What? The 4 wheel drive tractor was invented in Winton, Western Southland!?!

At least the rain has only been moderate.

The recently watched list has been reset to programmes I was watching months ago. Shane Jones will embrace butter chicken before #TVNZ acknowledges their numerous screw ups.

Buster Cornelius - The Colorblind James Experience YouTube video by MARK NORMAN

#TheColourblindJamesExperience

www.youtube.com/watch?v=a93j...

Morphine's debut Good is next. These three are familiar to me, but I don't know how the Colourblind James Experience Why Should I Stand Up? got here (maybe the $5 price tag?). I really enjoyed it, particularly the story telling spoken word songs, like Buster Cornelius. #Morphine

Back to listening to CD's randomly picked from the collection - starting with a couple of classics: blues musician RL Burnside's 2001 Well Well Well (taken from several live shows, with quite a lot of talking) and then Massive Attack's 1994 album, Protection. #RLBurnside #MassiveAttack #barrylistens

More Wellington I’m not sure why, but I have almost two days in Wellington with no photos to evidence what I did.

This post is about the rest of my week in Wellington - to be fair, it's almost 100% about eating and drinking but what's wrong with that?

open.substack.com/pub/asbarryw...

Two bad starts to Sunday evening - the #TVNZ app doesn't work now they have updated it, and on #MAFSAUS Steve and Rachel have broken up.

www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

In Jennifer Niven's Meet the Newmans, the Newmans are a real life family who are also in a TV show about their family life. This book is an account of the reality behind the show, triggered by Dad Newman being in a coma for weeks: a woman takes over!

#barryreads #booksky #JenniferNiven

That's a fantastic book.

Bonnie Tyler - Total Eclipse Of The Heart (Countdown 1983) YouTube video by ClassicVideos80s

Last: a song I really knew: Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse of the Heart. I was suffering from the same thing - driving around Dunedin with a girl, singing it with her, saying stupid things, she'd tell me I was horrible, eventually I told her I loved her.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueOk...

Landscape - Einstein a Go Go (1981) YouTube video by Sergi C Poley

A song I really didn't know about but am glad to have discovered on #TOTP 1981 is Landscape's Einstein A Go Go. It starts with genuine phone calls to the Kremlin and the White House.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=rn8j...

The 1981 showing by the Children of Tansley School would have to be the most obscure yet!

Fun watching very old Top of the Pops - many songs have survived, but several have disappeared completely while others have been eclipsed by more successful cover versions.

I came back to New Zealand when the X Files was well established here, but I had not heard of it. First seeing some of the show at my brother's house left me thoroughly flummoxed, as I'd never seen its like before. I have now watched every episode - a pretty special experience.

Here in Dunedin, we have a store which still has a large collection of cassettes in stock from when they were popular first time round.

Wit, unker, git: The lost medieval pronouns of English intimacy Tales of love and adventure from 1,000 years ago reveal a dazzling range of now-extinct English pronouns. They capture something unique about how people once thought about "two-ness".

I have no personal use for it, but it is strange that the English language has no word for just the two of us, particularly as there once was such a word.

www.bbc.com/future/artic...

S2EP1 #BayofFires Stella has brought millions into town skimmed from the Russians, but the locals want more and the drug cartel man expects her to take over from Frankie making his drugs. Then the Russians find they are being robbed. Fun times!

A ★★★★ review of Project Hail Mary (2026) Imagine a fellow living rough on the streets, or in the bush, for years, waking up to find himself in a space ship, years from planet earth. He's very hairy and disheveled and has no idea how he got t...

#filmsky #ProjectHailMary

www.youtube.com/watch?v=m08T...

letterboxd.com/nzbarry/film...

Imagine a fellow living rough on the streets for years, waking up to find himself in a space ship, years from planet earth, with no idea how he got there. That's how Project Hail Mary starts. All is revealed; Grace has to save the planet from space mould, and makes friends with an alien to do so.

S1EP7 #OnedinLine and James has just quadrupled capacity and done a deal that requires him to fetch grape vines from North America.

Watching the new Claudia Winkelmann chat show - very Graham Norton format, but with questions of the audience, such as where to eat in Wolverhampton. I would quite like to see the pencil designer as a proper guest.

A Waiter in Paris: Adventures in the Dark Heart of the City

#EdwardChisholm #booksky #barryreads

www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

Edward Chisholm works four years in Paris, for want of anything better to do. Starting at the bottom with no skills and no French language: it was a very tough gig, but he makes some mates, goes on monumental benders, works hard and finally gets a sense of belonging. I enjoyed it.

To Wellington I have plenty of time, so take it slowly driving to Picton.

Leaving Nelson, I catch the ferry to Wellington, where I spend a week - mainly to check out cafés and the new library, catch up with mates and drink beer.

asbarrywanders.substack.com/p/to-welling...

Fun fact - the Ricky Baker birthday song had to be made up virtually on the fly as they suddenly realised that the happy birthday song is copyright.

HUNT FOR THE WILDERPEOPLE - NZ Trailer YouTube video by Piki Films

Hunt For the Wilderpeople has been out ten years, with some anniversary screenings to celebrate the event. I couldn't see in Dunedin over the weekend, so went to Oamaru to watch it: still a fabulous, warm hearted movie with beautiful wild scenery.

#filmsky #nzmovie

www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8Xv...

I was there yesterday - the glass wasn't giving much protection against the breeze!

Not sure how the finding that the Judge did not know it was Winston Peters or that it was a New Zealand First event stands with the finding of a serious breach of comity.

www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/3609...