"Fair Results, but Grand Intent"

 Friday night I sat curled up on the couch with my wife Shellie, and our newborn child, not yet two weeks old. Having a newborn (we only have one child) has left me with a bit of time to work my way through Netflix’ back catalogue. I particularly enjoy finding films I haven’t seen for years, which Shellie has not seen and introducing her to the wonderful stories within. This night’s choice is a gem that ticked all of the right boxes for me. ‘Almost Famous’ directed by Cameron Crowe is a music drama, not a musical, from the year 2000 and is set in 1973. The film follows a young journalist’s adventure following a touring band throughout America during one of his formative adolescent years. The most well remembered scene in the film shows the band and crew sitting on their tour bus and breaking out into song singing Elton John’s timeless ‘Tiny Dancer‘.

https://youtu.be/_qW9wqUI4Lg?t=97

Throughout the tour tensions within the band grow, jealousy is rampant, and romantic relationships become strained; The climax of the film comes at a point when the collapse of the band seems imminent; the band are flying to their next tour destination when the plane hits a spot of turbulence. A plane crash, and the death of all on board seems likely; and members of the band decide to share their deepest truths.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHOE4UfoimY

These two scenes have majorly influenced pop culture. Both forms of transport have their place in the music industry. The humble tour bus harks back to young, hardworking, touring bands, cutting their teeth on the relentless tour circuit, before their global break, here the singalong trope seems natural, as eager musicians are thought to always be at work practicing their craft; The airplane on the other hand recalls tragedy, particularly ‘the day the music died’ when Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and the Big Bopper were killed, but also the aviation deaths of members of Lynard Skynard; Ozzy Osbourne’s guitarist Randy Rhodes; and R&B singer Aaliyah, among others. Just like any scene set in a bathroom during a horror film, a scene on a plane during a music drama suggests danger and death. An aversion to flying due to fear of death amongst touring musicians is a real concern, with many musicians refusing to fly such as Tom Petty who would refuse international tours so he did not have to fly.

Fast forward to 2007. The latest on-screen entertainment to add to the mythology of rock music, Californication comes to television. Set in LA California, a cesspit of smut, narcotics, and of course rock’n’roll. Californication follows Hank Moody, a writer and rock enthusiast who lives in the thick of the entertainment industry. Hank has a few too many vices, he is a walking contradiction, and at times could be described as a lovable scumbag. Throughout the different series of the show Hank is employed to write for a number of situations. 

Season 6 of Californication started on January 13, 2013. Hank Moody is hired as a writer by rockstar Atticus Fetch, played by Tim Minchin. In episode six of the season there is a scene on a plane, not dissimilar to the one in ‘Almost Famous’ where the pilot flies into a spot of turbulence, A drugged out Atticus Fetch begins to play ‘Tiny Dancer’, a direct reference to the movie, as all on board the turbulent plane prepare for the worst. In what might be their last moments, there are passengers onboard partaking in anal sex, Hank professing his love, and Atticus writing a pop song. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Xo3L6UYz_U

Tim Minchin’s character Atticus is a cocaine addicted rock star, possessing all of the flaws of someone who got everything they wanted from a young age. At his essence however, he is a romantic, and writes emotional love songs, such as the one written on the plane. ‘So long (as we are together). The narrator of the song laments the ending of a relationship that was good while it survived. It is left to the listener to guess how the relationship ended. During the scene on the plane it might be assumed that the narrator is saying goodbye as the plane brings him towards his doom, and the end of the relationship.

I don’t know the complete works of Tim Minchin’s career. The first time I had heard of him was from a dvd viewing at a camp, a group of us watched a live concert recording of his comedic songs. His songs and skits were intelligent and very funny, with sometimes quite crass lyrics like ‘Ten Foot Cock & A Few Hundred Virgins’. An early favourite of mine was the contrary but heartfelt love song ‘You grew on me (like a tumor)’. Early in his career it seemed that ultimately Minchin wanted to make you laugh, but underneath the shock of some of his songs is a deep sincerity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69zSx-gwAVM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frNpdG4F9mw

Since seeing this early live performance I have occasionally dipped my toes into his catalogue. It was only last Christmas I first heard the Festive song ‘White wine in the sun’, which will never fail to bring a tear to my eye. As someone who started as a comic musician, in recent years he has made an amazing transition towards more heartfelt pop songs. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CeY0VdhXK8

In 2020 Tim Minchin put out his first studio album ‘Apart Together’, up until then his musical releases were mostly live performances. The album is what I would call a heartfelt masterpiece. The base comic nature of his early work has gone from this group of songs, there may be a chuckle here and there from the clever word play he uses, but ultimately this is a pop record. 

There is no hiding the inspiration that airplanes and airports have had on the creation of this album, ‘Airport Piano’ is a song that has Minchin frantically writing a song before his plane takes off, all the while making observations of other people, but keeping from addressing his own issues that he faces at the other end of his flight. In fact the whole album plays with the idea of distance. Two people in a relationship that are united in being ‘Apart Together’

‘I’ll take lonely tonight’, and ‘The absence of you’, two beautiful love songs about long term relationships that are strained by distance are highlights of this album; but the song that to me ties his career together, is the song: ‘If this plane goes down’.

Somewhat channeling his connection with the character Atticus Fetch, but also his lived reality of being a touring artist who travels between jobs, and family, around the world. ‘If this plane…’ is Minchin at his most honest. He knows that this is a cliché that he is yet again recycling from the bowels of rock music, but in this context it is more of an homage fitting for his brand of pop song and through his use of language and straight delivery he keeps the subject fresh. He talks about his children, his hair, and what happens to his remains after he dies before reaching the underlying sentiment of the song; as a man faced with death he wants his legacy to be remembered: 

"Remember me as someone who went down with

Fair results, but grand intent".

As ‘Almost Famous’ ends and the credits roll, Shellie cuddles into my shoulder, and my son coos quietly. I feel I can relate to that sentiment; this is indeed a fair result.

Listen to Tim Minchin's 'Apart Together' on Spotify here:

https://open.spotify.com/album/6YCnMgVJmq8LXahyWisJbN?si=tzqWn5F4Qr2FO_JruWJO4w&dl_branch=1

CD Shelf - A music archive

I love music, my main collection is in  the form of the Compact Disc. CD's are a format that I have grown up with and that suits my needs. I love the feeling of purchasing a new CD and opening it, playing the music, and experiencing the artwork and sometimes lyrics inside that comes with my purchase.

My first ever CD purchase was from the video store in Picton, I was browsing their small collection and saw an album I would likely never see again: 'Primary' by 'Rubicon'. A band from Auckland that found a small amount of popularity in the early 00's due to a song called 'Bruce'. I had to have it, even just to say that I was one of the few people in the country/world to have it.

Some of my collection is from compiling full discographies of an artist as I have done with Shihad, The Datsuns, and Alice In Chains. My CD collection is mostly of Kiwi and Rock music, with a few exceptions, sometimes when browsing a CD store I will see something different that I buy purely out of curiosity, and that purchase sometimes becomes a favourite, like Chirs Jasper's 'Superbad' album.

Iron Cactus shaped CD rack

Flimsy CD rack

My organization of the physical CD's has always been done using CD racks, the CD rack has been my chosen piece of display furniture as it enables many CDs to be stored in one place and is easy to access. Sometimes however, CD's fall from the rack, and make a mess, and it turns out they aren't they most space efficient. The two CD racks above are no longer in use as they are not very practical.

It was time to reorganize.

I decided to build a simple shelving unit specifically for the purpose of storing my CD's. I had some pieces of timber perfect for building such a shelf so I got to it. I measured the two side pieces and the back piece so they were the correct height, I then measured six shelves to be the same length as the width of the back piece. I screwed the sides to the back piece and then measured out the correct spacing between each shelf before screwing them together.

My new shelving unit made of recycled timber.

Now I could display more of my CD's in a smaller area (150 approx). Also this purpose built shelf allowed space for the CD's which were not standard size. e.g. the box for Korn's 'horrific little mutations'* album and the Supergroove box set of EP's.

Five empty shelves

I am very happy with this CD shelf. It suits its purpose extremely well and fits the look of my bedroom which is full of other handmade wooden furniture.

When it comes time for me to leave the flat that I am in, this shelf will be easy to move without having to remove the CD's, another convenience that will save time and energy.

The finished and full CD shelf next to my other CD rack.

I might need to make another of these shelves soon enough.


*The Korn album I am referring too is better known as 'untitled', named this way so that the listener could name it as they see fit.

Korn 'Untitled' or 'Horrific Little Mutations' or anything you want to call it.

Creating a Barrel Swing

My fiance Shellie has an incredible passion for her job as an early childhood teacher, her area of expertise is the outdoors and how children interact with outdoor spaces.

She had an idea of creating a big barrel swing, and sourced a big blue barrel as a starting point.

Once brought home to the forge we took it into the workshop dungeon to carve with the Jigsaw. First we took one of the ends off, this created a space where the children could crawl into. We then cut a window into one of the curved edges of the barrel. This window allows the children to hang their legs out of the barrel, to see out of the barrel, or even climb through into the barrel, and allowed the children to create the swinging motion by pushing against the ground..

Shellie cutting the front window out of the swing.

The next step was to drill four holes into what would be the top of the swing, rope will be tied through these holes so it can be hung securely at the Early Childhood Centre.
We also drilled a couple of holes in the bottom for the purpose of drainage.

Once we were happy with the shape of the swing we had to soften the edges. We scraped off as much of the rough plasctic shards as we could and then tried to sand the edges which clogged the paper, the next trick we tried was melting the edges so they were flat; we used a small blowtorch and guided the flame across the plastic edges this worked well.

Once at the Centre we used rope to suspend the swing. Using knots that would not slip or come undone we tied the barrel to hooks which were screwed into the platform above.

The swing in place at the centre.

The general reaction from the children at the centre was excitement at the new interactive piece of playground equipment, 

We Made a Veggie Garden!

Labour day brings us a Monday of work off and an excuse to either blob and do nothing for an extra day or to jam pack our weekend full of all of the things that we wish we had time to do but generally don't.

My fiancee Shellie and I chose the latter.
We like being busy creating things or going on adventures throughout our city and country. We decided Saturday we would wake up early and get straight to work in making a vegetable garden.

The basis of the garden; old pallet timber

We salvaged the old pieces of pallet timber from around the property to construct a box that would provide the basis of our garden.

Take note ladies, you too can get stuck in.

I had a simple design for a box in my mind and between us we brought it to life, we each wielded a hammer and got to work creating the box.

Wood slats on the bottom

Seeing as we were to put our new garden straight onto the lawn I decided that putting a bottom on it would contain the soil and plants in the box and also keep weeds from outside of the box from getting in.

Salvaging wood from old pallet scraps.

 We didn't have quite enough pieces of timber the right length to cover the entire bottom so I had to deconstruct some other pieces of pallets I had around to get all of the pieces needed.

The bottom covered

Giving the box the bottom not only acts as a container for the soil and plants, but also gives the rest of the box strength, by pulling it all together.

Our finished box

 The morning's job was over, we had completed the box construction, after lunch we would get to planting some veggies.

The garden box in its final resting position, unobtrusive and situated for morning sunshine.

We have been flatting in Wadestown at the forge, for the better part of this year, and have consistently been adding to a compost bin that was here on the property when we moved in. Over the course of six months we have been adding our food scraps and grass clippings to the compost bin and given a mix every now and then. The result of six months of being fed and breaking down, is beautiful soft soil that can now be used for our garden, hopefully to yield a good bunch of vegetables (at least enough for a salad).

The black compost bin stays out of the way

Inside is a mix of soft soil and the plant matter that will break down into it.

It took a few trips of carting buckets back and forth from the compost bin to our garden in order to fill it up. It also became hard to dig the soil out from the bin, fortunately these compost bins do not have a bottom so they can be pulled up and over from around the soil, this made things a lot easier.

The box filled with soil and divided into 9 equal sections.

By dividing the garden into sections we made it easier to keep track of the plants we will plant, one square for each species.

Constructing a frame for bean vines to climb

We had purchased some bean plants which grow in the form of a vine, in order for these to grow properly we had to construct a frame which could then have string hanging from it.

Stringing the frame so the plants can climb up

We planted a bunch of different plants including beans, tomatoes, carrots, capsicum, cucumber, lettuce, and also marigolds. The marigolds are said to repel moths and other insects; hopefully this means that when our vegetables grow they will not be eaten by bugs but be in tact for when we want to eat them.

Watering our plants for the first time.

We watered all of our plants for the first time, something we will continue to do, especially on hot summer days. Watering is best done at dawn and dusk, when it is the right temperature to allow the plants to absorb the water without the sun evaporating it.

Gardener Jayden: American Gothic impression

And of course, the best way to celebrate a job well done is by posing in a few silly photos. Behind these two silly poses I was sincerely stoked with what we had accomplished in a day. It is about time I starting taking part in gardening, something I think is so central to sustainable living.

Gardener Jayden: Rocking out with a rake.

Gardening is a fantastic hobby to have. It requires hard work, care, and patience. Just like hunting and farming it allows people to appreciate where their food comes from. Through consistent care of your garden you will reap the benefits of nutritious food to sustain your own body; you will also know exactly what has gone into the soil to create your food, it is your decision whether or not you use pesticides or fertilizers to enhance your plants growth (ideally not), I believe a garden needs good soil, plenty of sunlight and a little bit of water to encourage the best growth.

That's it.

Put simple things in to get the best things out. I hope. I'll tell you how it works out at the end of summer.

Spontaneous Table Construction

The weekend just been has been a weekend of laziness and recovery.
My fiancee Shellie and I headed up the island on a road trip to Napier with our good friend Liv, we shared the weekend with friends and did activities that required little effort and encouraged the recovery of the body and mind. Sleeping in past 8.00AM; eating good food in supurb locations; Relaxing our joints and muscles at Ocean Spa; and sharing a couple of cheeky beers.

A Picnic Lunch at White Pine Bush with friends.

Sunday lunch was roast chicken, and while that was cooking I noticed a pile of timber, old bed slats from a broken bed. I asked our host Terry what we could do with it, make a chair? a table? a stool?

Broken bed and the timber slats that we recycled.

Terry had been meaning to do something with the wood for some time, my prompt was the kick up the bum that he needed to do it. A plumber by trade, he had all of the tools required for most home DIY projects. He decided on making a coffee table to sit on the deck, perfect for coffee and other beverages to rest on while we enjoy the summer sun in Napier. 

The table top with one edge holding it together.

We cut six of the old bed slats down to size to make the table top and then cut four more pieces to hold them together as edging. Terry's tools were Makita brand, they took some getting used to, as they have subtle differences to my Ryobi brand tools. The Skill saw had a different safety catch and it took some time for me to line each cut up as I had to figure out where to line the saw with the cut. This goes to show that every handyman has their preferred tools and each tool has its own subtle differences.

The self drilling screws used pulled the table together snug and strong.

The four edge pieces pulled the table top together, the final step was to create legs at the desired height for the table. Terry decided on using an excessive eight pieces of wood to create an L shape in each corner that would hold the table together rigidly. I thought four pieces would be sufficient but Terry was determined.

Terry with the near finished tabletop.

Whilst attaching the leg pieces Terry drilled the pieces together while I held the table tightly to ensure all pieces fit together correctly

The finished table

This small project took us around 90 minutes to complete, we enjoyed having a project to do, it cleared up the mess of the broken bed and transformed it into something beautiful and practical. We enjoyed the Sunday sunshine and when we were finished the chicken was cooked and it was lunch time.

Liv and Shellie enjoy each others company and the presence of the new table.

Construction projects don't have to take a long time, and I am finding more and more as I continue to practice my skills and improve it takes less time to build things.

Construction is a great hobby to get into; it uses your body in a physical way, allowing you to develop your gross and fine motor skills and your hand/eye co-ordination.

Through physical construction you make things, an end product, ideally something useful that can make someone's life a little bit better.

Construction encourages cultures of sustainability and recycling, making the most of all of your resources to ensure minimal waste is left behind.

Construction also strengthens relationships, Terry and I have bonded as mates through building something together, and now other people can stregthen their relationships with each other by enjoying each others presence whilst using the new drinks table.

Don't throw out! Use, Store, or Donate.

When it comes to spring cleaning and getting rid of all of the junk that you no longer use take a moment to consider where you might be able to send that stuff before concluding that it is rubbish doomed to a landfill. Also in your everyday dealings with waste consider these alternatives that are more environmentally friendly.

Getting started with the spring cleaning.

Appliances:
Old appliances when no longer useful or obsolete tend to take up space in a house. I still have an old Apple I-mac I am holding on to for no good reason. Some appliances still have value and it is easy to sell them on websites such as http://www.trademe.co.nz/ or in shops such as Cash Converters. If someone else can make use of it and you can profit from it then why not?

If that doesn't work you can try giving it away for free on websites such as https://nz.freecycle.org/. Here people give objects they don't want and take objects that other people no longer need. This website encourages re-purposing of everything from televisions and keyboards to glass jars and microphone stands.

Apple Imac. Taking up space and not being used.

Household items:
Anything intact and not electronic can generally be gifted to a second hand store, clothing, furniture, household goods, toys and books.

You can find your local Salvation Army Family Store here.
You can find your local SPCA Op Shop here.
You can find your local Wellington Vinnies Opshop here.
You can find your local Wellington Mary Potter Hospice Shop here

One of Wellington's many Op-shops.
http://www.vinnies-wellington.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Khandallah-Shop-Outside-2015-small.jpg

Clothing:
As well as the Op-shops listed above, there are some places that will take only clothing. Recycled clothing experts such as Rebound Clothing and SaveMart will take all clean clothing, even if it is ripped and useless.

Read here how SaveMart recycles through every step of their business:

Where does our stock come from?
It comes from various sources including:
1.Clothing Bin Contracts,
2.Recylcing Projects,
3.Woollen Mills,
4.Clothing Manufacturers,
5.Carpet Manufacturers,
6.Imports,
7.Surplus Stock,
8.Seconds and Opportunity Stores.

Hundreds of dedicated employees sort the incoming stock in to those items deemed suitable for sale in our stores, only the very best quality makes it onto the shop floor. It is value priced to sell in the same week. Unsold stock is removed after 4 weeks.

All wearable clothing etc that is unsuitable for sale in SaveMart stores is sent to Papua New Guinea where there is great need for clothing especially in the highland villages.

Inevitably there will be garments and material that are not able to be used again as originally intended, these can still be recycled as follows;

Cottons are made into Cleaning Rags, Knitted woollens and acrylic go to India to be made into blankets for relief organisations, Carpet yarn is used in the insulation industry.

Our aim is to recycle everything possible.

The inside of a SaveMart store, full of recycled clothing for sale.
http://savemart.co.nz/images/SaveMart_New_Brighton_065.jpg

Clothing Bins can be found in most suburbs throughout Wellington.
http://everydaysustainability.info/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/clothing-bin.jpg

As a person who always tries to make the most out of what I have got I tend to accumulate things, I'd like to differentiate between my thriftiness and being a hoarder because I try to use the things I accumulate. I have little containers filled with bits and bobs that I use from time to time. Here are a few examples of the stuff that I have that I hold onto for later use instead of throwing away.

Paper. Empty excercise books, blank paper, coloured paper, I have a pile of all sorts of paper that I can use whenever I need it. I use it to draw pictures, design my next project, scribble on, write lyrics or poems on, anything that I need blank paper for I have it sorted.

Shelf full of assorted leftover paper, to use when I have need. 

Scraps of paper. I tend to accumulate scraps of life in the form of paper, whether this be ticket stubs, pictures, words, cards, post cards, photographs, or any number of other beautiful things; I tend to keep them. I have previously organized these onto cork boards, but more recently I have compiled them into a scrapbook. My scrapbook is a way for me to remember many scraps of time in a creative way, I glue all of the different pieces into the book, and then draw and write words around it; I empty my brain of all of the memories associated with that physical piece of my history.

A few open pages of my scrapbook.

Some of the images and physical memories within my scrapbook.

I have old notebooks intended for drawing in. I challenge myself to fill them up, here I get the most crazy images that come from my mind, they are for my eyes only unless I choose to share them, and I get to use the pen and paper in a way that nobody judges. I challenge you to find an old notebook around and to fill it up with ink in anyway that you can.

A Sneak peek from my weird doodling book.

Other Junk: I keep a lot of other junk hidden away for when I need it. I use old containers to store things in. Have a look at this older blog post about storage conatiners for some examples.

As you can tell I try hard to reuse as much stuff as I can, however I am realistic and know when something is at the end of its life and should be recycled or thrown away. The key part is really trying to make things last.

When something reaches the end of its life be sure to recycle it if possible, some plastics can be added to your weekly recycling collection, as can some metals; other metals will need to be recycled by taking them to a scrap dealer, if the metal is worth anything you will also receive payment for it.

As the sun begins to stay around a bit longer and you approach spring cleaning, be sure to minimize waste, re-use and recycle.

Outdoor Furniture

As winter approached our Rover crew were able to sell off all of our firewood supplies, this freed up the pallets that were keeping the wood off the ground and dry. Back at the forge we sit through winter shivering and dreaming of the warm sun and how summer is going to be incredible with parties, BBQ's, outdoor fires and good company. We also discussed having some nice outdoor furniture to use and make use of our outdoor courtyard.

I took to the pallets in Makara, seperating the individual panels so they could fit in the car, and then driving them back to the Forge. I spent an evening removing the nails from the timber. Outdoor furniture is going to be exposed to the elements, so it does not need to be sanded down perfectly.

Piles of timber, de-nailed and ready to use.

One afternoon I jumped on the scooter and headed around to Mitre 10 around the corner, I returned with some nails, and set to work designing a simple chair. I drew some doodles and set out to work.
The chair was designed to be very square, I nailed 2x4 legs to 2x2 braces, and lastly nailed slats to the chair frame give the user some thing to sit on and then to lean against. It looked terrible. It was chunky and ridiculous.

The next day, I disassembled the chair and amended it. Using my skill saw I ripped the 2x4 pieces into two 2x2 pieces, I then trimmed them to make the chair shorter and reassembled. The chair, although a little wobbly, looked good, proportionate.

A couple of easy simple chairs.

A few days later I decided to make another chair, this time opting straight for the 2x2 legs. The result was a chair that looked the same but was somewhat stronger.

Table top Pallet, with a bit of work to do.

My recycled timber was left sitting in the courtyard for me to look at and ponder how I could use it. I had a large piece of a pallet that wasn't completely disassembled, the flatmates and I thought it would make a good table, so in my mind I tried to design it as a beautiful centerpiece. I decided to line the edges with 2x2 which I measured and cut to fit and then nailed to the main piece. I then used 4x2 to create four legs which I measured and cut to about knee height. When these were firmly attached the table was strong, with very little wobble to it.

The flat mates seemed to enjoy the new furniture.

That is a good start to the flats free, recycled, outdoor furniture. It looks good, it works well, and come summer it will be the envy of the neighborhood.

 The Sunday night after I'd made the table was a cold night but I wanted to light a fire, I lit the brazier, poured myself a drink, and Shellie my fiancee joined me for dinner outside. We were warm, and we enjoyed our furniture. We sat on the chairs and we could sit our bowls on the table. We then roasted a few marshmellows for dessert. Yum. Come summer, this will be a weekly occurrence; we'll be able to fire up the BBQ and enjoy food, drink, and good company in the sun.

Furniture, fire, music and food. A good night under the stars.