But human nature being what it is, as the earthquake recedes from memory, our impetus to add those things will fade away. I’m going to use this blog and its small but attentive readership as a motivation tool, by declaring: in three weeks, our disaster survival kit will be fully stocked up. (6 Sept)
A bunch of people put their names down, and no doubt others thought “yeah, I’ll do that”.
Now, two weeks have gone by, and in NZ the earthquake remains on the front page. Have you done what you intended to do? One week to go in that original plan…
As before, comments are encouraged – tell everyone how you’re going. Collective action beats solo action. All the info you need is here: NZ getting ready website
Keeling over, that is. Still busy. BUT NOT TOO BUSY FOR LINKY
Video about goin’ climbing in Wgtn. Haven’t watched it, too busy, but its W-town so if you’re local you probably know some of the people in it. Maybe even the guy in the screencap right here.
Classically-trained voice teacher evaluates the style and technique of five heavy metal vocalists. (This is an example of that rare subspecies of linky that will be catnip to both Sokky and Jet Simian.)
Via the Knifeman, Joyce Carol Oates short story right there for the reading (I haven’t yet but Joyce Carol Oates that’s why)
Have I ever linked to You Are Not So Smart before? Great blog that points out all the ways we get stuff wrong. Fun, insightful, and important, because man, so many problems caused by not realizing you might be wrong about something.
The New York magazine article that was the basis for Saturday Night Fever: Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night. Written in the new journalism style, this appears impossibly mannered now, and I doubt you’ll be surprised to hear the writer made it all up.
And finally… this totally made my working day yesterday. A relaxation-tape version of Snoop’s (decidedly not safe for work) Gin & Juice. Love it.
My friends George and Robyn have been hard at work the last few years on starting a charity. I think it’s pretty amazing. They are behind Kaibosh, and what they do is collect surplus food from retailers (so it doesn’t get chucked into landfill) and deliver it to charities working with people who could do with a bonus meal.
That’s pretty much the whole deal – there is leftover food at place A, and hungry peeps at place B, so they make the connection. Simple premise, but (as always) a complex mission in the real world.
George sez:
We wrangled a few friends to become members of our board of trustees and have spent the last 18-months trying to raise funding to increase the scale of our efforts. Our main support has come from Wellington City Council and the Lotteries Commission. With their help we’ve leased an office on Holland Street and hired a part-time Operations Manager. We’re now able to step up our operations (to date we only pick up food from Simply Paris and Wishbone) and hopefully expand our volunteer base (currently sits at six non-trustees).
That is how you walk the walk in this world. I give this whole enterprise one mighty double-rainbow-all-the-way thumbs up. Kaibosh is having a launch party at their HQ tonight at 6pm – come along if you’re in W-town, and eat some of the food, which is of course donated from local businesses.
Man, I’m looking forward to when that baby gets born so I can finally catch up on some sleep!
No, wait.
Still in the depths of a sustained busy like there has not been since I cleverly arranged to finish my Masters thesis in the weeks leading up to my wedding. Achieved the rare trifecta of working Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. Unsurprise: this has severely hindered progress on Day One in the novel vs. baby race. But I am not downhearted. When I get through these weeks I might be able to put some proper time in and make up the deficit. It’s about how much I want it done, innit?
Timely link: Chuck Wendig on how to be a writer. (Thanks to the people who took a look at the opening pages of D1, by the way. Comments v. helpful.)
In New Zealand classrooms, every morning we stand up, face the flag, put our hands on our hearts and say together: “New Zealand is the best country in the world, per capita.” Those two little words, per capita, are a crucial part of our national self-esteem and self-image, and saying “per capita” is as true-blue New Zealand as asking overseas visitors how much they like our country.
So I want to pay homage to the Tall Blacks, knocked out of the eight-finals stage of the FIBA World Championships for the second time in a row, in a torrid defeat to an equally determined and much bigger Russian side. I’ll do this in the traditional way, by citing population statistics and saying “didn’t we do well, per capita”.
Russia: 141 million.
New Zealand: 4 million Didn’t we do well, per capita!
And congrats to unbeaten Lithuania (3 million), knocking out China (1.3 billion). Er.
In all seriousness, it’s been a fun World Champs to watch and thumbs up to the Tall Blacks for doing a great job. Next time I run into one of youse fullas in the street I’ll raise my eyebrows at you in hearty appreciation.
Things that were 3D in this movie:
* Fish
* Cave
* Gore
* Vomit
* “Naked underwater skank ballet” – Nathan Rabin, AVClub
* Eli Roth
I had a great time. Directorially? The suspense wasn’t ratcheted up nearly as high as it could have gone. But on the other hand, the violence was perfectly judged – you saw things that caught you by surprise and made you shout, but were still silly enough that you laughed. The nudity was also perfectly judged – you saw things that caught you by surprise and made you shout, but were still silly enough that you laughed.
Several dimensions better than Avatar. Best seen with a crowd.
Perhaps you heard: there was a great big earthquake in Christchurch. A reminder that NZ is basically a big faultline with Lord of the Rings scenery on it. And, as Jack has noted, it’s a reminder that in NZ the disaster survival kit is an everyday common-sensical thing, rather than a sign of extreme right-wing anti-government paranoia.
I’ll expect that disaster survival kits were hauled out and checked across the country this past weekend. We certainly checked out ours, and yes there are a few bits and pieces we could add to it.
But human nature being what it is, as the earthquake recedes from memory, our impetus to add those things will fade away. I’m going to use this blog and its small but attentive readership as a motivation tool, by declaring: in three weeks, our disaster survival kit will be fully stocked up.
Have you checked yours, and found it wanting if so? I invite you to add your name in the comments making a similar pledge. I’ll check up on you and on myself in advance of the three-week deadline. Don’t run the risk of waking up to a local disaster next year and kicking yourself for letting it slide now.
Watchin’ the Tall Blacks vs France at FIBA World Champs in the other window. NZ playing its best game of the tournament so far. I love (LOVE) watching random guys from the NZ basketball league taking NBA players to the hole. But I will not spoil the game for ppl who record it to watch later. So only cryptic comments from now on.
Here’s a treat: the death trap page from Treasure Hunters University, which appears to be a site by a guy who’s all about going into Mexico and looking for ancient treasures in deathtrapped tombs, for realsies.
With a couple hours to fill before the Tall Blacks vs Lebanon game began, I decided to watch this film. And blog about it too. It was in a stack of DVDs the Knifeman loaned me a few months back that I am ever-so-slowly working through. The director Satashi Kon died a few days ago, aged on 46, which was good impetus to finally see this animated film.
It’s been on my list for a long time. I’m fairly sure it came through the NZ Film Festival back in ’98, and it was one of the films I circled in the guide but didn’t go to see. It’s a psychological thriller that’s one part Alfred Hitchcock, one part Dario Argento, and one part Wes Craven – or their Eastern equivalents. It starts out as a fairly by-numbers suspense film, but then goes very weird indeed in the second half, finishing up with an intense final sequence that is carried off by its visual verve and commitment to its distinctive vision.
There’s some stuff in it that doesn’t entirely sit well with me – the film was too keen to show us the lead character naked and exploited, so much that the in-story protests about how this was gratuitous and demeaning seemed both too much and too little. One line of plot in the film is about an actress working her way to greater prominence by using her body and performing in scenes involving sexual violence, but as the story fractures around questions of reality and fantasy it becomes impossible to find any resolution for this thematic question. Not as well-handled as I’d like, and raises questions it can’t quite resolve.
It’s a great ride though, with some amazing flourishes. There’s a funny scene that precisely dates the film where the main character struggles to understand the internet and the web; this scene played out in a lot of TV and film in ’97-’98 as I recall. How far we have come…
Overall: it’s a good watch, if not quite as cerebral and intense as I’d been building up in my head for the last decade. Contains nudity and violence, so not for family viewing or casual night, but if the suspense/psychological stuff like in Shutter Island works for you, this will be a good time. Thumb goes up.
