1

(2 replies, posted in Songwriting)

Good one Jim when I first read the title I thought of something else. Clever use of words in your lyrics is there a subtle nod to George Harrison there in the lyrics with her weeping guitar ?     

2

(0 replies, posted in My local band and me)

I caught up with a friend of mine who I played a bit of music with years ago. I asked him if he could play guitar on a song I wrote for Maree. Got my cellphone out and this is how it came out. He wasn't happy with his playing on this but I thought he did a great job.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wz0ORBhhF_E 

Good song good video.     

4

(15 replies, posted in Poems)

Cheers Jan thank you for reading and commenting. I think what is happening with many of the rough sleepers is they are there due to drug addictions.  A friend of mine who works for the Sallies tells me many would rather use their dole money for drugs rather than accommodation.  Hustlers are everywhere in society but it seems the street ones are getting  more craftier with their scams.  I know phone scams are big business in some countries. Tech makes it easy for them to steal peoples money. Then we have also the hackers some of them working for corrupt governments.     

5

(2 replies, posted in My local band and me)

Thank you Jim for checking out my video, It is a privilege.to live here in this part of the world. It has a good mix of nature and suburbia,   Plenty of natural spaces from the sea  to forests and green areas. I don't drive much now days so the public transport works great for me also.     

6

(2 replies, posted in My local band and me)

Here is a  experimental thing I did with my Guitar trying to make backing music for a video I took on a bus taking me home from Wellington City. I did it all with my cellphone and video clamp.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZxEMlt2l_c 

7

(4 replies, posted in Songwriting)

Cheers Jan I did that song messing around the free Microsoft video clamp which I had downloaded.  It is easy to use and for a non-technical person like me all I have to do is just download each track using my cellphone voice recorder.     

8

(13 replies, posted in Featured Song of the Month)

neophytte wrote:
easybeat wrote:

Neo
maybe you are not old enough to understand this song.
trust me as you get older ,much of it is true.(something for you to look forward to?)

maybe ... the music club has mostly older (than me) people, and they keep saying the same thing ....

Anyway, this famous song has "brokenhearted people" in it:

https://youtu.be/A52zhWye11I

Cheers

Richard

Excellent entries by  both Richard and Brian this month That is a good Beatles song for you Richard. Brian your song had your wonderful  humour and it has catchy flow also.

9

(13 replies, posted in Featured Song of the Month)

Jan wrote, Peatle, it wouldn't let me comment on Soundcloud for some reason.  Anyway, I remember this one of yours as I remember the piano playing in it which was great and really added to your song.  Great lyrics and message in this one, nicely done.  Was it your Marie playing piano?

Thank youJan, for listening it was so, long ago I'm not sure who played piano on that recording.

10

(1 replies, posted in Songwriting)

Excellent demo all it really needs is just drums and a bass.     

11

(3 replies, posted in Poems)

That works EB and within your thought-provoking quirky poem is a story that could be about many who have lost their way by travelling in the wrong lane.     

12

(3 replies, posted in Songwriting)

Very powerful lyrics Jim. Many years back I went through a time of depression and anxiety.  Your lyrics express how I felt in that dark period even though I had good people around me.     

13

(13 replies, posted in Featured Song of the Month)

This is my entry for this month a song of mine from years back. Apologies for my vocals and piano playing but hopefully it entertains. It has got the word life in the lyrics.
https://soundcloud.com/eatleville/video … 21-13-44-2

14

(6 replies, posted in Poems)

Piri  I like this name Chackrobathi.

Miss matched shoes and socks each different colours for some of the young around here seems to be a bit of fashion statement nowdays. Mr Chackrobarthi a great name and your writing is right up my street when it comes to humour.  I remember as a kid being introduced to the Pippi Longstocking story and her horse Lilla Gubben. A few years ago I found out Lilla Gubben means “little old man”.in Swedish. I knew a horse whose  leg stocking were different colours  and the owner use to call her Pippi Oddsocks. Sorry about my boring Segway excellent writing  by you Piri. Anyway Piri your comedic writing style would give David Nobbs writing good competition. Mr Chackrobarthi drunken socks brought from the grot shop.  I guess using  the saying pull up your socks Mr Chackrobarthi takes on a different meaning here. Woops Ive lost the plot. I can hear that name Chackrobathi been used in a song. I am trying to remember who sang these lyrics or something close after reading your poem here.

Goo goo, goo goo Barabajagal was my name now,
Goo goo, goo goo Barabajagal was my name now.

Not goo goo  goo Chackrobarthi  was my name now.

15

(13 replies, posted in Featured Song of the Month)

Good one Richard I liked the way you held the audience attention no noisy background chatter just the sound of you and your guitar. If you had a harmonica player join you on that song it would have lifted it again to another place but still it was good as it is. You and Brian have set the bar high this month.     

16

(15 replies, posted in Poems)

One of the best things that has happened here for kids in New Zealand is a regulations that require all schools to ensure students do not use or access a phone while they are attending school, including during lunch time and breaks. This includes students who are on a school course or visit outside the school grounds.
The feedback I have had from the parents also teachers and the kids has been mostly positive. There was a bit of push back at first but mostly it is  having a good effect. I live  near two schools and after many years of quiet during lunch time the sound of excited kids coming from the school is good to hear.. Before the only noise we heard was when the kids were doing Hakas or supporting their sports teams with yells and songs of encouragement on sports days. When they walk past my house now they are not looking at their smartphones. The irony of all this is here I am using a computer to complain about computers. Today at lunch me and my sister will be on a smartphone talking to our sister in Canada.  Later on my friend and I will be over a beer catching up on facetime with a friend who is currently travelling in another country and has been away for two years. Not to mention me right now on a computer posting on chordie with Maree saying get of that computer we have got things to do. Its stopped raining time for me to go.     

17

(15 replies, posted in Poems)

Cheers everybody I have enjoyed all your knowledgeable insights. The world is now being taken over by clickbait computer algorithms that send you content based on your posts.. I feel like many are being deceived and manipulated by social engineering or the psychological manipulation of the masses through the power of tech. Every day I see people out and about mesmerized by their cell phones instead of what is going on around them.
Studies have started to show a causal link between teen social media use and reduced well-being or mood disorders, chiefly depression and anxiety. I guess social media is another form of addiction and for some their way of seeking validation. Social media and the way news is delivered online is vastly different than the landscape of 20 years ago. The internet is now optimized for maximum addiction.
As Richard pointed out when the internet went from "informational" to "transactional" it changed things by cutting humans out. In my neighborhood many now do most their shopping online even their supermarket food and supply shop. I like to see what I'm getting before I buy mostly I use cash for small transactions. I miss things like butcher shops now it is all one stop shopping.     

18

(4 replies, posted in Songwriting)

I like that Jim. "she was walking looking for shells or a man."

Down on the coast I met a woman
Not sure if she was real or sent by the holy ghost.
It was a hot day my body was turning red
She said put on a shirt or your body will hurt
You will end up like a burnt roast
She disappeared before I could act like a flirt
Or even put on my shirt
Not that i needed a new woman
It was great she cared
Cause me to put on my shirt.
Painful sunburn can hurt.
No waves from her just from the sea
Brushing against my feet before it retreats

19

(7 replies, posted in Poems)

Piri that is brilliant. Though you made it up I' am sure that poem could be some poor older persons reality. Loneliness and age seem to go together in the most populated parts of the world. Yet in smaller populations people tend to be more friendly.     

20

(15 replies, posted in Poems)

Cheers Piri, it is definitely not fair what has happened in the UK. “Maybe it is only me,” is an illusion caused by people putting too much faith in computer technology. I can’t help but think by becoming so dependent on electronic and AI tech it is inevitable the tech could cause a major crash and people won't know how to cope with it. We are basically being socially engineered by the powers to be. Everything is going online and people are being taken out of the system. Humanity is being replaced by machines.
Here in NZ we had dodgy things happen by Merchant bankers when our government sold our taxpayer assets with deals that didn’t reflect the asset value. Most of it related to insider trading relating to the company advising the Government. A New Zealand politician who was ostracized by the Government at the time finally got enough public support to make the government have an enquiry.
The Merchant Bankers behind those sales were later on investigated by the Security Commission of NZ. This Commission settled out of court for NZD$20million without admission of liability by the Merchant Bank. The settlement payment was only a little over half the amount claimed by the Commission, including interests and costs. It was less than 1/5 of the Commission’s maximum claim at the time it commenced proceedings.
The same Merchant Bankers were also the prime focus of the "Winebox Inquiry" here which dealt with, among other things, tax-avoidance arrangements in the Cook Islands. The publicity surrounding the inquiry generated considerable public ill-feeling towards them. That company is now based in Geneva Switzerland. As you rightly pointed out the rich and powerful get the get of jail card where as the poor don’t. It is a worldwide phenomenon bankers being bailed out by the government the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. Monsanto is a case in point of a big company ruining people lives. Check out the movie Percy verses Goliath. The shorts for it are on YouTube. Corporates are taking over the small person and everyday people are getting crushed more and more. The cashless society is not going to do us any favours.     

21

(15 replies, posted in Poems)

Cheers Piri and Jim plus Brian, a pint of beer has risen a lot here in the last few years as the government raises its excise tax on alcohol. Pints vary in price from $7 to about $14 dollars depending on where and what you drink. At my local club for a pint what you  pay $7 dollars for will cost you around $10 at our local pubs in our town.  In the main city prices vary depending on which bar you go to.  A pub I go to  sometimes to have lunch at in the city food prices have skyrocketed from last year. Last year $10 to $25 for a basic pub grub this year.  Back to the poem we very rarely use to see street beggars in this part of the world but now they are everywhere. Many are on drugs and don’t want to work or contribute. Also like the rest of the world we do have a housing and cost of living crises creating the working poor.
These people  do it hard but keep on going, doing it tough but not begging. One friend of mine is getting ahead by living of grid in a caravan and growing his own veg and keeping chickens while him and his wife hold down full time jobs. Some  people I know who have full time jobs are living in camper  vans they have fitted out themselves  to save on rent to get ahead. A young couple I know are paying $800 a week to rent a house in my area when only two years ago they were paying $600 a week for rent.  Energy and food bills have skyrocketed for some. The guy that I gave $15 to is a professional beggar and caught me in a weak moment. That didn’t really hurt me but also in the same week I saw a true story on TV of  “Mr Gates Verses The Post Office” which got me thinking about government and corporates who for want of a better word are destroying lives and get away with it. So that in a nutshell  is where my poem comes from. The other reason why I put up two poems this week was to see if I could prompt people to comment by talking about frustrations with the human condition that affect us all. My gripe is not with the poor but the bludgers and scammers. I am not against giving a hand up but against giving hand outs. if you don’t know about “Mr Bates vs The Post Office” please check it out on Tv or the internet.. Alan Bates was one of 900 UK subpostmasters wrongly accused of theft by the British postal service in the early 2000s. In an attempt to cover up the failings of faulty accounting software, British post office management "dug themselves into a deeper and deeper hole" with false accusations. Ruining many lives innocent people put in jail and so on. The British post office in real life became like the Mafia . Here endeth my rant and thank you for reading this.     BTW a NZ  dollar  is equivalent very roughly to 50pence Uk or 60cents USA. So $6 USA buys $10 NZ and 50 pence UK buys $1 NZ.

22

(15 replies, posted in Poems)

In the hope of getting people other than spammers.  I will post this poem.  Not sure who would read my stuff on here but if you are a genuine person follower of chordie give some feedback or make a post of your own. In my opinion this site is all about for the people no hierarchy just anyone who wants to give it a go. It is all about dipping your toe in the water nothing to lose nothing to gain.

Carpark money 
I saw a man in a carpark
He asked me for money
I gave him 15 dollars though I didn’t know his name
Just needed a little petrol to  get him and his family  home
Money down the drain
His children and wife sitting in a car he pointed to
He said he ran out money and lost his credit card
I said don’t worry no pain
Pass it forward that’s okay
Saw him later he was doing the same
People all giving him money
I realized I have been conned
It was only fifteen dollars
Money down the drain
Though its completely wrong
I guess that ’is his game
And maybe I’m insane
After all my years on this planet
Scammers still know my name
Thank God
It is only a price of a beer
There are worse things
I have got wrong in my years 
There is always a scammer
Smarter people than I am
Scammers are around
At all levels in all lands
Corporates and Governments
It is everywhere and somehow out of hand.

Piri,   I get your humour. I am one of those warped people who enjoyed the Goons back in the day, especially Eccles and Bluebottle.
They were all brilliant eccentrics on their. One of the things that Spike Milligan wrote that always makes me laugh is.
The detective entered the room inside the blinds were drawn ....   but the furniture was real.

Reading your last comment on here made me laugh and also immediately made me think of Spike. Keep on writing those comedic lines.     

I've heard of Free Diving but not Free Swimming and OfCourse  the Tom Petty song "Free Fallin. "According to the internet after just looking up "free swimming" it is an adjective meaning able to swim about: not attached.     

25

(5 replies, posted in Poems)

Thank you. Piri, and Brian for taking time to read and make a comment. I wrote this poem after talking to a friend of mine about how teenagers can go from bad to good. When a teenager goes through a bad stage sometimes parents struggle and you wonder if the kid will ever stop going of the rails.  But when and if they do come right you have to put those bad experience behind you. C S. Lewis summed it up well when he wrote,” Getting over a painful experience is much like crossing monkey bars. You have to let go at some point in order to move forward.”