Simon_Ishtar - 8

[simon_ishtar]

Not sure if I've got much to blog about today... got writers block... Am irritated to hear mention by someone recently that they were pissed off they got a big payrise and almost half of it went into taxes... Am thinking if you're making that much money you are in the top tax bracket its a bit of a nerve bitching bout taxes- after all its only a portion of the money, not all your money being taxed at that level. Likewise when people bitch about having to pay taxes to support lazy students etc when they've been through the system and enjoyed govt support to the tune of approx $8000 a year  for several years themselves (i.e the govt subsidy all NZ students get, NOT talking student allowances etc)
 While I've got the soapbox out I feel like bitching and moaning about the dickhead I ran into the other day who was complaining about the Waitakere licensing trust and their monopoly on selling booze. Sure its an inconvenience not to be able to get booze at countdown at 2 in the morning, we've all been there  One thing I do like about the west is you can drive past a park and see people playing rugby or soccer, kids from not overly well off families get the opportunity to go on school trips to far away places, you can live in a house with a free fire alarm, fire extinguisher and first aid kit, we can afford to keep a stadium .... let pak N save sell booze and a lot of that gets lost...

[simon_ishtar]

Figured I'd post some pics... been a slow day + got nothing to blog about.

My new profile pic, going for a 30-something tranny slapper look, or something to that effect 


another pic, I'm getting narcasistic hehe .. camera phone is still new. Pic just before taking off to Dave's wedding...



me and my 12 string.. the guitar looks beautiful but is a dog to play... hoping to replace it soon.


am building a new pedal board

Simon_Ishtar - 8

Simon_Ishtar - 8

Simon_Ishtar - 8

Simon_Ishtar - 8

[simon_ishtar]

Am feeling too bleh for writing much today. am in a dungeon without much airconditioning and just wanna sleep  Ironically same conditions last night, too hot and humid, and I couldn't get to sleep at all...

 Ambigram tracks are back and sounding great thanks to a lot of hard work from Michelle    Will be making an announcement on Ishtar Army later this week.  Also got news back the video is looking great, though still at raw mix stage...
 
 Am thinking about all these people taking part in movember- am surprised how little encouragement it takes most guys to get them looking like 70s p0rn stars or worse, 80s cricketers. Got me thinking bout 80s news shows and those guys like Mark Leashman and Richard Long and how TVNZ put out an elaborate scheme called a telethon just to trap them in a place where they'd shave their moustaches for a measley $20 donation to charity,
 anyway will be glad in a week when I'm not the only one in the office not looking like a dodgy back of the y character.
 

[simon_ishtar]

Oh man crazy couple of days, carzy week so far- Am that exhausted am starting to lose track of which day of the week it is... On upside this week I think I've finally found a new flat, will put more details up once the ink is dry on the tenancy agreement- don't wanna jinx it by pissing off the karma monkey 

 Downside Quiet Riot singer Kevin Dubrow died the other day + am finding myself really sad to hear about it. I think its something to do with something from my childhood (well early teens) going away? That and reading his friends tributes you really realize he was one of the good guys + not just the recipient of empty plattitudes ... I spent quite a bit of time jamming to Metal Health, Cum on Feel the Noize and I'm Falling as a kid- QR songs were easy stuff to learn + fun to play- I think looking back at their canon of work most of it is a little dodgy .. The first Japan only releases with Randy Rhoads were bloody fantastic (Trouble, Laughing gas + their cover of Afterglow of your love are awesome) + a few songs here and there were great but I think they kinda got caught in a big vortex of negativity once it became apparent the MTV age favoured the pretty boys like Bon Jovi and Poison over them, the ordinary looking kids. That said Metal Health opened the floodgates for every hair metal group of the 80s- being the  first 'Metal' album to convincingly break the top 10.
 Their music was big, dumb, fun rock and when it had a good hook it was up there with the best hooks ever. The kinda stuff that makes me think of summer + drinking and hanging out with friends + driving aimlessly with the steryo up loud (when petrol was cheap enough to do that). Have currently got I'm Falling playing on repeat + have to think damn Kevin Dubrow could really sing! a powerful rhaspy voice that just oozed blue eyed soul. No doubt he could've sung Bon Jovi, Vince Neil, Blackie Lawless, Don Dokken or Steven Pearcy under the table .. Also gotta think he had some stellar players on the albums, sure Carlos Cavaro wasn't Randy Rhoads but he was no slouch by any means. Frankie Banalli could drum like a f**king demon, ditto for Rudy Sarzo's bass playing.

 No great emotional attachment to QR, no stories attached to the first time I heard Thunderbird or Mama we're all crazy now, in fact its probably been years since I've played one of their cds, but yeah am sad to hear of Kevin Dubrow's passing all the same, to the point where I did have a little bit of a cry, not much but a little all the same   
52 is way too young..

[simon_ishtar]

see my other post... gig this Saturday!....

 blog stuff today... Thank god I've got a week off next week as I'm exhausted.. At work still on collections, on the 60 + dpd. Spending a lot of time skip tracing stuff in here which has been undiagnosed skip for ages- the collectors just keep calling dead telephones and leaving their messages instead of investigating further... still though just complaining really cause I'm tired.

 On upside found a flat. Am moving to Glenfield Sunday  Just blown a couple of grand on new bed, mirror, wardrobe (room is a converted basement so no internal wardrobes though on upside the room is a good size, approx 3 1/2 by 6 metres) ...

 On Simon work in progress am going on a diet.. it involves a long story I might elaborate on l8r...

 Jamie is back in NZ soon and will be really happy to see him but sad that Canada has sucked so much in its immigration policies. I think Jamie's coming back to recentre himself, get the ball rolling on permanent residency there + get some more funds- I don't think he's given up on Canada by a long shot yet-

 Bronchitis mostly cleared up...

Official announcement on Ambigram when I get 5 free mins - hopefully this week, at moment most my free minutes are going into putting stuff in boxes.   

re: Above blog about Kevin DuBrow and 'I'm Falling' it occured to me later 'Quiet Riot' aka Quiet Riot 4 was the album they did with Paul Shortino after ditching DuBrow mid-tour in Hawaii- I still stand by my statement though- DuBrow was one hell of a singer- Have got a new appreciation for Paul Shortino at the moment though- Never got any Rough Cutt cds and the only other thing I prev had of his was a cover of Shortino murdering 'we are the champions' (IMO not pretty sung by a bass/baritone)

[simon_ishtar]

Back at work this morning... taken the bus in... is quite trippy cause on the shore they have the park and rides, where there is basically a bus lane nothing but the buses can go on ( barrier blocking anyone else getting on there) took about 25 mins to get in this morning.
 
 Am mostly unpacked though down to the last few boxes of stuff and unsure where they're gonna go...

 don't have a working phone connection in my room at the moment, new line gets connected tomorrow though and I'll be back on the net again 

 Coming to grips with local area. Found bus stops, dairy, on and off ramps to motorway, shopping malls etc... yet to really check out the takeaways and stuff.  North shore seems hotter and more humid than out west....

 Am quite shocked and awed by the fitting rooms at Farmers Albany... much more upmarket than your usual department store...

 

[simon_ishtar]

yay phone gets attached this afternoon! am then back online as soon as I can get woosh to redirect + get the line enabled for broadband.. 
Almost found myself saying to someone yesterday 'welcome to the real world, where life isn't all bout 14 week holidays + you do sometimes come home too tired to do anything other than sit in front of the tv' Truth of the matter is though while I'm feeling pretty tired most mornings I rarely feel that tired I just crash out at night-
 that said...
things that do annoy me about work... (ongoing bitch and moan segment)

There is a middle aged woman who sits at the cafeteria table whenever I'm on break who talks such sh*t I don't really want to sit there. One day she's talking to people about how her son lost his licence for reckless driving, which she thought was a terrible injustice "He is a very good driver, he wants to be a racing car driver in fact.. it is everyone else who has a problem with him because he keeps it real.. the police have no clue"
umm yeah ok 

 Am thinking bout going into business for myself soon- even if it is just a sideline (at least for a while) Finally worked out what I can do that the majority of the planet can't- was pretty obvious when I stopped to think bout it- now to see if that equates to dollars...

 Got a cocktail party to go to this Friday, hoping to shock some people. Maybe less said bout that the better though will likely post some pics... then again maybe current profile pic says it all?  

[simon_ishtar]

got phone on today, just got to get net connection moved...
 Went out last night for a game of pool, tables were all tied up and the place had a texas holdem poker night going.. didn't play but was interesting watching all the tells... the table next to us was real easy to read, especailly a little guy wearing a baseball cap - there was a lady at the table who was putting across positive body language the whole time who I think was actually very aware of her tells, the rest of them- clueless..
 xmas is getting closer + still need to buy a few presents. About halfway done with xmas buying.

 First year I haven't bought myself something, will have to look into that  \

 results on Kevin Dubrow's death, accidental cocaine overdose..

will have to take pics of room and post soon... am thinking I need to get some art on the walls cause it doesn't feel like home as it is. walls are altogether too white +  is a converted basement  and got joists sticking out all over the place in the roof, which makes the roof look really low - isn't really that low though.  Joists have been painted white + I think painting them a dark brown or black would be a much better look- too much hard work at the moment.
 
Shakin Stevens Merry Christmas everyone was playing in the warehouse as I was wandering through the place. I think its scary the guy was one of Britain's top charting artists of the 80s, being a big time throwback to the 1950s as he was but you gotta give it to him for smarts... Merry xmas everyone was supposed to be released 1984 but he sat on it till xmas 1985 when band aid announced the do they know its xmas single...
 shaking hands with the freakish giant santa in the video not so smart, just seems culturally inappropriate to shake hands with him... funny how its all cool sitting on his knee though 

[simon_ishtar]

IMO you can measure the wealth of an area by its takeaways, the more takeaways in a suburban area the less dollars circulating. Waitakere is generally not too badly off but still very much a working class area- there are a lot of good takeaway bars (particularly that block of shops on the way to Henderson on Swanson rd- Nick & L's takeaways rock!) When I was living in Oranga there was a takeaways on every corner, some good, some not so flash. Te Atatu, an area gentrifying still has a few- perhaps a hangover of its days as the ghost town of Auckland before the million dollar houses started popping up round the estuaries. New Lynn has its fair share, not many of which I'd terribly want to eat at.

 Glenfield on the other hand I am finding a bit of a mindfuck in this regard...

 Driving through the place it reminds me of Massey East in terms of housing age and materials, loads of 60s houses with that type of weatherboard everyone always seems to paint a horrible yellow. A lot of the cars don't exactly scream affluence.. average property prices are a wee bit steep however but all the same we're talking approx $400K in the area I've moved into... all in all I'd say still a working class neighbourhood, likely a place where a lot of tradespeople + self employed ppl are living as well as probably a number of admin types etc (ie myself) . For that matter theoretically not a place you'd expect to vote for the blue team come election time (as they seem to) yet it strikes me while there are loads of bars there aren't too many takeaways in the area...

 just a general observation 

Other random stuff txt from Karl Burnett the other day "Hey dude how ya been? Got any nice new frocks? Ha ha" I replied I had actually cause I didn't want to look out of place at Dave and Sharon's cocktail party tonight.. 
 In truth I think I look 'out of place' (well at least different) whatever I'm wearing at the moment. went out for a game of pool the other night and couldn't help but notice myself in the bar mirror + think though I was conservatively dressed that night I still looked more than a little like a drag queen.

 Town was dead as last night.

 Saw Disturbia on dvd the other night- quite a cool film- a modern take on Hitchcock's Rear Window with the guy who played Mr Henderson from Harry and the hendersons- Plays an ok bad guy .

[simon_ishtar]

MERRY XMAS EVERYONE!

Here's to everyone getting all the stuff they want tomorrow, spending time with their loved ones (and not wanting to kill the ones they don't love so much but are family anyway), loads of good food and drink, staying safe, good weather and peace on earth to all.

 Merry xmas and a happy new year. Here's to remembering the true meaning of xmas- It is so easy to forget it is the universal holiday of the poor impoverished liquor shop owner so pls donate loads of money to your local off licence so they can survive till new years- the universal holiday for drunk dialling ex's and people you haven't taked to in ages at a minute past midnight ... 

 Pls spare a thought for those unfortunates who will be stuck indoors listening to tales of an ugly baby tomorrow and pray their rabbit egg day will be better.

 Have a great break- hoping to have a bbq sometime soon and would love to see some of ya there 

 lots of love 

Simon.

[bluesgeek]

Merry xmas mate, I got my xmas wish and got out of hospital 2 days before xmas day    I was rushed in for an emergency appendectomy a week before - then it took them 36 hours to get around to giving me the op, by then it had burst, at least I'm out and moving again - and I lost a few kelos due to not eating for 10 days

and I managed two full pints of Kilkenny yesterday 

have a good one

[simon_ishtar]

thanx BG and merry xmas too  Sorry to hear you've been ill... good to hear you're drinking again though 

[simon_ishtar]

xmas stuff... got a hair straightener from the parents.. didn't get myself anything this year cause I've spent so much in the move.. Still need to get net connection sorted at home....
 Currently practicing at depot artspace.. Room is ok, art in the place, well.... isn't really. There is one painting there, a very cool oil on canvas landscape piece that I'd consider art but for the most part it is pretentious or horribly pedestrian crap.   Am considering spending the $500 for the one painting I do like there, at the very least it'd be a good little investment.
 Am thinking bout new years resolutions and stuff. I've got loads this year, which I find kinda strange- I normally don't have a lot...  little things through to my want list for the room (one more storage cabinet, a coat rack, turkish rug to cover approx 1/3 room- create sense of seperate zones, patio furniture...) to the usual get in shape, more money in 2008 etc to some more personal things, mostly stuff I don't really want to put on a public forum 

 Got thinking bout teaching- am NOT in any way interested in returning to teaching. What does come to mind though is how little respect we give our teachers- is it any surprise we end up with tools like Benson Pope in schools? I'm thinking teaching is a profession, not unlike the law, accounting, medicine etc... To teach it's generally expected you spend 3 years at a tertiary institute getting a degree then spending another year doing a postgrad diploma. From there on in the professional development doesn't end, there's always more courses etc... Not unlike a lot of professions the hours you spend working are way beyond the actual hours on the books... Stuffy Victorian and Edwardian writers referred to teaching as one of the three noble professions ... End of the day they are the people given the responsibility of not murdering your children for 6 hours during the day, why do teachers get paid a pittance?
 Why does a failed teacher (i.e half the labour party) get a starting pay of $100,000 while a yet to become a failure teacher gets $38,000? Why is it for that matter teachers are paid so much less than the other professions? sure Doctors save lives, accountants save dollars, lawyers may save you from a lengthy stay in prison one day but teachers are entrusted to give your kids a leg up to becoming doctors, lawyers etc they at the very least hopefully save your kids from life on minimum wage - or so the theory goes. 
 Anyway in no rush to ever go back to teaching but it does make me wonder. 

[simon_ishtar]

in 1994 Kevin Bacon made a statement at a movie premiere that he was lucky to have worked with everyone in hollywood, except for a handful of people - who have worked with people he has worked with.. A bunch of stoned uni students made this into a game and six degrees of Bacon was born.
 Today I found a very cool site, http://oracleofbacon.org/ and it makes for interesting reading. its an algorhythm designed to link people listed in the internet movie database (IMDB, over 800,000 listings for actors worldwide)... apparently it links 88% of all the entries. While Kevin Bacon is NOT the centre of the universe (apparently there are over 1000 actors who make a better hub) generally it seems to ring true.
 Throughout the morning I've been putting random names in and so far it has had a 100% linking rate... Leonard (Reggie Perrin) Rossiter, Jeremy (Sherlock Holmes) Brett, Blackie Lawless, Andre the Giant, Donald Sinden... a whole bunch of others never any more than 3 degrees of seperation. Even kiwi actors such as Billy T James, Bruno Lawrence and Mayor of Invercargill Tim Shadbolt are a few degrees from Mr Bacon.
 Karlos 'The Legend' Wrennall has only one listing on IMDB and pulls a Bacon listing of 3.
Not that I'm on IMDB but would have a respectable bacon rating of 4 if I was .. I was in a scene in 'Only Barmen Speak in Tongues' where I'm playing guitar, kind of a breaking the fourth wall thing where my playing (background music stuff to a fight scene) cuts to me actually playing. The Kachingo midget then shoots me  Only barmen was directed by and featured Karl Burnett (in several acting roles)  Karl Burnett was in My Grandfather Is a Vampire (1991) with Al (Grandpa Munster) Lewis , Al Lewis was in Married to the Mob (1988) with Oliver Platt, Oliver Platt was in Loverboy (2005) with Kevin Bacon
 
  Just thought it was a cool way of killing a few minutes.

[simon_ishtar]

lets see something to blog about today?
 Still not on the net at home, am at work today. 3 working days ago they said it'd take 5  to 10 working days to get the connection established, can't be too far off now... I hope.
 May be working on a new project very soon but till something comes together am saying very little on that...

 Went out to a few Glenfield bars on Friday cause a friend came over and I found Glenfield was pretty much dead at night. Maybe just cause its that time of year when a lot of people are away ... 
 
 New place is starting to feel like home. Still have 2 boxes to unpack but got nowhere to put the stuff in there. Next payday am thinking am buying more furniture to store stuff in... and a turkish rug.

 Am thinking about our practice rooms (which is at the back of an art gallery) and the assorted notes from staff there warning bands not to leave their 'grot' there and not to take food or booze into the practice room (in an authoritive holier than thou tone no less, though you gotta love how they spell 'Halt' as hOlt  ) I might leave some notes of my own by their 'art' if the mood takes me... 'your impasto application of paint is not just out of touch with the subject matter it is messy, please clean up your grot' 'hOlt! show more respect for the musicians using this place than ripping off king crimson album covers!', 'your big ugly head on a skateboard is nothing more than a cheap knock off of Sumerian artefact on a large scale, we are not impressed, you've seen the Omen- so what?', 'You failed school cert art didn't you?, you should've listened to your teachers', 'haven't you learned anything from impressionism? shadows are lighter than their surroundings, not darker- well done dickhead and welcome to 1860!',    ....  Not that I've got anything against the 'artists'  but I do find blanket accusations from someone on the artspace staff insulting.

 Am feeling the need to go and see some real art some time this week.. something with Holman Hunt's photorealism, Tintoretto's grand scale, Caravaggio's high drama or Dali's strange brew of Freudian mindf*ck and Goya-esque borrowings..   

[simon_ishtar]

Not a whole lot to blog about today... Went to Takapuna the other day and went for a wander along the beach. less than 10 mins drive to get there, which I love 
 Bought a turkish rug and another storage cabinet thing for the room yesterday half the room is looking more like a home now, the other half still needs something... filled the fridge with bourbon, vodka and beer yesterday too- well it was bourbon, vodka, beer and midori but I drank all the green stuff in there. Am trying to get a wide range of alcohol in the fridge for visitors so gotta stop drinking by colour + mix drinks a little I think...
 I am still thinking bout some art for the room but have started to wonder why wouldn't a Gibson ES335 be considered art- well more likely an Ibanez knock off... I think few things are quite as artistic as a cherry red 335, an aged black beauty les paul or a wooden bodied dobro- Whatever has become of bands and the music industry in general IMO a classic guitar is as representative of Americana, rebellion, lost youth or at least a middle aged attempt to grab hold of what youth you've got left + romanticism as a classic Harley Davidson any day + a lot less likely to dump you on your ass going down the motorway or make a mess of your bedroom floor  .... Just gotta work out how plausible it'll be to hang guitars on the walls- am not too sure how much actual room is behind the gib board, should be enough to get some brackets with a flange that opens up on the other side in there

[simon_ishtar]

Really have got nothing to talk about today... other than the fact Woosh are a bunch of brainless tools 

so:
 Waitakere city  popln 186,444 over 367 sq km
North Shore popln 205,605 popln density 1634.94 (according to Wikipedia) per sq km??
 according to my number crunching the shore is 126 sq km, rounded up slightly with more than 3 x the popln density of the west...

 I find the above #s mind boggling in as much as NZ in general is supposed to have a popln density of 25 people per sq km, approx the same as Iraq.

 So much land going to waste, such high property prices, so many of us living like pack rats...

 On the flipside I could be being a little melodramatic on the packrats part ..... when converting above figures to ppl per acre the North shore has 6.6 people per acre and Waitakere 2.055

 It then begs the question what happened exactly to the kiwi quarter acre dream?

 In case you haven't guessed..

 I AM BORED AND COUNTING DOWN THE MINUTES TO THE WEEKEND .....    

[simon_ishtar]

am still bored, still at work though been home since the last post a couple of times ...
HAVE GOT MY NET CONECTION BACK AT HOME...... FINALLY 

don't have a lot to blog about so random bullshit today...

 Kevin Bacon, centre of the universe and a friend of a friend of a friend of mine has worked with 1462 actors- when you multiply all the ppl they've worked with it covers around 400,000 actors. You gotta love the small world theory...
 Thinking of that my theoretical Danny DeVito, Herve Villachaise and Marilyn Monroe #s are all 4

 Ted Nugent tried to buy Muzak in 1989 with the sole purpose of closing them down. His takeover bid failed.

London is officially recognized as the worlds first millionaire city, circa 1800 (one mill ppl) the Central Aisan (Turkmenistan?) city of Mirw was a millionaire city at least 300 years earlier though didn't get put on a map till the Russians took the place over in the 1860s...

Humphrey Bogart was born on Christmas day



 I think its ironic I live on a road named after a type of boat, in an area where roads have been named after boats and boat parts and Glenfield doesn't actually have a beach.....

Am bored and need a holiday 

[simon_ishtar]

Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Whose gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinburg? I have a greater responsibility than you could possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago, and you curse the marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know. That Santiago's death, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. You don't want the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall, you need me on that wall. We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said thank you, and went on your way, Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon, and stand a post. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you are entitled to

[/font][/color]
 The quote Jack 'Col Jessup' Nicholson from 'A Few Good Men'.. While I'm sure Jack rocks the Col in the film is a total asshole.
 Winston Churchill, a hero to many, a man who came to embody the fight against Nazi Germany- he said the word fight in anaphoraic fashion several times in fact in one of many speeches that bear resemblence to Shakespeare's king John- would not have been a nice man. He appears very one eyed in his views + undoubtedly was a warmonger- His major flaw came from his bouts with depression the 'black dog' as he called it.
 Speaking of Shakespeare, the greatest of all writers thought so little of Anne Hathaway, his long suffering Mrs that in his will all he left her was the second best bed in the house. From what little is known about him he is known to have getten involved in a number of petty civil litigations against neighbours and the like... perhaps not a big deal but contrasted to the man who wrote Prospero's speeches (considering how the wizard casts off his cloak symbolically in the last of Shakespeare's plays IMO I think Prospero is how the bard viewed himself) the two images don't exactly match...

 I've always held that heros and role models are very different things a lot of the time. Just the fact that someone decides for example that they're going to climb 8848 m above the world or drive a car faster than anyone has before to me suggests ....

 to be contd when I have time 

[simon_ishtar]

hmm think I'll come back to that at another time.. Caught up in the whole hero vs role model thing. The person I was thinking bout with everest in mind was Mark Inglis + how the guy is a complete tool for walking past a dying man and offering no assistance whatsoever- My train of thought among other examples the things that often make up heroism often don't make for good role models. That said at the time Ed Hillary had a lot to say about Inglis, none of it positive.
 
 All fairness to Sir Ed he could be considered a hero and a role model- if your role model for life is a modest unassuming laconic bloke that harkens back to kiwiana of old...

 Personally I'm not getting caught up in the hysteria over Sir Ed, while its a little sad he's passed on, 88 is a good innings + he lived a remarkable life.   

 That said his death does signify the passing of a certain kind of kiwi- have to think Colin Meads would be one of the few public faces of that age and type left.

 .........................................................

  Am back online at home, don't know if I'd mentioned before, but yay finally able to check facebook etc again !
Ant posted a pic of everyone at the Chloe farewell gig ... really struck me how much I've changed my look as of late + how glad I am I have done so 

  Weekend was fairly quiet.

 I have to say Peter Phillips aka Iron Pete, aka the tall skinny socially retarded asshole who has come with me to a lot of gigs over the years is a complete dickbrain. If you are reading this Pete please go and f**k yourself dickhead. My patience has finally worn thin with you, you're dead to me asshole.

 now for happy thoughts....  

[simon_ishtar]

thoughts for today.. Am at work and still feeling much in need of a holiday. Am feeling tired of Auckland and in need of a drive either north or south of the city. Am especially feeling in need of that vibe you get the moment you leave city limits and the world seems less a weight on your shoulders, the air seems less polluted and, at least until you hit the next town or some grandma driver, driving the open road is a thing of enjoyment 

 Don't get me wrong am not saying I'm sick of Auckland,  just I think I need a break from it for a few days.

[simon_ishtar]

really have nothing to say today so more random facts from the Oracle of Bacon.
Manis the orangutan, star of 'Every which way but loose' (he co-starred with Clint Eastwood) has a Bonzo (as in bedtime for bonzo, co starring Ronald Reagan) number of 2 John Daheim having worked with both chimps.
 the other co-stars Reagan and Eastwood are linked by Don Keefer

other listings, little men..

The Oracle says: verne troyer (mini me) has a Herve Villechaize (tattoo)  number of 2.
Verne Troyer was in Pauly Shore Is Dead (2003) with Whoopi Goldberg
Whoopi Goldberg was in Telephone, The (1988) with Herve Villechaize

Wardrobe malfunctions....

The Oracle says: Janet Jackson (I) has a jayne mansfield number of 2.

Janet Jackson (I) was in Nutty Professor II: The Klumps (2000) with Kathleen Freeman (I)
Kathleen Freeman (I) was in Kiss Them for Me (1957) with Jayne Mansfield

THE Bruce Dickinson (ie. Saturday night live- 'More Cowbell' )



The Oracle says: Bruce Dickinson (I) has a christopher walken number of 2.

Bruce Dickinson (I) was in Incubus (1981) with Helene Udy
Helene Udy was in Dead Zone, The (1983) with Christopher Walken

The gun debate (yeah I know it should show them botrh listed in Bowling for columbine, go figure...

The Oracle says: Michael Moore (II) has a charlton heston number of 2.

Michael Moore (II) was in Edtv (1999) with Jenna Elfman
Jenna Elfman was in Town & Country (2001) with Charlton Heston 

Simon_Ishtar - 8

[simon_ishtar]

three minutes till I have to log on and get on with a days work ... 

 I somehow imagine a lot of ppl aren't going to work today, they'll be waiting for Sir Ed's coffin to come past them .

 Hillary Clinton claimed in her autobiography her mum named her after Sir Ed, something Bill Clinton made mention to years back, when here for APEC. The reality is Ed climbed Everest in 53, Hillary Clinton was born in 1947. Still makes a nice story, for one Hillary its a cool self empowerment 'girls can do anything' message "I've named you after a mountain climber cause if you want to you can climb mountains too" for the other recognition the world was paying attention to his exploit.

 I find it amazing no-one ever chronicled climbing a mountain just for the challenge of it- and to enjoy the view- until Francesco Petrach climbed a mountain in the 12th century. Prior to that people climbed them cause like with Hannibal it was in the way of you kicking Rome's arse, or possibly something you had to climb to avoid an arse kicking. Typically folks didn't live on mountains cause it took you too far away from water most the time. Ironically when you look at legendary places like Shangri-la or the lost kingdom of Prestor John typically they are up in the mountains like some hidden jewel.  Those crazy bible folk have their own spin on mountainst- Up into the mountains (Mt Sinai?) goes Moses so he can get closer to gods ear, down from Mt Arawat comes Noah cause some dick caused a flood and thats where it left him.
 Lord Byron wrote about the Swiss alps something to the effect that they reach to the heavens, leaving vain man far below. His Archetypal Byronic hero the mysterious and otherworldly Manfred is depicted wandering up through the mountains as a show of his superhuman powers. When Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wanted to kill of Sherlock Holmes he set him brawling with Moriarty over mountainous terrain, eventually falling from the Reichenbach falls. Lets face it mountains have some serious mojo and for Ed to go where 80 previous expeditions failed before took some massive balls. 

 To devote so much time to the people of Tibet is another thing entirely. It indicates a man with a massive heart.
 
 I have to think end of the day though climbing a mountain is like Marlowe's trip down the congo in Conrad's heart of darkness or Ishmael's need to head out to sea in Moby Dick. The journey that counts is the inner journey, it is one of those life arc moments + once you've done it you'll never see the world from the same narrow horizons again. I think with anything that pushes you to your outer limits there has to be a certain philosophical aspect to it it forces you to confront Socrates' first law of philosophy "Know thyself".

 Here's to you Sir Edmund Hillary 
 

 

[simon_ishtar]

postscript on a prev note, at practice last night a new sign 'pls don't push your amps cross the floor' (someone has been pushing an amp through the gallery leaving scrapes in the paint) I liked that it said please and thank you, its tone was far less condescending . the offensive note in the kitchen was gone too.
 
 

[simon_ishtar]

Am sitting at work with some strawberry flavoured milk. About a month ago I went to a cocktail party at Dave and Sharons + everything tasted a little like flavoured milk, mixed too many drinks + haven't been able to drink flavoured milk since, today is no exception.. 
 
 Went to town last night but was drinking bourbon- I don't think I could ever drink enough bourbon to put me off the taste, when I was younger I'd tested that theory and proved it correct.  Was a good night.

 Air conditioning at work at the moment is non-existent.

 At home A/C consists of a fan I bought and put together for $17 at the warehouse + a dehumidifier- a dry heat is always way more bearable IMO ... I wanna be home

 hopefully helping compose some music for a film tonight... 

What ever happened to Kachingo? What was Kachingo? All I remember was the little guy from the add. He shot me and didn't really have ginger hair.
By shot I mean in a Film Karl Burnett made...

 Heath Ledger is a bit of a nasty surprise... don't wanna say too much as it'd be very easy for my blog to be a chronicle of dead ppl. When you think about it half a dozen famous ppl at least would die each day... Kinda guessing this one was a tragic accident- I don't think ppl typically commit suicide naked, unless you're Reginald Perrin and decide to walk out into the sea?-
 I did read somewhere he was taking sleeping pills cause his mind was racing so hard from doing batman, I kinda get that. I can remember at the first language school I was at I'd have the voices on constant loop, in Chinese for the first week or so. When I first started working for the evil empire it was a similar thing then too but for much longer.. just a barrage of dozens of voices from the day. I think it my brain rerunning the scenarios trying to come up with solutions cause by the time I'd gotten the hang of the job it'd stopped.

2 1/2 hours till home time.   

[simon_ishtar]

aha Kachingo was a customer rewards programme

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kachingo

[simon_ishtar]

recording postponed last night due to technical problems, somehow when we plugged in (I was just going in via an emulated line out of a practice amp) we were getting interference from a Samoan radio station 
 I got to see some of the shots from the film, 'Captain Amazingly Incredible' and it looks pretty cool. Its a mix of live actors (greenscreened) and a cartoon world, really trippy.
 
 Yay for Friday and for long weekends 

 

[simon_ishtar]

At work today then off for the rest of the week- would've asked for Tues off if I'd realized Mon was a public holiday...

Am thinking at the moment first stop will be the Warehouse for a chilly bin and beach towel, next stop Whitcoulls Classics section, then off to the beach .... of course the weather could very well throw a spanner in the works on that plan...

 Might just find a guitar stool in a music shop if it does...

 Things I am thinking at the moment.

1. I want to find something to do mid-week with my time + am thinking poss either some community education classes or maybe something like a book club. Not a big fan of too many living authors so at the moment leaning towards the first option. Maybe take some art classes or the basics of some computer programme I'd never use like Photoshop? 

2. Have finally found a takeaways where I am happy with their hot dogs (one of my hallmarks of a good takeaways, the other two hamburgers and fried chicken- I really do miss Nick and L's takeaways on Swanson rd  )  a Chinese place just off the roundabout just past Glenfield mall, if you're heading down to Birkenhead- Not that I'm buying a lot of takeaways at the moment but I figure the once a week you do you have to be happy that what you're getting is sufficiently grease laden and unhealthy... Everywhere else I've been so far the hotdogs have been too skinny + the hamburgers have had mayonaise on them and other weird stuff. There is a place in Bayview that makes great chicken but unless I'm out that way visiting my bro got no reason to travel that far out...
 so far got shops worked out (including a place where I can get my eyebrows tinted + shaped), a bakery, dvd store, the park and ride and takeaways. All I need now is a local pub to play barfly in...

3. The more I think bout the net and its so called powers to bring ppl together the more I realize that's bullshit. The net has the power to add 10,000 people you don't know to your myspace 'friends' list, the power to send them movie quizzes and virtual monkeys on facebook  and..... whatever it is exactly bebo allows you to do...    In the spirit of this am thinking....

 I think it is time for a BBQ before summer disappears on us entirely... will ring round sometime soon as not convinced anyone even bothers to read stuff here anymore.     


 Oh and if you're thinking bout getting a chocolate bar today and have Itunes on the computer go and get one of the kit kats advertising a free song- you can get up to five songs per Itunes account + you get to choose the song... Got myself my five a song by Rush, Frank Marino and Mahogany Rush (coincidentally) a few Whitesnake tracks and a track off Dream Theater's first album. 

[simon_ishtar]

Up here among the universe
Out here among the stars
Untouched by Earthly danger
So high above it all
In splendid isolation
Cradled from all harm
Allows me my protection
No-one else can hurt me in my Satellite
- Ishtar 'Satellite'

As I see it there is a certain amount of similarity between RF forums and space at the moment, or more precisely one aspect of space that has always fascinated me.
 It might be too early in the morning to articulate my thoughts on this but here goes.
 
 Space radio:
1. One of the things I find fascinating about space is its vast scale. When you tink about how huge the milky way is in itself that is impressive but when you think there are more stars, and hence solar systems in the universe than there are grains of sand on earth the scope of the universe is a little beyond comprehension really. Some stars when looked at through a microscope seem to wobble in the middle, that is a sign there is a planet or two orbiting them- the wobble coming from the pull of the planets as they spin past- some of these planets have water on them. Where there is water there is the opportunity for life.
 One of the things that IMO has to be certain is somewhere in the universe there is some kind of intelligent life, even if it is many light years away and as such not really viable to fly there. The odds are too good with billions of solar systems out there.
2. Space is a vacuum so there is no sound out there. Doesn't mean it doesn't transmit sounds. In fact radio waves travel space at the speed of light. Being a vacuum, ie no resistance a radio wave once it leaves the earths atmosphere will travel on forever, detectable by anyone or anything smart enough to come to the same conclusions as ppl like Marconi and Tesla. As best I understand it anything that transmits beyond a 200 mile area will end up in space though am really not too up on all that physics stuff (yay for coming in the bottom 10% of the country for form 6 Physics- Mr Garrity if you are poss reading this it was because you were an unsufferable twat +every time you opened your mouth in class all I could hear was the teacher from Charlie Brown   - who am I kidding I hated physics at school  )
 In any case we've sent out a lot of radio waves over the last century, some intentionally, some not.

 Given the huge vastness of space, the potential for life, the possibility that life is as smart or poss smarter, given there are radio signals sent off at light speed for almost 100 years... whats the possibility someone out there has tuned in? Some alien culture right now might just be discovering the Carter family or Buddy Holly or shaking their heads in diselief at the lunatic rantings of some shock jock. Maybe they have discovered Bach or the Beatles, possibly Slipknot is more their thing.

 It is a pretty fair bet they hate Sting and Phil Collins + also wish every time Bono says 'every time you clap your hands a child in Africa dies' he'd just stop clapping his hands .
 Thanks Bono aliens now see the Irish as a masochistic and cruel race.

Anyway just imagine people putting something out there to be heard + being heard unbeknowst by a whole group of ppl you never expected- takes the concept of a secret fanbase in Greymouth and amplifies that by about 1 million.

 Who knows who, if anyone I am writing to at the moment?

Anyway...

 Been a quiet few days. Got a few things to announce on Myspace soon but still got to keep under wraps for now...
 Thinking of science bought a barometer the other day, for the most part just for looks.   
 Am thinking bout selling off my toybox and using the money to buy a new amp.

It has been a quiet week.

[simon_ishtar]

ok so according to my other topic there are 9 people reading RF at this point in time?

 Have been reading the your thoughts section of the herald recently and am surprised at the sometimes violent responses of redneck conservative NZ to various topics. Makes me wonder if the Nats have John 'Hone' Carter working overtime creating spin. It is at a point where it is bloody ludicrous- like when you thumb through a topic on the museum revamps and some retard has written "Once again this is all Michael Cullen's fault. John Key on the other hand is my hero and I want him to have my baby and we can all live happily ever after and laugh at the poor people while sipping iced tea paid for from my adequate tax cut" well not exactly that post but kinda...

 Bottom line here though.

 These same redneck dickheads will be looking to lynch Key when they realize, post election they are still going to be struggling to get by and feeling white, middle aged, pudgy and unappreciated and saying "damn govt rips me off with its selfish shithead policies. No-one appreciates what it is like being white and middle class in NZ" Truth is

 NZers like to complain about sh*t, much more so than a lot of western nations as a general rule 

 my political bitch and moan for the day.

 I wonder if everyone who is calling to lynch Helen and Cullen cause of a broken promise for $15 a week in pocket on average in tax cuts, those ppl who are also complaining bout the cost of petrol + housing... if they have taken stock of their situation, looked at the record low unemployment + the fact their business isn't struggling, looked out the window at their bosses new Mercedes, a recent replacement for an old Holden and marched into the bosses office and demanded a decent pay rate .... and Cullen is the bad guy? I guess its the easier, less self responsible option...

 Feeling overworked and underappreciated? Go yell at your boss now 

 other thoughts today, a barometer in a room with a dehumidifier running 24/7 doesn't work terribly well but if you've got a window you have all you need... that and loads of sites on the net giving you the weather forecast...
 Never use greasepaint on a shaved head if you are an actor- use powder... Not that I have personally experienced this, I was reading bout Michael Chiklis in wikipedia and apparently not cleaning off the greasepaint properly as a young actor killed off his hair folicles + gave him his current hairline, not hereditary baldness... 
 A young hillbilly couple fall in love and get married. During the courtship they stay chaste. On the wedding night Mrs turns to Mr and says "I have something to confess. I am a virgin and have remained so as I wanted our wedding night to really mean something". Mr Hillbilly, shaken at this news then promptly jumps into his clampett wagon and drives back up to the family farm, where daddy hillbilly is sitting on the porch. He tells his Pa the story to which the slack jawed yokel replies "Son you done right dumping that girl at the motel. If she ain't good enough for her family she certainly ain't good enough for ours"
 Reminds me of something Karl Burnett txted me the other day that I can't exactly elaborate on at the moment.

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