Shut Up Hamish! – Culture and travel writing, plus music and stuff from a restless kiwi

Film Review: The Worst Person In The World (dir. Joachim Trier, 2021)

Spoilers ahead I feel I was tricked a bit by the marketing of this film. It seemed by the trailer as if it was going to be a different take on your usual romantic type set up. I was expected some art house tropes but it seemed as if Norwegian director Joachim Trier had something different […]

22/02/2022
One month since the release of my debut album…

So after years of indecision about whether to release it or not, I finally put out my debut album ‘I’ve Been Waiting For This’. Listen to it on Spotify here (also available on other streaming services). Originally demo’d and written starting in 2017 while staying in a farm house in Northern Germany – at a […]

21/02/2022
[New Track] Do It In A Half-Assed Way (Released to Soundcloud)

In anticipation of my debut album which I believe I’ll release next month (I’m bad with being official with release dates yeah, but check this space), here’s an old rhyme routine from 2015 that I’ve given the unceremonious ‘dump’ release for on Soundcloud right now, after discovering it on a harddrive. I think it samples […]

20/09/2021
Are our phones changing our perception of time?

It’s a commonly agreed upon assumption – that your perception of time changes as you grow old. When you’re just out the starting gates, in your first few years of sentience, a year feels like an eternity. For a two year old, a year is half of their existence, and and therefore without a reference […]

10/07/2021
We filmed a music video in the forests of Northern Germany…

As detailed in a previous blog on life in a German Community – I lived for several years in a small but productive community of international volunteers. Originally set up as by a group of like-minded young people searching for a place to study their philosophy (the Germanic education and agricultural esoteric philosophies of Rudolf […]

19/01/2021
Film: A Rainy Day in New York (Woody Allen, 2019)

I have to be honest; I didn’t understand half of the cultural references of the film and had to google while I watched. But from the dialogue alone, I was pointed towards Hieronymus Bosch, the 1945 Judy Garland film The Clock, the Cole Porter song Night and Day and the American portrait painter John Singer […]

14/04/2020
Opinion: There’s no good ideas anymore, and everything is just being recycled

Quite often, the videos of the news feed of this device are of old content – interviews, clips, music – anything that can be considered interesting from the past and trigger some kind of interest or nostalgia. The way that we consume this material, the time line that has to be fueled and kept alive by more content, will have to reach into the past to satisfy the enormous demand.

13/01/2020
Guide for getting the Working Holiday Visa for Netherlands (from a New Zealander)

Work and travel in Europe sounds like a great idea right!? Even better if you have a year long work visa for a country. You can stay longer, you won’t have to worry about leaving the Schengen zone after your 3 month tourist permit is finished, and you can work a little to save more […]

30/12/2019
Blog: Escaping Germany for Bosnia via Flixbus, with a broken phone, to volunteer at a Hostel in Mostar (a diary entry)

Editor’s note: Some of the following blog was written stream of concious, and may not reflect the present opinions of the writer. Travel is not that bad and he is not as cynical as it may seem. (Prologue) Before leaving Germany: Sometimes it feels like I lurch from self-created crisis to crisis. This feels like […]

07/08/2018
Volunteering at Roskilde Festival 2018

Music festivals are about the bands, yes. I should know this being the live music obsessive that I am. But they can be about so much more than just music and partying, and Roskilde for me confirms this. Even though there is a great proportion of the festival geared up towards the hedonistic – the […]

12/07/2018
Travel: Leaving New Zealand (again) – Returning to Europe; albeit with some hesitance

Last year I found myself working on a farm in Germany for several months. As the seasons changed from Autumn to Winter, I felt the draw to return home – to see family and friends that hadn’t seen in nearly three years, and attend a friends wedding. I booked a return flight, assuming I would […]

05/02/2018
Travel: Volunteering through Workaway on a farm community in Germany

In the current part of my last-20s travel journeys: I’ve left London, my television office job and extremes of living in such a large city, and have some how stumbled upon farm life in Northern Germany. How does a city slicker like myself cope with life in an agricultural environment such as this? Better than […]

17/01/2018
Au Hasard Balthazar (Robert Bresson, 1966) [Film Journal 2017 #2]

A film about an abused donkey in small town France, leading a saintly life that parallels that of it’s young owner Marie. An intriguing plot synopsis, one so specific that it could probably only be attempted by a master filmmaker. Bresson’ is a master indeed, expanding upon Eisenstein-esque montage theories to produce a uniquely film […]

21/01/2017
Hunger (Steve McQueen, 2008) [Film Journal 2017 #1]

After completing, and being fascinated with Shame (McQueen’s 2nd film from 2011) last night, I decided to not stop there and continued straight on to the first collaboration between director Steve McQueen, actor Michael Fassbender and cinematographer Sean Bobbit – all three would later work together on 12 Years A Slave. I think it’s safe […]

11/01/2017
[Blog] New Single: Seperations (Produced by Stakker)

A couple of months ago myself and a mate of mine Richard Baldwin, who produces and writes under the aliases Stakker, The Soviet Union and Belville (check out his tunes here), had our first jam, which immediately produced some promising sounds and ideas. We’d previously bonded at a party over a shared interest in old-school […]

05/10/2016
Journal: Driving around New Zealand listening to The Clean

As the seasons in London shift from summer to autumn, the slight chill in the air juxtaposing the still bright daylight, and a blue sky not yet obscured by grey bleakness, is reminding me of the similar climates of my homeland. Particularly Dunedin, which if memory serves me correctly often finds itself in similarly contradicting conditions. One […]

29/09/2016
Live Review: Death DTA (Le Divan Du Monde, Paris, 2016)

Steve DiGiorgio played his 3 string fret-less bass like a maniac, beard grey and tied up looking kind of like a metal pirate. Bobby Koeble played every riff, every solo including the classic leads he wrote for Symbolic almost perfectly, lip syncing the lyrics along with an enamored crowd. Gene Hoglan, the atomic clock showed […]

28/04/2016
Film Review: The Green Inferno (Eli Roth, 2015) – [i watched it so you won’t have to]

I wish I wasn’t reviewing this movie. There are so many better films out there I could be talking about. Why haven’t I seen The Revenant yet? Or Spotlight? Even The Hateful Eight? None of these I’ve yet had the opportunity to view. I could even make an attempt to be relevant and discuss Batman […]

06/04/2016
[Journal] Back To Metal or: Looking Back On Being a Teenage Metalhead

Our tastes change depending on who we are at any given time. When we’re kids, we often lean towards pop and friendly or gimmicky dance music, as this is what appeals to us. Or in our younger days, we listen to whatever our parents are into. As we grow up, we become more aware of […]

29/03/2016
Traveling through Paris during the 2015 attacks

I didn’t really want to touch the subject of the Paris attacks and the ensuing international panic at the time, hence it has taken me a long time to revisit my trip first trip to France – from November 2014. At the time, the presses reaction seemed typical, repetitious and all too remnant of the post […]

29/02/2016
Review: Kanye West – The Life Of Pablo

There’s a lot of noise right now surrounding Kanye West, which seems to be the case whenever the man drops a new album. West is a master of the “any publicity is good publicity” promotion technique as we all know, even if it isn’t always intentional. Hatred of this rapper has magnified over the years, […]

23/02/2016
Travel: Morocco (part 2) – The Chaos of Marrakesh

In the last blog I detailed my first day in Morocco, a brief exploration of the beach side town of Essaouira. I was only in Morocco for 3 nights, so although I was only just getting my bearings in Essaouira, I soon found myself rushing off to Marrakesh. The short bus journey took 2 hours, […]

08/02/2016
Travel: Morocco (part 1) – The Beach of Essaouira

My Moroccan holiday had started in a typically frantic style. After getting next to no sleep the night before, I made my way to Luton airport and onto a 7am flight to Essaouira. I had originally planned a 2 hour camel trip, and to be picked up from the airport by the guide, although I […]

31/01/2016
Travel: Heading to Morocco – Unorganized and Ill-prepared

Two nights ago, I impulsively booked flights to visit Morocco this weekend – this will be my first time in Northern Africa, and I’m both excited and a little nervous. I’m travelling first to the small seaside of Essaouira, where I plan to see the beach, the harbour walls (used as a set for Daenerys […]

21/01/2016
Thoughts on David Bowie (Rest In Peace, 1947 – 2016)

David Bowie means a lot of things to a lot of people. This is obvious with the outpouring of memorials all over social media. This morning when I woke up, upon picking up my phone the first thing I saw was someone changing their Facebook profile to Bowie’s iconic image of Ziggy Stardust. I scrolled […]

12/01/2016