Turning off, tuning in

I'm in a hotel in the wind-scoured heart of Kilbirnie, somewhere under the intricate flight paths of gulls and cut-price airliners, trying to avoid the giant TV screens that show the Black Caps batting order crumbling yet again (I reckon John Bracewell is the worst coach in any sporting code since John Mitchell, and he doesn't even have Mitchell's excuse of non-terrestrial origins). The hotel is over-run by blind people and labradors holding some sort of convention (is it for the dogs, or for the blind folk?), and I'm sure I saw a couple of old ladies drop their canes and cover their ears as they passed the blaring screen and heard another Kiwi wicket fall.

I'm going to turn off the cricket and tune in to Bill Direen and The Bilders, who will be busy doing promotional work over the next few days, as the release date for their album Chrysanthemum Storm and the beginning of their national tour both approach. Bill will be appearing on the nationwide Radio Live network tomorrow from two o'clock, to talk to fellow Flying Nun legend Graham Humphries (aka Hill) about the new album. The Bilders will take a break from rehearsals to take over Auckland's Fleet FM on Monday from one until three o'clock (although Fleet has a limited broadcasting range, you can listen to the station online). There are other radio dates I don't know - perhaps band members and fans can leave the details in the comments box?

My piece on Nazi pseudo-history has prompted some interesting responses, as well as some foam-flecked discourse by the heirs of Himmler and Yockey. StephenJudd has contributed a succint description of the methodology of the 'Nazi nutbars' in the Celtic New Zealand circle:

First, you self-publish. Then, you submit an article to a minor periodical, referencing the self-published material. Then you can write works that have credible-seeming references and other scholarly apparatus, pointing to the periodical. And so on, until an edifice of pseudo-learning is erected where the faithful strengthen their idiot prejudices and the innocent can be duped into acquiring them.

Well said. I just wish the nutbars would find a less harmful absurdity to champion. Perhaps they could begin to make the case for John Bracewell's coaching prowess?