Hard News by Russell Brown

Yeah , it was a great event. SO surreal walking through the hall of memories listening to Neil Dadson's performance!

Other museums take note!

Diamond Sea! Man, I *loved the crap* out of that track for about a year after the album was released. It kept mesmerizing me. I still love it to pieces but it was almost supernatural at the beginning.

That'd be Phil Dadson.

http://www.sonicsfromscratch.co.nz/index.php

& yes it was a great night. I loved how the sounds bounced around the Grand Foyer.
Lawrence Arabia & guests were fantastic too - many sing alongs where I was standing.

Love that Diamond Sea cover.

The original used to get inadvertently thrashed at bFM in the early mornings ...if the next DJ hadn't turned up, and the current host had the pip, they'd put the system on automatic and leave.

The computer would automatically search for the longest tracks it could find - and at 19:36, Diamond Sea got picked every time.

Nights of the Chills.

We used to go to Paul's cafe, aptly named the Underground Cafe. New North Road. Big, cartoonie finger pointing down the stairs. Pink finger.

In a world gone crazy with Regan, nukes, the material girl, whatever, we were drawn to the retro atmos, the retro pinball, and the decent juke box. It was no heavenly pop hit we sought, that would come later. We were more into alternatives.

I can't remember what else we dialed up, but the night never seemed complete without Pink Frost. I always marvelled at the song's ability to sound like the title.

New Zealand rock music was an oddity in those days. At school, I was a bit of a dick for even showing an interest, and Selwyn prided itself on being liberal. So I saw Martin not only as a pioneer (there were others, after all), but as a kind of champion. I guess I was proud of him.

We caught the band supporting Lou Reed. Then I found myself in Dunedin, and I swapped my pea jacket for a leather one. It was freezing. I wore it ... all the time.

Especially to gigs. All the cliches: standing at the front, by the stage, lights in my eyes, off my bonce, practically levitating in the kaleidoscope world.

Elsewhere, Reagan, Thatcher and some bastard known as Roger Nomics would just have to slug it out without us. Compared to that lot, the doledrums was the only place to be.

Righto. I'm out for the rest of the afternoon, so James, you win! I'll be in touch ...

Haaa haa ha ha ha!

That was easier than I thought. WTF is everybody?

That was easier than I thought. WTF is everybody?

Looks like you might have a promising career in steeplechase...

I did the Sonic Museum tour last weekend. Not so taken with all of the tracks but like the idea I can also download to the iPod and use my own headphones if I wanted to.

I think Steve Garden did a sound installation at Te Papa last year but maybe that was for a specific event at another Wellington museum / gallery.

Would have loved to have been at LATE especially given the topic but just clean forgot about it until about 8pm andf then it was too late to go.

That was just beautiful last night - highly recommend future Late Nights. I've never seen the Maori Hall look more impressive. Fantastic sharp crowd. And kia ora to fellow Pascinistas and Fooers I encountered.

And kia ora to fellow Pascinistas and Fooers I encountered.

Heh. We were yarning and Sofie and Steve Barnes blew past before I could even say hello and introduce y'all.

Ah but I caught them briefly on my way out.

caught them briefly

as ya do :)
I enjoyed the concept. Must admit, the mock english accent at the coat check was a bit off putting for an introduction to what I was in for, but fortunately not the case. Found the sound difficult in the Maori court. Thought it easily could have been set up to run the length of the court with the panel in front of the grain store, thus allowing more people, seats and better sound.(sorry, cant help myself). Therefore I lost interest cos I couldn't hear or then see RB and another buddy Wayne who I thought would cause a bit of laughter. Then the entrance lit up with red and that beautiful stained glass ceiling was very befitting the specialness of being there at night. It did feel like everyone could get something from it.Going through the part of the museum that showed NZ designers was a personal buzz, as it was pointed out to me that my ma and pa had their jewellery in one of the displays. So yeah, I liked it all.

Sorry Russ, I really didn't see you, apart from onstage.
My sciatica was playing up and I was having a truly miserable time all was but a painful blur. Otherwise it was a good evening. :-(

Yep - the Late discussion (compared to last month) needed a bit of rark-up and I think Wayne provided that. The tighter seating area this month, compared to last, was a good idea (maybe that was due to fewer ticket sales this time?) but it did provide a more intimate venue, compared to the top floor area above the atrium used last time, which while impressive, was a fairly expansive place and the panel on that night lacked a bit of reach. In providing a more academic approach, Wayne challenged a couple of other speakers to think a bit more precisely, rather than providing just glib but entertaining asides and that also generated a bit more tension among the panel - and a bit more fun for the audience!

Late is a good idea - this was just the second I've been to - my interest being piqued by the review of Neil and Liam Finn playing Late in April - why did I miss that??? But this time 'round - relaxing to Phil Dadson's trio and seeing Lawrence Arabia live for the first time was a great complementary treat to the initial panel discuss. The night was rounded off by Arabia's "3ZB win-a-wish" comment after Don McGlashan joined him (and the WLG ukes) for the Front Lawn's A Man & A Woman. Great stuff.

Let's hope Late can continue to deliver - and between 300 to 500 people milling around the Museum late (and in the partial dark) on a Thursday night has a kind of novelty factor all of its own.

Nothing personal, but I found Wayne Hope far less interesting than young social media swimmer Monica Barton (any relation to Chris?). I probably expressed myself a little too vehemently (tired) about that to Russell and others, but I found myself agreeing with Nat Torkington that some of the current "issues" would be resolved demographically. Young people just seem to have a different and let's say more optimistic understanding of privacy and I appreciated Russell relaying some of the relevant academic perspectives about that.

However I wish someone (Finlay?) had explictly linked Wayne's marxist point about online living-in-the-now leading to a loss of society/movement-level historical memory with Monica's discussion about access to photos of events with friends. I also noted that being here has spoiled me and I kept wanting to comment on the panel's discussion as it was unfolding.

I wonder if staging lengthwise in front of the food store could work as Sofie suggests? I'm not sure how to remind people of the sacredness of some of the artefacts that were leaned on but the crowd seemed uniformly well-intentioned. And I must say that the projected smoke-screen curtain we all had to walk through was brilliant. Magical night.

Nothing personal, but I found Wayne Hope far less interesting

That's completely personal :)

Nothing personal, but I found Wayne Hope far less interesting than young social media swimmer Monica Barton (any relation to Chris?).

Yes, she's the daughter of Chris Barton and Diana Wichtel, and was drafted in late after Finlay had lunch with them on the previous Sunday. She was quite a star. Although I think it's "Monika".

Ah, so that's her monicker.