Wirewrapper governance...

great to see the piece in this mornings Dompost about  new local government arrangements in the Wairarapa and its about time the Masterton pollies got off their bums and contributed to the debate.
But the important thing is they have sussed out the that there is a rush on to complete arrangments.
So in that case who benefits if the new arrangements are pushed through now?
I can think of a few right off the bat but they will keep for now.
Some of them have been around for too long and should have massed enough cash to make themselves happy but no, they want more.
too much is never enough.
And they like to use their levers of power to crush anybody they feel like.
Just as well there are unseen forces that are more than equal to their depredations and desires for more subjects to kiss their asses.
yep its crummy but hey.

New Zealand is a small country...

and its filled with small people.
having enough disposeable income to buy expensive toys does not alter the fact one whit.
We produce milk and wool and some other stuff and thats about it.
Import substitution was dreamed up in the 1930's byt the socialists in the NZ Labour Party, none of whom had ever run a business, and who thought they could thereby stymie the big boys and offer a countervailing power to the sheepocracy.
Nice dream but is has failed and always will fail.
No amount of TALKING about it will change anything.
Business in industrialised countries is a necessity to provide goods but here it is just a vehicle for people to psycholgically beat up on their peers because they have the economic power.
pretty crummy.
CKD car kits and a steel mill focussed on reinforcing rods is never going to turn this country into a manufacturing power house.
Unless the population of new zealand increases by a factor of about 20 then nothing will ever change and a quick look at Japan will show that population alone is not enough to keep the machine going.
And then it would just be another mac country anyway.
New Zealand is a small country filled with nincompoops with big ideas that are just that.
If all these bright ideas were brought to fruition the country would be a wasteland of heath robinson creations and poor people.
There is no critical mass.
plenty of critics but only a lumpen  proletariat who think they are intellectuals because they magaed to answer a question on deal or no deal..
no mass.
The boosters who want to deny we are a small country are almost clinically insane and equipped with a massive inferiority complex to boot.
New Zealqand is where some drongo makes a small film and gets an award and then goes to L.A. and slags off Holywood.
Fuck we are tuff in New Zealaznd.
Yeah right.
And the commentariat in New Zealand are dummies raised beyond their station because they have the right haircut and teeth or have been proven to follow the right line.
They have no other qualifications except a pass in shorthand from some j-school established in the sticks.
They cant abide the thought that in the larger scheme of things they dont count for shit but while they have their hands on the media apparatus then we are condemmed to the worst sort of infantile wishful thinking and childish mewling for more toys.
If you go to Rock and Roll Schoold here they dont know who chuck berry or muddy waters or jimmy reed are but they all know how to play nature or take me to the april sun in cuba.
just pop fodder with no grunt.
qed

Big ups for

Rosemary Mcleod on Her piece on Te Papa.

That is the perfect illustration of what I am talking about.

It is not really a museum.

Just another huge erection by a mental midget with the power and the latest house and garden catalogue.

Something shoved up to sell ice creams and a groovy restaurant so the upper classes (larffffs) can watch the peasants looking for some kulcha.

Well they aint going to find it at te papa.

Just more flashy crap that doesn't mean anything to anyone.

Rosemary Mcleod



And just for good measure here is the real list of the top 10 best movies ever made.
True Stories
the Princess Bride
Willow
The Searchers
Rio Bravo
One Eyed Jacks
Deliverance
Young Sherlock Holmes
MIssouri Breaks
Conan The Barbarian
Last Year in Marienblaaaaahhhhh......

jumping jack flash...

No doubt about it.

Keith Richards is probably the greatest rock guitarist ever.

Happened across both Victor Bockris and Chet Flippos books at the thrift shop the other day (?) lucky me and so I Have been listening to all my stones albums.

They get better and better and I never get sick of them.

There aint many you can say that about!

be my baby....

Got this cheapie diatonic harp and I'm blowing it like crazy.

According to the book they sell 2,000,000 of these every year.

where do they go?

Never hear one when I'm walking round your city.

walking round your town.

so I found this Donovans Greatest Hits today at a church bring and buy and Colours is in D so I will be giving it a big workout when I get home.

And a good copy of "Chickenhawk".

I think I need some more keys.

about $20 bucks a pop.

I'll Have it when I can keep the bend up on one breath!

yes.

Council came and ate all the weeds this morning.

Especially the patch of deadly nightshade down by the hedge.

I think every bird in town used to come there.

tuis, blackbirds, thrushs.

rockin' robin

tweet tweet

something in the unripe berries maybe?

boom boom boom...

my baby shot me down...

word on the street...

Its like this.
if you dont have a car then ipso facto you are a street person.
you cant just floor it and sail on by.
its there right in your face.
like it or not.
you see it all.
especially the other poor people who can try and fuck you up just because they can.
well some of them should look a little harder.
what they see may not be what they get.
dig?

boris and larry.....

nothing to say today.

its midsummer and its heating up.

the world was moving she wuz right there with it and she wuz...

hey hey...

Found ERic Unplugged on vhs last week and pulled it out last night.

Excellent vid and most of the songs except for the arranged stuff like layla is easy to pick up on and play along with.

The rest you have to get the chords form the interweb and work them out that way.

Got a new "HOMESPUN" tapes catalogue.

Great stuff.

The quack said give up sugar and lose 40kg.

yeah right.

Well I am reducing slowly but no sugar meant the arrival of a whole lot of athritis symptoms in my hands and knees.

Started back on one teaspoon a day in my morning coffee and the pains have gone away!!!!!!

life just aint a s simple as any sort of cause and effect proposition.

There is no equilibrium.

Just up and down on the cycle.

Listening to mar rainey all last week.

9 out of every 10 American Crime writers say that ma rainey is the perfect music to put fractious children to sleep???????

dont know why but he riffing and instrumentation is gorgeous and demands a lot of attention to the bar count to make sure you arrive on time!

hey hey my my....

top 10 movies of all time:
the night before
the last starfighter
masters of the universe
star trek IV
the fifth element
the wild bunch
rambo: first blood
hombre
absolute power
tron
hehehehehehhe!

oh gauche!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Greatest Leaders of the Twentieth Century:
Roosevelt
Harry Truman
Omar Bradley
George Marshall
Winston Churchill
Zhukov

thats all folks!

Memo to Barack Obama
hi Boss
in your spare time you have to read any and all bios of Harry Truman.
dig.
Beyonce.
gives me a pain.
you should have had a choir from a local church at the inaugaration.
too much sugar from the spin factory
candyfloss is never substantial

Memo to Zac Guldford
Hi Zac. I dont think you are a monster in fact the complete opposite.
I just think it is a tragedy when someone with your skill and opportunities throws their life away under the influence of something that they cant control but think they can.


memo to Gareth Morgan.
the lady down the row is feeding some magpies.
they keep the cats away.
yes indeedy.
they dont call them heckle and jeckle for nothing.

memo to Owen Glenn
dont throw your money at anyone who is just going to spend it.
Before anything is done NZ needs is a comprehensive anthropoliogical survey of the causes and conditions of child violence.
not another gang of knowall altruitstic do gooders who think that they can convince people by their  superior moral certitude and reasoning.
just the facts will do for a start.

its better to burn out than to fade away
my my hey hey.

Prime Flicks...

Last night was the 'The last Starfighter'.
thank you Prime TV
ultra cool movie.
tons of dramtic power and seat of the pants tension and resolution.
the blurbs kept saying that somehow it was a bit old fashioned but I dont wear that.
any kid would be entranced with the story and the action and the all round goodness and subtext that even if you come from a trailer park you can still reach for the stars.
yes indeedy
Hansel and Gretel: Witchfinders.
Saw Jeremy Renner on 'The Late Show' yesterday being interviewed BY Dave. (my hero).
Renner opined that Hnasel and Gretel was too scary for kids.
Well it was read to me when I was kid and I handled it and most kids do too unless they are already neurotic from the antics and muisguided notions of overprotective  parents.
As Bruno Bettelheim explains in his book "The Uses of Enchantment" it is the function of fairy stories to prepare kids for the real world by giving them fantasy examples and allowing their beginning psyches to process and overcome the psychogical snares and pitfalls in their minds before they arise in reality.
If they cant do this then they have been overprotected and denied the tools they need to function properly as adults..
It has become fashionable to dump on Bettelheim because of his speculations on autism but just because he got that wrong doesn not mean that he got it all wrong and in fact he got most of the rest of it right and if parents want mentally strong children who will grow into capable adults then they should follow his prescriptions.
And Renner should do some more research instead of making facile opinions that do nobody any good and making silly movies about nothing much just to appeal to the jaded tastes of teenagers overwhelemed by vampires and other pointless nonsense.