August 08, 2005
after the 'Revolution'
Has anyone seen this ad on Cuba Street recently? There's been a bit of media coverage - I'm going to buy a pizza there this week just to reward them. They're onto something - it occurs to me the Antichrist very likely would be someone who sees himself as carrying out God's mission...
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Highlight of the past week, apart from playing with Ascension Band on Wednesday, was Friday night. The punk gig at the Caledonian, 1 Adelaide Rd, was good fun - and great to see a new live venue. Big room, good sound system, though maybe overdoing the smoke machine a little. Ian Goldsmith's getting his Dope Smoking Wizard act together (named after a song by yours truly, which I recorded in 1999 for the album The Marion Flow and which sounds nothing like Ian's krautrock project), Ditzy Squall sounding noisier than I remembered, and some good hardcore bands. A guy outside demonstrated for me his hardcore vocal style - I'd always been curious how they do it, as I would have thought it would lead very quickly to a dry throat & coughing. Beer for lubrication probably helps. But it's not a matter of screaming or shouting (he did it fairly quietly), rather a particular mouth/throat technique for modulating the voice. I could probably get it with practice.
It was a big week for music/arts overall, with the Bomb the Space Festival - five nights of music, 4-5 hours each; the audience seemed noticeably fatigued towards the end of the Saturday night. I did feel a bit distanced from the Happy scene, so only went along for bits of the festival, but great to be a participant.
There was also a dinner with the Word Festival people on Saturday night. That looks to be a good event - I'm helping organise the closing night, and I'm also trying to come up with a painting to put in the exhibition there. I've never tried painting so it'll be primitive art. It's the Word Festival so my idea is to come up with a phrase and make a piece of calligraphy out of it - in shorthand.
So there's Word Festival to look forward to at Thistle Hall from August 18-20. Then I'm organising an Ascension Band gig at the Memorial Hall in Paekakariki in September - our take on the 'Concerts by the Sea' series perhaps. And looking towards further recordings, touring, Fringe 06, and taking (a version of) the band to Australia next year. I did a bit of 'networking' at the gigs - looks like Ascension Band in this year's Punk Fest could be a goer, then playing in Oz could be doable (though likely to run at a loss - but a good project for those of us going there anyway). There are also a couple more offbeat possibilities - the band doing a gamelan piece at Vic Uni, and having a night of big bands with the 10 Acre Block guys in Auckland.
The real highlight of the week though was that I got on well with a girl at the gig on Friday. I didn't sleep with her, kiss her or even get a phone number (she seemed to have a girlfriend chaperoning) but when it was time to go home I touched her hand and she gave mine a squeeze. Beautiful warm moment, I wouldn't have missed it for the world. I had the Beatles song 'I Want to Hold Your Hand' running through my head as I walked back to Newtown...
Posted by fiffdimension at August 8, 2005 10:43 PM | TrackBack