this is the end...

my only friend the end.

We gotta get out of this place!

Reviewing war at the moment.

world is being lead by infantilised juveniles with no real life experience.

They don't read history and the y don't care.

all they care about is the next dvd or the next video game or when they can buy a plastic hot rod or a hardly davison.

They all removed from their environment.

They don't even understand the term.

The only thing that counts is the image on the screen.

Everybody is bamboozled about what is true or not.

See even in our little town the wannabees have no idea about how to do it.

They think they do but they don't.

They trying to sell it as some sort of extension of House and Garden Magazine. You know. What it looks like when they finish work for the day and get into the booze and a few drinks.

They wont listen to any one else because that would mean they would be beholden to them and that would be worse than anything.

They think  they can import a wunderkind from hoonoeswhere and everything will be jake.

NUP.

Tidy up the main street and hey presto the shopkeepers takings will go up 100%.

That's not how it works at all.

But they don't care.

Its mine!!!!!!!!!

and that's that.

got a nifty 2cd Flatt and Scruggs album yesterday.
Cheap at the Warehouse!
Liner notes say that Lester Flatt learned his music from his parents.
so what music are the kids learning from their parents today?

top 10 Movies of the twentieth century...

Star Trek IV
The “MOVIE” of movies. No flash here just the story which is paramount. It comes equipped with some of the greatest character actors off TV who easily make the transition to the big screen with full dramatic power that eclipses all the rest in a tour de force of creative arts and imagination. The message is all important here but they didnt have to send it Western Union!


Masters of The Universe
Arnies only real competition was Dolph Lundgren and here he comes into focus with all the magnetism of any leading man over the whole history of movie making. Another comic made into a movie that totally transcends its origin and blossoms into a movie that sarisfies on every level of plot, sub-plot, romance, breadth of character and propulsive story telling.


The Princess Bride
A simple little fairy tale that goes boffo in the first minute. Every trick of the story tellers art is incorporated into a total fantasy that will warm the heart of any person with a smidgeon of romance in their soul.


The Wild Bunch
Sam Peckinpahs masterpiece. The Wild Bunch is a war movie, a cowboy movie, a romance and a drama of powerful intensity. Few movies have come close to illustrating the nature of the human condition in such a succint manner. Peckinpah uses the old dogs and the old stories and the end of one era that is transforming itself into another one and negating the protagonists power to resist the onslaught.


Big Trouble In Little China
Basically a romp with an oriental fantasy theme. It all seems so flip and kung fu but when the plot comes to the fore then the scares and the thrills get reeler and reeler. Excuse the pun but it was impossible to resist. As pure entertainment without a “message” then this movie is five star plus. Kurt Russels finest hour and more.


The Fifth Element
In New Zealand the printed press concertedly ganged up on this flic and more or less panned it even after it had maxed out box office records worldwide. Exactly why will never be known but the depiction of authority figures having feet of clay probably has something to do with it. Anyway after the credits roll and it gets going then the tension never stops till the final reel.


Rio Bravo
On the surface another John Wayne potboiler oater but like all 'b' flics that somehow become 'a's this one is the goods. Great plot, great actors and supporting actors and cameo roles that found their way into quintessentially English television programmes as local inventions. Tsk tsk. See it for yourself and pick it out or just go for the ride. Either way the ticket price is worth every penny.


Absolute Power
Clint Eastwood distinguished himself first as an actor and then as a director and this is one of his finest efforts. Clint had his own style and personality that many might disagree with but knew how to make movies. Like Sam Peckinpah if you have watched movies carefully over the years it is possible to detect recurring themes and motifs but this one is sui generis and though it is derived from a David Baldacci novel the staging is powerful and unique.

The Night Before
This is a jumping jack of a kids movie in the vein of Ferris Buellers Day Off but darker and more dramatic as it takes a white bread teenager and his girl for a walk on the wild side. Keanu Reeves excels himself as a naïve youth who scores a date with the grooviest chick in school and then watches helplessly as his dream descends into a nightmare.


Life Force
A British fantasy cum sci-fi apocalyptic vision of an alien attack. One of those movies that gets stronger and stronger as it goes on till the mounting terror and tension is almost unbearable until it is resolved in a bloodthirsty climax.

hell sucks...

......cool and brisk this morning. Blue bussed down to Greytown  and there was plenty of water in the Waiohine and Mangatarere Rivers. should be flushing them out good before the spawning season.

Went to Masterton yesrterday. Found Carry On Abroad on vhs for 50c at the Family Store and Dispatches at the Hospice store for $1.
Herrs book is very special to veterans and military historians and students of the human conditon.
For those of us who watched the siege of Khe Sanh on the telly as it unfolded it was horrific and another industrial strength grind up on men and material.
Now the nitwits in the USA want to commit men to the Ukraine and the Russians seem eager for a bit of bother too.
Nothing wrong with a bit of war in my opinion but If the Russians got the worst of it and they surely would then it would be odds on for the juvenile offspring of the nomenclatura to try a bomb just to see if it worked.
It has almost become impossible to have any faith in dweebs whose only claim to fame is to have been born to the right parents and mollycoddled thorugh school and tertiary and now they think they are real men.
NO.
Anyway I sort of thought to myself that somebody would have bought Dispatches  for ANZAC weekend reading but I suppose that in the new post modern environment they were all celebrating or vibrating or somesuch.
moving on I have got hold of a digital camera and am working up some songs to put on here with himself performing and on you tube. I have identified a niche and will try and fill it.
Learning to operate the camera is quite a stretch. all sorts of doodads and functions. I will have to re-string the Ibanez too for the extra special punch.

so the old world is passing away rapidly.
Its all being blitzed in a shitstorm of personal aquisitiveness and self agrandisement that bears no relation or admits to no recognition of the past and how we got here.
Everyone wants to be on TV and they sit round watching endless vids and identifying with endless schmuks  and by constant conjunction come to believe that their own thoughts are facts.
arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh.

Go the Sherpas of Nepal.
Having to pander to a procession of rich  spoiled brats for bugger all money is a thankless task and I salute your courage.

Politics in New Zealand.
Economic commentator Rod Oram opined in last weeks SST that New Zealand was perhaps on the way to regressing to an agrarian economy.
Well it might.
It was only the advent of the New Zealand Labour Party in 1935 that saw policies of import substitution as essential for introducing a manufacturing sector and enlarging the power of the proletariat.
All those efforts have beeen largely negated by low cost production of everything in China, Japan and the Pacific rim countries.
We can no longer compete.
But nobody seems to know what to do here.
They haven't got a clue. The ruling class are all fatheads with no real experience of anything and they are like the emperor and his togs.
They aint got none.
they all nebbish!
In the meantime the fleas are getting more and more nasty and vicious while fight for scraps that they neither created nor really know how to manage.
Pretty sad really.
Roll on the new age. 

top 10 novels of the twentieth century...

The Dark Mind
Colin Kapp
Kapp never did anything as good as this one again. An existential journey par excellence.

The Space Merchants
Frederick Pohl and Cyril Kornbluth
The space opera of space operas this gem is a must read for anyone interested in science fiction or just a good story.


Greenmantle
John Buchan
Buchan aka Lord Tweedsmuir (wot a moniker) wrote a whole series of thrillers including The 39 Steps with totally British themes and settings but nevertheless he developed a style of economy and precision that every other thriller writer that came after copied. You name them; Hemingway, Steinbeck, Louis L'amour, would be nowhere if not for buchan and his taut delivery. His books are still eminently readable today long after the empire he held so dear dissolved.


Venus On The Half shell
Kilgore Trout
Kurt Vonnegut wrote this humdinger under a non de plume but that is inconsequential. This is another space opera that transports the reader into world unknown and waiting for exploration.


The Closing Circle
Lou Cameron
Cameron seems to have been a jack of all trades in Hollywood writing westerns, war stories and anything else to supply the market but this one is the plum. Filled with juicy subplots and characters and the the stench of the lowlife exuding out through the pages. Chester Himes must have read this one and it stands out as the premier crime novel of its time and possibly all time.


Flint
Lois L'amour




Boys Life
Robert McCammon
One of those books that you pick up somewhere and decide to give it a go and then once you're in then its too late. Enjoy the ride.


The Simulacra
Philip K. Dick
This is Dicks masterpiece. My copy has spelling mistakes and one can only assume that the publisher could not be bothered proof reading the galley. Never mind. Dicks total oeuvre is massive and this one takes the cake for characterisation and plot and theme that will stagger contemporary readers brought up on modern pap with its relevance for today.


Coming Attractions
Fanny Flagg
You want funny? Fanny opens up with the gags and they dont stop.
Find it now!


Jitterbug Perfume
Tom Robbins
Robbins seems to have specialised in romantic novels for ladies with quirky themes but this is his magnum opus and really special.


The Weapon shops of Isher
A.E. Van Vogt
Vogt was another pulp fiction sci fi author who knocked them out one after the other with no appreciable diminution of quality. His fertile imagination was on 10 when he wrote this.


Hombre
Elmore Leonard
What can you say! Elmore Leonard produced a massive body of work including screenplays for westerns and crime movies that have stood the test of time. Look for the Moonshine War with Patrick Magoohan. Picking only one is a hard job but Hombre the book and the movie with Paul Newman are five star jobs in anyones language.


First Blood
David Morrell
Morell kicked off with a couple of oddly disturbing works but First Blood is an absolute triumph. Like Leonard it is hard to pick only one of his books when he wrote spine tinglers like the Fraternity Of The stone but that is half the fun.


Good hunting kiddies.

saturday funnies...

hmmmmmmmmmmm.

finger print file....

Benji Marshall.
doh Benji.
Your wife has just got a good job and you want to pack it in and come back to smallville?

Phil O'brien.
another stentor with no brains.
they sound good but after a while they begin to think their own thoughts are facts and their own shit doesn't stink.
just the sort of oik the RNZ specialises in.
sorry but its true.

ya get that.
all the bloody time.

how is it going...

so far?

on Sunday Christ will rise...

hallelujah praise the lord.

watch out for the wilsons part two...pinheads 'r us...

they are everywhere...

your time is gonna come...

every picture tells a story dont it?
lovely day today.
arose early an put on Led Zeppelins first album.
Heavy Metal.
The the idiot from next door came past with his spray pack and spoiled  everything.
I wanted to say something but I just closed the door and retreated inside.
amazing how idiots who dont know what they are doing get the jobs and then impose their will on the world.
It happens everywhere.
If he only learned to use his tools properly instead of trying to poison eveytrhing then the place would look like it was growing instead of dying.
He used to be a ladies hairdresser so I guess he is trying to look like a gardener and and bit of spray and a lot bullshit and everything is ok.
No.
And the people at Carter Court should recognise that he is and idiot but hey he looks good!
Thats all that counts.

I am reminded of the idiot who didn't like radial engines and the Bristol company and because he was the chief procurement officer for the RAF stopped them from having the best piston engine fighter ever made.
Stupidity rules everywhere.

going down slow...

Of course most of the hippy schtick was nonsense but there was a serious side.
The environment for one.
At the moment the papers are full of it but its mostly handwringing.
Politicians cant do anything because they will absolutley lose the next election if they impose any restrictions on consumers desire to be free to do anything they like including wreck the planet to satisfy their insatiable desires.
most of which are infantile but there ya go.
so its full speed ahead.
I'm a getting tired of wating for armageddon.

way down below the ocean...

USS Tang

Heart foundation book sale yesterday.
A lot of very tatty stuff and not many 'finds' but I did get some VHS treasures among which Mr Majestyk.Charles Bronson at his best. Another on the Martin b57 which was the American version of the English Electric Canberra and another on Submarines.
It is so hard these days in the absence of any real threat except the posturing of the madmen up north to realise the amount of materiel that was produced and the incredible gallantry and fortitude of the men.

Listened to Kim Hill this a.m. and lo and behold when I get downtown to get the paper there is an article about big pharma paying off the medical profession in exactly the manner she was Discussing with Professor De'Angelis from the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Adaptation.
It is easy to consider it all down here away from the huge productive apparatus of the northern hemisphere but it will be very slow to turn around if not impossible and maybe it just has to play out its string as they say in the cowboy books and then mankind has to take its chances.

no one can be sure if it hasn't happened yet. 

quoth the raven never more......

They did it.