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So, you’ve raised your kids in a small country village of verdant New Zealand farmland. There’s a school, and a church, both of which have been there for over a hundred years. There’s a hall…several animals of a bovine persuasion…a long-disused pub…and that’s about it. People who live there tend to stay there. It’s tiny, but clearly loveable. And then it conspires that Waste Petroleum Combustion Ltd – the WPC – the owners of a waste oil treatment plant – want to relocate. Across the road from your house. A mere 80 metres from the aforementioned school and the preschool behind it.
It might look something like this:
What would you do? Well, in the case of my father, he not only became president of the Kinksianly named Otaua Village Preservation Society, he went one further. He conceptualised, wrote, directed and produced (aided by the technological whizzery of my brother) a monumentally, fists-in-the-air awesome protest song and video. Now this may not be your problem. You may not care. You probably don’t live in New Zealand. You might be thinking “where are the recipes and the moderately competent food photography already?”
But do me a favour and watch the video. You won’t just be helping me – you’ll be helping the village that I grew up in, the school I was schooled at, the church I was baptised in, the cows that eat the grass next door, the ducklings that gambol in the meadows…I apologise for the rampant sentimentality and blatant attempts to tug at your heartstrings. Just to bring us back to earth, I should probably warn you that there is a break-it-down rap segment in the middle. Anyway, the video is amazing, and stars my dad (with a cameo from me on the trumpet!) and several other neighbourhood personalities like…my brother and our cat.
All attempts at a witty sardonic tone aside, your time taken to watch this video is hugely appreciated.
“Some things I cannot change but till I try I’ll never know” Elphaba, Wicked
“It’s too close to home and it’s too near the bone…I’ve seen it happen in other peoples’ lives, and now it’s happening in mine” Morrissey
“How many times can a man turn his head and pretend that he just doesn’t see?” Bob Dylan
“I stand for the power to change” Idina Menzel
“You built a house of cards and got shocked when you saw them fall” Jack White
“The more you ignore me, the closer I get” Morrissey (he’s quite the fertile hotbed for pithy quotes!)
“Moo with me” Maureen, Rent (as if I could let that one slide. She has a protest song too!)
Thank you! If you have a youtube account and would like to add a comment/favourite it/etc click here.
Next time: my blog will not be masquerading as an audio-visual suite.
Hungry and Frozen 
Cool post and perspicacious quotes. Thanks for the support. Since the uploading of the video, I’ve noticed 2 typos in the writing at the end, (well, one typo and one spelling mistake). Did you find them? This must be of considerable amusement to you after my gentle observation of some mis-used apostrophes in your blog….. Pride indeed goeth before a fall…. You realise now that whenever the above mentioned location or enterprise are Googled together, your blog will inevitably pop up close to top of the list – such is the paucity of cyber references to either of the them. Your time taken away from study and cooking is much appreciated.
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Thanks for the blog comments and support.Mark.
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cool song and video Laura- have you emailed it to Close Up????
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Good on your dad! Power to the people!
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What the?! How can they do that?! Can’t the move it to the middle of nowhere? Why is it 80 M from a school?Okay, you tried the popcorn and hated it right?! I kept checking back and getting all nervous, and now it’s not here and you didn’t want to hurt my feelings saying it was awful?! It’s okay, you can’t be all things to all people, some people are not going to like PB on their popcorn, it’s just a fact of life!
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Good on your Dad and good on you for posting here. Good luck!!!
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OMG, have just watched the You tube thingie and made Tim watch it too. Am VERY impressed and will have to email the whanau to tell them. Tim thought it was excellent too (Hamilton Tim who is visiting) and I think it should be on major radio play/TV. (Not a biased bone in my body OK!!)Well done for adding your bit to the protest.
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Awesome video.Good on you and your dad for being so active.xox Sarah
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Power to the DAD!! Good luck with the fight.
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