Archive for April, 2008

Airport 2008

Published
by
Robyn
on April 28, 2008
in Uncategorized
. 2 Comments

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.

Play misty for meAh, 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
by
Robyn
on April 16, 2008
in Music
. 10 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
by
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
by
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
by
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)