Just a wee note (in between spam hunting) to say Shifting (on at Bats at the moment) is really good. It's well executed, and captures Wellington experiences deftly. I also laughed a lot.
Sarah Lee* played on Cosmic Thing by the B52s!
I first realised Sarah Lee was very cool when I figured out she was the bassist on Ani DiFranco's double live album "Living in clip". Then I found out she is also the bassist on the Indigo Girls' live album "1200 Curfew". She's my favourite type of bassist, plays an independant line in the music which adds compelling rhythm and harmony with the rest of the music.
Jim McGregor has been running this weather site for at least 5 years. It's interesting, accurate, and totally geeky.
I get most of my weather info from it.
Today (when I went to get milk) I was given tiny, little, itsy, bitsy coins instead of my solid, know-where-you-are, kill-a-horse-if-you-throw-it-right old coins.
I like the old coins. I remember when I was wandering about europe in 1982 (it's okay, I was with my mother, who was also wandering), I was consistently impressed with how well our coins stood up to comparison with european coins. Our money was substantial, and you could buy things of real value with them (and, of course, they increased in size in a sensible way that corresponded with their value). Other money appeared to me to be like little flakes of plastic metal which were barely worth bothering about.
Now it may be true that the mighty 50 cent coin no longer has the purchasing power it used to. But I'm still fond of its pleasing heft and the intermittant ribs around the outside. I'll miss it.
(and I also have a private theory that we could have used the 50s in slingshots as an effective defensive weapon against invaders. i doubt the ministry of defence has really managed to make the Reserve Bank take this factor into proper consideration)