The Angels Share at the Auckland International Film Festival

 Today at the Civic Theatre  we were treated to another  Ken  Loach human masterpiece .

 Robbie and a few losers who a met on a PD program thru Harry their warden   discover a taste for and enjoyment of malt whiskey  .


Through whiskey  they turn their life around .

The film is both  emotional draining and humorous .I am sipping a Glenlivet as I write this post

Enough said , get tickets , and  enjoy  The Angels Share     

Blast Pat Hanly -The Painter and his Protests

At the Voyager National Maritime Museum Auckland

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Symonds Street Cemetry Should be Auckland's Pioneer Park

This letter was published in the New Zealand Herald on Wednesday 18 July 2012.







Brian Rudman's suggestion about cemetery the  is meritorious and should be given full consideration by Auckland Council and even central government .Hobson and others buried  there are nationally important and their graves and contribution to New Zealand are surely worthy of a national contribution .

New Zealanders make  trips to the birth places of our forbears .The kiwi diaspora is large and growing.  Many of them  come back to New Zealand often with mokapuna who want to know where their parents and grandparents were born or grew up .This is a natural human wish and we should do all to make this a wonderful, educational discovery and connection for them .

The population of the Waitemata will continue to increase and demand for green space is endemic .Three schools already use the Domain . Myers ,Albert ,Western , Tole and   Grey Lynn parks are working at over capacity.
 The cemetery can help alleviate this pressure and also has some of the best ozone in the city .We should also provide  scented gardens for those whose eyesight  is impaired.
The unsafe area where security guards are scared to venture needs to be addressed .
Most  of these people have mental health  issues which are hidden in the fumes of various addictions. They are worthy of compassion, we should not  drive them to the edge of town but work with the social agencies to get the best possible outcome for them too.

Auckland Thespians come out for Gay Rights

At Maidment theatre last night some of Auckland  liberal community turned out in force.

 Sequined   drag queens, twenty three  actors including Robyn Malcolm and Peter Elliot,  fag hags, stars,  singers,politicians  including Labour MP Jacinda Adern  all celebrated this victory and in questions and answers  after the show reflected on the New Zealand situation .In common cause they drank fine  wine and mineral water.

A proposal known as   Proposition 8 galvanized the social liberals and gay community of America  to defeat this legislation   banning  gay marriage . This play is about the  successful court case led by lawyers Ted Owens and David Boise to the  the American Supreme Court ruled that proposition 8 was unconstitutional .



  Buckwheat  and Tess Tickle doing their bits for gay rights


In the United States prominent actors including  George Clooney ,Brad Pitt and Jamie Lee Curtis have acted in this play. The leading New Zealand actors who  also  taken up the call should be recognized..   All power to them



  It was a full house and the writer was unable to get tickets .