GenGenGenGeneratorGenGenGenGenGen

Go to the Make my movie page to read the synopsis

2011-10-11T12:06:00.000-07:00

http://www.makemymovie.co.nz/entry/prima-materia/

2011-09-30T18:05:00.000-07:00

While the world seems to be a little crazier than ever I'm calling for favours of the semi nude modeling kind...

Hang On!! It is really quite reasonable, and one person at a time, and mostly the pics won't be very recognizable so if you're a friend or just keen to help...

I need about 20 or more people to come and be photographed from behind in my back yard with just undies on. Some of the poses need to be a little directed. I need people's body language to be a bit defeated / exhausted.

It won't take long but while you're here you can have a cup of tea or coffee, a snack a sandwich!! and by the end of October if you want you can have the knickers, before they run out! ( We'll wash them )

Ok just to clarify.. It's confidential for now but my film idea for the MAKE MY MOVIE competition is not actually gruesome revolting or explicitly violent, it's more intellectual / arthouse / extreme / has the world gone mad / omg they're going to what? / yes probably / kind of genre, oh and did I mention...

It's going to be the coolest poster

p.s. I need all kinds of body types so don't be shy... mostly they'll be in the distance.

Thankyou so much!

genintransit@yahoo.co.nz
0273316120

Busy

2011-08-20T17:15:00.000-07:00

Super busy

When I'm not minding my little boy my main focus is working away on the Ayrlies Edit. The dvd I'm working on is coming together under a series of 14 chapter titles representing different aspects of the garden. Yes the project has grown a little larger than first anticipated, and now sitting at approximately 240 minutes. I'm hoping to find an editor next week to help me take that work up to a fine cut. The film version of the work is on hold until the dvd is under control!
Other ongoing work includes documentary and archiving responsibilities again, and it's always the case that these kind of jobs will press to spiral out of control of their own accord. The theatre production at Lopdell house, served to archive photographs and historical accounts of the old Titirangi Hotel, when my Grandmother was a child there, and as well as producing the play there is still a job to collate the information and to introduce the key players of the actual era who are still around to the historians, and the architects etcetera.. Sounds like a morning tea some stage before too long.
Alistair Paterson, was the man to have talked to about the Lopdell building's time as the teacher's college dorms in the 70's, as it turned out when I took photos at the Lopdell House Poetry day recently. So I'll do that at some stage too, but when I interviewed Alistair on camera a few months ago, I was too busy asking him about the poetry readings at the Globe, about Dave Mitchell, and about the early interactions of his poetry at the time. By no means a complete account, but on the way.
Likewise it was invaluable to have accompanied John and Bob on their Hikoi to see Dave in Sydney. I was so grateful to those who made that happen, and as a result set about making my little handmade poetry book to say a thankyou to all involved. I'm glad that Dave had one to read around last Christmas.
I've only had a chance to put once version of my hand printed children's Matariki book, that will have to wait for now, but I'm looking forward to a small release at some stage. My feature film script I'm working on, (also on hold) was shortlisted for a workshop which was a nice nod of approval, and my fortnightly voice classes are proving to be of value to a few who've come along.

There are some jobs you can do with a busy little four year old in tow, and others you simply can't. Sitting at the computer is out of the question, so when dad minds the little one I am very attached to my desk in my new office/sunroom, remembering all those tips from my time in a real office.. take walks, stretch your eyes by focusing on something in the distance, have regular breaks, but with editing as with writing when you're on a roll, you lose track of time... day night day night.

I don't go to movies so I've ignored the film festival so that I wouldn't get too upset... but I might have to rush off to see Florian's film when I get a chance...

When I do mind my four year old boy I am working full time towards constant delight, usually multitasking at the same time to manage admin letters bills shopping, car management garden and a bit of landlord herding.. Now we have insulation I don't feel so bad about paying my bills. Today I won't be doing much shopping other than for energy water and electricity and internet access and a house to live in, so I'm trying to get a kick out of that.. woohoo! Very busy, no money, but food to live on work to do, and hey! I just bought all these basic second world necessities!

Pukeiti Flower shots.

2011-01-06T19:24:00.000-08:00

  It was great to have the opportunity to visit this garden famous for its rhododendrons. Most of the larger rhodos had finished flowering but it didn't mean there wasn't a lot to see. The tropical Rhodos were all flowering and under the Bev McConnell walkway!

  I took the opportunity to have a word to the manager Andrew Brooker, about Bev's relationship with the gardens there. On camera of course.

  Here are a few of the shots I took during my visit. Andrew, if you want, I can post them to you on a cd when I get back to Auckland. Click on the image to see it in full.

...aand Sydney part 3.

2010-12-01T14:17:00.000-08:00

I took Dave a big scrapbook with the Brand name MontMarte,
With the quieter tempo, I was pleased to see that he was not so subdued by the nursing home environment that he couldn't muster up a bit of repartée. We hung out I wrote some pages of stuff in the book for him, and he waved his hand at me, 'come on hand it over...' When I did hand it over "Wow" and Mont-marte!!" Well it was lovely and sad. I told him I'd return again before too long with Finn, and I told him I'd get everyone to write to him.

c/- Philip House
321 Bronte Rd
Waverley
NSW 2024
Sydney if you're reading this and you want to write to him. But I'll make a Dave blog specially and put it there too. Visit again for the link to that one, it will be the ongoing Blog of all things Dave.

Bob Orr is going to write regularly which is pretty cool. It's letter and news and visitors he most needs, run the gamut of strung out nurses trying to have a morning tea ... hmm yes, for more on the nurses you should hear it from Dave himself in his recent poems from the house at Bronte Beach which have just gone up on the EPC site Digital Bridge http://www.nzepc.auckland.ac.nz/features/home&away/bridge.asp

There you will find pictures of Dave and his recent poems, and all sorts.

It was a race to the finish line after sleeping. Sara and I had a plan to film her on the steps of the Darling school (both meanings) where she tells me Dave used to teach for a while. It's one of those Sydney buildings which looks as though it's been made directly from the ground... but we took too long at breakfast importantly! Because we had to talk a lot about and then I had to pack, So I made her run to the ferry and then filmed her on the harbour telling the story of Dave arriving in Sydney. Which is Quite a story.

Caught up with Dirk for a coffee en route to the Aeroport, and he presented me most wonderfully with copied pages from a journal that I'd mostly remembered (I like the story as a film idea, so I'd asked him to copy it, but had definitely forgotten that I'd illustrated it with some funny little pen dot pictures. . .
Treasure! and a good way in to making the hand-made book that I'd promised all the fabulous people who sponsored me over there. One more time, A BIG thankyou, your books will be in the post in the next few days. It was cool. And did I mention the Jacaranda?

And so since I've been home, (watched Romulus my Father, and cried much to entertainment of fellow passengers), I've been in my office book-making, and doing various production jobs for These Four Walls and editing for Ayrlies, and planning an event for

February 11th at Time Out Bookshop to show case my work from the Decade.

Please join us for that

Book it in I'll make a facebook event.

Yes it's been a Decade of Fat Blossom. I can't upload any pics at the moment because we used up our broadband quota being a gadgety family.
I've also just edited a short piece of Michele Leggott's off the page class chalking George Raft Hat on the footpath, and sent it off to Dave.

Azure to zee you zoon.

Sydney part 2...

2010-12-01T13:18:00.000-08:00

Look I didn't take a stills camera, I was busy enough with movie making, so I can't post pics up right at the moment. But clearly I was long overdue for the Sydney Epiphany, It must've been Pott's point, the weather, and the differences...
   Bob Orr and John Pule Martin Edmond and Nigel Roberts all sat around and yakked, and Dave fingered his new books -gifts from John and Bob, like treasure, and signed copies of his book for Bob, and wrote in John's notebook too, it took him a while. It was momentously slow, and the filming went well everyone! Whew! Dave seemed extremely reluctant to finally put the date on his last signing, I believe he was making a stand because he didn't want us to leave. Aieee! it was really very special.

  I was in the mode of observance so that's what I did, and it occurred to me that when you find somewhere hilly to look down on water around Sydney, it feels a little bit like the Cote d'azur, I guess coming from NZ at 30º it suddenly does seem a little equatorial... I bought flimsy things from a stall that I feel a little bit too shy to wear in Auckland, funny that assimilating thing we do.
  And so it was that I found myself(always good) walking up to Observatory hill for the opening event of Euan Mcleod at the Ervin Gallery. Of course this just enhanced an australian appreciation too. And it was hot in the evening, and great to meet Jenny Neligan after having known Neil Rowe through the Dave connection.
  Dinner at Nigel's was a hilarious affair much thanks Nigel for putting sup, putting and us up and out fine dining, and putting up with us. Not to be undone by my invented poems, Bob sat down and wrote a brilliant piece off the cuff. . . crashed and exhausted rose, hooked up with Sara, and Sara, that place where you're living is so gorgeously Australian. It's Balmain we're in now, and there's something about it I hadn't really had a sense of ever. . . . a timelessness. a sense that a horse and cart is making the clop clopping noise behind you, and for me, a poignant feeling not only of my own McClean heritage which dwelt several generations in NSW but also that my greek and arabic background was so very not unusual in this place. Lovely.
   Darling street took me along in the heat and as I've told everyone I was totally blown away by the Jacaranda and Frangipani. Sara was working on a multi-media live performance soundscape piece for uni, called Ze Black Dog Opera so I hung out with her in the studio at school for a bit and then went to visit Dave.

Sydney November 2010

2010-11-17T14:09:00.000-08:00

Good morning,

as unaccustomed as I am to public speaking, I'm going to take the floor, strange expression.
Also despite all evidence to the contrary, I'm very much looking forward to thanking my sponsors... I tell you, it was a funny thing to be sitting in the department of internal affairs at 9 at night before leaving the country, taxi-ing my internal state into a bit of a spin of coffee and sleeplessness, with a security guard sitting next to me 23 Punjabi, Civil Engineer, we talked about our lives, it was like a contemporary play but no-one was shot in the end, and the emergency passport call out team,( who refused to let me pull up the transaction on my internet banking page so they could cross reference the transaction number, preferring instead to phone me from upstairs, interrupting my lesson on the antiquities of Northern India ... "but before 1896... hang on" to say, "Hello again Genevieve thanks for your patience, do you remember who served you on Monday, Do you remember what she looked like?" ) Earlier that evening various staff members had paved the way for my callout team to get in touch on the grounds that Internal Affairs had lost my passport application, muttering things into the phone on my behalf to ease the suspicion of the process like, " I don't know, it never got made. . . .Yes it was an error on our part, Yes I just don't know, maybe Gary's department. . ."
   I tried very hard to feel a surge of Bourne Supremacy coming on, and looked around for foothold on the walls security cameras to block, and balconies to jump to through the glass, didn't much like my chances off pulling off my parkeur moves however and the high energy pursuit fantasy effect was subdued largely by the fact that the senior officers "Ok hi Genevieve I'm a senior officer", were all women younger than me shuffling around the passport office in their their polyester slippers and dressing gowns.

   You see previously by four days, Bob Orr and John Pule, rang me to say they were off to visit Dave in Sydney and did I want them to take a message. In two days they were going. I slept on it and the next morning I rang them back take me too I said I need to film you guys, sorry to totally crash the party, but you can't go without me, and I have no money but I'll raise the funds. So as I put it to Martin, touched by the kind philanthropies of my friends and poets and poet friends, I had my air-fare all sorted out. Then I realised my pasport needed refreshing. So I raced around a bit, and now I have a new passport with a picture of a harrassed middle aged mania on the face of a woman in it. ( I am secretly pleased when customs officers do a careful double take).
   I raced into Poetry Live all excited and crashed the party there, most happily and strangely they didn't have a guest poet and so kindly they let me take the koha, and encouraged people to buy some pieces of paper from me with writing and pictures and my book Mine sold a few copies, so I left the country at 4am on two hours sleep, with enough to cope and manage, and a plan, and a camera with senheiser shot gun microphone, and stupidly in my socks and shoes and coat.

   four and a half hours later I considered throwing the coat across a Sydney rubbish bin but figured no one would want it unless they were leaving. Really a second hand goods exchange at the airport would be a good idea. I fought my way through blindness caused by the temperature and the QVB once I worked out What the QVB Was, and that I was in it; got lost then in a 5 storey high Supré store after buying a giant $5 dollar singlet to live in, exasperated a few locals and arrived in Balmain. Balmain looks like Spain, downed two excellent coffees (good Australia), and befriended local real estate Agent with easy flattery to get a sense of my spatial surroundings, and rang Nigel from under a Jacaranda tree. Who picked me up as I was just getting camera ready, and we drove straight over to Bronte Beach to see Dave.

   Wonder, I got quite hot around then, partly because it was 29 degrees in the breeze, and I was all camera operator and not very Australian. You may have guessed that I haven't visited Australia very often, couple of times in transit, a couple of times to see Dave and Sara, once pregnant once with family, I'd never had more than a day to observe Sydney before, What was that I asked Nigel? That's the native birdlife he replied. Between us we organized to ambush Dave with the Camera, and up on the balcony of the hospice where he's living. Dave halted when he saw me out the corner of his eye and wouldn't sit till we had a big hug,

Next Gig

2010-10-11T18:23:00.000-07:00

http://www.lopdell.org.nz/events/details/rhythm_verse2.html

Thanks Ila for inviting me to read up at Lopdell House.
All my thoughts are with Lopdell house at the moment because of plans for These Four Walls, a sound based theatre initiative for the Auckland Fringe Festival next year.
I've been pouring over old photos and interviewing my nana.

Very lovely to pop over to Titirangi on the 28th to do some poems, and soak up a bit more site specific history!

Little Bonfire: Anna Kaye's EP release last night. Support by Jesse Sheehan

2010-08-28T21:58:00.000-07:00

Missed out? you can download Back on Board for free from  Anna's Myspace page

Every now and then I am moved,
on a cold winter / early spring morning
  to make a bonfire, but it's very wet here in Auckland thanks to rain.
What I meant to say was every now and then I am moved to render forth a review of a gig, because the gig was so cool. I am about as interested in reviewing something that didn't blow me away, as I am in going out and trying to set fire to a pile of jungle greenery in the mud of my back yard.. Last night was such a nice bright warming kind of show it couldn't stray into the realm of any other kind of fire. Little Bonfire is the perfect EP for August or perhaps September..

I already love Anna's performances, and I'd only seen a few over the last seven years or so... describing the bolt of persuasive vocalizing that comes unexpectedly to friends who hadn't. Anna you see, is demure and she giggles; sometimes she has a look about her that could be described as wistful or patient if you catch her off guard, but on stage her self-assuredness is rock solid and her musicianship exquisite. Her voice is wonderful. Up at the Gin room at the Queen's Ferry, it felt a bit like a birthday party packed with a small and select crowd of friends and admirers, and Anna, giggled, and punkrocked pogo'd and sang through a high energy set. "This one's intense... and then "see I told you it was intense" And she Sang. No I think she SANG. Sanguine, Gamine, but as usual incredibly strong on stage, as well as chatty. Anna seems uncertain about this playing around with pretence, and takes a laidback path to avoid pretension altogether. "If anyone tells you to get Back on Board, Go the other way" she tells us and laughs. Which is what she does with any interpretation or expectation of her music. She is still laughing when she comes in on the first line of the next song, transitioning like a pirate in the rigging with consummate ease. "Bones are over-rated"- a lyric in her song Girl with No Bones is a purposefully unacceptable line, a throwaway odd comment that she's caught up again, and favoured recording it to perfection in the studio as part of the eerily balanced oddness of the whole song.
   The engineers, played with heart and delivered a beautifully poised counterpart to Anna, both pushing the music and containing the spirit of these well formed songs. B.O.B. got a little lost in exuberance, although fun, and whichever engineer did the vocals I thought that was a hit.
   I'm still getting these songs, and not playing them over and over too much.  They're a showcase for a band that could go anywhere do anything. Making her E.P. both articulate and articulated. There's a Pop option too, and Back on Board would break your heart if it wasn't for the Girl's Army Chorus line riff that will not let us wallow, I love that foghorn...
   All in all the Queen runs an excellent Ferry.

I will not go without mentioning Jesse Sheehan, who sang both originals and some Leonard Cohen classics too. His amazing performance will draw you in as it did me. Check out his music video:

I am also looking forward to the tour. ?

2010-08-28T17:10:00.000-07:00

Laydees and gennlemen.....

I am going to review two films.... at the Same Time!!

On one side Avatar.... and on the otherside: Land of the long white cloud.

....Similar in themes but not in tone.

....Similar in philosophies but not in budget.

...Aligned in their commentary on topics of spiritual inclinations of a colonized peoples,

and yet reaching widely varied audiences around the world...

One thing these films clearly have in common are the feelings induced by a set of prehistoric looking gnashers. James Cameron and Florian Habicht both clearly know a thing or two about symbolism and the psyche, and the sex drugs & rock and roll equivalent in telling a good yarn in the language of film. Well sex remains the same, (for drugs think Aiwaa, warfare, or fishing; any addiction really) but replace Rock n Roll with a good set of fangs of the 'About to eat you variety' and you have the contemporary version of absorbing image based story telling.

Immersed in the 3D effects of Avatar one could be excused for finding a connection with Habicht's 'place in the food-chain' sensibility. The film if you don't know, documents a five day fishing contest on 90 mile beach. Soon to be renowned for referential and self referential archetype in documentary;( bicycles in the water suggest the references of some of his earlier work), and a treasure to find in verité and clever heart winning vulnerable direction

Blast from the past

2010-07-18T20:00:00.000-07:00

GENEVIEVEMCCLEAN
TEMPO: FUNNY BEATS-WING 4/MORE LETTERS IN PERFORMANCE: WORDS, NOMADIC ID: ENTITY PERFUMANCE PLAY - FLIGHT

MONDAY, MAY 09, 2005

New York was cold

New York was Cold and I liked where I was living. There was music everywhere in Brooklyn and everything was full of potential. It was Spring and all the Brownstones in Park Slope had Magnolia blossoming.. but the main flowers in Bloom in the South were Azaelea, and Oleander.

Auckland, is ripe with Autumn. Some people have died. Some people have become pregnant, some people have married, all in three weeks. The sun is waning, and I'm happy to be home. Which doesn't mean I wasn't happy to be heading up the West Coast toward Portland either.

Just let you know, America is full of clever thoughtful people. I always suspected. Even in Texas! In amongst the Cacti there. Atlanta worries me a little, but I hope to return to Austin and Albuquerque, and Orange before TOO Long. I'd also like to go to Toolong, but that's might be a different kettle of fish.

So I'm still thinking about those big signs that said CRAWFISH!, along the Cajun coast, in bewtween the mansions in the sunshine. Cat fish. Alligators. All those displays of Law enforcement in New Orleans. Black cops waving us through. A row of eye white's in the dark. Arrow of Injuns. Boots. Navajo Casino tycoons. The Pentagon and Washington DC with all it's low flying Copter's. A Million trucks and then some Carrion.

My friend the Crow on the lip of the Grand Canyon. I'm so jealous, about flying. You gotta git those things in perspective though. The Watchdog at the Kara-ok- Corale Motel, who Watched me.

The Grand Canyon was very much like a large Natural Cavity in the Ground.

Yeah we drove up around the Natural Cavity. Went to see the big Cavernous hole. Gaping example of vast natural erosion. I guess we all sometimes feel that way.

Orange

Auckland is cold. and I have a lot to say. I'll just go and make a coffee. Welcome to the Genblog.

Well well speak of the High C's ... Galleries

2009-10-29T19:57:00.000-07:00

The nice thing about not having a car is that the miles you ambulate along are not in comparison with the miles you just did in the car. Instead you settle in and admire the scenery get yourself delighted by things you see and hear as you go, or just humbly trundle and navigate exhaust fumes and traffic and god excrement did I say god excrement? never mind we're all God's creatures.

Or you might do what I did today and get your legs out and flash them around footballer style and see how much more easily the traffic is to get through. Having a cute baby in the trolley helps create a gender neutral air of happy helpfulness. Then you stay happy baby stays happy and you can do something you haven't dreamed of trying in years, (since your new encumbered status anyway) and go art gallery cruising. I've never felt so helped which was lucky because I couldn't find the Copy shop and when I did it wasn't what I needed. I'll be back to the Digital Darkroom for printing my book covers I think. Keep you posted. ( Honestly people were chasing Finn's apple his hat, my second lot of directions I got someone to write down...)

Gambia Castle is in that space on K road that I think of as Mat Sunderland's old flat. I got a lift with the trolley up the stairs and that was the only point during the whole day that I thought I might not cope. You know that I might fall over and get stuck under the trolley or something like that..

A group artist showing including Daniel Malone and many more. I'm not an art critic. I admired some works there very much and enjoyed the space. Unconstructivism?

The other place I was hunting down was the High C gallery who are having an opening tonight. They're exhibiting screenprints on wood at the moment. Another opening on Friday. They're representing the Illustrating and comics and bookmaking side of things and I bought a fabulous book by A. Patrick Conlan called Portrait of a Waiting Pig. Which I loved quickly. Actually it's an illustrated Novella.

I know Andy Conlan as a diy filmmaker, he first earned my admiration for a brilliantly funny fence-jumping stunt for a 48 hour film now how long ago was that? Before your time my little galleries.

Seriously I'm so glad it's summer and we can walk around K'roads arty skene and bump into people when our cars are broken. Like Barbara. And she can tell you where everything is. Like the High Seas

Ladies and Gentlemen...

Like pulling teeth

2009-10-17T18:35:00.000-07:00

little bits of bone make their way from the gum if the root of the tooth gets broken or if shards get left behind.

Do they ever, amazing... but when I heard it I thought that was a scenario of something that might happen if I was extremely unfortunate.

Having never had teeth pulled I was nervous sure, but my impulsive imagination hadn't accounted for painkillers. The dentist, well... she's lovely and well... she had little arms, so well...

once we were underway I was fine anyway just watching the drama of it unfolding around me, and the frustration and wishing I could help with my arms and not not just countering with every muscle that runs up into the base of my skull from my neck at the back.

All credit to her after 45 minutes of pulling and lactic acid build up in the fingers, ( strange intimacy) there was a riccochet of tooth through the expectant space of the room, and she sighed breathing a little athletically and stretching her fingers, then she flicked her hair to the side and said "well I'll have a go at the other one and see if we do any better". She was fantastic really.

Just had a coffee with a friend who pulled up several examples of dental surgeons who just go the other way; drop it all and go jungle; start bands; play the gazoo. My arms are quite strong at the moment. Stronger than they've ever been because of the two year old.... maybe I could fit in a 7 year degree.

It was nothing on the indignity of having those enormous pieces of plastic to hold your mouth open and the plaster to make the mould. Anyway you don't hear all those teenagers complaining do you? It's because they're in shock, and in a way it's probably an appropriate kind of adult world initiation, because everything in comparison will seem benignly well mannered afterward.

Bits of tooth are known to make their way out weeks and weeks later I was told and sure enough bits of tooth did. But you know it's quite exhausting work on the body and I just shut down completely... thing is I still feel like that I can hardly keep my eyes open and I'm waiting for a shard to come through any minute so I can admire it for its definitive bone-like quality and size and get on with things. Like blogging.

2009-08-13T18:58:00.000-07:00

So years go by and then you discover that you already have some old blogs that you started and they're over five years old which is three years older than your child and it's hard to believe, but funny to read them and droll generally.

So much for daily produce, I was dispersed for a moment there but I'm formed again like a horde of Genevieves to bring you news like a "What I'm Reading" column from the philosophers mansion On the Hill and while they had a poetry convention going on.

The Montana poetry day readings were very wonderful, and Ila convened marvellously well. She told a friend that she couldn't describe my work, but I think we'll all be hard pressed to describe Glen Colquhoun's from now on. He was transformed and did an extraordinary sea-shanty from the boat and the shore of Cook's meetings with Maori. Amazing.

Lopdell house hovered above the ordinary realms of our problematic lives, and made Auckland look foreign.

I've got a new art studio and I'm working on my Matariki book again, and Christian Jensen has taken on the responsibility of organizing an event with all the poets involved in the first Matariki event, having an exhibition of their work related to the poetry. It's like the house of mirrors it could go on and on...

I'm going to host a Don't Sit Still storytime for kiddlings, but I suppose that blogger's not for promotional porpoises, so I won't advertise. Just now. But I'm looking forward to that.

I'm working on films, but the only acting I've done recently worth talking about is HORSES directed by Garrick Rigby. The next screening of which will be in the show me shorts colection at the Academy.

Here are more working shots from the film:

http://picasaweb.google.com/nikkicastle/Horses03?authkey=Gv1sRgCOzf-O-j_PO92QE#

2009-06-23T23:44:00.000-07:00

Stills from the Movie.

That's me as Steph. Looking a bit upset.

2009-06-23T20:10:00.000-07:00

Here is my contribution to the profession of acting for 2009:

Horses

Horses
NZ 2009. Director/Producer: Garrick Rigby. 15 mins
Horses was filmed in 2008 as part of the Screen Production honours programme at the University of Auckland. Horses explores issues of jealousy and domestic violence. What attracts people to each other and why do some individuals in abusive relationships go back for more?

The premiere will be on Friday the 17th of July at 6PM, SkyCity cinemas on Queen Street, please join me there to see the Homegrown series.

2009-06-17T04:20:00.000-07:00

Well it's half past 11 and... I'm wondering if it's Littlest member of the household who is 'disappearing' my working ruler... That's the second one that's gone! absolutely no idea where... and it's a metre long and made of metal. I can only assume that it's him, the same as blongs to the little voice that yelled at me an hour or so ago... Mum tractor in bed too! because he was sleeping on top of it because he wouldn't let it go when he went to bed.. or else the ghost of printing past, of course.

Roller skate lino city. I'm thinking about pastellizing the blue for the first layer thinking the sky needs to be clean, but gold comes a close second because I don't want to make the foreground too cold. That's how it goes that's how it goes..

Lino 4!

2009-06-16T03:50:00.000-07:00

It's a late night roller disco in the world of linoleum right here folks... I have a dual colour print straight from the press ...

But I have to admit I'm a little nervous about the colours... I might need a lighter second layer... but did I print enough the forst time round!!

(Irish accent - I am quite Irish you know)

Chris Knox

2009-06-15T22:10:00.001-07:00

Full of thoughts about Chris Knox right now and how well loved he is.

Here's a review of a gig I saw before Finn was born:

2009-06-15T21:34:00.001-07:00

Today was the kind of day you drive along thinking today is as beautiful as you might hope a midwinter's day to get: the sky all blue and clear and the trees with a bit of yellow stuck in the tops, and you're really cruising along and then you look down and realize that you're Ooops over the speed limit. This may depend on your personality type.

I had too much coffee today but we have output. Check out the video on the blog two down and you'll see an extra starlet. Our cat Cooper.

A Cameo DSH Feline, 1 year old who was tagged as a “staff favorite” at the SPCA, and has now become like a second child in our family.

Cooper is quite an extraordinary cat, alert and feisty and quite kittenish… also very social, and quite talkative.

He escaped from confinement after only a few days and came running out to meet me from a house at the other end of the block. Two weeks later he was so adapted and so good about everything, we let him out to explore and he didn’t come back.

I thought we’d lost him, so after two days I made flyers, and put a website notice and rang the missing cat team…

We had a number of phone calls. Cooper had been playing with children three mornings in a row a few houses to the north, he’d been sighted in a tree up the hill, he’d been given a drink of milk across the road to the west and down a bit, and he’d been seen chased off by another cat further along….

I delivered more flyers and called out to a man in a driveway quite randomly… We’re looking for our lost cat.. “Oh he’s here” Cooper had gone in through another cat’s door, woken up the lady of the house in her bedroom, and then gone to the fridge making his requirements quite clear.

I’ve been worried about my two-year-old’s behaviour it’s a steep learning curve because the cat is so exciting! and understanding of inflicting pain and so on still new… (We suffer ourselves too). … That’s enough we say… be Gentle! That Hurts him, Don’t even think about it, and we intervene and give time out for one minute if the behaviour is bad attention-seeking or dangerous. Cooper however, follows him, huddles and jumps at his leg spanning two metres low to the ground… he wrestles and play bites and play kicks without using his teeth or claws.. It’s hilarious. Now we have to give them both time out to be fair.

He’s a bigger cat now, and robust, and although he won’t hurt us it’s a shock to be headed off at the doorway by a flying square foot of kitten playing anything you can do… Sometimes he jumps up and kicks off again from your chest in one swift manuovre. When he’s outside he climbs trees in a nano-second.

To show us that he’s an initiated member of the clan, he’s started bring us his hunting trophies. Birds would be a disaster, mice - we'd be not so upset, but having played chase the string games with him, (it’s one way to distance him from the baby, at least by a metre), it should be no surprise that he brings us slightly mauled earthworms, large ones, and deposits them in the hallway where they make silvery paths across the wood in a slow bid for escape.

Cooper snores like a trooper, competes with our son for comfy positions in front of the fire, waits by the letterbox when he expects us home, and is firm friends with my mother who lavishes attention on him when she visits. In fact she ignores us and directs her attention to the ‘kids’. Cooper sits himself in the middle of whatever is going on, (the keyboard, the paper or book, the kitchen bench), he’s simply curious. At night he wonders why he’s not welcome to lie across my neck, and tries anyway, signaling his arrival with an affectionate bite on my nose.

It’s stressful, but the same applies with human babies, and we love him dearly.

This is where I preserve those little notifications from up the top

2009-06-15T17:31:00.000-07:00

2009-06-14T23:26:00.000-07:00

Epiphany: I love synthetic ferrous oxide! True! It prints really well on the soft paper. and it just goes on and on, and it's really smooth and definitive.

ah... getting there.

Tell you what else I love this time of year: a fire and a hot bath. So, I Immortalize...

Matariki Star star star star star star star

2009-06-14T16:40:00.000-07:00

Y am I going to Grey Lynn primary? To relive my early youth... I did dream once that I was back at high school,(quite scary... ) as an older student, ie: 35 years old resitting bursary.. ever had that dream?

No I'm going to record morning assembly singing my new song Star star star star star. Which also happens to be the name of the book I'm doing these prints for.

My young neighbours who happen to be stars have already done an amazing rendition of the song for me out on our street, which is a street in Grey Lynn that means star. Happily luckily. Then guess what I suppose I should post it up here really so everyone can see it aye?

You can sing along... it goes:

Seven little stars

Star star star star star star star

High up in the sky

Each one like a little eye

I wonder what they see

Looking down on you and me

eight nine ten eleven,

1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 !!

Excellent. The kids were great.

Thanks to all the great singers in Lucy and Nina and Oliver's classes, and especially thanks to Nina, Oliver, and Lucy!! and their teachers and Liesel, their music teacher, and John who helped me and thanks to the Academy, and I'd like to thank my mum. Now a little editing practice, and whoppa! We'll have our own Matariki music video.

Lino3

2009-06-14T14:45:00.000-07:00

Yeah sure go ahead experiment... that's how you learn. But it's likely that you'll run into problems if your first layer isn't dry... with the ink coming off the image and causing the second layer not to sit properly. Be patient and wait for at least a week with oils, three weeks to be certain, and then you'll waste less paper ink and effort. I know this because I just went in and printed on a proof to test the design of my new cut.... blurggh! BUT! The design isn't so bad! Except I wish I'd printed different colours to start with instead of just yellow.

Lesson. Lesson is more.

2009-06-14T12:12:00.000-07:00

It's early, it's not half past seven yet,and I'm getting ready to go in for the fourth day printing...

Quite proud of my work so far, but last night I was tired and made some fatal mistakes. With the second cut of my boypointingup picture I lost all sense of shading and now I'm afraid he'll look a bit strange.. I didn't think it would be so hard to imagine the colour arrangement.

Just entering the world of colour and realizing how vast it all is..

What I'm interested i too is how poisinous it all is and is one colour more poisonous than the other or are they nothing to worry about compared to the grea amount of turpentine thats unavoidably everywhere...?

Happily I found a big round piece of glass in a falling down cupboard that we had to rebuild... It's hard to imagine that it was used for anything else. Maybe my house was inhabited by a printmaker in the past Could explain this unbending urge to cut -ink -roll -press that I have...

And what happened to this phantom print-maker?

Lino 2.

2009-06-13T22:13:00.001-07:00

No one has read this blog because I haven't told anyone about it. No worries.

I'm here to upload images of my daily produce here in lino-land. I did a mono print. Why.. ? there's that little question again. It's got nothing to do with my book. Ynot.

What a day it's been.

Lino One!!

2009-06-13T13:47:00.001-07:00

I didn't remember that I loved lino until just recently.

Suddenly I'm on a steep learning curve, and instead of hassling the arts forum with my entire proud progress I thought I'd post here.

Here are a few bits and pieces before I go and continue working..

I'm on day 3 now of printing. and I still have quite a lot of cutting to do!

Less blogging would help probly, but I wanted to make a diary of this because I'm learning a lot as I go.

My printer is an old victorian book press, and I put an old fashioned linen nappy under the print to bestow a more even pressure. Also I've just picked up a japanese style baren to smooth things over as I go. What a great thing that is, we should all have one.

I'm dicovering that there are issues with the ink spread according to

1. pressure... thus the nappy

2. application ... I'm learning to roll on and not roll off again, when to clean and when to wipe

3. time... the length of time in the press is quite a specific thing too.

4. paper... I did one print for too long with some thick hahn and the surface of the paper lifted up. So now I have some thinner paper which is a lot easier to manage anyway in terms of ripping it to size .

5. ink... well I'm only discovering there are greater worlds than I knew in those engaging little tubes. I'm definitely going to read my "Ink my love Ink was my ruin" poem for Montana day.

These prints are a series for a childrens' book that accompanies a display of lamps for the Matariki festival out at the Corban's estate in Henderson on June 26th. The artists of the Lamps are Ronald Andreassand and Anita Glucina, and each of seven lamps will have a local writer's work with it.

Right now I'm pulling blue. Soon I'm going to be pastelizing an opaque apricot I hope, for the cat.

2009-06-13T12:50:00.000-07:00

Ok so I'm a bit slow with the old blog business. To do upkeep on a blog means I need to organize weekly childcare even more, or perhaps get up at 4 each morning, to get an hour in...

But I'm busy. So I have to talk about it in a public diary format to make sure I am vital. Oh why do you blog then?

What am I busy doing? Blogging. No only joking.. right now I'm planning for some poetry gigs, making some poetry chapbooks and Talking about the collaborative work I put in with fellow artist Anita Glucina for the Metonymy exhibition.. that's the moon medallions I mean, prepping for a prop, what's new, this is a poetry doco, and rediscovering an ancient affection that I hold for linoleum.

The medallions are available to be purchased, and I will tell you all about those soon. Can I put pictures up on here what is this blog? Is it a good blog? Is it it a blog blag.

Poetry performance coming up with Nigel Gavin and Chris O if we can pin him down up at 121, early next month. Then the next one after that is Lopdell house for Montana poetry day, with the Lopdell line up: www.lopdell.org.nz/events/details/montana_poetry_day.html

On the 26th June is the Matariki festival exhibition at the Corban's estate spot out at Henderson, and One of the seven lamps displayed by Ronald and the afore-mentioned Anita, has a poem and story associated with it by me... Each lamp has a different poet's work, and I don't know who they all are but one is Miriam Barr. Mine is a children's rhyme, and I'm making a book now to go with it, why?

...because I wanted to use my new book press to make a book, but now I'm printing lino prints for each page. Why? Because I have to create stuff I enjoy it immensely I'm not acting or making films right now, and I've joined an amazing art community forum on line where I can learn a lot about how to work with pigments and so on, and because I fancy myself as an old fashioned craftsperson.... I know I could just grow strawberries and be a valid part community, well actually I'm doing that too. Got your strawberries in for summer? See this is what happens when actors stop acting, they can't stop talking and they blog!

Actually speaking of acting! I did some a while back, on a short called Horses. It will be screening in the homegrown series in the film festival, hang on link...

www.nzff.co.nz/default.aspx?id=7516&region=2

More about homegrown:

mic.org.nz/2009/05/homegrown-2009-programme/

Ahhhhh! the film festival!

Medallions

2009-03-19T18:26:00.000-07:00

Light, Sculpture, Poem, Object of Art, Tool for Meditation, Aide for Oracle Consultancy.

I'll use this one to do medallions. Metonymy... is a collaborative arts competition and exhibition that pairs an artist and a writer. What a ... twister...

This is Metonymy with all the cool photos: metonymy09.blogspot.com

It was extraordinary, and I learned a lot about mp3 players. I worked with Anita Glucina and we made Moon medallions. If you can guess the name of the moon medallions you can keep them. Otherwise you can order them from me at a cost of $130 for a set.. Until we package and market them and perfect the design, and then they'll be considerably more expensive. :)

We've had lots of guesses so far......

Scintillating

round

rumplestiltskin

lady

I've got the list somewhere...

2009-03-01T12:43:00.000-08:00

Second Generation

It's strange when public roads are cordoned off, to see people still using the zebra crossing, checking the lights and signal and the whole works. I enjoyed the appropriation of a roadway for the jazz/ blues festival of course, but not so sure how I felt about fencing off the beach.. There was a line of lumi-jacketed security people suggesting that we all leave before 5, but I think like us, a lot of them like us, called the big bluff and wandered around eating hot dogs while everyone else stayed outside the fence... Seeing a crowd of people waiting outside a barricade while you wander around managing runaway mustard, leaves one with a strange sense of awkward guilt, I blame the media, (that's the quickest and most efficient thing to blame). We have so many images of walls and fences, barricading the one from the other, in the news and in our minds, that it could really go down as the era of apartheid, or if you want to steer clear of those connotations, The time of delineation. But not fixed. You might think that it would be but it's in no way permanent. Remembering South Africa's apartheid really has an old fashioned longevity of fences and barricades.. but this modern age has delineations that move about. Everything is happening more quickly, admittedly there's little vascillation in the delinating boundaries of Gaza, more of a shrinking effect in stops and starts. Part of me there fore can't help but wonder how adamantly I should feel righteous about standing astride a meridian strip in mission bay with the push chair and still wet from togs on under dress (as the changing rooms had been locked earlier to 'help' people leave the beach. It was for a brief moment (about twenty minutes), a priviledge of the few that I held, but of course without leave of the governing populace... oh dear, a trickle down effect from the greater delineations of history. A quick us and them. But if I hadn't thought of images I hold in my mind , let's see... a middle aged woman being beaten behind the lines in Kosovo; a boy snipered crossing the huge divide of the Berlin walls; a journalist getting too close to the wall on the Palestinian side and his fright as shots echo around his camera, the crushing of fans against the fence at a football stadium in England, the throngs of refugees trying to get a handout from UN aid services... You'll have your own list too. So if I have these thoughts this knowledge, how far away am I from one of those other fences? I think about 500 feet.

First Generation

2009-02-28T15:17:00.000-08:00

ooo just like that I'm joining the throngs of talk, into the crowd, the bloggers are coming the bloggers are coming... Even more time spent on the net, right now, the equivalent of walking around at the Blues and Jazz Festival at Mission Bay which is on right now murmuring to myself.. Chucky's in Love, oo oo Chucky..., I know it's been said and done and sung before, But I'm singing too, like a big blogger! Is anyone listening, will I get a major hit rate? Will it affect my heart rate?

I'm going to get a coffee now, and as soon as the son comes up, I'm off to stroll round bluesily and catch up with my old mate and brilliant guitarist Shayn Wills the Blues man. But I'll be telling everyone how amazing was Rose Meyer and band. She's the voice of Station Road and they rocked our socks off on Friday night to tie up the ends of the Projector Project and we danced, and they tried not to blow the roof off, and Rose sang and man she's got like a great big reverberative soul, Her voice is like ... , I think Station Road deserves to be well-famous, and for a start to be heard a whole lot more.. These guys are just setting out, and I don't reckon it should take too long before you get to see and hear what I mean.