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:

The first is the regular Critical Mass reclaim the streets ride ~ this happens the last friday of every month where a collection of cyclists meet at the Albert Park fountain at 5.30 for a ride through the city. Critical Mass is a concept that is done worldwide and is based on a few key principals relating to safe cycling and bike riding advocacy.

The second was the inaugral Frocks on Bikes ride which took place last saturday along Ponsonby Road, a significant amount of people (with a great percentage wearing frocks ~ both boys and girls) met at Western Park and took to Ponsonby Rd to do their part for climate change. This is a great way to encourage people to come and cycle ~ cycling in big groups is fun and safe and also it shows the public that bike riding is a valid altetnative to motor vehicles.

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.

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?

If you didn’t know today is Blog Action Day with this years focus being about Poverty.

People all around the world are going to be posting on this issue and are encouraged to talk about the issue within the context of their speciality. For example a design blog might talk about what works and what doesn’t about a set of charity posters etc…

I just want to speak briefly about my own feelings on the issue and what poverty actually means.

I think many people have different views of what poverty is - and many still think poverty is an issue that exists somewhere else and doesn’t happen right here in our own communities. Poverty is not just a global issue that only affects people in developing countries - it is also a very real problem for those struggling to keep up in developed countries with so called healthy and growing economies. With the cost of living increasing each day as fuel costs rocket upwards it is becoming harder and harder for low income earners to keep above the poverty threshold and provide for themselves and their families. Right here in Auckland New Zealand the Auckland City Mission as well as caring for the homeless provides 250 emergency food packets to families around Auckland who are in crisis. 

Stats taken from the website of the Children’s Commissioner tell us that in 2006/2007 22 percent of children were living in poverty! That’s 230,000 children. Right here in OUR COUNTRY! That’s more than the entire population of North Shore City.

There are many causes of poverty and I recommend you go and research it if this information shocks you - but there are many things we can be doing to help. Donating food to the mission helps them with the emergency food parcels (if they are not donated they have to buy the food), shop using this list from the website. Become a fan of The Mission on facebook.

Most importantly spread the word. This is not just a problem for ‘places far away from us’ this is an issue that we must acknowledge and help with right here on our doorstep. It is not ok that people don’t have access to the basic necessities of life, and it is NOT OK that young children have NO OPTION and NO CHOICE about the matter.

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!

If you have time check out more of Carlos Lascano on Vimeo his stuff is amazing.

Just an update on whats been going on in my life:

Friday - went down to the Stagecoach Busyards and shot the last bit of footage for the Cows On Buses clip (which will be online soon). The graphics are up on the bus and they look really good! Theres one in Wellington and one in Auckland - keep your eyes peeled when riding your bike behind buses

Mum and I picked up Gabrielle and a Rocket Kitchen Chocolate Whiskey cake (which is unbelievably good by the way) and head out to Muriwai for a shabbat dinner as well as celebration of Jo’s return and hard work at the olympics.

Saturday - hung out with Max and Jack and shot a short clip to play at Eshay’s 21st party over in Sydney that only Max is able to make. It was a hilarious day of shooting in downtown Auckland with my cellphone blaring the song so we could try and lip sync (not that we neccesserily achieved this very well). - I’ll post this ASAP!

That same night after a few screenings of the clip we had just made at my flat (some very satisfied viewers!) and a few wines I head out with Ella and Max to Quay St Social Club where Phil did a DJ’ing stint.

Sunday - Early in the morning I missioned out to the Symonds St bus stop to get on a Howick / Eastern bus! An HOUR later and lots of Auckland Suburban scenery later I excited the bus at the Ridge Rd BP station - a 30 second walk away from Anna’s house

Anna and I hung out and chilled all day - it was wonderful - our day included a wonderful lunch (including eggs benedict and hashbrowns), a walk on windy Eastern Beach (along with all the boy racerzzz), Spirited Away and My Neighbour Totoro viewings, A little snooze, some Ukelele playing and a Thai dinner out in Howick town centre (with brother Josh and his girlfriend Gemma).

Monday - After another hour long bus ride into the city I spent the majority of the day with Zoe at Elam making the model for our upcoming music video shoot.