Public Address System | Public Address Cafe | Busytown: If you build it... http://publicaddress.net/system/forum,1,public-address-cafe.sm en-us Copyright (c) 2010 Public Address Public Address http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=60751#post60751 Public Address Discussion from blog post.

]]> Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:03:20 +1200 Paul Brislen http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=60752#post60752 Paul Brislen I loved reading "A Day with Wilbur Robinson" to my girls, and they loved the wacky pictures and the story ...

And somehow the movie they made of it ignored the fabulous art work, dumped the story line, changed the characters around and became, well, something else entirely.

This is...

]]> Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:03:20 +1200 Paul Williams http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=60757#post60757 Paul Williams Pssst; though it's not... ]]> Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:14:27 +1200 Emma Hart http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=60759#post60759 Emma Hart I didn't know I'd read this book until you started describing the plot and it all came flooding back. Lovely. But, action-packed climax? Ick.

When I was a kid, we used to play in the abandoned quarry across the road from my mum's house. We had a regular wee village...

]]> Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:19:29 +1200 amzolt http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=60771#post60771 amzolt Made my Twinklies glow brighter and also made my knickers get all bunched-up with those snoopy, ungrateful elders--the people that politicians love and I have a hell of a time living around...

~ Alex

]]> Wed, 23 Jul 2008 17:01:31 +1200 Russell Brown http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=60775#post60775 Russell Brown As of last report, the kids are fighting back, in a gentle, insistent way, but the city won't budge and the neighbours are putting up surveillance cameras. Oh, the irony! There's nothing to see but kids having fun! On a piece of land that has been used for games, on... ]]> Wed, 23 Jul 2008 17:43:39 +1200 Richard Llewellyn http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=60776#post60776 Richard Llewellyn I recently watched 'Bridge To Terabithia' with my 8 year old daughter, not knowing anything about the story.

When the film shifted 3/4 of the way through from an entertaining fable about the power of childhood imagination to something infinitely more sobering and adult, we were both absolutely blindsided (and...

]]> Wed, 23 Jul 2008 17:45:13 +1200 Russell Brown http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=60778#post60778 Russell Brown

When I was a kid, we used to play in the abandoned quarry across the road from my mum's house. We had a regular wee village of huts and bivvies down there.

I've always been quite grateful for growing up in: (a) an expanding suburb with access to vacant sections...

]]> Wed, 23 Jul 2008 17:48:19 +1200 George Darroch http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=60781#post60781 George Darroch I also grew up on the edges of suburbia, a quirk of Auckland that still had market gardens, mangrove swamps and orchards to play in. Places to ride bikes, make huts, run around, and investigate in. So very often the best activity is organic, and self sustaining.

If we want...

]]> Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:08:27 +1200 Carol Stewart http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=60796#post60796 Carol Stewart Wed, 23 Jul 2008 22:42:19 +1200 Deborah http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=60806#post60806 Deborah Thu, 24 Jul 2008 01:20:37 +1200 Jolisa http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=60809#post60809 Jolisa Wilbur Robinson (no relation to Heath?) and Psst and Bridge to Terabithia. I'll check them out, although I might save the latter for a couple of years. Very sensitive plant, is Busylad, guaranteed to cry at minute 75 ("dark night of the soul/all is lost!")... ]]> Thu, 24 Jul 2008 03:13:48 +1200 Jolisa http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=60810#post60810 Jolisa here, although I can't guarantee its accuracy; you can also find it in various anthologies, including Stegner's own Wolf Willow... ]]> Thu, 24 Jul 2008 03:31:59 +1200 Leigh Kennaway http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=60811#post60811 Leigh Kennaway Thu, 24 Jul 2008 04:02:54 +1200 Amy Gale http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=60813#post60813 Amy Gale I'm in two minds about the Greenwich thing.

Kids playing wiffleball on public land? Seems entirely reasonable and wholesome.

Kids putting up fences and "pouring concrete" on said land? Can't say I'm in favour.

]]> Thu, 24 Jul 2008 07:02:32 +1200 Amy Gale http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=60814#post60814 Amy Gale Note the aside in the NY Times article about the sledding doctor who sued the city over a broken ankle — what a dick! When Busylad careered off the local sledding slope face first into a thorn bush last winter, we didn't sue the city, we just slathered him with... ]]> Thu, 24 Jul 2008 07:08:29 +1200 Stephen Judd http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=60816#post60816 Stephen Judd

the sledding doctor who sued the city over a broken ankle — what a dick! When Busylad careered off the local sledding slope face first into a thorn bush last winter, we didn't sue the city, we just slathered him with Savlon.

The thing is, in the crazy US environment,...

]]> Thu, 24 Jul 2008 07:25:06 +1200 Paul Rowe http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=60825#post60825 Paul Rowe The Bridge to Terabithia was the first film to make me cry since, ooh, Call of the Wild (in human years, about 30!) Like you say, Richard, I was totally blindsided by the twist. It is such a wonderful film, done a great disservice by its marketing as a Weta... ]]> Thu, 24 Jul 2008 09:20:22 +1200 Carol Stewart http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=60828#post60828 Carol Stewart Jolisa, I loved Wallace Stegner's ode to the dump – glorious! Thank you!
This essay would have pride of place in an anthology of dump literature. We 've also recently enjoyed Stig of the Dump, by Clive King; and I think Margaret Mahy may have set a story or two...

]]> Thu, 24 Jul 2008 09:53:01 +1200 GemmaG http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=60837#post60837 GemmaG In between day-dreams of the adventures we had in the massive field over the creek (before they built that concrete block of flats), I'm trying to figure out how to get your blog noticed by the folks making Andrew Henry's Meadow: The Movie.

I'm thinking a quick once-over from the...

]]> Thu, 24 Jul 2008 10:21:22 +1200 Russell Brown http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=60841#post60841 Russell Brown

I'm thinking a quick once-over from the script editing genius of Dr Gracewood might get them out of 'Development Hell' pdq!

Script Doctor Gracewood ...

I like it!

]]> Thu, 24 Jul 2008 10:28:40 +1200 Kyle Matthews http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=60863#post60863 Kyle Matthews

Note the aside in the NY Times article about the sledding doctor who sued the city over a broken ankle — what a dick!

You really wish a judge/jury would just say "You broke your leg during an accident, doing something in which accidents sometimes happen. You'll get medical costs,...

]]> Thu, 24 Jul 2008 12:14:12 +1200 Matthew Poole http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=60884#post60884 Matthew Poole OverLawyered for some examples of true legal insanity. A couple of events from our shores are in there, but it's heavily dominated by the US – and, amusingly enough, West Island. Seems that our 'roo-loving cousins like the... ]]> Thu, 24 Jul 2008 14:30:01 +1200 Aidan http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=60888#post60888 Aidan Thanks for the heads up. I had to use Amazon as I couldn't find a local distributor (for the same price). When I called the local bookshop they looked it up, umm'ed and aahhh'ed and then said "Have you tried Amazon?" !!!!

I did try to do the right thing...

]]> Thu, 24 Jul 2008 14:41:37 +1200 Steve Barnes http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=60897#post60897 Steve Barnes

OverLawyered

I get a 403 on that one (Forbidden
You don't have permission to access / on this server.) ?

]]> Thu, 24 Jul 2008 15:19:18 +1200 Matthew Poole http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=60920#post60920 Matthew Poole

I get a 403 on that one

Bizarre. Works fine for me. Try just typing overlawyered.com into your address box.

]]> Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:40:18 +1200 Steve Barnes http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=60921#post60921 Steve Barnes Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:59:35 +1200 Steve Barnes http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=60923#post60923 Steve Barnes Weird. Network solutions whois shows the domain for sale but a thumbnail of the front page.
Domain Tools whois shows;
thumbnail of the front page and
IP Address: 63.247.141.23
IP Location – Florida – Jacksonville – Dns Services
Response Code:
Blacklist Status: Clear
Domain Status: Registered And Active Website
I'm...

]]> Thu, 24 Jul 2008 18:21:57 +1200 Kerry Weston http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=60932#post60932 Kerry Weston

the "brain of the head" versus the "brain of the hands."

Yep, I'm right with that man. It bothers me that we are losing manual skills, building things by hand, and the appreciation of materials like wood, clay, stone, bone. It's the time one has to put in to using...

]]> Thu, 24 Jul 2008 21:00:43 +1200 Islander http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=60934#post60934 Islander One of the things I think all poets – and more especially all fiction writers- should do is, build a house, plant a garden, or remake bush.
I've done that, twice over, and look forward to doing it a 3rd, maybe last, time...

you see, you can charm and engage...

]]> Thu, 24 Jul 2008 21:30:05 +1200 Kerry Weston http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=60940#post60940 Kerry Weston Ah, but I said "mindless" as in conscious, controlling part of brain diverted somewhat. Don't get much opportunity now, but used to be a painter & sometime sculptor and always did my best work when the nit-picky, controlling bit was diverted into singing or something....maybe it's a painterly/messy artist thing.
I...

]]> Thu, 24 Jul 2008 23:46:58 +1200 steven crawford http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=60941#post60941 steven crawford

I agree about your 'substantials'. Suspect it might work a bit differently with writing as opposed to visual arts.

Being dyslexic, along with the environmental variables of... and also of my 1970s primary education, I was typecast, 'good with his hands'. might be good for manual labor. I do know...

]]> Fri, 25 Jul 2008 08:26:14 +1200 Matthew Poole http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=61004#post61004 Matthew Poole

Tried that and disabled my hosts file just in case. Seems odd, what browser are you using? I've tried Opera and IE6.

Very bizarre. Firefox from Mac and FreeBSD, and I stooped to using Safari and it works there too. But, if I try it from a box other than...

]]> Fri, 25 Jul 2008 13:45:24 +1200 Kerry Weston http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=61047#post61047 Kerry Weston Steven, it would be fascinating to experience words & the creative process through your eyes/brain. I believe Jeff Thompson, of corrugated iron animals fame, is dyslexic also.

I play around with monoprints quite a bit, inking up sheets of glass and printing off them – it helps to nut out ideas...

]]> Sat, 26 Jul 2008 06:16:14 +1200 steven crawford http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=61054#post61054 steven crawford

Steven, it would be fascinating to experience words & the creative process through your eyes/brain.

I don't know that there's anything spectacularly unusual going on from my perspective. I can't keep up with the subtitles on foreign films and I relay very heavily on spell check. What's recently been fascinating, from...

]]> Sat, 26 Jul 2008 14:09:26 +1200 steven crawford http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=61055#post61055 steven crawford Sat, 26 Jul 2008 14:14:13 +1200 Steve Barnes http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=61056#post61056 Steve Barnes Something funky with DNS, methinks, coz I get the same IP address from boxes on which it works. Trcert takes me to "sedoparking.com" (82.98.86.174) which is not the same as yesterday, "mint.hmdnsgroup.com" (63.247.141.23) which would suggest the domain up for grabs. Maybe your getting a cached page from somewhere or... ]]> Sat, 26 Jul 2008 14:27:43 +1200 Carol Stewart http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=61104#post61104 Carol Stewart Mon, 28 Jul 2008 10:33:25 +1200 steven crawford http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=61214#post61214 steven crawford This is interesting ]]> Mon, 28 Jul 2008 20:36:03 +1200 Islander http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=61229#post61229 Islander Whoa steven! That site was fantastic! Run a mouse over *anywhere* and you get *anywhere*! So good-

Jolissa – I have resisted posting Uncle Bill and us dumprats (as kids & adults) because it would be very long & personal to the max but I truly enjoyed your post.

]]> Tue, 29 Jul 2008 00:09:52 +1200 Islander http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=61230#post61230 Islander Kerry Weston – I write, paint/draw, fish & cook (and build the occaisional building.) Within my whanau, there are people who can do those things too, some better,some less so, in some areas than me..what I loathe about the ANZ culture industry today is
* the gatekeeping*
especially about funding.
Any...

]]> Tue, 29 Jul 2008 00:35:34 +1200 Kerry Weston http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=61235#post61235 Kerry Weston

what I loathe about the ANZ culture industry today is
* the gatekeeping*
especially about funding.

yep, agree. Only had one crack at the funding thing, early on, it seemed very much a case of who you know & the network of influence being the deciding factor. Not my scene. Also...

]]> Tue, 29 Jul 2008 09:18:16 +1200 steven crawford http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=61274#post61274 steven crawford

Used to love scavenging in the old dumps & demo sites too. hate transfer stations.

I'm a fan of the robot nackers yards, we don't have allot of that in New Zealand yet. I'd like to do a robot tour of Japan. I'l bet ten grams of palladium, that it'd get...

]]> Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:49:03 +1200 Paul Williams http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=61281#post61281 Paul Williams this item about a film being made of Maurice Gee's Under the Mountain. Fantastic. I loved the book and the TV series. ]]> Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:20:30 +1200 FletcherB http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=61291#post61291 FletcherB Paul, seeing as you loved the TV series.... As you are in Sydney you may not be aware that it's just this year been released on DVD... I saw it advertised just this weekend.

It's a TVNZ title and should be available at any good (NZ) DVD retailer, including online...

]]> Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:53:20 +1200 Paul Williams http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=61295#post61295 Paul Williams Tue, 29 Jul 2008 14:23:13 +1200 Jolisa http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=61337#post61337 Jolisa Ooh yes, Under the Mountain. Loved the TV series, and was fortunate to talk to someone involved with the new film, which will likely be just as good. Great recommendation.

On the question of suing and froing, I quite agree (although I haven't made a careful study) that that's how...

]]> Wed, 30 Jul 2008 06:40:28 +1200 Jolisa http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=61338#post61338 Jolisa Scrapheap Challenge looks fantastic, thanks for the tip. While back in NZ in May, we also got our hands on a DVD of "Let's Get Inventin'" made by an Auckland outfit, Television Spaceman, which is pretty nifty.

Kerry, islander, Steven, so true and so beautifully written (and Steven, your own...

]]> Wed, 30 Jul 2008 06:55:07 +1200 Jolisa http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=61339#post61339 Jolisa

I'm in two minds about the Greenwich thing.

At this point, I'm just kicking myself for missing the chance to use "Greenwich Mean Time" as my headline...

Kids playing wiffleball on public land? Seems entirely reasonable and wholesome.

Kids putting up fences and "pouring concrete" on said land? Can't say...

]]> Wed, 30 Jul 2008 07:01:14 +1200 Amy Gale http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=61344#post61344 Amy Gale

I think sinking a post is a very useful life skill.

Ah, and such a part of one's kiwi childhood. I even got to pass it along a couple of years ago when we were doing some yardwork:

"Ok, now I hold the post and you shovel in the concrete...

]]> Wed, 30 Jul 2008 07:46:19 +1200 Kyle Matthews http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=61363#post61363 Kyle Matthews

"Ok, now I hold the post and you shovel in the concrete. And I try really really hard to hold it still, but the shock of the concrete splats makes it move a little bit, and then you yell at me."

Hmm. Your teacher didn't teach you to use a...

]]> Wed, 30 Jul 2008 09:50:18 +1200 Kerry Weston http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=61415#post61415 Kerry Weston

Maurice Gee's Under the Mountain.

The Wilberforces.... to be called a wilberforce was thenceforth an insult after the tv series.

My kids were lucky in having a river close by and a beach 15 minutes away – lots of hut-building, bridge-jumping, rope-swinging, mud-fighting fun! It was a rite of passage...

]]> Wed, 30 Jul 2008 13:24:28 +1200 Carol Stewart http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=61520#post61520 Carol Stewart Am I the only person here to have not loved Under the Mountain? (the book, that is; haven't seen the televersion).
I adore almost all Maurice Gee's fiction, but I just couldn't muster up the the requisite suspension of belief for Under the Mountain. It just got sillier and sillier.

]]> Wed, 30 Jul 2008 22:22:54 +1200 Helen Searancke http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=61533#post61533 Helen Searancke Wed, 30 Jul 2008 23:07:36 +1200 Amy Gale http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=61554#post61554 Amy Gale

Hmm. Your teacher didn't teach you to use a couple of posts lying down on each side, and then a couple more on the other sides to hold it up (in a cross formation)?

For the setting phase, but not for the desperately important no moving at all while I...

]]> Thu, 31 Jul 2008 03:57:39 +1200 Sam F http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1245,busytown-if-you-build-it.sm?p=61569#post61569 Sam F Under the Mountain read out loud over a couple of weeks or so. The highlight was a reading on the summit of Rangitoto to coincide with a school trip. You could say it was a formative experience. Doubt I'd bother revisiting that territory, though... ]]> Thu, 31 Jul 2008 09:00:59 +1200