The Analyst

Okay so this might not be interesting to anyone else out there, but regardless of anything else I think these are quite nice pitures.

Being a Saturday morning, and having done the dishes and washing, I'm playing at the computer again. I checked out my Google Analytics page, as do every now and then, and discovered these.

This one shows the nations from where people, or at least their servers, have visited my blog - the thing you're reading now. This one shows the nations where people, or at least their servers, have visited my website- the thing you should look at now.
I've just decided that when there are no cream areas on both these maps it'll be time to quit.

So everyone get networking with your random small nation friends and see how quickly you can make me quit this dumb, sad life.

(Not in a suicidal sense, just in a make dramatic changes kinda way.)

The Fire

What with the Patea Freezing works burning down on Tuesday night, I was reminded of my visit(s) there.

After taking that photo, and meeting the then farmer using the land, I got his permission to jump the fence and wander around - so long as I was careful seeing as the place was falling apart and stuff. I told him if he saw my car still there in a couple of hours then assume that I'm lying inside somewhere badly hurt.

I wandered around and shot a roll of film on my old Agfa Isolette. Unfortunately I was still on my cross-processed trip, so the photos are somewhat ruined by that horrible little fad.

Here's a selection for you.

Okay so that was eleven of the twelve shots - that's still a selection ain't it?!

A year of so later I also made a work there for this series.

There's another piece of history gone.

The Proof

Further proof, as if any was needed that exercise is bad.

This afternoon saw a quick, largely uneventful game of basketball which only seemed to confirm that I am 'The Biggest Loser'. There were four of us - me, Matt, Stu and Jim - so we rotated the pairings. I was the only one to never win a match. Awesome.

Anyway, it was enough to get a bit hot and sweaty and puffed. But I needed more. So ...

Having my bike with me I headed up Mount Vic. All nice and easy. Then over Alexandra Park to drop down behind the old Fever Hospital into Newtown. I've never had much luck finding an easy route for this, so today I tried a new route.

The following photos show what happens when you follow a slightly overgrown track that turns into a track the bike is happy to follow even though the rider can see nothing verging on a track due to all the gorse, blackberry and assorted scrub.


It's interesting that while I got scratches and prickles on my legs, arms and hands, it was the back of my left leg that took the brunt of the attack.

Below is my best approximation of a forensic photographer showing the result of coming off and falling onto some of the aforementioned blackberry. Not so nice. Note not just the two blood spots, but also the ripped fabric.

And further forensic photography showing the left leg of said pants. Mmmmm blood.

So all up it was a pretty awesome afternoon. May be back tomorrow for more. Choice.

And I should mention that I stopped in at Evans Bay to give myself a bit of a wash down and sea water disinfection before carrying on home. Things looked a lot worse before that.

And it was certainly a great deal better than the first cycling related blood of the summer.

Now I'm off to find the dettol. Ouch.

The Quote

I just found out that I'm being quoted in the national media.

How exciting.

Does that mean I'm famous now?

So in keeping with the rural theme, here's a couple of photos from a couple of years ago.

The Thinker

I once sent myself an email.

As you do.

When you have a thought you wish to remember.

And no notebook handy to jot it in.

It was this:

Sunday, 10 March, 2002 5:14:28 PM

it occurs to me that my talent as a photographer lies not in photographing people but in photographing the things people leave behind

It made sense at the time.

And I think it's still true.

To a degree.

It's certainly where my interest lies.

I'll leave it up to others to decide if it's where my talent(s) lie.

So here's some photographs of things people have left behind.

The reckless slobs.

And something I left behind.

Though I did pick it up shortly after.

So I'm not such a reckless slob.

The Waster

Today has been a day of procrastination. Doing things other than that which I should have been doing, and which are certainly more urgent.

So instead I have made changes to my website, spent time reading other folks blogs, playing games, scanning and making pdfs and such like (admittedly one of the pdfs did relate to what I'm supposed to be doing).

In keeping with my procrastination here are two images from the last time I was on Kapiti. I was taken for a bit of a tiki tour up along the northern ridges to places I hadn't been before. It was fun. It was different to other parts of the island.

And they have a caravan.

I believe it was delivered by helicopter many years ago, and isn't really used much now. It looked useable, but needed a bit of a tidy up. The good thing about there being no mammals other than humans on the island is that structures like this seem to be cleaner than elsewhere.

And I sepiaed it. Cos I could.

I'd like to get over there again soon, maybe once the kids are all back at school. We'll see. Anyone wanna join me?

In my random blog reading I discovered this blog - a link lead to a link lead to a link lead to a link lead to a link lead to a link lead to a link lead to this. Some of you will know my feelings about this man, so we needn't discuss those here, but one thing I found interesting was the number of times he decries the profusion of 'decorative' photography in galleries and at book fairs. To me, that is exactly what his photography is, regardless of what he would have us believe.

Mind you there are days when I feel the exact same way about my own photography - until I remember that no one buys it, so it can't be that decorative after all.

The Out

Here's a bunch more pictures to conclude my Big Day Out 2008 coverage.

Op Shop.

Billy Bragg.

Billy Bragg.

Either Pluto or Arcade Fire.

Shihad.

LCD Soundsystem.

The Clean.

The Day

In today's instalment I give you a bunch of arty shots.

Starting in the Boiler Room with Dr Octagon.

Mmmm. Nice.

And here's Bjork. I think this is from her encore. With evening falling the fancy lighting started to look decent.

Then back into the tent for LCD Soundsystem. And I got excited using that unfocussable lens. Oh it was so pretty.

And we finish with The Clean under the moon.

Lovely.

The Big

Seeing as no ones been asking for this, here's my round up of the Big Day Out - expertly produced in a timely fashion.

I didn't know exactly where I was going, having left the relevant map at home, so we arrived a little later than we meant but we made it in time to check out The Checks - no photo sorry (I thought I did but it would appear I was mistaken). They rocked. Not sure I'd be interested in their album, but they were a great show.

Moving slightly to the right we caught Liam Finn. I love his solo album but ...

Live on this stage he was a bit dull. So we left after about three songs. To be fair, I don't think it helped that he followed the high energy Checks. Even his loop-the-guitar-and-bang-the-drums thing seemed rather light compared to the boys.

Over to the main stage to catch the end of Anti-Flag's set. I'd never heard of them, but have now heard enough to know that I'm keen to hear more.

And on with Op Shop. The fact that the shot below of the main stages is taken from the back while the above shot was taken near the front probably gives some indication of my feelings about Op Shop.

Frankly I just don't care.

Popped in on Mu, mainly to get out of the sun. No photos. Can't remember his set but we got to chill out a little and there were lots of people buying expensive crappy beer.

I didn't think I'd care much about the Boiler Room but ... here's Dr Octagon.

It was hot. It was loud. It was funky. I shook my booty. A little. Then outside for a bit of fresh air, and around the corner for a bit of Surf City.

Nice local lads. Rocking. Kinda got bored, but stuck it out. I never used to mind bands like this, but these days it does annoy me a bit. These boys had absolutely no interaction with the audience. Just got up, played their tunes and got off. Good music, but I need entertainment too.

So back into the Boiler Room and Havoc - that blue thing down the bottom.

It was hot. It was loud. It was funky. I shook my booty. A little more. And then Dizzee Rascal.

It was hot. It was loud. It was funky. I shook my booty. A quite a lot more actually. It was fucking hot. We left after about three tunes. Sweat coming out of every pore in our bodies. Glistening skin. Mmmmm.

And over to the small stages to dry off, rehydrate and catch Battles. This is during Billy Bragg's set. Man that guy is boring. I wish he'd just shut up and play. He doesn't need to chat for five minutes between each song when he has nothing to say. Oh, and a song made up of Clash lyrics isn't as interesting as it should be, and is probably the least inspired way to commemorate Joe Strummer.

Then Battles. Except someone changed the times on us without letting us know and The Nightwatchman (aka Tom Morello from Rage) came on. Another wannabe folky with a guitar and some boring tunes.

We left and headed back Local Produce way to check out The Exiles. Again no photos. I can't really remember them, so I guess they didn't leave much of an impression. It's one of the guys from The Nikons/Eye TV, who never left much of an impression back last century so at least he's being consistent.

Then back mainstage way for Arcade Fire. But first we had to put up with Pluto. (Intentionally unfocussed photo.) I've never been much of a Pluto fan, the lead singer's affectations really annoy me.

So we spent the end of their set finding a good spot for Arcade Fire, who were after all, the reason we were there. So they get two photos. They're special.

They really are special. They rocked. They rolled. They fought. They really put on a show. Ten people on stage. Your eyes don't know where to look. They were fantastic. Equal to expectations. Sadly it was over too soon.

It seems that they love NZ (naturally) so fingers crossed for them coming back and playing a few more dates soon. They also ended one of their songs with "I'm so bored of the USA", which was a far better statement and tribute than old Billy's attempt.

We decided to sit out Shihad's set. I've been over them for most of this century, and hadn't seen them live for many years. Perennial BDO favourites. I didn't see them live this time either. Just sat on the grass taking shots of other people sitting on the grass.

They rocked. It was great. And their new material sounds fantastic. Like they've finally given up on their plan of taking over the US with metal-lite, and gone back to the brutality of Churn and Killjoy (my fav album of their's, and Grant Smithies' too). Awesome boys.

Back amongst the masses for Bjork. Sadly it was rather boring. Just too chilled lady. Especially after the rawness and power of Shihad. A couple of tracks were fantastic, full of energy and pumping grooves - I can never remember names of her songs, but the last one in the set and one of the encore tracks were fabulous.

Yes she got and encore so she gets two photos too.


And out. I never had any real desire to see Rage beyond a mild curiosity. So we braved the Boiler Room again to check out LCD Soundsystem.

It was hot. It was loud. It was funky. I shook my booty. A hell of a lot more actually. By all reports (well by my speculation based on the one report I got about the Rage gig) I think it's safe to say that LCD rocked a shitload more than Rage. It was fabulous. It was groovy. It was boys with loud guitars. And funk. And lights. And energy.

And some clever people started lifting the side of the tent near the end so we could all cool off a bit - though it was nowhere near as hot as Dizzee's set, seeing as it was now evening.

Then over to the small stages to catch the last of The Clean. We got there part way through 'Point That Thing' which sounded great but I didn't care for the rest.

And finally we got Supergroove. Kicked off superbly with 'Next Time', then a bunch of tracks I didn't know, and I was tired and just wanted to go home. So we left them to it and tried to beat the rush.

It was a fabulous day. Lovely and hot, exciting, not as crowded as I expected, some fantastic music, lots of water consumed, some awesome photos, two tired legs.

I'm no longer a BDO virgin and I think I may have caught the bug.

So thanks to you young lady for making me go (i.e. by buying me a ticket for Christmas to ensure you had someone to go with). Let's do it again next year eh?

And for all you technophiles out there, cos I know you're wondering, all shots were taken on this little thing.