We continue the occasional series wherein Winston expounds on things that currently make him happy...

65) Reading about Broooooooce! It's been a couple of good years to read musical biographies, what with Keith's Life, and Phillip Norman's slightly less interesting book on Mick. Now Peter Ames Carlin has released the first 'authorised” biography of Springsteen in 25 years, simply entitled Bruce. That's 'authorised” as in the Boss consented to interviews and told his mates it was OK to talk.

It's fascinating stuff, showing the absolutely driven nature of the man. And ruthlessness (there are still raw feelings about his breaking up the E Street Band). If you can't afford to go to Sydney in March to catch the show, this is the next best thing.

66) The Coen brothers return to music! The last time cinematic mavericks the Coen brothers made a movie with a musical theme it started a worldwide bluegrass and Americana revival. Oh Brother Where Art Thou? kicked off a musical wave which brought, amongst others, Gillian Welch and Alison Krauss to the attention of music lovers everywhere. Krauss's higher profile probably led Robert Plant to record the Grammy-winning (and really quite wonderful) Raising Sand album with her while Welch just continued to release occasional albums of complete brilliance.

Now the Coens are returning to music with Inside Llewyn Davis, a film set in the very early sixties (possibly late fifties) in New York's Greenwich Village, birthplace of the folk revival which spawned many a singer songwriter including the now quite well known Bob Dylan. It's based on the biography of Dave Van Ronk, The Mayor of MacDougal Street. Like Oh Brother, the music has been produced by T Bone Burnett, this time in collaboration with Marcus Mumford of Mumford And Sons. Whether it will delight like Fargo and True Grit or confuse like A Serious Man waits to be seen. Inside Llewyn Davis is expected to premiere at the Cannes film festival in May.

67) Eating tasty little bites! I love meals where you get to try a whole lot of different stuff. Variety, spice, life, etc. So Chinese yum cha lunches are one of my favourites. It's kinda the Eastern equivalent of tapas, with little dumplings and other treats – called dim sum - on offer for between $5 and $10 a plate. And the New Hong Kong Restaurant on Devonport Rd is now doing a rocking yum cha!

Even the most common of dim sum, the famous pork siu mai dumplings, have an added subtle smokiness (from the addition of umami-rich mushrooms I'm guessing) and they make a very good job of the very difficult xiao long bao - also called Shanghai steamed buns or pork and ginger dumplings, or any combination of those words! - often not seen on yum cha menus since they originate in Shanghai. They're a very cool dumpling filled with a mixture of ginger pork and delicious liquid which if eaten incorrectly will either shoot everywhere or scald your mouth. They are undoubtedly one of the world's great foods and these renditions ain't half bad.

68) The Jazz Festival à go-go! The programme for the 51 National Jazz Festival was launched last Friday. And, yes, there will be bands downtown, bands at the Historic Village, and the regularly fantastic Youth Band Competition. But the thing to check out is the Baycourt Concert Series. It's all on-line now and there are programmes in shops and at Baycourt. All tickets are under $50 – remarkably good value for the quality of acts coming – and the full details can be found at www.jazz.org.nz.

69) All my favourite bands are reforming! Another day, another band from the seventies or eighties announces a reunion... This week it was the Boomtown Rats, Bob Geldof's old muckers, who will be getting together to play the Isle of Wight festival later this year. But the best reunion of all for me is that of Graham Parker and The Rumour, who are doing it properly, not just for nostalgia. Their new album, Three Chords Good (after more than 25 years apart) is a collection of brand new songs and brilliant it is too, taking up where the boys left off, a little gentler and wiser but still burning with life. As Parker once wrote 'Passion is no ordinary word”.