My first boss Pat Day 1923 - 2016

self portrait from 1948

Melvin Day died on January 17th, 2016 in New Zealand. He was my first boss. He had been the Director of the National Art Gallery in Wellington, New Zealand and the first Kiwi to graduate from the Courtauld Institute of Art in London.

When I first arrived as Exhibitions Curator at the Gallery I discovered a "School of Poussin" painting, uncatalogued and hidden away having been a victim of a botched restoration. I informed my new boss who suggested I write to his old friend Anthony Blount. I sent the Queen's curator a color slide of the painting and a description. Blount wrote back that the slide was too small and we should send an 8 x 10 print. (And he was trained by the KGB!) He promptly identified the painting and referred us to an old Burlington magazine where we were able to ascribe its provenance and real title. A few years later Anthony Blount was identified as a Russian Spy and part of the Cambridge Five or Six, depending on how well you can count.

In an article I wrote for a catalog of Conceptual Art at the Christchurch Art Gallery in 2000, The Art of the Heist, I referred to Pat as he gave his blessing for our stint as curators for the National Students Art Festival. 

"Our Director, Melvin Day ... liked to be called Pat and our job was to make him look good while also challenging just about everything he stood for. Pat was a solid Art History scholar, a product of the Courtauld Institute of Art at the University of London and a relic of a wonderful but bygone era; the gentleman art history scholar who wore perfect hand tied bowties and told charming and witty anecdotes. In the tiny but brutally politicized world of art politics in Wellington, he was ill served by his many masters, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Academy of Fine Arts and the NAG Council. He also, and this is where I really sympathize with him, had to deal with us, Andrew and Nick, the terrible duo."

With the many exhibitions we staged and the increase in attendance at the National Art Gallery, I like to think we made him look good. There was not a bad bone in Pat's body and he was a perfect gentleman with his conviviality, scholarship and decency.

When I finally had the grand opening of  a new traveling show I had curated "Three Contemporary Maori Artists" that had taken a long time to organize and involved speaking on many Maraes around the country, Pat received huge accolades for the show. I recall standing to one side and witnessing every VIP patting him on the back and praising him for the exhibition. He deserved it. (More on this show and how it relates to The Jaded Kiwi in a later post.)

Pat Day, after he left the National Art Gallery, went on to continue exploring his painting as well as his art history research. He received the recognition he deserved and I regret I never got to see him again. He was a great boss. 

THE JADED KIWI proofs arrive

Usually writers post their newly arrived proofs next to their smiling faces.
My cat was too excited about my new novel, The Jaded Kiwi, due to be released March 1.

One of the best films of 2015 THE DEADLANDS

_{The Dead Lands}

The Dead Lands, released on DVD, is an instant classic that can be compared to Akira Kurosawa’s “Seven Samurai”. It is also a challenging film for its portrayal of violence and the warrior code. Maori warriors and samurai venerate their ancestors, believe in honorable death through combat and have sophisticated and deep beliefs. This action packed film is both extremely violent and deeply mystical. The plot points keep changing and the dialogue embraces a Shakespearean majesty that elevates the ensuring story and its inevitable bloodbath.

Set in “pre-contact” times, before Europeans arrived, the film is spoken in Maori with English subtitles. Every detail looks authentic from the elaborate vocabulary, the style of dress and weaponry to the cosmological beliefs Maori lived by. The filmmakers are the first to admit they created an imagined world, as we do not know how Maori looked or acted in the 16^th century. Although early European artists clearly articulated certain aspects of Maori, including their hand to hand combat weapons.

Maori close combat tools, war clubs drawn by John Frederick Miller, 1769-1770.

John Frederick Miller drew various types of Maori war clubs after Captain Cook’s voyage to New Zealand in 1769-1770, made from wood, stone and pounamu (greenstone). Most violent encounters involved close quarter fighting with such weapons. Maori had no access to metals before the coming of Europeans. Maori had a highly evolved form of martial arts developed in isolation. Such fighting style was similar in concept to Bram Frank’s edged weapon techniques and Filipino blade fighting that demonstrate the universality of proven methods. The warriors who triumph went on to teach another generation of their successful ways. It’s a fighting style that works. There are no fake martial arts schools. You either can fight effectively or you die in battle.

The previews make the film look extremely violent. But the resulting shape of the film is both mythical and pragmatic, like Maori cosmology, the film embraces the sublime and magical yet appears very authentic and humorous at times. It helps if you have slept on a marae, know a little about Maori culture: utu, tapu, maketu, who a Tohunga is and what a Maori burial ground means, but the film stands on its own just like a sophisticated Samurai film by Kurosawa.

It is a must see film for any visitor to New Zealand, student of Maori history, martial artist or edge weapon enthusiast, or plain admirer of Samurai films.

Nick Spill is the author of “The Way of the Bodyguard – knowledge not gossip” and

“Reluctant Q – the true story of a Quartermasters survival in the jungles of Burma in World War II” available on Amazon as paperbacks and e-books.

He is about to release “The Jaded Kiwi” on March 1, 2016 as a paperback and e-book, everywhere.

Gerald Posner's Warlords of Crime - the Chinese New Zealand connection

Found this treasure in my library. Warlords of Crime by Gerald Posner.

I just gave away 700 books. But Warlords of Crime I am keeping because it is so relevant to what I am editing right now: The Jaded Kiwi, a novel about the start of the War on Drugs in New Zealand. In the novel, there is a Chinese family that is growing 4 greenhouses of genetically manipulated sensimilla. Its the start of their bloody dynasty growing marijuana, even though things do not go as planned.

A few years ago New Zealand, with the advice of their Police, legalized prostitution. Last time I was there you could run a brothel with 4 women as a legitimate business. There were brothels everywhere. 4 women could gross over $1.5 million a year. Cash. Chinese businessmen were running these houses, importing young Asian women under student visas and rotating them through different houses around the country. These businessmen controlled the advertising, labor, reinvestment of cash profits, any possible money laundering, in fact they were handed a fully integrated monopoly by the NZ Government. The impenetrable mix of legitimate and illegitimate operations seems right out of Gerald Posner's book about Chinese Secret Societies.

Similar unintended consequences happen in my novel set in New Zealand in 1976. The Jaded Kiwi is coming out in March 2016.

Meanwhile I could not resist posting Gerald's mustache! He is a great writer - and if you haven't read his latest wunderbook: God's Bankers - you should.

Remembrance of George Spill Regimental Quartermaster, Royal Artillery

In honor of my father, the veteran from Burma. One of the few of the original Forgotten Fourteenth Army to walk out of Burma at the end of World War II. He felt guilty about killing so many people and seeing so many men and civilians die. 

He wrote a book about his experiences, some are hilarious, others tragic. I published the book in paperback and e-book versions: Reluctant Q.


Above are the four medals he received in a small cardboard box. To the left was one of the last photos that was sent to his wife, from near Quetta, before the long journey to Burma, where most of his possessions, equipment and war buddies were lost. On the right George salutes when I took to the War Memorial in Auckland, New Zealand. This was one of the few times I had seen him stand tall and proud.

D-DAY in Burma

George Spill, author of RELUCTANT Q, heard about D-DAY a few days later in Burma, where he was stuck in a traffic jam caused by a Japanese ambush further up a hill. A team of Gurkhas dispatched the Japanese but not before George heard the news about Allied troops invading France. This photo was one of the last taken of George. He was in Quetta in his best "Bombay Bloomers" and pith helmet. By the time of D-Day his uniform was rags and an old steel helmet. Despite his skills and cunning as a Quartermaster supplying his Regiment with food and ammunition, any replacement clothing was non existent.
You can read more about the hilarious and tragic adventures of George Spill in his book: RELUCTANT Q.

George before he went to Burma

George Spill in India before the long journey to Burma.

You can read about my father's epic story of his voyage to India, the train journeys to Burma and the actual battles and extreme adventures he endured during World War II in his book, RELUCTANT Q, out now in paperback and as an ebook on Amazon. This is the last photo I could find of him, sent back to his wife before he descended into hell and back and where everything was destroyed by the jungle or Japanese artillery. He was one of the few to walk out of that theater in one piece. Told in his gripping narrative style, George lays bare the sheer absurdity, brutality and heroism of the war in the jungle. As other readers have told me, its a page turner, a must read and a worthwhile addition to World War II history from a very personal perspective. Its also very funny in the most unlikely places as in the opening "Who pissed in the officer's rum!?"