ThoughtSpurs

Well, here’s a first. Blog number 450 is being written not online but in MS Word. Feels kind of weird. “But why?” you ask. (I can intuit these things). It’s simple really. I pay Xtra sixty bucks a month and they provide me with slow, unreliable service. I’d like to know ‘why’? I don’t understand a transaction that goes something like this: I give you $719.40 a year; you blow it on a barrage of existential commercials: a girl, a boy, a soundtrack, a kiss – all in service of the ‘idea’ that incredible things happen when X meets Y. Clever eh? X for Xtra, Y for Yahoo… I get it . What I don’t get is access to the Internet. A.K.A. : Service. The thing is that we’re not talking about a little player. Xtra, for those of you who didn’t know, is owned by Telecom, you may have heard of them. Seems to me when gigantic gets it horribly wrong it’s, …well, pathetic. Remind me to buy a share so I can have some curled up sandwiches and the opportunity to curse the board of directors in person – maybe g...

The Police say that the public are ignoring the drink driving messages in the LTSA commercials. The interesting thing is that the police made their announcement after a roadside blitz that caught a high number of alleged offenders. This then somehow translates into more people are drink driving inspite of the messages, rather than the more we police the more we find. Therefore...if we policed more we'd catch more. It doesn't seem to follow that the numbers have anything to do with the messages. I doubt that advertising is the answer to changing community attitudes. Behavioural change precedes attitudinal change (according to the theory of cognitive dissonance). I did think the commercials in this series from Canada were hard hitting - if you will pardon the pun.

What do you get when you cross Spiderman with Ganesha? A funky picture ( thanks to Kevin Roberts blog ). A connection Kevin doesn't make in his commentary is that in the Hindu religion Ganesha is patron of arts and sciences, god of intellect and wisdom - Lord of Obstacles and Beginnings - a literally creative force. The other aspect to conjoining him with Spiderman is that Ganesha is always part human, rather than being an elephant god - so no great conceptual leap for Hindu's to make (they probably don't apply a post-modernist filter to it). I just thought the idea/image was kind of surprising and interesting.

Big nostalgia trip on the tele tonight. A doco about Th'Dudes on TVOne. For those of you who don't know, Th'Dudes were, at their peak New Zealand's greatest band. And a great band they were too. I feel a little guilty, having watched the show. I used to finagle my way into Th'Dudes shows at the legendary Gluepot even though I was far too young - shorter and skinnier than Dave Dobbyn ever was (OK, maybe not). I was there when the band was pelted with eggs at Sweetwaters. My friends may have pelted them with cans - or was that The Eurythmics ? It was the beginning of my punk awakening - even though I had flirted with it by wangling my way into Zwines, the Punk Club downtown to watch the Suburban Reptiles after Punk had gathered momentum here in Auckland. Ironically I heard the finale of Th'Dudes final gig at the St. James from outside on the street. I was walking a date back to her car. We heard the last tune from outside, I think it was ' Bliss ' bringin...

Russell Davies has a terrific blog which I have referred to often (though I preferred it before he disintegrated it from his personal life - what's wrong with whole people). It was fun to see that he got a mention in the tony Auckland city magazine of record Metro; in their Digital Stimulation section

Helen is a fantastic performer. Grab some tickets from Ticketek.

I've spent the past week sprucing up WellSpring the website about wellness practices. The site was looking a bit like a shanty town; bits and pieces added in over time. I've published it since 2002 when I lived with a chiropractor. Aside from the A-Z of practices (from acupressure to zero-balancing) I'm going to start including articles - if you have any you'd like to contribute ... I'm also looking for someone to liaise with practitioners...if you know anyone.