… the world’s got me!

Well its been a manic last few weeks and it’s still manic in the lead up to the Christmas break!! There are quite a few things I need to definitely get done before I pack up on the 19th and a few that need to go on ice until the new year.
Whats been going on? Well last week we had the awards ceremony for The Outlook for Someday at TVNZ ~ Keisha Castle-Hughes was there as well as Paula Bennett and Nikki Kaye (two new Ministers).  Had a few bike rides around town which is fun ~ this season is great weather for riding ~ makes slugging away in the rain during the winter months worthwhile!

On Wednesday Anna and I celebrated 6 months of being together and among other things saw a film called The Visitor written and directed by Tom McCarthy (The Station Agent) very moving story telling I recommend going out and seeing it. See the trailer below:

Last Thursday young winning film-makers from all around the country converged at TVNZ in Auckland for The Outlook for Someday awards ceremony. Keisha Castle-Hughes was there to give out awards and so was the new Minister of Youth Affairs Paula Bennet. The whole evening went really well and now the Winning Films are being broadcast on TVNZ6 and are online here.

Now the team here at Connected Media are moving on to pre production of the second The Outlook for Someday documentary.

This time in the lead up to the 2008 General Election has seen plenty of organisations getting out there and taking action on issues that matter.

Last week SAFE activists boarded busy inner city buses dressed in pig costumes and squeezed into tiny seats to highlight the little space a pig has when rasied in stalls. This is to coincide with TV spots currently airing on TV3 & C4 as part of SAFE’s LovePigs campaign.

Earlier this morning two teams of Greenpeace activists halted a major conversion of forest land to intensive dairy farming. The first team locked themselves to heavy machinery and the other have used rotary hoes to write CLIMATE CRIME in 5m-high letters into the fresh pasture. Click here for more info + photos.

What can we do to help? Aside from getting our orange overalls and taking action by locking ourselves to heavy machinery? I just came across this cool website called Ripple which uses the internet to generate money for charity. You could become a supporter of SAFE or Greenpeace who are two charitable organisations doing imperitve work to protect the welfare of our animals and our planet.

What other things can we be doing in an attempt to get proactive about issues we care about?

On wednesday I shot some video of a question for the YouTube / TVNZ Election Debate. Click through to the site and in the vote tab search “Arctic” and give it a thumbs up! We need more questions around climate change being asked!

That night Anna, Zoe, Jayce and I went down to Vector for the NZ Music Awards, was quite a cool night with great performances from Tiki, Kora, Anika Moa, Shihad, Cut of your Hands.. Afterward we head up to DOC for a drink and a toasted sammie before we head over to 4:20 to see Yeasayer play! Was heaps of fun!

Yesterday I noticed this interesting piece of grafitti in a great location!

And here is a pic of my gorgeous soon to be God Daughter Isadora!

So today is Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) and they say today the world is reborn and that we can use this time to think about how we think the world should look and be active in being the change we want to see in the world.

Several significant things have happened / potentially might happen today:

1.) A new baby girl was born into the world at 5.30 this morning (more on that later)

2.) The first annoucement for the Big Day Out was released. (Including Neil Young, TV on the radio and The Prodigy)

3.) Tonight at 6pm(ish) the winner of the Voice of the People gets a phone call LIVE on C4.

Last night was the evening service of Rosh Hashanah and although it wasnt very busy (it usually is the service most people go to) it was still very nice. Randomly Nick D from C4 was there! The Rabbi gave a really inspiring sermon at the end of the service all about rebirth and getting proactive on making change. Afterwards Mum, Anna and I joined David, Anthea, Claris and Izzy at their place for a shared meal and a glass of wine afterwards which was very lovely.

Phew - what else will happen today???

Full First Annoucement:
NEIL YOUNG, ARCTIC MONKEYS, THE LIVING END, THE PRODIGY, SNEAKY SOUND SYSTEM, MY MORNING JACKET, PENDULUM, BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE, TV ON THE RADIO, SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO, THE TING TINGS, TIKI TAANE, HEADLESS CHICKENS, THE BLACK SEEDS, THE DATSUNS, ELEMENO P, NESIAN MYSTIK, LUGER BOA, COBRA KHAN, LADI 6, THE NAKED AND FAMOUS

Today Anna and I tooka drive away from work and busy stress and blah and went up to the cascades park in the Waitakere ranges. 

We took a bush walk and went up to the waterful for a bit of a peek.

Then on the way home we sat and watched the Tui’s singing in the brances of a magnificent Kauri!

A kereru also flew right past us whooping its wings - my favourite bird!

We were the only people there save a bus load of tourists who were leaving as we were arriving.. It was so nice and peaceful out in the bush on a work day! Took my mind awhile to disengage but once I did it was so amazing!

Lunch at PFC with my gf on the deck in the sun - yuss.

Early yesterday I head out to Waiuku to film some video of a photo shoot that was going on with a cow called Lynn!

The shoot is for a Greenpeace ad that will go on the back of a few buses in Auckland and Wellington. Rosie and Bex were the two ‘wranglers’ from “Animals on Q” and have worked with Lynn before on a few ads for here and the US.

Mat Baker was the photographer and is very fun to work with. Lynn for the most part was very well behaved and hopefull the right shot was captured. Most of the work gets done in post anyway these days - its amazing what they do (even I’m amazed :o!). The weather  was crap and the sky grey - the photo will be sunny and have crisp blue skys with fluffy white clouds!!

So had a really cool weekend all and all..

On Friday night went and ran a workshop for some volunteers to get them trained up with the Oceans Campaign so they can hit the streets with the big red sad fish and spread the knowledge. Was really awesome being around the new office and having a few beers with the crew.

On Saturday I had a car so I drove out to Howick to meet Anna’s parents and her cat Billy. It was beautiful weather and all went well - they have a beautiful garden to sit out in and chat! Afterwards we drove to Mum’s to visit and feed fergus and on the way showed Anna some sights of Henderson and significant places for me in West Auckland. Then we hit the Ponsonby Road Market Day and walked around perusing which was heaps of fun.

Back at my house we had a planning meeting with Andrea, Tim, Lucy, Kimily, Anna and I about the music video we’re gonna make for Handle The Jandal which is a music video competition where you make a clip for an unknown kiwi artist. Stay tuned for more on that.

Sunday after picking Mum up from the airport and having some food with her I spent the rest of the arvo in the garden drinking beers in the sun!! Good times and roll on summer!

Well its been an interesting last few days!

On Sunday night I checked into the Langham Hotel for the night - that along with a new nokia phone and vodafone credit is the prize package I received simply by becoming a finalist in the Vodafone’s Voice of the People competition. I had really nice dinner with Anna at Ken Yakitori - including trying deep fried Camembert for the first time - very delicious! I highly recommend trying it if you haven’t already!

The next morning I had a buffet breakfast among a whole swagger of suited business men all trying very hard to look important and getting fussy over the froth in their flatwhites!! I had scrambelled eggs on toast with avocado, pikelets, fruit and a glass of grapefruit juice yumm!

After returning to my room and reading the newspaper in my bathrobe and having a shower I went downstairs to meet the other finalists and the crew from SparkActivate who put this competition on. I accidentally bought a movie from the TV entertainment system -  Get Smart - and it cost me $18!! No jokes!!! It wasn’t even DVD quality - looked like a shoddy download. Blimmin hotels - lucky it was the only thing I paid for

The rest of the day we didn’t do a whole lot - we got our new phones and hung out at spark for a while then head over to RadioWorks where the two girl finalists did a short piece for the edge. Then we all taxied over to C4/TV3 in Newton. We all did a group appearance with Jermaine of Vodafone Select Live - then one by one we each did a link - where had the opportunity to briefly talk about our entry to the comp and then do a little pledge to the public for their vote.  It was heaps of fun and by the end I was knackered! Nerves!

So!

Well I had a good weekend - on Friday evening Anna and I went to Style Pasifika and before hand had a few drinks at the Nothern Steamship.  The show was good - I felt the entertainment was a bit better last year - but none the less the fashion was interesting. I’m not a big fan of fashion but I like what they do at style pasifika - they have some interesting categories - Pasifika Hero, Tradionally Inspired etc etc..

On Saturday morning I had breakfast with mum at 39 - and we had a good old catch up and some good food to match. Yummy eggs bennie and 39 do a mean homemade hashbrown

Then after lunch Jack and Twyla came over and we sat in the garden for awhile and they helped me plan what I was going to do back there. My first plan is to make a worm farm - I like the idea of this recycled tyre worm farm. Then I’ll start digging a vege patch with a herb corner and use a section of huricane fencing we have in our back yard for tomatoes to climb up.

On Sunday morning I got into mum’s garden to help her with a bit of replanting - it is so good to get your hands connecting with the soil - sounds weird but its very replenishing and grounding!! Later that day Anna and I went over to max’s for a bit of a dinner party which was really nice - made a delicious batch of hummous!

Yesterday I found out that I am one of the finalists in the Vodafone NZ Music Awards - Voice of the peoples award, which is very exciting. I made a short clip explaining what NZ music means to me and now I have a chance to present an award on the awards night as well as a new phone and suit and stuff. On Monday I have to do a day of publicity with the other 4 finalists.

Over the next few weeks I really need people to vote for me as much as they can - you have to sign up first but then you can just vote once a day:

http://www.vnzma.co.nz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&Itemid=21&id=68

Hmm so things have been pretty flat out lately - The Film challenge is in full swing and we’re slowing down on our big promotional push and focusing on locking down the prizes. We’re also in fundraising mode over time at Connected Media where we are on the hunt for some core funding to keep us alive and doing this awesome work!

I was on Newstalk ZB yesterday talking about the project and we got into the green pages today! (Online here).

I’m also still trucking on with getting the Sad Fish appearing somewhere out and about every weekend! On Saturday I was out Botany ways with Rob and Shani! The east side got to see Red Fish - the response from the public is incredible! Kids of all ages and adults love to see it and feel it and are curious as to what we are doing! Ever since I had my rental van crash I haven’t liked driving with trailers but I got over my fear because I know I’d have to drive a bit for this campaign. Next weekend we’re heading down to Whitianga!

In other news today I filmed what is hopefully my last session with a focus group of young people all about V and the V Republic. It’s heaps of fun to run the session but a nightmare to organize around this busy time (especially with uni students).

At the same time I’m almost finished building a custom CMS to drive the back end of a upcoming online Holocaust Exhibition focused around survivors living in NZ - its called World Upside Down and will be online soon here. Also this work extends to developing and building the Jewish Foundations site. All my work should be showcased on my website - but considering its still in construction this isnt happening right now! Its on my to do list!

I’m almost finished reading Robert Rodriguez’s Rebel Without A Crew and man oh man I’m fired up to make some movies!! I’ve got to get my writing on and get some of my ideas down into plot, treatments and scripts! I’m not much of a writer but its a skill I want to develop especially so I can get some stories together to tell using film! I want to make a couple of no budget digital shorts with friends before I write a good script in which I’ll try and find some money to fund shooting it on film. It’s been so fun reading the book and then watching El Mariachi with the inside knowledge of how he cut corners to get it shot for $7,000! I highly recommend getting the disc out its a great movie with some awesome DVD extras! (including the short film which one numerous festivals before he did el mariachi plus 10 minute film school).

Phew! Just gotta find more hours in the day!

Peace.