Radio

Posted on July 23, 2016 by d4vid

Radio here in New Zealand seems to be one long 80s & 90s weekend.   This reminded me how although there are tons of recent bands experimenting with that 80s sound, all of them seem to be overlooking the essential chorus effect on their guitars.

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Overlook II

Posted on July 23, 2016 by d4vid

This is the Chateau Tongariro Hotel on the slopes of Mount Ruapehu.It was built in the late 1920s but, in the long years since, it seems to have become haunted by the spirit of The Shining.  Not the haunted Overlook Hotel from the movie, mind you, but the spirit of the film itself.

Big band music even wafted through the air around the bar.  Seriously.This is my room.  Bathtub empty.  I checked.And this was the view out my window but a moment before snow started falling.In addition to the formal dining room and bar, there was supposedly a cafe accessible from the second floor, toward the back of the hotel, and down a long series of stars.
That sign waaay in the back with an arrow pointing to the right may as well say “pepil fud” scratched into the wall by a monster’s claw.  Nice try.

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Vigor

Posted on July 23, 2016 by d4vid

The culture here in New Zealand seems to be a fascinating hybrid of Scottish and Maori. One branch of the Young lineage comes from Paisley, which was also one of the places in Scotland that saw a huge amount of emigration to New Zealand in the 1800s.  And I’ve been fascinated by the cultures of the South Pacific islanders — especially their language, mythology, and ethnoastronomy — since reading Paul Theroux’s The Happy Isles of Oceania in my 20s.

I kept hearing that New Zealand was like “being in Middle-Earth” but the truth has been more complicated.  Just as the culture contains strains of Scottish and Maori, so too does the ecology seem to hybridize pastoral Scotland/England/Ireland and tropical South Pacific.

Now, IANAB (“I am not a botanist”) but it’s jarring to see a rolling, grassy hillside peppered with sheep and then…a palm tree.  There are parts of the North Island that, sure, look like the Pacific Northwest.  But there are also large swathes that look like a particularly well-watered San Diego.  There are even parts that are downright jungly.  (Fun fact:  the Chinese word for “jungle” 丛林 translates literally to “clump forest”.)

You could just as easily say that New Zealand is Jurassic Park as you could that it’s Middle-Earth.

We’ll see if this holds for the South Island when I get there.

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Aotearoa

Posted on July 23, 2016 by d4vid

Visited the excellent Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.  Appreciated this map inlaid on the floor as it matched my perspective:  looking from New Zealand back up toward China to the left and California to the right.

New Zealand was one of the last pristine wild places in the world until it was discovered relatively late in Polynesian expansion around 1250.  The forerunners of the Māori (which means “normal” or “ordinary”) brought dogs and rats with them.  Before that, New Zealand’s only mammals swam (seals, etc.) or flew (bats) there.   All other ecological niches filled by mammals everywhere in the world were filled by an insane panoply of birds.

Like these motherfucking nightmares.The moa are all extinct now, thank fuck.  Before humans their only predator was this other nightmare:  a giant eagle.  (Not to be confused with Tolkien’s great eagles.)

This giant mao would have stood taller than me.Considering the resemblance, it is no wonder they had this exhibit mere steps away from a velociraptor exhibit.  The museum had excellent signage (which also stood as good unsolicited advice.)
This was the only placard in the entire museum that did not have an equal-sized Maori translation next to it.  I’m sure racism is still a problem in New Zealand, but there does seem to be a genuine attempt at an institutional level to balance European & indigenous languages, perspectives, and history.

One of my absolute favorite things at the museum was this chart of the stars of the Southern Hemisphere inlaid into the floor.

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Madness

Posted on July 23, 2016 by d4vid

  Found out that the Sofitel I’m staying at just opened three weeks ago.  Probably haven’t gotten too many complaints yet about the wallpaper staring at guests.  Looks to me like a wall of…what’s the collective noun for “Cthulhu”? An “eldritch of Cthulhu”?  A “madness of Cthulhi”? 

Pretty butterflies, though. 

 

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Accent

Posted on July 23, 2016 by d4vid

If a Kiwi is saying something to you that sounds like “ear big”, trust me.  They’re saying “airbag”.

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Promising

Posted on July 22, 2016 by d4vid

 Well, just starting off and this is already proving a Very David Vacation ™.  The view out my window of the Sofitel was an Anglican cemetery.

  

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Windlord

Posted on July 22, 2016 by d4vid

  Can’t even get out of Wellington airport without seeing a life-sized Gandalf riding Gwaihir.

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Orcs

Posted on July 21, 2016 by d4vid

 “Way out international terminal” indeed.  Who builds their domestic terminal a fifteen minute uncovered walk through the drizzle from their international terminal?

Not that I mind the drizzle.  I’m here for the winter weather.  It’s the forced march I object to.

In protest, I’ve decided to pronounce “Aukland” as “Orc-land” until someone corrects me.

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Middle

Posted on July 21, 2016 by d4vid

Flying from the Middle Kingdom to Middle-Earth.

Two week vacation in New Zealand.

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Adolescence

Posted on July 21, 2016 by d4vid

 Strange to see a painting of the album cover for Jane’s Addiction’s “Ritual de lo Habitual” — a band that meant so much to me in high school — hanging by the bar at a Mexican restaurant in Shanghai.
At this time…you…should be…with us…

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Morlocks

Posted on July 14, 2016 by d4vid

  Outside the office building at work is a perfectly respectable mall.  Korean BBW, noodles, sushi, even a Hooters.
But under the office building is a bizarre labyrinth of food stalls & restaurants that never seem to appear twice.

Robyn and I tried a (putative) Italian place.  The 9″ pizza I ordered looked like a Petri dish.

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Muzak

Posted on July 13, 2016 by d4vid

A small part of my brain is constantly scanning the background for any hint of music, tuning in, and trying to place it.  The Muzak they play in the Shanghai Metro stations is always eclectic, but as I walked to the train platform after work today, I found — wafting quietly, almost subliminally, through the station — the unmistakable sound of Tom Waits’ “Old Shoes (and Picture Postcards)”.

This was always one of my favorites to sing & play on guitar with my dear friend Martin.  Miss you, pal.

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Dandy

Posted on July 5, 2016 by d4vid

I’ve capitulated to the Shanghai summer and started carrying around a handkerchief.  A handkerchief to mop my brow, like some sort of Southern dandy.  Well, Southern Chinese dandy, I suppose.

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Dominoes

Posted on July 1, 2016 by d4vid

Here’s Xavier lining up a, frankly, ludicrous number of Jägerbombs.  You topple one shotglass of Jägermeister into the glass of Red Bull and the rest follow, toppling over like dominoes.

Eli, Xioahan, Carol, Xavier, and Andrea all left Shanghai in the course of eight days.  Monday morning will feel like ODW 2.0.

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