Tonite on the Adventures of the CoffeeBar Kid

Tonite, we go Moa Hunting with Quinn Berrentson, author of Moa - The life and death of New Zealand's legendary bird (Craig Potton $49.99). 
The Moa were the most unusual and unique family of birds that ever lived, a clan of feathered monsters that developed in isolation for many, many millions of years. They became extinct reasonably quickly after the arrival of the Maori, and were a distant memory by the time European explorers arrived. So the discovery and identification of their bones in the 1840s was a worldwide sensation, claimed by many to be the zoological find of the century. This book begins by recounting the story of discovery, which was characterised by an unbelievable amount of controversy and intrigue. Since then there has been an unbroken chain of new discoveries, culminating with intriguing revelations in recent years about the moa's biology, that have come to light through DNA testing and radio-dating. This is a fascinating and important book that richly recounts the life and death of our strangest bird. Packed with a fantastic range of illustrations, Moa fills an important gap in our natural history literature, a popular but serious book on this national icon.


Quinn Berentson is a writer, documentary film maker and photographer. After graduating with a B.Sc. Honours from Otago University he began writing and directing children's edu­cational television, before moving to Natural History New Zealand, where he wrote, directed and produced documentaries, working for such clients as Discovery Channel, National Geographic and Animal Planet. He continues to do this alongside other writing projects. He is based in Dunedin.

For more on this fascinating subject - click here.


See You at 7.30 Tonite, only on Groove 107.7FM

The CoffeeBar Kid is Back

Refreshed and raring to go.  First up is a survey of what's coming to WOMAD this year, including an interview with the wildcard winners - Beyondsemble.  Created from the ashes of the Mamaku Project this new band blends a virtual potpouri of cultural styles into their sound.  Tonite we interview the band and play an exclusive track from their yet to be released album.  Plus news, info and music on WOMAD and other things.

See you at 7.30 only on Groove 107.7FM

More about the WOMAD band Spot competition ...

Thousands of votes were cast and a nail-biting dive for the finish line yesterday saw two bands vying for the chance to get the last coveted spot on the 2013 line-up at the Womad festival in 2013 in Taranaki.


Auckland based group Beyondsemble pitted against Tauranga vocal group, Kougar Sistas fought til the last second drawing on their networks from around the globe. With votes in excess of 3’500 each the competition was fierce to the final second. Overnight all votes have gone through a thorough verification process.

Beyondsemble are Craig Denham, Chris Koole, Jon Sanders and John Ellis. Based in Auckland and Europe the band describes themselves as a molten mix of Folk, Jazz, Gypsy, Tango, Bluegrass, Celtic, Latin and Rocksteady. The band has been working for votes as they travelled the country for six weeks playing 29 shows from Kaiwaka to Riverton. Beyondsemble also reached out to their fans in Ireland, Scotland, France and Czech Republic in their bid to secure their spot in the line-up.

Pipped at the post by a mere 140 votes the Kougar Sistas ran a valiant race and had been leading from the beginning of the competition. With a dedicated clan of supporters Carlee Williams (Vocals/Keyboards), Kathy Phillips (Vocals/Drums), Delayne Ututaonga (Vocals/Guitar), Porina McLeod (Vocals/Bass) and Dianne Burt (Vocals/Percussion) pulled out all the stops. They describe themselves as “a crazy sexy fun-loving vibrant & energetic all girl band” with a breath of experience spanning 20 years and who now “collectively blend together with instruments to create an exciting visual feast and a smooth unique distinctive sound.”

This is the first year WOMAD has run a band competition and TAFT marketing and communications manager Lisa McMullan says: "The response from the bands and voters was passionate. More than 50 bands entered, more than 15,000 people voted and in the end it was a very close race."

"The diversity and calibre of entries was a reflection of the incredible pool of talent that's out there. Unfortunately there could only be one winner but congratulations to all who participated with such fervour and spirit.".

Decided by the general public, Beyondsemble will play at the festival Sunday 17 March on the line up with some of the world’s best musical talent including Jimmy Cliff, Hugh Masekela, Salif Keita, Vieux Farke Toure, Abigail Washburn & Kai Welch, Goran Bregovic, Jordi Savall.

Win At Groove over Summer

We are giving away WOMAD sampler CDs - 'like' our facebook page and then email us at tim@Groovefm.co.nz with your details to win a copy!




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Tonite on the adventures of the CoffeeBar Kid

It's a Kiwi Xmas - plenty of Kiwiana tonite in tribute to the Kiwi Summer ahead.  Enjoy!  Thanks to everyone who's supported us over the year - advertisisers, artists, book sellers, publishers and authors.  And of course you, the listeners.  With out you we are not Groove! So thank you.  We wish everyone a happy and safe Xmas and a wonderful holiday - enjoy!

By the way check out the wonderful site - The Long White kid - (where I broowed the image on the left) : http://longwhitekid.wordpress.com/2010/12/

See you at 7.30PM Tonite!

For Whom The Tinkerbell Tolls

Tinkerbell Jelly. Never heard of it? Well, neither have I, ever.
Occasionally I have been surprised by the stuff – well-known apparently – that has amazingly escaped me over the years of collecting, but I think I have most of it covered at this point.

A Google search – general and image – turns up almost no references. I love stuff like this, a total mystery.

It makes me wonder. Read More...

WOMAD Giveaway Time!

As part of the build up to the best time you can have in three days at one place we're giving away WOMAD smapler CD's all summer.  Simply email us your details to win@groovefm.co.nz and tell us what act at this year you'd love to see and why.  For more info see the full line up at www.womad.co.nz

The Adventures of the CoffeeBar Kid - Tonite

Santa's on his way With 11 More sleeps.  Have you finished your Christmas Shopping ? What Not yet?
Well listen in tonite for a collection of books you should buy, read or gift.  See you at 7.30 PM Tonight!

On the list

• Anthology of New Zealand Literature. Edited by Jane Stafford and Mark Williams 
• Mick Jagger - Philip Norman
• Who Am I - Pete Townshead. (Biography)
• Rod: The Autobiography by Rod Stewart

Bookworm highlights for 2012

More Book Art

Hobbit Launch - Red Carpet



Frankfurt Book Fair



Monstrocity






Chris Cleave




• Monstrocity - Original paintings on vintage, recycled book pages by Monster Kat
• Book Art - Sculptures made from books
• More Art made from Books - a whole variety
• The Frankfurt Book Fair - New Zealand had a representation this year.
• The Hobbit - a pretty big year.

Dave Brubeck dies - age 92

Catch the Coffeebar Kid's tribute on-air tonight from 7.30pm NZ time.
For millions of Jazz Lovers who came of age in the 1950s, Dave Brubeck was jazz. His performances on college campuses, Top 40 radio play, his role as a jazz ambassador for the U.S., his picture on the cover of Time magazine — all made him one of the most recognized and recognizable musicians of the era.

He died Wednesday morning, the day before his 92nd birthday, in Norwalk, Connecticut of heart failure.

Read about the Story of "Take Five" here.

Brubeck's start in music was like the jazz he played: unorthodox. He never learned to read sheet music growing up. He refused classical training. And he developed his chops playing in a military band for Gen. George Patton's Third Army. In the '50s he formed a quartet with saxophone player Paul Desmond that broke into the Top 40 with "Blue Rondo à la Turk."

That song is in 9/8 time — a radical departure from the 4/4 rhythm that Brubeck says Americans were comfortable with at the time. Audiences weren't the only ones taken aback by his music. In interviews that aired on NPR's Jazz Profiles series, Brubeck and Desmond said their musical styles often clashed.

"I was very wild harmonically in those days," said Brubeck. "And the first chord I hit scared Desmond to the point where he thought I was stark raving mad."
"Well," said Desmond, "I was trying to play some sort of melodic chorus, and he would be in 15 different keys on an out-of-tune piano, and there were occasions where I was totally desperate about the situation."
Nevertheless, the two collaborated for decades. In 1959, a song that Desmond wrote earned the quartet its greatest success.
"Take 5" was named after the song's 5/4 time signature.
It appeared on the album Time Out with other tunes that jumped back and forth between different rhythms. The president of Columbia Records was excited that the album was so different from anything else on his label.
But Brubeck said the marketing department was not. "They said, 'You've broken all the rules — the unwritten laws of Columbia Records. You have all originals on this album. Also, you want to use a painting on the cover, and people can't dance to this.' "
Radio stations in Chicago and Detroit disagreed, playing "Take 5" repeatedly.
Brubeck saw the fruits of that exposure firsthand. "In Detroit," he said, "that whole ballroom was dancing in 5/4 — you know, where they throw couples up in the air and between their legs and over their shoulders."

The song climbed to No. 25 on Billboard's Hot 100. College students across the country were dancing to it. In fact, Brubeck made his name playing colleges in the early '50s. One of his early successes was his recording Jazz Goes to College.
After the original Dave Brubeck quartet broke up in the '60s, he came out with an album composed of music he once thought was too structured. In 1968, Brubeck collaborated with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra on a religious piece called The Light in the Wilderness.
Jazz critic Nat Hentoff says he was blown away by Brubeck's transformation from jazz player to classical composer. "He's a much underrated composer. I heard a concerto — it was a religious work, and it was so powerful that it brought me to tears."
Later, Brubeck joined the Catholic Church. He became fascinated with composing religious fugues, operas and symphonies. That's not to say Brubeck stopped touring with his jazz groups — some of which included his sons.
Even after bouts of serious illness that forced him into a wheelchair, Brubeck seemed transformed as he sat at the piano — striking the keys with an energy he never seemed to lose. He played hundreds of gigs around the world almost till the end of his life.
Hentoff says Brubeck's professional longevity will be his legacy. "Professional musicians eventually may say, 'OK, we figured out some changes in rhythms that influenced us to think about.' But the main point is the vitality that keeps going. I always called jazz the life force and, my goodness, Mr. Brubeck exemplifies that."

Thursday night on the Adventures of the CoffeeBar Kid

We talk to Katchafire, who are set to do a gig at Lower Hutt's Station village over the Xmas Break. 

Eight strong and straight outta the Waikato, Katchafire have been at the forefront of NZ reggae for some ten years. Now making serious inroads in the US, the band return to their natural environment in support of their most recent album, the platinum-selling On The Road Again.

Opening for the band is Ladi6 - our own homegrown soul diva whose unmistakable smoky voice has graced tracks by The Adults, Shapeshifter, Fat Freddy’s Drop, Scribe and Opensouls, not to mention her own top selling, award winning (including the prestigious Taite prize) albums.

Friday 4 January – Station Village – Lower Hutt Read more here.

And we also interview Carol Bucknell -author of Contemporary Gardens of New Zealand.  Author Carol Bucknell and photographer Sally Tagg have travelled the length of New Zealand to capture more than twenty of our most impressive and interesting modern garden designs. The result is Contemporary Gardens of New Zealand, a stunningly photographed book celebrating some of the best contemporary gardens our country has to offer. With gardens ranging in style from cutting-edge minimalism to landscaping as architecture, Contemporary Gardens of New Zealand offers you the experience and enjoyment of a garden trail, all from the comfort of your own home.  Carol Bucknell is a garden writer and landscape designer. She is currently the gardens editor for Your Home & Garden magazine and also writes about gardens for Home NZ and Next. Contemporary Gardens of New Zealand is the second book she has written in collaboration with Sally Tagg. 

To have a peek inside this book, click here.

See you at 7.30 on Thursay night!

Tonite's guest on the Adventures of the CoffeeBar Kid - Donovan Bixley

It's a Kiwiana theme!  Tonite we talk to the wonder Donovan Bixley, illustrator and designer about his wonderful new 'Where's Wally style kid's book. His design company, Magma Design, is based in Taupo. Donovan has illustrated more than 100 stories and book covers as well as over 50 books, including Harry Hobnail & the Pungapeople and Mr Tanglewood & the Pungapeople by beloved New Zealand author Barry Crump. Donovan was the illustrator of the bestselling children's book The Wheels on the Bus (2010) and Old Macdonald's Farm (2011). He has also written and illustrated half a dozen books of his own, including Faithfully Mozart which was a finalist in the 2006 Montana New Zealand Book Awards.

Hours of fun for the kids - and the adults! The Looky Book is a puzzle book mostly for young children with 11 different puzzles all with colourful New Zealand landscapes, birds and animals. Find the numbers with the crazy All Black lambs, spot the difference: the mischievous keas have changed around somebody's campervan, find the animals hidden deep in the bush, match the farmers to their animals. Plus spot what's wrong in the weird and wonderful scenes: Should a kiwi be flying? Could a sheep round up the dogs? And why is there a penguin at the top of that tree? For the under 8s.

Available through Hachette - $20.00

Check Donovan's Website: http://www.donovanbixley.com/

Also on the show, we feature music from the wonderful new collection: Kiwiana goes pop! 

Kiwiana Goes Pop is a unique celebration of all the sounds we have grown up with and is the soundtrack to every Kiwi's life (young and old). It encompasses and embraces over 60 years of classic Kiwiana, from the fifties right through to Kiwiana 2012 style. The compilation album will be released on November 16.

78 tracks which have been rounded up and herded into their appropriate pens - farm songs, pub songs, Rugby songs, Kiwi telly themes, Kiwi comedy, politics and just about everything in between.

The unique stories behind the songs are also told in a mini encyclopaedic 20 page booklet, filled with enough trivia to win you 10 meat packs at your local pub quiz.

While the track listing rings with instant recognition, over two thirds of the tracks appear on CD for the very first time.

The Contacts unreleased performance of ‘Ten Guitars' was recorded just weeks after Engelbert's version, and is the very first local outing of this imported kiwi party staple. The Chesdale Cheese ad was saved from a skip bin at the 11th hour and takes its place in our alternative national anthem chapter.

Music lovers can rejoice, as Ashley Clinton and his Sheep's Choir baa and bleat their way through ‘Pokarekare Ana,' while The Waikato Dairy Lab Singers advise us on how to treat our herd's teats (in song).

Barry Crump's ‘A Dog Named Blue' makes its CD debut ("Bought a dog off a bloke who was passing through, for a retread tyre and a beer or two"). And one of Kiwiana's most revered and well known tracks, Lou & Simon's ‘A Maori Car', has never been available since its original release in the mid-sixties. It now takes its place alongside Fred Dagg's ‘Gumboots', the stand-up comedy of Billy T.James, McPhail and Gadsby, Brian Edwards, Rod Derrett, Ash Burton, Gerry Merito (with and without The Howard Morrison Quartet), while Justin Brown puts a new twist on Kiwiana with his 2010 track ‘Good Keen Metrosexual'.

Kiwi TV themes such as ‘Country Calendar,' ‘C'mon,' ‘Graham Kerr- The Galloping Gourmet' and ‘Fergie Fang' (the first indigenous local kids show) also feature.

There's more Kiwiana on ‘Kiwiana goes Pop‘' than you can shake a stick at.

Kiwiana Goes Pop is released November 16.

Full Tracklisting below...

KIWIANA GOES POP - THE ULTIMATE KIWI COMP

Chris Bourke (writer, historian & broadcaster) "Kiwiana Goes Pop is authoritative, scholarly and fun."

Murdoch Riley (Viking Sevenseas) "I have been in the New Zealand music industry for 55 years. Kiwiana goes Pop is the best compilation of local material that I have ever seen."

John Clarke (aka Fred Dagg) "Aahh yeah...she looks pretty interesting."

Richard Wolfe (writer & Kiwiana expert) "From Barry Crump to the National Anthem, taking in gumboots, Rob Muldoon and the State House, nothing is overlooked (not even the hu hu bug) in this mesmerising muster of essential Kiwi culture."

Max Cryer (Entertainer, writer and broadcaster) "The New Zealand Encyclopaedia provides history for the eye ... Kiwiana Goes Pop brings instant history to the ear."

http://nzmusic.org.nz/news/artist/kiwiana-goes-pop-is-the-ultimate-kiwi-comp/




See you at 7.30 Tonite only on Groove 107.7FM.

Tonite on the Adventures of the CoffeeBar Kid - The Story behind the Songs

Tonite we go head to head with freelancer Journo Simon Sweenman on his new book "On Song" all about some of the stories behind those well known Kiwi songs This special show will feature an interview with Simon and music mentioned in the IV as well.  What's your favourite Kiwi Song?

Click here to read more anout Simon or The book: On Song: Stories Behind New Zealand's Pop Classics



or Click here for a work about the book from Simon.

This week on the adventures of the CoffeeBar Kid

On a Saturday Night - Community halls of small-town New Zealand - Michele Frey and Sara Newman/Photographs John Maillard and John O'Malley - Canterbury University Press $45.00

Yeah, it's great being out with the jokers
When the jokers are sparking and bright,
And its great giving cheek to the sheilas
Down the hall on a Saturday night ...
- Peter Cape, 1958

Down the Hall on a Saturday Night - Peter Cape 1958
I got a new pair of grey strides,

Michele Frey and Sara Newman visited these halls with photographers John Maillard (North Island) and John O'Malley (South Island) to talk to the locals and try to capture the essence of what each hall has meant - and means - to its community. This is the heart of the book and what makes this different from, say, a Robyn Morrison photo book. And it's these stories and pictures that give an aspect of New Zealand's unique culture that seems to be passing into history but fortunately is still alive.

 

And....

 

Stag Spooner - Wild Man from the Bush (Craig Potton Press) $49.99

 

An illustrated diary kept by a deer hunter during 1939 and 1940 lies at the heart of an exciting new biography published later this month by Craig Potton Publishing . Neville ‘Stag’ Spooner grew up in the Wairarapa during the Great Depression. His father was an enthusiastic carver, musician and hunter who taught his whole family to shoot and also encouraged their artistic abilities.

Stag started keeping records of his daily life as a child and continued the practice during his military service in World War II, until his early death in Fiordland aged just 28. It was the illustrated diary that he kept while working as a deer culler for the Department of Internal Affairs, first in the Tararuas and then on the West Coast of the South Island, that is being reproduced for the first time as part of this new book.

 

 

Go to http://adventuresofthecoffeebarkid.blogspot.co.nz/ for more.  See you at 7.30 - This Thursday

This Thursday (8/11/12) on the Adventures of the CoffeeBar Kid - We Go All Nuke - again!

This week we are going to repeat last weeks show as some people have said they missed it due to our stream being temporarily 'off-air' due to the power cuts in New York (it's a strange world we now live in! - Shouldn't happen again as we now have backup servers in various parts of the world).

Our guest is Rebecca Priestley, a science writer and historian with a particular interest in New Zealand’s science history. Her anthology, The Awa Book of New Zealand Science, won the 2009 Royal Society of New Zealand Science Book Prize and Atoms, Dinosaurs & DNA: 68 Great New Zealand Scientists, co-authored with Veronika Meduna, won the Elsie Locke Award for Children’s Non-fiction in 2009. Rebecca curated The Art of Science, a joint exhibition between the Royal Society of New Zealand and the New Zealand Portrait Gallery, which opened in March 2011. As well as her regular science column for The Listener, she writes the occasional book review or travel feature and is working on two books: an anthology of Antarctic science and another on New Zealand’s nuclear and radiation history - Mad on Radium: New Zealand in the Atomic Age (AUP $44.99) .

Click her for background about this book and some very interesting vintage instruction movies about life in the Nuclear Age:  http://adventuresofthecoffeebarkid.blogspot.co.nz/

Tune in to the Adventures of the CoffeeBar Kid - Tonite from 7.30PM.