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** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Hi, I'm Elle. I'm based in Auckland, New Zealand. I'm the mother of two young adults, the wife of an entrepreneurial gamer and the Queen of Unfinished Projects. This blog will contain poems, short stories, possibly photos and book reviews if you're lucky, and my thoughts on a variety of topics. Hope you enjoy it. |
[Embed For Use By Upgraded+] E Papa by the Herbs For "Barrel of Monkeys"  , Dave Dobbyn from the previous song was a member of Herbs.Wow, speaking of songs from my childhood... This is a really slow version of this song, far too slow for me to sing along to it, but it's the only professionally recorded version of it that I'm aware of. In practice, no one sings it this slow. It's sung at least twice as fast. The song is a Maori stick game. For every beat of the song, you whack the sticks. So, imagine you have two sticks in your hands. Beat, you bang them on the ground. Beat, you bang them together. Beat, you bang them against the other person's sticks. So you can't do it this slowly or it's the world's worst bloody stick game. It's designed to be much faster. We were all taught this in primary school. Maori songs are an integral part of primary school education in New Zealand, and stick games and poi (where you have balls on the end of string and wave them around) are the two most fun ways to introduce young children to Maori culture. Kids love banging sticks and slinging balls around.  So yeah, I definitely remember this one. I'm not 100% sure I'd know all the moves to the stick game now, but I'd pick it up again in a minute if I saw someone do them. It's been a long time since I sang the song all the way through for that matter, but I'd get that pretty quickly too. Another classic was Tutira Mai Nga Iwi, and that one I'm pretty sure I could do straight off the bat. I used to be pretty good at poi. We'd make our own ones with scrunched up newspaper covered in plastic, and obviously string. The stick games we'd use rolled up newspaper or magazines with sellotape to keep them rolled up. Perfect. Do you know, it has been a VERY long time since I played stick games or with poi. I don't actually remember my kids doing it as children, although they probably did at school. My little sister and I used to sing the songs at home and in the car all the time though. One Day A Taniwha was another one we sang all the time. So many memories |
[Embed For Use By Upgraded+] Slice of Heaven by Dave Dobbyn For "Barrel of Monkeys" , Dave Dobbyn was a member of Th' Dudes who sang the previous song.This is another classic Kiwi song. It was used for (written for?) the soundtrack of Footrot Flats, which was an animated movie that came out in the 80s. It starred a sort of classic Kiwi farmer, and kind of poked gentle fun at New Zealand stereotypes. Which is something John Clarke (who voiced the main character) was wont to do. His character Fred Dagg was virtually identical to the main character Wal Footrot in the movie. Both were farmers who wore black rugby shorts, black singlets and gumboots (also known as Wellingtons or rubber boots).   Well, apparently they wore green shorts. But the stereotype is definitely black rugby shorts. And where the fuck are his Red Bands ?  I'm pretty sure Fred Dagg came first, because John Clarke played Fred Dagg in the 70s. But although John Clarke voiced the character of Wal, he didn't write the movie script, and the movie was based on the cartoons of Murray Ball. So perhaps Murray's cartoons were influenced by Fred Dagg? I always loved Fred Dagg. He's so stereotypical, but it's funny because it's TRUE. I grew up in the country and knew blokes who were just like that. Seriously. Ron Kelly from down the road was just like that. Although maybe he didn't wear the rugby shorts. Alan Moore was another one. And while I didn't really see my dad that way, he DID wear the gumboots and rugby shorts. I shit you not. I mean, he played rugby, but he also wore them around the farm. And it was a thing. You'd see blokes in the small towns with their gumboots and their rugby shorts. So while I do actually like this song and will happily hum along to it and sing it in the car, it's also incredibly nostalgic. It reminds me of my childhood and 80s New Zealand, where all the shops had signs that said 'Leave muddy boots outside' because every man and his dog wore gumboots because that's just who we were as a nation. And yes, I have a pair of gumboots in my wardrobe. I bet Fi  does too. Do you, Osirantinous  ?? |
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