Cops Coping it

What I was doing last week... but more on that later...


...blow me down, big news of the day last week here in NZ, during what must have been a "there's nothing happening in the world today, so lets make this the headline act " day, was that a couple of the local constabulary took part in a school fundraising day by giving kids rides in their cop cars, a mere 14 months ago.
Way back, when I would have been one of those little'uns who would have loved to get a ride around the paddock in a cop car, we had a saying, it went something like this... "tell tale tit, your tongue will split, and all the little puppy dogs will have a bit".
Turns out our "tell tale tit" is a parent, David MacGregor, who filmed the police on his mobile phone as they took kids for rides and did skids and donuts around a grass field where other children and parents were standing.
I am not a boy racer, but the closest thing I can see in the video to a bloody donut is the Mr Whippy van,... they would be serving ice cream cones I assume and maybe they sell the dreaded donuts also. However at least Mr Whippys icecream cones would have some substance in them, namely icecream. Mr MacGregors " donuts " have absolutely no substance to them at all, because they don't exist.
The cars stir up dust, making it look like they are speeding, the sirens sounding adds to the drama. But guess what happens when you drive on dry fields and turn corners or drive in a tight circle, your wheels kid up dust, a far cry from a donut. If you take a look at the video you will struggle to see a skid of any sort. It is possible the only skids present that day may be the skid marks in the complainants underwear, if there were any.
My biggest concern would be that the icecreams would be covered in dust. Mr Whippy should have had a word to those nasty police.
Bloody hell do we want kids to grow up thinking that maybe, just maybe,...some cops could be ok people. Well guess what I bet every kid there that day came away thinking those two cops were cool.
We regularly hear that New Zealand and much of the developed world has become overly politically correct, I will cast my vote for you, Mr MacGregor, to be the leader of the global PC party for this week. No doubt some other do gooder will come along and dethrone you next week.
I fully understand you may truely be concerned for the childrens safety, I have raised 3 children myself, but is this really worth the hassle it will now cause mate. For a start some of my taxpayer money will now be spent on an internal investigation tying up police resources. Good luck to the next school that ants to get the police involved in their fundraising activities.
The video was taken 14 months ago, Mr Mac has some excuse about his phone memory finally being full so he needed to download it, and he had only just figured out how to load the images onto his computer.
Question; would the leader of the PC party Mr Mac, use a PC or a Mac. Advice; if you don't have one get a Mac, your phone will love you for it.
Now Mr Mac, why did you not front the constabulary at your local station or contact constabulary HQ a little closer to the time of the event if you were so concerned. maybe you could have even been really brave and approached the police officers in question on the day and asked them to slow it down a little, there's a daring idea!
Mate either not a lot else happened in your life over the intervening 14months or you really are just a nasty tell tale tit type.


Meanwhile I got asked to be a crew member on a beautiful old ketch for a 5 day expedition spanning our local long weekend holiday. The trip had us motor sailing from Tauranga to Great Barrier Island for a couple of days then heading here to Auckland. I have decided to post a couple of photos, absolutely bloody glorious is about all I will say.




Mr MacGregor please understand how privileged and downright blessed you are to be living in this astounding corner of the world, and try to stop raining on other peoples parades.

of vesperado's are go & Murrsay Mcully you suck!

yehaaa the 2nd ever ride of the newly formed posse, The Vesperado's, has taken place. Brad Carter who is a young muso from bands such as Stereogram and Pistol Youth, asked if I wanted to join the Vesperado's at the end of last year for the inaugural ride. I was in like flynn, I love blatting around the clogged asphalt arteries of auckland city on my trusty ol 99 indian assembled two wheeler. Weaving around the poor old SUV enclosed citizens as they sit at the traffic lights or in long queues of fellow bubbled commuters gives me a strange sense of being slightly superior.
3 of us turned up for the first ride and two weeks ago when we were hailed for a 2nd outing, it was such a buzz to see 10 beasts lined up.
Although I am probably the grand daddy of the vesperado's I must say it feels a little more grounded than the plethora of aged harley riders now plying their monsters around town in the weekends.
I have recently moved to a humble one bedroom flat in one of the upmarket enclaves of auckland. You know it is the weekend because of the sound of the surrounding baby boomers cranking up their newly acquired Harley Davidsons on saturday and sunday mornings for their weekly taste of belated rebellion.
we're looking for more vesperado's so if you have one gathering dust in the back of the garage, get it out mix your two stroke and keep an eye out for the postings on the book of faces known as facebook.
yehaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

On a different note one of the ballsiest people I have had the pleasure of getting to know, Peter Bethune, was recently on the receiving end of the bow of boat load of japanese killers in the southern ocean. So committed to their scientific research are these japanese scientists and their harpoonists, that they decided potentially drowning a boat load of kiwis was a fair price to pay to better understand, in a scientific way of course, how better to slice whale meat from its freshly slaughtered carcass...yummmm sushimi. Our dorkhead Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully, ever fearful of the economics of standing up for a worthy cause, came out and essentially stated that the kiwis deserved it and the poor hunters were being harassed.
Mr Mc if you had a nut sack half as big as Peter Bethunes, you might be worthy of me and my fellow citizens paying your wages for you.
Here's a photo I took of the boat that Pete built, after it broke the world record circumnavigating planet earth using biodiesel, prior to joining the protest fleet.
Check out Petes DVD "Riches to Rags", he, his wife and their family literally sacrificed a comfortable life to build this boat and do good for the world.
Thanks Pete, shame Muzza

Happy merry you lot

May the spirit of christmas be with you and all around you. Whether or not you consider yourself to be of a christian persuasion (I personally do not consider myself to be a christian, however I have a set of beliefs that are evolving as I life and gather experience and wisdom), the spirit of christmas can still apply to all, I believe. It is a reminder to celebrate love, an unconditional love for all...well maybe not the arseholes who kill, rape and destroy other peoples lives!!! but essentially to me it is a reminder to begin each day with faith in our fellow beings.
So from whatever corner of the globe you reside, from within whatever doctrine, religion or faith you believe, I wish you love and peace on this day and every day that follows.

the big question

well well well 3 of them thar holes in the ground. If you are not walking with your eyes open you could fall into one of them thar holes!
is it just my imagination or did another of those things called a ' year ', which we humans who live by the calendar that Pope Gregory XIII created in 1582, ... did another of those 'years' just roll on by?
My profile photo is kind of irrelevant, here is a shot of that little grandson of mine now;


what have I learned from the year that Pope Gregory XIII would have us call 2009, ... at times it seems I have learned buggar all and yet I must reflect that I have met more wonderful people than arseholes, so maybe I learned that there are less baddies than there are goodies, I just have to make sure I don't do what the mainstream media tends to do and dwell on the negative. It may sell papers and TV ratings, but it sure as hell can lead to depressive head spaces!
I learned that the leaders of the worlds economies are not much smarter than the average joe blow. If they truly believe that the result of an almost hysteric period of global greed, which is the current 'recession', can be solved by force feeding the fatted cow with printed money to encourage more gourging, they must actually be either getting a major pay off themselves or maybe just be bloody ignorant. Mind you the french do do a damn fine pate by force feeding ducks!!!
I lerned that I love my family even more than I thought I did.
I learned my 3 adult children are treading amazing journeys of their own and I have to step aside,... but I'm allowed to bask in the glow of their radiance.
I learned I'm a slack arse at keeping my posts going here at blogger, but I'm a bit better at twitter and facebook. I have not really learned why I do this stuff, but I am known to be a social person, so social media probably suits me.
And so to NZ film. It has had an interesting year. Some local films have been released to very luke warm reception. In particular 'Vintners Luck' created a bit of a storm. The author of the book had a very melodramatic outburst, regarding the cinematic interpretation of her story,...according to some mainstream media in NZ. I felt for Nikki Caro as she does not approcah film making flippantly.
Under the Mountain, another well known NZ book was released as a film a couple of weeks ago and again has had a mixed bag of reviews. I got to play a brief non speaking role at the head of the film as the main characters father... and dare I say as a reflection on the regard with which crew and cast are often treated within the industry here in NZ, despite the funding bodies glowing reports of a healthy industry, along with many of the worker bees, I did not even get an invite to the NZ premier.
The accountants, politicians and unrelated celebs like getting along to premiers, and do so at the expense of the actual people who make the work, again it makes good press!
oh oh I'm doing a glass half empty rave. better go.
Have a wonderful last week of madness, leading up to the celebration of the birth of that guy who died on a cross, that Pope Gregory XIII so worshipped.



a shot of me cunningly disguised as a grape vine while I was doing some set building for the NZ shoot on Vintners luck nearly a couple of years ago.

ridiculous, where did that year go

Bloody hell, I blinked again and another year went by. Well the New Zealand film scene has had an interesting spell. We have had our flagship television profile lifted way above previous levels by the astounding success of the one and only Flight Of The Conchords, Jermaine and Brett, and Rhys have achieved something very few kiwis would have thought possible. They have maintained their own distinct flavour of humour and being, to scaled wonderful heights on the international TV scene.
Here in NZ they were told by our own broadcasting powers that be that their humour would not reach a sizable enough audience to justify making a show of their material.
We get told here that we have to avoid making material that is NZ centric and try to write or play to international and in particular American audience. So it has been bloody wonderful to see FOTC shove that potato right up the rectal regions of those all knowing beauracrats.
My heart goes out to all those genuine folk world wide who through the slick selling of the culture of greed over the last few years, now find themselves with bare cupboards, having lost their life savings, homes etc etc, everything we kept getting told we should be acquiring.
I trust you American will be bold enough to choose this election to try something different. just vote Obama and have a go. It cannot be worse than what you got seduced into over the last 8 years. Here in NZ we look like we are going to do the opposite and change from a government that has really given our country a great ride for 9 yrs, to a government of the centre right who will almost certainly start to sell thefamily silver as soon as they think we are not looking!!!
We shall see how it pans out, as we hold our elections 4 days after the US.
alright I'm gone, will post some new photos soon. That's my new grandson in the photo on my profile. I am smitten. It also recharges my desire to speak my mind about issues that I feel will impact the world he will live into! lets wise up folks, there's enough for everyone, and still room for those that really want it to work hard and gather more than their share. But making money out of money has to eventually lead to where we find ourselves right now!!! material cannabilism!
As a local fashion label Huffer, T shit I have says, "Peace out"

Luna Rosa a luna eclipse

A real quick note here. I am going to post some photos I have just taken of the Luna Rosa eclipse of the moon. I have a very basic digital camera so they are not great shots but I want to share them anyway. Of course NZ is the first country on earth to see the sun each calender day, and so I guess we are possibly the first country to get to witness this eclipse. It finished with a stunning coloured moon as if a red veil was shrouding it. Beautiful to behold and another reason to feel blessed.
Her are the photos in a form of sequence. I had to get to bed and so could not wait up to photograph the passing of the eclipse.
I shall get another post up in a few days as I would like to rave about some new found friends I have had the privilege of spending time with lately.


The beginning












FINI as they say at the end of french films!!!

a right royal Sir Ian McKellen, A japanese flag and drugs!!!

for some reason, not totally known to me even, this is how I currently look ...getting ready for a shakespeare maybe!!!




what I may look like if I was on drugs...


what I might look like if YOU'RE on drugs!

These photos were taken during a workshop on digital photography I attended in the weekend. When I saw these shots it was immediately apparent that this was the universe showing me something...maybe its time to stop the drugs!...not that I do drugs...hell no not me,...well not much..you know,..if at all... cause the clouds quite often look 3D even without drugs...if you know what I mean,..




Gidday, t'is now Tuesday 21st of august ( as you are probably aware august is the 8th month of the gregorian calender, however, this was not always the case!!!, originally august was named Sextilis, because it was the sixth month in the ancient Roman calendar. Then around 8 BC, while ol' Augustus was doing his conquering thing all over the place, sextilis was renamed after him, because several of the most significant events in his rise to power, culminating in the fall of Alexandria, happened in this month. Originally, August had 29 days, then along came Julius salad,... I mean Caesar salad,.. bugger I mean Julius Caesar, and lo and behold around 45 BC, Mrs Caesars boy Julius threw in a couple more days, giving august its present total of 31 days. Maybe George Bush might want to add a couple of days during his reign of terror.
Just in case you're into flowers or stones, August's flower is the gladiolus ( think Dame Edna Everage ), or poppy, and its birthstone is the peridot, sardonyx, or sapphire.
there ya bloody go!!!
Permit me if you will, to launch straight into a rave about a young fella by the name of... Sir Ian McKellen.
T'was during the filming of Lord Of The Rings, that I had the pleasure of spending time in this fine gentlemans company, on a number of occassions. These instances included sharing his makeup bus a couple of times ( he had the kick arse wig on the gig, well maybe a tie between his and Orlando Blooms, both the long white blondie styles,... but please!.... don't get me started on those poncey elves!!! ). It was also a priviledge to be invited to his abode in Wellington for lunch with a few others on one occassion. Then my last day of filming happened to coincide with Ian and Billy Boyds last days of shooting LOTR, so we were presented with swords by Mr P Jackson at the same function. I should confess Ian and Peter Jackson were probably the only two people I tended to withdraw into a form of "personality shell" around. Having wondered why the hell I was like that, I have deduced that it was because I was in so much in awe of them. Sounds strange to be saying that, but it's true. I really didn't feel like I had a lot to contribute to events in their company, they both seemed so onto it, as it were, and they both have such great intellects and wit, so I would tend to rabbit on to others ( not saying that the others were any less onto it!!! ) but that's the way it was, I would be as exciting as a piece of rock around these guys. I think I just felt humbled to be in their company,... or maybe I am part rock...
Why the rave? well on saturday night just gone, my wonderful agent Imogen Johnson managed to hussle a couple of tickets for me to get along and witness Sir Ian live on stage, here in Auckland, performing the role of King Lear as a member of the one and only Royal Shakespere Company. It was bloody superb to see this company in town, and at the after match function I got to meet up with a few of the actors who were all wonderfully down to earth, great people to chat with, in between sips of various liquids. However the big impact of the night was witnessing Ian McKellen do his thing on stage. Truely, I sat absolutely elated at times by his performance. As a performer, to sit there and watch what he was doing on stage, I felt I was in the company of someone who is a genius in their domain. I was overwhelmed at times with the desire to jump up and start acting right there and then...dangerous, as I was sitting in the front row of the balcony! You know how sometimes when you listen to certain music that gets you going, you just bust out a couple of lines, well I was in a packed 2,000 seat theatre and just wanted to bust out some the lines as Ian was doing them!!! Bloody brilliant,... thankyou Ian , thanks RSC, thanks Jacqui and Linden from the Edge, and most of all,... thanks Mum ( she wasn't there, but at this point, it just feels right to say thanks Mum! ).
If you want to see some photos of the after match function go here...http://www.wireimage.com/GalleryListing.asp?nbc1=1&navtyp=CAL====284828&ym=200708

And now for something totally unrelated,... I want to find out what this WW 11 japanese flag is about. Could anyone who can read Japanese or knows about Japanese insignia etc, let me know please. Take a look and contact me through this blog, or contact me at my website www.bruce-hopkins.com.


Finally, remember to stream www.radiolive.co.nz from 1am -6am NZ time and listen to me ( Les ) as part of The Dawn Patrol with Des and Les, we call oursleves the Duvet brothers...the warmest show on radio and in a bizarre twist of fate we happen to be the most listened to english speaking New Zealand talkback radio show in China ( over there they know us as the chen xi dao hang )...you can take part in the show by sending us emails at desandles@radiolive.co.nz.

That's it from me for now. Be responsible for your life, don't blame others and don't re-elect goverments who are comprised of dickheads!!!
As incredible creatures, this life and this world are ours for the taking if we so desire, there's actually enough for all of us. Don't be greedy, learn to share a little. Thanks Sir Ian and all the others at the RSC for sharing your talent.
night night..... if I snore roll me over or just give me a jab in the ribs.....ZZZzzzzzzzzz.........