Weekend social 13/02/2015

Written By: - Date published: 2:35 pm, February 13th, 2015 - 60 comments
Categories: weekend social - Tags:

Christmas truce 1914Weekend social is for non political chat. What’s on for the weekend, gigs, film or book reviews, sports, or whatever.

No politics, no aggro, why can’t we all just get along?

60 comments on “Weekend social 13/02/2015”

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  1. Ennui 1
    13 February 2015 at 3:28 pm

    I was thinking of a really dull and tedious weekend. ..no real estate speculation or tax avoidance calculus. No getting ticketed at 200 in the Mazeratti. No fine dining with oodles of fine Otago pinot noir. Tutukaka game fishing or similar. None of that nonsense for Ennui. No………………… …..For some bizarre February reason Super Rugby starts tonight.

    Mrs Ennui will yawn and run a bath…my cup will floweth over.

  2. McFlock 2
    13 February 2015 at 3:33 pm

    Valentine’s day on saturday – sponteneity doesn’t usually go too far wrong 🙂

  3. Barfly 3
    13 February 2015 at 3:45 pm

    I’m “celebrating” 192 days sober…with another water /sigh

    • r0b 3.1
      13 February 2015 at 4:10 pm

      It is a celebration – good for you!

      I used to work in a brewery, long (long) ago. So much alcoholism. It put me off alcohol for my early life, and even now I very seldom drink.

    • b waghorn 3.2
      13 February 2015 at 5:03 pm

      Might be time to change your handle to barfree 🙂

    • Murray Rawshark 3.3
      13 February 2015 at 5:07 pm

      Over 3 years for me. It was easier than I’d expected.

    • alwyn 3.4
      13 February 2015 at 5:13 pm

      But you will miss out on this view of life

      “I only drink champagne when I’m happy, and when I’m sad. Sometimes I drink it when I’m alone. When I have company, I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I am not hungry and drink it when I am. Otherwise I never touch it – unless I’m thirsty.
      – Lily Bollinger”

      She of course had the advantage of not having to pay for it.

    • Rosie 3.5
      13 February 2015 at 6:56 pm

      Good on you Barfly. What a massive effort. I hope you’ve been well supported through out and continue to be. Take care and enjoy your achievements.

    • McFlock 3.6
      13 February 2015 at 7:32 pm

      I’ve heard it’s better than the alternative. Congrats on your willpower

    • ianmac 3.7
      13 February 2015 at 8:38 pm

      Barfly. Great news. What was your greatest incentive to choose this hard row?

      • Barfly 3.7.1
        14 February 2015 at 11:36 am

        After having my wallet stolen while I was pissed as a parrot I had such rage and hatred of myself that it was enough to get me through the first 2 months (not really an incentive I guess)

        • r0b 3.7.1.1
          14 February 2015 at 11:43 pm

          There are some ratbags out there. But using that trigger to recognise a problem and deal with it is the best response you could have made.

    • greywarshark 3.8
      13 February 2015 at 9:49 pm

      Chilled water on a hot day. Delicious. You can feel it flowing inside your body cooling all over. Water is your friend. I’ve been reading that it gives muscles a boost, keeps away cramps, releases the prickly feelings from calcium spurs in your elbows when you are older.

  4. adam 4
    13 February 2015 at 4:42 pm

    Grime Music time..

    Well OK Only Dizzy Rascal

    But hoping other’s can offer up some Grime Tunes.

  5. b waghorn 5
    13 February 2015 at 5:10 pm

    Big weekend down in the King Country the A’N’P shows on in Taumarunui as well as the classic gliders turning up for a week at the airport.
    But of most interest to me is the king country center champs dog trail at mahihi otarohanga it the best chance for a easy entry to the north island/new Zealand champs in may. Is Bess the mighty good enough.

    • Murray Rawshark 5.1
      13 February 2015 at 5:51 pm

      May the inside of your gumboots stay dry.

      • b waghorn 5.1.1
        13 February 2015 at 5:57 pm

        Not sure if that’s a curse or a blessing could do with a drop of rain or two , might even leave the coat at home to temp mother n into getting me:-)

  6. Janice 6
    13 February 2015 at 5:41 pm

    I will be carrying on with my efforts to rear an endangered species – monarch butterflies. I keep wondering which group of brassica growers convinced who in which government department to ask some idiotic minister to permit the importing of a caterpillar eating wasp. Even caterpillars left outside that are less than a cm long are being eaten by the very efficient wasps and all that is left is black blood.
    P.S. There are lots of white butterflies around, are they not as tasty as the colourful monarch?

    • Murray Rawshark 6.1
      13 February 2015 at 6:06 pm

      I don’t think they were deliberately introduced, just someone not being careful enough with imports. Bloody things make a mess of monarch caterpillars.

    • tc 6.2
      13 February 2015 at 7:39 pm

      White butterfly’s are destroyers of brassicas, monarchs eat the swan plant as far as I know. The whiteys are menaces and seem to be around awhile whereas the monarch had a very short life cycle.

      We hate them with a passion as they monster the winter crops coming up now.

    • ianmac 6.3
      13 February 2015 at 8:42 pm

      I have 17 swanplants growing but have sighted only one monarch butterfly. Those leg trailing paper wasps seem to patrol the plants looking for caterpillars. same last year. Monarchs Nil.

      • phillip ure 6.3.1
        13 February 2015 at 9:11 pm

        i have six six foot high swanplants..

        ..and i have swarms of monarchs…

        ..birds and stuff love my yard..

        ..the lawns haven’t been mowed in five yrs..(i walk it down when it gets too high..)

        ..so there is a whole eco-system going on in there..

        ..and tho’ in suburbia..the fence/trees make it a green-cave of sorts..

        ..a safe haven for them all..

        ..and even wild birds like being whistled-at/talked to..

        ..my great grandfather taught/showed me that when i was a kid..

        ..he used to do it all the time..and i thought it was very cool..

        ..so also do it..

        • Adele 6.3.1.1
          15 February 2015 at 8:58 am

          Kiaora Phil

          I live rurally. I have paddocks for neighbours. Recently the property was refenced to stop the cows from coming in. Before the fencing, i had a bit of a wild garden thing growing. Lots of flowers, colour, insect life and even a rat nesting under the harakeke.

          Well, the fencing contractor, whom I know very well, unilaterally decided to have his workers ‘clean up the place’ and had them remove every plant and every bit of colour from the section. This happened last week and my blood is still boiling.

          The fencing contractor is a good person and runs a crew of youths who otherwise would be in prison. He is also a Tuhoe bushman. I said to the dude “how the fuck would you like it if I went through Te Uruwera with a chainsaw. ” That’s how badly violated I feel.

          So I really do get the wild garden thing. And on a final note, Bob, the rat, is now trying to store his nuts in my ceiling. I need to really think about that one.

          • phillip ure 6.3.1.1.1
            15 February 2015 at 11:35 am

            morena adele..

            ..i find if it gets too unruly/high..

            ..that walking it down is preferable to cutting..

            ..i did my backyard yesterday..

            ..and it is strangely satisfying to do..

            (..much more so than clattering around with a lawn mower..

            ..faster..and no mountain of clippings to deal with after..)

            ..and freshly-tamped it all packs down to about 10cm high..

            ..and then the cycle starts again..

            ..and doing that i get a glimpse of the insect-life in the eco-system that has built up..

            ..and i really recommend growing some swan-plants..

            ..it is way cool to have monarch butterflies flying around the place..

          • weka 6.3.1.1.2
            15 February 2015 at 11:47 am

            Kiaora Adele,

            “I said to the dude “how the fuck would you like it if I went through Te Uruwera with a chainsaw. ” That’s how badly violated I feel.”

            Makes sense to me. Lots of people socialised into tidy is best and the beauty and abundance of wilderness in our backyards is lost on them. I’ve been in that situation a few times where people thought they were doing something useful or kind but were in fact destroying something essential. It’s hard. Did the man get it when you pointed it out?

            Rats on the other hand, once they make it into the ceiling, that’s a step too far. It was always the young males who would come in at 3 o’clock in the morning and run riot over my bedroom ceiling. That was the time for me to push back.

            • Adele 6.3.1.1.2.1
              15 February 2015 at 9:26 pm

              Kiaora Weka

              “Rats on the other hand, once they make it into the ceiling, that’s a step too far. It was always the young males who would come in at 3 o’clock in the morning and run riot over my bedroom ceiling. That was the time for me to push back.”

              I know exactly what you are saying. So far I think it still is just Bob, the solitary rat. I have yet to see or hear evidence of the whanau or mokopuna. He is already in the ceiling space rattling his nuts about.

              I have had endless discussions with the locals on how to remove rats, which generally involves trapping or poisoning. I am at an impasse. I don’t want to kill but I also don’t want to come home to a horde of rats arguing over the remote.

              Ben the movie springs to mind.

    • greywarshark 6.4
      13 February 2015 at 9:54 pm

      Can you cover the swan plant bush with fine netting – dress material type? Or fine muslin? Monarchs are beautiful. Do you belong to the Trust? I am sorry about the demise of the NZ preying mantis and the way that the South African has swamped it. But I feel that wasp may be getting into the preying mantis too.

    • David H 6.5
      14 February 2015 at 8:43 am

      @Janine
      Naa the white ones only eat the tougher green stuff, Cabbage and my Silverbeet (out with the dust again) so must be bitter compared to the Swan Plant eating butterfly. . I have a friend here in Levin who’s house has hundreds of chrysalis mainly empty now and butterfly’s everywhere. Oh if they eat the plants too quick or too far She put Cucumber out for them. The forum Second link should elp with your wasp problem.

      http://www.monarch.org.nz/monarch/species/monarchs/monarch-host-plants/feeding-monarch-larvae/

      http://www.monarch.org.nz/monarch/forum/

      • Janice 6.5.1
        14 February 2015 at 10:01 am

        Thanks for the links DH. It is good to see that some people have living caterpillars. I got some net to cover my two mature trees greywarsharrk, but the wasps managed to get underneath the cover and there was carnage! Of the 22 caterpillars that I knew of only 4 remained. One was hanging ready to turn and only half of it was left. I live in the Franklin district so if there was a deliberate release of wasps I guess it would have been here. We are also close (as the crow flies) to the Auckland Airport, so I suppose if something came in there it would head for this area as a good source of food. Now I go over the trees at least twice a day and any branches with eggs on I bring inside.

        • greywarshark 6.5.1.1
          15 February 2015 at 11:40 am

          @ Janice
          Good luck with raising them inside. Perhaps a trend could be started for people to adopt the ones ready to change, bringing them inside when they went into their J shape. And then viewing them as living works of art – I find them beautiful with their cases of light green with gold spots. Watching the amazing work of the nature as their wings form and colours deepen till they can be seen through their thin cover is interesting. The beautiful end comes as they emerge and slowly waft their wings to dry and circulate their blood. Set them high enough so the cat won’t get them would be a rule!

    • r0b 6.6
      14 February 2015 at 11:45 pm

      Monarchs! I used to see them all the time at my parents (Chch) growing up. Haven’t seen one for many years. I had forgotten. Thank you for your efforts…

  7. miravox 7
    13 February 2015 at 6:00 pm

    Flying home to winter after 4 fabulous weeks with friends and family in Aotearoa. Highlights included family wedding, Abel Tasman track and several visits to Raglan. Best.holiday.ever.

    Only rained while we were on the track – reckon it was Puck paying us back for a dry Milford walk some years ago.

  8. Murray Rawshark 8
    13 February 2015 at 6:07 pm

    Leaving the land of intense cold for Auckland tomorrow. Yay, warmth!

  9. reason 9
    13 February 2015 at 8:15 pm

    There’s a Wellington/Wairarapa outdoor dj and laser party this weekend.

    Although I’m not going to it I usually enjoy these type of events.

    https://www.facebook.com/events/448976005256415/

    • TheContrarian 9.1
      14 February 2015 at 11:27 am

      I know a number of the DJ’s and lighting guys – quite friendly with the organisers too. They always do good work so will be fun I am sure.

      I was thinking of going but the problem is the drive back the next day. There would be no way I would be sober enough to drive.

      • greywarshark 9.1.1
        15 February 2015 at 11:02 am

        This is where Facebook could come in handy. A group with transport and revolving and reliable sober driver task could contact each other and set up trips like this Contrarian.

  10. Philip Ferguson 10
    13 February 2015 at 9:25 pm

    Writing this, I have the wonderful Dick Gaughan playing in the background. Militant working class folk music as its sinewy, caustic best.

    One of the things I like most about Dick is that, like a string of singer-songwriters of his time, he is a very accomplished guitar player. Back in the 60s and 70s being a guitar-playing singer-songwriter you had to be a really good guitarist. Like Dick, or like Bert Jansch or John Renbourn or Davy Graham. Or NZ’s own wonderful Chris Thompson (‘Echoes from the Pit’ and ‘Minstrelsy’ are wonderful albums).

    The Gaughan album I have on is ‘Gaughan Live!’, recorded at the Hebden Bridge Trades Club in the north of England.

    Gaughan is a Cot, but he has a couple of nice songs exposing the myths peddled by Scottish nationalists, pointing out that the Scottish landowners and capitalists ruthlessly exploited the working people of Scotland and also emphasising the solidarity between Scottish and English workers: “No Gods” is a powerful, raucous number, while “Both Sides the Tweed” is just beautiful as a song, even if you didn’t follow the lyrics.

    “Tom Paine’s Bones” is another great track, sinewy and emotional.

    “Whatever happened?” is magnificent; it’s a rollicking, biting condemnation of all those who espoused revolutionary views in their youth but moved right as they climbed the socio-economic ladder (but might have kept the odd Che Guevara t-shirt).

    He also has some wonderful guitar-playing on two instrumental medleys.

    Gaughan first came to my attention at the time of the 1981 hunger strikes in the H-Blocks. He does a beautiful version (my favourite) of an old Irish republican movement song, “The Galtee Mountain Boy” and it was on a fund-raising album put out by the POW Dept of Sinn Fein. The live album contains my favourite version of “Both sides the Tweed” but there’s a nice version of it by Dick with Emmylou Harris at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlDijR0Y60Q

    One of my favourite tracks on that great album was “Back Home in Derry”, written by Bobby Sands (although Sands was from Belfast). But my favourite version of that song is by the wonderful Gary Og, however his best vid of it seems to have disappeared from youtube. But he does a nice version of Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song: here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iP7r0cg7Oc&list=PLDC4C4612C68C0D55&index=16

    One of my favourite Irish songs is “James Connolly” and my favourite version is this one, which accompanies one of the annual Easter Rebellion commemorations organised by the Belfast branches of the socialist-republican movement eirigi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EghEkVe80e0

    and, of course, lots of the wonderful Damien Dempsey: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2014/03/28/damo-does-the-dux-gig-review/

    the wonderful Seth Lakeman: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2014/12/30/seth-lakemans-workers-lives-review-of-tales-from-the-barrelhouse-and-word-of-mouth/

    and I’ll be digging out some of the old magnificent Van der Graaf Generator; this is one of my favourite songs of theirs, “Arrow” (from 1975): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiLv2f3QKzs

    Phil

    • mac1 10.1
      14 February 2015 at 1:57 pm

      I share your admiration for Gaughan. Fine guitar player and also a voice which I find very rich with an expressive warmth. “Kist of Gold” is my favourite album. Great political songs and also a way with a love ballad. He’s one of my “Gee, I wish I could play/sing like Gaughan.”

    • Northsider 10.2
      6 March 2015 at 5:24 pm

      “…songs exposing the myths peddled by Scottish nationalists…”

      you seem to infer that Scottish nationalist were (are?) on the side of the landowners and capitalist and they they were fellow travellers in ther attitudes towards working people.

      Can you expand? I don’t see the current SNP in that light.

  11. phillip ure 11
    13 February 2015 at 9:34 pm

    since the 10th feb i have posted/linked to 40 items in my music/ent/lit category..

    http://whoar.co.nz/category/musicentlit/

    ..and there is some seriously good shit in there..

    ..ranging from one for joni mitchell fans..

    ..to lord of the rings in five minutes..

    ..(having tired of all the walking..i walked out of the first lord of the rings..

    ..so i found that one useful/a time-saver..)

    ..happy scrolling..!

  12. ropata:rorschach 12
    14 February 2015 at 11:43 am

    Oceania Badminton Champs starts this weekend at North Harbour. Some good battles between Aussie and NZ. Pacific Island teams eliminated early 🙁

    I asked a Cook Islander if he was going to play in his jandals, he said “I wish, it’s too bloody hot in here” 🙂

    Quite a fun tournament, not too serious like the NZ Open…

  13. ropata:rorschach 13
    14 February 2015 at 1:28 pm

    Blew the head gasket on the Commodore last week! Off to buy a bicycle this arvo.
    Starting a new job on Monday. Will need the $$$ to pay for the Holden dramas. Arrgh

  14. greywarshark 14
    15 February 2015 at 10:58 am

    On Radionz. I thought this was a breakthrough in social understanding and the Joy of Mathematics. It is not airy fairy ideas, really factual and provable and repeatable.
    And can be applied to NZs as a democratic people if trying to understand why our democracy and we are going down the plughole.
    http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/20167277

    Hannah Fry – Love and Mathematics ( 21′ 27″ )
    09:40 Just in time for Valentine’s Day weekend – Dr Hannah Fry tells Wallace the
    mathematical equation for love. Her new book The Mathematics of Love offers a unique perspective on matters of the heart. As a mathematician, Dr Fry answers such burning questions as: What is the chance of finding love? How long will it last? And what are your chances of divorce?

    • weka 14.1
      15 February 2015 at 11:42 am

      did she get to the bit about how many people are simply not suited to lifelong monogamy? 😉

      • greywarshark 14.1.1
        15 February 2015 at 6:54 pm

        There was too much for my tiny brain to encompass weka. May have done. There’s something for everyone in the book it seems.

  15. Philip Ferguson 15
    15 February 2015 at 3:47 pm

    “Selma, the stunning new film based on Paul Webb’s screenplay and directed by the previously unheralded African-American Ava DuVernay, makes for an interesting side-by-side comparison with Stephen Spielberg’s Lincoln. Both films revolve around the circumstances attending the passage of key legislation affecting Black America: in the first instance, the Thirteenth Amendment that abolished slavery and in the second the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that sealed the doom of Jim Crow, a legacy of white America’s abandonment of Reconstruction. . .”

    full review at: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/02/02/selma-the-movie-the-history-and-its-relevance-today/

  16. greywarshark 16
    15 February 2015 at 7:06 pm

    Another film. – Edward Snowden and how it feel to be really unpopular in a pseudo-democracy.
    Citizenfour – A panel discussion ( 19′ 19″ )
    http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/20167273
    08:40 The Oscar nominated and BAFTA winning documentary Citizenfour tells the story of Edward Snowden – a former NSA employee turned whistle-blower.
    Radio New Zealand National held a screening of the film in Auckland earlier this week and followed it with a panel hosted by Wallace Chapman and featuring: Mediawatch’s Colin Peacock; former Listener editor Finlay McDonald; documentary filmmaker Annie Goldson; and, Sandra Kailahi – a freelance journalist and director.

    Film has been shown in auckland and Wellington.
    Will be opening from Feb 19 in Christchurch and Dunedin.
    Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiGwAvd5mvM

    Also be aware of something lighter – Alan Davies UK Jonathan Creek QI etc is coming.
    10:40 Alan Davies – Telling Stories
    Alan Davies is a standup veteran of 25 years. He starred in the crime show Jonathan Creek which ran for 14 years, and is a permanent panelist of the QI show hosted by Stephen Fry. Alan Davies is bringing his new show Little Victories to NZ for a series of gigs across the country in July.
    http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/20167279

  17. ropata:rorschach 17
    15 February 2015 at 10:32 pm

    I met an honest-to-God Alex Jones 911 truther today who told me that “God’s judgment is upon America”, that “Obama can kill anybody he wants”, and that “FEMA is constructing death camps around the nation”.

    This guy is around 65 and very overweight, has renounced his U.S citizenship and emigrated to New Zealand. He also said “the church in America is corrupt” and “America is the whore of Babylon” and something about Revelation chapter 16.

    Tried injecting a little bit of sanity into the conversation but soon realised I was wasting my time and looked for an exit strategy. But on reflection I pretty much agree with his criticism of US militarism, although his logic and religious rhetoric was totally insane. I think he got NZ citizenship because of his Australian wife.

    No doubt he will pull a NZ pension while complaining about big government and voting NACT

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