My weekend in crusty cellphone pics

Here's a bit of a photo-log of my weekend's adventure to Kaiteriteri... pictures were all taken with a cheap Nokia cellphone, but most of them came out pretty well though I thought.


The crew by Maruia falls


Chilling by Lake Rotoiti


Some ridiculously cute ducklings


Aforementioned ducklings taking a nap


One of the above having had its nap rudely interrupted...


Mud diving (the original plan was just to play touch; however the mud proved rather too alluring for some)


Sea kayaking in the Abel Tasman national park (thanks Gloria!)


Chilling on the beach near Split Apple Rock (which our guide informed us is in fact a Taniwha egg)


The boys (we ended up rafting together and hoisting a sail to maximise the tail wind...)


The girls

An amusing email exchange...

Not 12 hours after I set up a myspace homepage for mine and Jeremy's embyonic bluegrass project, I recieved the following email from some band in the uk:

Hello,

it seems your using our band name...

We registered the band name 'Paper Tigers' with the international band registry in 2003. This is a legal and binding claim to the name and exclusive use of it. Authentication of this is posted in World Wide Band and Artist Directory' Annual Trade Publication as well as on a global scale on the online registry & worldwide database of band and artist name activity. Our registration of the name is also lodged with the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. and the British Reference Library in London in the Annual Artist & Band Directory.

If you require any further information on this please go to

www.bandname.com and search for us or contact Crystal @ bandname

Please cease using the name immediatley to avoid legal action being taken against you. This is a polite but official warning on behalf of us and our record company.

Thankyou

pAPeR TigERs

Being by nature a pigheaded individual, I responded:

Er... when your far-reaching fame extends to Christchurch, NZ, or our plans for world conquest come to fruition, we'll think about it.

Cheers,
Greg

To which our new friends rather got their knickers in a knot:

Seems like a a perfectly flawed plan....why start out using a name that you know your going to have to change? hey why not call yourselves the rolling stones...that's a cool name too!.....great sense of seeing the bigger picture, and thinking about changing your name just doesn't cut it, you are falsely advertising your band & causing damage to us in the process ...anyway, we tried to be polite but that obviously has no affect.

Our first full international E.P is scheduled for release in Australia / NZ in December 2006.
We'll be passing this matter on to our label / management and lawyers. I hope you've got deep pockets

cheers

pAPeR TigERs

So I thought I'd ask a couple of questions just to see exactly what we were up against:

What exactly do you mean, 'release'? That it'll be available here via your site, or actually in the record stores? In other words, just how big are you guys? Be honest please...
I have no intention of getting into any strife, legally or otherwise- but if we're just playing around Christchurch and you're puddling away in Wolverhampton, I think we can stay out of each other's hair, no?

Cheers,
Greg

They came back a little more amicably, but no less emphatically:

Unfortunately 'release' means, in record stores, on itunes & via other authorised internet stores. The fact that you are using our name causes problem for our record sales and as such means you are liable to prosecution...merely search on myspace for paper tigers and the fact you come up is a problem to us.

we are a signed band, contracted to Broken Bottle Music, a UK independent label - soon to be part of the Polydor group....yes we are from Wolverhampton UK, but that is far from the point...I'm sorry about this Greg, its a real pain for you cus it's such a good name and you obviously have great taste in choosing it, but you just can't use it...regardless of whether you are in NZ or not....we have already had legal wranglings with a US artist signed to a major US label who was trying to use the name....and we won...its a black and white case for us...the crazy thing is you can call yourself 'Christchurch Paper Tigers' and that's fine....just not 'paper Tigers'....

Please make your desicion quickly as I am on the phone to our management company as we speak, and need to clarify if you wish to carry on using the name and face the consequences of that action.

cheers

All this talk of management, lawyers and labels from a band with only 400-odd myspace friends- not to mention the fact that they apparently considered themselves in the same league as the Rolling Stones- had me smelling a rat (or at least a bluff) and so I responded:

Dear Wolverhampton Paper Tigers,

Having consulted my lawyer, I would like to invite you to consider the following points.

1) In order for one legal entity to prevent another from using their name, it needs to be proven that the prior has obtained 'good will' with the public and that that the latter is unfairly profiting from that good will. Given the respective status and popularity of our respective bands, I do not believe this to be the case.

2) It's also possible to get off if the secondary party can prove that they came up with the name independently, with no knowledge of prior's existence. Again given the above point, I think this is a reasonable claim. We actually got the name from a Thrice song (as, I suspect, did you) but that's beside the point.

3) We, as a legal entity, do not in fact exist outside of Myspace. Notwithstanding the now blurry line between social networking sites and reality, this poses a slight problem for you and your litigious intentions... who exactly are you going to sue? Tom?


Given these points, I can only conclude that your blusterous threats of legal action are nothing but an ambitious bluff; a 'Paper Tiger', if you will. With that in mind we have decided to continue using the name 'Paper Tigers' until such time as we can think of something better. If this still rankles your panties, we would respectfully invite you to change YOUR band name, as suggested above.

Furthermore, I see that our Myspace Friend Count now exceeds yours by a factor of some 80,000 to 1. Dare you argue with figures like that?

Warm regards and best wishes,
Paper Tigers

... to which I'm yet to recieve a reply. Watch this space!

Long time no blog

Hi folks. If you thought this blog had been put out to pasture, think again... it was simply on an extended hiatus due its owner's growing disdain for all things computer related, which in turn stemmed from the increasing repetiveness and frustration factor of said owner's job. Today however, said owner has decided to expend some work time on the blog, which has the twofold benefit of 1) enabling owner to create a new post without extra time spent in front of computer, and 2) helping owner avoid work. (Note to boss: just kidding, I'm on a break)

Right, that's enough rambling descant in the 3rd person for one post. So what have I been up to? Here's a brief overview:

- I'm in the process of forming a band, currently entitled 'Paper Tigers' with Jeremy, Dru, Kris and a guy called Tane whom I don't know but who is, by all accounts, a fantastic musician. We're playing at the Canterbury Uni battle of the bands this friday night at Bentley's in the UCSA if you feel like coming along.

- Last Saturday I went to Auckland for the wedding of my friends Chris and Nicole, which was a wonderful celebration of life, love, family, etc- until some moron cut from Brooke Fraser's sultry 'Without You' to a hardcore Mumsdollar song while all the oldies were slow dancing. It was my first, and most likely last, experience as a wedding reception DJ. At least it wasn't the first dance...

- I have finally invested in the guitar amp of my dreams, well... not exactly... but something close to it. Note the minimalist front panel- I'm now a firm believer in the maxim that tonal quality is inversely proportional to number of knobs. mmmmm...

Ahhhhhh....

There's nothing better than a chilled Monteiths, especially when you've earned it by running from Sydenham to Cracroft reserve (on the Port Hills) and back.

That is all.

Band updates

Our NZ tour is over! We capped it off with an interesting weekend, playing at the Jetset Lounge on Saturday night (a bar in central Christchurch) and then Avonhead Baptist Church on Sunday evening. For 3/5 of the band, Saturday was the first time playing outside of a church setting or school, so there were a few nerves and a fair bit of apprehension beforehand. In the end though we just rocked out and had a great time.

Earlier the night had been kicked off in riotous fashion by an Alternative and Experimental Rock Band called Tragedy of the Commons (dig that minimalist website design). With Tony and Matt W laying down a tight-as groove, Matt B ripping the fat lead breaks, and Jeremy doing his best to brain Matt and Tony with the headstock of his guitar, these guys went off. Great songs, great stage presence- definitely a band to watch.

Sunday night was a great way to end the tour, with about 150 people packing out Avonhead Baptist. Given that the ABC sound system can barely be heard over a dripping tap, we got our friend Shane to bring in his (several thousand watt) system- which meant we could really go for it. We finished the night with a really cool worship time and I think lots of people were moved and encouraged.

Thanks to everyone who came to one or both of the gigs, you all rock!

...and Arthurs Pass

Fun things to do in Greymouth...

Wellington

I've been through the Wellington plenty of times- but never spent more than a few hours here. Today I got to have a bit of a look around, and now I understand why people rave about it... very artsy and cultured, and the central city is so much nicer than the mega-malls we have in Christchurch. Not that I'm interested in shopping mind you.

Today we played at Tawa college at lunchtime, and Wellington Primal in the evening- both went really well, although our rendition of Coldplay's 'Clocks' at the school gig was a little sketchy. That'll happen though when your drummer has never played the song in his life and the band hasn't played it in nearly a year. After the Primal thing a few of us went down to the waterfront to loiter and eat pizza- good times. Then, we got (ahem)lost on the way home...
No, seriously, we weren't lost, we just took the wrong motorway and ended up in Lower Hutt rather than Johnsonville. Then we got to Johnsonville and realised the place we're staying wasn't there, it's actually in Churton Park or something. Tim (our resourceful drummer) was locked out, since we had the key... but, resourcefully, he decided to go for a run when he realised we were going to be a while.

Anyway, it's 2am so I'm going to hit the sack.