FEMINISTA

Well, Chris Knox does it again - attracting an eclectic mix of old and new fans to the Wellington City Gallery to hear his xmas special. I havent got the sound that goes with it but i have some great pics...just working out how to add the whole album but in the meantime here is the maestro...

WIFT again proved it could create a fab night out with all the other guilds and here are the photos to prove it. Note the line up of the ukelele players.... Merry Xmas Everyone ...

Well, ANIMFX was yet again an amazing showcase of digital design and technology with a great line up of guest speakers. Warren Franklin from Rainmaker, Vancouver showed his student film from the seventies that got him a traineeship with George Lucas. He went on to create Industrial Light & Magic with George and now is the CEO of Rainmaker, a sfx studio in Canada. They make films but he is also actively involved in sfx himself and in creating synergies across the film sector to attract work into Canada. He was wowed by Park Rd Post and all that resides within it...and it was over all too soon...its a pity Peter Jackson doesnt show up for these things - even as a gesture...people would really love it... Another great veteran and Emmy Award winner of sfx was Dan Curry . Dan created sfx for the the Starship Enterprise, Since then, he has worked on over 70 features, including "Star Trek Generations" and "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home." Dan has worked on the Star T...

The second ANIMFX is coming up on November 5th and 6th and the Prime Minister has just agreed to open it! ANIMFX will feature a number of international speakers including Tim Johnson from Dreamworks SKG, founder of Animal Logic in Australia who the fx for Happy Feet. John Passfield is the Creative Director of Pandemic Studios Australia and has just finished work on the highly anticipated Destroy All Humans! 2 . He recently sold his studio for $860m. Local speakers include Professor Roy Davies from Nextspace a virtual reality lab in Auckland. Mario Wynands, GM of NZ's largest games studio, Sidhe Interact ive and creatives behind the animation and fx teams of Weta Digital . as well as our talented pool of local creatives. Check out the website ANIMFX now!

Tilly and the crew at Unity Books once again put on a great party to celebrate readers, writers and independent bookshops. At the entrance was a display of small press publishers in NZ - featuring my bro's publishing empire, The Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop in association with Mark Pirie's Headworks too. Homage was paid to Alan - the founder of Unity who passed away a few years back, as well as to author Nigel Cox - whose partner read an excerpt of his final novel...other Unity 'shopgirls' as Tilly called them - yes that means the boys too - read from favourite books and Jenny Bornholdt read a poignant poem about pain and surreality...a frail but beautiful gesture. Wine and food flowed around the usually pristine bookshop shelves and people sprawled across the floor and chairs to chat and reminisce. A great night was had by all and three chairs for the independents who keep supporting local writers and looking after guest writers as they cruise through Wellington ...

So, we cruised into Auckland on Friday morning from a gorgeous sunshine day in Wellington to a cloudy rainy bumpy landing...it was like - are we in Ak or Wn? Heading out to Muriwai to stay in my friends new motel unit with spa just installed, we cut out from the digital life and only came back to Ak and connectivity to join in the Great Blend at this really cool venue in Auckland which Russell Brown organised... William Cooper from InformITV did his thang before leaving to catch his plane back to the U.K. and then Mr Brown from Singapore presented his blogs and life in Singapore...'So say we all....so say we all..." it was a blast and heres some photos to prove it. The Auckland audience i felt was a bit more timid than the Auckland throng...and the L.E.D's did a great set that got me back in retro style band gal status....the lead singer even remembered our band, the Vibraslaps. I have to say - i was impressed and our drummer Dianne was with us too...so we had a groupy f...

Russell invited me to participate in The Great blend last night and I had great raves with people. russell brown does it again - bringing people together to talk about all things digital. We started the night off with a virtual haka courtesy of local Wellington games company, Sidhe Interactive. (thanks mario!) they worked with local iwi and a Maori adviser throughout the whole project to develop a true to life version of the haka inside the NRL game for PS2. It was a world first i reckon. then mr brown, blogstar from Sinapore, wowed the crowd with his life as a blogger/commentator in the constraints of Singapores political climate - makes you realise how free we are in nz to say what we think...an often forgotten privilege. Mr Browns final digital story from his wife was a beautiful poetic gift. The crowd got rowdy in the bar before the panel of new media aficionados...the new GM Content & Interactive at TVNZ, Tom Cotter eloquently outlined thier new strategy - decorporatisation o...