A Happy New Year

Hi Friends, Mrs Roddus and I are away for a couple of days, So I wish you all ah happy new year.

The Ray Brown Trio(feat. Gene Harris) - Soular Energy (Jazz, US, 1984)

Whats Hot On The Roddus Stereo!

1. Exactly Like You (McHugh/Fields)
2. Cry Me a River (A.Hamilton)
3. Teach Me Tonight (Cahn/DePaul)
4. Take the "A" Train (B.Strayhorn)
5. Mistreated But Undefeated Blues (R.Brown)
6. That's All (Brandt/Haymes)
7. Easy Does It (Basie/Russel)
8. Sweet Georgia Brown (Bernie/Pinkard/Casey)

Ray Brown / b
Gene Harris / p
Gerryck King / ds
Red Holloway / ts (5)
Emily Remler / g (5)

recorded August, 1984 at Coast Recorders, San Francisco, CA

This little beauty came as a plesent surprise as I got familiar with it over the last few months. I had never heard of Ray Brown and although I do like jazz, its not a form of music I listen to as much as Blues and Rock . I do love jazz in the live context best of all but that is rare round these parts. I picked this up on one of my now infrequent buying binges at a local second hand record store. What attracted me to it was, first the cover(I have brought many albums of unknown quality, over the years, by the look of the cover and my instincts more often than not reward me well) second was that it was a fairly modern recording( I had contempory Jazz in mind as I was browsing) and lastly it was on Concord Jazz( Which I knew to be a lable of Quality).

As usuially happens when I buy something with a whole lot of other stuff, this CD got shelved without a listen for a couple of months untill I rediscovered it and decided it was time for a listen. Initially it was just played as some background music, for which it is ideal as the playing and selection of tracks is smooth and soulful, most of the tracks are well known standards in the jazz world,and the selection is a mix of slow and mid tempo tracks but after a while I started to get drawn in more intimatly to the music and especially the wounderful piano of Gene Harris. This Cd has a laid back feel to it and their interprations of the numbers keeps me interested right the way through. The playing is pretty straight, no out there avant guarde solos and plenty of enjoyable melodies.

This is a highly recommended CD and I give it 4/5.

If you want to listen before you buy check it out here, but it is in FLAC format so it will take a bit to download, but you will get it in top quality

 

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas Everybody

African Scream Contest - Various Artists (2008)

Whats Hot On The Roddus Stereo.

 

1. Lokonon André & Les Volcans - Mi kple Dogbekpo
2. Picoby Band D´Abomey - Mi Ma Kpe Dji
3. Gabo Brown & Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - It´s a Vanity
4. El Rego et ses commandos - Se Na Min
5. Napo de Mi Amor Et Ses Black Devil´s - Leki Santchi
6. Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - Gbeti Madjro
7. Roger Damawuzan - Wait For Me
8. Ouinsou Corneille & Black Santiagos - Vinon so Minsou
9. Orchestre Super Jheevs des Paillotes - Ye Nan Lon An
10. Tidiani Kone - Djanfi Magni
11. Discafric Band - Houiou Djin Nan Zon Aklumon
12. Le Super Borgou de Parakou - Congolaise Benin Ye
13. Vincent Ahehehinnou - Ou c´est Lui Ou C´est Moi
14. Les Volcans de la Capital - Oya Ka Jojo

This Fantastic compilation has been playing on the work van stereo for some time now and I haven' yet had the inclination to change it. This Psychedelic Afro-Funk compilation was released by Analog Africa( Check out their Blog Here ) and consists of rare 70s Afro-Groove from Benin & Tago, that the blog author dug up on his travels to those countries. I am finding it hard to find the words to describe this outstanding music, which is an awesome mix of James Brown funk, jazzy horns, polyrhythmic beats, psychedelic overtones and african singing. A Primal and raw sounding, upbeat, danceable melting pot of musical styles. The complexity of this music is such a joy to listen to, so much happening all the time. Thanks to Analog Africa for bringing this lost music to a wider audience. I totally recommend the purchase of this album. My Rating 4.5/5

Halfbreed - Halfbreed (UK 1975)

Whats Hot On The Roddus Stereo.

This is my first album review here on BlogRoddus, and considering the amount of new stuff that has been massarging my ears latley, it has been difficult to decide where to start, as time is too short to review them all at once and I am new to all this reviewing stuff, so please forgive my illiteracy in the discription department.

I have finally decided to review the latest rare and obscure post I have downloaded from my friend Chuntao's Blog RAREMP3 Music. Hallfbreed's self titled album from 1975.

I can find very little infomation about this band and album at all on the web, apart from a mention of its existance on AllMusic.com and also some ratings on Rate Your Music.com. So this is pretty obscure stuff and appears not to be commercially available at present.
So What's it like? Overall I find this a most enjoyable album and a good example of that 70s blues based rock/pop that I enjoy so much. Not overly commercial, with a soul tinged funk and blusey feel and a strong singer that reminds me slightly of "Fusion" with mabey a touch of "Blood.Sweat & Tears " and "Creedence".
The vocal melodies are not outstanding , which is why it is not that commercial sounding, but I do enjoy

Mick Whittaker's singing on this album. No really knock you dead tracks on this, but "Getting better For Me", "You Really Know What You Want","Rainwalker", "America" and "Billy Dean" are the strongest tracks, all rating 3/5 but verging on 4's.
Track one: Getting Better For Me: Great uptempo bass and keyboard driven pop song with a funky feel to it and nice guitar bit towards the end, best track on album 3.8/5.
Track Two: Change Your Mind: Slightly slower tempo,with sparce guitar and keyboards and nice touch of  harmoniker. 3/5.
Track Three: You Really Know What you Want: A Funky Guitar/Keyboard intro and the funky groove drives the song throughout and I liked the guitar break. 3/5
Track Four: Rain Walker: Another slower song, with interesting tempochanges and aslo interesting vocal announcations, kind of like an early "Kings of Leon" vocal. A strong song. 3.5/5.
Track Five: America: Another toe tapper wit quite a lot happening in this one, pretty full on in the middle with a slower beginning and end. 3.5/5.
Track Six: Billy Dean: Cool guitar Intro, real "Creedence Feel to this, sort of swamp boogie rock. 3.8/5.
Track Seven: Buttermilk: Honkytonk Paino, Steel guitar, sort of novely swamp thing, a good sing along song. 3/5
Track Eight: Miss Ann: Interesting Rythem section intro, blusey feel piano/bass/drums, suggestive lyrics. 3/5
Track Nine: Gamblin' Man: Slower track, again supported by piano, with slight tempo changes and subdued guitar break. 3/5
Track Ten: So Long: "Deep Purple" type keyboard intro, much bigger sound to this track with a bit of a southers sound to it. I enjoyed the keyboard break and song finished with a strong ending. 3/5

I really can't rave about this album, but it is an enjoyable listen and dererves attention, overall 3/5.

You can listen to this album here

Global Warming; A Roddus Rant

I guess in light of the recent Copanhagen fiasco, it might be time for my first Roddus Rant.

I am a cynic. I don't want to be, but I find it extremely difficult not to be in light of the behaviours of humanity that are filtered through to me via the media. Of course it is almost exclusively from the media, that I get almost all my information about world events, be that be by TV, Internet, newspapers, movies, books and even music. this means that it is all mostly 2nd or 3rd hand information filtered to me through others beliefs, perceptions and agendas.
The "Global Warming" issue is perhaps the biggest issue facing us today, and it comes as no surprise to me of the inability of the Governments of the world to come to any sort of binding agreement to reduce the impact we are having on our environment.
Democratic governments, seem to me, to be pretty short sighted with their policies in relation to the long term well being of the people and their environment. I believe that this is partly due to the short terms available to elected governments before the next election, where they may be removed. This state of affairs results in elected governments looking at mainly short term fixes to keep the votes happy so they will hopefully be re-elected next time. It can certainly looks that way to me here in my country. This, of course, is only my perception, driven by my beliefs and the 3rd hand information I receive from the media, as I am not actively involved in politics and therefor not at the front line, so to speak.
Another problem, I believe, about getting politicians to actually look at long term solutions, is to who their real paymasters are. To run a political party and stand in a democratic election is a very costly exercise and the money needed to do this mainly comes from donations from people/businesses and corporations, supporting their preferred party/candidate. Of course the biggest donations usually come from the richest people/businesses and corporations. I believe that very early on in the democratic process, the rich learnt very quickly that by donating these funds to help get the politician of their choice, who was willing to support legislation to help keep making them more money, elected,  was a very beneficial process for them.
So when you think about that and look to Barak Obama as the new saviour of the World, remember who helped pay his way to the presidency and ultimately has a big influence on important issues, such as global warming.
Don't get me wrong, I was as pleased as the next liberal, to see an African-American elected President and I believe he is far Superior and will have a much better impact on history than the last one. Don't expect him to change the world overnight, but it is a small step forward.
My perceptions of a lot of these big corporations, is that they have very little interest in climate change and global warming if it impacts too much on their VERY LARGE PROFITS. Money appears to be God on this planet, more valuable and desirable that human life, which is of course, ludicrous. I believe a lot of the so called experts who deny global warming, are probably in the employ of these corporations.

Now this brings me to US. The little people, the individuals that make up humanity today. Really, in the long run, it all comes down to US. What are WE going to do about it? Are WE prepared to actively change the way we impact the environment? Remember, at the end of the day, it is US, who drive those cars, who use the electricity generated in those coal fueled power stations, who fly all over the world in those big jet planes, who buy all those fancy appliances, whose manufacture and later disposal, create such waste? And these are just a part of our impact on this world. Are we willing to seriously look at the size of the cars we use and how and when we use them. How we use the energy supplied to our houses, the products we buy, the packaging of the stuff we buy, the Quality of the products we buy.
Are WE willing to be the Grass Roots of reducing our terrible impact on this planet, because at the end of the day it is ME and YOU who are polluting OUR world and making it,possibly, into a not very nice place for our children and their children.
This is where I get pretty cynical, I fail to see many of us actively reducing our impact. I hear people say they don't beleive in "Global Warming" and the continue to buy large SUV's and burn all their plastic waste in fire pits and drums, just to give two examples.  Another problem I believe, is that people on lower incomes cannot afford the technologies we have now to reduce our environmental impact, they will still buy the cheap incandescent lamp, instead of the more energy efficient CLF, which also lasts longer and so actually saves them money. And the cost of some of these more advanced technologies are just so expensive, that it just takes far too long to make any financial savings, after the initial outlay cost.(i,e solar water heating, can take 8-10 years to get your money back before you start saving and by then you will Probably have maintenance costs to cancel out the benefits). Things like double glazing and better insulation are not an option to low income people, buy the time they pay their living expenses and energy bills(energy bills are morgage interest, fuel, heating costs(wood burner), insurances and Taxes, among other things. I would love to double glaze my windows, re-insulate my house and install solar hot water( I will do all these eventually). Last year I was lucky enough to buy a more economical work vehicle, but ideally, I would have preferred something that was totally clean(but my options are so limited and the purchase costs so high). I am growing my own vegetables, trying to use the cars less(which is very difficult in the country side) and use energy efficient lighting in our house, and recycle all our plastic and cardboard, just as a few examples of what I am doing.
But the truth is I am still leaving a pretty large carbon footprint because of my lifestyle, I live here in my well heated comfortable house, with my Huge CD collection(that I believe I have to have), my pretty big DVD collection, my book collection(although books are really good, they help keep me sort of knowledgeable. The most ignorant comments I hear are quite often from people who don't read very much) and the whole "Global Warming" thing can seen just too overwhelming. Do I have to give up my whole way of living to save the planet? I guess a big part of me believes this and a part of me is defiantly unwilling to do so. This is something I will seriously look at over the next year.
My cynical side believes that humanity as a whole is too stupid to actually deal with the "Global Warming" issue, and many people are in denial about it and many others are just as unwilling to even be bothered to adjust their life styles. The truth, as I see it, is that with our current level of living in the West alone will be too much for the environment to take for too much longer, but with huge populations like China and India also quickly bringing their populations up to our level of comfort, things will deteriorate much quicker. We are cutting our own throat.
I believe that in the past, the earths climate has experienced many major climate shifts (i.e Ice ages for instance) and some form of global warming has happened before as part of natural cycles, and there is still much that is unknown about what will happen with this current situation. but to deny that the uncontrolled pumping of trillions of tons of additional substances into our well balanced atmosphere won't have some sort of adverse affect on the climate is just pure insanity. It doesn't take a PHD to see the logic that pumping that much extra stuff into our atmosphere will make a difference to our climate that is unavoidable, what the results will really be only the future will tell.

Sometimes people need a really huge lifeshock to wake them up to the destruction and misery they are causing in their own lives, and even then some don't get it. Maybe Humanity as a whole, also needs a very BIG lifeshock to wake up and really step forward in our evolution to a better way of existing on this earth. Maybe it is gonna take the death of billions of people and the total destruction of civilisation as we know it to wake us up. I  am sure humanity would survive this, but will they learn?

Lake Christabel Track 5th & 6th December 2009

Uncle Roddus Tramping diary:Tramp No.81

Lake Christabel Track  5th & 6th December 2009

So Here is my first tramping post of a recent tramp I did with the Christchurch Tramping Club over on the west coast of the South Island. The lake Christabel track was one I had been wanting to complete for quite a while now. I had done the first 1 1/2 hours walk to the old hunters camp on 3 occasions but never been to the lake. I had already been to the Christabel hut back on 03, with The CTC,  coming over from the Rough Creek Track. We headed over on Friday night and camped at the Palmers Rd end of the track, so we didn't have to make a late start after driving over from Christchurch on the Saturday. The Morning dawned fine and warm and of we set, 5 in the party, after breaking camp, just around 8am. Christabel track to Christabel hut, as you can see from the above map , is a fairly long but not high track, the distance from Plamers Rd to the hut is about 18KM, with the biggest climb over about a 700m saddle just before the lake. The bush is mostly black beach trees and some rimu and others, some very large and old trees on this track. Very Beautiful.
We got to the old hunters camp and stopped for morning tea, the camp has been cleared now, as DOC found it after the track got washed out and totally dismantled it. It use to be impressive, with 2 large moss beds and tarpolan covers and stone BBQ cooking area and chairs and table  made from small trees, pots and pans and another tarp over the cooking area. It even had a picket fence and gate. Unfortunatly I never got any photoes of it. Sadly it is all gone now.
I left the others behind shortly after we left the old camp and after walking through a large area of almost total devestation of the forrest by some large storm a while back, huge trees just all lying mangled and broken over quite a large area. I stopped at lunch time and waited for the others to catch up, then we headed over the saddle and down to the lake. I stopped at the beautiful Christabel lake and again waited for the others to catch up, I saw them come out on another small beach, not far behind me, so I carried on. I stopped again at the far end of the lake to eat and enjoy the view looking down the lake and to wait for the others. They were not their yet after my feed and it started to rain lightly and seeing as the hut was only another 30 minutes away, I proceeded on. I got to the hut from Palmers Rd in about 7 hours, not a higly fast time but still 1 hour ahead of the rest of the party. So I set up my bed and had a look around the hut and chatted with the other bloke who had come in from Palmers Rd by himself and had passed the rest of My group.
A pleasent night was spent in the in the hut, chatting and reading the FMC mags left there and retiring about 9pm so we could get an early start in the morning as we needed to get out by mid afternoon as we also had the long drive back to Christchurch. I was last to leave the hut and caught them by the lake, then I left them behind along the lake and at the other end of the lake I stopped to eat. I waited a while for the others to catch up, but they were talking their time and I had done the lake section pretty quick, then it started to rain, so i decided to just carry on and see them at the cars. I donned my wet weather gear and headede off, up and over the saddle. althought it was wet, it was still warm and I was soon overheating in my jacket. I removed the coat and just put my head down and went for it. I met a young lady coming the other way, from Palmers Rd who was running the track to the hut and back out in the same day. I decided to carry on to the old hunters camp and stop there and eat, but when I got there I found I wasn't that hungry and I was pretty wet and it was still raining, so I carried on and got back to the car in just on 5 1/2 hours. I dried and changed ,ate lunch and then had to wait two hours for the others to come out. It was a good thing we were in My car, so i had some good music to listen to and slep a while.
A most enjoyable trip and a good workout.

The Old Hunters Camp Site

Our Camp

Off We Go

Through the Bush

The Blue Gray River which we follow to the lake

Great scenery

An Impressive tree in the wrong position.

The Lake

The Hut

Bob Dylan Live Christchurch 8th August 2007

Seeing as I just shared with you about one of the best concerts I have been to, now let me share one of, if not, the worst concert I have ever attended. I was really excited when I heard Bob Dylan was coming to Christchurch, I never thought I would get to see such a legend play here. I totally love nearly all his early music upto the late 70s and have some of his latest stuff too. He was the voice of a generation, even if he refused to take any responsibilty for what he sung about in the early days. The only person who got close to Dylan in the song writing stakes is Neil Young.
For me Dylan had lost his voice a while back, I struggled with his gravelly sound on his latest albums even though the albums themselves were reasonably enjoyable. The rhythm and blues base to his latest stuff and the quality of his voice warned me that this concert may not be that great, but I was sure it would still be worth going to see.
How wrong could I be. Mrs Roddus and I arrived at the Westpac center just as the support act finished, took our seats and waited for Bob to start. eventuially they rambled on stage and without a word started to play the first song. What a mess to me it sounded, it was like some sloppy R n' B  band playing in the garage. I accepted this for the first song as it fitted with the style from his latest albums , but they played all the songs in just about the same style and the only way I could recognise any of the older songs was by listning for the words, which wasn't that easy either. I persavered hoping it would get better , but alas it just all sounded the same, Mrs Roddus wanted to leave, she absoluty hated it, but I wanted to stay till the end just in case things picked up. To really make this concert even more terrible was that bob, never even aknowledged that there was an audience out there listning and later he turned aside from us played the keyboards for the rest of the gig. The only time he spoke was to introduce the band near the end of the concert and then before he left the stage he gave, what was to me, a sanctomonious bow with his arms out like he was some kind of God.
Frankly he should have been booed off the stage for being a complete tosser, so far up himself that he has no respect or even gives a shit about the fans who supported him by buying his music over his carrer.
I had read that bob made the comment that he never played a song the same way twice, nowadays it looks like he dosn't play them at all, they are unrecognisable from their original form. Now I like that a band that improvises with their songs in a concert, I prefer that to just playing them straight, as they were recorded, but I like to be able to recognise the very cool songs that turned me onto them in the first place and caused me to spend big money to see them preformed live. Every other band dose this for their fans, why can't bob.
Several people I spoke to after, except one young bloke, also thought the concert was crap. The review in the paper next day was positive but not exactly gushing, unlike some of the overseas reviews I had been reading, and was still reading, in the Uncut magazine. It seems to Me that these brown tounging journalists didn't have the balls to say the truth that bob dylan is total crap live, another person here who had seen him in Wellington a couple of years earlier also felt the same way I did and finally someone in England wrote a letter to Uncut also telling them how totally crap he thought BD was as well, with similar complaints to mine about not being able to recognise any of the songs and they all sounded the same. I still really did all my Dylan albums that I have but will never ever go and see him play again.

Pearl Jam - Live Christchurch 29-11-2009

It was a cool overcast Christchurch evening as Mrs. Roddus and I headed to AMI stadium to see Pearl Jam play. It was the first time either of us had seen them live. I had been listning to them for many years and have most of their albums, Mrs. Roddus knew some of their radio hits but not much else. As much as I wanted to go, it haden't been looking likely that we were going to, as we couldnt afford the tickets, being as work had been a bit slow the last few monthys and cashflow was inadequate for such luxuries. To the rescue came my trusty Electrical Wholesalers with two free tickets to their Corperate Box. So there we were, arriving late, to AMI Stadium, as Mrs. Roddus had to work that afternoon and so missing all the ques to get in and walking past the million or so emply booze containers of various descriptiond lying all over the place.
We arrived during Ben Harpers set and proceeded to gorge ourselves on the generosity of Telfer Electricals food that was supplied for our culinary pleasure and awaite Pearl Jam's appearence, which was sceduled for 8:30PM. We huddled in our seats well wrapped against the cold and watched the 30,000 odd crowd below us. The Moment arrived and the crowd roared and PJ launched into their first song. The sound was very good but for the reasonable breeze blowing across the park and making the sound fade in and out a bit, but I got use to it. They played an exellent gig, playing most of their big hits and several from their new album "Backspacer". I was a little disappointed that they didn't play "Rear View Mirror", which is my favorite song, but over all it was definatly one of the best gigs I have been to. It was the last concert of their current tour and they really let rip as well as playing for nearly 2 1/2 hours, including encores. Perhaps the highlight of the night was when Liam Finn( who played earlier, before we arrived) and his Father Neil Finn(Split Ends/Crowded House) joined them on stage and they did a version, first of a well known Crowded House song, which I know, but don't know the name of and then played the classic "I Got You" by Splitr Ends which got the entire crowd singing along with utmost gutso. This also showed just how good a singer Eddie Vedder is. This part was something that really made the show and I will never forget it, I was blown away. Definatly one of the best Gigs.

Post script. During the concert I happened to glance over to the next corporate box, where there were a group of yound guys and girls, some of the girls, scantly dressed and in tight jeans, it was an innocent glance, but i got a wack from Mrs. Roddus. Anyway, after the concert on the way home, she coundn't stop going on about how hot Eddie vedder was. Go Figure.

Sorry about the Photos, I forgot to take my digital camers and so had to use my cell phone, just not as good.

Some Of My Favorite Albums

Here is a list of some of my personal favorite albums.
Now there are plenty of these best of list out there and I am finding that they are pretty predictable. Of course that’s not surprising because a large percentage of the albums that keep turning up on these lists are, of course, classics, and deserve to be there. But, of course, most of them are the big sellers, with a few critically acclaimed classics that didn’t sell so well included because they also deserve to be there.This list I am posting is of the lesser known of my favorites. There will still be some in my list that are in the big list, but these are just too good not to be here in my list. I am going to avoid, in this list, most of the big guns, because they are so obvious. So there will be no Zep, Sabbath, Stones, Beatles, U2, Doors, etc… Also this list in not in any particular order, and it is not definitive as I’m sure to have forgotten something from my large collection. I am just listing the ones that occur to me now. So here goes The Roddus Alternative (sort of) top 100

1. The White Stripes – Red Blood Cells
2. The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band – Volume One
3. Wolfmother – Wolfmother
4. Human Instinct – Stoned Guitar
5. Masada – Live In Taipei
6. John Zorn - The Big Gundown
7. The Velvet Monkeys – Rotting Corpse A Go-Go
8. Aaron Space – Aaron Space
9. Johnny Cash – Live At Folsom Prison
10. Drivin’ N’ Cryin’ – Scarred but Smarter
11. John Foxx – Metamatic
12. Public Image limited – Flowers Of Romance
13. Warsaw – Warsaw (Joy Division)
14. The Gordons – First Album
15. The Gordons – VOL 2
16. The Front Lawn – Songs From The Front Lawn
17. The Front Lawn – More Songs From The Front Lawn
18. Stray – Saturday Morning Pictures
19. Subhumanz – The Day The Country Died
20. Ellis – Riding On The Crest Of A Slump
21. Nails – Moodswing
22. Wall Of Voodoo – Call Of The West
23. Fusion – Border Town
24. Flux Of Pink Indians – Strive To survive
25. Maneige – Leibra Service-Self Service
26. The Gun Club – Fire Of love
27. Rockworkshop – The Very Last Time
28. King Crimson – Earthbound
29. Mantis – Mantis
30. Timbuk 3 – Edge Of Alleigence
31. Mothers Of Invention – Freakout
32. P.J.Harvey – Dry
33. Portished – Dummy
34. Chaotic Discord – Fuck religion, Fuck politics, Fuck The lot Of Ya
35. Misex – Space Race
36. The Monks – Black Monk Time
37. Timbuk 3 – Greetings From Timbuk 3
38. Mothers Of Invention – Absolutely Free
39. Captain Beefhart – Unconditionally Guaranteed
40. Fela kuti – Zombie
41. Crass - Penis Envy
42. Muddy Waters – Sings Big Bill Broonzy
43. The Broken Family Band – Balls
44. Philip Glass – Music In 12 Parts
45. Edguard Varese – Complete Works
46. Devo – Q. Are We Not Men?
47. Stevie Ray Vaughn – Texas Flood
48. Freddy Hubbard – Straight Life
49. Os Muntantes – Os Muntantes
50. Blue Oyster Cult – Fire Of Unknown Origin
51. Gong – Shamal
52. Gong – Gazeuse
53. Sun Ra – Holiday For Soul Dance
54. Masters Of Reality – Masters Of Reality
55. Elvis Hitler – Disgraceland
56. Frank Zappa – Apostrophe!
57. Bongwater – The Power Of Pussy
58. Buffalo Springfield – Buffalo Springfield
59. The Teardrop Explodes – Kilimanjaro
60. Ozz knozz – Rough Mix
61. Scrubbaloe Cain – Round One
62. Audience – The House On The Hill
63. Yello – You Gotta Say Yes To Another Excess
64. Yeah Yeah Yeah – Fever to Tell
65. The Jam – The Gift
66. Johnny Cash – American III
67. Nine Inch Nails – Petty Hate Machine
68. Keith Jarrett – Köln Concert
69. Outcast – Speekerboxx/The Love below
70. Husker Du – Candy Apple Gray
71. Husker Du – Zen Arcade
72. The Outlaws – Bring It Back Alive
73. Kings Of Leon – Aha Shake Heartbreak
74. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Howl
75. Caravan – For Girls Who Go Plumb In The Night
76. The Deviants – Ptooff
77. Can – Tango Mango
78. Dead Can Dance – The Serpents Egg
79. Electric Six – Fire
80. Scraping Foetus Off The Wheel – Hole
81. The Guess Who – American Woman
82. The Reverend Horton Heat – Space Heater
83. Ryan Adams – Love Is Hell. Pts 1 & 2
84. Whiskeytown – Strangers Almanac
85. Sun Ra - Jazz In Silhouette
86. Sufjan Stevens – Illinois
87. Soundgarden – Badmotorfinger
88. Groove Armada - Good buy Country, Hello Nightclub
89. Sprit – The Family That Plays together, Stays Together
90. Pixies – Surfarosa
91. Wire – Pink Flag
92. X – Los Angeles/Wildgift
93. Metellica – Kill Em’ All
94. Muddy Waters – Hard Again
95. Muddy Waters – Folk Singer
96. Rudimentary Peni – Death Church
97. Ultravox – Ha Ha Ha
98. Sons Of Champlin – Loosen Up Naturally
99. System Of A Down – Toxicity
100. Franco Battiato – Fetus

The First Post

This is my first post of BlogRoddus. I hope to use this Blog as a conduit for me to share my love of music, my exploits when Tramping and as a place to express my opinions and things of interest to me and hopefully to others. And occasionally as a place to just Rant about the state of the world. I hope you find something of interest on this blog and keep visiting it as it evolves and I get to know better what I am doing.

Mt Somers - 22 November 2009

Uncle Roddus Tramping Diary:Tramo No.80

Mt Somers - 22 November 2009

This was my first time actually completing the recently new Mt Somers circuit. A club trip which was a warm up for the following January's Mt Somers Challenge, 9 of us completed the 25km circuit in 8 1/2 hours on a cool and overcast day. I don't seem to have any photos of this trip. 

Mt Oxford - 8th November 2009

Uncle Roddus Tramping Diary:Tramp No.79

Mt Oxford Loop - 8th November 2009

Yet another trip up my closest mountain, this time with an old school friend with whom I had reconnected on Facebook. It was a lovely fine day and we had a pleasant walk, doing the loop back round to Coopers Creek in 7 hours.

Waimack Falls Hut, Labour Weekend 24-26th October 2009

Uncle Roddus Tramping Diary:Tramp No.78

Waimack Falls Hut, Labour Weekend 24-26th October 2009

This exellent trip was a three day expedition over Labour weekend, with the Christchurch Tramping Club. Our intention was to head up to the Waimack Falls hut on day one. Spend day two exploring the Waimack Col or any of the other peaks that took our fancy, dependant on weather conditions and how much snow was around, then of course head back out the way we came on day three. The extended weather forcast was for clear over the weekend with possible snow on Monday, our last day.

Four of us left Klondyke Corner on Saturday morning, after our drive out from the city. Our leader, myself and two young ladies, who it turned out were new to the club and although fit and well equipped, were much less experienced with the type  terain we were to cover.

This wasn't a major issue as we wanted everyone to have the maximum experience that they could and being a club trip, I belive it is our duty to support less experienced trampers to new levels of confidence and capability. I, myself, certainly gained most of my experience with the club. What this did mean, was that our pace was a bit slower than what was required to get to our destination within the time we had allocated. The day was fine and not too hot and after the long slog up the Waimack river bed to the Carrington hut, our leader suggested that we best look out for a good camp site as we continued up the Waimack Falls Valley. About an hour and a half up the valley we found a sutiable spot and set up our tents for the night.

Sunday again dawned clear and we broke camp and continued upstream and into more scenic country, stopping to admire the Waimack Falls and also a stop at the flood bypass swingbridge to check out the a small sort of canyon with Falls at the end. A short climb from here then brought us to the Waimack Falls hut, which is situated just above the Falls that tumble down into the short canyon. Lunch was then had at the hut with majestic views of the Waimack col and the lovely snowy basin leading up to it.

After lunch myself and out leader decide to fill in the afternoon with a stroll further up the valley, and I also wanted to do some crampon work on the ice, so we headed up towards the gap(see photos) at the end of the valley and while our leader waited, as he decided not to unpack his crampons, I  cramponed through the gap and part way up on to the Col itself and would have gone all the way but decided to return to our leader who was still waiting for me on the other side of the gap, and I didn't want him to think someting had happened to me.

Foretunatly, the sonwy weather we were expecting on Monday morning  failed to arrive and an early start was made for our return trip, to allow the young ladies  plenty of time to walk out. It was a pretty straight forward trip back to the car, retracing our route in and of course the rain arrived for the last hour of the slog down the Waimack.

The Waimack hut is quite often used as an overnight stopover for parties continuing over the Waimack Col and down the Rolleston river. I will do this next time.

Remnants of an avalanche on the bank of the Waimack.

Roddus

Looking up the Valley Sunday Morning.

Great shot of Carrington Peak

Looking down on Waimack falls

The Swing Bridge

Near the Hut

Approching the hut

Some idiot with the Gap and the Col in the background from the hut

 

The hut from up valley

 

Me ready to head for the gap

Looking back throught the gap towards the hut.

Hinewai Reserve (Banks Peninsula) - Late 2009

Uncle Roddus Tramping Diary:Tramp No. 77

Hinewai Reserve (Banks Peninsula) - Late 2009

This was suppose to be a CTC trip up onto the tops above Wainui, on the opposite side of Akaroa harbour, but the weather wan't co-operating and so our leader lead 18 of us on a more leisurely stroll round The Hinewai Reserve, where I had been before on a much earlier club trip back in 2000. There is some lovely regenerating native bush in this valley and an impressive stand of original Totora where we had a damp lunch.  A worthwhile place to visit and on warmer days a swim in the bay is an option. I can't find any photos of this trip.  

Kirwans Hut - 6-7 June 2009

Uncle Roddus Tramping Diary:Tramp No.76

Kirwans Hut - 6-7 June 2009

This was my first trip to Kirwans hut, a fabulous 12 bunk hut near Reefton. It was a CTC trip that I ended up leading as the original leader fell ill. It was a cool winters day as 6 of us(4 women and Me) set off from Capleton for the 5 hour walk through magnificent West Coast Forest up the gradual incline to the hut, perched in a clearing and surrounded by snow. After cranking the fire and a cuppa, some of us attempted to summit kirwan Hill, but turned back in fading daylight and forgotten headlights.

Sunday, and we continued along the Kirwans track to the old mining relics before heading down to the Montgomery river, with Uncle Roddus getting slightly lost on an abandoned section of track before someone came looking for me. We stopped for lunch at The Montgomery hut before the long slog along the four wheel drive track on the Waitahu river. We then crossed the hill back to the cars where we had quite a long wait for two of our group who took a wrong turn at the top of the hill. Took 8 1/2 hours back to car.

Lagoon Saddle/Mt Bruce - 24th May 2009

Uncle Roddus Tramping Diary:Tramp No.75

Lagoon Saddle/Mt Bruce - 24th May 2009

Another CTC trip that had to change tact due to weather conditions. The original plan was to head to Mt Barossa behind Mt Somers, but with a bitterly cold southerly and snow expected, it was decided to head inland more and see what we could do. It was decided to head to Lagoon Saddle for a womble and we sidled round the north face of Mt Bruce in quite a bit of snow before lunching at the saddle hut. The plan was to just head back the way we came but as the clouds lifted off Mt bruce, we decided to head up onto the top for a look. We plugged our way up through the snow for a very short stop at the top, as the wind was horrible, before plunging our way back down to the cars.