i'm still alive and stuff. just too cold to think out a blog post fully. even this one is squeezed in between dinner and going to a movie.

what really inspired me to actually blog today was kind of jeff buckley. who has prompted a post from me before. but anyway i was watching the amazing grace documentary on saturday night (being a thirty something, having an early night). and there was this excerpt from his diary that was along the line that he wrote music for people who scream down the highway, listening to loud music, with tears in their eyes. which made me feel ill because of that time i listened to cold play and got all weapy.

but then today i was driving home from levin, where i'd spent my morning looking for an open cafe (fyi i don't really recommend the old railway station as a back up cafe) and then swimming in the swimming pool with the coolest four year old in history. driving along listening to my ipod on shuffle, when what comes on but kenny roger's reuben james. and i start to get all weapy again because IT IS ONLY THE GREATEST SONG OF ALL TIME....



the first concert i ever went to was kenny. i was five. for most of my life i think that my father has had a kenny rogers look to him (the beard thing). we used to watch kenny on the tele as a family. and goshdarn it if my parents don't still fight over how my dad has taken kenny's greatest hits out of the living room and into his car without consultation. so i have a kenny soft spot anyway, but seriously a song about a no-count share croppin' coloured man, who didn't turn his back on a hungry white child with no name. it will bring me to tears everytime.

good lord. now i'm thirty all i want to do is sleep. i'm not even attempting to be funny. it is just the way it is.

i am awesome at sleeping. so, being thirty continues to rule.

anyway, here are the other eleven things rocking my world at this exact point in time:

1. trivia. so today i watched two episodes of brideshead revisted (1981, bbc). frankly, it was awesome. and i'm so IN to the guy who plays sebastian.

if i owned this photo i'd totoally put a watermark all over it too. sebastian flyte AND royalty. it is photographic GOLD.

so to the trivia.... did you know remington steel was created for him, but he TURNED IT DOWN. god bless him too. because that is directly responsible for last year's greatest movie moment. sigh.

2. l'occitane shower gel. seriously, you should get some of this. it is like crack. for your skin. i can't find an image of it on the line. the l'occitane online store for nz doesn't seem to have it. so i'm linking you to a site i in no way endorse. here. anyway, i figure if you spend more than $30 on shower gel you are simply a better class of person. i am therefore, closer to god as a result of this purchase.

3. no-no-notorious b.i.g. have you seen the movie notorious? you really should see it. 7/10. you should also buy going back to cali from itunes. it is my new favourite song. well that plus let's get it on. the latter thanks to catching two minutes of idol this week. it was motown week on idol. but that doesn't qualify it for my list of eleven things.

4. mexicana breakfast from pranah. it is really good.

5. safety message. like in this poster i just bought from etsy dot com. i can barely wait to see if it is as awesome in real life as it is on the internet.

6. thorndon summer pool. it closes this thursday so you should hurry up and visit. i went today. it was not especially warm. so i retired to the spa instead. and sat there for like an hour. it was thoroughly exhausting. and awesome, obviously. six dollars well spent.

7. ryles, singing TI's "whatever you like" to me over the phone. i am so in love with my nephews. they are adorable. and will get spoiled at easter. if i have my way that is.

8. this website. which is where i got the number eleven for my list today. it combines two of my passions: lists and lauding music knowledge over people.

9. massage. i had a hot stone massage this week. i thought i might pass out from bliss midway through it. it was a gift from my team at work. and it is safe to say, best work gift ever.

10. neon tiger by the killers.



you know i'm going to see them this wednesday night ahe? i actually realised earlier today that i have so deified brandon flowers that i may vomit when he comes on stage and proves to be merely a man. a hot man, but still only flesh and bone and a killer smile.

11. the internet. for reasons like this.

now that i'm thirty i'm a different person. i have a different favourite cocktail: delovely martini from hawthorne lounge. and a different favourite song:



the favourite song thing happened last night when i went to see kings of leon. for my review, click here.

i am writing this as i sit in a central south island motel room watching csi miami. the south island is hot, mostly. we started on saturday with christchurch and rumours of another 40 degree day. which basically didn't happen. but, hey, any excuse for a sprinkler party. so we got into our togs and went nuts.

speaking of nuts, a road trip with your family is the most mental idea in history. the term over ambitious springs to mind. plus there have also been fights over the use of english. especially whether the instruction "veer right" means "turn right" or "go straight". needless to say, when your car rental company doesn't give you a map and you haven't yet bought an iphone with gps, this kind of conversation is pretty frequent. plus we haven't yet figured out the right grace period before we can make fun of this kind of hilarity. hence the near tears this morning as we were trying to get out of christchurch to head south.

on the up-side i probably get to feed wallabies tomorrow and my nephews are even more awesome the more you get to know them. plus the warehouse has cheap cds. which leads me to announce my new favourite song of all time:



barry white forever!

sunday was one of the greatest days ever. my brother and i went to new zealand's golden coast to see our nephews and sister. first stop: LINDALE.

it rained. so we could only eat lunch (substandard corn fritters for me, but served with a smile so i just couldn't complain) and watch nains waste his pocket money on a coin operated tractor. btw nains continues to light up my life. he's three. he is hopeless at hide and seek. so anyway, despite the baby chickens everywhere we didn't even attempt to see the animals. instead we drove up the road to southwards.

it was memory lane! i remember first going there with either my uncle or my grandfather (some older male anyway). i must have been about five and i demanded a print of a model t ford. which i got after a lot of argument (nb: even today they are only 50cents, which makes me think it was my penny pincher grandfather that took me to southwards). i could look at the de lorean for hours.




nains was bored with the museum but just about passed out from the excitement of the elevator. my siblings and i were excited by the basement room, which is basically a memorial to every car we've ever owned. which reminds me of my new phrase that i might sell to toyota:

picture me co-rollin'.

anyway, for me the childhood memories and the joy on nain's face when it was over were worth the $10 entry fee. plus they have the best postcards in wellington. you should go.

after the museum we fed nains and tiki up on ice cream and left them to their mother. while we drove back to wellington. i played a game where i was the 91 ZM dj who does "High school hits". so i'd be all like

"high school hits, class of '97" and then play "don't look back in anger".

and so on. it might be the best road trip game of all time. you should try it.

other songs on my high school hits play list:

• semi charmed life - third eye blind
  
• santeria - sublime
  
• every morning - sugar ray
  
• we close our eyes - go west
• misery - soul asylum
  
• time - pink floyd
• intergallactic - beastie boys

basically, the ride home from the kapiti coast is just not long enough.

anyway when i got home i bought we close our eyes on i tunes and to prove its worth, i tunes genius reminded me of this:



NEW FAVOURITE SONG OF ALL TIME.

new favourite song of all time alert.

i need music to cheer me up though. something like this....


but when i'm being less dramatic, i realise i haven't got a lot to grump about really. so what if i think i'm going to miss helen clark's dulcet tones and winston's oration. there is a reason to make like fleetwood mac and keep (thinking about tomorrow). mostly it is hottie-alert obama. i feel like i personally contributed to his victory. through will power alone. i used the power of positive thinking. i bet oprah did too. WE ARE SUCH SOUL MATES I CANNOT BELIEVE I'VE NEVER MET OPRAH.

i'm making up for it by watching lots of her 20 years of oprah dvd. number of times i've cried: three.

i've watched movies too. eg choke . i went on thursday night. 7.5/10. i've never read the book but i think it is on the 1001 list - so i REALLY must. anyway, movies about sex addicts, mental institutions and parents with dementia all add up to a good time. the very best bits were in the trailer but since i only saw that once, it didn't ruin it one iota. also i finally got to see a complete history of my sexual failures. kind of continued my sex themed movie buzz. this was a bit more uncomfortable but i'm still not sure if it is a mock or doc - umentary. and the internet is no help either. i figure the guardian reviewer had the same thoughts as me calling it an 'alleged' documentary - only he found the documentary less endearing - you can read it here. i give that a 7/10.

when i'm not losing myself in the arts, i'm indulging in fashions. i mentioned i had a new dress for the ball last week. well, i went to the ball and guess who was the belle of the ball. BINGO. it was me. god bless the l'estrange corbet dynasty. they know how to do red chiffon. but also they know how to milk the election. they had a 12.5% off day on saturday and i spent well more than i saved in preparation for looking H.O.T in new york.

oh and i'm in the koru club right now getting ready to board a plane to vancouver. RANDOM. anyway, i'm away for two weeks. first vancouver and regina (hehehe) for work then new york, boston and miami for fun and cocktails.

don't. stop. thinkin' about tomorrow. don't. stop. it'll soon be heeeeere.....

i got ready for snoop dogg last night and took selfportraits while i drank tea and ate toast.

totally toasted.

i've been down with snoop since the start. kind of. except i didn't know what indo' was so i never really got the lyrics to 99% of his songs. but all i really needed to know was that snoop was upside my head.

anyway, my 17 year old self would have been impressed with me last night. like how i lined up with hoodlums while they smoked and talked about their bebo pages. and how i put my motherfuckin hands up with bone thugs n harmony. who, due to the nearly hour long line to get in, had already started when we got inside the lame-o-rama tsb arena. bone thugs still killed it (to quote my new favourite stuff dot co dot nz commenter "bigg double double" who you can read here). itunes don't sell a decent version of tha crossroads so i don't have it on my NYC ipod chelsea clinton. but it repeats in my head. and we pray and we pray and we pray and we pray every day every day every day every day......

then ice cube hit the stage and he started the gansta shit 22 years ago so naturally, he killed it too. again, i am quoting bigg double double. ice cube inducted me into the west coast conference (or whatever, i was high from second hand smoke so who knows really what he inducted me in to). and my newly identified life's ambition was realised when he performed straight outta compton like it was 1989 up in the tsb arena. every moment of ice cube was magical but if pushed i'd say 'you can do it (put your back in to it)' and 'go to church' were my favourites.

at the end of ice cube's set i was about to die from dehydration so i paid five dollars for water and dreamed of sitting down. i'd been standing for hours. there are so many downsides of tsb arena (the only up-side is that i have lots of concert memories from the venue) and one of them is the lack of seating and the way the dancefloor is always sticky and gross beyond words so is not a sitting option at all.

once rehydrated, i was ready for snoop - who arrived on stage in a giant jumpsuit made of bandana material. west siiiiide. and guess what? he killed it. he played my faves (except beautiful, which is like my anthem) and even did a two song salute to tupac (rest in peace) - including one of my top ten tupac faves hail mary. basically he just sang along to a tupac tape - but it is as close as i will ever get to a tupac concert - so i thought snoop killed this too. snoop spent the rest of the night proving that there ain't no party like a snoop dogg party cos a snoop dogg party don't quit. much like snoop. who by the end of the night i was finding weirdly attractive. something i thought was impossible after seeing the disturbing sex scene in 'the wash'. although i suspect (but am happy never to find out) that his scenes in doggystyle the movie may in fact be worse.

i was ashamed for all of new zealand when the crowd disappeared straight after snoop left the stage. without so much as stomping for an encore. but i was tired so wasn't prepared to fight them. all in all it was an OUTSTANDING night. and while the sound and the venue were middling to average the show itself was awesome and i now want to marry icecube. and to the stuff gig reviewer - you need to check yo'self before you wreck yo'self. because a review that spends three paragraphs on the venue and like one on the actual concert is a C minus at best.



west siiide.

ps: tomorrow night i am going to chris brown and rihanna. i hope my shoulder injury (from arm waving) is healed by then.

after a whiskey tasting at crazy horse steak house earlier this week, i'm all about soda water. i can NOT get enough of the stuff. add some lime for a virgin cocktail. or on the rocks. it is ALL GOOD. plus it turns out it is an adequate substitute for dutch courage. as it was enough to get me up debuting at blue note with a duet version of manic monday. it involved literal dance moves. obviously. and i'd, humbly, suggest it was life changing for the audience.
the song resonates.

as does ally mcbeal....

i don't know what i like more about ally mcbeal season one: the vonda sheppard soundtrack, the "fashions" or hating on billy. seriously, it is a three way tie.

today i watched the first six episodes of ally mcbeal. while each was brilliant in its own right, highlights included: ally telling a fat man to stop looking for the one and to settle for the only, ally stealing "sex jelly" from the supermarket and elaine trying to market the face bra. and jon bonjovi hasn't even joined the cast yet. i have some fun times ahead of me!!!!

how come i've never read a confederacy of dunces before? don't worry though. i am making up for the oversight by reading it obsessively.

and as a result i'm progressing nicely on the 1001 books to read before you die challenge. i may have even caught up to the one book a month target after i finally finished the motivation sapping eva trout, and read the delightful miss peddigrew lives a day.

this week has been fierce. some weeks are. a election has been called, which of course is a highlight. for the first time in years i'm interested. i think the last time i was five and i wrote a story about how my mother was going to vote for david lange. my school principal gave me a smiley face stamp on my hand for that one. i have also voted in the stv vs fpp city council poll. i'm such a citizen right now.

i also did some dancing at a ball on friday night, which is perhaps the real reason i spent yesterday reading confederacy of dunces and not going to atomic. ie i needed to recover. the ball itself was fine, but low key. i wore sixty dollars of equip jewels and pulled out my disco moves once again. turns out i actually prefer dancing by myself though, so i kept moving away from my partners so i could twirl alone. anyway after the ball i drank whiskey in the holiday inn hotel lobby until two am while some soccer team ate sandwiches. as an aside, they weren't as hot as i had anticipated.

i also got pretty cultured this week. i went to see the rita angus exhibition at te papa. seeing the island bay boats in real life, and not in a faded poster in someone's living room, was like a pilgrimage for my island bay bred self. and like most great art works, it was smaller in real life. but still fierce. that same night i ate coq au vin at hippotamus. food was like a 9 out of ten. views were great. but music was random and i think the glass food by the entrance could do with a dusting. anyway, i'll be back. i also ate at plate at the holiday inn. food was pretty good. maybe a seven and a half. and i ate at the koru club and about a hundred times at my work cafe. i also went to dorkland this week. for all of about two hours.

this week i also have two new favourite songs. one is mase's feel so good. and the other is this one.



i thought i hated this song because it was on a grey's anatomy like that terrible song. how to save a life. by the fray. but then this weekend i listened to it again and decided actually it is the greatest song of all time.

anyway, i can't believe i have spent this long not reading confederacy. better get back in to it...

the problem i have with weekends is that they go by too quickly. one minute you're downing whiskey at te papa, the next you're trying to figure out if you have enough clean clothes to last the week while sobbing about dogs thanks to post secret.

i would insert a new self portrait here, but the lord alone knows where my camera is. i had it when i got back from melbourne but since then it has been awol. anyway, an old portrait will have to suffice....



remember this face because it could be on the front page of the paper on monday. actually, i'll be hurt if it is not. a dompost photographer took my photo at the book fair on saturday. and sure, the only bad publicity is no publicity or whatever, but seriously: i was reading the sensuous woman by "j" at the time. plus i am sure the photographer didn't get my best angle. pretty much i'm the only person alive who can do that.

on the topic of the sensuous woman, i bought it obviously. it is awesome, and has already paid for itself . i spent nearly an hour an a half in hysterics with AL reading it at felix while eating ginger loaf. you really must read it. topics covered include when it is okay not to wear makeup (never, unless you have a conservative surgeon in which case there is one exception: surgery), eleven orgie etiquette tips (did you know, you might need to be naked? this book is a godsend), and the hazards of sex (vd mostly, in which case "cry 'help' to the doctor and 'murder' to the man who gave it to you - but don't let those nosy neighbours hear you. the day hasn't quite arrived when venereal diseases are something to brag about").

i also got lucky man, the keith quinn story for my brother. he was stoked. naturally.

from one lucky man to another: do you know who my new favourite celebrity is? tom cruise.


that man has had some bad press (which i now understand after my brush with the dompost as per above), but has made lemonade with his role in tropic thunder. i give the movie 7.5. the best bits were the bells and whistles (the trailers at the start and the cameos throughout). so the movie and its plot were probably kind of weak. but who noticed? i was too busy watching tom cruise shake his money maker to ludacris. which brings me to my new favourite song: get back. anyway, robert downey junior was wonderful - as per my expectations. and jack black once again wasn't annoying. maybe i was too hasty to judge jack black after nacho libre. although one search on youtube reminds me i was on the money with that one. and lance romance, everyone's third favourite n*sync member made an appearance. but enough said. i do not want to spoil the cinematic experience.

and on the topic of spoiling, i'm about to spoil my sunday with more laundry.... sigh.

i've seen more movies. i'm probably what you would call an addict. i mean how else can you explain how i saw wanted. oh hold on, there was an explanation: james mcavoy.

"hello. i am james mcavoy and i'm in the narnia movie and am TOO adorable for words"

he is not adorable in wanted, however. he is just lame. like a lame edward norton. because the only good bits made me think of fight club (evidence: mention of ikea products, dreary every day life etc...). the bad bits made me think of leaving the theatre. and the really bad parts made me laugh out loud. basically, if you can believe a guild of weavers can become assassins driven by a magic loom, then this is the movie for you. minus eight. it would have only been a minus 5, but i found out i missed out on the gymnastics showcase at the olympics by going to the movie. so it gets minus 3 opportunity cost points.

and i have also just this moment seen baby mama. and by comparison it is oscar worthy. and it has an all star cast that includes steve martin. that guy is ALWAYS hilarious. plus it is a chick flick so even when it is bad it is good. and there are babies and jokes about wanting babies and tina fey and i should probably become best friends because when she is given the chance to dj at a night club she blasts out the lady in red. which we know is the best song of all time. sadly, it empties the dance floor. 6/10.

it could have been the whiskey, or the apple pie dinner. whatever it was, my taxi ride home tonight was poignant.

the taxi driver kept changing radio stations. probably to find a song that he thought i'd like.



bingo. big time.

i have a love hate relationship with more things than i care to list. like this mug. although, if i'm being honest, it is mostly love.

when i was a kid my favourite book was little black sambo and the tiger. they made butter and played on slides. the joy of imagining myself on that slide! i thought sambo was about my dad.

i also thought my dad played the cheeky barman, isaac, on the love boat.

imagine if he was though. it would have been AWESOME to be isaac's daughter. i would have probably got to go to acapulco when he had to shoot on location. instead sometimes i'd get to go to the hutt to eat sherbert watch dad play rugby.

and even though i don't want to start listing everything i love hate, i'm gonna give you one more. synth folk music.



actually, i lie. there is no hate.

i love shona laing like i love the all time best new zealand town slogan. you could say, she's right up my hutt valley.

also right up my hutt valley was last night's party at morgue and cazza's. best. mulled wine. ever.

i made cupcakes in the weekend and was chuffed with myself. then i ate one for breakfast this morning and i was all regrets. cupcakes are a great afternoon tea. and yet at eight am, not so much the right food choice.

i have been listening to the radio news too much. now i'm worried i'm single handedly causing the power crisis. with my baking and my electric blanket and tupac - my laptop. not to mention the amount of charging chelsea clinton, my new york ipod, requires. i decided to switch from nat rad to marcus lush this morning, in the hopes of a more light hearted but still informed start to my day. i'm not convinced marcus was on this morning. because it wasn't even hilarious for one moment. i listened to owner of a lonely heart on chelsea clinton instead.

anyway, as a result i forgot the power crisis stuff until this evening. when i started turning off my house lights furiously. we'll have to see how long this behaviour lasts.

one thing is for sure, i will be laying off the baking for a few weeks. both in the interests of the environment and of my early morning blood sugar levels. of course that starts tomorrow, because now i'm addicted to baking and so i made biscuits tonight. but i made them out of rolled oats so maybe they'll make a better breakfast? plus i undercooked them - which of course means less electicity used for cooking. i'm so environmentally conscious.

ps: you should totally watch the yes video clip linked above. it is like a short film with people "morphing" into animals. brilliant. watch it with the lights out though. i don't want you using needless electricity.

in the early hours of friday morning i was attacked by an evil cat*.


apart from confirming cats are trouble, the moral of the story is trust your instincts. before i went to bed on thursday night i thought i could hear rustling under my bed. but since i basically think that every night due to my mouse phobia i was like "get over it already" and went to sleep. about five am there was a crashing and banging. and then something that i thought was a) the shadow of death coming to engulf me or b) a family of rats jumped out at me. i screamed and woke up half of my street i think. my flatmate had to rescue me.

okay, so the cat may actually have been afraid or whatever after jumping through my window during the day and then not being able to get out. but unlike me i bet the cat has slept since.

this is giving me comfort though:



not only is it an inspirational message but it has judd nelson in the video clip. back when he was hot. ie before suddenly susan. reow. but interestingly, can you BELIEVE that john parr was not thrilled to be working on st elmo's fire? that man did not know what a good thing he had. although thanks to wikipedia i gather he also worked on the soundtrack to three men and a baby. which is obviously one of the top ten movies of the eighties.

anyway, i should get up. out of bed. and head to craft two point oh. i might need to buy myself a present for being so brave with respects to the cat.

*this photo is a striking likeness to the cat that attacked me, but is not the acutal cat.

this whole blogging every day business is difficult. i was walking home from the bus tonight thinking about how i would totally post about all the things i feel guilty about today. then i got home and was like "oh my god you're so middle class. get over it". and being middle class is super uncool. obviously.

which in part is why i'm now watching more television than you can poke a stick at. programmes i'm following but haven't yet mentioned on the blog include: rock of love with brett michaels, so you think you can dance and american idol. they are all truly outrageous.

anyway, i reference how i'm bringing tele back because i have discovered that white people don't own televisions. hello, this website stole my mojo (even if technically their post existed before i brought tele back, please know that i was thinking it months and months ago. just like how i invented the concept for the truman show years before the movie came out, except in my head it was better and didn't have jim carey).

so i guess i'm saying i'm an ideas person. which is both a blessing and a burden. much like being middle class probably, not that i'd actually know. obviously. but also, is the realisation that i'm an ideas person enough content for my blog post?

because i'm posting something every day i am constantly on the lookout for blogable material. today i started emailing myself ideas during the day so i don't forget them. today's emails were pathetic. the best was something about how awesome joan armatrading is. well, how awesome one of her songs is anyway. click here to watch some budget video clip of it. i'm right on target, my aim is straight.....

and did you know that mandy moore covered it? it is as wholesome as you'd imagined. google it if you're brave enough.

and yes, some days i can write screens worth of text about why some song is my favourite song of all time. but it is too soon after i declared on sunday morning that modest mouse's float on is my new favourite song. which reminds me, white people love indie rock.

what am i saying, am i poking fun of myself? doubtful, due to me being both perfect and an ideas person (ie i am getting this blog post on levels you couldn't even imagine). but maybe. who knows. but in case you were wondering, i'm in awe of how incoherent i am being. i guess that is what happens when i set myself stupid challenges like daily blog posts.

urban legend, and perhaps science, has it that change is the only constant. but i have news for you. there is a second constant. and that is oprah winfrey. because she is a CONSTANT inspiration.

like how today she is inspiring this post. i'm writing a gratitude journal before i go to bed.

1. i am grateful for sight. i nearly blinded myself taking this photo which was both too close up and too flashy. the flashiness seems to have worn off though and i've almost regained my vision.


2. people who read blogs, especially my blog. but apparently i don't post enough for some people. so this week i am posting every day.

3. babies. babies are perfect. here is an example of a new one.

4. the internets, for helping me to find the perfect muffin recipe. i find that no matter what substitutions i make the muffins turn out.

5. this song. which i have listened to on repeat for the past five or six days. i don't know anything about modest mouse. except how their name is an oxymoron. in my experience mice aren't modest. they take liberties and try and live in my house and then try and eat me. mice are something i am not grateful for.

6. flirting. i watched some classic flirting about twenty minutes ago on courtenay place. from my prime location at kenny's cafe.

7. kenny's cafe. sometimes you just need hot chips before heading home.

8. always having my camera. if i didn't i would have missed this terrible sight in newtown earlier today. boo cancer society. i mean i still hate cancer more to the power of infinity. but the cancer society had a car wash where twelve year olds dressed in bikinis holding up signs. and they were getting heaps of toots from gross old men in trucks. ps they may not have been twelve but they certainly weren't eighteen.




9. atomic. and especially men who whisper song lyrics in your ear. when you don't know them. girls on film. girls on film. about an hour after that he nearly vomited on the dance floor. crisis averted though when someone handed him another beer. sadly he didn't repeat his smooth whispering in my ear move again.

10. sleep. i am very very tired. so sleep, when it comes, will be the most awesome thing of all time, ever.

i can remember exactly when i decided my life's ambition was dancing to interpol. i was standing on the dance floor at 24hr party people and heinrich maneuver came on and i realised at that exact moment that it was more than a good song. it was my FAVOURITE SONG OF ALL TIME. of course i have had about fifty 'favourite songs of all time' since then.

then i went to new york and discovered that i would miss seeing interpol play there by a matter of days. and i was heart broken. making my desire all the more intense etc...

and thursday night: dream came true.

they played the auckland town hall. and the line to get in (if you had tickets) was about a hundred metres down the street. due to the most inefficient wrist banding of all time. EVER.

anyway, the queue meant i got in about five mintues before interpol came on. ie perfect. (btw pre interpol snack: kura on queen st, recommended).

the man from world who sold me my new skirt (confession, i've been spending like money grows on trees) was there. i am madly in love with him obviously. so avoided his gaze. then i realised it might not have been the world guy. because auckland is full of attractive, tall, well dressed camp men.

anyway interpol came on. and they rocked my world. i sang along until at one point my throat felt raw. and i danced as much as i could, but was restricted by the making out couple to my right. bloody february 14. bloody st valentine. auckland goes for vd in a big way. it is one of auckland's less charming qualities.

at the door i lied and said i didn't have my camera. but just as well i did. here is the only photo i took.... f0r a beautiful moment the crowd parted and i could see paul banks.

the band are not really charasmatic crowd engagers in between songs. but they are awesome. and i would rather powerful music than witty banter from a band (pj harvey's banter was one of the low lights of her concert for me, for example). and they played nearly every one of my favourites. NYC may have made it into my top five interpol songs based on thursday's performance. and evil was awesome as you'd expect. and rest my chemistry... i don't have the words.

the review in the herald said they played no i in threesome. which is my actual FAVOURITE SONG OF ALL TIME. but i must have passed out from how good it was. cos i don't remember it.

but i remember every other moment. vividly. and will be reliving it for months to come. i just can't get enough of intepol right now.

when i was ten i was MAJORLY in love with a boy who was 19. well semi-majorly. my actual love resided with luke goss, who i was sure i would marry and have thirteen babies with and we would live in a house decked out in those glass bricks everywhere, backlit. and venetian blinds. but yeah, i was semi-MAJORLY in love with this 19 year old boy.

i was a regular lolita.

except for how he basically had no idea i existed. he was the son of a family friend. and HANDSOME. although i couldn't for the life of me describe him now in any great detail, he was basically tall, dark and handsome.

he told someone, while i was in the room, that when he turned 21 he was going to use the birthday money to buy a motorcycle.

he also thought margaret urlich was a fox. which was a knife through my tender heart. so i learned the moves from the escaping video. and asked my grandfather if he could leave me enough in his will to buy a cropped leather jacket (as an aside my grandfather said no, because he thought margaret urlich was too exposed).

anyway, at christmas my dreams basically came true because instead of totally ignoring me, he gave me the mix tape from his car to listen to. i see now it was probably just to get me to leave him alone for 45 minutes. but to me it was the christmas miracle. and he left it behind. and i hid it away, listening to it on my immidation walkman, secretly, at every opportunity. and to secure the tape i even broke off those little tabs at the top - so i didn't accidentally tape over it.

i had mostly forgotten about the mix tape - which was THE GREATEST MIX TAPE OF ALL TIME - until the other day when i was brainstorming what new material to add to chelsea clinton (my american ipod).

since then i have attempted to recreate it. i am failing. so far there are only two songs i remember.

the first is ZAPPs "i want to be your man". now, the version i can find on the internets is (i am sure) different from the mix tape. the song is basically a slow jam, but the synths and special voice effects elevate it to the boogiest slow jam ever. i hope someone proposes to me using that song.

the second, though, is actually my favourite. robert palmer's "i didn't mean to turn you on".


i know what you're thinking. and yes. it is actually even better than you remember. i haven't decided what my favourite part is, but i think over all it is robert palmer's sexy sexy voice. and the lyrics full stop but especially the part "why should i (pause) feel gulity cos i won't give, guilty cos i won't give in (pause) i didn't mean to turn you on". also i am watching the video clip quite a bit in down time. there is a link here. basically identical to other videos of his in this period (c. 1988/89).

i am certain that these were the two best songs on the tape, but together amount for at the most ten minutes. which leaves 35 minutes. if you made a mix tape in 1988, and you put zapp and robert palmer on it, what else would you have included?

anyway, as a postscript the semi-MAJOR love of my life went on to a life of drug related crime. i never got my cropped leather jacket, and my crush on luke goss morphed into a crush on brandon walsh. robert palmer dueted with ub40. and zapp faded into oblivion. sometimes, in my darker hours, i miss the eighties so bad.