Senses working overtime #596

1 Back in Taranaki

From Waverley onwards, this sunset accompanied our journey back to the 'Naki for family reasons.

2 Listening: Osibisa - Woyaya

Survival is a good example of their afro-jazz-funk sound.

3 Watching: Keeping Faith

4 Revelation: David Warren Brubeck

While checking out info on a new record purchase (Brubeck on Campus - $4 from The Little Red Bookshop) I noticed his middle name was the same as my first name. My dad was a big fan in the fifties and it's too much of a coincidence. Eery.

5 Listening: Brubeck on Campus

Take the 'A' Train is a nice place to start (the album is a compilation of two early albums - Jazz Goes to College from 1954 and Jazz Goes to Junior College from the year of my birth - 1957).

Overtime: Robyn Hitchcock on Paul McCartney's Days We Left Behind (a song on Macca's latest album)

He captures the paradox of a past which you can never escape or return to. Paul for once sounds like the old man he must physically be now, beneath his eternally youthful rocking carapace. I love it.

Senses working overtime #595

1 Feeling this week:

Photo by Isabella Fischer on Unsplash

2 Vinyl week!

Welcome to the party, pal (Vinyl Vault)

A trip to New Plymouth via Whanganui, plus buying local meant I visited three dedicated record shops this week: Vinyl Countdown (New Plymouth); Vinyl Room (Whanganui); and Vinyl Vault Plus (Waipukurau).

3 Listening: The Sound of Dinah Lee (1965)

Picked up a mint copy at Vinyl Vault Plus this week for $25, Happy birthday to me!

4 Reading: Mojo magazine #392

5 Watched: Furiosa - A Mad Max Saga on Netflix and Mad Max: Fury Road on a DVD

Overtime: Doris Day

Gratitude is riches. Complaint is poverty.

Senses working over time #594

1 Last week of Term 3

Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash

2 Listening: WTWMC - Copy that

3 Watching: I Will Find You

4 Reading: Mojo Magazine #391

5 Listening: Steven Wilson - The Raven That Refused To Sing (and Other Stories)

Overtime: Did I mention that it's now a two week break before we launch into the final term of the year?

Senses working overtime #593

1 The feeling this week:

Photo by Tim Johnson on Unsplash

2 Reading: Songs from the Shaky Isles (A short history of popular music in New Zealand) - Gareth Shute

I picked this up from the sale bin outside Paper Plus in Waipukurau this week. I'm already engrossed in the origins of music in New Zealand.

3 Not reading: The Virginian - Owen Wister

I've decided to shelve this novel 150 pages in. I wasn't looking forward to reading it and started reading other books instead of it, hence the decision to stop. Maybe I'll come back to it in the future.

4 Watched: The first three Terminator films

All of the scary speculation about AI's future vs the benefits it brings to humanity meant we watched the first three Terminator movies this week. I suggest the boffins at Open AI and Anthropic do the same, as news reports of a potential US/China conflict in the Middle East thanks to AI surfaced. 

5 Listening: Hemi Hemingway's album Wings of Desire

This was Kevy's choice for the week. My review is here.

Overtime: André Gide (in 1925)

One doesn't discover new lands without consenting to lose sight, for a very long time, of the shore.

Senses working overtime #592

1 Spring is on the way at Maple Grove

Photo by Jan Huber on Unsplash

2 Watched: Alone Australia Season 4

This is the one where nine Aussies and one Kiwi aim to be the last person standing in the frozen wastes of northern Finland. A good season but I wanted Clint (the Kiwi farmer) to 'win'. He lasted until the final three contestants.

3 Listening: Monkee Business: The Revolutionary Made-For-TV Band (an audio book)

GK recommended this audio book to me, and I've been a keen listener this week on my daily pootling to school along State Highway 50.

4 Reading: Three Reasons For Revenge - Dervla McTiernan

The amazing Jodi, in the Iona College library, has started a book club which of course I joined! The concept is that members choose a mystery book in a brown bag. In mine was Three Reasons for Revenge. It's yet to catch fire but I'm hopeful. Hold the phone!! It just got interesting with a deep fake blackmail of a sexual nature plot change!

5 Listening: The Dave Brubeck Quartet - Jazz at Oberlin

Perdido is a clear standout on this live album from 1953.

Overtime: Judy Garland

Always be a first-rate version of yourself instead of a second-rate version of someone else.

Senses working overtime #591

1 This week:

Photo by Ivan Vranić on Unsplash

2 Reading: Bill Bryson - Down Under (in Walkabout)

I enjoyed A Walk in the Woods, now onto 'Straylia.

3 Listening: Bob Welch - French Kiss

4 Watching: The Brokenwood Murders (Season 4)

Detective Sims

5 Birthdays this week:

Ivy (1)

Poppy (3)

Overtime: Michelle Obama

Just try new things. Don't be afraid. Step out of your comfort zones and soar.

Senses working overtime #590

1 A rinse and repeat week

A hectic week at work (two late night parent interview sessions, disruptions to daily timetables for a House competition and visiting speakers, after school PD, mid-winter illnesses) meant I had little time for enriching the senses with new books or TV shows.

So, I kept going in fits and starts with those Bill Bryson, Gary Snyder and Owen Wister books when I could, and finished watching Lawmen: Bass Reeves. That was it.

However, I did manage to maintain my blogging rituals, so those are my jewels for the week.

2 Baggy Trousers

3 Destination Records

4 Goo Goo G'Joob

5 The Purdzilla Show

Overtime: Wozza's Place