etnobofin

Ahmed Zaoui. (Image: Scoop.co.nz)

A day for the supremacy of natural justice over fear and shrill posturing.

Ahmed Zaoui has been released on bail following a decision by the New Zealand Supreme Court, after spending two years (count ‘em) in New Zealand prisons without charge. Knowing one of Mr Zaoui’s close supporters, and how much time and effort has been put in to get this far, and having been involved in a small way in a benefit concert last month, this is a very pleasing result.

And the Civil Unions Bill has passed (less than an hour ago as I write this!). With a few year’s hindsight, this will all seem like a storm in a teacup.

The only downer today was the announcement that Trinity Roots has reached the end of its road. I can’t help thinking that when we look back on this particular era of New Zealand music, TR’s two albums and 4 track EP will stand out as some of the finest and most mature sounds to ever be created in Aotearoa.

Trinity Roots is one of the best live acts I’ve ever seen, but I’ve also heard Warren, Rio and Rikki each play in some very impressive ensembles beyond the TR project – Scribes of Ra, The Labcoats, Fat Freddy’s Drop, Jonathan Crayford’s groups. I’m sure that there will be more great music forthcoming from these guys.

And perhaps appropriately given this news, SPY Thoughts has some musings on the value of music in the world.

Image: Karolina Michalowska

Ah fossil fuels. My nomination for crappest job in the world – Coal Miner in China.

On a similar energetic bent, NY Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman outlines an intriguing project to kick-start American science and reform US foreign policy:

“…our generation’s moon shot: a crash science initiative for alternative energy and conservation to make America energy-independent in 10 years. Imagine if every American kid, in every school, were galvanized around such a vision. Ah, you say, nice idea, Friedman, but what does it have to do with your subject – foreign policy?
“Everything! You give me an America that is energy-independent and I will give you sharply reduced oil revenues for the worst governments in the world. I will give you political reform from Moscow to Riyadh to Tehran. Yes, deprive these regimes of the huge oil windfalls on which they depend and you will force them to reform by having to tap their people instead of oil wells. These regimes won’t change when we tell them they should. They will change only when they tell themselves they must.”

I rather dig (and that’s the only word for it) Twinset’s new album cover… it’s all being released on December 20th. These guys must be just about the most prolific jazz bands in NZ.

All very 1950′s Pete Jolly, really.

So much for our sunny, warm November – December’s quickly turning the summer brilliantly yucky. I bet it’ll be like this until Christmas.

I was pleasantly surprised that the sub-15 degree temps and rain didn’t keep too many people away from last night’s K Road Karnival. I recall it rained last year too: if we ever managed to luck out with some good weather in early December, this would be one of the top events in Auckland.

No respect for the driver of the AK Samba float, whose heavy foot on the brake pedal sent 15 horn players flying in all directions several times during the parade. The truck was set up for a disaster that didn’t quite happen – a diesel generator for the PA spewing fumes into the faces of the musicians, rain dripping onto electrical cables and microphones, and the guy operating the flamethrower on the back dodging a trombone slide every second note. We were relieved to get to the far end of K Road and rapidly bailed out before the driver could barrel down Howe Street, leaving half of Auckland’s horn players in a pulpy mess at the bottom.

Speaking of potential disasters, I also quite liked the story about airport security at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport losing 150 grams of explosives during a training exercise. I’m confidently expecting the rightwing blogs in the States will have a good laugh/angry rant at the expense of the incompetent surrender monkeys, but let’s not pretend that this couldn’t happen at almost any airport in the world. And if Americans want to worry about something, then maybe the lack of security at some 15,000 chemical facilities around the country should be a greater priority….

In this post-modern era of salad-bar culture browsing, smorgasbord grazing across transnational media outlets, where “blog” is the word of the year, etnobofin is upping his collection of links down his right-hand side… new links are now available to a bunch of my favourite newspapers and news sites, and I’m hoping to add some radio sites soon, including FleetFM, the loudest and most random thing on Upper Symonds Street, and the marginally more hip Base FM (check out Godzilla and Shagpile stuffing up their mix every Sunday afternoon at 4pm), and Philadelphia’s Broke and Beat Radio (d’oh link not working…), who provide free MP3 downloads of some pretty nice and varied dance/broken beat/soul/nu-jazz DJ sets, with regular updates.

I’ll also be finding and linking to some blogs, such as SPY PEI’s new Spythoughts, and probably some others that I haven’t thought of yet. Maybe Matt Nippert at Fighting Talk as well. Probably not Public Address, simply because they’re so well-linked and name-checked everywhere anyway, not because they’re not a lovely bunch of writers who provide endless hours of lunchtime entertainment and food for thought each month.

So I got along to Rising Sun last Friday to Manny’s regular Turnaround event, this month featuring Scribes of Ra ! Unfortunately I didn’t catch his set, (3.15am is about my limit, sorry guys), but Submariner sure set the tone with characteristically nice bracket – always a good sign when the DJ can seamlessly chuck a couple of full-on 70′s style NY salsa tracks into the mix without the crowd even batting their eyelids

Scribes of Ra were as impressive as I hoped. Despite the jokes about an incestuous music scene and half-hour songs, these big Wellington bands still set the standard in New Zealand in terms of tightness, understanding of groove and sheer chops. The Twinset kids , Rio, Mike Fabulous, all those horns – stand the **** up ! Nice to see Toby Laing out front and center (on cornet this time, I should have asked him if there was any particular logic behind that choice of horn).

It’s always a pleasure to see a band doing what they do really well, and with a well-paced set of originals and Fela standards (any setlist including Water No Get Enemy would have a hard time keeping the smile off this particular face) this was a satisfying evening all round !