Napier metal/rock trio Horusset have been busy as long-haired bees of late, making music videos, getting ready to record a new single and preparing for a national tour. This weekend though, on September 4, they will be in Gisborne for a gig at Smash Palace. Here’s a taster of what audience members might expect . . .

Misfits, murder and a murky tale of blackmail in smalltown New Zealand . . . we’re loving the look of Predicament – the film adaptation of the novel by Kiwi author Ronald Hugh Morrieson – which is screening in Gisborne now.

Wellington-based photographer Jenny O’Connor gave herself a good excuse to visit her mates . . . she launched an art project to record images of a dozen women from the Tairawhiti region, most of whom she had known for decades. The resulting exhibition, Tairawhiti Girls, was shown at Tairawhiti Museum in 2008. And as this clip shows, the project has continued since then . . .

Really, it was only a matter of time and here it is . . . Moko Song by Auckland-based comic/musician Yamous Yamousari (aka Famous Famous). Lyric sample: “Moko, why are you going solo? Citizen of Aqualand.” Seriously.

 Crazy-noisy Dunedin trio Die! Die! Die! are playing their first-ever indoor gig in Gisborne on Wednesday (July 21), having already fronted up at Rhythm & Vines a couple of times. And it looks like the show will be huge, even if it is at the teeny Winston’s Bar. See for yourselves . . . this is the clip for We Built Our Own Oppressors, the first single off their new album, Form.

It is believed that the body of a dolphin washed up on Matakana Island, in the Bay of Plenty, is that of people-loving dolphin Moko, who spent time in the waters around Gisborne over summer. Local filmmaker Ben Cowper has compiled this short doco about Moko’s time in Gisborne.

The new Toy Story movie has received rave reviews so we’re well pleased to see that open in Gisborne this week. But check this! It’s the official trailer for the final episode featuring the original boy wizard, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, featuring that fearsome faceless fellow. The first of its two parts won’t be released until November but we’re ready for it.

It’s a bit odd that our man is singing a song designed to inspire support for the All Whites at the World Cup is an opinionated Pom, but it’s a bit of fun anyway. Even though it’s over. Dammit.

California-born, Gisborne-based filmmaker Polly Green’s mission to become the world number one freestyle white water kayaker is well under way and she this month travelled to the US and Germany to further her goal. Weather permitting . . .

Trust the kids to get all the bloodthirsty bits into their work. Pakaanui (click to view) was a 2009 Nati Awards entry from the creative crew at Ruatoria’s Hiruharama School, telling the story of a warrior called on to avenge the death of his great-grandfather. A bit of history and a bit of biffo to boot.

http://www.youtube.com/user/TeRangitawaea#p/u/22b

Back at Gisborne Central School, circa 1970-something, kids used to call teacher Brian Kelly “Mr Kelly with the big fat belly”. In hindsight that was a bit cruel – but kids are. And he did used to play a tiny ukulele, which served only to draw attention to his attributes. Anyway, 30-something years later Brian Kelly is still involved in music – though perhaps not so much the uke. Here is his arrangement of Somewhere Out There performed by Gisborne Concert Band. Watch the conductor’s seductive sway . . .

They play solo. They are in bands. And this week Gisborne musicians Richard Alexander and Lawrence Rangi launch their new Delta blues duo, Silvereye. Here’s them in the Angry B/Vers ensemble with their former bandmate Reuben Quirk (the video is terrible but the sound is okay). See Silvereye at Winston’s Bar on Friday night. They’re awesome.

This short clip from Wellington cow-punks The Outsiders intersperses live footage with shots of the band members on the road. The band’s seemingly endless road trip this week brings them to Gisborne where they will play with locals The Rocket Jocks and The Nervous Surgeons.

The new Maori Volcanics perform in Gisborne this weekend, so take the opportunity to check out this hilarious clip featuring the original Volcanics, with Prince Tui Teka and Billy T James.

Sci-fi obsessed model sculptor Jack Straker fashioned an army of pox-ridden minions for his last show at Gisborne dealer gallery PaulNache.

A Fire Within - My Dream to be the World Champion in Freestyle Kayaking from polly green on Vimeo.

Polly Green has a dream . . . to be a world champion freestyle kayaker. The Gisborne-based filmmaker/athlete has released a trailer for her forthcoming film, A Fire Within, which documents her white water journey. Go Green!

Gisborne’s own Free Range played some Allman Brothers southern blues at Poverty Bay Blues Inc’s last jam, but they won’t be performing next week. Nope. The next blues night – at the Poverty Bay Club on Tuesday (May 4) – is for women performers only. Ladies really will sing the blues. (Video courtesy PBBI)

The song Made In New Zealand – by clever Gisborne Girls’ High School musos Katherine Muir, Nikki Taylor and Amber Le Compte – has only gone and won the NZ Music Commission’s songwriting competition for NZ Music Month (May). What’s more, the fourth and final member of the girls’ band Tetra Salute (Stevii Hill, who was apparently sick on the day they wrote the winning work) submitted her own song You Are Everything to get into the top 10. The four will be out and about in Gisborne over NZMM 2010, but here’s a 2009 clip of them performing their song Don’t Cry. You go girls!

Gisborne DJ/percussion duo BrazilBeat Sound System this weekend mark the release of their debut video clip, Future Is Now. Check it!

Shot in some corn field up the East Coast, the kids muse on what it takes to be the “ultimate” Maori in this deleted scene from Taika Waititi’s box-office hit Boy.

V 48HOURS Furious Filmmaking Bootcamp from Lense Flare on Vimeo.

There will be 24 time-pressed teams running around Gisborne this weekend, making movies for their entries in the national V 48Hours Furious Filmmaking contest. It is not likely any will have time to lounge around watching video clips but, just in case, here’s a few competition tips from those who know.

Go, grommet, go!

The Hyundai National Surfing Champs are on in Gisborne over Easter but, a few weeks before, it was the turn of the young ones at the Quiksilver Maz Quinn King of the Groms event. Filmmaker Damon Mead shot the action at Gisborne’s Makorori Beach, where Piha teen Elliot Paerata-Reid won the under-16 boys’ final, Jayda Martin-Fitzharris (Gisborne) took the u16 girls’ title, Korbin Hutchings (Gisborne) was winner in the u14 boys’ division, and Manu Scott-Arrieta (Sandy Bay) was first among the u12 boys. (Music by US band Prophets In Stereo.)

Gisborne pop-punk duo The Rocket Jocks have a new EP due out in May but, in the meantime, here’s a taster (What Can I Do?) from their 2009 debut Next Stop, Moon! The Jocks play at Smash Palace this Saturday (March 27) with Whangarei punks The Victims and fellow locals Dispark.

When clothing company Billi Tees ran a competition for which entrants created videos explaining why If It’s Kiwi It’s Good, local woman Renae Lolohea responded with this bit of Gisborne goodness. “In our town we like to have a laugh at ourselves . . . mockery is our form of flattery,” Renae said of the tongue-in-cheek nature of her video. And, naturally, she won, scoring flights for four people to an Air NZ destination of her choice. Go Gisborne!
http://www.billitees.co.nz/promotions/if-its-kiwi-competition/

We’re looking forward to the March 25 launch of Taika Waititi’s new film, Boy, filmed up the East Coast at his childhood stamping ground of Waihau Bay. Check out this trailer and keep an eye out for Kingi (“your dad’s not overseas, he’s in the same cell block as my dad”), played by Ruatoria lad Manihera Rangiuaia. Choice!

John (from tourism and travel directory ONZAMAP) and a film crew visited Gisborne’s famous Eastwoodhill Arboretum on what looks like a particularly gorgeous day for a garden ramble. The clip’s a bit out of date, though, so just remember that the arboretum celebrates its centenary THIS year. In April, in fact. Fun in the forest!

The temperature was well into the 20s and, with it being the last official day of summer, you’d expect there to be plenty of people on the beaches of Gisborne. Not on Sunday, February 28. After a devastating earthquake in Chile folk – in Gisborne at least – took tsunami warnings seriously and most stayed inland. Local blogger Stewart Haynes filmed an eerily empty Waikanae Beach.

Entry to the annual V48 Hour Furious Filmmaking contest opens on March 1 and, if the Tairawhiti region is to be included once more, the region needs at least 20 entries. Here is last year's regional winner -- Kaiti Hill team's The Amazing World of Sticks -- a madcap reimagining of an alternative Christian history.

Kiwi director Taika Waititi – originally from the East Coast’s Waihau Bay – creates the Crazy Horses “gang” as part of a viral campaign to promote his new movie. The film, Boy, opens around New Zealand on March 25.

  http://crazyhorses.co.nz/

Filmmaker Ben Cowper shot and edited this tribute video Home Is Gisborne, with local band Skankamelia providing the soundtrack

Multi-talented Gisborne Mayor Meng Foon filmed students at Hiruharama School as they performed Tu Mai, the song he composed himself.

Strike First Records - Saving Grace (HD commercial) from Logan Swinkels on Vimeo.

Gisborne Vert Ramp Skateboarding Alfred Cox skatepark Kick Push 2009.  

Filmed by Ben Cowper

Auckland jazz ensemble 37P.S.I. recorded their trip to play at Gisborne’s January Jazz & Blues Festival, and put a soundtrack to it, to boot

This clip about fun stuff to do in Gisborne won its creator $10,000 in airfares when it won the 2008 NZ grabaseat short video competition. It was all about showcasing activities that, otherwise, only locals would know about . . .

Major Lazer get bass heavy at Rhythm & Vines 2009

Search for 'moko the dolphin' on Youtube and you'll find more than 70 clips of people's close encounters with the friendly bottlenose dolphin, who has been frequenting Gisborne waterways for the last couple of months. This clip from local filmmaker Ben Cowper shows Moko playing in the town river, doing what he does best: stealing balls, paddles and delighting people everywhere with his antics . . .

Local filmmaker Damon Meade put together this promotional clip for BW Camping Festival, Gisborne's answer to a mini Glastonbury. Featuring footage of our glorious beaches, makeshift villages among the campgrounds, live bands at the soundshell, and naturally, the bikini jam, this clip will undoubtedly give young people plenty of reasons to celebrate the New Year in Gisborne.

This retro clip comes from a 1960's television series called These New Zealanders, hosted by Selwyn Toogood. The people of Gisborne talk about their problems and achievements in the mid 1960s, alongside footage around the district of 'the way things were.'

Gisborne filmmaker Ben Cowper captured this excellent footage at Makorori Beach last year, when local surfers had an incredibly close encounter with a pod of Orca whales that came close to shore in search of food. Fortunately, the “food” this pod was after was stingray, but the experience was nonetheless a rather daunting one for those who had the massive mammals riding the waves alongside them!

Isn't it nice to know some things never change?

We stumbled upon this charming clip featuring local surfers making the most of Gisborne's ideal waves, alongside footage of picturesque spots around the city and what appears to be a Christmas parade down the main street.

It has a most fitting soundtrack too - Here Comes the Sun by The Beatles. Perfect.

With the new incarnation of the Telethon, the Big Night In due to kick off on Saturday night, we got all nostalgic when we came across this retro clip filmed in Gisborne during the Telethon in 1988. Featuring Neil Waka sporting some racy leather pants and a baby-faced Temuera Morrison performing the haka, this clip is absolute gold.