News – 09/03/06

?06 seems to be a year whence many folk are getting thier A?s into G?s? (for those of you not familiar with New Zealand slang that means ?Arse into Gear? which further more means? well, Motivated and being of a go forward nature) shucks, I?ve even gone and got the website up and running and made business cards!! wot goes on?

must be the moon or something in the water. the day job has taken a hike, no more clamberin? ?round on scaffolding for this camper for now. No Dole. No hand outs. Too much damn paper work and butt lickin?. People are busy buying houses, having babies (congrats Dave & Rach on the arrival of little George), gettin? married or engaged and buying more houses to go with the ones they already have and stuff like that! ye gods! So much goin on?deep breath? let it out slowly?.. aaaaaah the year started out at the start.. 00.01 am 01/01/06? playing music with Jono, Rodiz and Bryce at Brendans partay in Hahei? happy new year we chorused kaotically and soldiered on merrily until a bunch of 11 year old musicians got up and showed us how it?s done? jaysuss thay were good! sob sob the drive back to Prana after Bren?s, in Rod?s elephant-like camel of a beast at 4 in the a.m, was speedy and a touch precarious as i figured the faster i go (elephant-like camels don?t go that fast) the less chance i have of falling asleep! it worked and no mum i won?t do it again and no mum i wasn?t too hammered! one freak almost ran us off the road in his state of lunacy tho? it was nigh on a full moon if i recall correctly? Rod was pretty stoked that i gave his van a good thrashing and was enthusiastically muttering ?b-luddy Dave! 120 on a gravel road!?? wasn?t even! the Prana gig was cool!!! the festival was great this year? we went on after some super groover who had the place pumpin? like an Ibicenco dance club on club drugs and there are we three with our haggard array of things with strings and skins and brass UFO-like discs (speakin? of which, i got this really cool foto when i was down home a couple of years ago which, it turns out, has got some pretty cool, and spooky in a way, disc things in the sky which me ol buddy CB first recognised as having some possible significance to UFO hunting types. Bryce agreed one night whence showed him I the said foto, tho in the defence of sceptics, he had had a few and CB is a raging piss head too for that matter) that shimmer in the light when Rod hits ?em, thinking?. wot in the name of twaddle are we gonna do???! who got us into this mess?!!! but we went on and poked leads into things and said ?check one two? quietly as Luke (the one and only) Hurley played a cool impromptu set out the front of the curtain? the sound check rockt nicely we all hung at Prana for a coupla more days soakin? up chilled vibe and revelling in the fact that cats knew now that we were not just any old bunch of scruffs but a bunch of scruffs who really knew how to do a good, danceable, forty five minute sound check. the next night whilst chattin? with one of the gathered about vanquishing some really serious shit out of some poor dude and wondering where exactly that really nice German gurl had got to, some glowing folk returned from the beach exclaiming in quiet excited tones that the phosphorescence was goin? OFF! now folks if ever should you chance to see the waves crashing to the shore on a moonlit night and they?re glowing like a giant long disintegrating glow worm, i suggest you find your nearest birthday suit and plunge on in willing willingly the whole JAWS! thing from your mind and revel in that which is swimming in phosphorescence. i?m not into acid (my big bro, a highly learned dude says that it?s a great brain cell erradicator but it?s not programmably selective) but a bass player i used to play with once missed several notes/songs and stood there in wonder at a gig dribbling and marveling at the sparks flying from his fingers (i never thought he got goin? that well to be honest) exclaiming ?wow this is good shit!?. swimming in phosphorescence is a god givin? visual trip? hope i have some googles on me next time.. so on we slogged on up to Cooks beach for the fair? stoppin? in to grab forgotten gear, assorted footwear and avocadoes (avocado dictionary summary-god gathered around a big pip with a hard green/black goose pimple skin) from Brendans. the Fair = wind, tent, rubbish bags over speakers, playing next to the buckin? broncoe ride? ye gods! who plans this stuff!!! damn we were good tho!!! back to Orkland? old friend and i hit the west coast? Bethels to be precise? a few degrees warmer than the east i tell ya!!! crazy as all hell tho. waves that rip at your legs like a pissed off tornado? long black sand beach, no-one but us and dog? The bollix, The Mulleteers? me Brothers from distant shores had been back for the christmas break and now was leaving time but not before they and ma and pa too got to head down to the bollix to watch the mullet pack in action? thank fully it was one of the best gigs we?ve done now my folks think we?re orsum (or sumthing approaching that)? and of course, on the back of that we/i decide to record the following weeks show and, the bloody moon! we had a shitter of a gig! ce la vie

one recentish day after turning down a kind offer of some plastering work and sittin? there wondering where my next dollar was actually gonna come from and looking sheepish, the phone rang and a dude says in a breaking voice? ?you?ve come highly recommended?? pause (collecting himself, me thinking ?what the..!?) ?..can you play at my brother in laws funeral?.? ?WHAT THE??!? so there i am playing guitar in a chapel as cats all dressed like black marble amble like slowly, mournfully reminding me of a Jeff Buckley song. Kaelan?s asleep at my knee cute as a cute kid can be providing comic relief of sorts to the saddened dudes and the daughter who wished she knew the old boy better?. odd, but Annalie a singer friend says shes sung at a hundred or hundreds if not thousands of these gatherings in Sweden where it?s the norm in places forlorn to mourn? never been payed to a funeral to play until that day? a dollar in my pocket and a lad semi rested we ditched the car at Rod?s and hit the Orkland public transport system where seldom i?d needed to venture before? alot better that i?d feared and so we made the trip, glen eden to britomart to the terminal of boats that float to the islands, to Ians to pull weeds and to hang and to chat as the dude has just returned from the years spent in London? Waiheke, why not?. Karens house warming? we lit the fire with a big ball of flame that went WHUMP! and had us with eyebrows and whiskers (only some of the girls) curling up at the ends and hearts excitedly thumping whilst we wondered if the neighbours had heard and were belatedly calling in the bomb squad. had forgotten how flammable a few litres of petrol can be? mozzies hummed merrily, wine spilled sloshingly and nibbles disappeared from wobblingly circulating plates? music played, reggae skanked sensationally smoothe at times as Rod, tho haggard, and the bass lady grooved phat-tastically? Sergio played soft flamenco by the dwindling fire bomb so i tapped a darabuka and got to practicar mi espanol starting out boldly with my favorite line ?yo hablo not much espanol?? ?twas nice and the stream flowed chuckling while Gary played flute and game chaps edged smiling girls slowly closer to waiting tents to play ?what the..?!? Kaityre? sprogs on summer holidays, Dave?s got no gigs for a week or so, (Jono?s skived off to Dunedin to play carpenter) chelle?s taken a week off work? Shane?s cabin on a hill in the far north beckons ?come hither!? so we load boogie boards, sprogs, sprog bags, lap-top (stoopid Orklander), food, ice cream containers for yunderin?, sunscreen and dog into chelles wagon and hit the road? burger king (best crap fast food joint veggie burgers) in whanarei where sprogs fill fizzy drink cups with all the flavours so they don?t miss out on any thing. Kaityre at 11 at night? nice, still, the wind mill generates not a skerrick of ampage, the trees rustle not a jot? coffee, tea, barbie (not the doll) pictionary? monteiths, waterfalls, beaches, swimming holes, swings, jazz on the verandah (karloss, not me) even a spot of rifle toting pest control for this old pacifist? youngins make movies of really bad dancing, one child thinks she rules earth and won?t be convinced other wise? but they say that only lasts for a few years? horses nibble on childrens fingers, dog hides under seating for four days alarmed at loud bang that comes from end of stick that shane often carries around?. went to Mark?s place.. to put website together?. dude is classic?. surfin? through computer programmes easy as you please once in a while spinnin? casually to carress out a few chords (monstrous 15 fingered melodic concoctions) from his motif 7 space machine/keyboard whilst kids intervene sporadically having escaped ma to hunt down dad (the softie) to try to weasel nicely out of what ever trouble they?re in? ?workin on new magic tricks? he says with a gleam in his eye, no doubt some poor bastard is gonna be seeing all his coins disapearin? in front of his eyes somewhere some time soon? the next time i see him he?s comin? out from the wings stage right or left, which ever, to take his place center stage with Ardijah at the concert venue in Manukau.. primo! Ardijah take me back to when i was a teenager? the melodies that were on the airwaves back then? the east coast?. ?Gizzy bro! etta our watchu lookin? at?! chur bro, choice our!? (and translated into queens english for example) ?Gisborne brother! excuse me dear fellow, what are you looking at?! cheers brother, excellent dear fellow? the concert felt great? ?time makes a wine? our love grows stronger..? classic songs for sure? and a dash of Prince Tui Teka even!!? ?la la la la la la E po?? i should know the words by rights, now that?s what i call melody! Kiwiana 2006 at its best?. then Adam who I?ve met a few times through out the years calls on the feletone. ?hi Dave, it?s Adam from Prana here?, ?hi Adam? I say. he says, ?do you want to front a T.V show?? ?WHAT THE??!? what a kidder! so i put that in the ?too shy? basket and now help the lass running the show to scout talent for the show. so i?ve had a good ol time ringin? my old buddies sayin? ?you wanna go on t.v?? to which they generally reply ?shit yeah!? how easy! Rod and i hedded to Hamiltron ?suburb of the future? the other week to play some African drumming music for a few days? the lion man was showing his cats to people at the small block expo – no it wasn?t about engines, a small block is a small (five to ten acres or so) plot of land that wanna be farmers build a house on and have a go at animal husbandry- any way we were paid handsomely to entertain, well i hit drums just to annoy rod because, you see, i don?t know one African rhythm from the next and rod does. i had hours of pretending to be a guy called Mohamed whilst my big buddy thought ?dave you shmuck!? Jimi joined us on Sunday and brought down the Gonnis? and made up lots more stuff whilst folks threw money into the case and said things like ?wow, you guys are great!? the lions/tigers/big cats, well who knows what they thought, but we were intrigued by the way thier eyes would follow the little kids around amounst all the big folk. you could almost hear the words ?little? ?slow? ?tender? ?dinner? going throught the cats minds.. shudder? AMP Show in Puke? the other week? sprogs, chelle, shane, em all piled along to watch THE JOUSTING, well that?s what i wanted to see any way? dudes on horses flying along with a big stick trying to prod each other in an age old knights in shining armour routine? kinda fallic come to think of it. it was all very pc tho of course and the end of the ?lances? were made of balsa wood and they didn?t get off their horses and continue the battle to the death with swords all bloodied and wot not? cool to watch none the less?. and you can hire them to come to your place and do all that medievil stuff too!! at your place!! will have to have a suitable banquet sometime? how about at Bretts wedding??. Brett? well that?s enuff for one sitting? eyes gone all square? need food? join me for my next foray into ?Wot!? has bin goin on? in a cupla months time? xx dave p.s. next time you?re in Hahei go chek out the swing at the northern end of the beach, it rocks!? oh! i forgot the highlight of the weekend just gone, apart from the stonkingly good gig at the bollix on Saturday night? Sunday came and members of the clans Foord/Tavinor/Yuretich/Long/Alley/Brown all found ourselves at Waikaraka park? my first time for none other than a DEMOLITION DERBY!!! this day began with approximately 70 operational cars and finished with one highly mangled operational car and 69 or so highly mangled un operational cars. a day of cars racing ?round a track ploughing into each other randomly and then finally being put ito a show down situation basically ramming into each other in an effort to be the last un disqualified vehicle that can still drive.. kind of. and the winner of the day, the car that conquered all, was a very small two door Toyota (i?m told) MR2 sports car!! Kaos at its finest it were?.