Author: Morgan Avery

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Just lately I’ve been trying to start a new tradition, each week I get together with friends for dinner and ‘something’ (sometimes ‘something’ is something good like Heroes or Dr Who, and other times it’s something ungood like Torchwood), the last 4 or 5 weeks I’ve added a little something extra to the mix, in the form of cake and wine.  Yes, I know the lens is dusty sometimes, and I also know that some of the dialogue appears to be delivered by floors and chairs, I was just talking to friends, and not all of the good dialogue coincides with good camera work.

God damn the cake was good.  (There was so much I took about half of what you see here into the office on Monday.  Shameless.)

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“What’s the matter with the beer we got? I mean, the beer we got drink pretty good, don’t it? I ain’t never heard nobody complain about the, uh, beer we have. It drink pretty goooood. Budweiser. What’s the names of some of them other beers?…”

Brilliant stuff. I don’t understand how we (as humans, obviously I’m not an American) can allow ourselves to be encumbered with such ludicrous restrictions.

What right do you have to say how much alcohol I can have in my beer? The same right I have to tell you how much time you can spend sitting in church. Which is to say: None at all, because what each of us does as we go about enjoying our peaceful lives, does not affect the other.

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Mr Snuffles is hot for cats, likes soya milk, and loves quiet walks in the garden.

The other day I met up with Dylzno after work and we headed over to The Shore to visit the Takapuna driving range – I guess the first time I’ve been there in two or three years (my oh my, how time flies) – and it turns out that while I was never great, now I pretty much suck.  But it was great fun.  I’ve already figured out that one of my mistakes is trying to hit the ball really hard, when I think I should be trying to hit the ball fast instead (and smoothly).  If you’re a golfer, what one tip (or trick) helped make a difference to your stroke?

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Good fun, which is more than I can say for the fried chicken I tricked him into having for dinner afterwards.  (So disappointing.  That’ll teach me.)

So you’ll know, if you’ve watched Quick Drink or Redux that I can put a bottle of White Shiraz to bed in 36 seconds (with a pause for breathing) but it turns out that if John hooks me up with a bottle of rosé, and Karl eggs me on, I can actually do a 750ml bottle in about 20 seconds flat. Am I delighted with my awesomely inappropriate performance? Why yes, yes I am. Am I gutted that this time wasn’t on video? Well, yes, that too. Everything is better with video (let’s be honest now).

Speaking of Redux – shortly after I published it, I forced a couple of friends to watch it while I was in the room, which was super super weird – I’m used to seeing my videos in a very particular context: 23″ wide on an LCD at home, and all by myself. So 46″ wide in someone else’s living room, is something strange.

So now imagine what it’s like in a room with 160 of your peers, video projected on the wall out of the blue. Here’s a hint: it’s really weird. I’m also glad it happened, people were actually laughing. (Not everyone, granted.) But, wow. People, in a large group, enjoying my stuff.  And that was tonight.  I loved it.  And I wished I’d edited more of my talking  out, replacing it with beedle-beedle-beedle.  (I love beedle-beedle-beedle.  I think it’s one of the best things I’ve ever done.)

My output is your input. If you know what I mean.

I produce. You consume.

Consume.

Consume me.

Enjoy it all, my little internet darlings.

P.P.S. In my pished state I’m having trouble working out if I should, well, you know, whatever. But I know I’m pished, and I know that means I can’t really think that clearly right now. What do you think? Should I? I really just don’t know. These days I’m not sure if I can read ‘the signs’ or not. (I’m sure that once, very briefly, I was really good at reading girls. Now though… Well… Far out, talk about opaque. Remember how completely FAIL that other thing went? No, that’s right, you don’t – ‘cos it turned out I was just pissed, and my infatuation was actually nothing more than inebriation.) Actually, now that I come to think of it, mentioning these things here seems to utterly doom them.  Let’s pretend I didn’t say any of this stuff and just focus on the drinking, ok?  Ok.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

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NO CARRIER

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Thursday evening saw me sauntering the 10 minutes from my office down to Vector Arena for a gig I’ve been looking forward to for a couple of months: The Chemical Brothers.

I’ve been down with the boys since…  Well it feels like forever, I remember wearing the hell out of a Chemical Brothers t-shirt around the office at ihug, after bringing it back from Sydney in about 1996.  So a pretty long time, all things considered.  With that in mind I was a bit surprised by how young a lot of the crowd was.  I wonder if these little 18 year olds consider this their generations music?  Given that I was rocking out to it when they were 5 or 6 years old, they’re not right.  But I’m happy to share.

Jason Holdaway spun vinyl as everyone arrived, then Minuit played for about 45 minutes or an hour – I’ve seen them 2 or 3 times before, and they’re good, but they need to smooth things out, they took a break after every song, if they drop even a very simple loop between songs, while the singer catches her breath, it would be a much more satisfying performance – considering that two of the three people on stage are just button-dancing, I don’t think this would be too tough to implement.  The singer is very interesting, with some unusual vocal affectations.  She’s also super hot – especially when wearing a tight little nurse outfit.

When the boys came out, everything really kicked into high gear, a very large mesh LED screen coming to life with visuals (which I’ve remixed and mashed up in my video – they weren’t anything nearly as busy, or dare I say confusing, in person) that were really wonderful – I only caught a few samples as I was dancing my arse off, front and center, but they were brilliant and if you weren’t there you’ll just have to make do with what I’ve brought for you.  Sound quality was great as well, which probably isn’t unexpected given my spot front & centre of the stage.  The bass deeply palpable, at times so powerful that it felt like a strong, cold, rhythmic breeze was washing over me – in a way I don’t think I’ve quite felt since The Brain in the town hall in about 1993 or 1994.

Great stuff. Please let me know what you think of the video.

One of the greatest things I’ve ever seen.

(Even if it is pretty inaccurate with some of the battles.)

Via Boing Boing TV.