interlude

A photographer with any skillz whatsover (ie, not me) could make this look fantastically dramatic I reckon.

The graffiti throw-up is in the empty void where there used to be a water reservoir at the top of Symonds St. The church behind it is on Khyber Pass.
I like the contrast between the prim (yet unusually coloured) church and the energetic writing. But this tableau, which I've passed numerous times, also reminds me that both religion and "tagging" have something in common: they're both easy targets at the moment. Religion is portrayed as the butt of cheap jokes (at best) rather than a phenomenon worth explaining; tagging (which the piece above isn't really an example of) can get you killed.
Maybe the world is divided into two types of people: those who think tagging is worse than religion and those who think religion is worse than tagging...

neighbour from hell

Oh look, there's good ol' Stacy Jones again.


But wait who's that behind him?


Why, it's a family in financial distress, asking people to donate to the Auckland City Mission.
If you get really close you can hear the mum say, "sorry darling, all our other furniture has been repossessed to pay the loan sharks.
"If you keep eating, we will have to join Auckland's homeless and will get disappeared by the council so as not to upset Rugby World Cup fans."
In an NZ exclusive I can reveal this is not the first blog post about this ad! No - it's featured on this Russian website. And thanks to my Latvian flatmate, I can reveal that the Russians were interested in the fact the ad started out featuring furniture which "crumbled" away, by design.
Which was disappointingly mundane after I went to the trouble to secure a Latvian flatmate and all. Surely it could have involved a conspiracy about Russian spies ending up at the City Mish in the hope the food there would poison them or something. (Disclaimer: I have never eaten at the Mission but I'm sure the counterspy ring would have had their hopes dashed!)
In another aside, Stacy here is pretty much opposite the Baycorp building...

Makes me... udder

Mad About Ads had a field excursion to Waihi for the weekend!
So, this is my favourite sign in the Hauraki Plains, outside the vets at Ngatea.
While the thermometer "in" the beast's mouth is at a rather problematic angle for the purposes of temperature taking or gravity assuring, this picture is really what the fug girls would call a "scroll down":


Yikes! I know they're more earthy and used to the facts of life in the country... this full frontal disturbs me more than ye olde MADGE campaign (NSFW). It's like fetish crutches for cows. Maybe it calms the bulls on their way to the meat works.

what, me di?

I once tried to do a free meditation course at uni but we were supposed to breathe in love and breathe out peace, and that turned out to be beyond me. Who knew?
But here's a meditation programme maybe even moi could concentrate on:

On second thoughts, the only clients they're going to attract are landmark forum egotists.
But I like the word-within-the-word play though, very UK 2006. Nearly reaches the heights (geddit?) of Inverness:Alternatives:
All about Meditation - improve your Italian, Greek and Libyan cooking via meditation.
All about Meditation - for those who still hold the Queen of Hearts dear.
All about Meditation - for those who think of "emotion" as E in motion, where E = energy
All about Meditation - how to produce fancies, devices and conceits from the comfort of your own castle.
All about Meditation - what ever you want "it" to be

Jaws

Stacy Jones! Why you got to follow in Jay Laga'aia's footsteps by using your loveable, trustworthy, brown visage to front for the money men?


According to this Campbell Live video IF's profits have trebled and the loan shark's lending has gone up by almost 20% since the warrior-hero started being their pin-up boy.
One of TV3's planted examples is a woman who wants a $700 loan for school uniforms; Instant Finance quotes her an interest rate of 29.9% pa - and a fee of $415.
They also soundbite an industry guy saying that companies like IF expect their clients to default - in fact, they're set up for it; they get more money.
Stacy's fluorescent fat lip is my artistic rendition of what happens to the company's clients, in a metaphorical way.
Jones - Leave Jay... follow the shining example of Mike King!

and they put a spice girls song in my head

In a disturbing new development in the footpath wars, an electricity company is trying to grab your feet with its hands: They've pooped these mouse pads all over the place. Is this really going to work?
Or are they just going to be the boy who cried wolf, in sheep's clothing, so to speak. Are people going to be annoyed they stopped to read this sign because it made them miss their bus and their boss Barry doesn't take shite public transport as an excuse for lateness any more, what with the new b-line and all, so that next time they see a danger sign they will ignore it thinking it's just another crappy Contact attempt to make contact, and this time they'll be driving their car, which then crashes through the barrier at the end of the dead-end road and falls off a cliff?
Tragedy. Luckily, it won't happen, at least not at the top end of Mt Eden road, because in Contact's defence these illegal litterings are more easily removed than stencilling.

boxed in

To put on my beret and stroke my goatee for a moment, there's a great quote from French novelist Andre Gide that goes something like: "To be loved is nothing. What I desire is to be preferred."
Ie, he wants to be loved most.

1. Musicals
2. The sense of Schopenhauerian relief I get just after meeting a deadline
3. The word 'squelch'
Can I get those wrapped in the blue sparkly paper?

Anyway, no thank you, State, I outrageously prefer not to squander my love on stuff, but keep it for people.