01999-04-17 | Uncategorized
Performed in Auckland on Tuesday. Review in the local newspaper was very favorable I thought. It’s so hard to read these reviews. Many critics seem to try to cover themselves in all directions. Maybe they should just use a rating sytem from 1 to 5 like most movie critics do. That reminds me of home…
The newspaper in SFe uses chilis for the rating… up to five chilis… and an onion for a stinker of a movie. Did loads of promotion on Wednesday. Flew to Wellington and performed there last Night. Wasn’t terribly thrilled by our performance, but met a guy who had driven 500 kilometers to see us… he had enjoyed our show very much, which made me happy.
Today we are in Christchurch. Read a fantastic new book by Bruce Sterling: ‘Distraction’. Discussed Ken Wilber with Jon and Ron over lunch. Tried to download photos from my electronic camera, but failed somehow. Photos of the Auckland arrival hall and of the band and crew and of a storm in Wellington will have to wait until I get home – or figure out why the program I have used so many times is not interfacing with the camera.
Very cold here… only 35F when we arrived. Warmer in Australia we hope. After lunch we made a beeline to cafe Roma, which we remembered from our last trip here in 1996. The hot chocolate was excellent, but the cappuccino was not at all what I remembered…
01999-04-14 | Uncategorized
The highly recommended Allpress cafe on Victoria was disappointing, but the Jamaica Blue near the Heritage Hotel made good coffee This Morning we also found a lovely little cafe in an alley off of Queens Road called Firello & Rossi.
The Atlas cafe on Ponsonby Road roasts their own coffee beans and makes excellent coffee. In the early Afternoon Daniel and I perform some songs at an instore appearance nearby.
Headline in the NZ Harald today: The Immigration Minister wants to ban entry to New Zealand for any tourist with HIV. Hm, politicos are the same all over the world.
01999-04-12 | Uncategorized
Immigration and Customs as Theater! The arrival hall in Auckland has a large LCD screen that shows people leaving customs and making their way through a hallway to the arrival hall. There are about 200 seats mounted in a half-circle for friends and family or whoever is awaiting travellers. Three or four isles lead through the half-circle of seats to the exit…
01999-04-09 | Uncategorized
Here is a story I heard:
In the Fifties many touring Jazz bands were playing arrangements of show tunes and local amateur musicians would often bring their instrument to the club and ask to sit in with them. I’m sure the club owners also pressured the bands into letting their paying customers play. Anyway, some of the Jazz bands grew tired of having to let amateurs mess up their music and began developing more and more complex music, with so many chord changes that an amateur would not find his way through the forest of changes… and out of that developement Be-Bop was born.
We are leaving for New Zealand in 5 hours and I haven’t packed anything yet…
