Le nozze

Found these two short arias from Le Nozze. Don't say you don't get variety on my blog - from naysaying cats to sublime Mozart, life's not boring.

Just watched the original 1975 Stepford Wives, which I hadn't seen before. Now that's what I call a horror movie.

Accessible Arias: 'Voi che sapete' sung by Rinat Shaham, from Mozart's T...

Accessible Arias: Erwin Schrott sings 'Se voul ballare' from The Marriag...

Another NONONONO Cat

Poor puss - they probably told him he was going to the vet. Funny but sad too.

Bits and pieces

For some obscure reason, my font has changed. I don't know what it was before, but now it looks like a large print version. So apologies for looking weird. Also, my security suite has blocked content from my own blog! I spelt the f-word; it's like McAfee is my grandma. "Naughty girl, musn't swear, it's not ladylike". And Google favourites has put up some stuffs that are not favourites, but just looked at once upon a time. Have I got a virus??
I'm on holiday, and unfortunately the weather is going to be crap for the whole time, so I have no excuse at all for not cleaning out the kitchen cupboards and doing some artwork. Except for spending large amounts of time on the computer.
Found a delightful version of Le nozze di Figaro on youTube. Look for Le nozze di Figaro Pappano if you want to see it. Antonio Pappano (think I've spelt it right, could be Papanno) was the conductor for this Royal Opera House production, which is lovely and light and funny and sad, best Nozze I've seen yet. The singers act as well as sing, so it's all very accessible without being dumbed down. And Erwin Schrott is gorgeous (terrible name though).

New Christchurch

Blueprints have just come out for the rebuild of the CBD. I think I hate it, it's just so contrived. The best part old cities is how they have all buildings of all ages scattered through them; Christchurch is going to be so boringly uniform now, just the sort of thing that government bureaucrats would design. It will also mean more demolitions, as the Plan will have to be accomodated. And one of the few surviving heritage buildings (NG Gallery) is to be demolished for a f...ing sports stadium. Well done, philistines, you've won. There is going to be a new performing arts centre, supposedly, but no one quite knows where it will be yet. I'll bet anything that the new sports stadium gets built before anything for the performing arts. Rugby maniacs will be rubbing their hands together with glee.  And of course there's the obligatory convention centre and posh hotels, where government junketers and carpetbaggers can take their whores on tax-payer funded "fact-finding" missions.  Christchurch: the city where middle-aged white men go to play.  Rage and despair, rage and despair.

"Weird Al" Yankovic - Eat It

Big Brother

Just fishing around on my facebook page, a bit spooked to realise that pictures I posted have been geographically located on a map. Didn't know this happened. Moral of the story, anything you don't want to be published, don't post ANYTHING about, not even photos. Not that I care about this particular information getting out into the world, it's not a big secret, but if it was, then that's not good.
   Not much going on at the moment. The neighbours over the back fence have been busy with some kind of construction work. He's got a little front-end loader that he drives back and forth, why I don't know, it's bloody noisy and sounds like it's in my kitchen. Perhaps he's building a helicopter pad or an Olympic-sized swimming pool. Or just to get away from his wife, a shrew who I hear far oftener than I see, screaming at the kids to get off the garden, or get inside, or telling them that they are MORONS! Forty years from now she'll be wondering why they never visit her at the Home. He'll be long gone, having died of rage after buying a new front-end loader that loads from the back.
  Talking of old age, I was reading and advertisement for an aged-care facility (euphemism for old folks home) yesterday. My God, it was so appealing! Sing-alongs and soft food, little trips out for the more active ones and best practice bum-wiping for those stuck in poky. I can not imagine myself in such a place, no wonder old people resist going so strongly. Drooling into my soft food, getting excited over a trip to the mall, bullying the nurses, forgetting to take my medication - I can't wait.
Hideous, hideous. The problem is, the alternative is early death; that's not very attractive either. As some wit once said, life is a terminal illness; no one gets out of here alive.

Post-earthquake ramifications

Another Christchurch building was closed yesterday, yes, two years after the first of our earthquakes. South Library, the only library to be open pretty much all through the months following the disaster, closed yesterday after a detailed building survey. It's not that the building is structurally damaged or a huge risk to people in there, but the land underneath the building is slumping. To what degree the land has slumped or whether it's continuing or how fast it's going is still to be found out. The building fronts onto a river, so presumably the land is pretty soft and wet. This is going to be a big loss to the south Christchurch community, as our other large library, Linwood, is indefinitely closed, I think to be rebuilt eventually. It's also a big blow to the staff, who will now have to be located in other libraries, often far away from their homes, in different teams with different colleagues.
News also that our Art Gallery, a brand new building that was Civil Defence headquarters for many months, will have to be lifted and placed on rubber foundations. This is going to cost a whopping $36 million dollars! Of course, there are questions. Why were the foundations not earthquake proof in the first place? Answer: it would have cost too much and the chances of having an earthquake in Christchurch were regarded as slim. So we gambled on this probability and lost.
This is something that we didn't think of, that the earthquakes were a disaster that would have long-term effects. Yes, we got used to the physical aftershocks (well, sort of), but the ongoing knock-on effects in every sphere of life that you can think of were not something that we considered. It's very disheartening, even for those whose homes and liveliehoods were not destroyed. The city falls down, you build it again, right? But if the land underneath has changed, and is now a jellyish sponge, what can you rebuild? Ho hum. Two steps forward, one step back.

Green teapot day

Went to the library today, picked up a heap of stuff, because I have a feeling the weather is going to crap out, and I'll need to have some amusements. My reserve was in, the new Donna Leon, Beastly things. If you've not read Leon, do so, her books are more intelligent and compassionate than the usual run of murder mysteries. And set in Venice.
   Got lots of DVDs, among them some old movies, two westerns, Gunfight at the OK Corral with Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas, a Jimmy Stewart called The Far country, and a pirate movie called The Black swan, with Maureen O'Hara and Tyrone Power. Ty Power was one of my mother's hearthrobs. It'll be interesting to see how he compares to Johnny's Captain Sparrow. (What is it about pirates? They've been so glorified, and yet they were truly brutal and nasty men). So if it rains all day tomorrow I'll be having a matinee movie-fest.
 Went for a walk along the river at Beckenham, and just happened to drop in at Kaizuka on the way back, where I found my new green teapot (see below).

Green teapot day

It's green, it's got elephants on it and it was half-price, so it ticked all the boxes. I don't really need another teapot, but I don't not need one either.

Blades Of Glory - Don't Wanna Miss A Thing

I just couldn't resist this. My guilty pleasure. No, it's not profound or trendy, but I've seen it so many times now and it always cheers me up if I'm feeling down. Not only Jon Heder, but also Will Ferrell, plus great skating, what's not to like? And William Fichtner in a great cameo as Jimmy's adoptive father. Pure enjoyment.(This is a compilation of scenes from the movie, put together very well by an amateur on youTube).

2001: A Space Odyssey - Official Trailer [1968] - HD

And this first screened at Cinerama - anyone else remember it, in Worcester street behind the Cathedral?

2001: a space odyssey

Halfway through this movie, which I first saw when I was about fourteen. I've seen it again since, and it still amazes me. How did Kubrick make all those scenes inside the spaceship, with the centrifuge and the upside-down-ness of it all? I love the acknowledgement that there's no up and down in space, its only gravity that give us this perception on earth. The space ships glide silently too, because there's no noise where there's no atmosphere to vibrate. (George Lucas chose to ignore that boring fact, in favour of exciting noises). Some things have dated a bit (the cabin crew's uniforms in the shuttle to the space station) but it still looks modern, as if Kubrick anticipated such developments as light weight fabrics for clothing, microwaved food, even the retro-fifties look of the clothes of the civilians.  I remember us all seeing the movie and reading the book at school, and the anguished and earnest teenage discussions of what it all MEANT. And it wasn't really HAL's fault, he was programmed with conflicting commands. Bit like most humans, really.

Greening in the Red Zone

Just done my first guest spot on someone else's blog. The blog is called Greening in the red zone, and I wrote about the earthquake, Greening the Rubble and the Avon-Otakaro network.

A sort of spring day

Yesterday was a beautiful spring day.. but, hang on, it's still winter. In fact it was so warm it was a beautiful summer day. Did lots of hard gardening. (Hard gardening is chopping stuff down, carting stuff around, clearing neglected patches, any reconstruction stuff involving carrying heavy weights, or wobbling on a ladder; soft gardening is dead-heading, fertilising, seed sowing, light weeding and watering). I've finally plucked up the courage to venture into some of the corners of my garden and give them a good clear out. The front garden is especially bad, I neglect it because it's on the shady side of the house, and is also more public; being horribly introverted I hate having to acknowledge the neighbours or passers-by. I don't hate them, I just want to get on and do my gardening thing without having to make small talk. One of my neighbours, an elderly chap, would talk the hind leg off a donkey. I like him, but sometimes I feel I could do without him. He gives good but unwanted advice - if I wanted the eucalyptus cut down, I'd do it, right?
So I've dug out a hydrangea that has been ailing for some time, the Mexican orange blossom that broke with the snow on it, the Orizops grasses that are way too big for the garden, and pruned the climbing rose. And now I've got lots of room for all the things in pots hanging around waiting for a permanent home. A couple of camellias, some hostas, hellebores and snowdrops will all go well in this shady space and won't outgrow their welcomes.
  The only problem, as always, is what to do with the rubbish. My usual ploy is to hide it around the back of the garage and slowly dribble it out into the green waste bin; that way I don't have to pay for taking it to the dump. And I can't dump it myself. I can barely back the car out of the garage, let alone back a trailer up to the refuse pit. It's as if when I turn my head backwards, left becomes right and right becomes left. I'm car-backing challenged that's what.

Foux Du FaFa

Michael Parekowhai

Michael Parekowhai, a photo by Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu on Flickr.

On First Looking into Chapman's Homer

On First Looking into Chapman's Homer, a photo by Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu on Flickr.

On First Looking into Chapman's Homer opening 07

On First Looking into Chapman's Homer opening 07, a photo by Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu on Flickr.

This piano is inside NG Gallery, over the road from the bulls outside.

On First Looking into Chapman's Homer opening 05

On First Looking into Chapman's Homer opening 05, a photo by Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu on Flickr.

Installing On First Looking into Chapman's Homer

Installing On First Looking into Chapman's Homer, a photo by Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu on Flickr.

Good photo series on Flickr

Going round the Red Zone

Decided to make a trip around the Red Zone today, around the barricades. For those of you reading this outside NZ, the Red Zone comprises the area devastated by our earthquake in February 2011, mostly the central business district. I went to see what's happened and what's new and what's survived.

Parking my car at the Botanic Gardens, my first stop was the posh private school, Christ's College. Christchurch Cathedral services are now being held in the chapel at the school, so the quad was open, but deserted. Most of the buildings here have survived. The morning service was just ending, and I stood outside in the sun listening to the voices of the chior, the sound of a  tradition stretching from the medieval church to a little shaky island in the Pacific. "That, my dear," said Otto, "is the sound of continuity".

  Original school hall. Wooden buildings generally stood up better to the quakes than masonry.

 Front porch of the Chapel

Then on to the Arts Centre, a group of Victorian Gothic buildings badly damaged in the quakes. Here a salvaged gable end and stonework sit waiting their re-erection at some future date

At the end of Worcester Boulevard, a blossoming Prunus frames the deconstruction of Clarendon Towers.

Shands Emporium, one of our oldest wooden buildings, still stands, but is seriously damaged.

Many of the surviving brick buildings are industrial in origin. This is PD Duncan's foundry, built to withstand heavy machinery and vibration. Buchanan's foundry, right next door, (below) also survived.

  Along the eastern edge of the Red Zone are some of the most damaged areas of the city. This is what's left of MacKenzie and Willis' furniture store.

The emergence of "secret Christchurch" from the rubble, the bits we never saw before or didn't know about, has been fascinating. The rear of this building sports add-ons to add-ons, boarded up doors, a mural and a garden chair. Further up the line of buildings was a tiny terrace on the second floor, with potted plants in terracotta pots.

And these bulls by Michael Parekowhai were wonderful. (What I was aiming for all along). They are outside NG Gallery in Madras Street, and were first exhibited at the Venice Biennale. Titled "On first looking into Chapman's Homer" they carry the weight of the classical tradition. Sitting on the stools and looking at the bulls' faces makes you feel quite strange.

Once again, secret Christchurch emerges, this time with vistas that could not be photographed before. This is the old Government Building in Worcester Street, a facade that is now exposed to more sunlight than its probably seen in the last 60 years. It's quite grand, almost like Buck House. Rock solid because it was built by the now defunct Ministry of Works, way above specification.

Ghosts of vanished buildings appear etched on the survivors.

Rubble from a demolition in progress chokes the end of Chancery Lane.

My favourite inner-city cafe, Cafe Roma, the building dating I think from the 20s or 30s. Hopefully this can be rebuilt. It has beautiful dark-panelled wood and open fires, the perfect place to go for a winter lunch.

So, some things are lost, some remain, albeit with an altered appearance. And the life of the city is continuing, with new ideas and new forms.

Within the realm of Nga Tuahuriri,

Welcome, intrepid newcomers,

Gather with tenacious fortitude,

Under the mantle of peace and goodwill.

(Mihi for Christchurch, inscribed on an exhibition of views of the old city, currently in Worcester Boulevard)

Absolute friends

Just finished reading John Le Carre's "Absolute friends". Wow. A reviewer in the Guardian said that if Le Carre was angry in "The constant gardener" in "Absolute friends" he's incandescent with rage, and that sums it up well. I've not read a lot of LeCarre, I find the cross-double cross-triple cross a bit confusing, but one of his novels, A perfect spy, remains on my Best Books of All Time list. "Absolute friends" has echoes of that earlier book in the central relationship of Mundy and Sasha, similar to that of Magnus Pym and his counterpart "Alex" in "A perfect spy". The central questions of this book are reiterations of the earlier novel - Who are we really? Is there a Real Me? Is there a Real You? Can we really know another person?  Why do people believe what they do, and what prompts them to act on their beliefs? What might cause someone to change their beliefs?  How do we try to justify our  behaviour to ourselves and others?  How do we all "practice to decieve"?
    "Absolute friends" is like "The constant gardener" in that it's more of a political novel than a spy novel, and also has echoes of Graham Greene's "The Quiet American" in the character of Rourke. But to say more would spoil things. If you want a really adult, intelligent read that pulls no punches, will make you think and has an ending that leaves you gasping and nodding your head, read it.

Star Wars Uncut

Star Wars Uncut on youTube. Watch it and wear your Pampers, 'cos you'll piss yourself laughing. I have and I'm only five minutes into the movie; C3PO with a Scots accent was just too much for me.

Upon Julia's Clothes by Robert Herrick - Another Poem Read by Alan Rickman

Alan reads. My toes curl up and I get goosebumps.

Pinteresting

To date, my most repinned pin is Alan Rickman in his incarnation as Severus Snape. I'm not sure if they're repinning Alan or Snape. I liked him best as the oily, obsequious Obadiah Slope in Barchester Chronicles. His Sherrif of Nottingham was pretty good too, campily evil and funny, ran rings around "Colourless Kevin" Costner. And I've just remembered, he was in Galaxy Quest, a spoof of sci-fi movies which was better than it promised to be, wearing an extended brain/head thingy as the requisite has-been Shakespearean actor now demoted to B-grade sci-fi. Brilliant. One of those actors who never disappoints, you can always trust him to do the biz.

Nothing much again

Very cold today, yes very cold. (Chanelling Gielgud as Charles Ryder's father). 6 degrees is really too cold for me to garden, needs to be about 11. I've hurt my knee choofing around in the cold, kneeling on hard, wet concrete, so discretion being the better part of valour, I shall stay inside today. Still trying to get through "Winter King" about Henry 7, because the book is overdue, but its hard to skim-read the intricacies of early Tudor foreign policy. History is always interesting as it confirms my belief that nothing changes in humanity. According to Thomas Penn, Henry gained huge riches by secretly breaking the Papacy's monopoly of the alum trade, importing alum (used in the cloth trade for setting dyes) illegally from the Far East and reselling it in the Lowlands for a cheaper price than that of the Vatican, but still managing to take a healthy profit. After reading the other day in the Guardian about the Barclay's bank scandal, it makes a nice sort of counterpoint; things were ever thus, the rich bastards get to manipulate everything for their own greater gain.  At least the kings and popes of times past built wonderful architecture and commissioned art and music to expiate their sins of greed; I doubt if the Hong Kong and Shanghai bank building and the London Egg will be visited by future tourists in the same way that the Sistine Chapel is visited today. If there's anyone left 300 years from now, that is. Only the rich bastards dessicating in their hermetically sealed palaces, brooding over the good times when all the world danced to their tunes.

Camellia 'Yuletide'

Cheerful winter camellia 'Yuletide' (pity about the crappy background, though. Could have done better).