Photo of the day

The Dirtbag Diaries

Loyal viewers (yes, I’m talking to both of you) here is a bit of a cryptic heads up. Cruise on over to The Dirtbag Diaries and have a listen. The Diaries is an uber-cool podcast that is all about life in the outdoors. Climbing, skiing, travel, adventure – they are all the fodder of this very cool program. Inspirational stories about amazing adventures around the world. Go have a listen – it’s worth your time. As for the cryptic part - lets just call it foreshadowing…

S.

Ps. By both of you I mean two of the 6,647 of you who have been around to the site to have a look. Less then Austin Kutcher more then some guy who doesn’t have a blog…

Photo of the day

Urban Poetry

I could wax lyrical about this clip, but there is no need. It’s not often a youtube clip leaves me feeling choked up and with the hairs on the back of my neck standing up - and this would have to be the first time an urban trials video was the culprit. It’s simple, stunningly poetic and a witness to unspeakable talent. Sit back and enjoy.



Thanks to ’How to Avoid the Bummer Life’ for the heads up.

Photo of the day

Tuesday double-shot - autumn dew

Twitter

For the past few weeks I’ve soft launched myself onto Twitter. I love that turn of phrase it sounds either exceptionally dirty or some sort of aerobatic move onto a bouncy castle. Anyway I digress. Yes, I’ve joined the legions of folks on Twitter (no idea what Twitter is? Click here for the wiki-definition) – feel free to follow along, you’ll find me here: https://twitter.com/KennedyScott - add me and I’ll add you to my list of folks I’m following. It’s quite interesting to follow some folks on this thing. Currently I’m following Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails founder), Brett Spiner (the guy who played Data on Star Trek), Kevin Smith (yes, Silent Bob himself) and a few other random folks. Data has got to be my favorite at the moment – he seems to cast himself as the lead character in some sort of personalized melodrama. It’s very odd and strangely entertaining…

What do you think? Is this a waste of time and another added time waster to our already techno-cluttered lives? Should we care how Commander Data did in his latest audition? Tell me what you think…

S.

Photo of the day

Kala the ukulele

Photo of the day

Cigarette machine in a Queenstown nightclub

Mt. Earnslaw in Photos

Last weekend I went on a very cool mountaineering trip to Mt. Earnslaw – a peak in the Southern Alps not far from my home. It was an incredible trip with some good stories to share. For the moment I’ll post these photos and get back soon with the words to fill in the details.

Here is the ultra distilled version of the weekend:
Fast and light
no stopping to smell the roses
valley to summit in 8hrs
2500m vertical gain
safe and sound
sore feet
good times.

This week in crazy pop cultural news

It’s been an odd week in the world. Here in NZ there have been three big pop stories that in an odd way seem to interrelate. First up there is Susan Whatserface the Scottish singer who has had something like 100million youtube hits in the past fortnight. It’s extraordinary; it’s more hits then an Obama speech and a Britney shaving her head clip combined. Beyond the unprecedented response to it, what I find so interesting is the question of motivation. Meaning is the clip popular because she is an incredible singer (which is without question) or is it the idea that this extraordinary voice comes from a person who is , lets be honest not even close to attractive? I think there are some fascinating internal questions going on here when you see that clip for the first time, you expect her to be terrible, for the predisposed reason that ugly people of course can’t be talented. But then she starts to sing and your heart melts like a fucking Disney film.

It’s the feel good clip of the year because ‘all of those nasty people expected her to suck, but oh no, not me, I was always gunning for her.’ But the thing is I’m going to have to call bullshit on everyone. Somehow we have become a society where we enjoy to watch people fail even more then we enjoy to see them succeed. Look at the popularity of blogs like failblog, fuckmylife, sorryimissedyourparty and sexypeople – these are all sights were you can go and laugh not with people but at them. So how does Susan play into this? Well she is the big un-groomed wake-up call that perhaps we all needed. Her story has nothing to do with singing, her story is our story – it’s a tale of misjudgment, high school attitudes and cruelty. Many will just think it’s cool that the fat broad can sing, but if that’s all people get out of this then its an opportunity wasted.

The other big story here lead the news yesterday (every day in NZ is a slow news day) is also all about beauty. The runner-up in the Miss Australia competition was the opposite of old Susan. Where Susan is talented and portly this girl is far from the sharpest tool in the shed and she is really, really fucking skinny – like scary concentration camp skinny. It was just gross to see this stick figure on the news talking about how she, “like totally eats every day” and try and defend herself against her critics. So we love Susan because she’s the ugly duckling and we hate this girl because she is too skinny and isn’t setting a good example to young girls out there. Sounds good on paper – but there is an important point to ponder if only for a moment. She came second in the competition. They chose some chick why was 5’9” and about 100lbs as the second most beautiful girl in Australia. That is where the real story is. Does our narrow view of beauty mean that the expectation of a beautiful woman is scary skinny? I mean it’s a beauty pageant – an antiquated relic of the 80’s where everyone had Dallas hair and got blasted on coke before hitting the stage. We shouldn’t really give a shit – in fact we shouldn’t even have these competitions anymore. Although you can imagine Susan in the sequel to Little Miss Sunshine titled, “Sunshine 2: The Eclipse.”

Ok third. Here in NZ we are crazy about dancing with the stars. Z-list celebrities dance it out every week to see who is the least washed up by the end. Last week we had the grand final where the openly gay weatherman from the morning show battled it out against the very tom-boyish 1984 Olympic ladies wind surfing champion. It really wasn’t much of a contest – the weatherman took it out without much trouble. I put it down to his unnatural sense of rhythm, perfect eyebrows and groovy haircut. I think half the ladies in the country are willing to turn gay for him. What I find so interesting is the public’s unending appetite for this rubbish TV. Lets be honest in NZ we don’t have celebrities. We have news presenters and rugby players – dancing with the stars is on like its 3rd season and the bottom of the celeb barrel was scraped clean a couple of years ago. I shutter to think who’ll be asked next. I’m hoping that if this blog gets enough hits I might get the call. I will of course have to do something about my eyebrows, haircut and lack of dancing skill. I wouldn’t even vote for me.

So we have inner beauty, the warped perception of outer beauty and the fascination with pseudo-celebrity. What an interesting world we live in….
Scott

The Photo of the Day Project

Recently I was having a look at a friend’s blog and came across a very cool project. By no means is it all that new of an idea, I’ve seen it before – most memorably in the movie ‘Smoke’ some years ago which stared Harvey Kietel. The idea is one photo a day – every day. The friend I’m referring to took a photo of the day everyday for a year. So now I’m not promising 365 photos, but the plan is a fresh photo every day. I’m lucky enough to live in a cool place and spend much of my time doing some pretty cool things. So here we go, day one photo of the day starts today…

Through lines

Recently I’ve been listening to lots of Joy Division. No I’m not turning all Goth and threatening to off myself with the washing line. I think they were one of those bands that was just a little before my time and it’s taken until now to really discover them – better late then never I guess. What really interests me though is the through line that influential art has on future generations.

Like a second stanza that rhymes with a first, there is an echo to the past. Though Joy Division are long gone their legacy goes on strong, you can hear it. Just listen to early U2 and the new U2 album which actually sounds a lot like old U2 and thus Joy Division. What I find interesting and prompted this post is the shotgun fan-out of musical influence. Take these three clips – Nine Inch Nails, Radiohead and The Killers – three bands not often spoken of in the same breath, yet all covering Joy Division. Interesting stuff.

The sphere of artistic influence isn’t limited to just music – you’ll find Frank Miller at the Louvre, Banksy at Luxor, Ansal Adams on Flicker and Hemmingway on Blogger. Art isn’t finite – it’s a torch picked up and carried by the next generation. So what’s next?

S.

Mountain Bike Trail Ethics

As a mountain biker and an environmentalist I walk a thin ethical line. As a card carrying tree-hugger I fight wilderness destruction, despise deforestation and deplore those that abuse the natural world for their own gain. But as a mountain biker, I love to ride trails deep into the mountains. Though minimal, those same mountain bike trails are a form of development. They bring people into the backcountry and by the human presence cause an affect on the natural landscape. While it is easy for a non biker or a non hiker to cast all trail builders with the same destructive view – but as an enthusiast, it’s not that easy. I’ve built trails, I’ve bolted sport climbs, I’ve signed petitions to halt logging and I’ve voted for the environment in the polling booth. I’m Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde all at once.

So how do I sleep at night? I guess I look at it in a purely mathematical way. I do more good then harm. I encourage others to get into the wilderness with the hope that they will gain an appreciation of it and stand firm to protect it. It’s a compromise a tradeoff that I can live with – but it is a decision worth re-evaluating from time to time. The genesis of this blog comes from this trailer I came across today – this looks like a really interesting mountain bike film – beyond the usual Red Bull shotgunning and overuse of the words; dude, rad, sick and other colloquial jibes that do little to convince the viewer that these riders have in fact graduated from primary school. Have a look, have a think and enjoy.



If you can’t see the video, click HERE to go straight to the source.

Cairo to Khartoum – The Movie

A little while ago on this blog I posted the preview of a film that I was making about my cycling adventure on the Tour d’Afrique. Since that trailer was completed some interesting developments have happened. The folks at Lonely Planet liked the idea too – and it quickly became a collaborative project. The crack team of editors and directors at Lonely Planet TV took my footage, my stills, footage and stills from Sharif (my fellow LP adventurer) and combined it with some voiceover I did for them and created a film that I think is just awesome. They really captured the spirit of the ride and did a great job overall. I’m proud to show the film for the first time here!

Enjoy and as always I welcome your comments and feedback!
Cheers
Scott



If you can't see the movie in your browser click here to go directly to the source.

Calm

Calm is word with many meanings – to be still, to be tranquil – for a sea to be without waves. Calm is the name of this film for it was the emotion that permeated the experience.

Enjoy and as always I welcome your comments and feedback.

S.



If you cannot see this video, click on this link to go straight to the source.