Buzzy Bees are awesome

Posted in Lovely pictures, Utter Trivia on July 5, 2009 by brunswick

Unfortunately we were stood up by people who were supposed to come around and see the flat today, they didn’t even respond to texts. Rude! I’m going to put the rooms on TradeMe, it seems the only way to attract attention nowadays.

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I was with my family today, it’s probably the last opportunity I’ll have for relaxation for a while. My nephew discovered the multiple possibilities of the Buzzy Bee: you can push it along the ground so it clicks, pull it back so it makes a squeaking noise, twong the antenna, suck on the string, and bite it. No wonder it’s such a popular toy.

I have to try and be creative now. It’s pretty obvious that I’m not in the mood.

Slivers and chemicals

Posted in Brunswick Soundtrack, Utter Trivia on July 4, 2009 by brunswick

I was supposed to help a friend move flats today but I was informed that I was surplus to requirements, which nonplussed me somewhat, but it’s probably for the best that I stayed home because it allowed me to clean more bits of the flat and take calls from new prospects. We’ve got someone coming over tomorrow who has a friend looking for a second room in a few weeks, so I hope she likes what she sees.

I tried cleaning the front of the flat to make a more presentable first impression when people come up the path, but I discovered that if I scrub hard enough to remove lichen, it also takes off most of the paint. And chunks of the actual wall.

I’m listening again to Fripp & Eno’s 1973 album No Pussyfooting, which is basically two long tracks of Robert Fripp playing guitar while Brian Eno messes around with the recordings. This new edition has extra tracks recreating a John Peel session where the entire album was accidentally played in reverse over the air without anyone noticing, the audio equivalent of hanging a piece of modern art upside-down. Apparently when Eno, polite as ever, called in to point out that the music sounded as though it was being played backwards, the BBC wearily responded with “that’s what they all say”.

In which people are frustrated and upset

Posted in Utter Trivia on July 3, 2009 by brunswick

For some reason, two people I saw within minutes of each other were having a dreadful time – a librarian being comforted by another librarian, trying to hide behind the pillars and glass and stacked books at the main desk of the Central Library, and a checkout girl who was on the verge of tears, both trying not to cry while trapped in a very public place. I had to go into town to place a classified ad with the DomPost, which I realise no-one does anymore, but their online booking site is outdated and incomprehensible and I don’t have any money on my Trade Me account. I’ve been there three times in the past year, and I think it’s always the same person at the desk, who I remember because she’s extremely helpful.

I also tried calling Slingshot to get details of the flat’s broadband account changed (it costs us $40 a month for 15GB, and I’m the only one who uses it now), but of course it’s the only flat bill not in my name so I couldn’t change a damn thing. And the guy was really rude to me, which is always a drag when you’ve been asking sensible questions.

So, there was a mood to the day which I don’t usually associate with Fridays. Maybe the air pressure is what’s causing all this tension. Maybe it’s swine flu.

The Whimsical World of Drypnz

Posted in Bloody brilliant observations, Shameless Namedropping, Unwarranted criticism, Utter Trivia on July 2, 2009 by brunswick

I was only at the Drypnz exhibition opening at Manky Chops for about ten minutes because hipsters were smoking indoors (ooh! rebellious!) and my associates proved susceptible, but I had a good squizz at the paintings and the collection of tiny ink drawings and painted chunks of wood. He’s overly fond of pale circleheads with painful pouts, but I suppose if you’ve got something, you should run with it.

Luckily Pippa was supermarket shopping, so that filled up the next four hours.

There’s another creative writing pasteup by Schlott on the wall alongside the road that goes from the Terrace to Boyd Wilson Field. It’s a simple thing to write something interesting on two pieces of paper and stick it to a wall, but it’s hard to do well.

I didn’t have much sympathy for the Watermark Boutique Hotel a few months ago, but I read their slogan again on the fencing surrounding the vacant lot where tens of millions of dollars worth of apartments ought to be: “A Life Above the Ordinary.” There’s something fundamentally un-NZ about that attitude, isn’t there? It really ought to read “We’re In a Huge Hole In the Ground -Come Join Us.”

I spent a happy afternoon painting over patches of bare weatherboard on the side of my flat. It’s like painting Weetbix. I hope it dried before it started raining, the weather’s not going to let up until at least Tuesday.

Party and hipsters

Posted in Unwarranted criticism on July 1, 2009 by brunswick

That was one of the best Salient parties I’ve been to, and I’ve been to a few. I got to meet the lovely Juliet Buckler, who was demurer than I anticipated. I haven’t been doing much for the past month except alleviating my heightened stress levels by visiting Kilbirnie, so it was good to see everyone. Okay, there was one person who made me go “Waargh! Holy Hell!” internally when I saw her, but out of a whole room of Wellingtonians one isn’t bad. It was also nice to see some of my favourite women friends dancing together, but oh, those shitty Michael Jackson remixes that everyone’s playing at the moment…

Afterwards, as inevitably as dreaming about going to Manderley in a Daphne du Maurier novel, I went to Mighty Mighty with Pippa and MJO. Hipsters are hilarious. At one point I saw four people in skinny jeans, a baggy T-shirt and little caps take photos of each other simultaneously, and you know it’s going straight onto their Facebook page. We watched a band I thought were called The Crack Arse 5 who (disappointingly but logically) turned out to be The Crackhouse 5. Imagine the Beastie Boys with a tiny but obvious record collection. I recognised all the samples but couldn’t make out a word, although the slideshow was impressive. Afterwards came Diana Rozz, who were good, but again I could not make out a word. Aha, Grant is getting old! Yes, but you don’t have to be Martin Hannet to know that if you put the vocal, keyboard, guitar and drum needles in the red, it will all sound shitty.

Today’s Jitterati

Posted in Cartoon stuff, Jitterati, Lovely pictures on July 1, 2009 by brunswick

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Sorry Jitterati hasn’t updated today, I’ve only just been able to upload the new cartoon to comicgenesis.com. I’ve been using them for six years, and at one point they changed the protocol, so I haven’t been able to log onto the site directly and I’ve been using an FTP programme to upload comics, and I can’t change the page templates or update instantly or anything like that.

Oh. Great.

Posted in A Good Whinge, Utter Trivia on June 30, 2009 by brunswick

My one sensible flatmate, the one I wanted to keep, has had the bad timing to fall in love and wants to move in with her boyfriend… this is going to make what was an already difficult situation impossible. Imagine showing people around a flat… in the middle of winter… with another flatmate on the way out, and not quietly. At least I know when this one is actually moving, so I can start advertising.

The really annoying thing is that this is taking up most of my time and energy, and I have a lot of other things I need to be doing. There’s a conflict between short-term survival and long-term survival.

I was buying some cleaning products from Karori, and the Woolworths was trying to get rid of old pre-shrinkage blocks of Cadbury chocolate, the Creme Brulee flavour. Poor thing, lying there in stacks, thinking “How can I be the least popular flavour? What about Fruit & Nut, no-one likes that sucker!”

A brief dip into normality

Posted in A Good Whinge, Jitterati, Lovely pictures on June 29, 2009 by brunswick

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It may be only 6℃ in my room, but I’m in a good mood. And why not? I’m on a temporary break. No more starving in my room because I don’t want to go to the kitchen and be yelled at. No more abusive e-mails accusing me of terrible and ludicrous conspiracies. No more tiptoeing around in the evening like a sandwich ninja to avoid waking a super-sensitive sleeper who refuses to wear sodding earplugs. This must be what normal life feels like.

I should enjoy it while I can, because after next week things are going to get very unpleasant. Most people, when asked to leave a flat, do so in a manner which preserves their dignity. That’s not on the cards here, folks.

New bits of graffiti

Posted in Lovely pictures, Utter Trivia on June 28, 2009 by brunswick

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This rather hamfisted piece of graffiti has gone up just around the corner from my flat, on a busy road in a location where no-one will see it except pedestrians. There were big incriminating footprints in the mud, so nice one, Banksy.

schlottBy contrast, this interesting paste-up (click for larger image) was on a wall just before the entrance to the Mt Vic tunnel. It’s a piece of creative writing by someone called “Schlott”. A day later it had been torn down, but sometimes that’s the point of this sort of artistic expression.

The energy drink of Sisyphus

Posted in Unwarranted criticism on June 27, 2009 by brunswick

I found some on-sale Relentless, which is on the way out, and tastes the same as its replacement, Mother. Thankfully the branding isn’t as gynophobic, although the labelling warns:

It’s goodbye to the shortcuts, hello to the grind. Nobody said it would be an easy ride. Suffer for your art.

Which is a cheerful way to start the day, isn’t it? That deathless paragraph also has a TM sign on it, although I’m not sure why you’d want to legally protect it. Maybe it’s to stop Weta Workshop from engraving it above their main entrance.

Amusingly, although the can is 440mls, you’re advised not to consume more than 500mls daily. Which means you can drink 1.12 cans a day. Although the second can might’ve gone flat by morning.