"THE TRUMPET WILL SEND ITS WONDROUS SOUND ...

 ... throughout earth's sepulchres and gather all before the throne."

-  From The Requiem in D minor, K. 626 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

(Nothing to do with Richard playing at any ANZAC Day parades.)

We went to hear Mozart's Requiem at the Michael Fowler Centre last evening.

I don't know who the tart is but she's certainly not Mozart

This is the first time that I have been at a performance of the Requiem from start to finish and thought it beautiful. The Wellington Orchestra and the Orpheus Choir did a really good job with it.

I'm not sure which bits were Mozart's and which were add-ons by other composers after his death but imagine that the most lyrical, delicate and downright ethereal were his.

I've heard bits of the Requiem played in film scores for films like The Big Lebowski, Eyes Wide Shut, Come And See and of course Amadeus which I've liked and why we decided to go to this performance.

I know nothing of Christopher Tin and fortunately the Requiem occupied to first half of the concert so we left at the interval to make our way home on a dreary and wet Wellington evening, pleased to have heard some wonderful music but not inspired enough by all the religious mumbo-jumbo to go the church this morning.

SOME THINGS

 ANZAC day approaches and I was looking forward to the dawn parade at the Cenotaph at the bottom of Bowen Street next Saturday.

This is because it's a short walk from home and because I have fond memories of attending dawn parades there with my dad when I was little. They had a real howitzer there in those days and at the end it made a live firing which scared the bejesus out of me, the pigeons and at least half of the attendees. Afterwards we walked to the railway station where long trestle tables were set out with steaming urns and railway-indestructible-standard cups of coffee laced with rum. This was my first taste of alcohol I think.

Unfortunately the dawn service will not be at the Cenotaph but at Pukeahu National War Memorial (by the Carillon and the old Wellington Museum. It's quite a long walk and I don't fancy going there but might change my mind on the day. At the Cenotaph there will be a 9am wreath laying which I will attend anyway. Here's a look at the Wellington city activities:

• 6am - A Dawn Service will be held at the Pukeahu National War Memorial.
• 9am - Wellington Citizens' Wreath Laying Service at the Cenotaph Precinct (corner of Lambton Quay and Bowen Street).
• 11am - The Anzac Day National Commemoration Service will take place at Pukeahu National War Memorial.
• 2.30pm - Wreath Laying Service at Atatürk Memorial in Tarakena Bay, Miramar.
• 5pm – The Last Post will be held at the Pukeahu National War Memorial.

I don't know what the Wainuiomartians and the Moerites will be getting up to - it's often better not to ask. Richard hasn't mentioned blowing his own trumpet other than skiting about his violin practice so I'm not sure if he will be 'bugling' at any local ceremonies. I believe that the organisers have been, in past years, unappreciative, disorganised and bloody rude so will be in for a shock if he doesn't attend. Maybe they can borrow that old record player that Tony found in the tip years ago and play Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy.

Anyway, today The Old Girl and I were supposed to go to Zealandia Te Māra a Tāne as part of the volunteer programme to do the annual check of the predator-free fencing. This was to be from 1PM to 4PM but has just been cancelled due to the rain. We were all kitted out in raincoats, boots and over-trousers when the cancellation call came which I'm glad of as it was bucketing down half an hour ago. I guess it will be a lazy day indoors now.

Have a good Sunday all.

PLEASE NO - NOT MINNIE MOUSE

 

I listened to Nicola Willis being interviewed on the radio today and, amidst her usual lies, obfuscations and diversions totally ("100 percent") denied that she was first in line to usurp the failing and flailing Chris Luxon.

"Christopher has my total support"

 

This is politician-speak for "damned right I am - I've been waiting for this".

It will be interesting to see what happens over the weekend with not only Willis being evasive but the toady Chris Bishop also giving "100 percent" to Luxon.

"Good luck to them" I say, they are each as bad as the others. 

The only new prospect on the horizon with any 'mana' is Taine Randell who has thrown his hat in the ring with New Zealand First which is a shame as I would have liked to see him as a Labour candidate and possibly future prime minister. He is after all an ex All Black captain, a hell of a good rugby player, a law degree holder and experienced businessman having held senior board positions in reputable companies. He's also Maori which doesn't hurt and actually enhances his prospects but ... New Zealand First? I did say that he was a rugby player so maybe got kicked in the head a few too many times. Let's hope that there's a cure and he can get away from Winston's clutches soon.

PETONE WANDERINGS

I met with Robert and Richard today - Robert at his home and Richard wandering around Petone.

Robert was laid as he ... sorry, it's best to rephrase that as Robert is a Catholic who believes that sex is a mortal sin ... Robert was laid up due to a fall off a ladder leading to him breaking a bone in his heel. Poor thing. He didn't elaborate what he was doing up the ladder but I suspect one of two things:

1. He was trying to reach Heaven like those Tower of Babel jokers and his god tossed him down

 or

2. He was trying to look up Mary the virgin's skirts and she tossed him down (my apologies for that expression 'tossed' as it can conjure up sexual connotations for sexually frustrated schoolboys).

He's off work and off his feet (which makes a change from off his head) for a month so I guess we can expect many well-structured, carefully researched and entreating posts from the discombobulated fellow. Let's hope that he gets well soon.

Richard was driving along Petone foreshore when he spotted me walking along. I'd left Robert's place in Moera and was walking along to get to Jackson Street and then to the railway station. Richard 'parked' his car about 6 feet from the gutter and offered me a lift. He said that he was off to Bunnings to get a life, or that's what I thought he said. "About time" I replied at which he looked at me strangely - a default setting for him I think. It turned out that he meant that he was going to buy a light - a stand-up lamp - because Shelley, like Lynn prefers to not have overhead lights on or indeed any sort of lights in the house. Quite sensible I guess when it comes to her and The Old Girl having to look at us I guess.

It was lucky that Richard spotted me walking along as he needed a bit of help driving his car given that Shelley wasn't with him so I had to alert him to: old ladies crossing the street; red lights; pedestrians on footpaths; and any sort of trucks on the road. We made it to Bunnings despite interference from some Japanese woman in his car who kept interrupting and jabbering away in what I assume was Japanese. I thought that Richard had a Japanese woman held hostage in the boot at first but he told me that she is in the car's system somewhere and he can't find her. Weird!

Richard managed to purchase a lamp and I bought a light bulb for The Old Girl before we went shopping at Bin Inn and the UK shop where I bought bread making mixes at the first and boxes of Irish tea at the second before Richard bought me a coffee and a muffin. He then drove me all the way home in Wellington which was kind of him. 

On the drive around Petone and to Wellington I was able to alert Richard to: cows on the hills; boats in the harbour; trains on the rails; and many other dangers to driving that he might otherwise have missed. I worry though about him getting home so will keep and eye on the news.

ENOUGH SAID

 

JESUS CHRIST!

I wasted half the afternoon yesterday going to see a crappy film titled Project Hail Mary. Hail Mary indeed or, more appropriately - Holy Shit!

I can't blame The Old Girl even though she kind of liked it as it was my choice. Generally I can't stand those space and Marvel comic films like Star Wars etc. but do rate the great films like Stanley Kubrick's 2001 A Space Odyssey and Ridley Scott's Alien which have decent narratives and grown up themes and execution.

For me I'd rather have seriousness on the one hand or complete farce on the other but hate the flippancy that modern film writers and directors think that their audience want ... hold on, they are correct I guess as a 73 year old man who has spent most of his life reading good literature and watching great films certainly isn't numbered amongst their target audience. Mea culpa.

Anyway, I hadn't seen any trailers for the film and had only picked up on a passing comment in the media that it was a 'groundbreaking' film worth seeing. I should have been more circumspect. OK, it had some amazing cinematography and special effects but AI tends to take the 'wow' out of this nowadays. What it also had though was some Quentin Tarantino-type rip-offs from older and better films like the afore-mentioned 2001 A Space Odyssey and Alien along with Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Like with Tarantino it's more rip-off than homage.

Also the directors and writers (I don't know about the original novelist) decided to dumb down the 'alien' character and the principal (American of course) character in the way of those crappy TV space 'comedies' like Alf, My Favourite Martian, 3rd Rock from the Sun etc. You know the ones I mean.

Americans always seem to go to the lowest common denominator as they are afraid that their dumb audiences will pan the movie if it's above their heads.

This film (movie to the Americans and adoptees of American culture) is about a last-ditched space mission named Project Hail Mary after the 'Hail Mary' pass in American, to try to save Earth because alien microbes are eating up the sun. Well, with a story-line like that and being about as silly as Robert's Catechism I guess the 'Hail Mary' name is appropriate.
School science teacher Dr Ryland Grace (get the allusion?) wakes up from an induced coma on this spacecraft, with no memory of why he is aboard. The rest of the crew are dead, and Grace must now figure out how he got there and how to rescue humanity.
The whole thing is really silly, although it tries to be serious, and shoots itself in the foot with the dumbing down - making a far superior and advanced alien out as a silly pet using that dumb dialogue that cats and dogs are supposed to use on YouTube videos. I can't be arsed reporting on this garbage to you - go and see it for yourself.

Richard might because he has an appreciation for low brow films and Robert could well be hoodwinked into seeing it because of the title.

HOMO ERECTUS

"I'll also need to do more practice on Anthropology today" - said Richard in his latest post.

Yes we agree, it does need more work.

 

A GOOD WALK WASN'T SPOILED *

Today I decided to play a few holes of golf and to test out how easy it would be getting to and from Berhampore by bus.

The Island Bay bus can be boarded just around the corner from where I live and there is a stop on Island Bay Parade quite close to the Mornington Golf Club where I have my golf clubs stored.

A couple of weeks ago I took the clubs (full set) and a smaller carrying golf bag along with my golfing shoes (just another pair of Sketchers really) to the club and stored them in a lock up cabinet I have there.

All good so far. 

I caught the bus which arrived about a minute after I got to the bus stop and noted that an Island Bay bus leaves every 8 minutes or so. It's obviously a popular one that runs between Island Bay and Johnsonville so covers a good stretch of the city. I enjoyed the journey which took about 35 minutes.

As I neared the stop near the golf course I remembered that I hadn't taken the padlock key to my locker with me. It was in the car. Bummer!

I stayed on the bus to the terminal at Island Bay and decided to walk back home so as to at least get some exercise done. The distance was about 9 kms but as I had bought some comfortable wide fitting shoes it was no bother. 

I'm not sure how long I walked for as I checked out the Newtown op shops and stopped for a coffee and a scone on the way but I guess the walk itself would have taken about an hour and a half.

I enjoyed the walk even if I didn't get a chance to practice a few holes in anticipation of having another round with Robert. He seems to have gone off the radar though so I guess that doesn't matter.

* The phrase "Golf is a good walk spoiled" is a famous, often-quoted sentiment—falsely attributed to Mark Twain and sometimes Oscar Wilde—that captures the frustration of the game, suggesting the annoyance of playing ruins the pleasure of walking in nature. The exact origin is unknown, but it is often credited to "the Allens" around 1905.

STRANGER THAN FICTION

.

The Pentagon denied threatening the Vatican during a late January meeting with the Holy See’s then-envoy to the U.S., as Pope Leo XIV has warned against the growing use of military action in recent months.

The Pentagon’s policy office head, Elbridge Colby, met with Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the Vatican’s former diplomat to the U.S., on Jan. 22 at the Pentagon, during which he warned the then-envoy that the U.S. military has the “power to do whatever it wants — and that the Church had better take its side,” 

The outlet, citing unnamed sources, reported that a U.S. official raised the threat of the “Avignon Papacy,” referencing the period from 1309 to 1376, when France’s King Philip IV captured the Pope and subsequent popes resided in Avignon instead of Rome.

         -THE HILL Filip Timotija - 04/09/26 

This reminded me of Joseph Heller's novel Catch 22 where Chaplain Tappman is ordered by Colonel Cathcart to lead group prayers before bombing missions.

 Cathcart was obsessed with getting his name and photograph in The Saturday Evening Post and viewed the prayers as a "feather in his cap" to advance his career. He wanted the prayers to be "light and snappy" and insisted that the chaplain exclude any mention of God, death, or the "Valley of Death".  Chaplain Tappman told Cathcart that prayers made under those strict conditions was nonsense so Colonel Cathcart eventually abandoned the idea as it was proving to be too difficult.
The scene highlighted Colonel Cathcart's narcissistic, self-serving nature and his view of religion as a mere tool for personal gain, rather than a spiritual matter.

It's easy to see the parallels between this scenario and President Trump via Secretary of Defence (War) Hegseth demanding that the Catholic Church takes the side of the Pentagon and the pope and his envoys telling him to fuck off. Trump, like Colonel Cathcart, has a narcissistic, self-serving nature and his view of religion is as a mere tool for personal gain, rather than a spiritual matter.

Watch this space.

3 ALARM FIRE

 No, not the 3 fire engines that raced up to one of the schools in our street this morning. That turned out to be a false alarm.

The emergency I'm referring to is that old geezer from Wainuiomata who is posting about being neglected.

He not only posts about this but when no-one bothers to place a comment he assumes that no-one has read his whiny posts and then comments himself - yes, about being neglected.

It's sad really but at least here, in Thorndon, we have the fire engines to look at.

Maybe Richard could call 111 and ask for the fire brigade to come and rescue him.