PEHDTSCKJMBA!

What?! Tom Waits is going on tour!


Another fine ANTI label artist is huge down here in NZ: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Dig! Lazarus Dig! has been everywhere.

The incredibly cold weather and approaching deadlines have made life a little quieter lately. Lab work means working "in the zone" with my iPod until my ears bleed, especially when the lab ghetto blaster (NZ for boombox) is always playing the easy listening radio station. Ironically "easy listening" makes me feel very uneasy... don't even get me started about Neil Diamond. Seriously, I'm not responsible for my own actions if "Sweet Caroline" is played. Danger danger.

Not totally caged in the lab, though. I got Red Cross certified for CPR last weekend (they've changed everything in the last couple years - no pulse checking!). Soon enough I'll start leading nature walks through the Antarctic blasts.

Becoming a nature preserve guide in the winter was perhaps poor timing on my part... but I'm learning about plants for the first time in a long time, and learning traditional Maori uses of those plants as well. For instance, there's a bushy plant of the piper genus(aka pepper) that you can make into a tea or use as a poultice to reduce infection.

I'm going to emulate Tom Waits and design a "coming home" tour based on the shape of a constellation... and then implement my plan with the money I've saved subsisting on edible collectibles. If only there was a Maori equivalent to chocolate.