(Images copyright to Fiona Lascelles)

Listening Post for April…

A recent trip to Dunedin provided ample photographic opportunities.
It was the time of id Fashion Week. Not being there to document the show
for anyone allowed Tony to take a more playful approach. The results
being a gallery of watercolour-like effects which have their own
sense of movement and life.

A day trip to Oamaru unearthed amongst other things the infamous Penguin Entertainers Club… The venue was spawned in the late 1990 by a collection of local musicians looking for suitable practice rooms but also a place to chill-out after gigs. The decor: a conglomeration of borrowed armchairs, sofas and corrugated iron. The  club soon became a stage for touring alternative bands and musicians, the posters that adorn the walls attest to the many musicians that cut their teeth on the touring circuit. Stumbling across this establishment mid-afternoon, mid-week we came across a local covers band mid-jam rehearsing non other than Bryan Adams Summer of 69. And so it was that we quietly took photos while the musicians eyed us up…

And to other venues closer to home… Blacksmoke’s ode to artist Peter Roche’s now defunct venue The Ambasador in Auckland’s Point Chevalier.

And while we’re on the subject of passing on… Our resident funeral music aficionado Kate has another tear jerker. This time from Antony Hegarty of Antony and the Johnsons fame singing the Leonard Cohen classic, If It Be Your Will. Embedding has been disabled from Youtube, but here’s the link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MDlMdu2gjw&fb_source=message

2: Parks and Component discuss album cover art 6: Back to Mine with heavy metal guitarist Alex Carleton 8: Lindon Puffin and Jol Mulholland on all manner of things 14: The glamourous strangers of 70s Queen Street by Murray Cammick 20: Paul McLaney caught up with Lloyd Cole before his New Zealand tour 25: Back In The Day there was The Young Idealist, Norman Kirk 26: Singer/songwriters Ivy Rossiter (Luckless) and Ruby Frost, one Saturday afternoon 30: Golden Axe and James Duncan swap notes 36: Artist Marcus Williams in conversation with Don McGlashan 44: Studio Decor sets the scene for Homai te Pakipaki 46: Q&A with multi-instrumentalists Delgirl from Dunedin

Once again we have had contributions from a fantastic range of talented people and we would like to thank them all.

Download PDF (6.3 MB, Feb 2011)

Google helped me find a recipe from the book, from none other than Elton John.

Elton John’s Favorite Shrimp Curry
¼ cup butter
4 large onions, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
3 cups water or coconut milk
3 large tomatoes, peeled and chopped
2 large apples, peeled and chopped
1 cup chopped celery
1 Tbsp. shredded coconut
1 small piece ginger root (or ¾ tsp. powdered ginger)
1 Tbsp. sugar
1½ Tbsp. curry powder (or more)
1½ Tbsp. flour
1½ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. freshly ground black pepper
3½ pounds raw shrimp, shelled and deveined

Heat the butter in a large skillet; add the onions and garlic and cook until lightly browned. Add the water or coconut milk and bring to a boil. Add the tomatoes, apples, celery, shredded coconut, and ginger and bring back to a boil. Blend the sugar, curry powder, flour salt and pepper together. Add enough cold water to make a paste and gradually stir into the boiling mixture. Partially cover and simmer, stirring occasionally until the vegetables are very tender, about 40 minutes. Add the shrimp and cook 5 more minutes or until shrimp are done. Serve over rice, for 8 people.

Send us feedback if anyone dares make it.

Roberta Ashley also published Singers & Swingers back in 1967: They’re hip, mod, delicious recipes from today’s top scene-makers – and guaranteed to turn taste buds everywhere! For barbecues, parties, soul sessions, double dates or happenings, here are dozens of easy-to-prepare, easy-on-the-bread, satr-studded dishes that will keep you grooving with the greatest.

Guest contributors include The Animals, The Rolling Stones, The Byrds, The Animals, Sonny & Cher and Barbara Streisand.
But wait, there’s more… The book includes fan photos, personality lowdowns, Party ideas, Menus, Kitchen Quickies and Snaknik Delights (whatever they are!)

And so to our picks for 2011…
International album: Tom Waits, Bad As Me
Local: Fabulous Arabia, Unlimited Buffet
International Gig: The National
Best Local Gig: Unknown Mortal Orchestra
Drink of the Year: Lighthouse Gin
Magazine of the Year: Dazed & Confused
Movie of the Year: Melancholia
DVD of the Year: Senna
Best TV Show: Treme
Guilty Pleasure TV Show: America’s Next Top Model (the series when Ann Ward won)
Disappointment of the Year: Elbow, Build a Rocket Boys, Tricky at The Powerstation

The image of the Roller Disco was taken with our new Holga Plastic Camera, the ones that the Hipstamatic App imitates, only this is shot on colour negative film, oh so analogue.

And finally we’ll be working on a new b>side in 2012. It is taking a bit of a turn in both content and form, but more on that later…

Download the full story as a PDF (12.4MB) Q&A Matthew Straker

Listening Post
What we are listening to right now…

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart Belong An enjoyable album, that can only be imagined as The Smashing Pumpkins (with James Iha on vocals) channeling The Cure during their classic Pop period, only with the lyrics being less grandiose. (Tony)

Still Life Adventures in Taxidermy Melissa Milgrom
A resurgence in taxidermy – seen everywhere these days from restaurants to fashion stores to home interiors – has piqued my interest in this subject. Milgrom’s book takes you from the workshop of the last chief taxidermist for the American Museum of Natural History, to a long-standing family run business in New Jersey, to the studio where Damien Hirst’s most famous artworks were created. Combining art, hunting and science this Darwinian craft is both strange and beautiful, and the book’s elegant descriptions of the characters portrayed and their obsession to creating lifelike illusions I find strangely intriguing. (Fiona)

Click on any image to open in a gallery

Great poster design Even in the digital era there is still room for good poster design. This from the Chicago 2010 Poster Biennial:

There are Poster makers represented in this show that were given the task of capturing the various facets of an opera, the emotional promise of a musical performance, or the gravity of a socially charged issue. In the face of these challenges, they did not run to the easy solution. They did not default to the expected. They did not show concern for our comfort. They worked hard to enlighten us. They dug deep to surprise us. They succeeded in provoking us. Within the confinement of a two-dimensional frame and a limited toolbox of visual devices, they wrestled with complexity and rendered it palatable, emotional and memorable. Their solutions are without question, elegant.

Check out the slideshow on http://observatory.designobserver.com/feature/chicago-2010-poster-biennial/29028/

Queens Of The Stoneage, Rated R
This album was originally out in 2000 with a 10 year re-release anniversary edition last year. Awaited with great anticipation from fans and critics, it never disappointed. There are no compromises as the band blaze their way through the album with plenty of heavy, tuneful riffs and solid backbeats. According to the ‘critics’, its labelled as ‘progressive, psychedelic, desert stoner rock’. Whatever! Its just a great hard rock album from a great hard working band. (Clyde)

The 100 Club
Our friend Meng Koach flew the coup recently. His goal was to move over to Sydney with only 100 items or less. When the challenge was set early this year I had my doubts of achieving it. But surprisingly my final count came to 82 items. I was brutal with my culling. Gifting items to friends and spent way to much time on Trademe. It turns out I’m not semimetal at all. I binned my old visual diaries, photos and birthday cards etc. The challenge now is to stay under 100 items.

The 100 Club is a grassroots movement to declutter their lives by paring down possessions to just 100 personal items. This trend has come out of a time of when excessive consumption threatens to over-burden our lives, when the things that we accumulate can become oppressive, stuff just becomes overwhelming. Read more at http://guynameddave.com/100-thing-challenge/

Funeral Song for July
A seriously good way to go, if needs must…  Eilen Jewell performing Where They Never Say Your Name. The song is from the album Letters from Sinners and Strangers (Kate)

Image of the Month
While accumulating other people’s family photos from TradeMe and ebay for an upcoming project, I came across this image and took a double-take. Is it an example of a readymade that sits within the context of art photography or simply the record of a person’s grave misfortune etched forever on film? Whatever, it has that car-crash appeal and well, I had to buy it!!! Decide for yourself… (Fiona)