A jazz concert, off in the distance Mark Robinson, host of It’s A Jazz Thing, a radio show on George FM I used to host for about 6 years, managed to secure me a couple of tickets to Ravi Coltrane at the Auckland Town Hall. I met up with Mark there, along with pretty much [...]
Categories: New Zealand,Travel
Tagged: New Zealand, Travel
The traditional double-scoop chocolate-dipped icecream Some things are worth travelling for. And some things you get nostalgic for even though they’re actually pretty dreadful. Some foodstuffs that Jake and I have consumed since arriving back in New Zealand: Kumara; service station Big Ben steak-and-cheese pie; McDonalds KiwiBurger (yes, I’m the worst vegetarian in the world); [...]
Categories: New Zealand,Travel
Tagged: New Zealand, Travel
Consulting with the Artist: The talented Otis Frizzell So… I didn’t chicken out and I had my tattoo done. I’m so absolutely stoked with it. Mark at Illicit did a fantastic job, and it didn’t hurt half as much as I had been warned it probably would. I started the afternoon by dropping the mobile [...]
Categories: New Zealand,Travel
Tagged: New Zealand, Travel
Jake pokes at something’s flesh It was Jake’s 15th birthday on Sunday. It was his cousin Aaron’s 14th that same day. So the two of them had a shared celebration with family. It was a bit of a traditional barbecue-themed cousins’ lunch, all the more similar because there were some missing people. Kerryn, Haydn and [...]
Categories: New Zealand,Travel
Tagged: New Zealand, Travel
Mr. Fortune, Mr. McClung and visitor from Birmingham I had the first of what I suspect will be many Ponsonby Road cafe meetings. This one was with Mike McClung from New Zealand On Air and Gary Fortune of the New Zealand Music Industry Commission. We went to what to me is a new place called [...]
Categories: New Zealand,Travel
Tagged: New Zealand, Travel
This is where I like to leave all my money Here’s something I missed about New Zealand: Real Groovy Records. For decades, this place has been my shopping mecca. They’re a bit stingy when you’re trading your records in, and they can be a bit pricey on the new stuff, but there is nowhere better [...]
Categories: New Zealand,Travel
Tagged: New Zealand, Travel
Some of the terrifying New Zealand wildlife We don’t have much in the way of poisonous or bitey things here in New Zealand. They all evolved over the other side of the ditch after we split off from Australia. In fact, there weren’t even any mammals in this country until they hitched a ride with [...]
Categories: New Zealand,Travel
Tagged: New Zealand, Travel
Matthew Bannister explains French Symbolism. Really. One of the best things about an academic conference about music held in Dunedin is that seemingly half of the Flying Nun artists of the 80s have gone on to become respected academics in the field. Matthew Bannister was the frontman for Sneaky Feelings, and presented a great paper [...]
Categories: New Zealand,Travel
Tagged: New Zealand, Travel
A ‘greasy spoon’ diner in a seedy part of Dunedin Had a lovely lunch on day 1 of the Dunedin conference with a couple of IT specialists from the University. Andrew Long (right, in the glasses) is a long-time reader of this blog and New Music Strategies, and decided to attend the conference and introduce [...]
Categories: New Zealand,Travel
Tagged: New Zealand, Travel
Otago University on a dreary South Island day After a day’s jetlag recovery (insufficient, as it happens), I jumped on a plane to Dunedin where I was giving a presentation to the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM) at their annual Antipodean chapter conference. Otago campus is stunningly beautiful, especially without all [...]
Categories: New Zealand,Travel
Tagged: New Zealand, Travel
