My love to Steve Irwins family...& things Radio

(Myself, Bruce/Les,on right, and my mate Joe/Des on left, in the studio at our weekly radio show)
Gidday, welcome to another posting, yet again created about a week or so after I thought I should do a new posting!!! how do you spel prokrastination agin....
First off my heart felt love goes to Steve Irwins family. To the world at large it seems like a misplaced act of nature that something like this could happen. However when someone so rich in life so in love with life, to be taken like this wipes the mist off the window of reality for me. by this I mean that as an actor sometimes you are called upon to create an emotion/response, a state of being. However it is just this kind of event that can give me a kick in the arse to know that I have no bloody idea what it must be like for Steves family at present, no acting could ever hope to penetrate the depths of feeling that they will be spinning through, so I send my love to them for what it may be worth. Steve you wrote a page in the history of mankind demonstrating the art of living life to the full while you have it.

So now I get on with my life and right now it is writing this blog!!! I am trying to teach myself how to type with more than 3 fingers. My normal styles seem to incorporate the index finger of my left hand and the index and middle fingers of my right hand. Right now as I type this I have to concentrate really really hard (you know the tongue out type concentration!!!)to get at least 4 fingers going.
I figured I would have a brief rave about the radio station scene here in New Zealand.
We actually have an absolute overload of radio stations, I remember reading a few years ago that here in Auckland we had the most stations per capita, in the world. The incredible thing is that much like television, in my humble opinion, most of it is absolute crap and could qualify for air pollution! However the photo above shows the two hosts of one of the true quality programmes on air, "The Dawn Patrol with Des & Les". Thats me(Les) on the right, and my bestest mate of 36 yrs, Joe Reid(Des) on the left. We have a had a comedy duo for 21 yrs and after many years of calling ourselves "The Golden Holdens" we just started calling each other Des and Les, and that's what we remain. If you are ever thinking of getting some sort of act together,... a word of advice... don't call yourself by a different name.
As an actor it would actually benefit me if various people knew that I was Les of "Des & Les", however they know of me as Bruce and so don't make the connection. This can lead to confusion, but Bruce and Joe don't ryhme, so what are you to do??? You are hereby commanded to tune into our show at some stage. It is on at a great time for those of you in the US or Europe. Saturday morning or there abouts. We are on 1am -6am Sunday mornings NZtime
(click the link to go to current NZ time)
As for the rest of the fare, there are a couple or real gems in amongst the mire. My number one choice and the station that is honestly one of the things I look forward to most when returning from a trip overseas, is 95bfm. This is a station based at the Auckland University campus and as with most independent stations anywhere has a great variety of niche shows, from absolute metal to jazz. However let me recommend you go to the link above and check out the breakfast show from 7am-10am weekdays NZ time. Your host if you listen in is the one and only Mickey
Havoc. The guy is bloody brilliant, he combines, a wicked humour, massive compassion and some of the best tunes you will ever hear (many of them you will probably never have heard previously). 95bfm has been repsonsible for breaking a number of artists who have gone on to become really big on the indie circuit around the world, including Ben Harper who had his first ever no.1 song here in NZ. Mickey is a true beacon and stands out so far above almost every other on air host on any station. I put him up there with Howard Stern, and if you have not heard of Howard Stern where the hell have you been!!!

One of the biggest buzzes out of going to LA for the Academy Award season each year when Lord Of The Rings was up, came when I finally got to tune into Howard Sterns show on air. This is of course before the idiots at the highest level dictated that he was too much of a threat to their conceited ideals and he had to leave the airwaves of america. That was a sad day for democracy in that country.
Many years ago, Des and I did our first ever radio talk back show and the station manager gave us a tape of Howard Stern to listen to. He became an immediate idol!!!, brilliantly irrevent.
Another show to catch is a guy called Graeme Hill who does 8am-noon saturdays and noon -4pm sundays on Radiolive, the station that I do my show with Des on. This guy is seriously talented, he has a great mind, from astronomy/mathematics to sport, he is well versed on it all, and he has some great guests on each week. Graeme is also a superb musician having been in a great bnad called The Able Tasmans many years ago. In fact my first meetings with Graeme came when I was a dancer in Limbs Dance Co here in Auckland way back ( if you go to the link you will see references to Limbs on a site about music from another of our amazingly talented musicians, Don McGlashin ). Graeme used to play music, improvising on the piano for our dance class.
I better get outta here, the Sopranos is on. I was hooked on the first season have not watched it since but this final season is a stunner, this is how the medium of television can be usefd when put in the hands and minds of real talent, thankyou so much all of you who make this programme.

My son Joe and I on a trip to LA a couple of years ago, hope Tony don't see dis!!!

Ciao