The TV meme

Despite the Summery weather, here's the meme for those who prefer to stay inside (via Bjørn's blog).

01. Name a TV show series in which you have seen every episode at least twice: Fawlty Towers; Shameless; Absolutely Fabulous; Blackadder; Creature Comforts
02. Name a show you can't miss: The Royle Family; The Catherine Tate Show
03. Name an actor that would make you more inclined to watch a show: Sue Johnston; Ray Winstone
04. Name an actor who would make you less likely to watch a show: most American actors
05. Name a show you can, and do, quote from: Blackadder
06. Name a show you like that no one else enjoys: The Kingdom
07. Name a TV show which you've been known to sing the theme song: The Sweeney (opening, closing)
08. Name a show you would recommend everyone to watch: Shameless
09. Name a TV series you own: Brideshead Revisited; Twin Peaks; The Royle Family
10. Name an actor who launched his/her entertainment career in another
medium, but has surprised you with his/her acting choices in television: Vinnie Jones
11. What is your favorite episode of your favorite series? The Beer episode of Blackadder II
12. Name a show you keep meaning to watch, but you just haven't gotten around to yet: The Sopranos
13. Ever quit watching a show because it was so bad? Desperate Housewives
14. Name a show that's made you cry multiple times: none
15. What do you eat when you watch TV? Potato chips? Chocolate? Wine, chocolate
16. How often do you watch TV? It's my job
17. What's the last TV show you watched? The Queen of Sheba episode of The Royle Family
18. What's your favourite/preferred genre of TV? Comedy; crime
19. What was the first TV show you were obsessed with? UFO, especially with Michael Billington and Ed Bishop
20. What TV show do you wish you never watched? Sharpe
21. What's the weirdest show you enjoyed? Twin Peaks
22. What TV show scared you the most? UFO, see question 19 (the scene in which Billington drowns in the alien's liquid inside his space suit still sometimes gives me nightmares. But SID's plummy voice was soothing)
23. What is the funniest TV show you have ever watched? see question 1

Another reason to come to Waiheke Island

The bi-annual Sculpture on the Gulf exhibition is opening next month and will run from 23 January to 15 February.
It's always a mixed bag of delightful, baffling, silly, whimsical, but definitely expensive sculptural art. So it may not be to your liking but it's worth a visit for the walk along the cliffs on the southern side of Matiatia Bay. My advice is: choose a late afternoon when the sun sets over the city, bring a picnic and some expensive local wine.

The first sculpture you will meet on arrival is one that has been in place since mid-December. It's cleverly disguised as a gangway connecting the pier with the ferries. But you would be fooled as to think this is a useful, efficient and practical solution to the bottle neck that is ferry embarkation. Several ferries do not have the correct upper deck exit gates that line up with the sculpture, so often it's a structure that has to be admired from afar rather than tacitly enjoyed, a good example of expensive ($360,000!) public art.

Over 5 years of blogging

...and I finally made the official NZ Blogosphere list rankings for the first time ever, coming in at number 67 (with a bullet?).
Something must have gone wrong in their counting because their statistics underestimate my daily visits by about 150%. If they had used the correct (publicly available) traffic figures I would have been at number 33.
Not bad for a blog that had the compiler of the list (and former axe thrower), Tim Selwyn, remarking in the past on why my blog hadn't been included before:

"It's just a prejudice about mixing porn and blogging that stops me. That's my fault - not yours."

So now I'm officially inducted as a "public discourse" blog. And I'm proud I'm the only gay in the top 100.

Oh, and thank you, all of the 261,000 over three years, for visiting here. I hope you got what you were looking for.

Hope your annus wasn't too miserabilis

I trust you are all having safe and sane holidays. I'm rostered on duty over Christmas but will have some days off over the New Year period.
A silly season for news no doubt but some things caught my eye.
It looks like the crime solution rate by the New Zealand police got a major boost this week. No, not an increase in convictions for appalling child abuse. Chance would be a fine thing!
Instead the courts convicted a man, who

"stood on a bridge and exposed his genitals to people boating on the Avon, that the boat contained a five-year-old girl, her mother, and grandfather."

It was all part of National Nude Day but that didn't sway the cops or the judge, who gaoled him for four months.
To me it looks like in New Zealand it's easier to get away with killing a child than waving your willie at them.

Best wishes for 2009 anyway.

The Coalition of the Circumcised at it again

It took 60 years even to come to this feeble event:

"The United Nations General Assembly split over the issue of gay rights on Thursday after a European-drafted statement calling for decriminalization of homosexuality prompted an Arab-backed one opposing it. [...] The division in the General Assembly reflected conflicting laws in the world at large. According to sponsors of the Franco-Dutch text, homosexuality is illegal in 77 countries, seven of which punish it by death.
The European Union-backed document, noting that the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was marked this month, said those rights applied equally to all people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity."

60 countries - mainly the Islamic world, plus the Vatican, voted for a rival declaration which said that

"the social normalization, and possibly the legitimization, of many deplorable acts including pedophilia."

The United States voted for neither declaration.
Oh the irony, or should we say, the hypocrisy in deploring man on man love but happy to force children to marry underage, to allow boys to be used as wife substitutes so virginity can be preserved for marriage, to condone female (and male) mutilation, and to harbour child rapists among your clergy.

UPDATE: As an aside, the Pope has said that saving humanity from homosexual or transsexual behaviour is just as important as saving the rainforest from destruction. Perhaps he should start in Vatican City. Plus plant a rainforest on St Peter's Square. Trees look much prettier there than a seething mass of his followers.

Getting rid of nuclear weapons

One hundred international political, military, business, and civic leaders from across political lines launched a new initiative in Paris to eliminate nuclear weapons globally to combat the threat of proliferation and nuclear terrorism. Called Global Zero, the initiative will combine high-level policy work with global public outreach to achieve a binding agreement to eliminate all nuclear weapons through phased and verified reductions.

Each leader has signed a Global Zero declaration calling for a binding, verifiable agreement to eliminate all nuclear weapons by a date certain. The group is developing a step-by-step plan to eliminate nuclear weapons. They met in Paris yesterday and today in their inaugural conference to review and discuss the key steps.

Sign the declaration yourself here.

The 100 gayest albums of all time

A fairly predictable list compiled by Out Magazine USA. The usual Anglosaxon, gay party boy bias. Notable absences: The Virgin Prunes, The Sex Pistols, Kraftwerk, Pete Shelley, Sinead O'Connor, Jane Birkin and Maria Callas. But I am surprised and pleased by the number of Smiths and David Bowie entries.
And the #1 and #2 are absolutely spot on.
Any entries in bold are albums I own(ed) or liked.
(List via Bjørn's Blog)

100 The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
99 Joni Mitchell - For The Roses
98 Ferron - Testimony
97 Janis Ian - Between The Lines
96 Nick Drake - Bryter Layter
95 Culture Club - Kissing To Be Clever
94 Hair Original Broadway Cast - Hair
93 Sade - Lovers Rock
92 Morrissey - Viva Hate
91 Grace Jones - Nightclubbing
90 Kate Bush - The Kick Inside
89 Fifth Column - To Sir With Hate
88 Hüsker Dü - Zen Arcade
87 Madonna - Confessions On A Dance Floor
86 Madonna - Madonna
85 Nina Simone - Anthology
84 Cyndi Lauper - True Colors
83 Bette Midler - The Divine Miss M
82 Cher - Believe
81 Scissor Sisters - Ta-Dah
80 Rufus Wainwright - Want One
79 T. Rex - Electric Warrior
78 Various - The Rocky Horror Picture Show Soundtrack
77 New Order - Substance
76 Ani DiFranco - Imperfectly
75 Carole King - Tapestry
74 Michael Jackson - Off the Wall
73 Various - Fame Soundtrack
72 Donna Summer - Once Upon a Time
71 Elton John - Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy
70 Rent Original Broadway Cast - Rent
69 Frances Faye - Caught In The Act
68 Nirvana - Nevermind
67 Hüsker Dü - Candy Apple Grey
66 Soft Cell - Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret
65 Le Tigre - Le Tigre
64 Patti Smith - Easter
63 Björk - Debut
62 Jeff Buckley - Grace
61 Sleater-Kinney - Dig Me Out
60 R.E.M. - Automatic For The People
59 Bronski Beat - The Age of Consent
58 Liz Phair - Exile in Guyville
57 Prince - Dirty Mind
56 Team Dresch - Personal Best
55 David Bowie - Diamond Dogs
54 Tori Amos - Little Earthquakes
53 Culture Club - Colour By Numbers
52 Kate Bush - Hounds of Love
51 Frankie Goes To Hollywood - Welcome to the Pleasuredome
50 Rufus Wainwright - Poses
49 Patti Smith - Horses
48 Cris Williamson - The Changer and the Changed
47 The Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs
46 Madonna - Ray of Light
45 Bikini Kill - Pussy Whipped
44 Pet Shop Boys - Very
43 Prince - Purple Rain
42 ABBA - Gold
41 Melissa Etheridge - Yes I Am
40 Pet Shop Boys - Behavior
39 Laura Nyro And Labelle - Gonna Take A Miracle
38 Dusty Springfield - Dusty In Memphis
37 Blondie - Parallel Lines
36 Madonna - Erotica
35 Yaz - Upstairs At Eric's
34 Donna Summer - Bad Girls
33 The Smiths - Hatful Of Hollow
32 The Smiths - Meat Is Murder
31 Sarah McLachlan - Fumbling Towards Ecstacy
30 Diana Ross - Diana
29 Pet Shop Boys - Actually
28 Queen - The Game
27 Eurythmics - Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)
26 Scissor Sisters - Scissor Sisters
25 k.d. lang - Ingénue
24 Sylvester - Living Proof
23 Deee-Lite - World Clique
22 The Gossip - Standing In The Way Of Control
21 David Bowie - Hunky Dory
20 Queen - A Day at the Races
19 The B-52s - The B-52's
18 George Michael - Listen Without Prejudice, Vol. I
17 Lou Reed - Transformer
16 Queen - A Night at the Opera
15 George Michael - Faith
14 Erasure - The Innocents
13 Ani DiFranco - Dilate
12 The Velvet Underground & Nico - The Velvet Underground & Nico
11 Various - Hedwig And The Angry Inch Soundtrack
10 Antony And The Johnsons - I Am A Bird Now
9 Cyndi Lauper - She's So Unusual
8 Madonna - The Immaculate Collection
7 Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
6 The Smiths - The Queen is Dead
5 Judy Garland - Judy at Carnegie Hall
4 Indigo Girls - Indigo Girls
3 Tracy Chapman - Tracy Chapman
2 The Smiths - The Smiths
1 David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars

Becks in Aucks

David Beckham has come to Auckland for an exhibition soccer match against the "Oceania All Stars".
Good to see he can hongi like a pro after an all night flight.

Picture via PhotoSport. More pictures here