote Speaking In Tongues in 1996, and owing to its success, he also wrote its film adaptation in 2001 called Lantana. The play has been adapted and performed in theaters the world over and you can see for yourself why in the capable care of Shane Bosher’s direction, John Verryt’s set design, Paul McLaney’s expressive score and Alison Bruce, Oliver Driver, Luanne Gordon and Stephen Lovatt’s high calibre performances. Great cast.
This play runs until Saturday 14 September and if you have the least bit of interest in seeing a play or you haven’t in a long time, SPEAKING IN TONGUES is definitely one of the most ambitious and meticulously well executed plays I have ever seen and I highly recommend it.
基隆八斗子土石流第一現場
•September 1, 2013 • Leave a CommentIn other words; lucky driver narrowly escapes being made a pancake by a huge boulder:
Well, that escalated quickly. I like how the electricity pole lights up as the dirt hits, but what’s even cooler is that if you replay the video, watch the mountain and you can actually see the boulder as it starts to fall. I wish my yesterday was that exciting.
🎭 