Latest news with #HerdingCats
Otago Daily Times
22-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Fundraising rock concert for Methven Lions
Bulletproof Convertible will play in Methven to fundraise for Methven Lions. PHOTO: FILE Bulletproof Convertible, a three-piece rock band from Dunedin, is returning to Mid Canterbury for a Dead Rockers Ball to raise funds for the Methven Lions. Band members Silas Waring, Alex Ramsay and Paul Southworth, known for their high energy performances, will play at Mt Hutt Memorial Hall on July 26. There will also be raffles, auctions and Kiwi snacks and supper. Event promoter Simon Vare said the band had performed a free performance at the hall earlier this year supported by Methven teen band, Herding Cats. It was attended by some members of the Lions who were keen to team up with the band for a community event during winter. The trio play original songs with a 1950s influence and perform a mix of country, blues sprinkled with a healthy dose of punk rock and their Dead Rockers Ball is a full production show. The music appealed to all ages, included fairy lights, displays and photo booths, Vare said. ''In some of these small towns we get 18-year-olds, we get 80-year-olds. ''They're edgy, it's an edgy show. ''It's very danceable and fun night.'' He said the band, which performed the events as a hobby, did around eight a year – a couple north of the Waitaki River. He said the evening, like an old town hall dance, started with snacks on the tables and was followed by a hot food supper at 9pm with plenty of room for dancing. ''Be comfortable, we are going to rock it hard and have you dancing … we want you to come on the journey with us. You can wear a ball dress or dress as your favourite dead rock star, leather and denim? Or just come as you are … sweet as.'' He said Bulletproof Convertible were keen to hear from any groups or organisations in Ashburton wanting to benefit from hosting their own Dead Rockers Ball event. ''We would love to set something up in Ashburton,'' Vare said.
The Spinoff
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Spinoff
Event noticeboard: A music trail, a NOM*d archive and the art of Kathak
The Spinoff's top picks of events from around the motu. From deep in Morningside, Auckland, I've been harassing my South Island colleagues to tell me about events happening in the south. How else is one Auckland rat supposed to know what's going on down there? Each time Thursday creeps close (seems to happen every week) I think 'Eeeeeeeeek!!!! What cool, fun things are on?' Then I turn my thought into a Slack message or online search. Imagine my delight then, when I open up the Google form for submitting events to this noticeboard and there's a submission for an event – a whole festival – in Invercargill. And it looks very cool and very fun! Thank you treasured submitter. There's a reason this is called a noticeboard and not a guide or a calendar or a listing. Anyone can post on a noticeboard. Two flank the entrance to my local library, and they're always covered in little pieces of paper pointing this way and that. The local yoga teacher is advertising her morning classes at the hall next door, someone is offering one-on-one language tuition and a dance school lists its upcoming courses. Nowhere else can you find such a wonderfully non-algorithmic selection of happenings, and often only the locals can tell you what's really good. That's why I want to encourage you to contribute to our noticeboard. Performance and visual art: Night of the Arts Invercargill City Centre, especially Don Street, Dee Street and Connections Arcade 5-9pm Friday, May 16 Free Invercargill's very own street-side celebration of the arts, Night of the Arts (NoTA), is back for its third year. There's so much on – more than 20 performance artists, 15 installations, eight music groups, creation stations and surprises in nooks and crannies – that I think you should arrive on the dot to make the most of it all. You might hear Bad Jelly the Witch, find a dance party in full swing, pop into a gallery or belt out a classic with a ukulele group or a choir. They like to say 'there's something for everyone' but it in this case it looks like there's a lot for everyone, including children. Some highlights you may want to look out for are The Amber Temple, a dark and mystical theatrical mash-up of original music, contemporary dance and gritty storytelling; a curious kinetic experience called Musical Furniture,;the walking art train by Herding Cats; and the Poetry Pharmacist that prescribes words for the soul. Don't forget to rug up! Northland Whangārei Central Library, 5 Rust Avenue, Whangārei 12pm Friday, May 16, 23 and 30 Koha Pop into the library at lunch for an intimate performance by one of Northland's own. Dance: You Can Dance ONEONESIX, 116A Bank Street, Whangārei 9am- 3pm Sunday, May 18 $15 A workshop by Jasmin Fisher-Johnson, graduate of the Unitec Contemporary Dance Degree, for everyone, even beginners. Auckland The Hollywood Avondale, 20 Saint Georges Road, Avondale 6pm Saturday, May 17 $23 – $115 It's offical, Girl's Rock is a charity and you can support them by having some fun. Dance: TAPAC, 100 Motions Road, Western Springs, Auckland 6.30pm Friday, May 16 $30 A highly acclaimed mother and daughter duo have come from India and San Francisco to treat us to a two-and-a-half hour performance in the art of Kathak (North Indian classical dance). An assortment of motifs – leaves, flowers, suns, waves, koru – decorate the work of Timaru artist Naomi Faifai. Tauranga Visual art: Time, group exhibition Zimmerman Art Gallery, 329 Main Street, Palmerston North 11am-3pm Thursday May 15 to Sunday May 18 Free For the gallery's 15th birthday, eclectic works have been gathered: paintings on canvas and board, small freestanding textile sculptures, wall-mounted works in ceramic, textile and steel and more. Hastings Music: Heretaunga Hastings Music Trail Begins at Rosina Eatery, 306 Eastbourne Street East, Hastings 11am-3pm Sunday, May 18 Free 'Think of it as an art trail, but for your ears: a way to explore the city, discover new talent, and enjoy Hastings hospitality – all to the soundtrack of homegrown sound.' Wellington Celebrate the launch of a joyful new book from Sallie Culy and Bad News Books at the same time as checking out the coolest pop up in town. Nelson Pyrotechnics: Blessing of the Fleet Fireworks Display Tahunanui Beach, Nelson 5.30pm -midnight Friday, May 16 Free Bring a blanket, grab some kai from the food trucks and enjoy the show. Ōtautahi The Court Theatre, 129 Gloucester St, Central City 6.30pm or 7.30pm most nights until Saturday, June 7 $25 – $79 A coming of age story set in a small New Zealand town in the 80s. Ōtepoti Fashion and visual art: Renom*d Dunedin Public Art Gallery, 30 The Octagon, Dunedin 10am-5pm until Saturday, May 31 Free Recreate, repurpose and rework images from an archive of NOM*d look books to make your own mosaic card tile, oh, and check out the exhibition, this is nom*d. Southland Theatre: BONES, Julian Noel $20 Be prepared for some participation, difficult subjects and laughs.
The Guardian
31-01-2025
- General
- The Guardian
Dave Crook obituary
My friend Dave Crook, who has died aged 71, was a bookseller, poet and songwriter. His home in Stirchley, Birmingham, was a salon for local writers and musicians. For several years in the 1990s he edited the cultural magazine Out of the Circle, the title of which came from the city's Number 11 Outer Circle bus route that ran past Dave's terrace house in Handsworth. Produced by the technology of its day – photocopying and stapling – the monthly magazine featured book, film and music reviews, alongside reportage, opinion pieces, original fiction, poetry and comic strips. The cover-line for the March 1997 travel issue was: 'Around the World: Hebron, Morocco, Edgbaston'. Dave was the middle of three brothers, raised by their mother, Hilda (nee Webster), on a meagre British Rail widow's pension. His father, Bertram Crook, was a ticket inspector who died from a heart attack when Dave was 13. After passing the 11-plus exam, Dave attended King Edward VI grammar school, where he excelled in literature, history and mathematics. Although he could have become a classics scholar, he balked at the arcane rituals of a Cambridge University interview in 1970; he later began a degree at the University of Swansea, but dropped out almost immediately. Dave spent some time in Ireland and Manchester, before returning to Birmingham, where he worked as a labourer, helping to build Hockley Port. During this time, he became a Nichiren Buddhist (although he later renounced it as he became increasingly drawn to scientific rationalism and humanism) and decided to get a 'proper' job in bookselling. In the early 80s, he joined Webster's, an independent booksellers in Worcester, where he organised a Worcester autumn festival of literature. He later moved to Waterstones' flagship store in Birmingham. Dave's colleagues – mainly graduates in their 20s – were initially suspicious of this working-class Brummie, with his vaguely hippie appearance. However, they quickly came to appreciate his kindness, thoughtfulness and distinctive humour, naming him 'Crooky the oracle' in deference to his outstanding talent for bookselling. For every section of the store that Dave managed, revenues rose. This congenial world perished in the commercial takeovers that followed the financial crash of 2008. Dave took early retirement in his late 50s. He returned to the family home to care for his elderly and terminally ill mother, aided by allotment gardening, jazz on BBC Radio 3, mugs of strong tea, roll-ups and his beloved cat, Misty. The home he shared with his brother, Martin, after their mother's death, was to blossom into a cultural hub. Songwriters, poets and local clinical and community psychologists gathered to debate ideas and sometimes share early drafts of their work, which benefited from Dave's incisive editorial advice. Crooky himself wrote hundreds of poems and dozens of songs; his poems were featured in the 2021 anthology Herding Cats, edited by Anne Peck. Martin died from cancer in 2023. Dave is survived by his brother, John, and his nieces, Mary and Katie.
