Welcome to Mike's Site!
(Last updated 25 February 2008)
Photo montage - Mike Bodnar
Intro
Hi, welcome home.
Well, to my home page anyway.
Motorcycles, art, photography, movies, (plus a selection of free New Zealand images)... there's something about all of them and me here. Or if you'd like to stay for a day or two in the countryside just north of Wellington (New Zealand's capital city) scroll on down.
You'll also find information on where I'm from, what I work at, what I do when I'm not working, and lots of other stuff.
Thanks for visiting!
Mike
PS: The free images are further down the page in the left-hand column!
Where I'm from
Liverpool, Merseyside, England
I've got to include some mention of my birthplace, if for no other reason than it's also the home of The Beatles, arguably the greatest band in musical history. (OK, I said arguably!) And Liverpool Football Club.
I was raised in Liverpool until the age of 14 when my Mum and I emigrated to New Zealand. So I grew up as a "scouser," as Liverpudlians are called.
The big disappointment to my new-found friends in New Zealand was that I didn't actually know John, George, Paul or Ringo. I have, however, interviewed Mike McCartney, Paul's brother, and now qualify for induction to a Hall of Fame. Or maybe not.
Liverpool is not as dirty, downtrodden, crime-ridden or depressed as it's often portrayed in television dramas and films.
In many places it's an elegant city, with much Victorian and Georgian architecture still intact. In fact, it's the second-most filmed city in Britain, often used as a location for period dramas and as a 'double' for other cities.
You can spot bits of Liverpool in films such as Chariots of Fire (the ballroom sequence was shot in Liverpool Town Hall); The Hunt for Red October (in which I believe it doubled as a snow-covered Moscow); and Letter to Brezhnev (which was filmed there).
Canning Street's Georgian terraced houses reflect the elegant architecture of the time and have been the backdrop for many a period drama.
It's also worth a visit if you're a Beatles fan because the various heritage trails on offer give you a special insight into the inspirations behind many of the Fab Four's songs. But there's so much more to it!
Above all, Scousers have a wicked sense of humour, so go to a pub and eavesdrop!
Where I live now - Wellington, NZ
The capital of New Zealand. And it is (despite what Aucklanders will tell you) absolutely positively the cutural capital of the country.
It's windy, wild at times, but neatly encircled by hills with a quaint harbour and the city itself is what I like to call manageable. That is, you can basically walk everywhere.
The shops are good, the art galleries, the theatres, the street life (image on right from the 2005 Cuba Street Carnival) cafes and restaurants... all fabulous.
See for yourself: Absolutely Positively Wellington City
What I do
Communications/Public Relations
Professionally I'm a communications consultant, trading as Immediate Creative Services, and like to work on a project basis. I'm not one a for full-time career, working year after year in the same job. Being a Gemini I have a short attention span, and I like to get in, learn what's going on, achieve something and then get out and move on.
As a result I've had many interesting assignments over the years, and more recently have been providing consultancy services to the public sector (government departments).
I work this way because I believe work-life balance is important, though I prefer to operate on a life-work basis!
What I do when I’m not working
Stand-up Comedy - You must be joking!
I've always been interested in comedy, and until recently more as spectator or observer than participant. In 1995 a friend of mine launched into stand-up comedy in Wellington and invited me to provide some material, which I did. During one of his shows he brought on his three "scriptwriters" during the interval to do a ten-minute stand-up routine of our own.
A critic in the audience wrote the next day that much of my material was above the heads of the audience. It didn't put me off, but I didn't pursue comedy as a career either.
Fast-forward ten years... I'd been going to comedy venues for a while and was keen to try stand-up again. Wellington's comedy scene included a regular 'rookie' night, and on one of these Sunday sessions I went along and delivered about 10 minutes' worth.
It went well, and subsequently I've had about a dozen gigs, plus have just completed a three-night run with two other comics in Wellington's 2006 Fringe Festival (that's us in the pic above: Matt Elliott (l) and Alex Hawley (r) ) and was runner-up in the Indigo Comedy Club's 2006 Rookie Comedy Competition.
Here's something - no doubt you heard that famous Kiwi film director Lee Tamahori got done for prostitution on Santa Monica Boulevard earlier this year. Did you realise you can rearrange the letters in his name to spell A male to hire?
It would be a good name for his next James Bond film. Lee could even have a cameo role; he could combine two classic Bond villains - Blofeld and Oddjob - and star as Blowjob...
I debuted my one-man stand-up show at the 2006 Dunedin Fringe Festival. Called Beside Myself - Life in the Farce Lane with Mike Bodnar, I figured Dunedin would be a good place to try it out as I know only three people there! But, despite small houses (mine, not Dunedin's...) it was a great experience and I had a ball.
Here's the promotional poster/flier:
Read my initial media release.
NEWS! February 2007, Wellington Fringe, and where better for observational comedy than... an observatory!
And we sold out! Four nights, full houses. Read reviews at:
Coleman: http://www.theatreview.org.nz/reviews/review.php?id=534 Smythe: http://www.theatreview.org.nz/reviews/review.php?id=527
More info: http://www.fringe.org.nz/theatre/comedy/a-brief-history-of-everything-in-the-sky
2008 Comedy Newsflash!
My most recent comedy performance was on a bus. No seriously. It was called A Comedy Omnibus, and played as part of the 2008 Wellington Fringe Festival, for a four-night sell-out season.
Check out the listing in the fringe online programme
WATCH THIS!!
Ever wondered about that ubiquitous deep gravelly voice on every movie trailer you've ever seen? Discover the truth behind the voice here (An Annoying Little Brother Production): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oofx8engfXI
Writing
Love writing, always have. I've written a few children's short stories (mainly for my own kids, so not published), and am half way through a teen novel. But then, I've been half way through it for the past two years.
Didn't I mention something about life-work balance a few paragraphs back? I really should listen to myself...
Click, click, nudge, nudge, say no more
I've always enjoyed photography too, and have owned an old Olympus OM10 SLR for years, but with the introduction of digital photography my interest has expanded enormously.
I guess one of the best things about digital is not having to wait for your photos to come back from the lab, and being able to take the risk out of photography.
Here's a grouping of four photos with a sand theme, taken one November day in 2004 at a windswept beach about an hour north of Wellington...
(Sorry, they're watermarked because I'm releasing them as a limited edition in the 2006 Affordable Art Show in Wellington, 3 - 6 August).
UPDATE! I was going to submit a limited edition run of 15 of these images to the Show but only had time to do one set, which sold within an hour of the gala opening, so I'm well pleased.
The feather was genuinely trapped in the sand - I didn't put it there - but I like the resemblance to a wave breaking. It has an oriental feel.
In the second of the series I like the contrast of the tide mark gainst the wind-blown sand, the watery debris line against the pure silky sand.
And in this one the wind-sculpted sand patterns caught my attention.
There's an almost skeletal quality about the lines, maybe some ribs, and a spine...
In this one, I've been accused of faking the imprints, but like the feather above they are genuine. I liked the contrast between the purpose and direction of the claw-marks against the randomness of the sand pattern.
My present camera is a Fujifilm Finepix S7000. Features I like about it in particular are its large LCD display, a superimposed optional grid (great for getting the horizon straight, especially with sea shots), and excellent close-up and macro capabilities.
But is it Art?
I gained my Fine Arts Preliminary exam at high school (so last century!) with the aim of going to art school. I never did. But I retain an interest in art, and a few years ago joined a life-drawing class, mainly because the human form has always been one of my weak points. Give me a car or building to draw and I'm fine. Make it a body and I'm hopeless.
But, I enjoyed the course and made some progress. These are three works that resulted.
The one above and to the left are done using charcoal and chalk on grey paper stock.
The image below is an ink drawing using a piece of card dipped in black Indian ink.
And here's a photo I took in September (2006), one of a series of studies, but my favourite. I call it "Zara".
But enough of images!
Words on pages
I like to read a lot, but it's an eclectic mix spanning long novels through philosophy books to motorbike mags, so I'm sure you don't want me to mention the whole lot. Go on, be honest.
Tolkien. Enough said. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings pre-date nearly all of today's fantasy-sci-fi books, TV programmes and movies, and to my mind L.O.T.R remains the ultimate in fantasy literature.
I was delighted when New Zealand's own Peter Jackson (Meet the Feebles, Braindead, Heavenly Creatures, The Frighteners) chose to shoot the trilogy here, and I was privileged to get on the set of Rivendell (at Kaitoke Regional Park about an hour north of Wellington) for a few hours.
The attention to detail on the set was fantastic, and I got to chat with the director himself for a brief while (see above: Peter's showing me how big a role I can't have in the film...), plus met Sean Astin (Sam Gamgee). Unfortunately the scene they shot while I was there was cut from the film. Sigh. And, I couldn't get a role in the movies either, being too tall for a Hobbit and too short for a Rider of Rohan. It sucks being average.
Adam Hall (Elleston Trevor) was a fave of mine for a long time. I always like a good spy-story, and I rate his Quiller series, written by Trevor as Adam Hall, as among the best. Author of the more well-known Flight of the Phoenix, he died in 1995, just one day after completing his latest/last novel Quiller Balalaika.
To a certain degree, Quiller was a similar anti-hero to Callan, by James Mitchell. Callan originally a very successful 1970s TV series (British), starred Edward Woodward in the lead role. (There's a story Mr Woodward tells - apparently - of the first time he ever played a significant role in the theatre. He went outside to look at his name above the entrance only to find the wind had blown away many of the letters. He was, he says, dismayed to see that the show starred "E wa Woo wa .")
I am - and I say this with a degree of modesty - one of only five people in the world ever to have read Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time all the way through.
I'm also a great fan of Bill Bryson, both his travel books and his Short History of Nearly Everything (highly recommended).
Highly recommended also: (just for pure escapism) are all novels by Stephen Hunter. If you like guns, this guy is the best. If you don't, it doesn't matter, he's still the best. (The Master Sniper, Black Light, etc, and especially all the Earl Swagger stories)
Visit the unofficial S Hunter website.
Born to Be Mild (Motorcycling)
Born to be mild, that's me! My bike is a mildly customised 1989 Harley-Davidson 1200 Sportster, a true "Kiwi bike" with a greenstone paint job, silver fern on the tank, and even dinky pieces of paua shell (abalone) and greenstone (jade) here and there.
It's my release from the hours of sitting at the computer. I'm also in the Wellington chapter of the Harley Owners Group - HOG - but I don't get out on rides as often as I'd like. Which is a pity because New Zealand has some great motorcycling roads, particularly in the South Island (population 4).
Here's a list of all the bikes (in order) that I've owned (It doesn't necessarily get better as it goes!)
View list of Mike's Bikes!
Do not try this at home!
Me navigating my way round NZ.
(Just to spoil the fun, I'm not actually riding the bike. I put it on its side stand and then erased it from the picture. Isn't Photoshop wonderful?)
If you're planning riding around New Zealand, the book in the photo is well worth getting. It's called Great Escapes - A Guide to Motorcycle Touring in New Zealand by Peter Mitchell, published (2000) by Longacre Press, Dunedin, NZ.
Read more about Great Escapes in New Zealand
Ready when you are Mr deMille
In 1996 I had a wonderful role as movie reviewer for a live morning TV lifestyle-magazine programme on TVNZ called Good Morning. That was a buzz because I got to see a movie a week - sometimes two - for free, and get paid for it!
The list of favourites could be r e a l l y long, so I'll be brief. Here it is
Local Hero, dir. Bill Forsyth. My favourite movie of all time. Rent it on DVD, sit down, open a bottle of single-malt whisky (Lagavulin is good), and enjoy.
That Sinking Feeling, also dir. Bill Forsyth, one of his earliest movies. Lovely "amateur" performances by young Glaswegians. Very funny.
Gregory's Girl, also dir. by - you guessed it. Charming. Absolutely charming.
Alien, dir. Ridley Scott. Loved the alien spacecraft and monster concepts of H.H.Giger. Aliens, Alien 3 and Alien 4 are all good sequels too)
Bladerunner, also by Ridley Scott. "Wake up! Time to die!"
Dr. No, Goldfinger and all the early Bond movies with Sean Connery. Timothy Dalton rates as the best post-Connery Bond to date.
The Princess Bride, dir. Carl Reiner? An undiscovered classic! The swordfight scene is the best ever. ("I hate to have to kill you." "Get used to disappointment.")
Naked Gun (the first one). Leslie Nielsen is wonderful. Four Weddings and a Funeral, and Love Actually - Hugh Grant is also wonderful.
All films by David Lynch and Quentin Tarrantino.
Shaun of the Dead and Young Frankenstein. Run Lola Run. Mars Attacks! (Ack Ack!)
The Box
"I am not a number!" shouted Patrick McGoohan in his role as Number Six, in the 1960s cult British television series The Prisoner.
The reason I mention it here is that it is probably the single most influential programme I watched as a youth.
The series was all about freedom of the individual, something I believe Patrick McGoohan is passionate about, and it's also an aspect of today's society I'm interested in. It was enigmatic in the extreme, and the theme music has to be among the best ever, ranking up there with Mission Impossible and the Pink Panther as truly memorable and evocative.
Certainly more today than in 1967 when the series was first screened, we are all 'numbers.' Shout as much as you want, but you can't leave your number behind!
The Prisoner was shot partly on location at a charming place called Portmeirion in North Wales. Created by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, "The Village" as it became known in the TV series, is actually a hotel, set in grounds dominated by an eclectic mix of Italianate architecture collected by Ellis over decades.
If you ever find yourself anywhere near it, go and visit. It's fabulous!
Prisoner: "What do you want?"
Number Two: "Information!"
Prisoner: "You won't get it."
Number Two: "By hook or by crook, we will!"
(Two views of The Village at Portmeirion, North Wales)
Prisoner Geek? Visit either The Prisoner site at Retroweb or
Six of One. There's a rumour that a full-length feature film is to be made (though fraught with issues and problems, watch this space), and apparently Granada is doing a remake of the TV series, but not set in the Village at Portmeirion. Shame.
Other series and programmes of note (for me anyway) include Twin Peaks, Edge of Darkness, Callan, Red Dwarf, Spaced, Black Books, The Office, League of Gentlemen, Blackadder (all series, but especially Goes Forth), and Flowery Twats (Fawlty Towers... the name of the hotel got rearranged each week by juveniles). Yes there's a lot of comedy.
Skiing
New Zealand has some great ski fields, though almost none of them have trees above the snow line. If you crash into trees a lot then this is the place to ski. If however you like your ski slopes "pretty" then go to Canada or Europe.
The Night Sky
The southern night sky is just fabulous, with many many more and brighter stars than the northern hemisphere.
That's because we're more angled towards the centre of the galaxy, so the Milky Way is a lot more prominent. It's also relatively easy in New Zealand to get out of the city and escape light pollution, leaving the inky bejewelled blackness of the sky in all its glory.
What a pity people don't look at it more often.
Find out more about the Southern sky:
Walking
Having grown up in England, where centuries-old trails and tracks have become rights-of-way (allowing you to walk across a farm field of maize if that's where the track goes) I was initially disappointed to find no such thing in New Zealand. Agriculture has been the backbone of the NZ economy since Europeans arrived, and today it still plays an important role (though tourism has become a competitive earner). Consequently, walking nonchalantly across farm paddocks hasn't been - and still isn't - encouraged.
To make up for that however, there are some fabulous, unbelievable, awe-inspiring walks to be had through the New Zealand native bush. The Department of Conservation maintains a network of tracks and huts throughout New Zealand, many in unspoilt National Parks.
"Freedom walking" - where you carry all your own gear, set your own pace and look after yourself - is very popular, but so, too, are "organised" walks. Among those that I've had great fun on are the Milford Track and Routeburn Track, both in Fiordland in the south-west of the South Island.
The Milford Track is among many around the globe described as "the most beautiful walk in the world." Having not done any of the others, I can't comment. But it is beautiful, magical, enchanting, inspirational ... hey, get the thesaurus out!
The Routeburn is equally majestic, but takes you more up hill and down dale. Both walks are about three days' duration, but with views, sights and experiences that will last a lifetime.
(The image on the right is a native New Zealand wood pigeon, or kereru)
Colour, bouquet and taste (Wine)
I don't have a regular column now, but I used to do wine writing for different magazines a few years ago, which combined two of my favourite interests nicely: wine and writing. The New Zealand wine industry is, in global terms, still in nappies, yet many of the wines are taking the 'old world' by storm.
Although the first vines were brought to New Zealand by colonists 150 years ago, it's only since the late 1970s that the wine industry has "popped its cork" so to speak. Today there are vineyards from Northland (in the far north of the North Island) to Otago at the bottom of the South Island, with about 200 wineries, many of which have gained international reputations.
If you're coming to New Zealand for a holiday, take time out to visit some of the wineries (many have restaurants on site), or take an organised wine trail tour in one of the wine-growing regions.
And speaking of visiting New Zealand...
Come and stay in Ohariu Valley!
Ohariu Lodge - Now open!
Ohariu Lodge is the best little lodge, in the country. It's a self-catering, fully self-contained two-bedroomed lodge, with
open plan lounge, wood fire, spa pool (hot tub), with private outlook
across lawns to trees and stream.
All of this in the rural tranquility of Ohariu Valley, just 17 kilometres (10 miles) from the central business district of Wellington, New Zealand's vibrant and cultural capital city. There's a golf course up the road and horse riding centre next door, with the ruggedly beautiful south-west coastline just an 11 kilometre drive (or cycle) away (good snorkelling).
Why would you want to stay in a boring hotel room when you can stay in your own lodge? I ask you! For a sneak preview go to www.ohariulodge.com
II look forward to welcoming you to Ohariu Lodge soon. For enquiries please email me.
The Fine Print
Section C, Paragraph 12: All images on this site are the intellectual property of moi and I reserve the right to come round and break your arm if you use any of those not offered gratis (left-hand column). You have been warned. On the other hand, if you ask nicely...
A FINAL NOTE:
If any of this site doesn't make sense, the pictures aren't showing, or links don't work, forgive me; it's my first attempt. I will re-visit it regularly and make improvements. Any (sensible) suggestions welcome!
