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Rest Up, Fight Back
Intro: F7-F7sus4 F7 It's not a big surprise Bb9 So don't feign dismay F7 They're the same old cries Db7 Ab7 While the children play C7 They're the same old boots B7 Acting in cahoots Bb9 Stomping on our throats F#7 F7 While the Eggman gloats Dmaj7 Amaj7 Charity isn't easy to find F#7 As you wind up in the middle B7 of another dirty riddle Dmaj7 Amaj7 Clarity isn't easy just for the
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Amanda Riddell
2 days ago1 min read
Ad song
D Sticking to a lamp post Asus4 A Inches from the drain D I am just a story A7 D People don't explain D Could be selling undies Asus4 A Could be selling Spain D E7/A I can't see my body D6 So I can't explain. C#-7 B-7 I'm just another ad C#-7 B-7 Don't know if I'm good or bad Eb-7 Db-7 I'm just another ad Db-7 Cb-7 Feeling sorta s
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Amanda Riddell
5 days ago1 min read
Moments Flow
A A/G# Time has sung A/G F#sus4 Her final song: D6 D69 Loud and proud. D6 D69 Always proud. A A/G# Rhyme has wrung A/G F#sus4 Her last embrace: D6 D69 Sweet and sad, D6 D69 Then you're glad. B-7 Moments flow C#-7 Then they go [Bb-7sus4] A A/G# Time has sung A/G F#sus4 Her last refrain: D6 D69 Free from pain. D6 D69 (hums) Emaj9 Moments flow Emin11 Sweet and slow... A
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Amanda Riddell
Dec 31, 20251 min read
when the end comes
when the end comes it will be just another day; another day of drinking room temperature beer; of yelling/laughing/crying at the TV; of corporate interests overtaking human rights; of grey skies and dark clouds floating on the horizon; of wishing you were anywhere else, under some other tsar. corruption doesn't happen overnight: it's built in stages. performative rage is their most devious tool. stoking our base desires, their fires inspire some new homicidal fool. s
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Amanda Riddell
Nov 26, 20251 min read
The Sands of Time - lyrics and chords
Intro - 1. Dsus2/F#, Dm/F, E 2. Dsus2/F#, F, E Also, remember the pauses; it's not entirely in 12/8. There's a rest beat in the A-section, so it's also in 15/8. D/F# Asus2/G# (15/8) The sands of time E5 F#m/C# Are drifting sky D/F# Asus2/G# Fragments of E5 F#m/C# A life gone by D/F# (12/8) The lands of time E Are drawing near F#m/C# G Hear me Whisper G Amaj7/G# In your ear (C#, F#, G, B) All our struggles D Feel meant t
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Amanda Riddell
Nov 25, 20251 min read


The Sands of Time (Reo version)
It's not a perfect lyric in English, so here's a Māori version. Also, remember the pauses; it's not entirely in 12/8. There's a rest beat in the A-section, so it's also in 15/8. Intro - 1. Dsus2/F#, Dm/F, E 2. Dsus2/F#, F, E ROSE (15/8) D/F# Asus2/G# Te taipū o te wā E5 F#m/C# e rangi D/F# Asus2/G# Tūāporo E5 F#m/C# mauri ai D/F# E (12/8) Te hotahota o te wā F#m/C# G Hine, hine Amaj7/G# Taringa! (C#, F#, G, B) D
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Amanda Riddell
Nov 23, 20251 min read
whakapapa
Put another way: Billy T is buried on the same mountain as my Dad's ashes. I recall it being very nearby to Henry and Ross's farm. Carmen was from a nearby tribe. Alistair Riddell's a distant relative. Don McGlashan is distantly related via Ruby King.
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Amanda Riddell
Nov 22, 20251 min read


Rí Airgíalla
That's the Irish title. I studied the entire Duolingo module, but that was in 2017-2018. My mother's family comes from Northern Ireland. Mostly Scots-Irish. Not sure if it's that region, but it might be. Either way, in Early Medieval Ireland, these were the hostages and slaves. The O'Neill's were the boorish Australians to the North. Sandwiched between the two O'Neill territories, in fact.
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Amanda Riddell
Nov 22, 20251 min read
Ponga and Puhihuia: A Blue Pacific Retelling
The Blue Continent and the Shores of Tāmaki Before Europeans marked Aotearoa on their charts, the seas between Kāwhia, Tāmaki, and...
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Amanda Riddell
Oct 12, 20253 min read


whakapapa - brief version
When I looked up the Puhihuia song, the sheet music said that Ruby King had been told that story by Chief Tahuri Kaora of Ngāti Hikairo. Dr. Brown sent me an article in reply, stating that the story was usually attributed to Auckland tribes, such as Maungawhau and Awhitu, but that was George Grey's bowdlerised version of the story. This new attribution might be a more authentic telling of the mōteatea. Anyway, that was a pretty clear sign of whakapapa. - My Dad's family
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Amanda Riddell
Oct 12, 20251 min read


String Quartet No. 1 (2025):
The Māori in European Art: Reclaiming the Iconomy of Sound by Amanda Michelina When Leonard Bell published The Māori in European Art in 1980, he was documenting more than just a collection of colonial paintings and engravings. He was tracing the European imagination of the Māori — a field of vision shaped as much by fantasy as by observation. In his introduction, Bell remarks on an engraving from around 1800, and a photograph from around 1900: “The engraver responsible for
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Amanda Riddell
Oct 10, 20257 min read


Tupaia’s Voyage on the Endeavour
Historical Fiction from the Priest-Navigator’s Point of View The Blue Pacific Civilisation Before Cook, before the Union Jack, before missionaries recast Polynesian memory in the language of the Bible, Oceania was already a civilisation in full . It was not an empire, with capitals and armies, but something subtler and more enduring: a Blue Continent , its highways made of ocean swells, its archives stored in chants and constellations. From Hawai‘i in the north to Rapa Nui in
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Amanda Riddell
Sep 24, 202529 min read
Chippy
Chords: Dm7, Am7, Abm, G, F#, Bsus4/E Dm7 Am7 They call him Chippy: Abm Gm Reminds me of Mr. Whippy. Dm7...
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Amanda Riddell
Sep 15, 20251 min read
The Cops In The Beehive Blues
oh, my darling, there! There they go. Don't you know There's cops in the Beehive? o, my baby, there! There they go. Right beside the...
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Amanda Riddell
Sep 2, 20251 min read
Digging up bones
Answering the wero Of a distant cousin By exhuming their song Channelling a hero into being who had slumbered for far too long ...
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Amanda Riddell
Jul 30, 20251 min read
For Golriz
The best voices communicate a way of being; a subtle force, echoes of past and present. The last ebbing tones in a DEI suicide note: why...
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Amanda Riddell
Mar 15, 20251 min read
For Julia
Is who I am when I'm awake a dream, Or is facing death the real delusion? Some of us scream, While others seek seclusion. A lonely path...
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Amanda Riddell
Feb 12, 20251 min read


Poesia dimenticato
I caught you as you fell into the ocean. Limitless motion From the waves Buffeted our love Above the pit of despair, beyond all worry...
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Amanda Riddell
Dec 20, 20241 min read
To her
Crying myself to sleep, weeping to console myself beyond the safety of plausible deniability. The charades of youth are gone. The flirty...
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Amanda Riddell
Nov 30, 20241 min read
Another bad poem
Unusual phrases From daily life. Recontextualised by precious punctuation. Gimmicks Like This That Make People Think They're Smart. ...
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Amanda Riddell
Oct 31, 20241 min read
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