Bright Wings

Petrol tax rise - another blow for struggling households

Those struggling at the bottom of the economic food chain were delivered another blow today - the Government has raised excise duty on petrol by three cents a litre.

With things economically not looking so great for the Government it appears the excise tax was upped to make The Treasury's forecast look a little rosier.

This is especially hard on those on or near the minimum wage, who have a long commute to work and no practical public transport options.  And a car trip to visit the family at Christmas? Forget it. Too expensive.

Expect service stations to up the marketing on junk food and confectionary, as they try to minimise the damage to their bottom line from increased petrol prices by point-of-sale impulse buys which, unlike petrol, attract a nice high margin.

Related articles

Wairarapa: where darkness illuminates

Wairarapa: where darkness illuminates

Defending the Dark from Jason Davis on Vimeo.

One of the amazing discoveries I made when I moved from Wellington to the Wairarapa 25 years ago was the night sky.  Thousands and thousands of stars in every direction.  Satellites blinking their path across the sky, meteroids (shooting stars) making their final journey towards oblivion as they enter the atmosphere.

City dwellers, thanks to light pollution, miss out on most of this.  The video also suggests that there are health impacts for both people and animals from light pollution.  And going from a brightly-lit area to a dark one poses its own dangers for road users.

Jason Davis' video both highlights the problems and provides some ideas for reducing light pollution.

And in the meantime, if you find yourself in rural New Zealand during the holidays, take time to look at the Milky Way.  You might even see a satellite.

 

Related articles

New Earth at night images reveal global light pollution problem

Nighttime` Earth images reveal global light pollution problem

Light pollution hurts turtles, helps redshanks

India Ink: Delhi's Disappearing Night Sky

Light pollution can have positive effects on wildlife, study shows

Week 45 - A Dark Night Sky

NASA's "Black Marble" Photos of Earth: Beautiful or Appalling? (Survey)

Rainy Sunday evening in Masterton

A wet, miserable Sunday evening in Masterton.  The streets deserted.  Everyone at home by the fire.

 

The misty light obscures the ugly pollarded tree stumps in Renall Street.

 

Chapel Street, looking north.

 

And south.

Little Books triumph

Modern recipe books irritate me: too large, too heavy and too few recipes, the close-typed recipe books of yesteryear replaced by monuments to food styling and photographers.

By chance I stumbled on The Little Bookroom, a New York publisher of quality little books. My first purchases arrived this morning.

Produced by the American Academy in Rome Sustainable Food Project, Zuppe is a delight -- full of recipes for interesting soups made from basic local ingredients and only 6" x 7-1/4" (sorry, I don't know what the measurement is in metric.)

The dustjacket even has "food spots" and a coffee cup ring on the back to add to the homely appearance.

 

The Little Bookroom also produces travel guides: tiny hardback volumes that can be slipped into a suitcase.  I'm looking forward to enjoying Literary Paris this evening - after trying one of the soup recipes from Zuppe.

For those interested in web design the Little Bookroom's website reflects the Bookroom's ethos of minimalism. Lovely.

The Big Snow

>

Snow in Masterton, Monday, 15 August 2011

Draw on sweet night: singing on the Trinity Backs

 

A traditional feature of Cambridge University's May Week is Singing on the River, a concert of choral music sung on the Cam River from punts lashed together and lit with lanterns.

The concerts began in 1928, sung by the Cambridge Madrigal Society, under the leadership of Boris Ord. These days they are sung by the Choir of Trinity College.

In this 2005 video of Wilbye's beautiful madrigal Draw on sweet night, traditionally sung at the end of the annual concert, the lantern-lit punts move around on the river and, as the madrigal ends, slowly drifts away until the choir is almost inaudible.

Young Glenn Gould practising

 

The teenage Glenn Gould practising Bach's Partita No. 2.  A fascinating glimpse into a rehearsal of a great pianist.

Go Gran!

While having a late lunch at our lovely local cafe, Dish, I noticed an elderly lady - probably the far side of 80 - sitting next to the window, sipping from a champagne flute.

Her walking frame parked beside her, I momentarily wondered how steady on her feet she was likely to be after enjoying her tipple.

I wandered over to talk to her. It transpired she toddled into the cafe most afternoons and that her elegant drink was actually lemonade.

For many elderly people living alone the days are long and opportunities for outings and social occasions often limited because they are too far from the shops and depend on others for transport.  And for some there is a stigma attached to visiting a cafe on their own.

But not for this elderly lady. She was making the most of the opportunity to sit sipping her drink, watching the world go by and enjoying the company of others in the cafe.

Good on her.

Wairarapa South Coast

The southern Wairarapa coast in the late afternoon in winter.

Martinborough chic and vintage

A small selection of Hope & Glory beautiful handcrafted items.

A trip to Greytown for lunch in pouring rain saw us change direction as we could see the sky over Martinborough bathed in sunshine.

This proved to be an inspired decision as the weather in Martinborough was bright and sunny, if a bit breezy.

NZSO anniversary: a poignant tale of a thwarted career

 
National Orchestra of the New Zealand Broadcasting Service :First season ... 1947. Wellington inaugural concert, Town Hall. Thursday March 6th. Souvenir programme. [Cover. 1947].Reference Number: Eph-B-MUSIC-NO-1947-01-front (Alexander Turnbull Library)

 

It is 64 years this week since Anderson Tyrer picked up his baton for the first concert of the newly-formed National Orchestra - now the NZ Symphony Orchestra - with Vincent Aspey as orchestra leader. A milestone in New Zealand's cultural history.

It reminded me of the wonderful cleaning lady I had in the 1980s. She'd worked out I was a musician as she dusted round the heaps of music on top of the piano.

Home from work one day when she was cleaning, she asked me if she could play my violin. A valuable instrument, handed down through our family, the doubt showed on my face. 

Guardedly I said yes. She picked it up and expertly tuned it. And off she went. Stunning playing, with the rich tone, musicianship and technical ability of the true violinist.  I was gobsmacked.

She explained she'd been born, in Gisborne, into a musical family with a Maori mother and Italian father, and had studied the violin as a child.

She was 16 when Anderson Tyrer announced auditions for the National Orchestra. She travelled to Wellington, was auditioned, and told by Anderson Tyrer to come back when she was 17, as he felt that 16 was a little young to be joining a professional orchestra.

During the following year she got married to a man who hated music and she didn't pick the violin up again until after he died.

By then she was in her mid-fifties, and too late for the professional career she had dreamed of. But she made my day and I gladly let her play my violin whenever she wanted.

Prison system helps grow future criminals

Putting parents in prison - and resulting family dysfunction - is contributing to the future prison population. American policy analyst and prison chaplain Samuel K. Aitchison, writing for Patheos, sees the figures speak for themselves.

That the criminal justice system does little to serve the needs of either prison inmates or their families—and thus contributes to its own crime statistics—is hardly news. The literature on the impact of incarceration on families is replete with studies mourning the repetitive criminality of the incarcerated and the sobering prospects for their children.

American statistics indicate that having a parent in prison makes a child five times more likely to end up in prison themselves.

"We know that intact families are a strong contributing factor to prisoners successfully re-entering society. We know that children who are provided a measure of safety, security, and stability generally grow into productive, happy adults. The prison system, as I have experienced it, works completely to undermine both of these ideals."

New Zealand's lock-them-up-and-throw-away-the-key mentality sees New Zealand having one of the highest prison populations in the western world. Our prisons are overcrowded and there is little opportunity for effective rehabilitation or support to get inmates' lives back on track once they leave prison.

The wider impact on a prisoner's family and growth of potential future criminals needs to be given greater consideration.

Read the rest of Incarcerated Families here 

The dog as all-round musician

Schnoodle accompanies its own singing at the piano

Roy Tankersley MNZM

Roy Tankersley has been awarded a MNZM (Member New Zealand Order of Merit) in the New Year Honours, announced on 31 December 2010.

Well done, Roy. Very well deserved.

Roy has organised many church music activities at community and national level, including direction of the RSCM Winter School.  He is an organ consultant, motivator, workshop presenter, recitalist and choir trainer, as well as running an educational video project. Roy has had an enormous impact wherever he has been. His enthusiasm and passion for church music has inspired generations of New Zealanders.

Roy was for many years Head of Music at Tawa College and later Marsden School, as well as conducting several community choirs.

These days Roy is based as a freelance musician in Palmerston North, where he is Director of Music in the parish of St Marks and St Andrews, directs the Manawatu Youth Choir and Schola Sacra Choir of Wanganui.

Santa flies in

Reindeer being unavailable, Santa visits his Greytown, Wairarapa, customers by plane for an RSA Christmas Party held in the 1960s.

Santa is Barney Rhodes and the plane is a Taylorcraft BC12.