Sunday, 19 August 2018
Sunday, 3 June 2018
HERE'S THE FUCKING NEWS
We get so much shit thrown at us nowadays via multiple channels. Some is serious and real but a lot of it is fabricated and bogus for all sorts of reasons of bias.
Have a look at this clip. It's a spoof but I'm sure that it voices the feelings of many news reporters.
ANGRY REPORTER
Have a look at this clip. It's a spoof but I'm sure that it voices the feelings of many news reporters.
ANGRY REPORTER
Sunday, 29 April 2018
Sunday, 18 February 2018
OPEN CULTURE
A good friend from Wellington sent me a link to an outstanding catalogue of interesting information, poetry, film, art and literature.
I've been relishing dipping and diving into it watching, reading and listening and have signed up for the (free) subscription.
Here is the link: OPEN CULTURE
I've been listening to audio of T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land and The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.
If you have time access and listen to these. The poetry and literary authority of these is a marvel.
In a world and certainly a world wide web full of unmitigated crap it's so refreshing to find the real stuff, the quality stuff formatted in an easy to find way and without all the dust and inaccessibility of 'antiquity'
I hope you enjoy it. I certainly am.
I've been relishing dipping and diving into it watching, reading and listening and have signed up for the (free) subscription.
Here is the link: OPEN CULTURE
I've been listening to audio of T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land and The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.
If you have time access and listen to these. The poetry and literary authority of these is a marvel.
In a world and certainly a world wide web full of unmitigated crap it's so refreshing to find the real stuff, the quality stuff formatted in an easy to find way and without all the dust and inaccessibility of 'antiquity'
I hope you enjoy it. I certainly am.
Sunday, 28 January 2018
AKISH WOULD APPROVE
Guggenheim's Deputy Director Nancy Spector, in declining a request from The White House to borrow a Vincent van Gogh painting to decorate the wall of their private residence, declined the request but offered instead a sculpture by Maurizio Catalan called America which is an 18 carat gold toilet. See:
The White House declined the offer.
Priceless!
 |
| THE TRUMPS WANTED THIS THEY WERE OFFERED THIS .  |
Well done Nancy Spector and The Guggenheim.
Thursday, 18 January 2018
"YOU'LL MISS ME WHEN I'M GONE ....."
...... my mother used to say to me when I was cheeky to her. You know? She's right. I miss her now she's gone.
Some people aren't missed although their awfulness in certain areas of arts, music (Florence Foster Jenkins), literature, science (creationists) and poetry (Coleridge) live on.
One such is William McGonnagal whose reputation and fame far exceed his poetic ability.
William Topaz McGonagall (March 1825– 29 September 1902) was a Scottish weaver, poet and actor. He won notoriety as an extremely bad poet who exhibited no recognition of, or concern for, his peers' opinions of his work.
He wrote about 200 poems, including "The Tay Bridge Disaster" and "The Famous Tay Whale", which are widely regarded as some of the worst in English literature.
*****************************
Robert has gone again. He has once again deleted his blog. This has happened before but usually he just deletes all his posts. Either way his posts which variously include his bizarre views on creationism, science, religion, history, the role of commercial cleaners in society and his home-grown poetry are lost forever.
I think I miss him.
Tuesday, 12 December 2017
SINGING WITH HIMSELF
THE MUSIC CURMUDGEON posted a silly Christmas song in his latest post. My apologies on behalf of CURMUDGEONS INC.ⓒ.
In 1985 when I heard Aled Jones singing "Walking In The Air" it gave me goosebumps. I'd heard it sung before by Peter Auty as it was a song in the film The Snowman but it was the release of the Jones version that got all the Christmas playtime.
The song cut through all of the usual yuletide crap both old and new and I have very fond memories of it.
Below is Jones singing it as in 1985 but also as his older self singing it last Christmas.
It still has the magic with the extra bit of interest in the older Jones singing as well.
ALED JONES AND ALED JONES - WALKING IN THE AIR
In 1985 when I heard Aled Jones singing "Walking In The Air" it gave me goosebumps. I'd heard it sung before by Peter Auty as it was a song in the film The Snowman but it was the release of the Jones version that got all the Christmas playtime.
The song cut through all of the usual yuletide crap both old and new and I have very fond memories of it.
Below is Jones singing it as in 1985 but also as his older self singing it last Christmas.
It still has the magic with the extra bit of interest in the older Jones singing as well.
ALED JONES AND ALED JONES - WALKING IN THE AIR
Sunday, 3 December 2017
EVERY PICTURE TELLS A STORY
There's been quite a bit of discussion amongst CURMUDGEON INC.ⓒ members this morning following the outrageous behaviour of members of The Bass Bagging Confederation.
Some members have advocated turning the other cheek and making peace with this vile and dangerous outfit.
Others have pushed for direct and appropriate retaliation and to employ Baxter's own methods by removing his head.
maybe though we should just laugh it off.
Some members have advocated turning the other cheek and making peace with this vile and dangerous outfit.
Others have pushed for direct and appropriate retaliation and to employ Baxter's own methods by removing his head.
maybe though we should just laugh it off.
Saturday, 2 December 2017
CHRISTMAS LIGHTS
It must be getting close to Christmas as Richard (of RBB) has sent out his annual Christmas letter which was up to its usual form. This year it seems to me that Christmas isn't making much of an impact as compared to other years. Are we over it?
Robert in his soon to be deleted blog post .......
FATHER CHRISTMAS IS NOT REAL. SO WHAT THEN
... laments the demise of Father Christmas and wonders if Christmas in entirety will disappear (at least I think that's what he said but with Robert's posts - who knows?)
In The Altered States of America the Trumps have lit up the White House lights thereby making a better target for the North Koreans and others and will no doubt be saying a lot of prayers.
In the past The Curmudgeon, as part of CURMUDGEONS INCⓒ's creed of bringing useful and informative facts to our readers has posted histories of some Christmas institutions. See below:
CHRISTMAS CARDS
CHRISTMAS TREES
CHRISTMAS CRACKERS
CHRISTMAS LETTERS
Generally these are done quite elegantly and not over-the-top kitsch like the yanks do:
Although to be fair, they can produce some elegant ones as well:
The origin of Christmas lights was in Northern Europe where Christmas is in mid winter and the days are short and the nights long. In the 1700s, way before electric and gas house and street lighting was invented, folks stayed indoors after nightfall because it was too difficult and dangerous to venture out.
The advent (see what I did there?) of the celebration of Christmas brought about a new tradition of distant relatives coming to visit. Invariably these visitors would turn up after daylight hours and, being unfamiliar with the places they came to visit would become hopelessly lost and often not found until the spring thaw. Something needed to be done.
Some bright spark (or more likely a candlemaker) came up with the idea of putting a candle or candles in the window so that the visitors could see the light.
AS LONG AS I CAN SEE THE LIGHT - JOHN FOGERTY
Soon everyone was doing this so, although it was safer for visitors there was no identification of the right house to be visited and many an unfortunate or embarrassing event ensued.
Eventually a solution was found and households developed their 'signatures' of different configurations of candles or lanterns in different windows. These were adapted with different colours and later, with the invention of gas and electric lighting the entire house could be lit up in a unique and interesting way thus guiding the visitors to the correct house.
Of course, in the case of unwelcome relatives the householder could pretend that they had run out of candles or the gas or electricity was off thus leaving the house in darkness.
Robert in his soon to be deleted blog post .......
FATHER CHRISTMAS IS NOT REAL. SO WHAT THEN
... laments the demise of Father Christmas and wonders if Christmas in entirety will disappear (at least I think that's what he said but with Robert's posts - who knows?)
In The Altered States of America the Trumps have lit up the White House lights thereby making a better target for the North Koreans and others and will no doubt be saying a lot of prayers.
 |
| "Take your best shot Little Rocket Man, I'll be in Florida" - Donald Trump |
In the past The Curmudgeon, as part of CURMUDGEONS INCⓒ's creed of bringing useful and informative facts to our readers has posted histories of some Christmas institutions. See below:
CHRISTMAS CARDS
CHRISTMAS TREES
CHRISTMAS CRACKERS
CHRISTMAS LETTERS
**************************************
Today we'll look at the history of Christmas lights.
Auckland has a whole street in Ponsonby where almost all of the residents light up their houses at Christmas. This has over the years developed into a tradition and people come from miles around to view them.
Generally these are done quite elegantly and not over-the-top kitsch like the yanks do:
Although to be fair, they can produce some elegant ones as well:
The origin of Christmas lights was in Northern Europe where Christmas is in mid winter and the days are short and the nights long. In the 1700s, way before electric and gas house and street lighting was invented, folks stayed indoors after nightfall because it was too difficult and dangerous to venture out.
The advent (see what I did there?) of the celebration of Christmas brought about a new tradition of distant relatives coming to visit. Invariably these visitors would turn up after daylight hours and, being unfamiliar with the places they came to visit would become hopelessly lost and often not found until the spring thaw. Something needed to be done.
Some bright spark (or more likely a candlemaker) came up with the idea of putting a candle or candles in the window so that the visitors could see the light.
AS LONG AS I CAN SEE THE LIGHT - JOHN FOGERTY
Soon everyone was doing this so, although it was safer for visitors there was no identification of the right house to be visited and many an unfortunate or embarrassing event ensued.
Eventually a solution was found and households developed their 'signatures' of different configurations of candles or lanterns in different windows. These were adapted with different colours and later, with the invention of gas and electric lighting the entire house could be lit up in a unique and interesting way thus guiding the visitors to the correct house.
Of course, in the case of unwelcome relatives the householder could pretend that they had run out of candles or the gas or electricity was off thus leaving the house in darkness.
*******************
I trust that this was useful.
Sunday, 26 November 2017
ALLEGRO NON TROPPO
Do you remember this?
ALLEGRO NON TROPPO (trailer)
Robert put a link to Saint-Saens - Violin Concerto No.3 in B Minor I: Allegro non troppo in his comment on my THE MUSIC CURMUDGEON bless him.
I remember seeing this when I was at university in the 1970s - it may even have been shown at the excellent cinema we had on campus where I
It was a parody of Disney's Fantasia (also brilliant) and had some very advanced techniques of incorporating animation with real film.
Well worth a watch.
Sunday, 5 November 2017
BRIAN STRONG
The problem with being retired and not earning is not having that discretionary spending for some of the nice things in life - at at least not being able to buy things on impulse. We have to plan what we want well ahead and save towards it.
I'm really pleased we bought the Brian Strong work above Land and Water Study 1 (2004).
It's beautiful and really well framed on a floating mount - I've done some of these when I owned a framing gallery and never managed to do it as well as this.
Strong says:
"Our New Zealand landscape is the constant provocation and inspiration behind my paintings. In recent work, the landscape is composed in such a way that it gives us several images within the space of the painting"
I love his paintings like these:
 |
| 600 x 527mm |
 |
| 481 x 304mm |
But sadly they are too expensive for us to buy
Wednesday, 1 November 2017
OUTDOOR ART
Outdoor artwork has to be quite robust to withstand the elements and also has to be pretty firmly attached to walls, sheds and fences to withstand burglars.
We've always liked to decorate the outside of our houses with interesting bits and pieces that we've brought with us from house to house. Some of these get lost or damaged in transit and I notice, when looking to photograph them now, that I'm missing some really nice pieces. Hopefully they are still wrapped up in the basement from the time when we were overseas.
This Pacifica motif painting is painted on roofing iron. It is quite large and very hardy. We bought it years ago from the annual Auckland art show and had it in the outside courtyard of our Point Chevalier home. It has made the transition to the North really well and I affixed it to the garden shed.
As you can see from the larger photograph below it adds nicely to the outside view of the house and property. I'm well pleased with it.
This is also a large piece. It is a carving from native hardwood made by James Atutahi. He called it Piko Piko. We bought it from a local gallery soon after we came to Northland. It is very imposing and beautifully sculpted. While robust I don't want it to be too exposed to the wild weather and we keep it in the covered porch by the back door.
This little guy was given to us many years ago and has graced our houses in Christchurch and Auckland before finding a place outside the dining room exit to the side deck. I've always liked its whimsy and find it cheery.
We used to have lots of little interesting ceramics and I notice a few empty places here. With the storms we've had over the last year some might have been blown off (remember the deck furniture chair?) I'll have to have a look under the deck before The Old Girl discovers that some are missing. The antique barometer still works. It needs a bit of a clean up and the wood oiling. Note to self: do this before The Old Girl notices.
This ceramic sculpture is made up of old teacups and pots. It's quite funny and very bright. Some bits have fallen off it over the years but it has a good spot on the fence amongst the flax and ferns, It never fails to raise comments from guests sitting on the deck.
OK, it's not art but this little brass ship's bell (still working) has been on our houses for as long as I remember. I got it from an old wine and spirit merchants we were closing down in he 1980s (the barometer came from there as well as it has an Usher's Whiskies printed on it.
Once again not art, the terracotta chiminea nevertheless makes for a great feature on the deck. In Auckland we used to set a fire in it when having BBQs but up here it just sits. The Aztec sun motif matches the location well and while we don't get too many smokers here it is a good ashtray.
We've always liked to decorate the outside of our houses with interesting bits and pieces that we've brought with us from house to house. Some of these get lost or damaged in transit and I notice, when looking to photograph them now, that I'm missing some really nice pieces. Hopefully they are still wrapped up in the basement from the time when we were overseas.
This Pacifica motif painting is painted on roofing iron. It is quite large and very hardy. We bought it years ago from the annual Auckland art show and had it in the outside courtyard of our Point Chevalier home. It has made the transition to the North really well and I affixed it to the garden shed.
As you can see from the larger photograph below it adds nicely to the outside view of the house and property. I'm well pleased with it.
This is also a large piece. It is a carving from native hardwood made by James Atutahi. He called it Piko Piko. We bought it from a local gallery soon after we came to Northland. It is very imposing and beautifully sculpted. While robust I don't want it to be too exposed to the wild weather and we keep it in the covered porch by the back door.
This little guy was given to us many years ago and has graced our houses in Christchurch and Auckland before finding a place outside the dining room exit to the side deck. I've always liked its whimsy and find it cheery.
We used to have lots of little interesting ceramics and I notice a few empty places here. With the storms we've had over the last year some might have been blown off (remember the deck furniture chair?) I'll have to have a look under the deck before The Old Girl discovers that some are missing. The antique barometer still works. It needs a bit of a clean up and the wood oiling. Note to self: do this before The Old Girl notices.
This ceramic sculpture is made up of old teacups and pots. It's quite funny and very bright. Some bits have fallen off it over the years but it has a good spot on the fence amongst the flax and ferns, It never fails to raise comments from guests sitting on the deck.
OK, it's not art but this little brass ship's bell (still working) has been on our houses for as long as I remember. I got it from an old wine and spirit merchants we were closing down in he 1980s (the barometer came from there as well as it has an Usher's Whiskies printed on it.
Once again not art, the terracotta chiminea nevertheless makes for a great feature on the deck. In Auckland we used to set a fire in it when having BBQs but up here it just sits. The Aztec sun motif matches the location well and while we don't get too many smokers here it is a good ashtray.
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