Robyn’s Secret Passage

Airport 2008

Published

on April 28, 2008

. 1 Comment

I had a 9am flight (a business trip!), and I had booked a taxi for 7.45 which, according to the taxi driver, was more time than I really needed. Except when the taxi got to Hillsborough, suddenly the traffic got slow and dense. He tried another side street, and then discovered there’d been a crash on the Mangere Bridge, but in the city-bound lane, which didn’t seem like it would hold up traffic going away from the airport.

I was a bit worried I might be late and miss my flight, or at least my check-in time, but the driver assured me he’d get me there on time.

After negotiating through the back streets of Onehunga, which were also chocker with traffic, we finally got on to the motorway. The accident had just been cleared and the city-bound lanes were slowly starting to move again. There was no logical reason for the airport-bound lanes to be slow. I can only conclude that it was a result of lookie-loos.

And true to his word, the driver got me to the airport in time for my flight.

But while I was ready to board my plane, it wasn’t ready for me. Thick fog had closed Auckland Airport to morning flights. The check-in area was full of people, laden with bags, wondering what they were going to do.

Ah, the fog. I’d noticed Mount Eden had been rendered invisible by it yesterday, and I hoped it wouldn’t cause trouble today. Cos everyone knows that delayed or cancelled flights cause trouble. People get angry and yell and throw stuff, right?

Well, here’s the great thing - everyone was cool about it. The Air New Zealand staff kept everyone informed, handed out snacks and water. Passengers figured out where they were supposed to go. I saw no one conforming to the stereotype of the angry, yelling passenger.

Some of the earlier flights had been canceled, but my lazy-ass 9am flight wasn’t and eventually it was called for boarding. I arrived in Wellington a couple of hours later than planned, but still where I needed to be.

Hold on

Published

Robyn

on April 16, 2008

in Music

. 8 Comments

You will recall about a week ago when I was expressing outrage at the predominance of the “Nature’s Best” compilation CD as the hold music of so many New Zealand government departments and corporations.

Well, this inspired Stacezilla to check out was what playing on his company’s phone system. He writes…

Ugh I just checked ours and lo and behold Natures Best indeedy..

You have a unique opportunity to now submit what it SHOULD be replaced by as I am the power that be in our particular Govt Dept.

I’m not convinced by “More Nature” as the idea of purposely subjecting others to any of the following is not my idea of kindness.

“Harmonic Generator” - The Datsuns
“Welcome Home” - Dave Dobbyn
“Clav Dub” - Rhombus
“I Got” - Fast Crew

Ours is run off an ipod hooked into the PABX (don’t ask about format shifting) so it needn’t necessarily be an album, it can be a megamix from a stack of albums we’ll go out and buy.

So really, come up with a list of NZ music with a focus on post 05 (maybe a few classics). Open it to more people\comments if you want.

Join the Panel of Selectors….

So I had a think about this. So far I reckon “Hitchcock” by the Phoenix Foundation would be really good hold music, and maybe something by SJD. I’m not even much of an SJD fan, but his music just seems like it would be nice to listen to while on hold. Hmm.

I was talking ’bout this with my friend Mike, and he suggested some drum ‘n’ bass, but I get the feeling that listening to Concord Dawn while waiting on hold might not work well.

So, given this chance to decide the hold music that gets played on real phone system, what good, recent New Zealand music do you think should be on the list?

Nothing better

Published

Robyn

on April 13, 2008

in Biography and Music

. 2 Comments

bFM’s music documentary series Inside Track recently looked at the Hamilton music scene. Yay.

It was interesting listening to it, because it sounds like things changed quite dramatically around the time I left Hamilton.

Back in my Hamilton gig-going days (1993 to 1996), there were two main venues - the Wailing Bongo at Waikato University, and the Exchange Tavern on Victoria Street.

The Bong’ could comfortably accommodate popular touring bands (Supergroove, Shihad, various Flying Nun artists), but also worked for local bands. For example, Mobile Stud Unit’s Superstar Extravaganza packed out the Bongo bar with all local bands in 1995.

The Exchange was a much smaller venue, decorated in ye olde Hamiltonia style. It suited local bands more, but I remember Garageland packing the place out in 1995.

There are other venues like the Hillcrest Tavern (more mainstream) and the Downunder Bar (bogans) and Governor’s Tavern. And the vile Outback Inn was rumoured to host bands, but the only music I ever heard there was cheesy European dance music. And Kenny Rodgers’ “The Gambler”.

Anyway, according to the people interviewed on the Inside Track doco, the Waikato Student Union was taken over by a group of right-wingers who promptly sold off the Wailing Bongo and student radio Contact FM. Without a venue and a means of promotion, the scene took a few blows.

But despite this, there are still a whole lot of really good bands coming from Hamilton. In the documentary, Geoff from the Shrugs says that because Hamilton is so small and everyone knows everyone, you can’t be a rock star - everyone will see through it all - so the only thing left is to be a musician.

Another thing that comes up in the documentary is the feeling that some people look back at the live scene in the mide ’90s as a golden age, and wish things were like that now.

But back then, there weren’t always good bands playing. Sometimes all there’d be to see was some lame bogan rock covers band. Sometimes staying at home was a better option than going out.

My main complaint with growing up in or near Hamilton was that it was so boring. There was nothing to do. But the good thing about this is that rather than relying on some vibrant arts and culture scene to entertain me, I had to learn to make my own fun.

I think this is situation is still around in Hamilton, and it’s still one of the reasons people get together and form bands and create music. Because it’s Saturday and there’s nothing better to do.

Hold please

Published

Robyn

on April 7, 2008

in Uncategorized

. 2 Comments

I was on hold. I’d been waiting for a while, but was kept company by a selection of songs by New Zealand artists. First there was Dave Dobbyn’s “Slice of Heaven”, then Bic Runga’s “Sway”, the Exponent’s domestic violence classic “Victoria”, then Crowded House’s “Weather With You”.

It was then it dawned on me. This wasn’t just any old selection of New Zealand music. This was the first “Nature’s Best” CD - the 2002 two-disc compilation of classic Kiwi tunes - being played on random.

In order to make the wait a little less tedious, I went to Wikipedia, pasted the track list into a document and was going through it, ticking off the songs as they played. As the tracks were being played in a random order, it was a special surprise as to what would come up next. Would I be treated to “She Speeds”? How about some Chills? Or maybe Darcy Clay’s “Jesus, I Was Evil.”

Sadly the next couple of tunes were “Whaling” and a bit of “April Sun in Cuba” before my call was finally answered.

I’ve been put on hold to “Nature’s Best” at many New Zealand government departments and corporations. I guess it’s an easy, relatively inoffensive choice for hold music that lets the company feel good about “supporting New Zealand music”.

It could be worse - last week I found myself trying not to hang up while some grunt-infested Nickleback song played. The trouble with “Nature’s Best” is that there’s no music on it from this decade. It’s all neo golden oldies, and it’s about time that the corporations and government departments of Aotearoa start thinking about supporting contemporary New Zealand music (the “More Nature” compilation covers music from 2000 to 2005) instead of mindlessly defaulting to “Nature’s Best” as their hold music. Otherwise that Nickleback’s going to start sounding really good.

Boundaries

Published

Robyn

on April 6, 2008

in Uncategorized

. 0 Comments

Interesting things have been happening in the places where I grew up. First there was a P lab found in the old Matangi dairy factory, and now there’s just been a huge explosion at a cold-storage facility just across the road from Tamahere Model Country School (um, yeah, that’s its name, but it’s really just an ordinary state primary school) - one of my old schools.

Now, Tamahere is very close to Hamilton City. It’s about a 10-minute car ride from Tamahere School to the Hamilton suburb of Hillcrest, and you’d be in the city centre in little over 15 minutes.

But Tamahere is not in Hamilton City. It’s in Waikato District. It’s rural. Like this:

And yet the Herald is currently reporting that the cold-storage facility is located in “suburban Tamahere on the southeast outskirts of the city.”

Suburban! City! If only! My childhood would have been approximately 70% less miserable if I had gone to school in a city suburb and not the bloody country (or so I’d like to think…)

This is what most of Tamahere looks like - not suburban, rural:

(Photo from Judemay on Flickr)

But, then, Tamahere never felt like a rural settlement. It wasn’t like neighbouring Matangi or Tauwhare where there was a little village or definite centre. No, Tamahere was more like a rural suburb of Hamilton, where rich Hamiltonians lived when they wanted room for their ponies. So perhaps in getting it wrong, the Herald actually got it right.

—

Digging around on Flickr has revealed some amazing photos taken by people near the explosion and also from Hamilton.

(Tamahere Fire, as seen from Hillcrest Park, by Easegill)

Packing

Published

Robyn

on March 30, 2008

in Uncategorized

. 17 Comments

I got a new job. It’s still in the fast-paced world of television, but whereas my old job was the feel-good public service side of telly, the new job is more commercial - a different kind of feel-good. And while it’s about the telly, I’m going back to my roots, as the job is all about the interwebs.

So that’s all new and exciting, but what’s even more new and exciting is that the new job is located deep in the Hutt Valley, meaning I’m going to have to move to Wellington in a few weeks.

Fortunately I like Wellington and its fine citizens, so I’m excited about the move. But my knowledge of the city is nowhere near as great as my knowledge of Auckland (or Hamilton!). I don’t know what kind of reputation different suburbs have, what sorts of areas I should live in.

But that’s a way off. At the moment I’m in the process of packing. I’ve been living at my current flat for over six years now (six years!), the longest I’ve lived in a flat, so it’s been a bit of an archaeological expedition as I’ve gone through all the stuff in my spare room.

At first glance, it looked a bit like the work of some crazy lady who buys things off TradeMe but just biffs the unopened boxes in the room. But even though there was a chaotic mess, I knew where everything was cos, like, it was all organically arranged, man.

But still, I managed to find a few things that I didn’t realise I had:

A sticker reading “UTBNB: Up The Bum No Babies”. (I assume you can stick it anywhere you like.)
A teach-yourself book on Irish Gaelic.
A vast collection of postcards. I knew I had quite a few, but I didn’t realise how many until I gathered them all together.
A badge from the ’80s saying “Telecom - I ♥ my customers”. Yeah, they had to get badges made as a reminder.
Too many bags. I would not consider myself a bag-loving’ gal, but yet there they were - too many bags. How did this happen?

I suspect I’ve been throwing out more than I’ve been packing. It’s easy to pack obvious things like books, CDs, DVDs, but then I’ll find and old notebook or a folder full of interesting bits of paper and I’ll want to keep it, but wonder, as it’s been in a drawer, untouched for the last six years, do I really need to keep it?

This is why nuns are content and crazy TradeMe ladies aren’t.

Borderline

Published

Robyn

on March 26, 2008

in Music

. 1 Comment

Last Thursday I went along to the Whammy Bar, deep beneath St Kevin’s Arcade, for day one of the Borderline Music Festival. I hadn’t slept well the night before and I was pretty tired, so I tried to keep myself alert by doing a live review via Twitter.

Double Barrel are awesome in a Prime Devastation kind of way.
11:31 PM March 20, 2008 from txt

They were actually called Double Barrelled, and were young and rockin’. But when you’re young, it’s really really hard to pull off playing a song called “Loose Women”. Like that’s ever actually been an issue in their lives. They reminded me of Prime Devastation.

I’m such a senior citizen - it’s only just past midnight and I’m dreaming of bed.
12:12 AM March 21, 2008 from txt

I don’t know their name but they did punk pop and were a bit Ramonesy and a bit Replacementsy.
12:42 AM March 21, 2008 from txt

This was The Transistors, who sooner or later will have to change their name because a) it’s utterly forgettable and b) there are other bands (plural) with that name. They did punk, pop and punk/pop, and I detected a bit of a Replacements influence in there (which their MySpace page agrees with). They did a cover of the Ramones’ “Judy is a punk”, and it was nothing more than an adequate, workmanlike cover of a Ramones song. Yeah, give me a call in five years and show me what you’re up to then, lads.

This band is rad. They are like if David Lynch directed Live And Let Die.
01:11 AM March 21, 2008 from txt

Fertility Festival are from Wellington and play this crazy kind of rambling voodoo jazz music. Oh, you know what other adjective needs to be in there? Minimalist. Yeah.

So, they entered the stage via a parade down from K Road. They reminded me of legendary Hamilton five-piece band Dean, who’d play variations on the same chord sequence for as long as was necessary. Fertility Festival also played along with just a basic, repeated pattern, but with rich variety within that repetition. In a way, Fertility Festival are the sort of band I’d always dreamed of seeing in a dark K Road cellar.

I’d like to see them again when I’m not so tired, cos eventually they provoked this reaction:

Ugh. Voodoo band has outstayed its welcome. They need to learn restraint. And go home.
02:37 AM March 21, 2008 from txt

After a long wait, Mr Storehouse is playing and he is good.
03:06 AM March 21, 2008 from txt

And finally was the main reason for me being there in the first place - Storehouse. They’re a two-piece, with Tom Rodwell on guitar and vocals, Joe Pineapple on bass and percussion, but they were also joined by the mysterious Shadow on harmonica.

Storehouse do blues and gospel. Now, Mr Rodwell is an Englishman, and it takes a bit of talent to be able to be English and sing blues and gospel and slave spirituals and not sound all vaudeville. But he pulls it off cos he’s got an excellent voice and lets the slide guitar sing as much as he does.

It was too late - too early, in fact - by the time I got home. The sky was turning dark blue and I was ready to sleep for hours. Good music.

Oh, No

Published

Robyn

on March 19, 2008

in Technology

. 6 Comments

For over a month, the top search term that’s showing up in my website stats has been “No Magazine”, which was the name of a theoretical magazine I made way back in 1994.

But it’s also the name of a new New Zealand magazine edited by Delaney Tabron and Fraser McGregor. I’ve had a flick through it and it looks good, and I was interested by Mikey Havoc’s interview with Tabron and McGregor on bFM last week.

It’s obviously generated a lot of excitement and people are googling it, looking for more information. But here’s the terrible thing: No Magazine doesn’t appear to have a website!

I’m not expecting a full-on webstravaganza like Metro magazine’s website; just a basic website with information about what the magazine is, who’s behind it, what’s in the latest issue, how much it costs and where you can buy it - information that will let me blog about it. And that doesn’t take much effort or expense to set up or maintain.

But yet they haven’t done it and so all these interested, potential readers are instead finding their way to my 14-year-old ezine and probably feeling a bit annoyed.

If a magazine doesn’t have a web presence, does it even exist online?

OMG, it’s a massive bag!

Published

Robyn

on March 19, 2008

in Observatory

. 5 Comments

People get a bit excited and/or freaked out when they see someone walking around with a large bag from a shop.

A few months ago I bought a couple of new duvets. They were pretty bulky and the lady at Farmers put them in one big bag each. I got the bus home and it took a bit of manoeuvring to get me and my duvets on to the bus. One man commented, “Been on a bit of a shopping spree, have ya?” which I thought was a bit weird because, uh, I only bought two duvets. Then, later on, a lady spied my bags and said, “Oh, been shopping! Good on you!”

I’m pretty sure it was obvious that my bags contained duvets or some sort of large pillowy objects. I don’t get how that translates into me having been on a massive shopping spree.

Then on Monday I bought four magazine storage boxes from Whitcoulls and the guy put them into one massive bag. And throughout the day I kept getting comments from people, like “You’ve been shopping!” Yes, indeed I did go to a shop and buy some things.

The funny thing was that the four boxes were worth a mere $20 in total. If I’d bought a book and a DVD from Whitcoulls it would have been worth more, but they would have all gone into a little bag that wouldn’t even have been noticed let alone commented on.

Or I could have bought some extravagant piece of jewellery and stashed it away in my handbag and then no one could have seen the fruit of my shopstravaganza.

What is it about large bags that get people so excited? Well, it seems that the symbol of a woman with large shopping bags has come to represent a shopping spree. Check out the shopping-themed photos this photo agency has.

So it’s funny to think that while I was struggling to get the giant plastic bag filled with two-for-$10 magazine boxes on to the Link bus, my fellow passengers were probably thinking I’d been on a mad shopping spree.

Shamrocks and Shenanigans

Published

Robyn

on March 17, 2008

in Events

. 6 Comments

It was St Patrick’s day, so I was on the look out for merriment. But I was most surprised when, on K Road, I spied what appeared to be a man wearing a Santa suit, complete with a long white beard. But he smelt like paint (had he been painting toys?) and he was staggering along the footpath. I looked again.

It turned out to be a guy wearing a baggy red tracksuit. The long white beard was created by him holding up a white T-shirt over his mouth and nose to help hide the bag he was inhaling solvents from (green paint, perhaps?).

Over at the over side of the colour wheel, there were plenty of people dressed in green and staggering down the footpath, participating in various kinds of St Patrick’s Day festivities.

I saw some guys, who sounded American, wearing those green plastic hats, which I associate more with American Irish (the madness of Boston) than Irish Irish.

The Belgian bar down Vulcan Lane seemed to be doing a roaring trade. Well, you know, beer, mashed potatties - who cares what country it’s from?

At work, there were scones with green whipped cream. They seemed to be quite popular, but the green was too much like that green food mould to stir my Irish blood.

Hey, how do Irish celebrate St Patrick’s Day? Not by dying everything they eat green, I’ll bet.

Here’s a cookie for ye.