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Public Address

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 16:02:31 +1200

Discussion from blog post.

Stephen Judd

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 16:02:31 +1200

/radiates envy

Apropos understatement: I inadvertently caused great offence in NYC once by using that classic Kiwi compliment, "not bad". They do have irony in New York, but not deadpan. NZ litotes vs NY overstatement is a recipe for culture clash. A colleague has similar stories of discovering that if?

Don Christie

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 16:20:06 +1200

The NZ Trade guy in the Conchords is close to perfect :-)

(NZTE are also brilliant...)

Don Christie

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 16:20:25 +1200

in real life, I mean.

Nat Torkington

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 16:42:53 +1200

You get more Kiwi culture in NYC than I do in Warkworth!

Aidan

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 17:53:27 +1200

Party like it's 1999 Jolisa!

Watch out for the hangover but. In my experience the wee `uns have personal space and volume issues which can make it difficult having a nice long wallow in self-pitying blobbiness.

Hope you don't end up making play dough animals and whimpering alot.

When my?

Jackie Clark

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 17:58:49 +1200

So glad they're doing well, those Conchord chappies. Had seen that song they did on Letterman before, live, and still had a good old chuckle. Love them.

Paul Campbell

Sat, 16 Jun 2007 08:22:42 +1200

Reading your post I was thinking about the nature of kiwi ex-pat community ... and how it may be a generational thing – my experience of moving to the US didn't involve grand gatherings of wonderfull kiwis, in fact it didn't involve many gatherings of kiwis at all .....

My?

Ben Austin

Sat, 16 Jun 2007 08:31:52 +1200

Speaking of F.O.C, they really must have made it, when I went to Salon today the "ad you must watch if you are too cheap to man up for the premier content" was for their HBO special. I actually watched the whole ad, for the first time ever at Salon,?

Paul Campbell

Sat, 16 Jun 2007 10:05:47 +1200

I noticed that – they've been getting big plugs around the Sopranos on HBO too (or at least were when I was visiting last month)

Ben Austin

Sun, 17 Jun 2007 00:22:10 +1200

Interview with the lads by Salon

Andrew Paul Wood

Mon, 18 Jun 2007 13:46:47 +1200

Review from Slate:
here

Jolisa

Tue, 19 Jun 2007 06:19:11 +1200

Stephen, I hear you on the dangers of understatement in a culture that values the opposite, and vice versa. I am constantly overcorrecting myself here (everything is brilliant, fantastic, amazing; all is possible, the sky's the limit; it's almost a crime to express doubt about anything).

Then once back in?

Jolisa

Tue, 19 Jun 2007 06:29:58 +1200

Party like it's 1999 Jolisa!

I did my best! And how clever of you to work out that I was indeed a sixth-former as recently as 1999 . Yes indeed. Before these children came along and artificially aged me.

Jolisa

Tue, 19 Jun 2007 06:39:02 +1200

Hey Paul, that depiction of the old-school OE is fascinating – especially the sadly hilarious image of only meeting up with other New Zealanders while rustling around in dark rooms, which rather put me in mind of the kiwi house at Otorohanga. Or of the inefficient mating habits of kakapo,?

Paul Campbell

Tue, 19 Jun 2007 07:54:30 +1200

To be honest I should add there was one other place I'd meet Kiwis, or at least hear kiwi accents – on the ski slopes at Tahoe – in the 90s there would always be kiwi snow-kids running the rope tows and serving at the lunch counters – never got?