Black Sheep

I’ve seen the long-awaited ‘Black Sheep‘ the rural NZ horror comedy. It was quite funny in places but didn’t have a overall comedic depth that would make it a classic. It has special meaning for me, being a graduate of Massey University, traditionally an agricultural college. There seemed to be an endless supply of sheep jokes and indeed sheep. The Listener review commented on the ‘product placement’ of Michael King’s Penguin History of New Zealand (King’s son is the director of the film). But in a film where a central theme is the death and absence of the father it is surely more than a product placement (did Penguin pay for the screen time?).

Rating: 6.5/10

Mt Somers

I led an OUTC tramp on the weekend up and around Mt Somers in Canterbury. I don’t know why the Club doesn’t head to Canterbury more often as it’s good driving up there with good takeaway options. It was only one tank of gas to Mt Somers return.

Saturday we climbed Mt Somers and continued around the South Face to Woolshed Hut. It was a long day (just under 11 hours) but with some great sections, especially just before we got ot the hut. At the hut we found hordes of Scouts and other trampers, but we managed to find a camp just downstream of the hut.

Sunday was also a perfect day and once we climbed up to the high point it was much easier going – being downhill to Pinnacle Hut and out to the carpark. Unfortunately Moa had a bad knee and was very slow. This meant the group split up causing delays in leaving. Overall it was great weekend away with some good people.

Busy Week

Tuesday Night: Tramping Club Happy Hour and Fiordland pre-meet

Wednesday Night: Tramping Club Gear Buy and the Tutus on Tour Ballet show

Thursday Night: Tramping food shopping and Jazz at the Robbie

Tonight: Off to Fiordland – finally….

I’m leaving DCC for PhD

Today I told my boss that I’ll be leaving in July/August to do a PhD at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Final dates still to be confirmed…

We the Media

I’m enjoying reading We the Media: Grassroots Journalism By the People, For the People by Dan Gilmour. It was recommended to the media and democracy group at the recent Kettering Foundation meetings I attended in Feb/Mar 2007. Gilmour has a blog at http://wethemedia.oreilly.com/.

Shortbus

I saw the sexy film Shortbus on Sunday night. Set in NY it explores the interconnected sex lives and relationships of several people, both queer and straight. It is a sad and funny film – probably a deliberate commentary on the bittersweet nature of the subject matter.

It is sexually explicit but not really titillating. In this way it removes the sensuality from the sexual act to lay bare its meaning in relationship and as a way for people to connect. Sex stands in the film as a sacrament for something much deeper and profound.

The other spiritual motif is the “stalker” neighbour who has a god’s eye view of the central gay couple, along with saving James’s life and offering a omnipotent insight into how he is loved by Jamie.

Score: 7/10

Technorati

I’ve created a Technorati Profile. We’ll see how that works…

email update

I’m in the process of killing my long time relationship with my ISP paradise. That means my email rad@paradise.net.nz won’t be working for much longer. BTW paradise webmail is complete crap – I don’t know why I didn’t make the shift before.

First Post!

I have finally got my web site domain moved to an excellent service provided by my friend Michael Perkins – so that I can worry about the content and he can worry about servers and upgrades and other techie stuff that continues to bamboozle me. With more time now for content hopefully some cool stuff can appear here and there -> http://www.rad.net.nz