Baking Dogs

My friend Rain posted this video on Facebook, and I just have to share it cos it's brilliant. I do not remember Sesame Street being this entertaining, in fact I never really liked it much. I always got really confused by the way the big yellow dog disappeared behind the tree. Or the kids disappeared. Something disappeared.



I've been listening to 6 music and getting excited about Glastonbury...even though I'm not going. It starts in 2.5 hours! Loved the countdown of top ten performances, particularly that I was at the number one: Blur in 2009. Their finale of 'The Universal' really was something else. I remember standing there with Audrey, Treez and Ian, and it was just lovely and transcendental and all those things you get after four days of camping and hangovers and mud and sun.

Now, back to work. I'm finishing early today, to watch the football of course! Go All Whites!

50,000

50,005 to be exact. It took me a week over three months to notch up a further 10,000 tracks. What that says, is that I have managed to write a measly four blog posts in three months.

You know where that time goes - the time that I could be spending writing intelligent and worthwhile pieces, which would no doubt provoke and entertain my legions of faithful readers? It goes the same way as the hours I would love to spend playing my guitar, knitting, cooking normal meals, and watching quality tv and films. It goes on the tube.



No time for analysis on the latest figures, I got to get some sleep. Just a couple of things first. I am watching a tv series called 'Huff'. I just finished episode 4, season 1. It gave me some quite significant food for thought. I'll be eating that meal alone.

Secondly, I watched 'In Bruges' on the weekend, and OMG!!1! Colin Farrell is hot. I am a total sucker for that sexy Irish accent, too. Watch him being hot on Jonathan Ross, part one and part two. [Insert drooling sound.] The movie itself is really good. For some reason I thought it was going to suck - the preview and poster didn't sell it but it is definitely well worth it.

Muscles have memory

I did my grocery shopping this evening. After trudging through the fruit & vege shop and the supermarket, I decided to get a movie out. That's how come at 10:25pm I find myself sitting in front of the television, and I'm wondering what is happening in the movie that's now almost finished. (Doesn't help that I've been trying to make sense of the website for the Exit festival in Serbia, amongst other things.)

I've lost the knack for watching movies. It's not the first time.

Oh no, I think the Hollie Smith song is started. We're watching No. 2. It wasn't until after the film had begun that I remembered this would happen. Oh god it's the chorus. Some music just doesn't agree with me.

But some does. I found the tab for 'The Engine Driver', from the Decemberists' Picaresque, and it's just lovely.

I am a writer, writer of fictions
I am the heart that you call home
And I've written pages upon pages
Trying to rid you from my bones

Some things you can write about forever but it won't work. It's time that passes, not endless repetition.

El Morro

I had a barbecue on Friday night, and played host to four school friends, brought together by Lisa who is visiting from London. That was some fun! I just need to get the red wine out of my bedspread now... no names will be named. It just sounds wrong, doesn't it.

Saturday evening took us to the Auckland Zoo to see Anika Moa play. Lovely evening. The sky was pretty, and so was the music.



I'm in the grip of quite a crush on Calexico right now. It's bitter, it's sweet, it's beautiful and it aches... do you want to know why?

This is Calexico at a jazz festival in 2001, playing the sublime 'El Morro'.

Like sands through the hourglass

Phone call. The hold music was from Wuthering Heights. "Heathcliff, it's me I'm Kathy I've come home... let me in your window," stuck in my head. When I was 17 I used the window more often than the door.

I wanted to find out how many seconds I've been alive for. I found a counter somewhere on www.christiania.org but that was last year and I've lost it now. I think I've counted every one, but I didn't write it down. Ah. Not the one I was after but it'll do - here: 60680889947 and counting.

Spiderman 1, Spiderman 2. These late nights do nothing for my 'get smarter' campaign.

... so are the days of our lives.

The Treasure and Guardian of All Things*

"Memory always obeys the commands of the heart." Antoine Rivarol

This evening I saw 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'. It was great. Jim Carrey has totally won me over. Seeing him in 'The Truman Show' did a lot to redeem such appearances as 'Liar Liar', 'Ace Ventura' and 'Dumb and Dumber', and recently I saw 'Man on the Moon' which I really liked. But the role of Joel Barish in 'Eternal Sunshine' is the best so far. Kate Winslet does superbly too. Charlie Kaufman has outdone himself with this screenplay, and I didn't think that 'Being John Malkovich' could be topped! Going by the cool factor of his music videos (eg. the White Stripes - my fave song), director Michel Gondry (interview here also features Charlie Kaufman) is an excellent collaborator.

It looks at the idea of memory erasure, and whether it's better to keep hold of memories that cause us pain but ultimately enrich our experience. It's named after a poem by Alexander Pope:

'How happy is the blameless vestal's lot! The world forgetting, by the world forgot. Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind! Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd.'

What a line. It's beautiful and inspiring. I'm not going to talk about the movie any more because it's one that should be viewed without preconceptions. Also, it's late and I'm not up to intelligent analysis. But I do want to say that the film really appealed to me as a romantic. All I can do is say 'Awwww'.

I took a quiz to see if I would benefit from memory erasure. Apparently I'm a prime candidate. I gotta say though how can you have testimonials to a procedure that by definition erases memory of its occurrence? On the movie's official site, I made it though the memory match game, and it played a weird trailer/music video... I guess there had to be some kind of reward - but it was pretty strange, all cgi-ed mouths. Check it out.

My flatmate Nick is entering the 48 hours movie contest. He's the editor. The creative minds are busy writing the story and script tonight, they'll film tomorrow, and he will do the editing tomorrow night. We talked this evening about what makes a good movie. "A beginning, a middle and an end," said Nick. "Conflict and resolution," said Amelia. Off on a tangent, I contributed, "It's got to end with a hug and a lecture." Gah, to think that 'Full House' has me brainwashed to this day.

*Marcus Tullius Cicero

Introducing...

Primo: numero uno.

This evening I watched 'Pane e Tulipani' , an Italian film. There was an ad for it as part of a festival on Radio One in maybe 2001 or so, and it was voiced by a woman with a strong accent - it's on a tape I have of a show I did, so I heard it over and over again. And now finally I see it!

It was a great film. Even before I saw it I knew it was one of those 'self-discovery' type films, but really well done - lots of unexpected detail.

Afterwards I had to go to a friends to drop something off. It was cold and rainy outside, I figured I'd just be there and back, as I knew she wasn't going to be there. Upon arriving, I found a group of half a dozen strangers in the lounge (I don't visit very often). I said hi, and they invited me to join them for a beer.

It became one of those situations that I feel like used to happen all the time when I was at high school, and I'd go to parties where everyone was friendly and curious, and instant friendships would spring up. I guess I still get it nowadays at parties; but it's so much rarer.

On the walk I listened to (what I affectionately call) my 'flying nun +' md. It features

- the Topless Women Talk About Their Lives soundtrack
- the Scarfies soundtrack
- Age Pryor - City Chorus
- JPS Experience - Bleeding Star
- the Phoenix Foundation - Horsepower
- Volume - a Wellington compilation

The JPSE songs were the best this evening.

I'm so glad that it's Friday. Can't relax too much this weekend though: got to write up my interview with the Accelerants, deadline is next Tuesday.