Topp Twins

They are lesbian, singing, comedic twins poking fun at a red neck society in the red neck area of A & P shows and country halls (and Edinburgh and Montreal etc). Please put your hands together for the fabulous Topp Twins

Went to see their new movie last night expecting only a laugh but was taken down a roller coaster ride through some of NZs iconic moments from the early 80's. They fought proud for indigenous land rights, gay rights, a nuclear free NZ and finally cancer through song and comedy with a particular vulnerability that offends no one. Borat could learn from them that you don't have to leave your victims squirming and angry to highlight prejudice.

Love their alter egos, Camp mother and Camp leader, Ken and Ken and all bringing the taste of lamingtons and beer from rural NZ to the big screen.

Highly recommended not only to Kiwis but any who want to see a slice of who we really are.

New scene

Mmmm the deck took longer than I thought, looks good though and it's a nice feeling thinking of my grandchildren running about on it. And it's taken a couple of days to get the blogosphere up and running in the new house (well new to us). The view isn't as good but it's still very good. We overlook Cooks Beach (so named after the great explorer walked on it) that's it with Lonely Bay my favourite beach in the foreground and we can still see Flaxmill Bay where Chica Bonita is moored. We will be warm, sunny and snug for the winter and it even has a studio in the garden where I can lock myself away and produce masterpieces.

I have my first gig as personal chef on Saturday night. My mate Pauls' mum is turning 80 so I'm travelling up to Auckland to cook for 15 of the family. It's a long way to travel but it's nice to know the punters so I can bluff my way through easier!

The sky is lightening with orange milk, silhouetting the pruned pine trees on Cooks Bluff like giant catapillars and the sea is the colour of poured mercury. Time to take the smelly dog for a walk and terrorise the local rabbit population!

Shapeshifter

Final shifting today then in Auckland for a few days to help my son rebuild his deck.

Insight from Pollicino

New house

Love Savin Couelles architecture and would like to build something similar for our new house. We can't afford him of course but by using pumicecrete or aerated concrete which I can carve like a sculpture I think I can make a beautiful free form with no sharp edges which will be in keeping with the outcrops of rock around us. With a wood stove for cooking, heating and hot water, solar panels for power, our own rainwater supply, a grey water disposal system and a vege garden I'll be a hippy all over again!

My die it

I started my winter diet yesterday. Eat fresh feijoas and mandarins off the tree and drink coffee till dinner time then have whatever I feel like. It's probably the worst diet (don't do this at home) anyone has thought up but it works for me. Why do I do it? Mmmmm. I'm having a little trouble painting my toenails and I'm sure my pecker isn't getting any smaller but I can't always see it. Mainly though, hunger makes me feel good, it clears my mind and gives me more energy. I seem to be more in tune with myself. Hey, and I can sympathise with the hungry 80% of the world except I get dinner.

Orcas

The orcas are back just below the house hunting their favourite dessert, stingray souffle. I feel for the resident stingrays who cruise our beach but life goes on and there is nothing like the arrival of the top of the food chain (if you don't count man and you shouldn't) to put your own life in perspective.

It was nice to have a last hurrah before we move out next week.

Sculpture exhibition

Friend Steve Malloy has won this years' Lakeside Wood Symposium in Auckland with the above sculpture. This year 26 artists from around the country worked over 10 days to create the pieces. Steve works in varied materials but enjoys wood and stone because he is inspired by natural forms.

The sculptures will be on display in the Lake House Arts Centre grounds at Barrys' Point Reserve , Takapuna until 24th May

Go buddy!!

Sails

My wings have been clipped! Spent an overnighter at Great Mercury Island and developed a small rip in the mainsail so have taken both sails off to give to a sailmaker friend to check and fix. Hope it doesn't take too long or I might have to catch up on my shore work!

Oh starling, little starling

We only have two weeks left in our little house on the hill before it is demolished and the starlings are back in all their irridescent glory with new straw for the little house I built them. Such industry, such hope. There are four of them and the female is hard to distinguish from the male but two of them are going to be disappointed as are the victorious pair when their world turns upside down.

The open see

What makes a man leave his warm hearth and head for the open sea. Is it the last frontier. Is it the last chance to exorcise his earth demons and float coddled like an astronaut in the arms of a gentle and terrible mistress. Perhaps it's the horizon always there but never reached. Do we really know what is beyond it, what is beyond the horizon of our own soul, that gentle and terrible mistress. Could it be survival that strips away the pretense and leaves us one on one with life and death, to see how much we want of either. To fight death until the last breath must mean life is worth it.

Pacific Curls

We hosted the Pacific Curls last night and were treated to a fabulous mix of traditional and contemporary Maori and Scottish music on guitar, ukelele, fiddle, percussion beatbox, tambourine, nose flute, porotiti, stompbox and vocals. Band leader Ora Barlow is steeped in Maori lore and gives out a strong message to care for Aotearoa and it's people.
They are playing Katikati tonight then Te Papa our national museum then leave for a tour of Korea and Scotland.

Life on the ocean wave

Daughter Sarah with her dinner

Denise trying hard for her dinner

Son Sam spearing his dinner

Heading home for dinner with our newly repaired spinnaker.

City living

Been away for a few days visiting the grandchildren and delivering sculptures and seeing how city people live. They seem quite placid sitting in traffic, perhaps they are all drugged on the carbon monoxide! I couldn't do it. If I have to wait for two cars so I can cross the road down here I get impatient. Still I'm glad most people like the cities I wouldn't want them all down here.
Sold a couple of sculptures. Sweeet. More room to make some more!

Personal Chef

While the Egg is closed for 5 months I'm hiring myself out as a personal chef for romantic dinners or other special occasions. I'm in the process of setting up menus so customers can mix and match according to their tastes and budget and I'll bring the food to their house, cook it, serve it, clean up and maybe sing to them (if they are tone deaf!). I'm missing the creative side of cooking, my family are tired of me experimenting on them and want good old fashioned meals for a change.

Salty Dog

Oh to be a salty dog. You wanna taste my skin? I'm out sailing most days and freedom comes to mind. Enjoying something at no cost to me or the environment. Catching my food, making my own water, cooking with solar power (OK that's a dream at the moment but I'm working on it!). I only have to learn how to turn seaweed into something edible to stop scurvy then I'm complete! Have you ever heard such pretentious, greenie babble? A lot of people have started giving me sailing advice because they watch me gybing and luffing and going round in circles and don't realise I'm chasing my dinner and I never realised the disdain power boat skippers give to sailors but it probably works the other way too.
Easter weekend is the end of the summer season here and it's been great to see the summer people enjoying themselves in our beautiful area but it will be nice to get back to just the locals and a walk on a deserted beach for a change. We will have it to ourselves until about October and then look forward to seeing all the 'loopies' again.

The kite runner

Just finished Khaled Hosseinis' book 'The Kite Runner' about a boy of privilege growing up in Afganistan in the '70s before the Soviet invasion, the Taleban and the American invasion. His friendship with a servant boy highlights the intractible nature of the class and religious system which has led to the excesses of the Taleban but also gives a brutally honest account of how a societys' rules get handed down and ingrained in the children.
The title comes from the sport of kite fighting where opponents try to cut each others string and the 'runner' searches for the defeated kite and brings it back as a trophy and the author paints a picture of the beautiful city of Kabul brought to ruin by the time of his subsequent return from the USA as an adult.
For most of the book I thought Hosseini was telling his own story and felt a little cheated (why? because truth is stranger than fiction?) when I found out he wasn't but it's a stunning story, well written and worth reading.

You could love

Billie goes back to England tomorrow so we thought we had better record our song. The music is hers and the lyrics are mine. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxAMgoMvnDs The quality is pretty crap because it is only on my little digital camera. We are singing it live for the first time tonight at the monthly open jam session at the Egg. Maybe a new career beckons. Not!!!

Running man

OK, I haven't sold any of my wooden sculptures and before you hammer me with 'that's not a reason for making art' (yes you, my sole blogger friend hiding behind your mothers' skirts!) I ain't got no room left in da workshop. So maybe I will take the 'wooden' (I've just realised how bad that sounds) out of sculpture and throw some colour on them. Soulmate Billie has made a start above transforming my running man from a swastika to...well...a funrunningmanfunrunningmanfun...sigh, now I've got to think up colour combinations, being a failed artist is not easy!!

god or religion

I'll give you god
No problem
But take him to an
Open field or
Down by the river

Don't put him under
A vaulted ceiling
For then you'll gather
And become
Intractible


A response to Cosmics post