KiwiCoromandel

these are the hills at the back of our street....... :bigsmile:

again.. :)

hers a couple of pics of the front of our place and my mothers right next door...the two properties sort of overlap and run together...... :)

a wireless connection?...or is that what the little phone is there for..i have a little Kyocera mobile that i can use as a broadband modem with the right kitset :)

happy greek independence day mate........an independence day song for you :bigsmile: Rory Gallagher LAST OF THE INDEPENDENTS Photo-Finish - 1978 I caught the Red-Eye at midnight, In the nick of time, On the 747, And we soon were flying high. Lord, I had no time to lose, Things were getting hot, Only I know where we stashed the loot, The mob wants to know the spot. They got the muscle in from Cleveland, The fire-power from Detroit, They missed me in New Jersey, Though things got pretty tight. Well, they caught my scent in Richmond, At the Hotel Savoy, But I got out the laundry shute, And went to Chicago, Illinois. I'm the Last of the Independents, Yeah, they're searching coast to coast, Only I know where we hid the loot, Eleven years ago. I caught the Red-Eye at midnight, In the nick of time, On the 747, We soon were high and wide. The moon was laughing at me, Like it did not have a care, But I just smiled right back and said, "You ain't going anywhere". Well, I want out of the rackets, And the numbers game, 'Cos when you cross the big boss, You only got yourself to blame. I won't sing like a canary, And I won't go naming names, Well, I don't need police protection, Well, I'll play it my own way. I'm the Last of the Independents, Well, I play by my own rules, Yes, I'm the Last of the Independents, The Syndicate, well, it don't approve. Yeoowww... Well, I'm the Last of the Independents, Well, I got to keep on the move, Well, I'm the Last of the Independents, Well, I got no time to lose, Time to lose, Time to lose, Yeoowww. I've got no time, Well, I've got no time to lose, Well, I've got no time, Well, I've got no time to lose, Well, I've got no time, Well, I've got no time to lose, Well, I've got no time, Well, I've got no time to lose. an independence day desktop for you... :) :)

Media Portal 0.1.0.10 beta Publisher's Description: Media Portal turns your PC in a very advanced Multi MediaCenter / HTPC. It allows you to listen to your favorite music & radio, watch your video's and DVD's, view, schedule and record live TV and much more. You get Media Portal for free/nothing/nada/noppes and best of all it is open source. http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/Media...al/1098376256/1 http://mediaportal.sourceforge.net/ http://www.elektronik-city.de/ i`ll give this a try....... :) Main Features: - Record, watch, and timeshift Live TV - Support for multiple tuners - Timeshifting, Watch, Pause, Rewind,FF,RW Live TV - Video Recording - Advanced TV Guide based on XMLTV - Scheduler to manage all your recording schedules - Listen to your favorite radio stations (local radio stations using the FM tuner of your capture card) - All music gets stored in Media Portals music database - View your music by artists, albums, genres, top100 or plain songs - Watch your pictures/photos - Play any movie your PC has a codec for (divx, mpeg, matroska,...) - All your movies will be stored in Media Portals video database - Show the latest weather information (Tempeture and 3-day forcast) - And a LOT more.... Supports most newer hardware

good stuff......i`ll give firefox another go and see what happens.... :)

" 17 months in jail "...Ouch!!!!..i bet he wasn`t expecting that.......i can feel a massive amphetamine pyschosis coming on...

he plays a good baddie doesn`t he......... :)

Getting away with Murder..... One mans` view of nu-metal......opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of the management!!..... :) Like any other music, metal is constantly changing and using influences from other genres to facilitate this process. It happened in the 80's when N.W.O.B.*.M (New Wave of British Heavy Metal) fused the metal of the 70's (most prominently Black Sabbath) with punk sounds to get bands like Iron Maiden and early Slayer. It happened again in the early 90's when bands like Pantera ditched their high pitched wailings and tight pants, went to a couple death metal shows and developed into what we know today as thrash/speed. UNfortunately its happening again, only this time thrash/speed is being fused with rap - gaining turntables and losing solos. This being said, Nu metal blows, and really isn't metal at all. Just because a genre is formed by mixing metal with something else doesnt mean it necessarily follows that the newly formed genre must be metal. Take Metallica. Somewhere after justice for all, Lars and co decided to blend heavy metal with pop, the result being load, reload, etc. Would anyone seriously consider calling these albums metal if the band who produced it wasn't metalica? Obviously not. How can we tell then, if a new musical mixture that uses metal as an influence is indeed metal or if it is something else altogether. That is the heart of the issue as I see it. I would submit that the best way to decide is to go ahead and recognize the existing genres that are in direct opposition to metal (ie. the one's we're always making fun of, looking down upon, etc) and realize that any blend of metal and these genres must by definition cease to be heavy metal. As far as I can tell rap has ALWAYS been first on the list of undesirables for any true metalhead, rivaled maybe only by pop (although this new shit heralded by the Vines or whoever they are is a serious contender!) After the obvious blends have been eliminated it boils down to a subjective opinion of general attitude/philosophy; whether or not the attitudes associated with the mixing genre correspond with the attitudes of metal. I'll leave you with a short example: Punk's "who gives a fuck" attitude meshed real well with 80's metal's "fuck you" attitude, in much the same way that death metal's "I fucking hate you" also corresponds. On the other hand, pop's "Fuck is a bad word" attitude and rap's "Fuckin' forty inch rims" ...well you get the picture. Metal is a release from the same old songs that winge on about the same thing that has been written a thousand times before and preformed by talentless pansies who couldn't EVEN write their own shite! pop/dance, rnb/rap all the same shit! just recycled passionless, meaningless music. With nu-metal it might not always be good music but its real music, Unbelieveably its written by the performers! Is it wrong to feel something when you listen to music! Keep your moronic opinions to yourself and i'll keep mine! you emotional brain-dead cripples!!! Nu-metal is cheap. Rock musicians have allways made efforts to be innovative even within their own genres. Is Nu-metal innovative? No! It's easy! Like punk was, but punk was innovative in the 70s... King Crimson was more of a new millenium innovative band in the late 60s then Nu-metal will ever be!!! But what I hate most is their image! We're so tough! yeah! (Have you ever even heard of Emperor or Mayhem (if you want to discuss some crazy shit?!) Stevie Wonder shows more Balls in his music then Fred Durst ever will! Besides, Alternative my ass! ! ! Nu-metal... pigfood! What does the 'NU' in Nu-metal stand for? Naughty underwear? New ulcer? Not unique? Nacho universe? Anyway, the music sucks, but the good thing is, that it might be a stepping stone for some! Due to it's lack of inventivity this music actually reaches the charts! And millions of people that would have never appreciated the sound of an electric guitar in overdrive are listening to it! Eventually, some of them will walk into a music store and buy an early 80' metallica album or something by My dying bride or Paradise lost... or whatever classic band you like! Nu metal as music stinks, but it opens doors to higher levels!!! but that's the only credit they get... They have the worst rappers and the worst metallers thrown together, I wonder why dr. Dre recorded a song with those monkeys from limp bizkit? Well he made a lot of cash... I can describe nu-metal. It's a pile of shit and waste of electricity for all of us environmentally conscious yet music loving Americans (Notice I don't even consider the term nu-metal worth the respect of a proper capitalization). We don`t want to hear our airwaves and energy watts wasted on your trendy hipster "im in style, get with the program" shit. You claim to speak out against trends yet speaking out against supposed "trends" has become a trend in itself and you're totally contradicting yourselves. I'm sick of people saying "Well yeah, I'm a headbanger but some of that new stuff is cool". Make up your fucking minds and decide for yourself what is good and stop following trends that MTV shoves down your throat and calls nu-metal... ----------------------------------------------------------- NU-METAL " As nu here is the common pop-music respelling of new, the term pretty much explains itself its a revitalised form of the heavy metal musical genre of the seventies and eighties, a style of loud, vigorous and often harsh-sounding rock music that was linked to an intense and spectacular performing style. Metal drifted out of fashion in the nineties, though it never went away completely. The nu-metal format is most closely associated with bands like Korn, Limp Bizkit, Slipknot, the Deftones, Amen and Papa Roach, and the genre is often linked to the American music producer Ross Robinson, often called the guru of nu-metal. The performing style is still as heavily amplified and intense as ever; nu-metal gigs were described recently by Nicholas Barber in the Independent on Sunday as being costumed, pyrotechnic riots of blood, sweat and earth-shaking volume, though he also complained that the lyrics were self-pitying and peevish. " ----------------------------------------------------------- Nu metal (or aggro metal) is a subgenre of heavy metal music. It typically combines aggressive, hip hop influenced, angst-ridden vocals, samples, rap-style beats and drum set patterns, and/or DJ techniques. The genre is occasionally called "nü-metal," using the traditional heavy metal umlaut. Definition Beyond the pronounced hip-hop influence, nu metal has--like most forms of heavy metal music--proven somewhat difficult to define. Some fans and musicians have a firm concept of genre and subgenre, but others reject such categorization as unnecessary, limiting or useless. There is often significant crossover from one category to another, and often the influence of non-metal music. Some heavy metal fans do not consider nu metal a form of heavy metal music at all, arguing the genre is too diluted from what they consider "true" heavy metal, further noting that nu metal guitarists typically forgo traditional metal guitar technique, including both soloing and the riff style most associated with the older styles of metal. Other heavy metal fans, however, reject these arguments, citing rock music's long history of incorporating disparate elements--including jazz, experimental music and world music--out of curiosity or genuine appreciation for other musical genres. The rise of nu metal has caused severe divisions and became the source of much postering among heavy metal fans. While Deftones and Korn are typically cited as the genre's instigators, bands like Fishbone, Body Count, Urban Dance Squad, Suicidal Tendencies, Faith No More, Onyx, Rage Against The Machine, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Cubanate are cited as progenitors. Some fans have noted the influence of even earlier artists, such as Prong and Tool. Producer Ross Robinson was labelled by some as "The Godfather of Nu-Metal" due his producing of several notable Nu-Metal albums. The stage acts and video clips of some of the more commercially successful of these groups owe much to some of metal's more pompous traditions, without much of the menace that such stylings used to represent. This fact, combined with the commercialization of nu-metal music, means that the style is often derided by other metal fans. Some bands have been mistakenly called Nu Metal, such as Godsmack, Sevendust, Fear Factory, Soulfly, Pantera, Incubus, Spineshank, Tool, Staind, Finger Eleven, Cold, Nickelback, Creed, Killswitch Engage and Ill Niño. All these bands are in different genres. Backlash By the late 1990s, there was, from some music fans, mostly fans of more traditional metal, a significant backlash against nu metal, charging that many associated perfomers were uninspired or derivative. This caused some bands such as the Deftones, who were among the first of the genre, to distance themselves from the term. The derisive term aluminium has been used by some to describe the genre, since they consider it less "hard" than "true" metal and largely "recycled" from other material. Style Vocals In the 1990s, many bands began to mix rapping and other new techniques with traditional heavy metal guitar and drum sounds. As a result, fans and music journalists needed to differentiate between the more traditional heavy metal music and this "new breed" of bands who were using samples, DJs, raps and drum machines in a way that made their music distinct. "New metal" evolved into the trendier spelling "nu metal," and a genre was vaguely defined. Nevertheless, some distinction is usually maintained between rap metal, rapcore and nu metal. Rap metal is normally considered to be metal with primarily rap vocals -- with a minimum of other styles. Rapcore and nu metal are basically the same thing: distorted guitars and drums with rap influenced vocals. This means that it can sound somewhat like traditional metal vocals, with a varying amount of rap -- some bands more than others. Nu-metal vocals can include rapping, clean singing, hardcore-like barking, and various forms of screaming, sometimes all in the same song. Not all bands are inspired by hip-hop, however: Slipknot utilizes rhythmic vocal techniques very similar to that of Glen Benton from Deicide in his earlier days. Guitar While traditional heavy metal was very much guitar-based, with intricate guitar solos and complex riffs forming an important part of most songs, nu metal generally emphasizes the guitar as a rhythmic instrument. The riffs often consist of only a few different notes or power chords played in rhythmic, syncopated patterns. To emphasize this rhythmic "pulse," nu metal guitarists generally make liberal use of palm muting, a technique which itself blurs the boundary between melodic note and rhythmic attack. Another common tactic is the use of de-tuned strings (in drop-D or lower, sometimes adding a seventh string) whose lower pitch creates a thicker, more resonant sound (the late Dimebag Darryll Abbott of Pantera fame is credited with developing and refining this technique). Every track on Helmet's Meantime album illustrates choice examples of heavy, staccato riffs at a blistering tempo. Finally, many nu metal guitarists seem to be fond of natural harmonics. The opening riff of Linkin Park's "One Step Closer" is another representative example of many of the above techniques. A few nu metal bands have done some guitar solos. Bass Traditionally, metal bass lines tend to be quite simple, often following the root note of the guitar riff. (There have been a few notable exceptions, such as Cliff Burton of Metallica and Steve Harris of Iron Maiden, whose bass lines tended to be much more complicated, and in general the complexity of bass part varies with the style of each given band.) In nu metal, however, bassists tend to use more complex lines, often influenced by jazz. Limp Bizkit's Sam Rivers, for example, comes from a jazz background, as does their drummer, John Otto. Another notable bass influence is funk. This is best shown with the bassist for the band Mudvayne, Ryan "Ryknow" Martinie..... Drums Nu-metal drumming is often influenced by the complex breakbeats of hip-hop. In fact, many notable nu-metal bands feature a DJ who provides sampled "beats" and other effects. The most famous of these are DJ Lethal of Limp Bizkit and Joe Hahn of Linkin Park. Linkin Park could be considered rapcore or nu-metal, and often jumps between. As a reference for genre classification; if the band uses drum machines, DJ's or Sampled beats it usually is nu-metal, as opposed to rapcore......

thanks for the link volvo...welcome to beatking...... :)

many happy returns potato...may you have many more.....a good day to be a vegetable..... :bigsmile:

choice mate ...fooled me totally......wifey`s laughing her head off..you know how it is....they like to see you stumble occasionally.......i will now slink off to a dark corner for the rest of the day.... :wha': :psychofun: :bigsmile:

one more....

i love it... :) :)

my darling D-LINK......

mission control.......

choice pic malicious...were you using a hotspot? :)

that`s just the front mate......you should see the rest........we`ll take some pics this weekend and post them later....have we got a " greenacres " thread???...

Cleo Laine and John Dankworth, A voice that still thrills March 22, 2005 Those eyes still flash, the hair still curls and the voice still plunges and soars. At 77, Dame Cleo Laine is a living antidote to any fear of growing old. Her remarkable voice remains largely intact, and her girlish effervescence still froths like rapidly poured champagne. Few singers enjoy such longevity. Most who try are having a lend of themselves, their audience or both. Dame Cleo - it seems hugely inappropriate to simply call her "Laine" - has somehow kept most of her legendary four octaves intact. At the contralto end she has lost none of the warmth and, while her upper extension may be missing a couple of notes, it is still full, accurate and thrilling. The cause is no doubt aided by having such a consummate arranger for a husband. John Dankworth knows every nuance of his wife's voice, and creates contexts for it that are as unassuming as they are finely detailed. Here the pair were joined by their touring drummer, Jim Zimmerman, plus seven high-calibre local musicians, and there were times when what was happening around Dame Cleo was as appealing as her singing. Such well-worn items as a Cole Porter medley and Send in the Clowns (which was the encore) were made anew by deft scoring for three reeds, trumpet, trombone, rhythm section and Dankworth's own clarinet, soprano saxophone and alto. Clowns was the highlight for me, Dame Cleo wringing the pathos from it without even a whiff of overstatement. Whether such songs from the cabaret end of the spectrum are more her natural habitat than the jazz ones is open to debate. She shies away from calling herself a jazz singer, yet has the ears and the sense of phrasing to do a more than convincing job, not to mention a still-stunning exactness of pitch when it comes to scatting with her husband's creamy alto. If it is a rather polite - perhaps somewhat British - version of jazz, it oozes class. Among three Duke Ellington tunes was a lovely version of Creole Love Call, the wordless vocal capturing the dreaminess in a voluptuous tone. The 1964 Shakespeare and All That Jazz project was revisited, including Dankworth's superb setting for Shall I Compare Thee.

The Growl is a pussycat March 25, 2005 She earned a nickname for being grumpy, but singer Diana Krall now seems to be enjoying herself. Bernard Zuel has a good idea why. There are some people for whom having a reputation as a royal pain in the backside is a badge of honour. They'll buff their notoriety with well-placed stories to the gossip pages of the Sunday papers or throw in the occasional act of bastardry in public to remind us. There's no subtext: it's all me, you minion. Diana Krall is not one of these. She's still bruised by a year in which, somewhere along the line, a decade-long reputation for being a little bit stroppy, a little bit demanding morphed into something stronger. A year in which an already existing reluctance to be interviewed - a trait that is, strangely, not at all uncommon among entertainers - turned into a physically and emotionally wearing battle. For the 39-year-old Canadian singer and pianist, whose successful straddling of the line between jazz and pop pre-dates recent travellers such as Norah Jones, the "trouble" started when she began writing songs in her late 30s. The songs came as one way, maybe the only real way for her, of dealing with the deaths of her mother and two of her mentors, singer Rosemary Clooney and jazz musician Ray Brown in 2002. Her marriage to singer-songwriter Elvis Costello followed in 2003. Read more......... http://smh.com.au/news/Music/The-Growl-is-...1525274109.html

Trump courts Jackson March 26, 2005 US mogul Donald Trump could come to the rescue of beleaguered pop singer Michael Jackson by offering the accused and cash-strapped star his own Las Vegas show, US Weekly magazine reported. The magazine said Trump's organisation had spoken to the singer, who is on trial for child molestation, about giving him a permanent show at the billionaire's new Las Vegas resort that opens in 2006. Trump's office, however, declined to comment on the report. The magazine quoted New Frontier Hotel and Casino boss Jack Wishna - who along with his billionaire partner Phil Ruffin has teamed up with Trump to develop the new Trump hotel - as saying he had spoken to Jackson's representatives about the proposed gig. "There'd be moral clauses in the contract," Wishna reportedly said. The faded "King of Pop' who could face up to 20 years in jail if convicted of sexually abusing a 13-year-old cancer patient in early 2003. Wishna said a Jackson show could draw more than the $US80 million that superstar Celine Dion racked up at her permanent Las Vegas show in 2003. Advertisement AdvertisementThe story also quoted Trump as saying that a Jackson show would be a boon to entertainment in Vegas. "Everything I do is the best, and everything Phil Ruffin does is the best, and this would be no exception," Trump reportedly said. Jackson's spokeswoman Raymone Bain could not immediately be reached for comment on the report. Jackson, who is on trial in California, has pleaded innocent to 10 counts including child molestation, plying a 13-year-old with alcohol to seduce him and plotting to kidnap the boy and his family.

Singapore bans Aids concert 24 March 2005 SINGAPORE: Singapore has rejected an application for a concert by a local Aids support group, citing concern over its gay performers following a spike in HIV cases. Los Angeles-based Christian gay pop musicians Jason and deMarco were the planned feature performers for the April 3 Action for Aids event organised by Christian group Safehaven. "Based on the duo's website and reports of their performances in the United States, it is assessed that their performance will promote a gay lifestyle which would be against the public interest," said the Media Authority of Singapore in a statement. The ban follows comments this month by a Singapore government minister who said a gay and lesbian festival in August last year may have led to a surge in the number of local Aids cases, a remark that outraged gay activists. Although Singapore has one of Asia's lowest levels of HIV infection, the number of new infections hit a record high of 311 cases in 2004, up 28 per cent from 2003. A third of the newly diagnosed cases were gay men. Gay activists say many the remaining two-thirds appeared to be heterosexual men who caught the illness from prostitutes in nearby Southeast Asian regions such as Indonesia's Batam island just an hour's boat ride from Singapore. Safehaven said the concert had aimed to raise funds for Aids programmes and increase awareness about HIV among gay people. Read more....... http://stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3227632a1860,00.html

Kiwi teen faces jail on US bank charge 26 March 2005 A New Zealand teenager is facing up to 25 years in a United States jail after he and a friend allegedly netted $NZ174,000 in an armed bank heist at an exclusive ski resort. New Zealander Anthony Harold Prince and Australian Luke Gabriel Carroll, both 19, were arrested on Wednesday at Denver International Airport as they attempted to flee the country. The pair have been charged with the armed robbery of a WestStar Bank branch in Vail, Colorado, a popular and expensive ski destination. Vail detective Ryan Millburn yesterday told The Press the robbers were wearing ski masks and brandishing handguns, possibly BB guns, when they stormed the bank about 10.10am on Monday. Such incidents were "very unusual" in Vail, he said. The men confronted two female tellers, threw one of them to the ground and demanded the other open the bank vault and hand over bundles of cash, before fleeing. "We are very grateful there were no injuries and no shots were fired," Millburn said. According to the charge sheet filed at the court, the tellers described the robbers as "familiar and speaking with an accent". A spokesman for the US Attorney's Office in Colorado, Jeff Dorschner, said the pair escaped with about $US132,000 ($NZ174,000). Photos of the pair, who were midway through their second season at Vail, were circulated after the robbery. A Denver detective had just received copies at Denver International Airport when he spotted Carroll and Prince in line at a security checkpoint. Read on.......... http://stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3228179a10,00.html

Japan movies giving the world the creeps 25.03.05 1.00pm TOKYO - Whether they come crawling out of television screens or slither malevolently from gloomy bedroom closets, Japanese ghosts are emerging to haunt movie audiences around the world. The Japanese-directed horror film "The Ring Two" grabbed the top spot at US movie theaters last weekend, following a pattern set by "The Ring," and "The Grudge," two remakes of Japanese horror films that have racked up spooky successes at the box office. "Dark Water," yet another Japanese horror remake, is set for release later in the year. Takashige Ichise, producer of several of the eerie films that started a horror boom in Japan in the late 1990s and have translated into big bucks at the international box office, is confident of the reason for their appeal. "Japanese horror is scarier than American horror," he said in an interview. "Japanese films show ghosts coming into people’s everyday lives. When the audience goes home, in the elevator, in the bath, wherever they are, they will still feel afraid," he added. "That eerie feeling lasts." Joe Drake, President of Mandate Pictures and executive producer on "The Grudge," sees the Japanese style as an attractive novelty. Read more............ http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=1...jectID=10117102