the black swallow of death....

there ya go...

Renee Fonck

shadrach meshach and abednigo...

Coromandel town

woke up this morning to a beautiful day.
put the media player on and listened to the far side banks of Jordan on repeat.
and the fourth man.
love johnny cash.
yesterday was horrible.
bleak wet and generally grim.
all day inside watching movies that bored me shitless.
Where the BUffalo roam.
Buffalo Bill and the Indians.
and reading Bob Dylan in America.
reflecting on old age and limits.
Poor Phil Ochs.
He BELIEVED.
It drove him mad in the end.
He could not disengage.
damm.

Limits on the environment.
good piece on RNZ this morning about Fish and Game and their contretemps with the minister for the environment.
NOte minister for the environment.
NOt just Nick Smith.
Good.
He aint the gubmint.
just a functionary.
It is not his personal decison about anything.
and good on Fish and Game for taking it to him.
If you just pick on him then it will slide off like water on the ducks back.
It is the whole government that is responsible.
It seems like the environment is going to be one of the big issues this election.

You cant keep pumping cowshit into the environment and expect natural forces to clean the mess up.
the only pristine thing  around here are the cars in the used car lot.
yeah right.
even federated farmers can see that.

It seems like the environment is going to be one of the big issues this election.
wail boil thinks he is on control.
nah.
waht a jerk saying that all politicians are in his thrall.
not so big boy.
you dont know nothing.
government is more than some popularity contest decided by a fat arsed blogerr and his tweeters.

It used to be that elections were decided by the wise men who constituted the returning oficers club but now that MMP is firmly embedded then  like it or not it is the MSM.
i.e. TV1.
they have the power.
crummy I know but ya get that on the big jobs.
You can tell by the avaricious gleam in Corrin Dans eye that he is just wating for the chance to slant the polls.
yep.
thats how it works here.

been listening to this a lot lately.
you just put it on and it rolls out of the speakers.
you cant understand what they are saying but it sounds like they are having a bloody good time.

congrats to the Cops for tagging 100 boy racers in Canterbury over the weekend.
go at the little arsewipes.
and check their rear number plates too.
see if they are obscured.

another canterbury tale.
CERA bagged in this mornings press for spending $1.8 million on air travel to wellingotn.
the report didn't mention what the trips were for and how could they know?
all they were concerned about was the money.
once upon a time when the gubmint owned the airline officials would travel gratis under some arrangement.
now every penny is accountable and all the nosey google sleuths are constantly on the  job snooping so they can get the ups on somebody and bring them down.
just for the hell of it.
modern times huh?

Gypsy gal, the hands of Harlem
Cannot hold you to its heat
Your temperature’s too hot for taming
Your flaming feet burn up the street
I am homeless, come and take me
Into reach of your rattling drums
Let me know, babe, about my fortune
Down along my restless palms
Gypsy gal, you got me swallowed
I have fallen far beneath
Your pearly eyes, so fast an’ slashing
An’ your flashing diamond teeth
The night is pitch black, come an’ make my
Pale face fit into place, ah, please!
Let me know, babe, I’m nearly drowning
If it’s you my lifelines trace
I been wond’rin’ all about me
Ever since I seen you there
On the cliffs of your wildcat charms I’m riding
I know I’m ’round you but I don’t know where
You have slayed me, you have made me
I got to laugh halfways off my heels
I got to know, babe, will you surround me?
So I can tell if I’m really real

Copyright © 1964 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1992 by Special Rider Music

Read more: http://www.bobdylan.com/us/songs/spanish-harlem-incident#ixzz38iM4o7Ou

I am a pilgrim...

woke up early this morning to make sure I didn't miss Q&A on TV1
First time ever.
I generally listen to media watch on RNZ but I figured that this time the telly was a must watch.
7am. No alternative but to watch Buffalo Bill And The Indians with the sound off and keep reading Bob Dylan IN America.
The weird thing is that when Bob went back to his roots in the 90's he started playing all the songs I like. e.g. The Roving Gambler and Duncan And Brady. Strange!
right now I am listening to the Everly Brothers version of the Roving Gambler.
A one chord job in F with a little two bar modulation at the end of every verse.All the complexity is in the narrative.
memo to Rod Drury.
Its okay being gung ho for everything but damming a river and building an urban flyover are two completely different types of grapefruit.
Great listening to Bob Harvey and Michael Barnett who both said the same thing.
The New Zealand Labour Party is not telling a story. They are just barking at every car that goes past. It is impossible to know who the advisers are at HQ but it seems they are ashamed of their socialist roots and have ADHD. They are living in a virtual world that doesn't make any sense.
They better get their stuff together.
There is always the possibility of a sea change in NZ as the electorate is fickle and maybe just maybe the Nats have worn out their welcome.
The worst thing is that the Talking Heads on TV1 somehow carry the air that they can sway the election if they want to.
ONe gets the feeling they are somehow usurping the democratic process.
hmmmmm
a
And theNZLP  have to do something about their intellectual  property, viz The Standard masthead and find someone who knows what they are doing.
At the moment everybody there but the party stalwarts gets a hearing and the nitwits in charge think they are being fair.
Bullshit.
They just gutless fence sitters with steady jobs and income and no brains and big ideas about themselves and their place in virtual reality.
Plus the thing is that the party has become exclusive. The patronage available now consists of being in the company of MP's and the bunfests in Wgton and they want all that for themselves so they can swan around Wellington looking important every now and again.

ps. I will vote for whatever party makes RNZ buy Bob Dylans , "Theme Time Radio Hour with Your Host Bob Dylan".
You see new Zealand has become so up itself that nothing from the outside gets a look in unless its some coke addled rapper with a lot of cash to throw around. When the number one voted NZ song only gets  three stars for a re-issue in MOJO magazine then you know that something is seriously wrong with how things are done here.
when I first started at Uni as an adult student I got a bit cheesed off at all these pommy lecturers telling us that everything in NZ was done on the cheap but after a while when the eyes were opened it was startling to realise that penny pinching nitwits with no imagination are running the show.
and the number of cars with either no number plates or the rear plate obscured at night is increasing daily.
Just slipped that one in.
You never know who is reading this stuff but if you think back to 2008 when New Zealand was a P powered madhouse of boy racers tearing the guts out of  communities 24/7 with Japanese (no disrespect) 2nd hand imports  with no mufflers then you know that anything can HAPPEN here.
hey cool man.
Tomorrow its gonna be all the kids running round slouching like Ralph Macchio in the Karate Kid and looking TUFF.
See this country panders to pinheads and children.
Look at Bob Dyland and say Jimmy Page for example.
They could actually play their instruments virtuosotistically and they were touring America when they were in their early twenties.
Nowadays a kiwi band would have to have their mums with them and then they would get up and say they were doing it for their sister who was a siamese twin  or their great uncles hernia  or the dog needed a brain transplant.
Not because a. they were good at what they were doing and b. they wanted the money and most of all c. they just wanted to get up and have a good time.
thats not allowed unless you have a chainsaw or angle grinder or horizontal planer and want to make a fucking awful noise on Sunday morning!
How am I doing so far?

did you ever see a devil uncle joe...

Found Bob Dylan In America in the Family Store yesterday. Up all night reading it.
Stereo going flat out with Blonde on Blonde and Highway 61 Revisited.
and
the only version of Macurthur Park I could find by the Four Tops!!!!
hehehehehehehe.
Woke  up this morning at the break of noon feeling quite refreshed.
Its funny when you read stuff about musicians written by non-musicians.
Sean Wilentz is big on Aaron Copland and Woody Guthrie but not so big on Bill Monroe and Hank Snow and in fact neither of them gets a mention?
Ya get that on the big jobs.
Great exposition of the influence of music on the American left and how it all worked out.
It didn't.

"The purpose of propaganda is not to persuade anyone but merely to see who is toeing the party line".
Joe Stalin

Q: how do you tell a communist?
A: They read marx and lenin.
Q: How do you tell a capitalist?
A: They read marx and lenin and understand it.
Ronald Reagan

ooooooops.
Just got to the section on BD in America where author Wilentz says that Bob started doing Hank Snow, Hank Williams and Bill MOnroe songs in his concerts beginning around 1986.
They  are not mentioned in the index and their influence on th enascent Bob is never discussed.
Not hip enough?

Cant wait till Q&A tomorrow morning.
TV1, 9am.
Bob Harvey will tell about how he chose future Labour Leaders.
?????????????????????????
He must be losing his touch.
This years Labour party are a gang of inept bunglers.
I have voted for the Labour Party for over 45 years but I dont think I am going to bother this year.
I wont vote for National either. They are justa gang of money pigs.
Both partys want to tell people what to do.
National because they just simply like bossing others around, intimidating them  and making them scared of economic failure.
Labour because they think they know whats good for everybody.
They having a bunfest tonight but even though I have delivered pamphlets for the last three years I didn't get an invite?
I only heard about it because I was talking to someone on the bus who is working  the gig.
They said they felt like putting all the food on the table in a pile and letting them fight for it.
As she said the Labour Prty dont like sharing?
If this is the perception of the youth in this country at this time then the party is doomed to oblivion.
so much for the dignity of the working man when there is no one  properly representing them in the parliament except a gang of sooner bourgeois bureaucrats on a career path.
and dont forget the post modern diptsticks running the Standard into the ground playing stupid
little  interweb games.

daniel and the sacred harp...

Some velevet morning ya get out of bed and go down to the Baptis Market in Belvedere Road and there is Nancy and Lee in perfect condition for $1.
Plus a cassette of Cajun Breakdowns and the Ox-Bow Incident.
and wait for it...
The Plays of Euripides in hard cover first edition.
Just joking about the last bit...

and Maori Televison.
Watched the Doco on the other night.
Had to agree wityh much of what was said but I take issue with the cop.
If Cannabis is illegal then it is time the Medical Profession had the ability to prescribe Tincture of Cannabis to those who need it.
If the Medical profession is not to be trusted then who is?