Avatar - James Cameron 26th January 2010

Well I finally found the time to pop into town and catch this movie that everyones been talking about. It was strange, with me being into Sci-fi/fantasy movies, that I didn't know about this one before time, but some of the comments comming my way made this a must see before it disappeared off the big screen and even more so to check out the 3D version.
So frirst lets deal with the 3D. This is my first 3D movie, so I didn't quite know what to expect. Before the main feature, ther was a trailer for the new Walt Disney 3D version of Alice In Wounderland and there was a piece where the head if the cheshire cat come right out at ya and seens to be just in front of your face. That was impressive, but Avater really didn't use the technology to that effect so much. So even with all those explosions and debris flying all over the show, I didn't get the impression of flames and debris flying at me or past me. What we do get is some good contrasts of say, people in diffrent places on screen such as foreground and background and group shots  looked cool  as if you were in back of the room with them. The best 3D effects were the Pandorian forest and its inhabatants, and for this alone it was worth the entrance fee.
One thing I noticed, apart from the uncomfortable 3D glasses over top of my normal spectacles, was the film seemed darker. Overall , what with all the colours and awesome scenery it all seemed just a tad too dark. Apparently it is to do with the pollarisation of the 3D glasses and it certainly wasn't bad enough to take away from the spectacular spectacle that is Avatar.I will have to see it in normal vision to compare the diffrence.
The imagination and attention to detail of the creaters of Pandora and her forest is just phenomenal, the Flora and Fauna was for me, very realistic and imaginative and the idea of the floating mountians, although improbable, was exellent. The Na'vi were also very beautiful, and perhaps based on the African Massi in there appearence and clothing and American Indian in their sprituality and connection with their world.
The story itself, of a native population being enticed, coerced and finally almost annilated to give up their land for exploitation of natural resources for the monetory wealth of the exploiters, is nothing new in story telling or indeed in the actual history of humaity. The absolute greed of the mining company and the total disreguard of the Na'vi's attatchment to their land or indeed of their wellbeing as intelligent beings by the leader of the mining companys security forces is an echo of our past on this planet. This is also a timely reminder for those here in our own country, in light of the National governments decision to review Schedule 4 of the Crown Minerals Act, which protects our special National parks and other important ecological areas from mining. Once these mining companies get a foot in the door of these special places the greed of finding exploitable wealth could be too much to stop the destruction of the unique beauty of our country.
The sprituial aspec of the Na'vi, the interconnectedness of them all to each other and to the life force of their planet is a very interesting idea, and we here on ours could take note of this idea in light of the way we are treating our planet and the other people that live on it.
In the usual Hollywood way there is a great battle torwards the end of the movie, with plenty of destruction and mayhem, but in true James Cameron there are also some powerful and inspiring scenes which stregthen this movie a lot.

I did really enjoy Avatar and will go and see it again so that I can take in some more of that fantastic imaginary world of Pandora and then I will add it to my DVD wants list.
my rating 4.5/5

Mount Maukuratawhai 24th January 2010

Uncle Roddus Tramping diary:Tramp No. 84

Mount Maukuratawhai 24th January  2010

My latest adventure in the mountiains was this trip with the Christchurch Tramping Club to Mt Maukuratawhai (also known as Mount Muckaroundawhile), which is a stand alone hill located in a U-shaped bend in the Clarance River, oppsite Jollies pass, behind Hamner Springs.

12 of us had the instant pleasure of crossing the Clarance  river to get to the spur we intended to ascend, around 10:30am on a clear Sunday morning. Fortunatly, the water in the Clarance was supriseingly warm which negated the usual squeels when the water gets over a certain depth on a male trampers lower midrift.

A swift climb was then made of a pleasent ridge, with a few rocky outcrops untill the summit was made around 12:30pm, where lunch was enjoyed while waiting for the rest of the party to asend the summit. It transpired that some of the party were still quite a way down the mountian and one had decided not to come to the top and the rest would possibly come to the summit, but would go back the way they came. The rest of us took a vote and decided to continue along the ridge to point 1575 and then take the spur back down past point 1403 and then down to point 976, before dropping back down to the Clarance. point 1466 proved to be the most interesting challange of the day with a bit of rock climbing to get around it, but the rest of the trip was pleasent tops travel and a fairly quick descent back down  to the cars by 4:30pm. After which the predicted southerly change hit and we arrived back in Hamner to cats & dogs. This trip was about 11.5KM with about 1000m accumlated height gain.

The View from the cars, we headed up the spur on left.

The River Crossing.

Are We there yet?

ARE WE THERE YET?

A view of the Clarance River.

looking back to Jollies Pass.

This is near the summit, I liked the low grass growing amongst thr rocks, from a distance it looked like moss.

Hey! Wait for Meeee.

The evidence I got to the top

A higher view of the Clarance.

That tricky bit at point 1466.

point 1466 I think.

The Rock Goblin guarding point 1466.

it's a long way to the shop if you want a sausauge roll.

Am I at the beach or on a mountian?

Phew!, I am on a mountian, that was a lot of work if I was only at the beach.

Looking down the Clarance with Acheron in the background from point 1575.

The way home.

Heading back to Jollies Pass

Black Sabbath - Paranoid UK 1971

Well, it's been a while since my last album review as I have been busy with work, gardning and tramping etc...  Although I have been listning to plenty of very cool music as well, inbetween times, I just haven't found the time to sit down and get really stuck in to any albums to give them a proper review.

The other day my one and only follower of this blog, Leo, asked me what was my all time fave group/musician and I wasn't sure I really had one that stood head and sholders above all else, but as I was writing to him a list of several contenders to that crown, including these guys, my eyes keept coming back to the Sabs' and my mind keep remembering just how utterly mindblowing their early music is. Then tonight I had the stereo room to myself for a couple of hours and after hearing Led Zepplin's "Over the Hills and far Away" come on during random play while clearing up after tea, I was inspired to get out some Sabbath and play at neighbour annoying volume(how else do you play Sabbath) and "Paranoid" was the first one that came out of the Black Box.

What a wounderfully mindcrunching, ear bludgeoning, truly awesome experience this album really is. this was Sabbath's second album and includes their biggest hit, "Paranoid", which was No.1 in the UK and is now played all over classic rock radio. Again my limited vocabulary fails me to describe what a completly joyful experience listining to this album still is. One of the greatest heavy rock/metal albums of all time, I only have two small complaints, one is "War Pigs" should have closed the album instead of opening it and "Paranoid", for me, is actually their worst song of this period, and sounds terrible on my Cyrus, very distorted.

Apart from that this is all killer and no filler.

"War Pigs" - This is right up there, as one of the greatest songs ever written. truly outstanding, with Geezers dirty sounding bass at the start amongst the sirens and Tony Iommi's slow burning guitar leading us into Ozzy's exellent anti war lyrics. Bill Ward's drumming in this is also exellent and the song changes time signitures throughout. Tony's brilliant guitar solo sounds like a twin guitar attack(maybe double tracked). As I said, this epic should have closed the album. Undoubtably their best song. 5+/5

"Paranoid" - This is the track they should have actually opened the album with. Although I do like this song, it isa the weakest on the album. Pretty straight ahead song short and to the point, proberbly why it got to number one, but I think it is badly recorded, very distorted and after hearing "Warpigs" as the opener this sounds quite lame in comparasion. 3.5/5

"Planet Caravan" - To show that not all the Sabs' music will bludgeon your ears to pulp and your brain to mush, they give us this etheral peice which starts with bass , bongos, lightly strummed guitar and Ozzy's treated vocals. Once Ozzy has finished, the song improves with a lovely guitar solo from Tony, which sees the track out. Great late night mood music. 4.5/5

"Ironman" - Ok, back to the bludgeoning again with this awesome monster riff which is a classic, great drumming, all over the place as seems to be the thing with this album. Another wicked guitar break in the middle then back to THAT riff. The last part of the song lifts the tempo again while Tony lets rip with some more of his subliminal guitar. 4.5/5

"Electric Funeral" -  Another slow burning but heavy start to this one, slow motion heavey guitaring as Ozzy chimes in with his classic vocals. this is another one that lifts the tempo to rock out in the middle before taking us back to the original refrain. 4/5

"Hands of Doom" - A song about heroin, with references to needles and holes in the arm and how it will kill you. Songs starts with an awesome creepy bass line leading into a light drum beat before Ozzy chimes in with his late night vocal, next verse is much louder and full on and then drops back again to the first verse tempo for the third. We then experience a dramatic change of structure and its like we're in a diffrent song, then another change with a wicked rhythm envolopes the ears, before Tony lets rip again with his cool guitar solo, and then back to the starting refrain.4.5/5

"Rat Salad" - The instrumental track of the album, a great uptempo rocker with drum solo and Tony really getting up there on the fretboard. 4/5

Fairies Wear Boots" - A great song title about the effects of too much indulgence of mind altering substances, (and Ozzy should know all about that) starts off with an exellent echo drenched guitar intro, before we get into some great drumming and mini guitar solos, then Ozzy gets to tell us about his visions and what his doctor has got to say about it. Some classic blissful guitaring assults us throughout and we have just been presented with another brilliant song. This should have been the second track on the album. 5/5

This is an absolute Classic heavy Rock/Metal album which really gets My adrenlin pumping. it is amazing how music this heavy can move my soul.4.5/5

The Roddus 2010 Potato Harvest

Mt Barrosa 17th January 2010

Uncle Roddus Tramping diary:Tramp No.83

Mt Barrosa 17th January 2010

After the marathon spud dig yesterday, I needed to get out in the mountains again for some tramping. This trip was one I was gonna do with the Christchurch Tramping Club last May, but due to terrible weather conditions it was decided to do something else instead, so when asking my old school friend, Bruce, if he wanted to do something this weekend, he told me he wanted to do this trip with the Avon Club, of which he is a member and seeing as I didn't get to do it last time I asked if I could tag along.
The weather forcast was for low cloud and drizzle in the morning and maybe clearing later in the day, with more rain forcast later still. It didn't sound too promising.
I met them at Mt Somers township and followed them to the place of departure of our tramp, it wasnt too cold but visability was going to be an issue and thankfully the rain stayed away. We started up the hill and then had to drop down into a gut before another sharp climb. the going was pretty easy with short snow grass and other small plants and the clouds keep lifting and giving us a brief view of out route, so we didn't end up having any trouble finding our way up.
After several ups and downs and lunch, we started on the final assent to the summit, where we were just above the clouds but still didnt have any views of the surrounding countryside. After admiring the rock formations along the tops and having second lunch in the sun, we headed back down the same way to the cars. Next time I go up there(on a clear sunny day) I would like to continue along the tops and drop down the ridge at the other end back to the road. On a clear day the views will be exellent and I really enjoyed the top with its little Stonehenge type rock formations.

The first climb looking back to the road

Nice steep start to get the lungs and legs pumpung

 One of the few views we got

A break in the clag

Making progress

One of the groups of rocks at the top

Proof that I made it

We did get some sun at the top.

Somewhere under all that is the Canterbury Planes

More Rocks

Over Here!

Our last view before the cloud came back in

Hercules & Love Affair - Hercules & Love Affair (USA 2008)

Whats Hot On The Roddus Stereo

Album Of The Week Part 3

I was introduced to this release by a good review it got in the UNCUT magazine a while back and I decided to check it out. This outfit comes via New York and what we have here is basically contemporary Disco/pop/electro/funk(to loosly quote the Tigerpics). I had had this for a while before I got round to putting it on the car stereo for a listen and afrer a couple of listens while driving to and throw on errands or whatever I started to get the impression that this is a really strong album, even though I hadn't really concentrated on the individual songs. It really seemed to groove, and I guess I actually felt, more than heard it. These guys really know their stuff and although they have taken pieces from across the history of dance music, they have merged it into their own thing. One of the highlights is the vocals on some of the tracks by Antony Hegarty(from Antony & The Johnsons) I think his unique voice works so wounderfully well with this music, better than with his own band, whom I am not too keen on. Another highlight is their use of brass and string samples to create somew very cool melodies on several tracks. This album also has plenty of soul.

1. Time Will: Soulful electro ballad, Antony really lets loose in the later part of the song. exellent 4.5/5
2. Hercules Theme: This is a great contemporary  disco/dance track  great string and brass melodies, best track on disc 4.5/5
3. You Belong: Rn'B styled track, reminds me of Masters At Work, and I think they must have been listning to Aksak Maboul's 1977 Onze Danses Pour Combattre La Migrain album when they wrote this, sounds very similar to their Saure Gurke track. Another soulful vocal on this one and picks up on the second half. 4/5
4. Athene: A cool Funky bass line with female vocals 3.5/5
5. Blind: Great disco beat(reminds me of Born To Be Alive by Patrick Hernandez) Love the Brass peices, but song goes on too long and I started to loose intrest, also reminded me of early New Order, torwards the end.3.5/5
6. Iris: This track is a slower number with a big beat and female vocals, more atmospheric 3/5
7. Iris: Another slower track with interesting tempo, more experimental, dosn't flow as well not much melody, sort of tribal beat good vocals.3.5/5
8. This is my love: Ok song but weakest on disc.3/5
9. Raise Me Up: A more up tempo and cohesive song, disco again,  good brass 3.5/5
10. True/False, Fake/Real: A good finish to the album, another uptempo house track disco/pop/electrofunk. 3.5/5

Overall I really enjoyed this album, some great shake your booty dance tracks, especially Hercules Theme  and some interesting electro/pop tracks. Some of it dosn't stand up so well under more focused and intense listning, but it's not really that sort of album, its great for driving to, working to or just having on in the background, and of course you can dance to some of it too as I said and finally, Antony really makes this album. Overall 4/5

Listen to this album Here

The Hometown Band - Flying (Canada 1976)

Whats Hot On The Roddus Stereo

Album Of The Week Part 2

This wounderful album has come right out of left field(for me) and really impressed the hell out of me. This has several Jazz based slow pop songs, which is a style I don't usuially care for, but they are if such strong quality that I had to really sit up and take notice. These are sort of slow burning torch songs in a less funky sort of Roberta Flack style, could be my best description of them.(please forgive me if this is off the mark) There is also a touch of Steely Dan on some tracks, so I guess thats why it appeals to me so much. The Quality of the music, the musicians and the production is outstanding (even though I'm listning to a vinyl rip, downloaded of the net), how can music so good be so obscure.

Hailing from Canada, they only put out two albums. If the other one is as good as this, I can't wait to hear it(hint C.) Someone please release this on CD.

1. Flying: A slow, soft start, outstanding vocals from Shari, this track soars and swoons, should have been a smash hit, a brilliant pop song.5/5
2. Mad Larry: Funky Steely Dan type song, great jazzy vocals and cool Sax and violin solos, this rocks.4/5
3. Everbody Wants to Get to Heaven: Things slow back down again with this one, Male/Female vocals , simple beat with organ, a sprituial song. 4/5
4. Wingless Bird: Another beautiful slow number cool piano with bass and drums to start then organ comes in, another great pop song. 4/5
5. I'm Ready: A more uptempo track with a country pickin' intro, another cool sax solo as well as organ.4/5
6. Spread Em' All Around: The band really get to strutt their stuff on this 12 minute Jazz/Prog(with folky overtones) instrumental workout. Starts of at a quick pace, before slowing down for some nice Floydian organ noodling and then things slowly pick back up with the organ promonent in a funky/jazzy sort of way, then the guitar chimes in with some well echoed picking and we're flowing along nicely now, tapping the foot and really grooving, and we're only half way through. Slows back down now with some souful Saxaphone and other noodlings in support. then we start to funk out again with the sax really grooving with organ accompaning. Really going for it now with the sax dominating so well and then we'er back to the starting melodies to finish, Very Cool 4.5/5
7.  Into the Night: Silky smooth, late night jazz feel to this finalk 11 minute track, then the awesome airy vocals of Shari start in before the tempo shifts up and takes us into the first Sax solo. Piano brings us back down ready for Shari to wow us again with her voice and then we soar off again into another solo for the sax, followed by a lovley piano peice and a flute solo. Very atomspheric track, so well done to pull this off so well.4.5/5

This rare and brilliant LP was brought to my attention by by blogging buddy Chuntao, over at Rare MP3 Music so check it out and see if I am telling the truth.
Also go here for more info about this band.

My over rating for this album 4.5/5, which is very impressive for an album I have only just discovered.

The Beatles - Rubber Soul UK 1965

Whats Hot On The Roddus Stereo

Album Of The Week Part 1

What the hell could I possibly say about this album that hasn't beens said a thousand times already. It has, no doubt, been reviewed a million times, sold millions of copies and appeared on just about every top albums list ever. It is of course one of the greatest albums of all time and for me this is the first of the real Beatle albums. For this one it was the first time they recorded a batch of songs specifically for this album, as apposed to compiling albums from a stockpile of already recorded or written songs. Also, for Me, this is the record where the Beatles music becomes more Timeless. most of their earlier stuff, while still classics, sounds of its time, but the songs on Rubber Soul, and their subsequent albums, still have a very contemporary sound, even after 40+ years.

I was given the book, The Beatles:Off The Record for my last birthday and when I got to the parts about this album, I decided to dust off my CD copy and give it a long overdue listen and now have given it about a dozen listens this week. The real highlights on this album are, for Me, the slower tracks like Girl , Michelle, Norwegian Wood and of course In My Life, which is one of my all time favorite Beatles tracks.

Here is a quick comment and rating for each track. Not much point saying too much about them, I'm Sure the entire population of the planet knows them all off by heart.

1. Drive My Car: A very cool uptempo rocker 4.5/5
2. Norwegian Wood: Love that Sitar, great lyrics 5/5
3. You Won't See Me: Another great Lennon/MaCartney Vocal harmony 4/5
4. Nowhere Man: More Awesome vocal harmonies 5/5
5. Think For Yourself: Is this possible the track that introduced fuzz guitar to the world 4/5
6. The Word: Paul's fab bass playing 4.5/5
7. Michelle: Truely Beautiful, if Mrs. Roddus's name was Michelle, I'd play this at our wedding.5+/5
8. What Goes On: Ringos cameo on this C&W track 4/5
9. Girl: Sultry, love the first line, simply mindblowing 5+/5
10. I'm looking Through You: Great Folk song 4.5/5
11. In My Life: Sublime vocals, brilliant 5+/5
12. Wait:  This would have made a great single 4.5/5
13. If I Needed Someone: Harrisons best so far, better to come 4.5/5
14. Run For Your Life:  Another Classic 5/5

As you can see not an absolutly perfect album, not all 5/5 songs, but it don't get much closer that this, not a bad song in the bunch, this is a classic example of why the Beatles were simply the best.
My Overall rating 5/5

Earnslaw Burn/Gilikson Falls Dec 31 2009

Uncle Roddus Tramping Diary:tramp No.82
Earnslaw Burn/Gilikson Falls Dec 31 2009

I got to head down south for new years for only two days, so I really wanted to get out for a walk while I was down there as its not a part of the country I get to often. I had a look on my freshmaps software for a suitable area where I could spend one day tramping and found a nice valley(see above) with easy acess from the road and a track to follow. I did a google search on the Gilkison falls at the end of the valley but I could find little info about it, so I had a look at it on Google Earth and it looked promising.

It was gonna be a fairly longish day and also had about one and a half hours drive to get there, so i was up and gone by 6:15 am, had an extremly expensive  breakfast at Glenorchy and was at the track and ready to go by 8:30am. I parked at the end of the road as I saw on the map, but couldnt find any signposts of indication of the track, I crossed the river and after hoping a fence found the track and an orange track marker and so off I went. Straight away I started climbing as the track heads upstream fairly high up the side of the valley, the first part of the track travels through very open forest with almost no undergrowth and lots of very dry windfall, the trees were not very large and all looked brittle, it appears not to get very much rain at this lower part of the valley. I cleared this first section then traversed a short span of open swampy grassland before re-entering the forest. As I delved further up the valley the forest became much more beautiful, with very large Beech and some Totora, among others, this was virgin forest. The track was well formed with plenty of markers  to keep me on track where the track got a bit vague or where large windfalls caused some detours. Its obvious DOC do maintain this track, but I was suprised there were no signposts at the road end, but they do mention the track on their website.

After 2 and 3/4 hours in the bush I was starting to get board with trees and was looking forward to getting to the open country further up. I stopped in a wide rocky creek bed and had second breakfast, then continued on till after 15 minutes I cleared the bush. The site before me was impressive and the travel from now on was to be very open. The track was still evident but with no marker poles and it keeped dissapearing on me, then I would find it again then loose it again, but the travel was pretty easy and there were waterfalls all along the valley. The scenery was exellent, this is what I had come to see and as I eased round a bend in the valley, finally the full glory of the gaint cliffs and the glacier came into full view. I knew this would be an  awesome sight, but I was quite un-prepared for the stunning grandeur of the sight that I was witnessing. My limited vocabulary utterly fails to describe the fabulous vista before me and the tears of joy and gratitude of seeing such a magnificent sight. I was awed by what I was seeing and the feelings I had were of a scale I had not experienced before on a tramp.

I continued up the valley, taking untold inadequate photos, trying to capture the magnitude if the scene before me. I got to the top of the valley after 4 1/2 hours of travel (approx 12km) and sat on the end of a small hillock and justed marvelled at the view while I had lunch.

At 1:30pm, it was time to head back as I did want to get back to my accommadation before midnight, it was new years eve after all, and I didn't want Mrs. Roddus to get worried. Not much to say about the trip out, just covered the same route, but did stop for 1/2 hour at the rock biv on the otherside of river about where the track re-entered the bush. Got back to the car about 6:15pm, exhausted but exhilarated. This is an awesome trip and the Earnslaw Glacier is a must see for any tramper. the only downside was the helicopters flying round in front of the glacier showing tourists the scenery the easy way and that no giant peices of ice fell off and crashed to the valley floor while I was sitting there having lunch. Check out these photos below, although thy really don't portray the true colossus of what I saw.

The beginning

A nice track

Some more bush

First views after leaving the bush

 very serene

View of Turret Head

Mt Earnslaw and Glacier

Breathtaking

Getting closer

Gilkison Falls

The neighbour

Goodby

The rock biv