Good Weather For Airstrikes

It turns out that, funnily enough, the ceasing of writing political commentary on my blog was a natural progression from starting to take a more positive approach to life. In my opinion I've had enough to deal with in my own life without feeling the need to complain about the state of the rest of the world. That sentiment may seem selfish, but it's not intended to be. I was taking blogging too seriously. Making A Hole In The Wall was never supposed to yield intense commentary; it was supposed to help people get to know me better by allowing me to express myself more openly and coherently, giving them a window into my personality. It was meant to prove that personal blogs can in fact be of high quality. That's the role this blog shall play from now on. Writing blog entries won't feel like writing essays anymore.

Also, partly in recognition of my belief that blogs are not something to be taken too seriously, I'm seriously considering swapping the FTVMS 203 Techno-culture and New Media paper that I am currently enrolled in for next semester with ANTHRO 215 Human Sexuality. I understand that the new media paper does not focus solely on blogs, but I am becoming decreasingly enthused by the media as a whole and am thinking about changing my minor to Anthropology.

The holidays have been very good so far and I feel I've had a full two weeks' worth of fun even though in reality only one week has passed. Two concerts and a comedy show have graced my past week of life. The Rolling Stones last Sunday were impressive, but Sigur Rós surpassed that. From closing my eyes and beaming uncontrollably during Hoppípolla to singing along to the dramatic Popplagið encore-finale, the Icelandic quartet and their support Amiina fulfilled all of my expectations and then some. The audience was the most rightfully enthusiastic one I have ever been a part of and the atmosphere comprised a cool wash of intense positivity and contentment. I'll never forget the sensation I had during Hoppípolla; all that energy of genuine, beautiful good nature.

The New Zealand Herald review of the concert feels as though the author is restraining himself. People have a tendency to gush when they write about Sigur Rós's music (see my 'review' of the album Takk..., of which I am extremely proud, from last October, to which Hannah commented we should e-mail-rally the band to come to New Zealand). Russell Baillie, who wrote the Herald article, mentioned that he had "a lump in [his] throat and the makings of tears" but that's as far as he wandered into the territory of attempting to describe the in many cases indescribable emotional response that Sigur Rós's music has a tendency to evoke in people. It's a review worth reading nonetheless. Monday night's concert was the single best musical experience I have ever had in my life. It was the best $61 I have ever spent, and I say that with not a skerrick of doubt. It would have been worth the admission price to see Amiina, let alone the best band recording in the world today as well.

These two photos were taken at the Auckland show by Vic_ of the Sigur Rós Message Board. Amiina are visible on the strings in the background in both photos. The bottom photo shows (left to right) Jónsi Birgisson, Georg Holm and Orri Páll Dýrason. Keyboardist-guitarist Kjartan Sveinsson was off to the left of the shot. Now, I'm not really one to have crushes on "famous" people, but I must confess I've always had a massive crush on Jónsi and the spectacular show has only served to throw oil on the fire. I know it's trivial, but hey, you know more about me now.

Dylan Moran, who you may be familiar with as the actor who plays the character Bernard in the British comedy Black Books, provided a brilliant stand-up comedy routine on Friday night -- which I attended with Alison and Cynthia -- in the tradition of Bernard's slurring, wearied-by-the-world attitude that is a lot to do with why the television show is so entertaining. Quips as to the way that modern people live life were mixed in with the exploitation of stereotypes of nationality and piss-takes of New Zealand, producing a potent comedic cocktail which it felt as though Dylan had certainly consumed his fair share of! (Sorry, that really was a heinously entertainment-journalistic sentence.)

Since it's my birthday today, Alison and Cynthia painted me an awesome picture featuring a mixture of their respective awesome artistic styles, and also made me a domino pinata with Aviator sunglasses and a handlebar moustache. Sheer brilliance. I was really surprised. I didn't think they even knew when my birthday was, let alone that any kind of deal would be made about it. I'm really touched. This is the first time in my life where I've had heaps of friends genuinely wishing me a happy birthday. It just sums up for me how brilliant the past year-and-a-bit has been and how wonderful all the people I have met are. I was going to pretend that I hadn't had a birthday and that I hadn't reached the age of nineteen, but now I'm not worried about that because I'm excited about growing up with all my great friends.