News in brief

Listening to: 'Black Love'-The Afghan Whigs
Drinking: Grolsch

Fan celebrates ten year association with favourite band

Off-black, blogger, of Lower Hutt, recently celebrated the tenth anniversary of discovering one of his favourite bands, The Afghan Whigs. Off-black found the band after repeated airing of the video for single 'Honky's Ladder' on Sky's Juice TV music channel, or 'Orange' as it was known at the time. "It was the winter of 1996", the blogger related, "and I was single, and a student. It was only natural that I would spend a lot of time watching music videos late at night. I noticed this song that had this crazy video with pimps and lawyers and angels, grooving bassline, pounding drums and loud guitars, with a key lyric of "got you where I want you motherf***er". I was taping music videos at the time, and watched this one a lot as the song totally hooked me."
On the basis of the single, Off-black would subsequently purchase the american alternative rockers 1996 release "Black Love". "It was so the right album at the right time for me personally", he said, "I was going through, lets say, a difficult time in my life, and the lyrical content of celebration, love, hope, anger and alienation really spoke to me. The first track, "Crime scene part one", instantly became a favourite. Tracks two and three, "My enemy", and "Doubleday" combine to make one of the best openings of my CD collection. The 8 minute epic "Faded" is one of the best closers". Off-black then went on to recall "I was doing work experience at the Wallaceville Agresearch facility at the time, and I would listen to the album on my walkman while I was on the train."
Purchased initially on cassette tape in 1996, Off-black would later obtain the album on CD, purchasing a promotional copy, clearly marked 'not for sale' at Lower Hutt's Wonderland records. The bands classic 1993 release "Gentlemen" soon followed. Eventually Off-black would acquire most of the bands back catalogue. He would not comment on a rumour that he finds the pre "Gentlemen" material somewhat less developed and accessible, and prefers the bands later offerings. Off-black would also not be drawn on another rumour that he thinks that 1998 release "1965" may in fact be a better album than "Black Love", with such strong material as "66", "Crazy", and "Cite soleil". He did say that "1965" was slightly more suitable for roadtrips than either "Gentlemen" or "Black Love".
The Afghan Whigs broke up some time after "1965", but lead singer Greg Dulli's "Twilight singers" project also appealed to Off-black, leading to his acquisition of their first album "Twilight" after hearing it in a music store in 2001, and the 2003 release "Blackberry belle", continuing a now decade long association with the group.



Sun comes out, Wellingtonians confused

In a magnanimous gesture, the sun came out for the first time in several days, possibly as part of a PR campaign to remind residents of Wellington and surrounding districts that it still, in fact, exists. The sun appeared mid morning, and remained present for most of the subsequent daylight hours on Friday, before disappearing at approximately 5pm.
Residents were confused by this sudden change of heart, given the 3 days of flood and landslide causing rain that preceded it. "The residents were confused", one local was quoted as saying.



Man goes to wrong theatre to see DJ movie

Lower Hutt man Off-black asked for a ticket to DJ mockumentary "It's all gone Pete Tong" at the Rialto cinema complex earlier this evening, before realising the comedy about a deaf DJ was in fact playing at the Paramount. Discussing the incident later he said "the listings were side by side in the paper. I must have got them confused. Maybe there are too many cinemas in Wellington". Arriving at the Paramount, it was confirmed that this was the correct cinema, and Off-black successfully enjoyed the movie, as well as a nice bottle of lager, "It was damn funny" he said. "I thought the 'Cocaine Badger' was classic." When asked about a similar mistaken identity incident at the Realm tavern in Haitatai the previous night, as related by not-kate however, he abruptly ended the interview.


Cause of arm problem assessed

After consulting a physiotherapist, the cause of the arm pain recently experienced by Off-black (see previous post), could not be definitively determined. In the physiothearpists opinion, the pain was most likely caused by a muscle or tendon strain about the right shoulder, causing transmitted pain in the shoulder and upper right arm. This strain likely caused stretching of a nerve in the lower arm, leading to acute pain in the right forearm. The pain disappeared after a day or two.