a damn fine life

Kia Ora nga hoa ( kind of ...gidday my friends )
sometimes I have to push the pause button and grab a little reflective time, to allow myself to appreciate the life I am living. Ultimately of course, that sense of awareness is ever present as you go about the living of your life...."what the hell is he talking about".. I hear you wondering. Basically what I am saying is I feel blessed. To give you an idea of what I am on about, here is a brief run down on what I have had the pleasure of being involved in since I created this here blog on Sat 22nd July, the diary of me!.... not quite as saucy as bridget joneses but hers was pretend!!!
22nd july...
after attending a seminar where I created this blog, I literally went straight to a theatre in downtown Auckland, to host a screening of New Zealand short films, showing as part of the HomeGrown Series, a programme within the 2006 Telecom New Zealand International Film Festival. This series of short film programmes is hosted each year by the wonderful Moving Image Centre here in Auckland. Later that night I had a couple of hours sleep before heading out at 1am on sunday morning to my one regular job each week, hosting a talk back radio show, called "The Dawn Patrol,with Des & Les"......I'm the Les component of Des & Les.(check it out streaming,1am-6am every sunday NZ time).

Sunday 23rd...
After work, at 6am sunday, a couple of hours sleep was all there was time for before I put the foot to the pedal and drove 5 hrs to Ohakune, nestled at the lower southern slopes of Mt Ruapehu ( Mt Doom for you Tolkienites!!!) . The purpose of this journey was to spend a couple of nights with the senior citizen of my progeny (otherwise known as my eldest child), who is currently working in a snow board shop for the winter season.
Monday 24th....
was spent with said son, on the upper slopes of said mountain looking down upon a blanket of cloud that engulfed planet earth below. Totally stunning!!!


No major wipeouts to report either, thankfully.......as a parent I find it such a joy to be in the company of my 19 yr old, having to step back and assume the role of a companion/observer. The temptation is to step in and direct proceedings as was the case when the kids were young, but no... he is now a young adult and my role is to be there should he need me.....bugger.... who can I order around!!!
Tuesday 25th....
up early driving back to Auckland, sound system ablaze with the stunning sounds of local NZ band The Phoenix Foundation ( if you ever have a chance gooo see them live, click the link for some real cool sounds, brilliantly talented ), and a revisit of some Smashing Pumpkins, Led Zepplin and others.
Wednesday26th...
the day I had been hanging out for was here!!! after some standard activity, I boarded a silver bird and jetted to Wellington to go party with some of the funnest folks I've spent time with for many moons. It was the wrap party for the NZ component of the production for the hugely anticipated Playstation3 game " Heavenly Sword ". I had the absolute pleasure of working on this stunning project with the phenomenally talented Andy Serkis. So the night was spent partying in damn fine style with Tameem and the The Ninja Theory crew as well the local production company team who are also superbly talented and just damn fine folks.
27th...
no hang over...yayyyy!!! I hate hang overs,.. the absolute best cure is in fact prevention in the form of drinking water alongside the alcohol for the last 2 hrs your session ( in my case this was from about 3am-5am!!!).
Flew back to Auckland and went to host another showing of short films at the festival.
Friday 28th...
cruisey day, leading up to hosting another programme of short films, this programme being called "Love and Other Catastrophies". .........Let me tell you there are some very fine film makers emerging here in NZ, this was a great programme. There has been a long held view that in general New Zealand film makers tend to make fairly dark brooding stories, aka The Piano, Once Were Warriors, Quiet Earth, Sleeping Dogs etc. Well that tradition is in good hands, a number of these short films were definitely in keeping with that vein.
The night was polished off by heading along to a small bar to watch a new band play their first ever gig. A friend of mine has a son who is in the band, and they kicked out a full on wall of raw rock infused with a healthy dose of blues... these guys went to school with my son who is working at the mountain... again it is such a buzz to watch these kids grow into their lives!!!
sat and sunday 29/30th...
I attended a communication course run by Landmark Education, a global education programme. I have done a number of their courses now and despite attending each time with my cynical hat firmly on my head, once again I walked out with a new take on life!!! .... having finished the sat session of the course at 11.30pm I went to work at RadioLive at 1am sunday, then finishing the radio at 6am on sunday I started the course again at 9am, needless to say by the end of the course at 10.30pm sunday, I was totally knackered!
Monday 31st july and Tuesday 1st August ...
these were catch up days, getting to this here blog, making phone calls, doing a voice over for a radio ad, an audition for a canadian television commercial, etc etc.

This all brings me back to the original statement, I feel blessed to be living the life I choose to live.
The film industry here in NZ is in its winter phase, local production has slowed and the off shore projects that come here tend to stay clear in winter as we do not have the shelter provided by genuine film sound stage facilities. Shooting films out on location during winter in NZ is basically a huge gamble played opposite the gods of weather. This only highlights the incredible achievement of Peter Jackson and his massive team who shot Lord Of The Rings continuosly for 18 months here in the land of the long white cloud!
We have the NZ Screen Directors Film Awards coming up soon, I'll keep you posted.
For now, get out there and live the life you choose for yourself, make it a life worth living for!!!
ciao
Bruce
visit my web site here
here is a site I am looking to have an independent NZ feature film available on in the near future, take a look




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