Diamanda Galas plays in Auckland on Tuesday! I got my ticket (front row) today and will head up there over the weekend. It's also a chance for me to play some free improvised banjo at the Vitamin S night on Wednesday.
So everything's going pretty well for me, assuming I can find a summer job. I've got the journalism diploma now so fingers crossed that'll make jobhunting easier.
I'm also getting out of Wellington - I feel I actually left town in March, and having returned from Melbourne it feels like I'm just here on a visit. I'm moving to Nelson in a couple of weeks for the summer. Depending how the summer goes it might be worth spending next year in Nelson and doing a course at the school of music there, as a prelude to heading for Europe. I'm looking forward to spending more time outdoors, exploring Kahurangi and Nelson Lakes National Parks etc
We're also going to Australia, specifically Gosford, an hour north of
Sydney, for January which should satisfy my immediate travel urges.
The Stooges are playing at the Big Day Out! So that'll be worth
seeing. And I can record the second half of my 'Australian' album
After Maths & Sciences over there, it's got some quite different
sounds from my earlier works (banjo / computer / field recordings)...
The NZ Herald was interesting today - as well as discovering the Diamanda Galas concert I saw this article: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/11/story.cfm?c_id=11&objectid=10351401
I had some leads on this issue but kind of lost my nerve on trying to follow up the story last year as I would have made enemies and failing shorthand was a bit of a psychological blow. But the story's getting out, as I knew it would.
There was also a 50-word brief in the paper last month about the recycling of polystyrene from the film sets into under-floor building insulation (though not asking questions about the health issues of working with polystyrene, or why they didn't recycle the vast quantites of polystyrene from Lord of the Rings).
It'll be interesting to see what happens if the unions pick a fight with Jackson... I noticed on his Wikipedia entry that 'Despite this perfectionism, he has a reputation for requiring a significantly smaller budget than his peers.' - I think
it's obvious that that's because of the relative cheapness of New Zealand crews, or 'Mexicans with cellphones' as they're known here. If the industry became unionised it could cause a major shakeup.
Anyway I've now passed shorthand so am eligible to officially register as a journalist. I even joined the union, after they were on strike at the Kapiti Observer this week and I decided not to cross the picket line and be a scab. Diane the editor didn't mind and the other reporters thanked me. I had Billy Bragg singing 'There is Strength in Our Union' in my head all of Tuesday...
Posted by fiffdimension at October 22, 2005 12:29 AM | TrackBack