We continue the occasional series wherein Winston expounds on things that
currently make him happy...

79) Entertaining Clubs! First there was the Jazz Club. It met at the Greerton RSA but, despite an impressive series of monthly bands playing, attendance slowly dwindled. So the Jazz Society decided to knock it on the head. Certain degrees of unhappiness ensued. So some enterprising folk from the Jazz Society, though not the ones in charge who canned it, decided that rather than just dumping it they'd try and fix the bits that weren't working.
All this has led to the Entertainers Club, which has its first night on Sunday (June 9) having - very wisely in my opinion - moved to the slightly more clement climes of the Bureta Park Motor Inn and broadened the remit from strictly jazz to 'jazz and anything else that's interesting”. Good idea.
This first outing sees three bands on stage: a bit of blues, a bit of jazz and a bit of the other. Jeff Smith's excellent Auckland-based jazz outfit That's Life are on and are well worth seeing, Jeff long being an underrated force on keyboards and a fine singer. There's also R&B exponents Brilleaux playing their acoustic show, which I've seen a few times now and found really fun. And there're those exponents of 'comfort food for the ears”, The Self-Righteous Brothers, moonlighting members of the band Kokomo, who released their second album last year.
Things kick off at 5pm and cost a very reasonable $10. Monthly bashes are then planned. Sounds good to me, not a bad way to spend a rainy Sunday afternoon.

80) New Music, Part 1! James Blake is coming to the Auckland Town Hall on August 2, hot on the heels of a rather brilliant new album. England's master of soulful electronica (yes Martha, such a thing does exist!) is playing one show here and is well worth checking out. His music is unusual, building haunting near-symphonic mood pieces out of minimalist repeated lyrics and peculiar broken-down beats. Despite its initial oddness there is something hypnotically attractive.
His first, self-titled, album sounding to me a little like a guy with a vocoder and a head full of acid but his latest, Homegrown, shrugs off any incoherent tendencies to produce a thing of profound beauty and constant surprise. Check online for his lovely cover of Joni Mitchell's 'Case of You” to be converted to this unique sound.

81) New Music, Part 2! Swamp Thing have a new album out. The Bay duo, comprising guitarist Grant Haua and percussionist Michael Barker (ex-John Butler Trio) have followed their debut, Balladeer, with Primordium, recorded at Michael's Rotorua studio. Slightly eschewing Balladeer's stripped-back approach of just acoustic guitar and percussion, this keeps its rock factor up while delving into more radio-friendly territory. A review will be coming shortly.

82) Theatre at the cinema! The latest trend in sophisticated cinema viewing is to watch theatre. Yes, it's a weird world. Plays and opera are now the latest attraction at the multiplex and this weekend at Bay City Cinemas you can be transported to London's historic Globe Theatre for two showings of Shakespeare's Henry V. This particular production is directed by Dominic Dromgoole with the title role played by Jamie Parker (seen on-screen in The History Boys).
Meanwhile, down at The Rialto Cinema, they've been doing this for a while. Next week they show Francesca Da Rimini, direct from the Metropolitan Opera in New York and later in the month it's the Met's mammoth four-and-a-half-hour production of Gulio Cesare (there will be intermissions). They also have a couple of plays coming from London's National Theatre, political drama This House and the acclaimed Helen Mirren-starring The Audience.

83) Festivals, festivals, festivals! Tickets are now on sale for Gisborne's new year festival Rhythm & Vines. They are $229 for the three day event.
The festival has been continually growing in popularity, with 29,000 people attending last year, but it seems likely to be even busier this time around after the cancellation of Whitianga's similarly-timed bash, the Coromandel Gold Festival (which promises to return next year). Acts for Rhythm & Vines will be announced in August.