Wibbling is one of the overt results of a certain limited mobility. Like that orange-haired, smiling-faced, round-bottomed now vintage hard plastic toy, there’s a constant side-to- side movement – wibble-wobble. All that’s needed is the vacant smile and the internal bell – you too could join the circus. Wibbling creates the potential hazards of dropping, spilling and sloshing. Wobbling up the hallway with a hot drink becomes a test of focus and balance previously reserved for cleaning the spouting or painting the roof of the barn. “Four legs good two legs bad”. If I meet those pigs I’ll enlighten them.…
Author: ARTbop
You learn pretty early on in life that not only are we all not created equal but while some of us are created in varying degrees of nice – the Dolphins – many are created in varying degrees of nasty – the Sharks and the Lizards. It has nothing to do with affluence or social status. It’s about attitude, an attitude of entitlement, and how far an individual will exploit and harm another for their personal benefit, advancement or enrichment. It’s only days ago the weather ripped the guts out of our regions and even while it was happening Dolphins…
Twenty Tiny Elephants? It took me a while to settle on the name. The connotations of some of my initial titles, either edgy (Bitch with a Stick) or more hackneyed and saccharine (It’s a funny thing about life…), weren’t quite what I wanted to convey or conveyed something I wasn’t intending. I’ve always been a fan of elephants. For many years I wore a little silver one on a long chain – anonymous beneath layers of clothing. I had a small hand carved jade one lurking in my handbag. It’s amazing how irrationally brave you can be when you have…
Nick Scott reviews Emily, the imagined story of the life of Emily Bronte, who wrote that classic English novel Wuthering Heights. Nick says ” Emily Bronte would have to be the best and most complex female character portrayal I have ever seen”. The film tells the story of Emily’s life with her family. Early in the film Emily’s sister Charlotte tells her that the whole village knows her as “the unusual one” The narrative of her imagined life is very passionate and powerful. It hints at the kind of events that may have inspired Wuthering Heights. It’s a combination of…
We all know the story of The Goose that Laid the Golden Egg? Apparently not. If you weren’t brought up with the bizarre hideousness of Hansel and Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood or Rumplestiltskin, a goose laying differently coloured eggs may not have been part of your parental repertoire. It’s really one of those life lessons like “semper paratus – always ready”. Today there’s probably a TedX talk about delayed gratification and asset conservation that’s a contemporary repetition of the goose message. In case you missed the goose story and the TedX talk; if you’ve got an income producing asset…
This movie has been vastly mistaken by most people as merely a documentary. It is a true story, told through interviews with people involved with English Bomber Command and more specifically, the Lancaster Bomber. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UelCkniSnQ Using these interviews and remarkable footage, it manages to be touching, light-hearted and exciting. All the while teaching us a history lesson I doubt many know in much detail. The interviews were with members of the crew of the Lancaster bombers as they look back in time. This is not all sad stuff. Moments are light-hearted but the essence of the film is the…
One of the delights of looking back is remembering both Cleo Lane and the Beatles at the Auckland Town Hall. The Roger Fox Big Band. The band at Pinesong. Those bands in sweaty Auckland pubs. Those “clubs” of downstairs darkness and deafness inducing sounds. Those big shiny vinyl records and that old record player. The songs your Father loved. The music your Mother played. How those retro notes never completely vacate your head. Those memories are enhanced by the opportunity provided by YouTube to hear and see much of the background to growing up in Auckland in the 60’s and…
The Lady in the Van is a true story and as the mythical say “truth is stranger than fiction”. The title says it all. I was deeply affected by not only the narrative but the superb, understated poignancy of the acting. If you couldn’t believe that in contemporary New Zealand a woman in her seventies could die alone in winter in her car in one of Auckland’s leafy suburbs you need to see The Lady in the Van. What is so different though is that the lady and the van one way or the other lived on their street for…
Nick Scott reviews the acclaimed Irish, Gaelic language, film – An Cailin Ciuin – The Quiet Girl. This film had some exceptional reviews in the UK press and I was curious to see what it was all about. It is also interesting because all the dialogue is in Gaelic (with English subtitles), a curious but beautiful language. A little girl, 9 year old Cait, part of a family under stress, is sent to live with relatives. She discovers a new way to live life but as she grows closer to these people, she discovers a painful secret about them.…
Hacks – I only started to watch this because the British cop-show I had planned to watch was so awful and realistic (trigger moments). I thought Hacks would be like a tiny spoon of jam to take away the taste of reality. While it may not have been confiture it was so good I sat there and watched until about 2.30am – the whole series. I think there’s something incredibly decadent about sitting propped up in a warm winter bed against a huge pile of pillows with your laptop on a tray your sole ambition to watch the tele. So,…