The Barons Of Tang

     After spending St. Patrick's Day afternoon dinking geen beer with Dunedin university students I found The Barons of Tang playing at a restaurant in the center of town. Although this clip is mostly their mellower gypsy jig sounding music, their roots are in punk and metal and they play some really heavy stuff as well. I really enjoyed the show that The Barons of Tang put on and so did the crowd as they danced somewhere between polka and moshing throughout the night.

Mt. Taranaki

Way up here
My head is clear
The thoughts of fear
Are Falling down

Up in the sky
I'm feeling high
I close my eyes
And fly Around

With veiws of peaks
And to the Sea
Forever Young
I'm feeling free

And if you came
You'd feel the same
So alive
On this mountain...

Double Rainbow

     Figured I'd share these photos that Richard, a guy I met in Curio Bay, took of this double rainbow that we saw form so perfectly accross this bay. It was a dark and cloudy day when all of the sudden we looked out the window and saw this thing. As I stood beneath it I couldn't close my mouth and my eyes even started to water. True beauty right here. I couldn't believe how much the colors lit the beach up on such a dark day.

The Winding Thoughts Theater

On the side of highway 92, in the small town of Papatowai, New Zealand, lies the Winding Thoughts Theater. Here a man who calls himself the "Lost Gypsy" tinkers away behind a cluttered counter, creating one of a kind musical instruments, kinetic sculptures and many other interactive works of his bizarre imagination. The workshop itself is located in an  big old green double decker bus that has been perminantly installed into the ground. Inside the bus gears, slinkys and various other shiny metal objects hang from the ceiling, while the walls are decorated with tons of crazy inventions made from old clocks, toy trains and bailing wire.
     A short walk behind this old bus takes you through a gate and up a magical pathway to the Winding Thoughts Theater itself. The pathway has loads of distractions like a bicycle powered television, metal creatures that come alive with the crank of a handle and many wind powered contraptions. At the end of the pathway there are three rooms with dimmed lights. One of the rooms has an old piano that has been reconfigured to play koo koo clocks, telephones, alarms and other unidentifiable sounds, but they are actually all in proper keys. As you play this piano it also triggers lights that dangle over your head, changing the dimness of the room. The next room is filled with boxes with attached cranks and buttons. By turning the cranks and pressing the buttons, scenes come alive within the boxes. An elephant rides a unicycle across a tight rope, rain showers over a Map of New Zealand and shells from locals beaches are filled with lights and transformed into ferris wheels. In the final room there is a long stick on the wall with a spoon attached to the tip. As you move the spoon from left to right it hits metal pegs, creating an electric current that triggers various stop lights, construction lights and just about any other light you could imagine in a circle around the room.
     These were just some of my favorite parts of the theater, but there are also tons of brain bending games, fountains and mouse trap elements, that are constantly being perfected by the lost gypsy himself. I myself was really stoked to see that this man could make a living creating these crazy works of his twisted imagination. The Winding Thoughts Theater was very inspiring and even got my own thoughts to wind a bit differently...

Weird Weather

    
     When I heard about the earthquake in Christchurch, rather than being alarmed I was curious. I had seen the news and understood the severity, but that did not stop my own curiosity. I guess I had figured that since I was already set to go there I may as well check out what the whole world is talking about.
     As I arrived in Christchurch I was greeted by an aftershock tremor that shook just about every piece of glass in the airport, including what covered the ceiling thirty feet above my head. This startled everyone in the room except for me and a Kiwi man who stood behind me.
     "That was a good on eh?" He said. I agreed and we both chuckled as hundreds of people looked for something to sit under, grabbing there loved ones closely.
     Maybe it was the brownie endused coma I had just awoke from, or maybe that fact that I was conceived during the earthquake of 1989, or even just being from California I had felt the earth's pulse before, regardless I felt fine.
      Ignoring the warnings I decided to get a closer look. In the city there was water coming up from the earth, buildings fallen, and roads blocked...

Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros - Home

     A few weeks ago my cousin showed me this bands debut CD (which actually came out about a year and a half ago), and the very next day I went down to the record store and bought it. Since then I have been listening to it pretty much non stop. I was really excited to see that a band like this is actually very well liked across the globe, especially with the current obsession of the Lil Wayne and Lady Gaga type artists that seem to catch everyone's eye.
     In this song "Home" you can hear how happy the two are to be singing to each other, and when listening to it you can really feel that happiness. If you have ever felt that feeling that they are talking about, you probably can't help but smile.