Recent Posts...
The Cricket: a live account | Jan 07, 2009 12:59
Thanks to the wonderful folks at NZ Cricket I'm off to the game today with a bunch of "cultural attachés" to help me fit in with cricket fans. I was planning for this to somehow be a live blog (with a richer account tomorrow) but I wasn't able...
The song is not the same | Jan 07, 2009 09:25
Dullest Macworld keynote ever, they're calling it, but it did include one long-awaited announcement: the iTunes Store is going DRM-free, Apple having finally acceded to the music companies' desire for tiered pricing, and the other major labels, in return, following EMI's example and allowing Apple to...
The Home Straight | Jan 03, 2009 22:11
Emma Hart drives into the past.
The stretch of State Highway One between Christchurch and Timaru is the back-bone of my childhood. Canterbury is my land, it's how a landscape should be. That's where I feel I stand strong, with the sun on my face, the sea on my right hand, and the mountains on my...
Thank you for holding. You are 1...1...7...2...6... in the queue. | Jan 03, 2009 06:43
The truth is, Keith Ng never left you.
You know you're in trouble when there's a map of the queue. It shows fifty ticket stations supplemented by a dozen temporary ones. There are only a few thousand people crowding around them – because the actual crowd is outside, waiting in a parking-lot-sized corral. But how to get into...
Ring out the old, ring in the new . . . | Dec 31, 2008 11:11
Some years ago I travelled around Japan for an intensive three weeks of interviews, tourism, nightclubs, hi-tech and low-life experiences. I loved it -- but for the life of me can't remember a note that band played which so impressed me one night in some club near Shinjuku. What I...
Another One for the Kids | Dec 24, 2008 00:05
David Haywood is 2.5 months behind on everything
A junior Public Address reader has written to me, asking if there will be another Southerly Christmas story this year suitable for "reading aloud to good children on Christmas Eve". Why, of course there is. Here at Public Address, we attempt to meet every reasonable request from our...
Flying visit | Dec 21, 2008 15:11
Jolisa Gracewood is secretly in the country
24 kid-free hours in Wellington, the checklist:
- Land into teeth of northerly gale, rediscover religion. No calming rosary beads to hand, console self by reworking current project's opening scene: "FADE IN Our heroine crawls out of a crashed plane, ukulele case in hand..." Yeah, that'll work.
- Zephyrometer horizontal...
Sole Man | Dec 16, 2008 12:26
Damian Christie - Cracker With Attitude
I had wondered whether I could get to the end of the year without blogging. It's not like there's been nothing to talk about – since my last post an election has been fought and decided, there have been terrorist attacks, APEC, new Governments and in my case, an ad-hominem...
Keynote speaker: Paula Bennett. MC: Jim Hopkins. BYO sandwiches. | Dec 11, 2008 09:22
David Slack has another name for it
Imagine you're Paula Bennett sitting at home at 11.00 pm at night with your face turning blue as you sup your tea. $200,000 to hold one freakin' conference? Are you kidding me? Did her face really turn blue, as she told the newspapers, or did her pulse quicken as she...
Camp as a row of Spiegeltents | Nov 27, 2008 16:23
GUEST: Paul Williams finds life's a drag
Good god I'm drab. My clothes, carefully picked for the occasion, lack sequins and sparkle, my jeans are too loose and I've not got high-heels. My hair is not nearly sharp enough and my glasses - Gucci but brown - are seasons old. In short, I'm a middle-aged straight man...
Threshold | Nov 09, 2008 02:29
Graeme Edgeler learns the lesson of history
The New Zealand House of Representatives, if there was no threshold:
New Zealand National Party - 55 seats New Zealand Labour Party - 41 seats The Greens - 8 seats New Zealand First Party - 5 seats Māori Party - 5 seats Act New Zealand - 4 seats Jim Anderton's...
Some light on Friday | Sep 20, 2008 14:59
How good is Friday Night Lights? Only one of the best things on US television, according to salon.com, which gave it a Buffy last year – that's their award for an underappreciated TV show. I love it too, and it's fun to contrast and compare Lights with Gossip...
My Imaginary Journey | Feb 03, 2006 09:27
A.R.D FAIRBURN in a strange land
If Rex Fairburn had been writing now he would surely have been a blogger. Not one whose work fell easily on the "left" or the "right", but assuredly one who would not shrink from a good argument. "He always wanted a scrap …" wrote Denis Glover and Geoffrey Fairburn on...