The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and Grogu

Plate seen on a vespa this morning "A1SAD" - for when you need your tiny motorbike to have only the most prime misery.

Tunes, new and less new!

New World Pioneer got that Cruel Angels Gateau

We had to analyse a poem, and I picked "A Takapuna businessman considers his son's death in Korea" by James K. Baxter.

That pick was based on a resonance with my spiritual outlook (the song's classic ISB in that it's nonsense on the surface but if you listen to the lyrics and think for a sec about 60's hippy spirituality it makes perfect sense). In terms of actual personality this song is probably closer.

My kid asked me a similar question to this the other day, and the best answer I could come up with was this - make of that what you will.

Assisting with Workers Memorial Day for @mpr.nz. Day for it!

Here's a snippet of a thing I'm tinkering with for a sort of live presentation/performance dealie next month. Presented as a video largely so I could test out how VCVRack talks to OBS.

Here's a snippet of a thing I'm tinkering with for a sort of live presentation/performance dealie next month. Presented as a video largely so I could test out how VCVRack talks to OBS.

For those following along, this isn't true. The debt will be held by water CCOs, owned by the Councils. The debt will be paid for by ratepayers water charges. The government are setting up a Cost Of Water Crisis.

New low for Outlook - I can see the preview of a new email someone has sent me, but the software shows me every entry in the conversation *but that one*. Death to Bill Gates, but not for any of the stupid reasons!

New tunes! New tunes!

I am not, by any meaningful metric, a writer. That said, it's a crime that no one has done anything further with Barmy Jeffers - a kid who discovers he can go to a D&D-like fantasy world by doing a weird monster walk he invented to annoy his baby sister.

Sharing this story from The Spinoff largely to ask "what on earth did Luxon's team think they were conveying with this image"? He doesn't look remotely relaxed, the foot up as a joke might make sense but his face conveys no humour, the paper everywhere, the tiny coffee, what?

Thats great but he really should've known how to do these things before becoming Prime Minister.

Literally the only book (let along TTRPG) I've previously seen in this format is Mark Z. Danielewski's "Only Revolutions", which instructs you to read it 10 pages at a time in each direction before flipping it.

we drink laudanum in this web zone

I think it's pretty simple. Humans are not great at killing one another without getting all psyched up and dehumanising the enemy - all armies do at least a bit of rape and war crimes. The more monstrous your own cause, the more extreme that needs to be, so the more deranged the acting out gets.

In further "mistaking other people's politics for your own" news - "ACT Greens" is a phrase that will give NZ voters the feeling of a minor stroke.

Ah, you're in the same position as US Dems. They know they are absolutely going to go through the Republicans for a shortcut in November (and even more once Trump's gone), but the problem is if they don't clean house internally it'll just put the same Obama/Clinton/Biden types back in charge

This week's Mediawatch is all about the Newstalk ecosystem pissing and moaning that weather warnings are woke, soy, gay, etc. Particularly ironic in the face of Wellington's floods. I am eternally reminded of the immortal words of Hank Green: "nobody knows when they didn't die"...

I don't want the left to sleepwalk to victory off the back of Luxon being so bad. I want them to present an alternative with vision and increased equity for society. I don't want Labour with their milquetoast "we couldn't possibly raise taxes on the extremely rich".

Song 4, the only one not written by Marcus. This is a gospel song with new zombie romance lyrics by Tahu.

Historically soldiers are very cool with not being fed, is my understanding

What does it matter, Dream of love or dream of lies? We all gonna be in the same place when we die In a river of flesh, How can these dry bones live? Ask a king or a beggar and the answer they give We're all gonna be, Dead, yeah I said we're all gonna be just dirt in the ground

This is the thing I keep saying. This government are dumb and bad at things, and the things they're bad at are dumb and bad - BUT HOLY SHIT DO THEY DO STUFF. Can you *imagine* what the 2nd term Ardern government could have done with an absolute majority if they had actually been motivated commies?

Moir says "embattled"!! TEAM WE HAVE AN "EMBATTLED" IN THE WILD #nzpol

New tunes!

This is probably my pick for the most interesting talk from Heritage Festival 2026. Richard Shaw and Max Rashbrooke having the actual conversation about what it means to be pākehā in 2026.

Wellington friends, I need a favour. Next Monday afternoon 20/4 at 2pm, I have a gastroscopy at the Rutherford Clinic in Lower Hutt. I can get out there by myself, but due to sedation, I will need a lift back into town. If anyone can help, please let me know. Will reimburse your fuel costs. Ta!

I've been in at work nights supervising my kid and their friends while they shoot a movie for media studies. Supervising means "staying out of the way and occasionally finding them things" so I had a bunch of extra time to sort out more of these. Here's the second song from the set. Why so fast?!

I've been in at work nights supervising my kid and their friends while they shoot a movie for media studies. Supervising means "staying out of the way and occasionally finding them things" so I had a bunch of extra time to sort out more of these. Here's the second song from the set. Why so fast?!

A s p i r a t i o n a l

this is an absolute ✨ cultural moment ✨

In other Heritage Festival news, the video of Margaret Austin's session "Poems Without Borders" is now live! youtu.be/XJf6k0ng9jU

Tonight at 8pm we're playing part 1 of "Past, Present and Possible Futures" the conversation between Richard Shaw and Max Rashbrooke facilitated by Dr Carolyn Morris. We had to split the session in two - part 2 istomorrow night at 8. Get the whole thing as a podcast at bit.ly/richard_shaw...

If it's your first time at Babushka Club you *have* to babushka

Trump Escalates Feud With Unclear Adversary By Posting AI Video Of Self Fucking Basketball https://theonion.com/trump-escalates-feud-with-unclear-adversary-by-posting-ai-video-of-self-fucking-basketball/

The hand wringing about how the nasty left wing were being too mean to the sex case guy looks extremely funny now. Woke 2 is here baby we're getting Consequential.

I never met the man in person but I'll never forget the guy who stood for council in my hometown with a platform of fairly boilerplate fundamentalist Christian anti abortion stuff *and a screed against non-locally-made footwear.*

You know I got it

Happy 20 years of Neil banging out the tunes 🐀🎶🎉

YOU - By the way, I'm a fascist. THE DESERTER - You're not. You're part of the meat shield surrounding the *real* fascists, while they rape children. That's what *you* are.

Area sex pest rebrands as apocalypse preacher, what fun.

me when someone cites the deep magic to me even though I was there when it was written: holy shit, for real? I don't remember that part at all

There's a local guy who is a jazz genius but also exceptionally bad at self-promotion. His cousin who takes photos for the paper organised a recording session, and took on making sure it actually got put out. It's really cool, and I'm stoked I got to work on it! Jazz!