Wallace on bFM‘s breakfast show is running a competition to name your top 5 NZ songs ever. As everyone knows, New Zealand music beings and ends with my personal collection of Flying Nun vinyl, but that aside, here’s mine.

5. Scorpio Girls – Supergroove. You can’t hear the opening guitar riff without flinging a jug of Waikato over your mate’s head and heading for the dancefloor. These guys kicked ass at the Riv – bands obviously enjoying themselves onstage ROCK.
4. Victoria – Dance Exponents. They went on to become the best pub rock band ever, but I preferred them **FOGEY ALERT FOGEY ALERT** as the plain ol’ Dance Exponents. I just learned this guitar line, too.
3. Skin – Bailter Space. They are more of an ‘album’ band, but I can’t make a top 5 list without including ‘ver Space. Here’s one off Thermos that you need to hear live for the full effect (which is roughly the same as listening to a plane take off, standing on the runway). I’ve never heard a louder band, but then I was up front checking out Alistair’s pedals.
2. Nerves – Doublehappys. …and you can’t leave out Shane. I love SJF, and Dimmer? Dunno, so I’ve chosen a DoubleHappys number. This one has a chorus featuring a who’s who of that Dunedin Lot, so you’re getting heaps here for the price of one.
1. Slow Sad Love Song – The Verlaines. Graham Downes at his best, from the melodic start to the primal ending. Treads a fine line by having a touching lyric that speaks to all men in their early 20s directly, but also perfect for shouting along to with yer mates. Should have been huge.

Yeah, so there’s no Finns, Rungas, Hip-Hop-ers, and no ‘new’ NZ bands (just how many feckin sub-Blink 182s does the world NEED?), but it’s my list and I get to choose. Nyah.

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A few Calvin and Hobbes cartoons, because it’s Friday. Here’s Slate’s version, and an appreciation from Progressive Boink with some quite heart rending commentary.

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Originally uploaded by richirvine73.

This award goes to the guy in this Rover spotted on Contstellation Drive. Yep, that says ‘HO BA1T’.

Disturbingly, the use of a ‘1’ instead of an I means there’s someone else cruising around with “HO BAIT’. The mind boggles.

I really like loud electric guitars and all the dirty-as noises they make. I used to spend hours with distortion pedals trying to make sounds as f**cked up as possible, and the opening chords of Mudhoney’s ‘Sweet young thing ain’t sweet no more’, one of the dirtiest, shittiest sounding bits of distortion ever recorded… well, it doesn’t get any better.

But really, I love the soppy stuff. I knew there was something badly wrong when I listened repeatedly to the Boogie Nights soundtrack. Night Ranger’s ‘Sister Christian’? Alright, it’s played when Eddie and crew rob the lunatic druggie guy, one of the coolest bits in the film, but ELO for f**k’s sake? Come ON.

But when you think about it, it all kind of makes sense. I love the Beach Boys, and Pet Sounds with all those layered ‘eeeeehhhhhs’ ‘ahhhhhhhhhs’ and ‘ohhhhhhhhhs’ is just a beautiful, beautiful record. And even Husker Du, underneath all those squalls of black noise, really, really want to be a power pop band. Check out their version of the Mary Tyler Moore theme for exhibit A.

Anyway, all this rambling has only lead up to me being able to copy and paste this quote from this Guardian article. Apparantly there’s a soft rock revival on at the moment: “If kids grow up with their dad listening to the Jam and the Clash, where’s their rebellion going to come from? How are you going to wind your dad up? Well,” he chuckles, “playing fucking Supertramp will really wind your dad up.”

Magic.
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Katz FB is the logo of the mighty Katz FB, the pub quiz team I’ve played for in the last couple of years.

Katz FB came about on the first night I played – I’d had a couple of pints already, and thought “we need a logo” – and lo – Katz FB was born. Katz FB stands for Katz Front Bottom – so this is basically a view of a fat cat from behind. God bless Guinness.

Since then, I’ve drawn a new one every week. Then I even started keeping them (!). They’re done on 10.5 x 7cm bits of paper ripped from A4, with whatever ball point I happen to have on me. I have a lot of fun with it, they seem feckin hilarious after a few beers, and some of them are even funny the next day. I’m going to share some with y’all.

One of the upsides of Mount Maunganui’s transformation from bach-y getway into a kind of little Auckland complete with property price obsession is that there’s now a fine array of eateries – a far cry from what used to be there.

Anyway, just quickly, if you havn’t been to Astrolabe lately, a restaurant / bar that was one of the first to arrive on the scene and has been there ever since, go again. I had the Grilled Chicken Breast on Tomato Risotto, which was just fantastic. I never get chicken when I’m out ‘cos I have it at home so much, but this thing was so tender it fell apart from just looking at it. The Bruchetta to start was magic also, and my girl’s Eye Fillet was also the business. We also tried The Back Porch in the midway shops for breakfast on Sunday, which was very nice also.

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I’m not really sure what Chartered Trips is going to be yet – at the moment it’s just a place where I can write some stuff, show some photos, and keep the ol’ brain active. Right now, I’m trying to keep up a post every week day – we’ll see how long that lasts. I have some cartoons I’ve drawn for my pub quiz team I may share also, stay tuned.

If you haven’t already, you might like to check out Sport Review NZ, a ‘sport’ blog, but more a vehicle for my rugby cartoons. As you know if you live here in NZ, rugby is a deadly, deadly serious game. I thik there’s some milage in poking some fun at the (very) sacred cows our national game offers us. Check it out.

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Originally uploaded by richirvine73.

I’m almost never up early. So when I did, I got it on film.

So it tipped down last night in Auckland. Nothing unusual there, but for cycle commuters, it’s game on, in the shit hour.

When it’s sunny, and the pavement is dry, biking home is great fun. You’ve got the sun on your back, and you’re ripping in and out of the traffic like no-ones’ business, youc an go faster than the cars, and you’re happy they’re jealous of you zipping through the rush hour traffic. Tires are singing, you can stop in a jiffy, the visibility is clear, it’s all a bit of a game, really.

Then it rains and it’s a totally different story. Everyone forgets how to drive, they can’t see as well (especially those pesky cyclists), everyone’s in a bad mood and it becomes vital to be FIRST to the light, and don’t want to stop for the red ones. They’re angry at everyone else in the road, and want to BE HOME NOW.

You’ve waited at work ’til half six to avoid the worst of it, but it’s now that little bit darker. You forgot to bring your jacket and are sopping wet. Your glasses have rain all over them and your lack of mudgards means shit is flicking up in your eyes. Your brakes aren’t quite as good in the wet (although modern V-brakes are a fuck of a lot better than the old 10-speed ones), and you’re thinking ‘is that little red light on the back going to be enough to stop someone ramming into the back of me’?

Now the game is to get home in one piece.