Dokter Lampu, Denpasar, June 2025. #streetphotography #blackandwhitephotography #bnw

With the re-release of Mental Notes this month, I thought I’d repost this letter from someone who may or may not be the owner of the first copy sold in their hometown #splitenz open.substack.com/pub/opdiner/...

Screenprinting the revolution, Bangkok protests, 2020. #streetphotography #blackandwhitephotography

Happy in Denpasar, July 2025 #streetphotography

$191 for an Uber from Auckland Airport to Westmere is a thing, apparently. Come back, Co-op Taxis, all is forgiven.

Bali, June 2025. #streetphotography #blackandwhitephotography #bnw

That day when I discovered that I've somehow wiped about 1000 pics from earlier this year, including some of the best I think I've taken.

I wrote a (long) Substack/Opdiner thing last week. Loads of music I like at the moment from all over the place, from Mingus to Cale to Misty to Tom Skinner but also a couple of books. Anyway: opdiner.substack.com/p/it-mustve-...

For no other reason than that it just came up in a conversation ... I love CCS, but especially this song. RIP, Dave, one of the most gentle and generous humans I've ever known. www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-iX... @audioculturenz.bsky.social @stinkyjim.bsky.social

Paul McCartney is inducted into the Rock n roll Hall of Fame, March 1999. Stella’s t- shirt makes a good point, but the look of love and care on her face as she looks her Dad is beautiful, as he struggled through through his speech less than a year after Linda’s death.

A far too long blog post about music, books, photography, Mingus, Misty in Roots and more open.substack.com/pub/opdiner/...

Book review as literature George D Henderson considers the Chris Knox biography Not Given Lightly georgedhenderson.substack.com/p/the-man-wh...

A far too long blog post about music, books, photography, Mingus, Misty in Roots and more open.substack.com/pub/opdiner/...

"At the moment, 2-Tone doesn't exist as any sort of business, it's just 14 people..." It's been almost two years since Terry Hall passed away. www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG91...

Is NZ the last place in the world to still have 10am checkout? Just got a note from a place I’m staying at in a couple of weeks: “strictly 10am, no exceptions”. I felt like, “ladies, bring a plate please” was next :-)

Ya’ll better have a doctor and a secret service agent watching Trump 24/7 now. 👀

The Kremlin disguised a nearly $100 mn payment to Trump in the form of a brokered real estate deal... and both Jeffrey Epstein and William Pulte were involved in the deal. That's very interesting.

'A hypnotic banquet of alien electronic sequencing, splayed jazz drumming and essential bass grooves with a seasoning of warped guitars and sax for flavour from LA's pre-eminent sideman supergroup' SML - How You Doing buff.ly/o2RBbCh

Top 5 McCartney album (not a popular opinion but Wild Life is also there).

She's always on the winning side 😂

The entrance to The Tokyo Museum of Photography in Aug 2023. A lucky shot of a somewhat ironic juxtaposition. But it also brought to mind this great post by Chris Bourke in 2008, interviewing John G Morris who placed the Capa shot in Life. chrisbourke.blogspot.com/2008/03/magn...

Elton really needs to hang up the specs. This is gruesome. youtu.be/0AC8WoxySLM?...

What a sad but engrossing book, essentially how the CIA and the US gifted the planet the meth scourge via their bumbling war on drugs and the tragedy of the Wa state victims caught up in it all. History repeats.

NZ is going nuts with making music history preservation moves and I hope the rest of the world can get anywhere close to doing it this well

Grandma chasing a grandson around and around me with a raygun in Changsha, Hunan, May 2024. #streetphotography #blackandwhitephotography #bnw

I'm not sure if this is actually a good photo, but I quite liked the tumult and noise of it. And it was noisy. Milano, April. #streetphotography #blackandwhitephotography #bnw

This something I'm very proud to have done, in partnership with NatLib and @jingajik.bsky.social's team. In 2019, we put the first 8 years of Rip It Up online, free, searchabe and downloadable. In 2024 we added 1986-98 paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/... @audioculturenz.bsky.social

James O'Brien is very sensible www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oXG... @lbc.co.uk

One of history's great monsters is now an Indonesian hero apparently. Estimates of the numbers he murdered range from 500k to three times that. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...

Terrific interview from adopted (decades ago) Kiwi bassist (and the rest) Tom Bailey on his happily socialist band The Thompson Twins youtu.be/wferscXOMfE...

Marie & the Atom Pt 2 of my blog on Flying Nun multitrack tapes, analyzing two songs by the amazing MATA, recorded by Terry Moore for their second EP "Spit it out" in 1985. What does the tape tell us? Have a read & listen to samples of the original multitrack audio. natlib.govt.nz/blog/posts/f...

Terrific new episode of Alt Latino. Six South American jazz musicians talking about music, identity, & opening the world of jazz to new sounds & influences. www.npr.org/2025/11/05/n...

Some of our wonderful writers are also excellent musicians. In that light, we'd like to say a huge congratulations to GlenMoffatt, who, along with Kaylee Bell, will be inducted into the NZ Gold Guitar Awards Hall of Fame in 2026. Ka rawe Glen! www.audioculture.co.nz/profile/glen...

Worth noting. Virginia has elected its first woman governor, its first Muslim lieutenant governor, & its first Black attorney general. Progressives are rightly hailing Mamdani's win in NYC. But Democratic liberalism is alive & very well in Virginia. www.vpm.org/elections/20...

This guy is a legend Expressing the collective thoughts of the world.

Karen community fighting corn and coal for clean air in northern Thailand news.mongabay.com/2025/11/kare...

Mobile #streetphotography #hongkong

Barber in Phu Quoc, November 2024 #streetphotography #blackandwhitephotography

Watery conversation in Tokyo, 2023. #streetphotography #blackandwhitephotography

Don McGlashan today delivered the annual Lilburn Lecture, speaking about the influence of rivers, lakes, inlets and oceans on his artistic method.⁠ The lecture series is named after composer Douglas Lilburn, who helped establish the Archive of NZ Music... www.audioculture.co.nz/articles/giv...

You have one job to do… Thai lounge at BKK.

Pro-democracy protests, Bangkok 2021 #streetphotography #blackandwhitephotography #bnw #Bangkok

Pro-democracy protests, Bangkok 2021 #streetphotography #blackandwhitephotography #bnw #Bangkok

I don't want to wish ill of the dead... Say hello to Henry Kissinger - after you've passed a million dead Iraqis. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/04/dick-cheney-vice-president-republican-bush-dies

The right hat. Milano Saloné, April 2025 #streetphotography #blackandwhitephotography #bnw #Italy

Milano Saloné, April 2025 #streetphotography #blackandwhitephotography #bnw #Italy

Google AI again. It's literally called Live at the Counter Eurovision 79 because it was recorded in Brussels on March 31 and April 1, 1979 @stinkyjim.bsky.social

Dennis Morris at the MEP, April, Paris #streetphotography #blackandwhitephotography #bnw