Listening to: Tenth Avenue Freeze Out (Live) - Bruce Springsteen

The second of the ‘The New Cool’ seminars was held at Weltec on Saturday. Being a
lot more zen I was able to avoid a traffic ticket this time ’round. I think my own
experiences marred my enthusiasm for this seminar. Half of the speakers were from
computer games developers… and it’s not really an area that I find terribly ‘cool’,
just terribly hard work. This week it featured:

• David Read - First Floor Publishing
• Mark Albiston and Amy Bardsley - Sticky Pictures
• Maru Nihoniho - Metia Interactive
• Mario Wynands - Sidhe Interactive

The first presentations were from David Read and the Mark Albiston. Both of their
companies have been responsible for products that I love; Manual Magazine and ‘The
Living Room’ respectively. Manual magazine is
an incredibly readable skate/snow boarding magazine which seems to have (by and large)
lifted itself out of the puerile morass that is skateboarding literature. The
Living Room is, for me, probably the single best NZ arts programme I have ever
seen. The Living Room is a constant reminder that even though NZ can be a sleepy little
village it is also a source of unequalled creativity (I always feel much better about
living here after seeing an episode of The Living Room). The values that I price so
highly in each of these products are imbued in them by the directors of the companies…
and the importance of this transferal came out loud and clear from their presentations.
You lead a company from the top and the products of a company carry the values of
the leadership. I know this already, but it’s always good to have clear examples.

While I wasn’t as enthused by the products created by Nihoniho or Wynands they both
had some very useful things to say and lessons to pass on. From Nihoniho the value
of stubbornness matched with naivety can be high. She said that if she had known what
she knew now there is little chance that she would’ve been where she was today…
she saw value in being hungry and foolish. Wynands, who is a delightfully engaging
speaker, made a very, very important point; by and large the quality of his product
had little to do with the success of his company to capture development contracts…
it was all down to personal relationships.

What I found most interesting about both Metia and Sidhe was how the Sony PSP has
opened up opportunities for both of them. When I asked whether or not the PSP had
lowered the entry barrier for them… they both agreed that this was the case. Metia
have been able produce a prototype of their new game and Sidhe have been able to bring
some of their own IP to market. In both
cases this was done for considerably less than for the equivalent stages of development
for the current second generation consoles.

Listening to: Our new neighbours

I’m one of these people who regrets stuff they’ve never done. On that list is a series of concerts that I regret never going to:

• The Cure at the Wellington Town Hall for the ‘Wish’ tour.
• U2 at Western Springs for the Zoo TV tour.
• Shihad at the Wellington Town Hall… ever.

Last night I was able to knock an item off that list.

I think there is something about seeing a live act playing in their favourite venue in their home town. It’s kinda like the rock version of a home game… everything gets nudged to 11. This is definitely the case with Shihad (oh yes.. the all knowing wikipedia has an entry for little ole Shihad).

When Shihad play in Wellington they play for friends, family and, being a typically parochial bunch of kiwi lads, they play for the love of it. A few years ago I saw them live at what was then the Parthenon (and what is now a Greek Orthodox event center). They had just changed their name to Pacifier, but we all still shouted ‘Shihad!’. Even though the venue was very substandard the event was great as the guys played to impress a home crowd. Last night it was at a whole new level. The home crowd was there but the venue was the magical Wellington Town Hall (it is one of the few venues where you can get the vibe of a huge crowd and the intimacy of a pub brawl).

The band obviously enjoyed being home and this exuberance came out in the intensity of their playing and the energy that they poured into their set. They received that energy back tenfold. When the crowd was told to go ‘fucking wild’ it did… the entire ground floor would devolve into a seething, leaping, mass of bodies. If there was a tower or stack of speakers the guys stood on it. At one point Jon Toogood climbed up the speaker stack onto the upper balcony where he played the closing minutes of the song (for a moment there I thought he was going to dive into the crowd guitar and all):

Being an serial abuser of the volume control I now go to these events with ear plugs. Between encores last night I would take out an ear plug and the thunderous roar of the audience would fill my head… they were so loud I could barely hear myself think.

All in all it was as good, if not better, than I had expected.

A special mention has to be made of the support act COG…any rock band that can cover Open Up by Leftfield is worth a listen.

Listening to: Steve Lamacq

This is awfully geeky of me… but I have to ‘fess up to be quite taken by Firefly.
The stories are exceedingly well written, the characters stray into slightly more
than 1 dimension and the special effects are not bad. I think the thing that strikes
me most about the programme is that it treats its viewers like adults… sex is sex
and swearing happens.
Of late I have only been able to find a few programmes that are refreshingly straight
up about normal adult stuff (Huff! is
the other one). In both cases I have developed a degree of empathy for the characters.

If you haven’t seen it and you enjoyed the recent Battlestar Galactica episodes I
recommend you check it out… it’s available on any “respectable” peer-2-peer
network (or on Prime in NZ).

Listening to: Tick Tock - Peak:Shift

Suffering from a little fatigue yesterday I got Angels
in America out on DVD. I missed it when it was on TV and so I took advantage of
my vitamin
B deficiency to blob in front of the TV.

The movie carries some heavy baggage. Like many heavy lifting machines it is built
big… very, very big. Angels In America is a mammoth 330+ minutes long. It shares
the same ironic characteristic of many large human machines - it is run by only a
handful of people. For such a long movie the cast is quiet small, but it is stella.
I think it probably reflects the fact that it started life as a play.

I am not all that partial to heavy human condition material… I get enough of it
from my inner monologue. But for the first time I found it riveting (maybe I am growing
up). The story held me.

The story revolves around two men in 1985 who have contracted HIV/AIDS. One very powerful
and very much in denial and one far less powerful and very accepting. Both men are
connected via a series of lovers and assistants. The exact composition of this linking
lends itself to much of the humor in the movie so I won’t let the cat out of the bag.
Both men also struggle with a disease that is still shrouded in ignorance and horror.
The way in which these men are treated lends itself to some great tenderness and some
of the most moving moments in the movie.

As I mentioned the cast is fantastic with some brilliant performances by Meryl Streep,
Emma Thompson and Al Pachino. The best performance by far is from Jeffrey
Wright. Wright is iridescent as the cynical black queen Norman ‘Belize’ Arriaga
who nurses the vile power broker Roy Marcus Cohn (Pachino). His lot is boosted having
some of the best lines but it is mostly his acting ability - which takes your breath
away. This is apparent because he plays three entirely different characters. As Belize
he delivers powerful words with this tired, gravelly voice that sends a shiver down
your spine. As the rather perplexed Mr Lies he struggles to keep control of the dream
he’s meant to be moderating.

My only criticism of this movie is that the dialog is delivered in that clipped, well
punctuated, manner of a play. Initially it is distracting but I got over it. Still,
I never forgot that I was watching the movie of the play.

Angels in America, I’m sure, is meant to be some sort of allegorical commentary on
the US in the late 20th century… I simply don’t know enough about that history to
pick it up. For me the greatest thing about this movie is the way it paints how people
see themselves, how this perception changes over time and the role hope plays in this
transformation.

Listening to: Rasool - Jill Scott

I went to see Robots on Saturday. Being a sucker for a CG movie it was a no-brainer
really.

Robots is a Rube
Goldberg machine, literally and metaphorically.

Many of the scenes in the movie have been inspired by some sort of marble fetish (scenes
lending themselves to great physical comedy by Fender, voiced by Robin Williams) and
they are really fun. There are even some cute visual allusions to movies like LotR
Two Towers and the Minority Report. But like all amazingly complex solutions to simple
problems it leaves you with that ‘oh! you only wanted to crack the egg???’ feeling…a
little wanting. To be fair the movie never pitched itself as anything more than it
is… but still, don’t expect too much.

As usual Robin Williams is very funny and in some ways his frenetic voice carries
the movie. Jim Broadbent is brilliant as Madame Gasket. Other than that the rest of
the cast are rendered into oblivion by the computer graphics and weak characters.
The scenes of Rodney growing up are very clever and it’s a shame that same the wit
didn’t make it beyond the 30 minute mark.

My inner geek would love to see some how some of the scenes where implemented, particularly
the ones involving traveling across the robot city. They are cool, but I would dearly
love to know about the physics model they used…. because it must’ve been pretty
impressive.

The feeling that nags me about the movie is that it could’ve been a lot better…
and it just shows how good Pixar movies are at present.

Listening to: Duet - Sounds Co-op

The first album by Sounds Co-op, Roofers, is one of my definitive NZ music albums
of all time. Listening to that album made me realise how great NZ music had become.
That was many years ago… Finally, Breaks Co-op have released their second disc.
It was worth the wait. It is called The
Sound Inside.

Where Roofers was a breaks album The Sound Inside is something else altogether. Firstly
it kinda takes your breath away… It has this soulfulness and serenity that reminds
you of Piha or 90 Mile beach… all the typical New Zealand cliches can be applied
to the music on the disc… but you don’t feel bad doing that, it feels a little like
homage. The album is a little lounge and a little blue. It will sit equally in London
vodka bar with fasionistas slowly nodding in unison as it would at a back yard
BBQ.

I remember when I listened to the Trinity Roots EP and feeling so glad to be a New
Zealander. I get the same sense of recognition listening to The Sound Inside.

My only gripe is that is album wasn’t released 3 months ago… it would’ve been the
perfect companion to a Macs Gold and a sunset. It really should’ve been my summer
album of 2005.

Listening to: Love My Way - Strawpeople

Last night I started rereading Neuromancer by William
Gibson. I first read the book when I was seventeen and was taken more by the writing
style and the cool tech… the book sat very nicely as a main course to the pooly
proofed (yes, yes, I know… a silly statement coming from me… but it was very badly
proofed¹) hor’dourve of Wired 1.0. Reading it back then I got maybe
20% of the references. But then it didn’t really matter because the book was just
plain cool. The grunge of the book matched the grunge that owned the commercial
airwaves at the time. I had a driver’s license, I had ‘Ten’ by Pearl Jam and I had
tracked down a copy of Neuromancer via a BBS contact… I was king of the new order.
The only thing that kept me from jacking into the matrix full time was my mum bleating
about the toll bill.

I haven’t really read it since then so last night it was almost like coming to a new
book.

Reading the first chapter I was floored by how incredibly relevant the book still
is, perhaps even more relevant in today’s world. I flicked to the front page and was
gob-smacked to see that the book is now twenty-one years old. The only thing that
jars is the importance placed on the USSR… but in 1984 they were still very very
bad and very very scary. Now able to get +90% of the references in the novel I am
struck by how amazing prescient William Gibson was in his writing. His world view
is tracking against our world reality with a shocking level of accuracy. Considering
the book was banged out on a manual type writer it is an amazing feat.

In my own life there are many examples of the world that Gibson painted. I spend the
vast majority of my time using and creating bits of a worldwide network.
My sister spends the vast majority of her time searching for proteins that tweak human
cells one way or another. My brother spends his time doused in neon light mixing
music for amphetamine driven dance hordes. When my parents went to Tokyo they dossed
down in a capsule hotel. A close friend from university spends a good amount of her
time probing and tweaking the inner workings of the brain.

Happy 21st Neuromancer.

¹Though not as badly as the first issue of Business 2.0… which I wish
I had kept, just as an example.

Listening to: Call To Love - Crooked Fingers

As a kid I dreamt of living in a house under the sea (I know! How surprising!).
Knowing that reaching this goal would take quite an effort I did a lot of research
(I also convinced my parents to pony up for dive lessons… but that’s another story,
one involving a woman’s wet suit). One of my primary sources of data was Cousteau and
his adventures. I devoured his writing like I did ice cream. So you can imagine the
delight I got from Wes Andersons The
Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou.

The Life Aqautic is the story of Steve Zissou and his desire to track down the
Jaguar Shark that killed his side kick. I have read a lot of reviews that suggest
that the movie was little more than a re-imaging of The
Royal Tenenbaums. But I don’t agree, well not completely. Sure you’ve got the
rather worn out and not particularly likable paternal figure and the dysfunctional
family, but The Life Aquatic goes in a different direction… The Life Aquatic seems
to be more of a homage to old school exploration than a treatise on families (though
it does deal with this theme a lot). The Life Aquatic is a lot more fun, though less
darkly humorous, than Tenenbaums and Bill Murray is the obvious contributor to this.

For me the real highlights (other than Andersons delicious melancholy and delightful
left-of-centre rendition of reality)  were the creatures (my personal fav was
the Crayon Pony Fish) and the annoying-until-you-can-work-it-out but very, very, trippy
rendition of David Bowie songs in Portuguese.

Not as good as the Tenebaums… but great fun none-the-less.

And hey… I’ve started tracking down the Cousteau books again

UPDATE: Thanks to the Great Crap Net in the Sky aka eBay I am now the owner of four Cousteau books circa
1974.