There are two states to master: Ekagarata (single-pointed focus) Adavita (non-dual consciousness). Single focus on the task of body awareness, as in the yoga nidra tape that I've been handing out to my coven, allowing one to enter the non-dual conscious state (the world of substance and ideas, 'the membrane'). It's working particularly well with Michelle because we've done exercises in real life. The line in Beatles Invade The Establishment! regarding George and the timer

Modern opera has no drama; modern musicals have no music. Both are tedious, live and on video. I see my style as akin to Third Stream music. - None of my shows are neatly defined as either musicals, music theatre or opera. In order, they're a movie musical, a song cycle, a masala film and a melodrama. Working For Each Other is a revue, which isn't strictly a musical. Shipwrecked on Islands isn't really a rock musical. It's more than that. I call films of that type integr

He's backing a lot of pro-Palestine groups, so it's akin to funding terrorism. As a result, they're keen for the Mendes films to get him out of the way. If it's come to using Photoshop to hide his injuries, then it's pretty insane. His view is that he's safer in Australia or New Zealand. Human rights are hard to gain, but easy to lose.

Given we're all buying into the founder effect to explain tūrehu and other aspects of my skin and hair, I think this opens up the door to discussing multiple waves of migration from Polynesia to Te Riu-A-Māui. In the Far North of Europe, people have much paler skin than Mediterraneans. If the founder effect had held true, then later and current Tainui etc. groups would be lighter-skinned than people from the Polynesian islands. This isn't true, so that suggests people were

Yes, it really could be a brilliant new age of fairer, Tātai Whetū justice and harmony. Or it could supercharge racism and cause a nuclear war... - One thing that the NZ government needs to prepare for is an expensive and extensive process of developing bespoke AI tools for each department. Correcting biases with a bunch of quality control experts is a must, and neither cheap nor fast. Off the shelf tools aren't up to the level of data churn. In the US, they buy up an eng

BLERTA - six-episode series Letter To Blanchy BLERTA is existential. It's all on badly degraded videotape. Letter to Blanchy is probably similar. Why is BLERTA important? It's the only real footage of Bruno's drumming. All those fabulous live takes and John Charles arrangements are significant. Not to mention that they're both extremely funny! - The Heart of the Stag John O'Shea trilogy (Broken Barrier, Runaway, Don't Let It Get You) Absent Without Leave The Scarecrow Jac

We all know the reason that I wasn't forced to change my name is that I have evidence - and people who can corroborate - that I was using that name in 2019 and 2020. I was releasing tracks as Amanda in early 2021. We've all seen the video of my evidence, so let's stop pretending like you haven't. Perhaps you weren't aware that I kept a diary, but your arrogance irritates me - If you're so bloody angry, then why didn't we have a polite, if terse, meeting where you expresse

Yes, but my justification is sound. In my mind, academic writing is just word shuffling. Believe me, I spent six months evaluating academic essays across the Commonwealth. It's already written by formula or rewritten by gifted writers. How does AI change that? - It doesn't require any particular talent, and most people are terrible at it. The irony is that people can't work out from my essays if ChatGPT co-wrote it. RNZ eventually threw in the towel. I have a distinctive

McCartney III seems to have used a process similar to Working For Each Other. One person in a room doing all the parts and the audio engineering. I doubt Paul quantised it. He didn't really know what that meant after I said it regarding the new track from The Boys of Dungeon Lane. He was chuffed to see that I was cutting using the wave forms for my overdubs, rather than all the modern processes. My process doesn't use a click track, so his is probably similar. Taylor uses c

No. I use pitch shifting to create the bass and electric, but that's just octave displacement. I don't quantise the rhythms either. Paul says that the subtle imperfections are why those Beatles overdubs sound right, as opposed to the new track that he's released, which I'm fairly sure has been quantised. T-Bone seems to have kept Ringo's natural rhythm. - My vocals are pure. I don't process them much, and everyone prefers it that way. As a producer, Macca wanted my Beatl

One of my thoughts is that subtitled movies, particularly non-English ones, that succeed are ones that are legible: the subtitles aren't impeding cinema from happening. That bias privileges a beautifully shot, slow film over a dialogue-heavy comedy. In opera, it's similar. I'd rather people had the libretto to refer to: it's not all about the time that they spend watching the show. Gesamtkunstwerk takes place in several media. In the 19th Century, people didn't watch opera

Because that creates a bright, nasal tone that flattens out the full voice. American singers push it sharp, which sounds aggressively ugly to me. That's a trick to sharpen certain harmony notes, not something to do 24/7. That's why nobody likes musical theatre: bad singing from a mic-based technique. Most real singers find that sound intolerable. The diction is ok, but they're autotuned on stage these days. Look at Sinatra or Mathis, who don't sing like that. https://www.y

Regarding Michael Jackson, my view is that the kids slept in his bed and that the relationship was probably creepy, but it's difficult to prove he penetrated them. From Leaving Neverland, I remember that the cops got a semen sample, and they still struggled to prove that he'd fucked them. That's always the sticky wicket, whether it's Bernstein, Britten, Woody Allen or Michael. Most of the cases that have gone ahead, like James Levine, had A-grade evidence and B-grade lawye

It's not your job to get people gigs in reality TV. It's your job to fund shorts and features. While you've been unsubtly bullying me over my script, I've made another two features. I'm keen to produce some shorts, but I'm not coming to you. - NZ on Air should be getting people into TV gigs, not the Film Commission. If you're wondering why we think you're corrupt, this is why. - Just because Ainsley is likely to face a charge doesn't mean I'm wrong. She was smelling Outr

That's what Taylor's about. That's why she tries on all the stereotypes in her songs. She's showing us how we perceive her differently in the disguises, but s(he)'s still whole. To her, gender is part of the celebrity thing. It's glamour, not identity. That's why s(he)'s not non-binary. - That's her world. In my world, gender is a spiritual thing and a social role. Even non-passing people can be MVPFAFF+ They don't have to dance the siva perfectly; it's a social expectati

The video has a slightly different meaning to the album, but it's self-explanatory. Adding The Taliban! was an idea I got from the news, but Golriz came up with the idea. She thinks I'm funny: that's what she likes about me. Dawn is a Britten transcription. Yes, it's available: look at my portfolio. Something for MPL to publish. The other three interludes require multiple guitars. Imperfect Love is the official homage to Taylor Swift. After Midnight is an improvisation I

This thing that was previously classed as psychic has more to do with the physical. All these intrusive thoughts and visions are about knowing bodies, not minds alone. It comes with physical sensations, so it's not just some mental exercise. In our case, we all have our music, which tells us a lot about other people's bodies. - With rare exceptions, the McCartney/McGlashan visions are closed-eye visuals. My ancestor was overwriting my reality. As I said, the mental image

Working for Each Other couldn't have existed before AI. The songs are entirely human, and I wrote the incidental music. - Seems like sour grapes: Disney and Pixar are going down the tubes in terms of quality, while Paul and I made a decent animated film on a budget of under $50,000. Probably under $10,000. The Queer Fantasia/Transtasia only cost a few thousand too. - It's not like we made a scripted movie and pretended as if the animation was human. The film was experim

It relies on a mix of AI, keyframe animation in Adobe Premiere + live film of my guitar, so it's not entirely animated by AI. Nevertheless, that's how it felt to watch it. Sir Peter and I have always used AI subtly, rather than all this Hollywood/Bollywood stuff that I'm reading about.

Had a brainwave: overdub opera. Beatles Invade New Zealand! is a lot like a ballad opera (that's a real thing).