Public Address - Hard News (Home)

Birth of the Nasty | Dec 09, 2008 10:53

When do you think the Herald is going to get over this thing with Labour? Judging by yesterday's editorial, no time too soon. The editorial's core sentiment is laudable enough: a wish for a gentler, more respectful House of Parliament.

The problem is that the editorial makes its argument by imagining a time of golden Parliamentary weather, when "the House of Representatives was a good deal more dignified than it has been in recent years," especially at Question Time:

The change can be dated from the election of the Lange Government. Of a different generation than the one it defeated, it regarded previous practice as pompous and outdated. Concepts such as decorum and dignity were not among its values. At question time ministers took their cue from the combative wit of David Lange, though their rejoinders usually lacked the redeeming good nature of his.

Since then things appear to have deteriorated to the point that question time in the Clark years became merely sneering and nasty. The Prime Minister adopted a practice of pointedly turning and looking away from the Opposition leader while delivering dismissive responses to his questions. The advent of MMP may also be to blame. The House seemed to have a higher tone when members were addressed by their electorates rather than by name.

Also to blame: MMP ("The House seemed to have a higher tone when members were addressed by their electorates rather than by name").

It's a brilliant theory. Indeed, to find comparable brutishness in the House, one needs to go all the way back to … the Prime Minister immediately preceding Lange.

It was, after all, Robert Muldoon who, in 1976, brutally derailed the career (and the life) of Labour MP Colin Moyle by meeting a serious question in the House with a reference to Moyle "being picked up by the police for homosexual activities", the last and most damaging of a series of calculated Parliamentary snipes at Moyle based on information Muldoon had inappropriately obtained from the SIS.

Bearing that in mind, what kind of doo-lally logic does it take to declare that Parliamentary nastiness began in 1984?

On the other hand, it's hard to begrudge Fran O'Sullivan her John Key honeymoon columns: because, girlfriend, this boy is fine. Most recently she has him at the Deloitte/Management Awards, where:

Hard-bitten business types found Key's boyish exuberance rather endearing and laughed with him.

But they were silent and absolutely focused when he spelt out the difficulties his Cabinet faced with the major deterioration in the Government's books. They drank in his words as he pledged to make the economy his "No 1, No 2, and No 3 agendas".

He was clearly in his element, speaking as he does best without prepared notes and obviously on top of his material. He wanted to provide the private sector with the right signals so they would invest and make New Zealand a success. But he also warned that business would not get everything it wanted ("there is this thing called politics").

And then there was the laying on of hands:

Throughout the evening Key worked the floor talking with corporate leaders, entrepreneurs, lawyers and accountants seeking feedback, empathising with their own business realities and quietly building the confidence which he sees as the major issue at this point of the international financial crisis.

Talking with such leaders it was apparent that they believe the public service is ill-equipped to provide Key's Cabinet with the strong intellectual leadership now required to ensure skilful responses as the crisis morphs into different phases.

Whatever.

It seems the public is currently as comforted as the business sector, judging by the latest Roy Morgan consumer confidence survey, which shows an uptick since the election.

I was okay with his lapse into currency-trader mode over the weekend -- it was actually quite interesting -- although it's hard not to feel that Clark or Cullen would have been excoriated by all the usual suspects for airily predicting a further fall in the dollar.

There's still a sense of a phoney war around Key, whether he's being lavishly praised or pointlessly nitpicked. So far he's been organised and decisive while maintaining a pleasant countenance. But it's all homework so far -- the examination hasn't really begun.

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The Guardian has a story confirming expectations: 2008 has been a relatively cool year for the planet; the coolest since 2000. It's also likely to finish up as the tenth hottest year on record.

The story also features a graph from climateprediction.net, which you may wish to show to the next person who hails you with the news that "there has been no warming since 1998". It tracks global air temperature from 1850 to the present day, relative to the average temperature from 1961 to 1990 -- and it presents a vivid picture. I do not understand how anyone could look at that graph and declare that because it hasn't been as hot as the hottest year ever, global warming has ceased. The usual horde of climate deniers has, however, piled into to the Guardian's comments section to declare just that.

Another conspiracy some people just won't let go of: on salon, Alex Koppleman explains Why the stories about Obama's birth certificate will never die. We had further discussions here recently about Andrew Sullivan's refusal to let go of the Palin baby-mama story, but there's far more energy going into this sucker.

Ad campaigns, constant coverage on conservative websites, : all dedicated to the idea that, in the face of apparently incontrovertible evidence, the president-elect is ineligible for office by reason of birth. Latest on WorldNet Daily: the Supreme Court has spurned one of the eligibility suits like the piece of poo it is.

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Last week's Media7 was a light-hearted affair that examined the cult of celebrity with the assistance of Wendyl Nissen, Fleur Revell-Devlin and artist manager Karen Kay. The ondemand version of it is here, and the other versions of the video are all linked from our TVNZ microsite.

That was the last show from The Classic until next year, and we've embarked on our summer editions, which start tomorrow night with a chat with Trish Carter and Colin Peacock about the year's biggest stories.

The Attitude Awards backgrounder that screened on Sunday night is here and the Attitude programme of awards highlights is here. Neither includes my little speech, but that's okay.

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Deadly Exuberance | Dec 05, 2008 10:24

They're calling it Shopocaplypse: the day that Thanksgiving retail fever took three lives in America. The most alarming death was that of a New York Wal-Mart employee, trampled to death as the door of the store were lifted off the their hinges by a crowd hungry for retail satiation. Bargain-hunters simply walked on or over Jdimytai "Jimbo" Damour and his workmates, on their way to the shelves.

The other two deaths were those of the respective fathers of two households who confronted each other in a California Toys R Us after their teenage daughters fought. Wow.

And yet, according to NZIER and even Mr Bollard, it is consumer exuberance that will haul us out of recession next year -- or may even have already done so. The Dom Post has a story this morning in which commentators marvel over the size of yesterday's OCR cut -- and predict another of the same size next year in response to the crazy business unfolding on foreign shores. It is, really, difficult to get a handle on.

Meanwhile, anyone who does the vege shopping will be noticing the sump in the retail price of produce: I have no figures on it, but it seems to me that January prices have arrived at the beginning of December; driven down, at least in part, by the plummeting price of petrol. Confused? You have a right to be,

But I wonder if this will be remembered as the crisis of the flat-screen TV, the somewhat affordable luxury still expected to ship nearly a hundred million units worldwide in 2009, thanks largely to intense price-cutting from manufacturers. We will rationalise our purchases as we scoff our unseasonably cheap vine-ripened tomatoes.

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Further evidence that the world is all widescreeen. YouTube is now delivering some clips in 720p HD. They stream surprisingly well, but if you go here, you'll find a very helpful bookmarklet that will allow you to download the HD clip as an MP4 file. Just drag the link from the page to your bookmarks bar, then click that when you start to load an HD clip. It will generate a download link in the grey box to the top-right of the YouTube page; just right-click and save. I'm not sure if this works on anything other than a Mac.

You can also invoke the HD version, if available, by appending &fmt=22 to the YouTube URL of a clip.

Clips include this amusing work of homebrewed computer effects, some NBA basketball and some nature porn.

And you really cannot miss this.

Friday track: a freaky but alluring mash-up of the Kings of Leon and Likke Li.

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Total Attitude | Dec 04, 2008 12:02

I think Mark Gosche summed it up last night: as an MP and minister he'd been to any number of awards ceremonies, but none had been as good as the inaugural Attitude Awards.

The awards are the work of the small team that makes the disability issues show Attitude TV. Earlier in the year, they decided not only to provide an event to recognise achievement in the disability sector, but to really turn it on. They nailed it. The Attitude Awards wasn't just a glamorous event but a really soulful one.

I saw Attitude's associate producer Curtis Palmer (who, along with Robyn Scott-Vincent, developed the idea, landed the sponsorships and produced the event) before the ceremony and he admitted to getting "a bit emotional" when he'd come down to the Sky City Convention Centre and seen the room dressed.

He wasn't the only one struggling to keep a handle on his emotions when the Pearl fashion show opened proceedings. Those young women -- wheelchair users, Down's, all the flavours -- were so obviously enjoying their moment of giving it heaps in a nice frock. (It may give you some idea of the strutting energy on stage to know that the catwalk music was The Checks' 'What You Heard'.)

I thought a lot during the evening about the common cause shown by this group of people who had found themselves with a non-standard experience of the world through such a wide range of circumstances, whether born or made different.

We come into contact with Attitude when they did a story on our family -- and, as I explained on the night, it was quite a step to let the boys be interviewed unaccompanied on camera: but an easy one, once I'd decided these were people we could trust. I was thus honoured to present the Attitude Enterprise award to Samuel Gibson and his lifelong friend Campbell Easton.

Sam was born with osteo genesis imperfecta (brittle bones), and over several years he and Campbell designed the EziRiser wheelchair, which launches in the US this year and Europe next year. Brilliantly, they dispatched their first containerload to the US yesterday, they same day they got their award.

The ACC Supreme Award went to dancer-choreographer Suzanne Cowan, whose legs were paralysed in an accident, but who returned to her art, and who is now completing her masters in dance at Auckland University.

Philip Patston's comedy set was fairly wicked. He had his serious moment too ("It's the shit sandwich" he explained): Instead of talking about disability or being differently abled, perhaps, he said, it was time to simply look at it in terms of overall human diversity. I think so. If there's anything living around difference teaches you, it's how we're all different.

(You can see the awards highlights on TV One on Sunday night at 10.30.)

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They can see your house from here | Dec 02, 2008 09:27

It was a Tuesday Wednesday when Google came to our street, and we were not home. Yes, Google Street View has launched in New Zealand and they can see your house from here. And yes, it is a bit spooky. For addresses all over New Zealand (and not just the main centres) you can bring up Street View via Google Maps. Just now, I'm looking at the house we lived when I was six years old.

I haven't spied anyone sunbathing nude or sleeping in the gutter, but you should naturally feel free to try. Send us the picture if you like (just post the URLs in the comments for this post). We won't tell.

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It appears that before the credit crunch guillotine scythed through council budgets for such fripperies as the environment and recreation, our local beach got a little treat. For several weeks now, fresh sand has been being piped in from an offshore platform, creating the disarming sight of tall sandhills on the edge of the Waitemata.

And now, just in time for summer, it has been graded into a clean, golden strip, 10 to 15 metres for the length of the beach. And so it was that, at 10.45 on Sunday morning, possessed of the need to rinse away the sins of the flesh in communion with Tangaroa, I had the first swim of the season at Pt Chevalier. And then rested on our brand new sandy beach, contemplating a tranquil sky. It was really good.

Indeed, so was the weekend. After a miserable week, antibiotics, early nights, vitamin C and a degree of willpower got me on my feet for the Headless Chickens on Friday night. I was reminded what a weird band they are. Who else would launch with a threatening drone that became 'The Ghost of Some Cold Street' -- and then later be able to play 'Juice', a song with a chorus that literally goes doo-doo-doo-dod-doo-do-do-dooooo?

Good bands often operate at the nexus of an interesting group of people, and that was certainly the case for the Chickens: that crowd wasn't necessarily in employment, or in perfect mental health, but it was never less than interesting -- and it was well represented more than a decade down the line at the Powerstation.

Also there: a member of the judging panel that gave them the Rheineck Rock Award in the 1990s 1987, occasioning outcry from the usual losers in commercial radio and some idiot at Metro magazine, because they were too "alternative". They went on to have three Top 10 singles, including the only number one by a Flying Nun band, and a double-platinum album. "We knew what we were doing," growled the judge to me.

The particular distinction of Chris Matthews' songwriting is his ability to create character: and he made no greater character than Ivan, the angry, impotent forecourt jockey in 'Gaskrankinstation'. That song also happened to be the highlight of the evening (half the room jumped in the air and shouted when the drum machine kicked off). I also liked 'Monkey Jar', 'Do the Headless Chicken', 'Donka' and 'George' ("this song's about you, Chris," Fiona McDonald advised her co-vocalist).

They certainly didn't nail everything. 'Cruise Control' came and went, 'Soulcatcher' was a mess, 'Expecting to Fly' didn't achieve its full aerial majesty and I wish I'd been standing in the same place as this guy who declared it "probably the best sound I have heard at the Powerstation" (the rest of the review is worth reading though). But I really enjoyed the show, and I would strongly recommend that you see them at the Big Day Out.

For now, here's Chris and Grant talking about the Rheineck thing at the time, plus the video for 'Donka':

Saturday was busy. I brought the crew together, inasmuch as that was practical -- all the bloggers (apart from Jolisa and David Haywood) and the other people who make things work, along with their significant others. With the help of Meola Kitchen, who made salads I wouldn't have attempted (pea and broadbean with mint leaves and goat cheese!) I fed everyone and we rested before Phase 2, which, through a curious sequence of events, took place on what can only be called a luxury launch. It was a blast -- and our triumphant re-entry to the Viaduct basin just on midnight, with Lionel Ritchie's 'All Night Long' blasting out of the speakers, will stay with me always. Irony. We were doin' it right.

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