inanga > Thanx Michael - what a beautiful part of the world you live in. Maplewood is a lot like areas of NZ.
inanga > Jville surrounded by Memories Collage

courtesy of Picasa 3, SmugMug, Google and Mozilla Firefox 2009

inanga
inanga > Google Earth catches Rick Collage

courtesy of Picasa 3, SmugMug, Google and Mozilla Firefox 2009

He could be seen in an earlier pic. If you haved lived in Jville for a while you will know Rick, a good mate who is absolutely illiterate when it comes to computers. Well the Google cameras caught him in his front yard. Is there no space sacred anymore? I don't think he's worried about it, but the idea of a lawsuit for 'Invasion of Privacy' has entered his head a few times. No, then it occurred to him that he had his bike helmet on. Lawsuit out the door...

Enough of this...

PS Rick's biggest dream is to go to Sturgis for the 'gathering'. i dare say a spell on the curves of the Black Hills would bring him closer to God. And no doubt he'd enjoy the party afterwards...

Question from me: 'Are motorcycle patches allowed?

We are having big problems downunder with bureaucracy cracking down on 'patches' and facial moko (tattoos). i'm not a biker ('bikie' down here) but surely responsible use and good direction of the 'foot soldiers' should overcome this. As for a man's moko or a woman's chin moko, no one has the right to fail to accord the wearers of these the rights of human decency. The opponents of both patches and moko are weak, hiding behind a rather sluggish NZ media.

i suppose i asked this question because if Rick gets to Sturgis he will probably want to wear his patched jacket (his tribe is his secret) and he definitely has lots of facial moko.

inanga
inanga > It's fun with a magnifying glass! Collage

When you view this oversize - 'O' on selection bar - you realise that there are some really smart programmers in Silicon Valley. I dedicate this to the inventors of SmugMug and if they care to get in contact with me the original of 'Kundalini Rising' is theirs (i will frame it for you). A father and son, I believe. Appropriate this day in Aotearoa as it is Father's Day - Sunday 6 September 2009.

courtesy of Picasa 3, Google, SmugMug and Mozilla Firefox 2009

inanga
inanga > Dad Visits

My Dad, who was certainly not the devoutest man in his earthly life, appears out of nowhere in this photo shoot of 'Greenstone Buddha' in priestly garb. That's him peering around the side with a bald head. He looks a bit like me, but I was behind a camera and tripod at the time, and I have a full head of hair. Happy Father's Day Dad.

Spooky!

inanga
inanga > Whitebait's On-line Travelogue: 'I still call NZ home'

For some strange reason the combination of Smug-icons and the red lines returning again to Aotearoa (New Zealand) forever reminds me of my own life. I spent a long time leaving Australia or New Zealand and returning, The Smug-icons on this map (from my gallery to Geo-coded Google Earth Locations of my paintings) are reminders of the places in Kiwiland that influenced my upbringing. All in all the whole exercise leads to a massive bout of introspection.

I have changed what I wrote earlier here because I learnt a valuable exercise in 'flexibility' when I was in LA recently. It all happened because I got an Apple iPhone. No this is not an ad for Apple's technology at all. It is an introspective ramble on 'it is alright to change your mind'. And then there is Facebook - I became addicted. But that was easily solved. I turned this addiction into a preference, unlike some of my other addictions which I have to watch like a hawk!

And then there is the fringe web of collective consciousness and concern for our lot and that of others in this technological morass. Sites appear like crop circles without little explanation and show some of the true character of the face watching the screen and holding the mouse. Wikipedia and Knol are born and the wisdom is shared further. Good causes have an international voice - vox populi goes feral!

I look at this pic - a video-ed dowload of my computer screen - an auto snapshot loaded into Picasa 3 on-line photo editor - edited in Picasa 3 (clever name!) - uploaded to a SmugMug gallery based on a giant Google-connected server - all using Mozilla Firefox - getting into this particular gallery via a Plogsite and then arranging it by thumbnails so this pic features - all in five minutes. I look at the two thumbnails on the right of this screen capture, both of Pitagliano now in my Tuscany Gallery, and think of the amount of time that went into painting those to get them right. Maybe this techno-art mix - paintings to galleries to world - is a new genre that I am caught up in.

But to what effect I ask rhetorically. The end rest is techno-art in the age of nanosecond expectation. Here is a gallery flouted around the globe with a pic highlighting the place where I was born and always seem to return to highlighted by red arrows and Smug-icons, created in five minutes, with little or no thought that would look good in a 100% Clean Green New Zealand campaign - and we all know that isn't true - or on cover of a NZ Tourism brochure for possible visitors.

Incidentally I have an Australian passport. I got this, even though I was born in Greymouth, because the inefficient and poorly-run New Zealand Passport Office makes it too difficult for its own citizens to get such documentation. I have witnessed it time and time again - so I went to the Australian Passport Office, satisfied their criteria, and obtained in quick time a brand spanking new Ozzie document. So a boy from Greymouth now travels on an Ozzie passport because of his own country's bureaucratic inadequacies. I wonder if I can get one of theirs (the Poms) too and travel at Her Majesty's pleasure; maybe a US Green Card, or the creme de la creme - a Swiss passport.

Enough of this introspective rambling

inanga out

screen presentation courtesy of Picasa 3, Smugmug, Google and Mozilla Firefox 2009
inanga > Camaldoli, Tuscany Mapped

Introduction to Tuscany Mapped Slideshow.

This is a carrot to get you to go exploring using Google Earth in this Tuscany gallery. You can go to 'Map This', and then zoom in and out and flick to other sites (apart from this one) to learn more about Tuscany as it would appear in the Michelin guide where I copied my paintings from their excellent photographs. I hope they don't mind at Michelin - I buy their tyres for Vernon the Vauxhall. Now his battery is flat. As James Blunt reminds me 'Is there no justice in the world'.

Ms P, of Italian extraction, likes this. She was a nanny in Firenze - we Googled the house she worked at in the Florence Hills. You lucky people there in paradise.

inanga
inanga > The Headless Man

i desperately wanted to get back into collage and this is an attempt at getting back into it. i have been preoccupied with getting on with tweaking this website so it is more accessible (and as such have neglected writing more of the Superstitions game). i'll be back to it shortly - following the ground on Google Earth has been a journey in itself.

In honor of the Hopi Fire Clan, Keepers of the Tablet [above] i have left the The Second Sacred Kete [Basket of Knowledge] of Kiwa and Hotu Matua here:

'THE KETE OF KIWA AND HOTU MATUA

WE ARE BORN OF DIFFERENT COLOURS

WHERE DO WE ENTER THE CIRCLE OF LIFE? Our ancestors moved with the Gods and touched the distant stars to bring light to the darkness and wisdom of the Kete of Knowledge. Before all else we honour them, the oldest ones, the tupuna who have gone before us, those who departed so long ago. And while we leave their names in the shadows, we go forward in their strength and wairua [spirit].

We begin our Histories with their children, with Kiwa and Hotu Matua, who were born of different tides and crossed strange waters to find each other.

'And Kiwa brought his people to a new home'

Kiwa sailed out of the east to explore the waters under the star of Rehua. He looked on the vastness of the surging ocean and his heart responded to the restless spirit of Tangaroa. And he voyaged towards the setting Sun where the lands beyond the horizon whispered his name.

We are Uru Kehu [of Lake Titicaca] and Kiwa was our first Pae Arahi, our great Trail Maker. And although he sailed to many beautiful islands, his mind kept returning to one, and only one. Waitangi Ki Roto, the island of 'Weeping waters', held him in its thrall for it drew the Long Tides to its shores and was favoured by winds that filled the great sail of his waka. There our Uru Kehu people made their home.

Then Kiwa urged us to join our strength to his courageous heart, and he sailed again and again to chart islands seen today, and some that are no more. While few men did more than Kiwa to mark the sea trails, one woman did as much, and she stands beside him in the songs of the tides.

'Hotu Matua crossed the oceans on a great quest for the Cord of Life'

As Kiwa left the eastern shores of the great ocean to begin his voyages of discovery, another brave spirit set sail from the other side. We speak of our ancestress Hotu Matua who journeyed out of the west [from the Chatham Islands] in a swift double waka. As Supreme Ariki of our Maoriori people, she commanded many vessels, and said to her captains...

'Haere ki Te Pito Te Whenua, whakato ai nga rakau mana... Go forth and find the Sacred Birthing Cord of the world.'

Her quest was for the very centre of the being of Papatuanuku. Her captains sailed towards the rising Sun, and she followed in Ngatoki Mata Whaorua, and after nights beyond recall reached Waitangi Ki Roto [Easter Island]. And she knew her search was over.

Kiwa came to this island for its place in the weave of tide and wind because it anchored the life line of the Earth Mother. Then tide, wind and wairua bound these great navigators to the land, the oceans and each other, for they joined to make Uru Kehu and Maoriori one.

Kiwa and Hotu Matua were the balance of life; contrasting spirits joined in harmony. He was short and fair skinned, while she was tall and dark; his hair was fired by the colours of the Sun and hers the browns of the earth. To meet, they sailed the Line of Life joining east and west; Kiwa from the light of the rising Sun, the promise of creation and renewal; Hotu Matua out of the setting Sun, the end of all. They are the wholeness of our world, our beginning and our end.

'Hotu Matua became Te Kupenga o Te Ao in southern waters'

Hine Moana, Mother of the Seas, guards us on the waves and we honour her by following the ways set down in ancient days. Hotu Matua knew she had to take another name when her waka left the warm waters of the Giant Turtle and travelled with the White Whale. She became Te Kupenga o Te Ao, the 'Net of the World', the great navigator who added many islands to the kete of the sea trails. So Hotu matua is also the one we know as Te Kupenga, the explorer whose name reaches to every shore, even to the waters of the Old Tides and the islands of the Double Sea.

In later days, the ten children born to Te Kupenga and Kiwa braved the deeps and rode the Long Tides to defy the Octopus (Mu Torere) and discover distant lands. And they sailed in the mana of their mother. And when they went ashore, they took her name with them and gave it to many headlands and bays to honour her courage and vision.

'He koha kia tatou... it was her gift to us'.

Although we come to the end of the first of our Histories, we know it is only the beginning, for the world turns and truth emerges in the light of the flames.'

from 'Song of Waitaha: The Histories of a Nation', being the teachings of Iharaira Te Meihana, Wiremu Ruka Te Korako, Taare Reweti Te Maiharoa, Perenara Hone Hare, Heremia Te Wake and Renata Kauere, Tohangamaramatangi o Te Waitaha [Enlightened Teachers of Waitaha]
inanga > Have you got all you need?

1 The book of the faith you are most comfortable with (and 'Treasure Island', 'The Circle Stone' and 'Songlines' - all of the last three optional);

2 Sacred Syrian Rue (6-MeO-THBC);

3 Your map of 'Lost Dutchman's Mine on Treasure Island';

4 Plenty of water - at least a gallon a day (might need a burro!);

5 A board game;

6 Food - your own preference;

7 A Swiss Army Knife, sleeping mat, sleeping bag (it's cold at night);

8 Native tobacco if you smoke;

9 A means of lighting fire;

10 And lots of luck...
Dad Visits

My Dad, who was certainly not the devoutest man in his earthly life, appears out of nowhere in this photo shoot of 'Greenstone Buddha' in priestly garb. That's him peering around the side with a bald head. He looks a bit like me, but I was behind a camera and tripod at the time, and I have a full head of hair. Happy Father's Day Dad.

Spooky!

inanga
inanga > Dad Visits

My Dad, who was certainly not the devoutest man in his earthly life, appears out of nowhere in this photo shoot of 'Greenstone Buddha' in priestly garb. That's him peering around the side with a bald head. He looks a bit like me, but I was behind a camera and tripod at the time, and I have a full head of hair. Happy Father's Day Dad.

Spooky!

inanga
Dad Visits

My Dad, who was certainly not the devoutest man in his earthly life, appears out of nowhere in this photo shoot of 'Greenstone Buddha' in priestly garb. That's him peering around the side with a bald head. He looks a bit like me, but I was behind a camera and tripod at the time, and I have a full head of hair. Happy Father's Day Dad.

Spooky!

inanga
See photo in original gallery.

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inanga - hogproductions