An Explosive Few Days - Erupt Lake Taupo Festival

I'm still in my pajamas.

Yes, it's almost 1pm on a Sunday but I don't care. I'm resting, somewhat, after a kick ass few days getting involved in the Erupt Lake Taupo Festival.

I'm going to cast my mind back to Thursday, May 10 at the point I waltzed into the Cube Club with the excitement of a little girl at Christmas. As far as venues go, the Cube Club is one of my favourites. Soft lighting, great acoustics and a bar. What more could you want?

The festival was launched and we were into it. While I missed the opening performances due to a birthday party I was fully engrossed in the festival the next day, starting with Guru of Chai.

I'm not even going to work my way into introducing this performance. It was sensational. A one-man play - the first one I have ever seen - and it's simply amazing how you can be taken to another world. What struck me was how the play was forcing me to create scenes in my head that would have been different to every other person in the room. You don't get that with film or even other theatre shows as you're delivered the scenes on a platter and your imagination doesn't come in to play with such force.

Next up was The Nukes, a three-man force on ukuleles. What sets them apart from other ukulele groups who are making a mark on the music scene in this country is that these guys write their own tunes. About worms, Facebook and vegetables. Musical genius for all ages.

After taking in all the ukulele tunes and catching up with some friends from the Capital I high-tailed it to the Cube Club once again to see what was happening. I was met with a performance from Tom Rodwell and some friends dancing with The Nukes. What a top trio of guys they are, as they happily offered ukulele advice to this budding player. In exchange my friends and I gave them a lift back to their motel, (the Beach Tree, which The Nukes said was excellent) fitting in a bounce on the motel trampoline in the process. 1am - bed.

My Saturday helping of Erupt was the 10pm R18 show of Venus Is. I find it difficult to explain how good this show was without giving too much away. But what I can recommend is this: GO AND SEE THIS SHOW. I don't care if you don't think you'll like something that is a tad raunchy. That is no excuse. You aren't likely to see something like this in your backyard again any time soon. It's on at 8.30pm tonight, which isn't late. You'll be in bed by 10pm. I can't promise you'll get to sleep though. Go. You will love it. Promise. (Plus it's worth any penny just to see Mike Edwards' abs.

Today I'm heading to the Taupo Museum to capture some live Ta Moko work and then tonight it's contemporary Maori dance from Kaha.

See you there.

Thumbs Up

To:

Bric a Brac, Heu Heu Street, Taupo

For:

Making my colleague and I feel appreciated and for treating us royally!

Thumbs Up

To:

Challenge Service Station, Tauranga-Taupo.

For:

Serving me at the pump so I didn't have to pour the petrol myself. Old school service. I like!

Thumbs Up

To:

The staff member at Paper Plus Taupo whose name I have quite ironically have forgotten.

For:

Remembering my name, which seems like it's not a big deal at all but it's always nice that people remember.

A New Idea

It's, as usual, been too long.

Now that I'm all settled in Taupo and enjoying life, I have had this little inkling to want to acknowledge people in some way for the little things they do. Now, this sounds all a bit airy fairy but who cares?

So, I am going to start a little 'Thumbs Up' section of this pretty much neglected blog for those people or things each day that make me smile, make life easier or just simply, should know that they have done something awesome.

Most of them will probably be in reference to Taupo but who knows what could come up.

Here goes...

Worlds Week News on Twitter

In an attempt to try and blog and share the news as much as possible over the two weeks leading up to the Worlds, I have decided to have a crack at Twitter. I've not been a huge fan of Twitter in the past and still don't really get it but we'll see how this goes!

To keep up to date with random happenings and all the news from Glasgow, follow Worlds Week News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/worldsweeknews

There might even be some tasty stories to tell, who's playing what, who's dancing in The Todd and what the latest fashion statements are around the bands!

Drum Roll Please! Pipe Band Media Awards 2010

As an avid reader of most of the most popular

pipe band and piping publications, I got to thinking recently about how many hours of work that go into the creation of piping media around the world, yet there's never any real discussion about the effectiveness of it all. What better way to compare publications than to add a wee bit of competition?

This is, of course, all for fun, but I thought I would put it out there to anyone reading to suggest some 'nominations' and perhaps discuss these nominations for 'awards' for pipe band journalism. Lets say these categories are for the 12 or so months prior to today for any publication world wide.

Here's a few categories to get things started:

1. Best news article

2. Best writer/reporter

3. Best humour article

4. Best blog

5. Best out-of-line comment by an author in an article or blog entry

6. Best comment by a reader on an online article or blog entry

7. Best photography

8. Best overall photograph

9. Best breaking news coverage

10. Best results coverage and reporting

11. Best events reporting

12. Best competition video coverage

These could apply to online publications, print publications, blogs and any other publications to do with piping, drumming and pipe bands.

Hopefully we can start a little bit of discussion and reflect on some of the media that our hobby creates.