Show 1301 Saturday 11 September
On Friday night I went to a free event in Auckland. It was held in the middle of the city, in Queen Street at The Civic.
The doors opened at 6:45.
The Civic is a famous theatre that was built in 1929. The event was in a room downstairs called the Wintergarden.
It was organized by a guy called Russell Brown who runs a blog site called Public Address.
The event was called the Orcon Great Blend. Orcon is an ISP in New Zealand. The event hash tag was #ogb and they had a screen showing tweets.
The stage program started at quarter to 8.
Ah, hello, good evening, tēnā koutou katoa, talofa, ni hao … and welcome to the Orcon Great Blend 2010.
First Russell interviewed a musician and music producer called Simon Grigg. Simon Grigg’s record label released How Bizarre in 1996. And he also formed one of New Zealand’s first punk bands in 1976.
I rang up the 8 O'Clock, which was one of the tabloid newspapers at the time, as a concerned parent, and ... complaining about this punk rock band which had destroyed my child's school ball. And I think that was one of the outcomes. We managed to get onto the front page of the, either that week or the week after, of all three Sunday papers in the same week.
Next up, a musician who is originally from Germany sang and played the ukulele with a band.
Then there were two presentations of collaborative works that had been organized for this event.
A novelist and a cartoonist had done a jam comic. They did a page each over a month.
So, ah, Emily, do you ever ask yourself: Why? Why tell stories? Why write novels? Why make stuff up? What's it all for?
I think, in novels and real life, we use metaphor to get closer to what's true. Fiction can be a window, but sometimes it’s artificial, strange, a maraschino cherry, like on the cupcake.
And I said, "Do you draw?", and she said, "Uh-uh, I haven't drawn since high school." And, and I thought, "Excellent. I’ve got an edge." No...
The other collaboration was between two artists – one who usually paints with a spray can and the other who usually paints with a brush.
They showed a video of what they’d done together and then they talked a bit about it.
If you just pick something up and you just go for it, um, I think it's always going to be better than if you're, sort of, you know, tiptoeing around it.
We've got a lot of similarities. Um, I think that we’re both relatively chaotic, um ...
You both described each other independently to me as crazy.
The stuff on the main stage finished at about ten. And then it was time for a bit of drinking and mingling. And there was something going in a small room next to the main room.
I think they were making some kind of video.
Russell Brown
Media commentator, Blogger, TV presenter
Born: 1962, Lower Hutt, NZ
Lives: Pt Chev, Auckland
Simon Grigg
Musician, Music promoter
Born: Auckland, NZ
Lives: Bangkok, Thailand
Silke Hartung
Musician
From: Hennef, Germany
Lives: Ponsonby, Auckland, NZ
Emily Perkins
Novelist, TV presenter
Born: 1970, Christchurch
Lives: Grey Lynn, Auckland (partner = Karl Maughan)
Dylan Horrocks
Cartoonist
Born: 1966, Auckland NZ
Lives: Auckland
Karl Maughan
Artist
Born: 1964
Lives: Grey Lynn, Auckland (partner = Emily Perkins)
Askew One / Elliot O'Donnell
Artist
Born: 1979, Palmerston North, NZ
Lives: Auckland, NZ