g's Journal

Where was I?
I'm afraid I have formed a fake band have been slumming it across the road at myspace. Come by and see me sometime if you're in the area:
http://www.myspace.com/theinvestigations.

News? Well I joined another band (the Cosbys), talked at the Writer's Festial in Wellington (where one of my friends won $65,000 for his writing, what a bastard) and in the meantime I wrote another book, as well as continuing to run Lil Chief Records (which is finally getting a bit of label awareness happening ... sounds like a good cause or advertising speak, doesn't?). Despite this sounding interesting, the actual events were kinda boring so I wasn't inspired to journal any of it.

Now, it's sunny so I am going to get the hell off this computer. I advise you to do similar
... bye!

Ryan McPhun & the Ruby Suns Tour ends in flames...
After completing a show at SXSW and 7 other shows of their 18 date tour, Ryan McPhun & the Ruby Suns' travels were brought to an abrupt end after their van's engine caught fire whilst they were on route to Seattle. All of the members of the band managed to escape from the burning vehicle without injury, yet all their personal belongings and instruments were destroyed by the fire which quickly engulfed their motor home. A photo of the burning vehicle can be seen at:
http://www.myspace.com/ryanmcphunandtherubysuns
The five members of the band - Ryan McPhun, Amee Robinson, Mark Stebben, James Dansey (from the Sneaks), and Olivia Kember (TVNZ reporter) - were given somewhere to sleep for the night by one of the firemen who came to attend the blaze (who happened to be a New Zealander!).

Amee has remarked of the tragedy: "We all literally have nothing. I was wearing a skirt and a t-shirt, my roman sandles, and a scarf. My passport, wallet, sax, keys, cameras, film, clothes etc do not exist anymore. So we had to stop at wall mart to buy some clothes to keep warm. This has meant that our tour is pretty much over - very prematurely. We might be able to pull off some shows that were booked towards the end - depending on how the insurance stuff works out. A friend is on his way here now to pick us up (we were meant to meet him in Seattle tonight - where we were going to play a show). But he is coming here - it will be good to see him. I'm glad we are all alive and unharmed."

You can read more on the tragic events in the Tri-City Herald (Washington).

We are taking donations for the band through the Lil Chief website.

Meanwhile, the news from the Brunettes US is tour is somewhat better, with the band receiving a positive write-up of their show at the Subpop showcase in the New York Times. Their tour supporting Clap Your Hands Say Yeah is now underway.

Ruby Suns on TOTP
Hey thanks everyone that got back to me after my last post. I have managed to get a contact for Greer Twiss so that'll be my first attempt to follow your advice. Anyway, time to get on with the self-promotion...

That's right the Ruby Suns are selling out and going on Top of the Pops (don't know why I sound so scornful since I organised it). When I told Jonathan Brunette, he said "Oh, what position are you on the charts?" Haha, very funny!

So here's the deal...

Ryan McPhun & the Ruby Suns are going to be on Top of the Pops this week so those of you in Auckland are more than welcome to come along to the filming this Friday (today, Feb 10th). The studio is located in the basement of Sofrana House on the corner of Queen Street and Mayoral Drive, Auckland Central (behind the Queen's Head pub) and audience members should show up at 6pm sharp. Otherwise the show will be on Sat at 5pm if you wanna see the end result.

The Ruby Suns are also playing a number of fundraising gigs to raise money for their trip to the US so keep an eye out on the website for details. We're also doing a $5 per person charity house party after TOTP tonight which is at James Sneaks' house, so come if you know where that is or you can e-mail me for details if you know my e-mail address.

This heat, this heat...
They're letting off fireworks from the sky-tower again. I have no idea why. The other night, I heard the screaming in the sky and then they let off one last one that shook the house. I thought that the world was about to end - alien invasion, or those pesky communists after all - but I couldn't get the front door open to check (other people's houses are so confusing sometimes...)

Tonight the fireworks are fairly disappointing, though the spidery arms of clouds drifting off the tower does look eerie. Reminds me of the first, when I helped Gwaan Gal and her boyfriend let off the rest of their fireworks on a jetty in Matakana. She figured out that you could skim the roman candle sparks off the water. Then we tossed a whole flare in, and it glowed and pulsed in the water as it went down.

And the heat today. My god. At the summer series, I melted into a pool of beer by the time we had finished lugging all the gear off-stage. The ruby suns are popular enough now, so I can safely go back to the drab surrounds of my room and admire the peculiar yellow flower patterns backed by red on the wall-paper. No, get back to the book! But I was happy daydreaming...

Does anyone know any famous sculptors I can interview? How about Maori carvers? I much prefer to research to interviews and loved spending a day in the basement of the library creeping through the old books and magazines, stopping occasionally to read about JPSE and Stereobus, etc. Which reminds me...

I wrote something for Grant Smithies' book on under-rated NZ albums and now he wants me to list my top ten NZ albums to go with it ... doesn't he know that this will take much longer than whittling out 500 words for him? I actually think JPSE's "Size of Food" album would have to be on there. Formative stuff, don't you know? Elemental. Get My Point?

Leave off now brother, leave off. The heat is getting to your head...

Four days into the year and already so behind.
Ah yes, that's what happens when you drift around the South Island for a week and a half, drinking every day and then return to Auckland just in time for Xmas and another solid week of drinks. Well, I did have a good excuse - the head of subpop wanted me to come along and help drive the entire staff of the company from place to place. A free holiday and a great group of people to share it with. Though all the jokes after I informed them that we call a cooler, a "chilly bin." In fact that pretty much became my nickname for the trip. Other highlights: someone asking me what the chances of getting some cocaine in Christchurch were (I almost burst a gut laughing); seeing Mark Arm playing ukelele (new Mudhoney album this year, excited? I am); getting a box of subpop CDs, though I probably listened to Wolf Parade too much; met the guys from Flight of the Conchords and found that not only are they comic geniuses, but they're also quite nice guys (they may well be signing to a certain US indie label soon...)

Then suddenly, I woke up - it was two weeks later and I was in Matakana lazing on a beach. It was then that I remembered that I actually have a book to write over the next few months. All my relaxation immediately evaporated and I made the long journey back to the darkness of my room in Auckland and set the dictaphone to play-back, fingers already tapping away on the keyboard. Though I will be back out in public for this gig:

Ryan McPhun & the Ruby Suns
with Punches
King's Arms, Sat January 14th

Hmm, you say. Didn't you just play with Punches in December? Well, yes ... but they are a great band. Plus, when you leave it until December 31st before finding a support act for your gig two weeks later then you will find it a bit of a struggle since everybody is out of town (better odds when the band just has two members!). And we're playing the Summer Series as well. Okay, that's enough blah for now - my wrists have had enough typing for one day...

Oh livejournal, how I have neglected you! I never posted about the Reduction Agents show on Nov 17th when the band were sold wholesale priced beers at the bar and it all ended in tears, literally. Not the band you would normally expect to stage-dive onto their drumkit and generally throw equipment around as if they could afford it. James was so frustrated with how things had gone that he ended the show by kicking in the skin on the floor tom and tossing it over the heads of the audience. Ryan, who was the source of many of the problems, crawled off-stage and fell heavily on the concrete floor. The next day brought rising bruises, a headache, and a sober assessment of the hundreds of dollars of damage done to the drumkit.

Now James Milne is in Australia playing as Lawrence Arabia, supporting Okervill River so we had James Sneak on the drums when we played last night. James Duncan (Punches) helped with our sound - too many people called James! The show was so hot that we just had to give way to the sweat and jump around anyway.

Last Monday was the Random House Xmas party. I had big plans to scope out the guys who wrote "Plenty More Fish in the CBD." It's hard to even know where to start with that book, but it is for real, not just a joke. You wouldn't believe it. Have a look at Olivia's piece on it and see what I mean. Or look at their website"(!). As a fellow author with the same publisher, I think I'd best leave off making any comment...

Tze Ming also pointed out to me this blog about how to make a hip mix-tape.

Reduced by the agents, broken heartbreaking...
Not much time so I will hit this entry at speed and leave the clean-up until another day. Firstly, the worst album covers of all time, though I actually like the one by Komputer. Much worse is a coffee from McDonalds and I tried a number of different varieties at their headquarters in Freeman's Bay the other day - inside the offices, they have kitchen set-up just like in the "restaurants" themselves, complete with staff in the uniforms. Half-an-hour later I was left with a sour taste in my mouth and $40 of supermarket vouchers. Better than that was the gig with Ghostplane the weekend before last - I forgot to post about it, but Heather still came along so I guess it wasn't as much of an unknown quantity as I expected it to be. And tomorrow night (thurs, that is), the Reduction Agents are playing at the King's Arms. They are playing exceptionally well at the moment and you should go if you can. I'm not just saying that as their buddy, since I'm actually playing a gig on the same night at the Dog's Bollix so if I was being self-serving then I guess I'd convince you along to that, but I know when I'm beat. The Broken Heartbreakers are playing again on Dec 2nd at the Wine Cellar though, so keep that in mind if you can think that far in advance (not sure if I can in my current bewildered state). The Low Hum gig on Friday night at the KA (and Sat in Hamilton, Petra you should already know) should be interesting - I've never seen So So Modern before and have heard mixed things. The Ruby Suns are on the DVD so that video is proving to have a life of its own, despite its incredible cheapness.

And Sat in Auckland has Shaft, the Nudie Suits, and the Rainy Days - tu meke, what a line-up!

Oh yeah, and I reviewed the new edition of Stranded in Paradise for the Listener if you're interested. The launch was attended by an incredible mix of old rockers, greasy and thirsty for beer. Emma Paki, Chris Knox, Rick Bryant, and Hello Sailor all played. Me, Arabia, and Anns loaded up on drinks, but couldn't stick it out until the end. I wonder if they played "Blue Lady"? ... On second thoughts, who cares?

But ending on a sad note, one of the best US comedies is about to be axed. I just don't understand american's taste in television. Freaks and Geeks only survived 18 episodes, where is the sense in that? Thank god for friends with money to spend on DVDs (that's you, Lawrence and Chris).

Best thing on TV for ages...
Okay, let me start by insisting you watch this:

KAIKOHE DEMOLITION TONIGHT TV2 10:30PM!! 26/10/05

In other news, the Wellington show was great, though it probably sounded reasonably messy. I guess that's just how rollarcoasters sound when they have drunk too much and started aching to get off their rails. For example, when Ryan's guitar quit working, he dumped it and got up on the pallets that were piled by the edge of the stage so he could sing closer to the audience, but the whole lot collapsed under him, injuring NZ's best gig photographer, Blink, in the process. By the end, I was playing bass in the midst of the audience while Ryan went loose on the drums, when I'd finished jumping around and making noise, I didn't know what to do so I just collapsed onto the ground. I doubt it was our best show ever, but it was definitely the biggest spectacle we have made of ourselves. Chris from Goldenaxe was there and expressed surprise that we could go from being so insane to recovering for the hooks of the chorus, with all the associated backing vocals and horns, before descending into insanity again. Not sure if we will be keen for a repeat, but we were definitely happy afterward, especially since the turn-out was great (thanks Wellington). I think Bachelorette must've had something to do with the popularity of the gig, since people are slowly realising what a genius she is.

We also found time to go skate-boarding, saw some of King Kong at Weta Digital (thanks to our wonderful host), and had a Reduction Agents show on Saturday night as well. Now we're back in AK, getting things together for our show with Ghostplane on Nov 5th at Odeon. Not sure how we will approach that gig, but will probably try to rein things in at least slightly - here's hoping, since I am not keen to lose another fingernail...

Please, Wellington, please!
Which is to say: if you are in Wellington then please come to our gig at Happy this Friday. We're playing with the Chandeliers and Bachelorette so that's three great bands on one night (if I do say so myself) and the Reduction Agents play the same venue the following night. We are surprisingly friendly, come and say hello.

The South Island was great fun and the band seems to have got to the stage where we can jump around being maniacs and still play well, rather than having to choose one or the other (if any South Islanders gig patrons want to write comments to confirm or deny this then that would be great!). Dunedin was a little quiet - ARC not quite what it used to be, but still a good place to get food and hang out at a gig. We shot plenty more footage for a video (Harry has high-falluting ideas of making a tour diary, but I suspect that Hi-8 falls a little short of industry-standard.

Back in Christchurch, I also introduced to the joys of scrabble-with-dirty-words, in which extra points are only given for smutty words like "arsewink" ... I will leave the rest to your imaginations. Needless to say, our kind Christchurch host, Flip Grater (singer/vegetarian/rdu traffic something or other), was disturbed at some points, though by the end, she was giving as good as she got. I should also mention the Undercurrents, who were an awesome band to tour with. Who knew that there were so many nice musicians about? I guess that cliche of the arrogant rock star only comes into play once you meet bands that are actually commercially successful!

Well, I'm writing in sunny ChCh from an internet cafe so this will be brief. We arrived by plane on Thurs. That night I stayed with a school friend and we sipped a few wines (ick) while watching Ryan on late evening news - quite a long piece in the end so v. hopeful that the band is getting out there a bit, despite only having one budget music vid. We spent yesterday driving around the city, filming ourselves on Hi-8 (oh the out-of-date technology - it isn't even old enough to be cool like super-8) - we are budget enough that we will prob try to make another music vid out of the footage. All the others kept being reminded of the Brunettes tour of the US and went on about it endlessly, so I was glad when Mark arrived and I was able to talk about staying home and doing nothing of note (oh, except winning the montana award ... have I mentioned that enough times yet?)

We did a live-to-air in the morning, complete with cocktails and actors weirdos in the studios. Pretty terrible, but the gig in the evening was reasonable. A decent-sized crowd who I think we won over in the end, incl Hat from RDU so I guess we have made some inroads in the town.

Today we are driving to Dunedin. Ironic since we spent our free day yesterday driving around. Though the ex-brunettes tour bunnies just think I'm a wuss!

Music Author Seeks Audience
Ah yes, the time for shameless self-promotion has come around again. Tonight is the book launch for my new book on “Making Music in New Zealand,”, which is at Real Groovy at 6.30pm. If you know my e-mail address then you might even wanna contact me so you can come upstairs for a beer beforehand. The Ruby Suns will be playing a set as well - probably around 6.45pm so should be fun.

And how else have I been grovelling to get my book out this week? Let me count the ways...

Russell Brown very kindly gave me a guest slot on Public Address, which I think came out okay and gave me a chance to post some quotes that I liked but had to leave out of the last book (I am glad they are out there for people to have access to). It was also enjoyable to leave the swearing in the quotes for a change and have them listed rough and ready. If you have the hip hop book, compare the style of the quotes to those in the book and find out what a sneaky editor I am.

Olivia Kember from Headliners was nice enough to do a piece about the book. It is a weird program to be on, but she is really cool and did a great job (plus she actually goes out with a real sneak, so very good taste all around).

Today I also did an interview with the Central Leader so I will be in there with all the school violinists who are doing well and the grumpy old men who are sick of dogs pooing on their lawns (or whatever it is this week). After having such a horrendous photo taken of me last time I did an interview with them, I shall wait with dread to see what this one turns out like.

Real Groove also ran a half-page which included none of the information I discussed with Brock, but which still came out well. I suppose Brock just wanted an excuse to have a chat, being the interesting character that he is. Not many people can get away with wearing a baseball cap on an angle like an early Beastie Boy like he does.

This week, the Ruby Suns also got a few more good reviews from Nick Bollinger on National Radio and Gary Steel from the Metro (I have put the latter on our website if you are interested).

Anyway, that's plenty of blah for now. I am feeling a bit queasy after such a large dose of talking about myself, but fortunately the fem in my life likes to practise her negging on me so that should keep me in check, let's hope.

Gigs all over, two bands on one night, and a dolphin.
Firstly, let's get the dolphin out of the way. Sadly I think it might be a bit much to include the pdf with all the questions, though I can e-mail it to anyone who is interested. A friend who doesn't want to be mentioned on livejournal (since we kiss&tell at our peril in this city) gave me the heads up and suggested it might be a good use for the new hole in the backyard, which was dug by some Reduction Agents in search of a music video. Unfortunately, bad lighting meant that two Saturdays in a row were mostly spent drinking free Tiger beer and eating BBQ sausages. In the end, the required super-eight footage was finally taken in the headlights of Carter's car and some spotlights that Amee's dad had in his van (along with assorted spades and electric drills used in the digging process). I'll try to get some pictures on the Lil Chief site at some point.

The next day I had my first gig with the Broken Heartbreakers on Sunday at the Dog's Bollix. We had two hours to fill, but I was only involved in half-an-hour of it. Such a different vibe, with emotion being the main thing and earnest intentions presented through lyrical phrases, whilst studied musical progressions brought life to just two guitars, bass, and drums (not even a single glockenspiel, what is the world coming to?0. And there's something strangely comforting about playing bass again.

Unfortunately, Saturday night has already brought home the difficulties of being in two bands, i.e.:
Saturday Oct 1st, The Wine Cellar, The Broken Heartbreakers w/ Simon Comber
Saturday Oct 1st, Eden's Bar, Ryan McPhun & the Ruby Suns w/ Gladeyes (AK) and Rainy Days

At least the venues are on the same road and the first gig will only be a gold-coin koha so my friends can go to both if they want to. I should count my blessing in some ways, since James is playing two gigs that night (one as Lawrence Arabia, the other as Ruby Suns drummer), as well as having a gig the night before leading the Reduction Agents at Ford's Bar and Political Museum on Anzac Ave (I'm not making up the name - the owner also ran as an independent candidate in AK central).

Next week, I have my book launch at Real Groovy on Weds night (Ruby Suns play the launch at 7pm) and then we are playing the Elam Ball the next night. A week later we are heading to ChCh and Dunedin, then another week and it's on to Welli. And I can't even complain about the schedule, since the rest of the band (aside from Mark) went on the Brunettes' 60-date US tour and has no sympathy for tour-wusses. But I can complain to you, my livejournal friends, can't I?

Oh yeah, and I'm sorry, but I do find the dog shagging the pokemon cheers me up more than it should. Am I a bad person?

Silver Scrolls, the Disappearance/Reappearance of Che Fu, and a Ruby Suns Vid online.
On Monday night I felt like quite the industry insider after managing to wangle my way into the Silver Scroll Awards. Apparently the manager of the winning band, Evermore, had already e-mailed everyone on her mailing list telling them that the band had won, so a fair few people already knew. I did once try to listen to an Evermore song the whole way through, but I didn't quite make it. However, their song wasn't too bad and was improved considerably by the powers of Pitch Black - whiny voice turned to Stephen Hawkings computer tones, and the rhythm taken over by a much more competent drum machine groove. The other two winning covers were by Batacuda Sound System (who turned the refrain of the Mint Chick's Opium of the People into a horn groove, nah ... nah-nah-nah, nah-nah-nah) and the Checks (who slowed down Goldenhorse's Out of the Moon and turned it into a white-soul song). Mel from NZ Musician was the only one I knew who was picking Evermore to win, so it shows what I know about popular music: i.e., not much. The other controversy of the night was Che Fu's decision, on the morning of the awards, to pull out of doing a song. Jordan Luck was roped in, along with two-swords' favourite has-been rock star on guitar, to hash together the Dave Dobbyn number. Understandably awful.

Two nights later and Che Fu did manage to make it out of the house to perform at his own industry album launch. A strange crowd of industry types, hip heads, young teenage girls, relations of the Che, and a few rastafarians made a sparse crowd in the concert chamber of the Town Hall to watch his new band run through some tracks off the new album. Ever the showman, Che had some tricks up his sleeve: switching between DJ and band to compete track-for-track (the band won with an excerpt of Home Again by Shihad); getting on the decks himself to cut alongside DJ Furious; and getting his band to cut, jolt, and change speeds like a platter of vinyl. I've had a good listen to the new album and I've found that the tracks are definitely interesting though they lack the power to draw in the listener as much as the previous albums and you have to force yourself to pay attention if you want to get much out of most tracks. The live sound on the night didn't give them much more time to shine - the bass heavy hip hop mix meant that many of the instruments were lost in the misty frequencies.

Lastly, we have finally linked up a copy of the Ryan McPhun and the Ruby Suns video to our website. Very budget, but entertaining so have a look if you are interested.

One Hell of a Saturday night
Well, the Ruby Suns gig on Saturday went well, despite the competition of Ghostplane and Die Die Die playing on the same night. The experiment of playing every song off the album seemed to work out, even if the set order was unusual - rising and falling like an album not steadily rising like a set should (though Tosh did a good job of being a Zebra for the a cappella track that we didn't want to play). Of course, we got carried away with the amount of instruments we had on stage and soundcheck was awful so it was lucky we had James Sneak to tweek the knobs and keep us one step away from feedback at least. I definitely focus more on jumping around than playing well these days, since I have another band to be a musical geek in. Once we've played all the gigs we have lined up in Oct then we should be pretty tight in any case. Great to see a few faces from around here at the gig - sorry if I was running around like crazy and unable to really be very friendly.

Once the gig ended, I raced off to catch Die Die Die, who were planning to take the stage at midnight. The venue was Fu Bar, weirdly enough, and it added a sense of peculiarity to the event to have the band set-up in front of the DJ booth - unseemly and wild as they were compared to your average house DJ. The crowd was pretty feral by that stage of night as well and as we arrived during the first song, we found that the mosh was already in full effect. I shook my head so much that I woke up with an aching neck. Andrew took his guitar with him as he climbed over the amps and eventually over the crowd, Henry did a bit of crowd surfing himself, with his bass in tow, and the show finished with a communal stage dive onto the drum kit. As usual, cheeseontoast. has photographs and will no doubt have some of the Ruby Suns over the next coupla days. Petra Jane also has some pics that catch the wildness of the Die Die Die gig and which are worth checking out (and not just because you can occasionally catch a glimpse of me jumping around in my sweaty cheapskates T-shirt!).

Saying everything, saying nothing
Well, I never have quite decided what to write in this live journal. It is great having a place to keep track of events and let friends know about this and that, but weird that it's in public. Then again, it's amazing what you can say without saying much really. I remember Martin Edmond at the Montana Awards saying that his autobiographies actually reveal little about the essence of his life and when you read it, you can see where the gaps are: a relationship break-up is mentioned but none of the emotion is drawn out. Instead Martin spends his time investigating his own expectations of fame (drawn from having a family of artistic over-acheivers) and it all becomes ironic once his eventual fame actually comes through these books of self-examination (plus his driving interest in other famous people's biographies). All that said, I still felt like I already knew him once I met him, since I had just finished his latest book of biography the day before.

So here we are, and I do have some news I guess. I've joined another band - the Broken Heartbreakers - which is the alt-country project of John from Salon Kingsadore. It's nice to be playing bass again - guitars have such pesky little strings and the higher frets get a bit small for my pudgy fingers. For this reason, I am going to try my luck with a twelve-string on Saturday, which is to say:

Ryan McPhun and the Ruby Suns album release gig
King's Arms, Saturday 10th Sept
with Bachelorette and the Nudie Suits

We have a song on the bFM top ten so if you are feeling particularly charitable then swing by and vote for that. Hopefully might see some of you at the gig in any case.

Acting like a rock star.
Saturday night, the Ruby Suns played a gig for Fleet FM in a warehouse downtown. I turned up at the agreed upon time, feeling a little achy after playing a soccer game for a friend's birthday and full of beer & BBQ food from the after-match function. Of course, hardly anyone was there when I arrived and Sean from the Odeon was kinda stressed that only one band had played and they were already 20mins behind schedule. I lied and said that the rest of our band was just looking for a carpark, even though no one was answering their cellphones. But it was fine - we set-up in record time, thanks to the help of James Sneak and aided by the fact that Ryan had brought slightly less gear than usual.

The set went well I think, though I was already a little drunk by that stage and so spent my time playing loudly and dancing around in the two-foot gap which I had free on the stage. For the second time, we funked out the end of "trepidation" on various forms of percussion, which was fun, though I hope we don't become like the phoenix foundation and start jamming every song into oblivion.

Things descended into enjoyable chaos pretty quickly after that. Each band member had six free drinks and even when I'd got through mine, people kept giving me vouchers for more alcohol or just handing me plastic cups filled with god-knows-what which I dutifully downed. The end result: kissing people who I maybe shouldn't have; talking to a drunk girl who seemed like she was going to fall off the bar and trying to convince her that she should get down by getting up and dancing with her for a while, then following her out the back of the place, where I had to convince someone else that snorting the BZP from some party pills wasn't a good idea; bothering matt brennan while he was playing; telling connan that he should get a haircut; going home with someone I really really probably shouldn't have; and more, so much more...

I had such good fun, but now I kinda feel like I should never leave the house again. Though we do have a gig coming up on Sept 10th at the King's Arms with the Nudie Suits and Bachelorette. I doubt I will even manage to stay home for the next coupla days, since I'd like to see the Sneaks and Pluto doing Rolling Stones covers on Wednesday. I still feel headachy today and I am at work for my last day as a librarian (well, I guess technically I will still be a freelance librarian). The upshot no doubt will be: more junk food for lunch and a continuance of my slow decline in health. Thank god I've got rock'n'roll and writing to ruin my life.

The Horrors of Performing Sober.
The gig on Saturday went well so thanks to those that came along. White Collar Hollar had their own gig before the official gig started, with Harry putting a whole heap of people on the guest list, who promptly left once they had played. Not sure what the point of playing with another band is when that happens but oh well. Then Lawrence Arabia played a few songs, before losing interest due to the crowd noise. He left the stage with a number of people (including myself) disappointed not to hear more.

Next up the Ruby Suns played and there are picks on Geekboy's site and also some of the Sneaks. I think the performance went well, though we spent a lot of time swopping instruments and tuning. The only nerve-wracking thing about it was that I was stone-cold sober. At most, I was a little high on caffiene but that hardly counts, does it? I thought I would give a sober performance a try to see if it made me play better. But you know what? It didn't. I felt so much more rigid and overly focused on what I was playing to the point that I made mistakes. It might seem weird to say that, but I guess when you play a song quite a few times, your body knows how it goes better than your mind does and actually concentrating on what happens next actually messes you up a bit.

Last up were the Sneaks, who were warned beforehand by the Odeon staff that it was a small venue and that they should play quietly. Well, they aren't the kind of band that can really heed this advice and James only managed to contain himself slightly for a song or two before jumping around madly on the monitors and falling all over the place. I liked it a lot, though my flatmate suggested that maybe it was band that guys liked more than gals (the teenage girls in the front row would probably disagree).

I stopped in at the Cherry Bomb comics party a few times throughout the night, but was too tired to go to "Posers" at the Rising Sun. I wouldn't want to accidently become a scenester in any case, though maybe it's too late! Anyway, I've quit my job now so I am officially freelance (or unemployed, depending on how you look at it). Can a human being live on 20c per word? Probably not, but paying only $70 per week rent, will probably swing things slightly more in my favour. And we are looking for a new flatmate (preferably female at this stage) so if that kind of price for an AK flat sounds good to you (or a friend), then get in touch.

You already know I won right?
Thanks for all your congrats. As for the evening itself...

Jeez, I guess it just shows how much wine you can drink if you really try, even if you can't usually abide the stuff. Not so advisable to get up at 8AM the next day and go on Good Morning.

And yes I did wear a hoodie to the awards since I only wear my suit to weddings and funerals - I thought it would be more like the latter, but it turned out to be the former (me taken to be the bride of the high-lit world). Even Georgina Te Heuheu was impressed and gave me a hongi. Now all she has to do is quit that stupid party for good (after all they've done to her) and she'll be my homie.

In other news - I saw Nick Bollinger's band on Sunday (The Windy City Strugglers with Bill Lake and Rick Bryant). A lot more instrumentation and musicianship to provide interest than the garage rock bands of the previous evening, though the polished singing sounded bad to my more modern tastes. Lady Luck is a pretty classic band to watch live though.

I don't know what else to say. I could skite about the famous people I met or how the publishing companies now want to have a serious look at my novel after all this time, but you can imagine the details for yourself.

Last word: gig on Sat at the Odeon - The Sneaks, The Ruby Suns (that's me), Lawrence Arabia (Reduction Agents pretty much) and White Collar Hollar. Be there and be a poser later on...

Being famous and unknown in Wellington
Got to Welli on Thurs morning. Decided to stay in a backpackers for the first few nights since my interviews on Friday started at 8AM so wanted to get a good nights sleep (jo - thanks for the offer of a couch, maybe next time). The Radio Active interview was fairly brief and meandering, despite the fact that Jed was nice enough to brew up some coffee for me. The National Radio interview was more extensive and ran to about twenty minutes. I have never had such and opportunity to just blah on and on about hip hop!

Spent last night hanging out with some of the other cheapskates from the hostel - mainly a guy from Fielding who was just down for the night. He insisted I come back to his girlfriend's room to listen to some Tupac. She had the same kind of single room as I did but she had posters on her wall and loads of gear. It turned out she was actually living there - if you stay for a decent period of time, you just pay $120 per week. Apparently one of the older guys in the place has been there 25 years. Must be because the showers are so good (or maybe cause my flat has such a terrible shower ... and the second washing machine in a month has just died ... maybe I'll just stay here too).

The guy from Fielding and his girlfriend were drinking black Zambuca with a girl from England. I wasn't really in the mood for going out so I just hung out and drunk tea until I got bored.

Tonight I'm gonna to Indigo. Kinda a boring choice of places to go since that's where we played the last time we were down here and two of the groups playing are actually from AK (Coco Solid and the Blunts) but I definitely didn't feel like forking out $40 to see Fat Freddy's for the millionth time. I think Nick Bollinger's band is playing tomorrow evening so I might go surprise him with a visit.

Then it's off to the Novotel and the Montana awards on Monday. I have decided not to wear a suit since I don't want the other authors to ask me to bring them food and drinks all night. I'm usually not a big wine drinker but I think a little dutch courage might be necessary to get through the whole surreal event.

No time to think, just ranting...
Jeez, things have been busy lately: finally did the last changes to my next book so that’s being sent off to the printers today (hopefully); interviewed Che Fu and managed to stop myself from asking him why he was the only local rapper who wasn’t available to be interviewed for my book; had band practise with the recently returned Ruby Suns (I’ve missed playing music so much, but in the end I was pretty grumpy and unenthusiastic!); appeared on the radio version of pop goes the weasel along with Milan from Sommerset and Mieke from Foamy Ed (you might not like those bands, but they were much friendlier/cooler people than I was … I think I even got on Jacqui Brown’s nerves after a while, which is saying something); arranged for my publisher to book my flights for the Montana awards (I’ll be there from 21st to 27th July, so if anybody knows of any gigs, etc down there, or wants to offer me a couch to sleep on for the first night then speak up); got to work today to find that they’d changed the whole computer system, making me wish I’d paid a little more attention during all those endless training sessions…

Anyway, I wanna finish this week by getting hellishly drunk (I will probably wait until after watching “the Devil and Daniel Johnston” on Sat night – all day I have been happily depressed by the recurring refrain of his song “some things last a long time”). I have been gifted the following spirits and liquors, so if you have any ideas for cocktails then bring them on…

Kahlua
Sambuka
Crème de menthe
White crème de cacao
Martini
Rum
Baileys
Whiskey