Posts by Geoff Lealand
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Busytown: School bully, in reply to Graeme Edgeler,
The scarey rationalisations of an ideologue
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Capture: One picture of you, and no more, in reply to JacksonP,
I have long wondered where that hat of mine had got go.
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Hats with a long history. I think this was at Belt Road Motor Camp in New Plymouth. My mother (d. 2001) behind and a sliver of my sister Diana (d. 7 March 2014) on the left.
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Hard News: The Web, in reply to Kyle Matthews,
My university email is more than 24 years old and still works well--except for the irritating requirement to change my password every 90 days.
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Hard News: Diverse Auckland: are we…, in reply to Russell Brown,
Thanks, Russell. Even the two local beat policewomen came along to offer their condolences.
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We had a remarkable experience of the people richness of Auckland, when Josephine and I held a remembrance in Grey Lynn this morning, for my sister Diana Golding who died in Auckland Hospital on Friday morning, We were expecting a small gathering but over 70 people were there--social workers, local store owners, street people, the staff of Grey Lynn Library, a Buddhist monk, friends from all over Auckland. I learnt a great deal about the years when my sister's and my life diverged, through people just standing and sharing their memories of her. I didn't know, for example, that she was known as The Queen of Grey Lynn. There was ukeleles, electric guitars and singing and laughter. I was very, very impressed by the community tightness of this corner of old Auckland.
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Hard News: Friday Music: Both sides of…, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
Thanks, Ian. It was fun to write and I even got paid a modest sum. Hope it might winkle out another lovely old lady or two. I did a talk in Wellington last week and someone who was there told me about her father winning a contest in Rotorua as a four year old, curly-haired boy. It could make for another interesting twist on the story--the first Shirley Temple cross-dresser?
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Graham Reid over at elsewhere has had some interesting Springsteen playing this week, including a bootleg of a 1978 concert in LA. This was recorded one year before I saw him in concert in Cleveland, Ohio where he seemed to set the pattern for 3 hour+ long performances. Won a ticket in a contest run by a Toledo OH radio station after being in the country for 3 days--which was kind of fitting, seeing part of the reason why I journeyed to the US to start a doctorate was a desire to encounter the mythic America Springsteen was singing about.
I like how he draws on his extensive back catalogue, but not exclusively--unlike bands like the Stones who haven't done anything new for yonks. And he does seem genuine in his politics (can't imagine Jagger donating to the City Mission).No disgrace in leaving before the encore. Did so for Neil Young, after three hours of standing in a crammed space on sticky plastic.
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Went to the Taioreore performance by Turtle Lake on the final night of the excellent Hamilton Gardens Festival. Initially it seemed rather daft, blending traditional Japanese song and percussion with Maori waiata , haka and poi. But it worked, largely due to the most tremendous and strenuous drumming by three very handsome Japanese male drummers. Great gut-sturring thumps and clatters echoing across the lake in the moonlight.
Incidentally, I was commenting to someone about how lively summers in New Zealand have become, with every weekend crowded with competing events, -
...but she's never been to me...
