Dear Andy

Thanks to Ben's twitter thing.

5 Lovely Songs From The Olden Days In New Zealand

When it came to dweeby, jangly and cool, we had the Go Betweens and The Church.

New Zealand had this bunch.


Pyromaniac by The Verlaines


She Speeds by Straightjacket Fits


Leather Jacket by The Chills


Block of Wood by The Bats


And of course, the beautiful, Love Not Given Lightly by Chris Knox.

The Day We Queued Many Hours To Almost Meet Two Of The World's Most Wildly Important Entertainment Figures EVER

I was excited to meet them.

The Age's all time favourite sculpturerist and boho chi enthusiast, Nicholas Jones wasn't much.

So who did we queue 17 hours with thousands of the world's youth to meet?

Former Czech playwright President, Vaclav Havel?

Writer of several dozen books of note, Gideon Haigh?

No, neither!

Introducing two of the world's most wildly important entertainment figures....

AMAZING'S JAMES SHERRY AND AUSTRALIAN IDOL'S RICKY PONTING OF POP, SCOTT NEWNHAM!!

Unfortunately by the time we got to the front of the queue, James Sherry had rushed our fifth favourite Idol contestant ever, Scott to a pertinent game of racket ball.

And for those who want great tax advice, tune into Scott's dad, Max Newnham's tax column in the Saturday Age.