Skypath vs Residents, How to bring the residents and cyclists together - a Suggestion

Sleepy heritage area Northcote Point is in for a shock. The Cycle Skypath is coming whether the residents want it or not. The Auckland Harbour Bridge has no lane for pedestrians or cyclists. The Point is the only way the cyclists and pedestrians will be able to access Skypath. The powerful and vocal Cycle lobby wants to build a Skypath over the Harbour Bridge to allow them to cycle to work and who can blame them. The Mayor is in favour and $100 thousands of dollars have already been allocated. This project has been done virtually in secret. As yet the residents have not been notified The official line is that this is not a council project although the council is paying for it. It was voted for in council. Three  councillors voted against it. As it stands it is not practically feasible.

Never mind that Northcote Point is classified as a residential area the Town Planning laws are to be overlooked  because of the precedent that the 1930's bus station was turned into a cinema when cars were a novelty, no off street parking required then and so began a Town Planning nightmare for the residents. What has happened to Northcote Point over the years would never be allowed to happen anywhere else in NZ today. Businesses here require no off street parking whatever the size if they are on the site of a Victorian business. Skypath is not on the site of a Victorian shop.

It appears Northcote Point is to be swamped with Skypath's patrons cars as there is no off street parking allocated for this major transport hub. In these already over parked streets space for at least an extra 1850 cars a day is required if the patronage figures are correct. A glance at the map above shows that this cannot be done even if every household parks off road. Many of them cannot do this and what if a household has a second car? This has to be accommodated too. The few residents of the Point who knew of the scheme complained but the Skypath's public answer is that the residents have no right to the street parking and they have a point.  What is sauce for the goose etc. means the residents have as much right to park as the Skypath patrons, sort of first come first served  and residents are on the spot. If they choose to leave a second or third car out all day who is to stop them.

The problem started in the 1980s when the cinema, much improved was allowed to continue, 350 seats with no off street parking, then came a 30 seat restaurant which turned into a 50 seat restaurant, an antique shop, a  busy popular cafe, no off street parking required, added to a row of shops, a tavern, the Memorial Hall and the overflowing Tongan Church, Senior Citizens Meeting rooms, there is also a conference centre on the wharf that shares parking with the ferry and on occasions 100 cars can be expected for weddings etc. when all were are in use even if not together the parking spaces on Northcote Point become as rare as hen's teeth. Customers of the businesses who have never been obliged to provide suitable off street parking, complain about the long walks. The residents on the whole put up with it because Northcote Point it the sort of place where anybody would like to live. It is pleasant, friendly and beautiful.

Tragically the Point's only exit and entrance is at one of the 15 worst bottle necks in New Zealand. Queen St is a straight road with few turnings that runs down the Point which leads to the dreaded Onewa Road which is the only entrance onto the motorway into Auckland over the Harbour Bridge for a good section of the North Shore. In the morning the residents of the Point are locked in. From 7 am to 9.15 am only 11 cars every seven minutes are allowed to turn right to join the traffic headed for the Harbour Bridge. It is a very long wait not helped by cars from nearby areas who queue jump instead of joining the long procession from their own district. At the moment there are no cyclists to make matters worse but over 1000  cyclists will be expected to use this entrance if no other path can be found. It will be chaos of massive proportions.

Whoever owns the cars, parked cars on both sides of street will mean the main road will be down to two lanes  congested with cars and the 1000+ cyclists that are expected every day. A dangerous mix. In the side streets, that will have to be used too, the roads will be down to one lane. No room for a cycle lane. In any case the pedestrian crossers are in for a long walk. 

It has been calculated because of the huge increase in use that the exit to the Onewa Rd will take up to an hour and in the future when 34,000  (!!!) are expected to use this facility the exit could take up to 5 hours. There is no way the Onewa Rd exit can be rebuilt without a major upgrade removing most of the residential district and Onepoto basin and covering it with concrete. Skypath can be scathing about the Northcote residents who are being accused of being NIMBYs but in fact they are only protesting about becoming prisoners because of the parking and traffic. They already live with a bridge that carries 400,000 cars a day and puts up with all the businesses in residential streets.

So what is to be done? The cyclists want access to their Skypath and the residents do not want the parking or traffic. So why not be creative and come up with a solution. An answer that suits residents and cyclists. Simple.

The Point, its roads and residents can easily be isolated. Only cyclists and residents cars are allowed. All other cars with the exception of the disabled are to be excluded. This can be easily policed by cctv cameras as it is in London. Already this is working in Auckland, cross into a bus lane or forbidden bridge and one gets a $150 fine. The local Transport Police are just down the road too so parking infringements will not go unnoticed. The Transport police are literally on the spot.

That means the residents and police can  more easily access the Onewa Road in the morning rush hour and the cyclists get a clear run to the Skypath and back in the evening. No fear of being knocked down by congested traffic or an opening car door. The pedestrians who want to walk anyway will have just a kilometre more of exercise to get to their cars or they can take the bus.

As the Skypath spokesman pointed out the residents have no right to parking and therefore neither do the businesses on the Point who have been hogging the parking for years and making use of a Town Planning anomaly to their benefit. They knew when they bought their businesses  that they had no parking to offer so if it is removed it is their problem. Their patrons can still access the shops on foot or by bus as a better bus service will be necessary to ferry pedestrians down to the Point.  The cinema can provide a parking permits rather like the toll system at Warkworth. Where the Skypath's other customers park is up to them perhaps in the nearby Northcote shopping centre or a specially built Parking building in an appropriate zoning. 

I feel sure this solution would appeal to the residents of Northcote Point and to the Skypath enthusiasts as well. Initially I was  being ironic but you know this is a good idea. A happy outcome for all.

How to produce Berg's Nightingale for YouTube by yourself

How to Produce The Nightingale by Alban Berg for YouTube

This shouldn't be difficult. The song, Die Nactigall by a young Alban Berg is just 1 minute 45 seconds long and is one of those songs one just has to sing. I know Art Songs are out of fashion and almost off the menu but they are magnificent and in life there is only time for the best as my late husband and accompanist would say. Benjamin Britten also loved Berg and encouraged me to get to know the composer's work so regardless of the fact that I knew at the start that I should not have a vast public, to obtain maximum view Bookbinding, Butchering and Darwin are required but I live in hope of a few.

The general public and my friends have no idea of just how long a little task like this takes or the skills that are required so after a disappointing early response I thought the world should know just how time consuming and clever one has to be to achieve the above just in case anyone should wish to try the same. I love YouTube as it is a place where one can be creative and try things one could never usually afford to do. It is a place where one can make mistakes but just occasionally one gets it right and it is so gratifying. Of course you have to learn how to do this and I was lucky because I got in at the beginning in about 2007 when iMovie was at its easiest and best. I leaned how to video edit on iMovie 2 and eventually reluctantly upgraded as it was gradually withdrawn. It was too good to be free.

I even started a Channel to teach others how to do this but what with YouTube losing my legacy channel and the fact that I seem to be in a minority when it comes to video editing and the fact that today it is just not possible to start from scratch on an easy application. Today one has to begin with the hard stuff and Premier Pro and Final Cut X are daunting and take forever to do what iMovie 2 did in minutes.



So how did I do it? Today because of the copyright situation one has to own every frame of your video that means no songs after 1923. Alban Berg's was written in 1906. It was a song I did not know so first I had to find and download the sheet music which I did from Petrucci Music Library.

I do not play the piano and I no longer have a tame pianist. To learn a song to  professional performance means practising it every day for at least a couple of weeks and this is where brilliance of Garageband comes in. This is a free Midi app. After Miles died I had no accompanist. I lost husband and accompanist and as we had sung every morning for 30 years this was a blow. Then came Computers and Garageband . For years I just used it using the loops and the one night I need to change a few notes and I thought if I could do this perhaps I could write out the piano accompaniments to my Schubert Songs. I did and this is the first song I did. Note the wonderful uncompressed sound and warmth of the recording on tape which is no longer available today.

Writing out the piano version took about 3 hours, then I had to translate it from the German, I have to own the translations. Orchestrating it and this took considerable longer because one has to get it to sound good on digital. It was two weeks before I was satisfied with the key and orchestration and tempo and it took about a week to record as I have had whooping cough and this did not help. Some days I could sing it and some I couldn't.  This song was very difficult to make sound good on small speakers. Mixing can take hours too and sound mixing is an art in itself. It sounds terrific on high quality speakers and through earphones but even on my best computer with excellent small speakers it does not sound great. The range of the song is not favoured microphones. This is annoying because I know the vast majority of the audience will only hear my song on small speakers. Ah me!

Next the visuals. Here again one has to own or have permission for every frame. I do not have or have access to footage of nightingales so at first I tried the image effects answer. For this I use Motion. This is a very complicated application that allows one to manipulate video. I played about for about a week but the results did not  do justice to the song so I looked for some nightingale footage on YouTube as none was available for free use. There was only one channel. Bram Siertsema had taken some glorious HD footage of nightingales that one could die for. I had no way of getting in touch other than a video comment but I just asked him if I could use it to sing too. To my delight he said yes.

Usually I have to go out and take live footage my self which has meant learning how to use a HD SLR video camera.

The only way to get the footage was to download it  legally from YouTube as a full Quicktime Movie. This I did using YouTube Video Converter. Then I had to load it into Premier Pro for editing. The footage was in daylight so I had to send it to Speedgrade to change day into night. Video editing can be intensive and take hours and hours but the problem comes when one has to render. Rendering takes hours and hours and sometime hours more. A short  heavily edited 1 minute 45 sec can take up to 45 minutes or longer if not tackled in the right way and I have a super fast set up. If you get it wrong and I was unsatisfied with the sound mix and still am the rendering time is horrendous.

Then off to Photoshop for the graphics.

 Back to Motion to have the titles and Motion effects put on and more rendering. Then one has a final check, render and off to the Flash encoder to get it ready for YouTube. Another 2 hours can be spent doing this. Off to DropBox which plays .flv's to see what it looks like and then fingers crossed the YouTube upload. If I don't like it I have to do all this again till I do.

Then it is a lottery to see if I get a matched content notice. Being in public domain and well out of copyright doesn't mean you don't get one of these. A dispute can mean three weeks of wait or a demand to take the video down. This happens first and you argue later.

And then at last it is time to publish to your friends who are blissfully unaware  of the work involved. Proust once sent copies of his famous novel to all his friends who it seemed had great difficulty opening the envelope. I know just how he feels. If lucky I shall get about 50 views for this but Berg is worth it. One day I tell myself my work will be appreciated. I know of no one else who could do all of this, except one who could if he had the time. Maestro Wenarto is the only other person who I know who could do this if he chose as he too has the creative vision  however if it required 32 fouettes he might be stumped.

Why do I bother to go to all this trouble? Th skills needed to produce this short video are considerable and out of the question if one had to pay the going rate. I reckon about $50,000.  Because these songs need to be sung. Unless they are sung they will be lost in time and that is a pity because they are wonderful when the songs of the Beatles have vanished as they will  this song will still hold it's place in the musical hierarchy. Thanks to the computer and the magic applications I can sing and interpret these songs in my way.

Why don't other singers do this? I have found it is no good waiting for someone to do this for you and yet singers do.  They sit and wait when the tools for them to reach a huge audience are there to be used. Sometimes I do it for others and that gives me pleasure too because in a way I give them their posterity like John Prichett below. He wrote many West End revues and musicals and yet the song he wrote for me is the only one on YouTube. A moving picture is worth a thousand Wiki references. I am so lucky being able to do this.

The Reality of a Faith School Education - Guardian Comment

The lesson of Birmingham? State education is in chaos
Some schools' conduct was an offence to liberal principles, and we cannot ignore that. Guardian  The lesson of Birmingham? State education is in chaos.

For about a year I have replaced blogging with Guardian commenting as on the whole my blogs get little attention.  I just state my position as frankly as I can. Anonymity allows me to be franker than I can in real life. I try to be objective and realistic. I never review my comments or reply until at least  a few days later when the comments are closed. Sometimes I do not review for months but when I do I sometimes am surprised at the level of Likes I receive. With this in view I am going to post some of my more memorable comments for posterity and here is one. 

Having been on the receiving end of a Faith School Education and having kept quiet about it for most of my life I feel it is about time I warned the younger generations, especially women, that a fundamentalist indoctrination in a belief system can never replace a sound, unbiased secular education. 

This comment on fundamentalist faith school education in a reply to the above article. It received 125 Likes and here it is:

I am a mature adult reaching the end of my life. I can say honestly that my education at the hands of fundamentalist Roman Catholic nuns in the late 1940's and 50s nearly ruined my life. It ruined my formal education of which I had virtually none but I did receive a thorough fundamentalist religious education. We had 5 hours of the curriculum a week dedicated to serious study of the catechism and bible and in addition prayers before every class, the Angelus for which everything even GCE exams halted for 5 minutes and grace before and after meals. Fish was obligatory on Fridays. We would be asked each Monday morning if we had attended Mass and woe betide anyone who hadn't as it was straight off to confession. I received no sex or science education. Fortunately the little boy of 7 next door filled me in.

We were taught that in certain circumstances one was allowed to disobey one's parents and state if a conflict of interests arose. God came first. We were also discouraged from playing with any of our Jewish neighbours as we were taught that this race had killed Jesus. I know it is unpleasant today to mention this but this is what I was taught for 8 years. Fortunately for me this had no effect.

Later I attended 2 Jewish owned schools where I was the outsider. This did me a lot of good but it showed me at the age of 12 just how divisive belief systems can be and later prevented me from marrying someone I loved of this faith as he would have been ostracised by his family. In the Jewish faith it is the woman who counts when it comes handing on the race. All Belief Systems guard their brethren from outsiders

If left without supervision Belief Systems would still be teaching this type of curriculum. This is how they indoctrinate children. It is foolish to think otherwise. It is no good saying it is different today. It isn't. My birth belief system has not changed an iota. A 7 year old boy will still trump a female PhD when it comes to serving at mass. The PhD only gets the chance if no other male is available. I know I will be told this is wrong but it isn't. Only if a bishop allows it and in many countries the bishops don't. After 8 years I know my belief system better than most 

Most children survive their parents and education but many do not. Every child deserves a secular education free from indoctrination, myth and superstition. I speak from experience.

I received two replies, both favourable

AlicanteAnn replied to  comment on The lesson of Birmingham? State education is in chaos.

09 Jun 2014 11:26pm

42

Congratulations at putting some flesh on the argument for secular education.

I must admit I was surprised that 42 people had added their thanks. I omitted the abuse I received at the hands of one beautiful young nun who insisted I admit to seeing a dwarf called Red Cap as that is another story of which I still feel ashamed and strangely guilty.  My school friends still remember this incident with horror. The nuns did a good job on guilt. Maybe I shall be strong enough to tell it publicly one day but not yet.

I have had one comment that garnered 725 likes on the plight of women in Afghanistan and what the west should do to help. This was ironic but hit a nerve. I like the Guardian because one can be ironic.

So in future any good comments will find there way here. 

Bogdan Pau a YouTube comment I shall never forget.

                          

The internet and YouTube are a wonderful things. I find on the internet people are usually so nice to each other and I have made many friends this way. I like to share my love of life, ballet, opera and science and this way I meet people who in real life I would never have had the chance to know. I like to leave comments, as having a YouTube Channel myself I like to receive feedback but sometime as I found to my cost over the last few days I can be horribly wrong.

I had commented on comment that an acquaintance of mine had posted on  a video on a new recording of  Die Winterreise . Innocent enough but a Bogdan Pau left a rather nasty comment about this that I stupidly answered. I had no idea who Bogdan Pau was but the impression I was given that this was a male academic ,Bogdan Pau, whoever he is, was quick to tell me of his academic credentials and how it is impossible for him to carry on a conversation with such an illiterate women who has only read Shakespeare, Proust, Mann and the complete works of Freud and then suggested that I should read Memoirs of a Anti Semite as I might learn something. This Bogdan Pau informed me that he, I presumed it was a  he that:

I do remember recommending you the central-eastern literature, the so callled Mitteleuropean literature.  from a rethorical point of view ( that means you should have read aristotel, cicero, quintilian.. and I could mention others , but you are still at Mann and Proust) that's a huge error... that proves that You are not quite capable of grasping the central element of e message and replying to that element ...

I unwisely remarked that his English was a little difficult to comprehend and received this: 

when you dear lady will be capable of writing  more then  7 languages  ( that includes classical latin and greek) - even with mistakes- then  we could talk equally
when you dear lady will have three university degrees in three different specialities ( in three different countries) and a PHD form a top swiss university, then we could talk equally .... having a consérvatoire de musique and making solfegios all your life is not quite the same......
quid ( that's a latin word)  what  should be an educated person? that's a more complex subject and  I do not have the time and the patience to treat it here 

Bogdan Pau had as Jane Austen puts it so beautifully in Pride and Prejudice  Insulted me in every way possible in public for all to see forever and is obviously proud of his achievement. Unknowingly he touched on two subjects on which I have a very raw nerve. That of Die Winterreise Schubert  which my husband and I sang just before he died and the persecution of the Jews. Calling or hinting that someone may be an anti semite is dangerous ground at the best of time and to be avoided

I was very cross as can be expected from any woman of my age who has had to put up with this sort of treatment  so I decided to find who this Bogdan Pau might be who had written in such a cruel fashion and put it in this blog for posterity.  I left this message on the comment then I did a Google and I came up with a female French Lawyer who specialised in human rights and a young woman . It struck me then I might have been naive and this young woman who was either being cruel or having a joke at my expense. I did write the blog but something made me hold back and I did not post it.

Just as well for it seems that this was indeed a  woman who says she has three university degrees and can speak 7 languages. Evidently the original post was not meant for me. She/He pointed out that I could be her grandmother and people of my age do not deserve respect. She is possibly right. I was stupid not to check earlier but she was equally wrong not to inform me that I had made a mistake or apologise simply by saying she had replied to the wrong comment.

Obviously I cannot trust this person and I have still no idea of who this could be. It could still be someone playing a rather nasty joke but I have learned another lesson not to take a comment on trust and to do a Google. Anyway for anyone who looks up Bogdan Pau on Google be careful as you might be in for a nasty surprise but at least the world will have been warned or she could be just a silly girl who may live to regret a moment of madness.

Alan Bennett makes GCSE List with History Boys

Having just watched Alan Bennett's The History Boys on the BBC this week I can see why it is a chosen play. I was so impressed I watched it twice.

Being of another age and a girl I went to school but received no education. I wanted to take GCE English literature but three weeks before the exam I did not even know what the set books were. Then I met a teacher like Hector who saw I had potential and in three weeks taught me the three books one of which was The Selected Poems of Thomas Hardy. She told me that these poems would be with me for life and I still quote them from memory. She was right.

This woman was my entire education. She taught me the love of literature and poetry but more importantly how to learn and question in just ten days. She was appalled at my spelling and said it was a mark off for every mistake!The way she interpreted the love poems written by a man in his seventies has left a lasting impression. She said it was impossible to complete the three books and I never read the complete novel The Rover by Conrad but she handed me the crib and said get as far as you can. I should not do this under any other circumstances.

I was bright! Although I was actually working at the time, a yes I was a professional child actor, I just did it. I took the exam. The only girl in my school to do so.When the results came up I had 87% but as Mrs Payne for that was her name, gave them to me she said. Pity about your spelling. We shall never know your true academic worth! This mattered not to me as I knew I was not going to be one as I was going to be famous on the stage. In some ways I did achieve this!

I married an Oxford educated GP Miles RC Heffernan so I know all about Oxford. Alan Bennett got it absolutely right in his play. My husband said at Oxford some entrants only write a page of the exam and yet still gain entry. I felt like the boy who was good at sport and became the builder. I think had I received the education these boys got in Sheffield I too might have made Oxford. Watching made me realise how poor my faith school convent education was. Oh to have lessons like that! To have the confidence that those boys had to answer back and be accepted. This quality is also bestowed at Eton. I have never had this ability. Bennett's Sheffield school maybe more imaginary than real, I suspect.

However I was lucky. I have Oxford although second hand. My husband once said only go for the best as life is too short for the second rate and he was right. I had a crash course in the best for which I am extremely grateful.

That is why I am delighted Alan Bennett is included as it might encourage teachers to be more courageous and pupils to see what they should be getting. Strangely I featured in the life of Benjamin Britten and in a book published for his centenary my essay on Britten  first published in the Times is immediately after Alan Bennett's! Our education could not be more different both of us were outsiders but at least he had the advantage of being working class and a man. I am working class too although I don't sound it but a woman. Big difference. Thanks to Mrs Payne, Benjamin Britten and my husband I survived my education but think what I might have achieved had I been educated?

PS Forgive the typos as my spelling has not improved!

Gardens are like Countries

I have a garden. I love it and have taken care of it for forty years. It is tiny, just about three quarters of a tennis court. It was bare and empty when I first arrived but over the years it has filled up so now it is overflowing.

At first I took everything I was offered even if the plants were not suitable for the small space. Friends were happy to give me plants and still are. Some were invasive and crept in from the garden next door.  Just one tiny cutting could within a few years become a menace if allowed  to take over which they would do and all the natives would be swamped but some menaces are so pretty that I keep them firmly under control. I remove all weeds ruthlessly as the endanger my natives.

Some plants I love but it is a waste of time growing as they are not suitable for our sub tropical climate. I cannot grow any plants that require a good frost like peonies, apricots, apples, Tea roses. I used to have a go but they constantly let me down so now I am very picky about the plants I choose. Plants that require frost or all day sun are not suitable for my tiny garden. They would thrive elsewhere but not for me.

The plants I have I look after. I spend money on my garden. I know every plant and I look after them. I water and feed them at great expense but they look healthy and they are worth it. My garden is beautiful.

Now my small garden is full. My friends still want to give me plants but sadly I have told them that there is no more room. Plants are living things and I have no time or space for any more. Sadly I have told them no more plants at the moment. I never say never.

Countries are like gardens.

Traveller's Club 2014 - Penises only!

Traveller's Club - Wiki Creative Commons

Today the Traveller's Club one of the pillars of the Establishment surpassed itself by voting to continue its practice of discrimination against women. In 2014 the ownership of a penis is still a valuable commodity and screams out that any man however silly is still better than a woman even the Queen!

The Guardian reported this and as usual invited comments. I use these comment opportunities and this is what I wrote: 

This must be a record. Not one single comment from a woman on the topic of male clubs and their reluctance to accept women members so I suppose I must show the flag. It seems women are not interested in joining these last bastions of male privilege where the price of admission is the ownership of a penis and can you blame us.

However it is insulting to all women, insensitive, discriminatory and offensive that this could continue today. The Taliban is a good example but the Freemasons are another example of an all male club where if I were a penis owner I should be readily accepted.

By chance ladies I caught a glimpse of this all male club in action so you might be interested to know what you are missing. This may be moderated. I taught ballet and for 11 years used the local Freemason's Hall. It had a very ordinary entrance hall.  One night just before Xmas my little fairies had a dress rehearsal at about 7 pm. To our amazement the hall wall had disappeared and in front of us were about 50 men all dressed up as crusaders with swords and dirty white unironed tabards which had obviously not been shown to their wives The look on their crusaders faces when confronted with 15 little six year olds was something I shall never forget.

Here were all the notables of our small town looking silly. My fairies were astonished and so was I being the only adult female present. Consternation followed as obviously no woman was allowed to witness this and I am not surprised. It was so funny. I wondered if these men's wives were aware of what their husbands were up to.

Ladies they are playing at dressing up! They rehearse this sort of stuff.

Anyway red faces all around. The Masons were not amused. The hall walls were reassembled and we were asked to leave. I stuck to my guns and continued with my rehearsal. All Freemasons halls have a secret room I found out. This one was very well hidden. The Masons found the incident embarrassing. My fairies loved it.

I am not afraid of men. I was raised in this club having no female companions. I am allowed to join in most things, like trainspotting, stamp collecting, frogs spawning but I am not allowed to join their clubs! Why! because I don't have a penis. This makes men feel good. It is ridiculous.