The Vuelta a España promises to the be the showdown that never got a chance at the Tour de France this year. I've taken the liberty to chop up this podcast à la Tarentino (I use his name quite liberally here), so that cycling fans can cut to the chase, since time is of the essence with the Vuelta starting today in Granada.

Hans predicts Contador will take amarillo from day one, and wear it all the way to the finish in Madrid. I say there'll be a surprise similar to the first stage of the Giro, where Christian Vande Velde took the jersery in another team time trial stage. When you start a stage race like that, it's even more of a lottery than in an individual time time, because you could have a total newcomer roll across the line with the fastest time, because he's been fortunate enough to find himself on a strong team. Of course, I also predict Contador will be in yellow come Madrid.

To kick things off, Hans un- (synthetic) corks a Mas Delmera tempranillo, a Spanish wine from Tarragon. He's not sure what year it was though.

I'm still fumbling around with Garage Band and I managed to delete a not-so-vital portion while edition, which may have been worthwhile for our diehard fans we know you're out there! For a bit Hans is talking about the picture of the fireman holding up an ouriço, or hedgehog, and that comes up again later. (36:35)

How can you talk about the Vuelta this year without mentioning the Tour de France? The organizers of the Tour and 49% owners of the Vuelta barred Contador's Astana team from riding, so he had to settle for winning the Giro d'Italia instead. This could set up a treble for him, which would see him being the fifth rider to win all three major tours, and become the rider to have won all three grand tours within the shortest amount of time. Inevitably the failed ProTour format, the AIGCP, the old FICP rankings and the English Premiership all come up in the course of conversation.

For those of you who dropped by for more than just the cycling, maybe you stopped by for Hans' ability to drop in appropriate background music and poignant comments like "it's like Bruneel, he's in a downtown situation, and he's the minority," he quips at 20:08, followed up by "it's the American dream," at 22:00, and remarks about Leonardo Piepoli at 25:00. We eventually end up talk about creating a nature slideshow presentation (26:00), for which I recommend the Pecha Kucha format.

Other fine moments to note are at 30:27 (...but dude, I know how to put that look on!), 35:00 (...and I'll just drop some Latin names to this), 36:10 (...I can narrate to this kind of stuff), and finally the golden moment at 37:25 with "I have something beautiful for you..."

Photo of a fresh mountain lion kill, a mule deer perhaps, by Hans.

Posted by Rob.

Tags: NFTOS, O Irmão da Xuxa, h-monster, el gringo, Rob, Hans, Auckland, New Zealand, Hagerstown, Maryland

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Watch out for the audio levels! Used lots of different audio, and no, I am not a Garage Band pro.

Posted by Rob.

Tags: NFTOS, Tetley's

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All live!

Jet Jaguar* http://nonwrestler.com/music/
Malty Media http://maltymedia.net.nz/mm/
Group Five (down from Auckland) http://www.additiverich.com/groupfive/
Panoramica* (up from Dunedin) http://www.panoramica.co.nz/
*(lots of free downloads)


Friday 29th August from 9.30pm The Burgundy Room, under Bodega $10 to get in, $20 gets you a CD as well. Bargain!

Posted by Rob.

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This was Makiko's first attempt at making a music video shot last summer (which runs until February or March here).

Posted by Rob.

Tags: NFTOS, Auckland, New Zealand, Aotearoa, cicadas, dance

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We've been having fun lately, for a few hours each Saturday night, at Auckland's Planet FM 104.6 with DJs Megumi, Mari, Makiko, Kazu and Budgie on the mixer. Tune in every Saturday for Japanese news, music, talk and nostalgia from 10:35 p.m. to 12:05 a.m.

This video is part 3 of 3. There segments will be put up during the course of the next couple of weeks.

Posted by Rob.

Tags: NFTOS, radio, Auckland, New Zealand, Japan, Japanese, 104.6 FM, news, oldies, music, talk show, J-Pop, young people, ラジオ, オークランド, ニュージーランド

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Hans looks into his crystal ball to predict the outcomes of cycling races and to direct bellybutton relocations...

He also recommends trying beer from the world's oldest brewery, Weihenstephan.

Photo by Hans.

Posted by Rob.

Tags: NFTOS, Bicicleteiros, Hans, Rob a.k.a. El Gringo, Auckland, Hagerstown, New Zealand, Maryland, US Pro Championships, Beijing Olympics, cycling, baseball, football, soccer, Weihenstephan, beer

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Tokyo video footage by Eric Seaholm, http://seaholm.com

Posted by Rob.

Tags: NFTOS, Tokyo, Japan, DJ, Monkey

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The latest Headstand was a real treat and is now available for streaming. Patrick kicked off the show with Tic Tac Toe, a track by Auckland's cusp. (I'd like to think I had something to do with that). Later in the first hour of the show, he played News by Wellington's Jet Jaguar, who just performed here last weekend. Coincidence? I don't think so!

He kicked off the second hour with a track from Kyoto resident Drew Moon, then bravely went where no radio DJ has probably ever been with a half-hour of Charles-Éric Billard--Osaka resident and NFTOS event anchor.

Tonight, we are passing up seeing The Earlybirds at the Kings Arms, who we saw live when we first got to NZ, opting instead for Pecha Kucha Night at the Te Tuhi Center for the Arts out in Pakuranga. Makiko and I haven't attended before, so we thought we'd give it a try this time around.

PKN_AKL_09 is a collaboration between Pecha Kucha Nights Auckland and Te Tuhi Centre for the Arts. It starts at 8:20 p.m. local time, doors open at 7:30 p.m. For full details, conatact Renée at 09 577 0138 or e-mail renee@tetuhi.org.nz

Posted by Rob.

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Make sure to tune into Headstand Radio right away!! You'll be able to stream it live between 21:00 and 23:00 GMT. The second half of the show will feature 30 minutes of eclectic stuff from Osaka legend Charles Billard.

Posted by Rob.

Tags: NFTOS, Boobs on Bikes, Headstand, Takedao Tunnel Party, Auckland, Osaka, Cambridge, New Zealand, England, UK, Japan

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Part dream, part plagiarized speech, mostly nonsense. This is my homage to an Osaka original, Ray [surname omitted minimize Google detection]:

Full skull and seven flaming ears aglow, all feathers, brought froth on this countertop, a new notion, consumed by Liberty, and dedicated to the indecent proposal that not all men are created equal.

For Raymond, crafting open-chested bust with a head inside this chest causing us to look at another head inside its own chest, his own chest? Took us up onto the mountain top, and in his Texan drawl, "I've raced all up and down this here back road [forgot the name, as it came to me in a dream], cops a chasin' after me, and I done drank at every bar down on that there beach." (He points through the trees to a sparkling pristine beach unspoiled by the simplest of structures).

Now we are so enslaved to a great Silver Whore (money), testing whether that notion, or any new sensation, so convoluted and so degraded, can long endure. We met on the great dance-floor, introduced to one another by that Whore. We have come to desecrate the love potion of that floor, at a final resting chill-out space for those who left their wives at home that we might LIVE, baby, live. It is all together tight-fitting and improper but we should do this thing. And, in a larger sense, we can not desecrate--cops can not confiscate--we can not...

Hallo?--this ground...

Um, where am I? Uh...

Right now?

The brave men, those still living and some undead, who stumbled here, have consummated it, far above in our DJ booth, poor quality audio does indeed detract from the pure quality party vibe. The world will little note, unless they accidently stumble onto BikeClubOsaka.com, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what we did here. It is for us, the half-living, rather, to be decimated by the unfinished work which we, who have fought here for no particular reason except maybe that we had one too many to drink, have thus far so nobly advanced from apes to cavemen to Osaka Erectus and descended upon the Holy City.

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great TSK, TSK, TSK, awaiting us when we get home--that from behind those horn-rimmed glasses concealing dead eyes demanding increased devotion in the form of increased salaries to the carcass upon our own grave, yes, over our dead bodies--and a last full measure of sweet devotion! that we may highly dissolve into thin air like the morning mists in the muggy kansai summer sun, rather than 'wake half-dead in the park, just two blocks from home, sun high in the sky, mouth bone dry, stomach churning like a raging sea, skin burning, head pounding, eyes aching--that this notion, under-awed, shall have a new bath of freedom--and back scrubbing of the people, by the people, for the people, blah, blah, blah, AMEN!

Channeled by Rob.

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