Random Shuffle

Having your iPod on random shuffle can be downright embarrassing sometimes. Songs turn up that I just hope someone else put on there. Then again, there must have been a point in history where we all spent hours transferring our mountain of C.D's onto our computers and some of those tunes may have slipped through the cracks of good taste. At other times though the random shuffle can provide for the odd epiphany or unexpected emotional experience. Case in point. I'm going for my daily run, well day 2 of what I hope will be my daily run, and One Tree Hill by U2 turns up. Now this album was written from a hotel in Joshua Tree and was heavily influenced by California/Nevada and it's Desert landscape. And of course this song is written to honor the memory of one of U2's roadies Greg Carrol. Greg was a Maori who became a good friend of Bono's and was tragically killed running an errand for him on Bono's motorcycle. The song describes his Tangi on One Tree Hill and the album, one of my favourites of all time is dedicated to his memory. The story goes Bono felt he could only perform the song once, and the one take he did in the studio is what you'll hear on the album. That got me thinking about home. The next song that popped up was a cover of Africa by our own Wellington Ukulele Orchestra. Now, I'll come right out and say I wasn't an instant fan of these guys. I went to a gig where I couldn't hear a damn thing and figured it was a bit of a gimmick. I've come round, they're quite magic. As well as some nice sentiments and surely the longest sentence in pop music history ... (The wild dogs cry out in the night as they grow restless longing for some solitary company I know that I must do what's right as sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti) it features a good mate of mine letting fly with his incredible pitch perfect tenor stylings. At Drama School I had a lovely old singing teacher who for what some people may have thought he lacked in technique more than made up for by literally being able to get anyone to sing and feel okay about it, myself included. However, when it came time to sing as a group all the guys in my class would edge subtly closer to surround my mate Nigel Collins and take our cue from him. Nige is a rare talent. A great actor, musician, writer and fine poet. To hear his voice soaring on my iPod as I ran round and around a little league practice session suddenly hit me in the gut. Homesickness. That really caught me by surprise. It reminded me a little of the way grief can do that. After I lost my father I found out the hard way how Grief can jump out from behind the couch without warning and knock you over. Homesickness. huh. Who woulda thought.

While I'm all melancholic and introspective, another thought occurs to me though that certainly brings comfort. Miserable as it can be at times, there are some real perks to growing up. Aside from being able to have ice cream whenever you damn well want and loving someone who loves you in return, having hit my thirties I am watching my friends begin to fulfill their potential. Sure, there are plenty of fears shared over a coffee "I'm 30 and have NOTHING to show for it," but I look around and I have friends at the forefront of the entertainment industry in New Zealand and around the world, new parents with beautiful children and the odd one or two even owning property. In the ten years since I've left Drama School I've gotten to know a lot of brilliant people who have done some quite brilliant things. In the next ten years it will be quite something to see what they come up with for us.

If you've read this far it will be clear I've had no auditions this week. (it's wednesday.) No news on the work front I'm afraid. I'll try to leave the house today however so I have something to write about. I scored my 5th parking ticket yesterday so I'm a little bitter about the car, but on the other hand I should put it to use and go exploring. The Pacific Coast Highway is supposedly worth a drive.
Hope you're all well.

And for those interested this is the Uke's performing Africa. Nige is the one with the tie round his head. Just see what happens to the crowd when he lets rip towards the end.
Click here to watch Africa.

G