Category Archives: photos

Human good will

Recently i returned to Countdown. This is what i saw.

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So there it is. More like a correction centre than a shop. If someone wants to share music with customers surely that is a human right? The ownership of the land and building surely does not give the owner authority to prohibit human activity that is encouraging human goodwill.

Check out the parking contract. It’s absurd.

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Check out the (The Sound) video Simon Raby directed which was shot in this same shop when it was called Foodtown The girl played by Zippora Seven has a shopping list of valuable, abstract things she needs to find.


Why in Gods name don’t the operators of these places offer some scope for human goodwill?

Why are mega shops only interested in the customers money and void of interest in the customer as a living breathing human soul?

I raised these points with the managers and they told me “You win” Limited Liability is a fantasy. We cannot keep giving human rights to money machines. “Man does not live by bread alone”

A proper catch up

Please forgive my long absence from writing to you all. Since London i have been on a learning curve.

One part of my Euro trip still haunts me. I was looking out the window of the Boeing 777 and noticed a thread of black smoke trailing out of the engine. I asked the stewardess if this was normal…she didn’t know…nor did the other cabin staff. They alerted the captain and he explained later that it was quite normal. Until we landed safely i was shit scared.

Here i am up in the pointy bit of the plane. The captain let me sit in his seat once we were safely landed.

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When you get back home to NZ It all looks like Kodachrome – Green.

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Yellow. Here in the yellow puffy jacket i got for 4 euros in Berlin. WIth me here is Stu.He was my best guitar pupil until he had to go to Welly.

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Many shades in the Moutere sky.

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All sorts of enticing colours but do not eat they are soap.

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On the road coming up on yellow

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Brown white green and blue

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Ye Olde Life on The Farm. The average age of a Nz farmer is in the 50s. It’s a labour of love in the face of sky high rates. The new digger he bought needs a computer technician to look at it for 120 an hour only to conclude he cant fix it. Same engine as the old model but with computers built to need regular attention. Good keen man.

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London Adventures cont.

Shackelton got his rope from this very shop.

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More than a hundred and ten years in biz

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Harper Collins. Went to harper collins to deliver some demos of an album of mine from back in the day I want them to publish my wee bookie with free album enclosed.

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Lots of rigmarole to get in. But i just wanted to deliver demos to editors.

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I am a big fan of Hamlet. Didn’t meet Ophelia though.

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London Pt 2

Smart phone? yeah right. My smart phone alerted me to this place. The gate keeper told me there was a dress code i wasn’t cracking and that a ss was gonna set me back £50.

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These girls cracked it. The chosen ones heading for sushivana.

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The traditional pub.

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With a traditional pokey

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Leaning postbox. A real letter is something we all like to get but no one wants to send.

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London Streets 2014

This is a genuine licensed London busker. To get a job like this you have to apply to be auditioned….wait several years to be auditioned and have about one chance in one hundred of being selected.

Many are called few are chosen. And when you do get taken on you are not allowed to sell anything nor are you permitted to hand out even a biz card nor display any signs cause one company has sole advertising rights on everything in the underground. Good sorts.

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Food for thought. So this was sobering…to say the least. The only way to make a name for yourself in the underground is to buy advertising with exterior media. I wrote to them. I wonder if they do micro budget deals. Ha ha.

In my experience dealing with big companies tends to be like “talking to the taxman about poetry” to use the title of a Billy Bragg album. So i am more inclined to support little family places like food for thought in Neal st. This veggo place has been around since the 70s and hasn’t lost out to the enemy yet. Food is great and not priced to kill. It took me days to find such an oasis.

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St Paul’s is surrounded. Ha ha. There are two of these and other franchises between. Christopher Wren has a big fan club.

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It’s surreal. The money changers outside the temple. So lets go look in the temple itself.

Pay to pray. Gone are the days when you could go to a church to pray. Not in this one pal. There’s a timetable for that pal…

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Easy access. Only one entrance is open and it’s gatekeepers are not there to make friends…

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Thou shalt not. I had to walk all the way around to get onto the lobby. I had to ignore this sign to get a shot of the stairway.

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Stairway. What would Christopher Wren say about all this commercial lockout?

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As you leave thru the revolving doors you have to laugh at the irony. Irony rules.

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Next time i will look for a more modest church. (St Paul’s Cathedral)

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Or save up so i can get in. Here is a view from the counter. In ancient times the money changers worked outdoors…

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Don’t mess with my security. The best minder ever.

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An unbroken family. Had a little strum outside and this friendly family listened out and the little guy guarded my axe. Lovely spot and the franchises were quiet…no one can afford to take family into killerpocket eateries on a regular basis unless they are so rich they wont wanna anyway. They were eating a packed lunch. More fun that way.

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Gotta love this graffiti. Really cheers you up walking down a dark street to see this illuminated by the moon and the sodium light…

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Church by moonlight

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What a superb simple way to stack em. Way easier than a power monster dishwasher.

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