Jimmy James /
1915–1992
Dancer, dance teacher, cabaret proprietor
Jimmy James dancing with his future wife, Anne Blewman, Wellington, 1950
Dancer, dance teacher, cabaret proprietorJimmy James, the man who taught thousands of Wellingtonians the art of ballroom dancing, was born Dimitrios Skafidas in Athens, Greece, on 15 February 1915. He was one of six children of Nickolai Skafidas, a shoemaker, and his wife, Styliani Karagiani. The end of his formal schooling at 13 coincided with the visit to Athens of a family friend, Stratis Galanis (Stanley Garland), who had earlier emigrated to Australia, then New Zealand. Galanis offered to assist one of the Skafidas children to emigrate, and Dimitrios, the second eldest son, was chosen. On arrival in Wellington in 1928 the smiling, brown-eyed Greek boy lived with the Garland family and worked in their Cuba Street café for two years, peeling potatoes to pay back his boat fare.
Dimitrios loved to dance, and joined the Phyllis Bates School of Dancing in Willis Street. Lessons followed with Ted Priestley, an amateur boxing champion turned professional dancing teacher, and a year later Skafidas won the Wellington junior ballroom-dancing championship. This early success gave him the idea to become a dance teacher, but being not yet 17 he was without the means to set up a studio. Doris Phillips, the proprietor of the Brown Jug cabaret, allowed him to use the dance floor outside cabaret hours. About this time he changed his name by deed poll to Jimmy James, and commenced teaching, charging sixpence a person for group lessons, half a crown for a private lesson. He found it hard to earn his rent but his clientele increased as he gave exhibitions throughout the greater Wellington region. By 1941, in his mid 20s, he had established his own studio in Willis Street, where he remained for the next 20 years.
In 1936 he had organised the first Jimmy James ball, with Rodney Pankhurst’s nine-piece band, at the Adelphi Cabaret in Cuba Street. On the morning of the ball he and his friends were ‘making sausage rolls by the yard’. Decades later the Jimmy James ball was still an annual event, held at either the New Majestic Lounge or the Roseland Cabaret, and attended by many couples who had met at his studio and later married. Although shackled by the licensing laws, dancers defiantly enjoyed mixing music, dancing and alcohol well into the 1960s. James met his future wife, Veronica Anne Blewman, at his first ball.
By the mid 1940s Jimmy James had become the proprietor of the large Roseland Cabaret in Victoria Street. During the war years more than a dozen clubs were established in Wellington to cater for servicemen. Dance orchestras were flourishing and American servicemen demanded evening entertainment, especially live, modern music for jiving and jitterbugging. Full days of teaching at the studio were followed by evening floor shows at the cabaret. Suave, good-looking and elegantly dressed, James was a great showman. While his dancing style was dramatic and forceful he could also ‘dance like a butterfly’. He loved Latin American, but considered ballroom dancing the supreme form.
Anne Blewman and Jimmy James were married at St Anne’s Church in Newtown on 4 December 1954. A reception for nearly 300 was held at the Roseland Cabaret, where Stan Garland was master of ceremonies. Their childless marriage gave them the freedom to pursue their flamboyant lifestyle. James was a warm, gregarious man of great energy who loved company. After dancing till dawn the couple would often breakfast with friends, have a few hours’ sleep, and later in the day gather again for a picnic. He was a heavy smoker but never drank alcohol. He found gambling irresistible, always attending the Trentham races and entertaining jockeys in his Adelaide Road home. He could play cards at the Greek club for days at a time. He was also a compassionate man, easily moved to tears. Every year on Anzac Day he threw a ‘ripper’ of a party to celebrate his birthday. He chose this day so that friends from all over the country could attend.
Both James and his wife worked on the committee that ran the first New Zealand dance championships in Wellington in 1952. He co-founded the New Zealand Federation of Dance Teachers four years later and was its president for 10 years. He was a fellow examiner of the federation and also of the National Association of Teachers of Dancing, London. In 1964 he was appointed a judge for the world amateur dancing championships in Sydney, the first time they had been held outside Europe and the first time a judge from New Zealand had been invited to adjudicate. In 1976 Jimmy James was Personality of the Year in New Zealand dancing, awarded at the South Pacific championships in Auckland. Earlier that year he had won the annual Peter Pellow Trophy for the greatest contribution to dance.
During the 1950s and 1960s Jimmy and Anne James made regular visits to several Wellington high schools to instruct pupils in ballroom and Latin American dancing. For many teenage girls the arrival of their tall dancing teacher, his thick hair gleaming with Brylcreem, became the highlight of the week. His deep voice, slightly accented, added to his charm. In the 1960s he remained in demand nationally for demonstrations, and at the 34th Jimmy James ball in 1970 he gave Latin American exhibitions, his technique as sound as ever. After 40 years as a teacher he began to phase out his commitments and to spend more time with his wife at their home in Waikanae. She died in 1984. In his 70s he was still active, able to walk for miles and dance for hours. The decline of dance halls saddened him: ‘it’s one of the best exercises in the world’.
Jimmy James died at the Mary Potter Hospice in Newtown on 4 July 1992. A large crowd attended his funeral at the Greek Orthodox church, and he was buried at Waikanae cemetery. His name is remembered in the James Cabaret in Hania Street.
Louise Buckingham. 'James, Jimmy - James, Jimmy', from the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 30-Oct-2012
via the Encyclopedia of New Zealand
I AM - Gate III . Colin McCahon 1970 /
Gate III, 1970
Record number - cm001186
Title - Gate III
Date - 1970
Medium - synthetic polymer paint
Support - canvas
Dimensions - 3050 x 10670 mm
Inscriptions - Gate III. / McCahon / NOV. DEC. / '70. (brushpoint, b.r.)
Collection - Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection
Credit line - purchased with the assistance of The Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council, 1972
Accession number - VUW.1972.1
Extended inscriptions
O earth earth earth. How is the hammer of the
whole earth cut asunder and broken.
All ye who kindle a fire who gird
yourselves about with firebrands
Walk ye in the flames of your fire and among
the brands which ye have kindled
The earth shall stagger like a drunken man
Then the moon shall be confounded and the sun ashamed.
In this dark
night of Western
civilisation
teach us to order
our days rightly,
that we may enter
the gate
of
wisdom
God be gracious to us and
bless us.
God make his face shine upon us,
that his ways be known
on earth
And his saving power
Among all the nations
The Lord bless you.
The Lord your true goal,
your holy mountain.
as there is a constant
flow of light we are
born
into a pure land
as there is a constant
flow of light
we are born into
a pure land
Exhibition history
1971 Auckland: Ten big paintings, Auckland City Art Gallery, 10 February-28 March 1971, cat. no. 6.
1994 Wellington: Town and gown: Victoria University Art Collection, City Gallery Wellington, 19 November 1994-26 February 1995.
1999 Wellington: Manufacturing meaning: The Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection in context, Adam Art Gallery Te Pataka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 22 September 1999-31 January 2000.
Notes
Gate III was commissioned by Auckland City Art Gallery for the opening of the Edmiston Wing in 1971
80/20 - the Pareto Principle /
In 1906, Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto created a mathematical formula to describe the unequal distribution of wealth in his country, observing that twenty percent of the people owned eighty percent of the wealth. In the late 1940s, Dr. Joseph M. Juran inaccurately attributed the 80/20 Rule to Pareto, calling it Pareto's Principle. While it may be misnamed, Pareto's Principle or Pareto's Law as it is sometimes called, can be a very effective tool to help you manage effectively.
Where It Came From
After Pareto made his observation and created his formula, many others observed similar phenomena in their own areas of expertise. Quality Management pioneer, Dr. Joseph Juran, working in the US in the 1930s and 40s recognized a universal principle he called the "vital few and trivial many" and reduced it to writing. In an early work, a lack of precision on Juran's part made it appear that he was applying Pareto's observations about economics to a broader body of work. The name Pareto's Principle stuck, probably because it sounded better than Juran's Principle.
As a result, Dr. Juran's observation of the "vital few and trivial many", the principle that 20 percent of something always are responsible for 80 percent of the results, became known as Pareto's Principle or the 80/20 Rule.
What It Means
The 80/20 Rule means that in anything a few (20 percent) are vital and many(80 percent) are trivial. In Pareto's case it meant 20 percent of the people owned 80 percent of the wealth. In Juran's initial work he identified 20 percent of the defects causing 80 percent of the problems. Project Managers know that 20 percent of the work (the first 10 percent and the last 10 percent) consume 80 percent of your time and resources. You can apply the 80/20 Rule to almost anything, from the science of management to the physical world.
You know 20 percent of your stock takes up 80 percent of your warehouse space and that 80 percent of your stock comes from 20 percent of your suppliers. Also 80 percent of your sales will come from 20 percent of your sales staff. 20 percent of your staff will cause 80 percent of your problems, but another 20 percent of your staff will provide 80 percent of your production. It works both ways.
How It Can Help You
The value of the Pareto Principle for a manager is that it reminds you to focus on the 20 percent that matters. Of the things you do during your day, only 20 percent really matter. Those 20 percent produce 80 percent of your results. Identify and focus on those things. When the fire drills of the day begin to sap your time, remind yourself of the 20 percent you need to focus on. If something in the schedule has to slip, if something isn't going to get done, make sure it's not part of that 20 percent.
There is a management theory floating around at the moment that proposes to interpret Pareto's Principle in such a way as to produce what is called Superstar Management. The theory's supporters claim that since 20 percent of your people produce 80 percent of your results you should focus your limited time on managing only that 20 percent, the superstars. The theory is flawed, as we are discussing here because it overlooks the fact that 80 percent of your time should be spent doing what is really important. Helping the good become better is a better use of your time than helping the great become terrific. Apply the Pareto Principle to all you do, but use it wisely.
Manage This Issue
Pareto's Principle, the 80/20 Rule, should serve as a daily reminder to focus 80 percent of your time and energy on the 20 percent of you work that is really important. Don't just "work smart", work smart on the right things.
best actress /
1 Giant Leap - My Culture /
1 Giant Leap is a concept band and media project consisting of the two principal artists, Jamie Catto (Faithless founding member) and Duncan Bridgeman.
Based in the UK, the two musicians set out to create a multimedia project that would encompass a CD, DVD and cinematic presentation that would offer a complete artistic statement. The project offers music, digital video footage shot over the course of six months by Catto and Bridgeman, images, rhythms and spoken word content.
The band was signed to the Palm record label and its eponymous CD was released on 9 April 2002. It features contributions from Dennis Hopper, Kurt Vonnegut, Michael Stipe, Robbie Williams, Eddi Reader, Tom Robbins, Brian Eno, Baaba Maal, Speech, Asha Bhosle, Neneh Cherry, Anita Roddick, Michael Franti, Zap Mama, and other artists and authors including George Nuku. The band's theme for the project is "Unity Through Diversity". A Making Of was also shown on the Discovery channel, which featured some of the effort involved in finding and working with the musicians and other people involved in the project.
1 Giant Leap's "My Culture" video for their first top ten single, featuring Robbie Williams and Maxi Jazz from Faithless & a foreword from Artist George Nuku received extensive airplay.
Unclear Holocaust - anti banality /
UNCLEAR HOLOCAUST (2011) Detourned by The Anti-Banality Union. 65 mins. U.SS.A. Amerikan with some Arabic.
Unclear Holocaust is a feature-length autopsy of Hollywood's New York-destruction fantasy, gleaned from over fifty major studio event-movies and detourned into one relentless orgy of representational genocide. It is the unrivaled assembly of the greatest amount of capital and private property heretofore captured in one frame, that, with unfathomable narrative efficacy, suicides itself in an annihilatory flux of fire, water, and aeronautics.
"A Terrorist film collective hijacks the U.S. propaganda apparatus and detonates it over New York. Everything is obliterated and the world celebrates. Through fifty studio event-movies abstracted of all demokratic variation, we see the Cinema as it really is; an unequivocal annihilation, the auto-genocidal mass fantasy of a megalomaniacally depressed First World. Every screen is lifted and bares the obscene underside of all these images. Movements of character and narrative burst into pure and mechanically perfect propulsions of a psychotic camera from which all this violence emanates. The Mise-En-Scene becomes an inventory of the dominant visual-auditory arsenal, enumerating and measuring the power of every weapon available to the Spectacle. Utilizing them all with paradigmatic rigor, the Hollywood-Military complex launches an endless pre-emptive attack on its own shadow, the Terrorist. And, as in all encounters between doubles, the former ends up joyously suiciding itself." -A.B.U. Communique #1
"When I first heard of Unclear Holocaust, the debut project of nebulous situationist art collective The Anti-Banality Union, my initial impression was that these impious troublemakers would fully deserve the inevitable fatwa that will be vexed upon them. However, after viewing part of the work, which reconstitutes scenes from over 50 Hollywood New York City disaster porn films into a more or less coherent narrative, I am pleased to report it is a rather damning yet thoughtful–and dare I say hilarious and enjoyable?–reminder of how bad Hollywood had pushed this scenario. (In cinematic terms, what is 9/11, after all, other than all three* Die Hard movies–exploding tower, exploding airplane, exploding New York City–rolled into one?) “The Spectacle of Terrorism forces the Terrorism of Spectacle upon us…” the ABU wrote me in this mysterious, Frankfurt School-inspired communique. I’m reminded of the remarks Guardian critic Peter Bradshaw shared on 9/11 the other day:
'Perhaps the whole point of 9/11 was that it could never be represented on the cinema screen. The diabolic, situationist genius of the kamikaze attacks was that they were themselves a kind of counter-cinema, a spectacle very possibly inspired by the art-form, but rendering obsolete any comparable fictions it had to offer. The 9/11 attacks smashed Hollywood’s monopoly on myth-making and image production, and inspiring as they did only horror and revenge, aimed a devastating blow at imagination, and maybe for a while enfeebled the reputation of cinema and all the arts.'
Thankfully for the ABU, Hollywood pulled its shit together and made Nicolas Cage apocalypse thriller Knowing, providing Unclear Holocaust about half its runtime." -ScreenSlate.com
-?!
social media stats 2012 /
via huffington post
1940 New Zealand Centennial Exhibition /
In 1940 New Zealand celebrated its national coming of age. Maori history and the centenary of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi took a back seat to the celebration of a century of European effort and progress in New Zealand. Local and provincial events plugged into a full diary of national events - the unveiling of memorials, historical re-enactments, and music and drama festivals. An array of specially commissioned publications recorded the stories of progress, re-writing the country's past.
The jewel in the centennial crown was the vast 55-acre Centennial Exhibition in Wellington. To many New Zealanders, its modern buildings and soaring central tower seemed to symbolise 'the progress and ambition of the young nation'. Others were more interested in the thrills of Playland, the exhibition's big amusement park.
ARTIVIST : project schedule 2013 /
ARTIVIST : creative by any means necessary! is on a schedule for 2013 with various specific projects involving artists, media & events with a diverse technical & artistic requirement.
ARTIVIST will design, compile & make content; provide creative, art & technical direction; manage & develop business models; & curate, produce & facilitate events, exhibitions & installations.
Artists:
- Weston Frizzell
- Mike Weston
- HAHA
- Ero
- +++ Tracey Tawhiao, George Nuku, etc
Commercial Ventures
- th'ink + media | serigraphics | art
- HEAVYWEIGHT Entertainment
- James Cabaret
- IP + independent production company
Non Commercial & Artistic Ventures
- International Visual Methods Conference
- Adventure Artists
- +++ etc