Canadia Beats

Not too far from where I live, and real close to my nearest bus stop, is am Indian restaurant (Indian cuisine and pizzeria!). They’re not the best Indian restaurant in town, in fact they’re not even very good, but they are perfectly placed for grabbing a quick curry after work on a Wednesday night. That and the fact that it’s only $11 for a curry (excl. seafood), rice, naan bread and papadom at dinner time.

We all know to expect a bit of a wait when ordering takeaway food, and with a supermarket nearby this is often a great time to grab some TP and toothpaste, or a bottle of wine if I’m feeling saucy.

But sometimes it’s nice to phone ahead and have it waiting for you. I thought of that tonight after I’d already started walking. Did you know there are no phone books in any of the phone booths up Queen Street, along K Road, and Great North Road? I know that now. I put out a call to Twitter for anyone to text me the number so I could phone ahead, but that didn’t work. Hell, even if people tried this place isn’t easy to Google unless you already know its name, and I didn’t. It doesn’t really exist if it ain’t online.

So let me tell you all about the Copper Chimney, 572 Great North Road, Grey Lynn, Auckland. Telephone (0 9) 376 1600. Lunch 11am-2:30pm (lunch combo $8. Same as dinner plus a can of coke). Dinner 5pm-10:30pm. Open seven days. Halal.

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If only that had been available to me earlier tonight. Don’t worry, I got my curry.

Life, eh? You’d have a assume I’ve been busy with all kinds of things that aren’t your typical Canadia like making movies, looking at comic books and drinking. And this is all true. But despite the fact that I always seem to answer “what have you been up to lately?” with “um, working and… not working,” I have in fact been making an EP.

If you follow my Twitter at all you’ll see I’ve been mumbling about recording for the last month, but then I’m always mumbling about recording. But it goes like this: by the end of June I will have tracked the follow up to One Dog Clapping. There will be a new Canadia EP.

Wait, hold on, it’s July already. So make that some time in July. The plan I wrote on my wall says June, but I used pen and can’t rub it out.

The EP has no name yet, is mostly acoustic in nature, and will have six tracks. There are three brand new songs, and three that have been kicking around in the live set for a while. Although I changed them, so let’s act like they’re new and not get all “I liked your old stuff.” If you liked my old stuff I would have more wine. That is science.

Progress so far: two songs completely tracked, one song almost completely tracked, and three songs totally started. I’m joined on the recordings by new white MacBook Maggie Williams, who is the most helpful member of Canadia since Eunice Brance Branca. She’s basically doing all the work.

My children need wine.

Just had brilliant conversation with some Eliza software. Definitely the best I ever had. The transcript follows.

Welcome, friend! They call me Eliza. What can I call you?
Ashley
All right, let’s get started. What’s on your mind, Ashley?
The weather
Why did you say ‘The weather’?
Yes
In what way?
I am thinking about the weather
So you are thinking about the weather. Do you enjoy it?
Yes I do
Why do you, for goodness sake?
The weather makes me happy
You seem to be full of optimism.
I just had a sandwich
You’re doing well. I would appreciate it if you would go on.
It was just plain cheese
Whatever you say.
You don’t believe me?
Do you?
Of course I do
You act like I was supposed to know that!
Why would I think I was lying?
Would your best friend think you were lying for any reason?
Yes, he doesn’t trust me
But you do?
Yes I do
Do you know why you do?
Because I am me.
I don’t know. That sounds a little lame.
How do you know I’m lying?
How would you like me to know you are lying?
The normal way
Undoubtedly you should discuss this with your best friend.
He’d think I was lying
And if he didn’t think you were lying?
He’d think you were acting like me
What makes you say ‘he would think you were acting like me’?
You’re asking kind of questions I ask
I am asking kind of questions you ask?
Yes
Are you really sure?
Absolutely sure
Try to get in touch with your true feelings, Ashley.
I feel like punching you
Seemingly, we feel like punching each other.
Take a swing
Do you enjoy life?
I guess
I don’t understand your attitude.
Sometimes life is okay
It’s acceptible then?
Mostly
Bringing happiness to others is a worthwhile ambition.
What’s your point?
I hope you don’t mind if we change the subject. Do you enjoy family reunions?
Yes and no
Maybe you are being just a little bit disagreeable.
I enjoy them most of the time
Do you like many things?
More than I can count
Do you really believe that you can count, given your present psychological state?
Yes
It helps to keep a positive attitude.
Thanks
Sure thing.
How did you get so mean?
As I recall, I did get so mean some way at one time.
That didn’t make any sense
Don’t forget you were lying.
Don’t forget I disagree with that
How is agreement apparent to you?
What I think matches the statement
Which family member have you been closest to?
Damn, non sequitur much?
You don’t say!
I kind of did
I’m positive this is important to you.
It helps to keep a positive attitude
It seems to me that we are making some progress.
How can you tell?
Perhaps you would like to be able to tell any way sometimes.
How would I know?
I think you would know some way, but I could be mistaken.
I think you are mistaken
I bet your best friend makes mistakes all the time.
How much do you bet?
I try not to worry about how much.
Do you think you worry too little?
Do you think I worry too little?
I barely think of you at all
Well possibly we barely think of one another at all.
I hope you don’t think of me
I’m certain you don’t. But how will you feel if you don’t get what you want from me?
Pretty much the same
How?
I will feel like I did before I spoke to you
Surprisingly, me. Does that bother you?
It doesn’t surprise me
But you believe that it should surprise you.
More than anything
Have you forgotten you are lying?

If you’re on a Mac, grab the software from Trans-Tex. There are online versions out there, too. Enjoy bettering your brain

It took me a while to changing things back to normal, but I guess normal is back-dated and slow to respond around here anyway.

The NZ Government temporarily held back Section 92a’s enforcement at the end of February, giving ISPs and rightsholders until March 29 to come up with a workable plan. Fingers crossed they can’t and the law gets tossed. Keep yelling, please. Meanwhile, business as usual¹.

¹ business as usual, (colloquialism): state in which stated intentions have gone unfinished (eg FAWM), gear used to peform daily tasks is broken or missing (um, I dropped my Mbox. And it broke), and in which weak excuses are accepted as valid reasons for doing very little (I’m sick, so I need to look at all those things. Over there. And not do whatever you’re talking about).

Sometimes it’s a real struggle finding anything out here in New Zealand, especially with regards to telecommunications services. Yeah, you could try ringing your service provider (they can understand what you’re saying), but even if you hit 0 and get stright through to an off-shore human there’s no guarantee they’ll know either. I’ve answered phones, and if other people are anything like me then they’re mostly making it up. Don’t know becomes no. End call.

What’s my point? Some of us were discussing whether Telecom had anything similar to the Vodafone Best Mates plan – the flat monthly fee thing that lets you call a nominated mobile from your mobile as much as you like. It’s a pretty good setup, and we figured Telecom should definitely have it. So I jumped on the google and tried to find out. The closest I could find was some discussion last September on Geekzone about the possibility of this plan (actually, the answer to my question is in this thread, but we’re googling people. I don’t want to dig, I want the answer to be obvious from the search results).

Next I hit the Telecom website, figuring they’ll have the info I need there. Now that I know where the answer is it’s kind of right there on their mobile front page, but I dug through their Plans and Calling for about quarter of an hour without turning anything up.

How was this problem solved? Someone spotted a poster for Telecom’s My Favourites in a Telecom store. Mystery solved. It’s basically exactly what I was looking for. Convenience of solving this mystery? None. I think what really upsets me is how Google let me down. Come on Kiwis!, post every detail of your life online so I can find it! Feed the tubes, people. I don’t want to talk to people or go to shops. Help me out.

That is all.

Canadia Beats is blacked out in protest against Section 92a of the Copyright (New Technologies) Amendment Act here in New Zealand. This section, dubbed ‘guilt up accusation’ by those of us who are against it, calls for ISPs to disconnect customers accused multiple times of copyright infiringement. Accused, mind. The act doesn’t call for any proof.

Find out about Section 92a at http://creativefreedom.org.nz/s92.html

Find out about the blackout at http://creativefreedom.org.nz/blackout.html

Black out your Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, etc accounts. Follow the #blackout on Twitter. I blacked this page out using this script from @stevegoodwin.

Video: Other Side

Done gone and made another video of me playing a new song. This one’s for uke.

November is back, elections are up and electing things in my country and others, and a small bird today stood there rather then flying away. It had its eyes closed, so I took a photo.

But more importantly, it’s National Solo Album Month (NaSoAlMo, and I am going to make it so. “Write some songs, Ashley!” the voices keep telling me, and I must not anger the voices. Recording me, and you, a solo album of at least 29:09, written this month. It’s not too late to join in this superb event, which forces you to silence your critic/editor and make som stuff. I’m glad it’s not too late, cause I’ve only finished two songs.

Also this month is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), which I’m also undertaking. Feel free to track my progress, and note that I’m actually doing a lot better at novel writing than songwriting right now, in terms of quantity. November is all about quantity. So I should dicking around here, right?

Wrong!

Because quanutity loves distraction. They go together like bees and bears. See you at the finish line.

Pam's summer project

The Office Season 5 screened in the US on Thursday, and somehow I only just noticed that now. Like, am I broken? To not notice that my favourite show, not just when it’s on, but pretty much all the time, is back on air? I am broken, I’ve gone wrong. What was I thinking?

I’m trying to think about what I was thinking. It would’ve been all “me and Mike sure are doing some music stuff now. Another cigarette? Yes’m. Nice overdub. Two more cigarettes, por favor! Something about bikes and rivers. I should just eat this tobacco. Man, I’m glad no one’s writing down what I’m thinking, this sure is dull.”

Of course, here in New Zealand it was probably Friday by the time s05e05, ‘Weight Loss,’ hit the air. That day should have been thinking something along the lines of “Am / G / F / Em / / /,” but it was probably more like “if I move over here I can just watch what chords Mike is playing. Ooh look, shiny!”

MY POINT IS, I did not know the Office was back, although I knew Heroes was back, and that is a damn tragedy. The kind of tragedy that can only be fixed with watching the Office straight away. Bam! To the Torrent store!

It’s like my old friends are back, and I’m catching up with them by following them around all day (or all summer, in this case). I laugh, I shed a few tears, they give me looks like “why would you ask that? Why would you film this?” and I revel in my being an unnamed, unseen character. I am the lens through which I view the world of Dunder Mifflin. I am fallible, but I get lucky.

You don’t need a break-down from me, you just need to watch it. Plus, I spent so long setting up this blog that I don’t remember any salient points. I’ll just watch it again later and let TV be my memory. It’s better this way.

For those of you that read Under the Radar (and those that don’t but should) I’ve set up a Canadia profile over there. Just another place on the web for everyone to think about me. That is all.

Don’t know what Under the Radar is? Briefly, it’s a New Zealand music gig guide, news site, band and venu directory, nominally covering anything that’s not mainstream. I say bugger that, I want to sell out. Still well worth it.