Notices by two slightly distorted guitars (rhamphorhynchus@mastodon.nz)

@lookitmychicken &Audition seemed like a much gentler format with no eliminations - we got to know all 15 hopefuls through the whole show and 9 were picked for the group, and there were fun activity days as well as high-pressure performances.

I get really emotional about their two old men, K and Fuma, both born in the nineties and knowing if they didn't get to debut this time it was going to be too late for them, both thinking if they did get picked they'd be alone in a bunch of teenagers.

@lookitmychicken I did not watch i-land, it looked too stressful and sad! I've seen a clip of Nicholas crying there, after getting harsh feedback or getting eliminated, and he's such a tough guy I've only seen him cry one other time, the finale of &Audition when everyone was weeping with joy at being selected. And Taki was only just 15 and missed his mum and was very small to be working so hard. I'm not brave enough to watch my boys suffer that much!

@lookitmychicken &team are my main obsession! I recommend a binge!

If you like Deer Hunter you'll probably like Scar to Scar, another intense performance. I also really like Yukiakari from their new album and Koegawari which they released in (northern) summer.

@hongminhee gaaah, I always, always refer to them as given name and family name, it's far more accurate and applicable to more naming systems (not all, haha).

Even in a fully Western context there are forms that want the family name entered first for reasons of their own, which must trip up plenty of people who aren't used to checking.

@TazPoltorak yes, I bet there's an entire school of mathematics about solving dress patterns!

@youronlyone
It's pretty neat to see the similarities between Pacific languages, changing slightly as people spread from island to island. Aotearoa is at the far edge of the world and ended up isolated after settlement, not part of the trading network of Pacific islands, but words from Tongan and Hawai'ian and other languages are really familiar to someone who's learnt even a little Māori.

@youronlyone the first one! - with varying levels of accuracy from New Zealanders of European descent.

Aotearoa is the indigenous Māori name, usually translated as "land of the long white cloud", named when Polynesian voyagers first sighted the landmass over 700 years ago. Europeans didn't turn up until centuries later.

@youronlyone Aotearoa is being used more and more, as "Aotearoa New Zealand" or on its own - a wonderful shift.