Mike Crowl's Blog, page 2

Playing percussioin

First published in Column 8, on the 15.5.91

National brass band competitions are here again. By the timeyou read this, I should be in Christchurch in my capacity as official accompanistfor one of the Dunedin bands.

No Harold, I don’t accompany a whole brass band, just playthe piano for the soloists.

I used to think brass bands were rather at the bottom of themusical barrel before I got involved. Then I heard them play the complex musicthey’re expected to perform for those competitions.

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Car ads

 First published in Column 8, on the 8th May,1991

Recently I came across something pinned up in my daughter’sclassroom – about our car.

Under the heading ‘Embarrassing,’ my daughter said it wasembarrassing going to town because she had to travel in our old car – and bitswere always falling off.

Apart from a door that fell off a couple of months ago(through metal fatigue), the only other bits that have fallen off have beenhelped on their way by our kids. So what my daughter wrote is onl...

Confiscation

First published in Column 8, 27th February,1991

The Gulf War has been the cause of some odd happenings, tosay the least. One thing that struck my eye was a report regarding the checkingof parcels intended for our servicemen and women at the front.

The army, we were told, was setting up a strict securityoperation to check all gifts sent to New Zealanders serving in the Gulf.

It wasn’t so much the fact that the Army was being strictabout what was in the parcels. After all, they had every ...

Cycling

 First published in Column 8 on the 24th April1991

 

Someone gently reprimanded me last week for not answeringthe letter published in this paper froma couple of kids at Warrington School. So here goes.

Dear kids, I was very impressed to hear your school hasstarted a systematic method of distributing rubbish, and that everyone followsthe system through. (But will my own kids take note?)

There’s a verse from Proverbs: ‘Train up a child in theway he should go, and when he is old he won’t de...

Writers

 First published in Column 8 on the 10th April1991.

 

This being New Zealand Writers’ Week, I can’t let it pass bywithout a comment or two from this New Zealand writer. Though you realise thatpeople who write in newspapers aren’t really writers – especially since theyuse word processors.

I remember watching P D James, the crime writer,interviewing her opposite number, Ruth Rendell, on television. Ms James, in hermaiden aunt floral dress and blue rinse and sensible shoes was quite astonish...

Stupid is as stupid does

 If filmmakers are going to do contemporary sci-fi, orfantasy, or whatever you might like to call it, let them sit down and think thething through before they pass it to the cast and the director. Please…

Netflix has been dredging up some not so hot pieces in thisline recently, and the only thing I can say about them is they caught myattention for long enough to want to know how it would all end. I’m not givinganything away by saying it all ends, in both cases, pathetically.

Turns out I’...

Easter

First published in Column Eight on the 26thMarch, 1991

 

What do the following have in common? Pigeons and myxomatosisand women and eggs and slavery and a missionary named Newbigin. Read on.

I was disappointed recently to see a former Dunediniteburbling on about our local Bishop, Penny, saying he couldn’t recognise her authority.In fact, he’d begun to wonder if he could recognise New Zealand in an Anglican senseat all. (Many of us don’t recognise New Zealand any more, but it doesn’t havea...

Things cultural

 First published in Column 8, on the 6th March1991

 

With three of our kids I went to two of Dunedin’s cultural centreson one day in the holidays: the Museum and the Art Gallery. Both providedtreasure hunts, and that gave the kids extra incentive.

As far as kids are concerned the Museum has it over the ArtGallery by quite a bit. Apart from the fact that there are some live thingsthere to see – though none of us managed to find that tuatara – there areseveral hands-on exhibits, particularl...

Road Sense

 First published in Column 8 on the 13thFebruary 1991

 

Lately I’ve been reading endless complaints about Kiwi drivers,about their lack of manners and road sense. One consolation is that it’s notonly Dunedinites who are getting it in the neck.

The major area of inconsideration is signalling. It reallypuzzles me that in an age when it couldn’t be simpler to signal where you’regoing, so many people are so lazy about doing it.

I mean, I can remember cars with useless little indicatorsthat f...

Chess

First published in Column 8 on the 20thFebruary, 1991

Before Christmas I said I preferred to take my exercisesitting down. Though I was talking then about hobbies, I do occasionally getinto something slightly more strenuous.

Occasionally is the operative word. My occasionalinvolvement means I’m never likely to excel at the game of chess.

My father was topof the class at this game in Australia during the forties and fifties. There’sno evidence that he passed any of his skill on to me.

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