Thanks for the mention, Russell. Look forward to seeing the show.

Is painting a wall a restricted activity in the district plan – if so they should get an enforcement notice, shouldn't they? Is there a by-law which allows the council to overpaint graffiti without?

The "new" sections are only "new" in format and name, completely lacking anything actualy new, interesting and?

Peter, I saw that link?

Yes, his claim that people feel too scared to go out because of graffiti is probably true, but it does rather say to me that said people should harden the fuck?

When you're losing sales to a competitor you know what always works? Copying the competitor.

It's like all those iPod knock-offs, they've done so well. Or that singer who's a lot like Lady Gaga. Or that movie that was like Twilight. It's surely just an aberration that CNN?

See also Phil Goff. /threadmerge

Nah.

That would be my reason for cancelling my subscription.

...which I just lurve mine.
Also, I must go photograph the corner of Morningside and New North Rds just in case....
How is anyone scared of street art?I mean c'mon guys!

Probably the same McMansion dwellers who cotton wool themselves and their kids behind razor wires and concrete walls.?

Just as an aside ? the other day my flatmate drew my attention to?

I'm sure that what Michael Laws writes gets much more exposure than anything Finlay Macdonald or Steve Braunias ever wrote (example: this blog post). After all, any publicity is?

No. I would probably buy the Dominion Post if it was just mediocre, as opposed to both mediocre and racist.

I guess the age?

I disagree. McLeod's not said anything new, constructive or insightful for years. She mightn't be as regularly offensive as Laws but I recall this thoroughly trivial piece full of false praise for Helen Clark (and including gratuitous criticism of Grant Robertson's win in Wellington?

I did smile as I typed it.

And, perhaps, a visit from the police.

I consulted Steve Price, who doesn't think there's much hope, but I still reckon someone asking the Chief Censor to consider classifying the?

Page 3 girls might work better. Isn't the paper aimed at people who don't have the internet?

I was.

But I?

I love this neighbourhood for the graffiti. A couple of times?

My view was that Gareth Morgan was worth reading for a couple of?

IIRC Haden had a soft spot for solo mums for a start.

Edit: I googled. I found a lovely tribute to Haden from PAS? own Deborah noting on his recent demise that Haden?s?

Who, the globe-trotting financier biker that the Listener has turned into a permanent advertorial for?

Just wrap it inside something less offensive. Beastiality Monthly or some such.

@Stephen Judd

You're right. I wrote the occasional piece for the Dom when Frank was OpEd editor. I'd always tremble when my liberal (well, by __his__?

He's newsstand gold, I gather.

There are number of reasons to admire Gareth Morgan, but his godawful prose-writing isn't among them.

But that — with very notable exceptions — is The Listener these days. I?

His later writings on grammar were completely bonkers though.

Garth George would turn out the occasional good?

I find one is generally ample.

[GG Pendant]

ETA:

One wonders whether we would have lost the America?s Cup if it weren?t for Ms Gracewood and the rest of her ?comrades? at Public Address. Slovenly English has always been the enemy of athletic prowess,?

I don't read the Listener anymore, don't know this. I used to read his print stuff and often disagreed but generally his perspective was at least rooted in some analysis and not trotted out to?

In other words, the Simon Uptons of this world, who unfortunately seem to be lying low right now. Privately they'd likely be cringing at the very?

If you're talking Lhaws, that's private flogging *by* page 3 grrls

Precisely, where's he nowadays?

If you?re talking Lhaws, that?s private flogging *by* page 3 grrls

Too many years ago, I met Antionette Beck, the alter-ego of Lhaws Exec Secretary and the person he blamed for his lies to Parliament. I wonder if she doesn't pretend like that?

Here.

Well, there's our own Rob Hosking if you want a true blue but thoroughly reasonable chap, albeit I don't think he does much opinion journalism. As noted, I believe you could have a nice drink with Karl du Fresne and reach amicable conclusions?

With Michael Laws self praise would likely be at the foundation of why he does what he does:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/3260457/Praise-for-Laws-traced-to-his-own-firm

Apart from Oram there is not much heft left in the SST.

Mind you the op piece on incoming GG was worth reading.

Pity about losing McDonald and Mcleod.

Lhaws is?

He deserves to go the way of Paul Henry. But if Lhawsgate comes to pass, would the reactions be bigger than Henrygate? As in Tea Party proportions, that is.

Did he ever have one?

Or "well past" would be a massive understatement.

I have just read his latest SST column. Based on that column and everything I've read and heard about him in the last few years, he is nasty, vicious,?

He regularly does. It's just that government doesn't listen.

And her actual reporting is pretty damn solid ? she has good contacts and knows how to use them.

Name recognition, pure and simple. He kept his complete prattishness well disguised until he went off with Winston. After that, he was electable anywhere, as the burghers of Whanganui found out. Even crap can?

Wonderful film

Oh, I?ll be cynical enough to guess Len will be cheerfully playing ?blame the officials? with the best of them. But may I suggest it?s an easy way to score some positive ink?

It's a Zen thing, like 'how many babies fit in a tire?'.

Firstly, my money's on this guy having gone a bit Colonel Kurtz, rather than this being actual policy. Let's?

I think where-the-line-is-drawn is actually the nub of this issue. What powers does Shields have, what policy was he acting under, what are?

Think they are very much self appointed. We had one badgering us to paint over a tag outside our work. Admittedly for free, but there was a point at which the line between community spirited service?

It's worth discussing everywhere; because I truthfully have a lot of sympathy with officials who have to try and apply policies that have a high degree of, shall we be?

Craig R: but isn?t ?heritage? all about political acceptability applied to private property? Seriously interested in where people draw the line.
The difference between graffiti and tagging is like porno – hard to define on?

He's like a Twinkie. Will still be edible in the post-zombie-apocalypse world, but not really very nice even when brand new.

I must say that after a mis-spent childhood reading comics that advertised these things, it was a major disappointment to actually eat one the first time I was in?

I've only seen her in those yellow tinted glasses.

Even after it has his its own fans.

Isn't it about the public interest in both private and public property and spaces that are part of our shared history in this place? Its balance with private interests is a political decision, yes.

Who gets to decide what colour?

A bit like chewing on a sweetish sports sock. Did once see a great art piece (in Washington DC)?

Frankly, it is important that the counter-view to Hotchin's claims gets aired. Herald columnist Brian Gaynor?

The Sunday column waxed and waned, but Braunias still has powers of description well beyond those of most columnists. He's one of relatively few NZ print columnists?

+1 Sceptic tank – is that like a think tank that's pretty sure you're full of shit?

Which is fair enough. But this was a wall in an?

And we haven't gotten to the infamous Twinkie Defence yet. It wouldn't be too far-fetched either with Mr Lhaws' remarks bordering on incitement.

Fran O?Sullivan we?ve all bagged at one time or another, but she?s not unreasonable per se, just starting from a very different set of political axioms.

And her actual reporting is pretty damn solid ? she has good contacts and knows how to use them.

If she could bear to?

http://www.ted.com/talks/jr_s_ted_prize_wish_use_art_to_turn_the_world_inside_out.html

However if his affiliated large scale pasted wall posters started appearing all around our supercity, as is his TED wish, what would our city officials make of it.?

I'd go so far as to say everything advertised in them is disappointing. Ever seen a Sea Monkey (tm). With the naked eye? How about "Unbeatable fighting power in 3 days?". I've seen what people in?

I can still do it in 3 days, last time I checked.

The Sunday column waxed and waned, but Braunias still has powers of description well beyond those of most columnists. He's one of relatively few NZ print columnists who make me think "I wish I'd written that".

His long-form pieces in North & South on various "small towns" in New Zealand were?

Ever seen a Sea Monkey (tm). With the naked eye?

Yup. Sea monkeys are just brine shrimp, which get to about 1cm long if you take care of them right. I've grown them, and while they're not the most exciting pets, they're perfectly visible. Though I can confirm that they?

Not that muscle.

But what about that mini-submarine? That must have been real.

Heh, was it radio controlled? So they could save money by just explaining afterwards why none of them ever come back.

tTwo-thirds of 323 Aucklanders surveyed support turning busy Queen St into a pedestrian mall.

Sixty four per cent wanted more pedestrian access to Queen St, with either no traffic at all or?

Yes, I just had a batch of them recently. They're not an outright lie, you do get animals. Charles Atlas was also quite big, supposedly from flexing in front of the mirror (for years, and eating all the right foods, and possibly having a physique that responds?

?Ms? Gracewood is a well-known radical who is at the forefront of a campaign to destroy the New Zealand way of life.

Spooky. Dr Haywood's satire is almost word-for-word what someone wrote in a letter to Metro last month. Just add "literary" before "life". Is he ghost-writing for disgruntled NZ?

I think if one has that sort of power, one should wield it with impunity.

It must be days since anyone posted the 'I'm not here to make friends' clip. Days and days.

Of course that is in?

If Auckland Council?s graffiti prevention adviser Rob Shields is really going ?round applying some sort of political acceptability test to Art on private property, well, that?s just not acceptable, I?m afraid.

I?d appreciate hearing from the mayor or councilors as to whether or not this is official policy.

AND

Oh,?

I recall that within weeks of Mayor Banks being sworn into office, even?

but isn?t ?heritage? all about political acceptability applied to private property? Seriously interested in where people draw the line.

Restrictions on altering heritage property are defined, I think, in the district plan, which has to be adopted through due process. Enforcing those restrictions again requires due process.

I suspect that?

I think where-the-line-is-drawn is actually the nub of this issue. What powers does Shields have, what policy was he acting under, what are the damn rules anyway?

Wearing my stylish elected representative hat (in recognition of fashion week coming up):

Valid questions. AFAIK Mr Shields has the power to paint?

When I built a home over here in Oz I was astounded to be given a list of "approved" brick colours, told I could only have a tile roof, told I was only allowed to have the fences at the?

I recall that within weeks of Mayor Banks being sworn into office, even before he was sworn at in office, having the policy of wild flowers median strips and verges on highways reversed. Having them replaced by nice, middle class, inoffensive shrubbery.

If you are referring to the wildflower strips?

I was referring to City Highways ie. St Lukes and Balmoral roads as well as a few others.
I understand that the wildflowers?

I don't know what the maintenance problems were, other than the use of that phrase tends to be code for 'it was too much trouble and we couldn't be bothered'.

Yep. I was amazed to find things like "residents only' swimming pools, hidden away in parks behind the house. From the street you're driving past rows of look-alike homes, not realising that the space between them is actually larger than?

Well, yes. It is so hard to keep the little blighters in line, in neat rows as it were. It's?

Sounds like vast tracts of Europe to me, only more modern. Perhaps it was just sentimentality but after my first world trip, I wept when I flew over Auckland at?

Actually, wild 'flowers' do need a lot of maintenance. They flower over summer, go to seed, and die. Then other things, generally weeds and grasses, take over. If the wildflower seeds survive they can't compete with?

Looking forward to that. Also, speaking of things TVNZ 7: the current season of The Good Word is,?

The mayor was certainly a bit more bollocking-proof. He's been paying attention at media training, I suspect.

Laws has now replied, informing the mother that it is her fault her son is Asperger.

Just, wow.

Personally I've now passed the point where getting progressively angrier at Laws' progressively more offensive behaviour has given way to a calm, simple desire to see him off the airwaves and out of our papers permanently.

Anyone got a go-to list of those I should not be spending?

please.

if anyone has the time to shake these out i'll take the time to write to them.

this arsehat Lhaws really has to go. and the sooner the better.

And a nice piece it is too: "Michael Laws really is a special little man".

+1 – though it only reinforces my dislike of "special" in other contexts too

Laws is quoted, then posts a whiny comment. It's conceivable that his rude reply to Marilynn McLachlan meant something other than everyone thought it did, but it's also quite possible he knew what he was saying.

I liked this Mr Brown calls Mr Laws' comments "extremely unpleasant".

Were those really the first words that came to mind?

Nice work. Now they just need to speed up the comment moderation..

They need to speed up the LHaws moderation.

Would someone please take his platform away? He is doing no one anything but harm. Including himself. If it wasn't so blindingly obvious, for anyone who can read, how stressful this must?

Ok, apologies for flippancy, but would that be a ?PC-wet T-shirt? competition?

Alternatively know as a ?dry T-shirt? competition.

Water and computers don't mix.

What?

Michael, you might want to reflect on whether or not you, a person forced to resign from parliament because of your?

ETA
Now they just need to speed up the comment moderation..
No, you?re right they really do. When people start name calling back, it will only serve to drive more traffic to his ego, with more unfortunate collateral damage.

Most things seem to happen when he's out of the office anyway.

I don't think there's any selection regarding Laws. They publish what he gives them, because they're afraid of upsetting him and his radio audience if they don't.

Thanks for that, good interview – your barely restrained fury was delightful to watch and certainly discomforted Kemeys. Good call on his blame-shifting.

And I echo Hilary – if Braunias was acting as an agent?

He looked like most of the senior administrators I've come across – all too happy to take the title and pay package but completely unwilling to either do the actual job properly or take the?

This is the problem, isn?t it? Laws has a constituency.

We don?t have enough national-scale papers in this country and they can?t differentiate into different niches ? there?s no Daily Mail or Daily Star for low brow right?

Either he took part in the decision to send the nastygram to Edwards, or he wasn't even consulted. Neither option reflects particularly?

Thank you for the reminder about the Swiftpoint Russell, I've been looking for something local to retail-therapy on. Order placed.

But he was hands on – and standing behind it – in the Braunias case. Apparently what Steve did was sackworthy and he was representing the paper whilst doing it in spite of being a contractor. Whereas Laws can accuse a reader of having caused?

Not without the paper meeting their obligations as a responsible publisher. There is no license to say whatever you like about groups of people without facing consequences.

Laws is perfectly free to?

just got the reply back to my complaint.

Kearney's is pretty reasonable about it. preci: don't necessarily like what he's says, but defend his right to do so [in my?

Press Council, then

Just as the public has the right to contact companies that advertise in Kemeys' newspaper and tell them they'll boycott their products so long as they advertise in a medium in which?

If Danyl's right about this, can we at least dispense with the title "Editor" as it is a term that implies a set of skills and responsibilities clearly not part of?

SST subs guy: "Can I ask why you're cancelling?"
Me: "Why do you think?"
SST SG: silence
Me: "Okay, Michael Laws"

I got that "fair enough" feeling from the other end.

Now (sorry Ian) we''ll have to rely on the Saturday DomPost – I need?

I'm not watching it. I feel that while the majority of us are?

But there are already established grounds (and channels) for complaint without testing a new one which might take some time to work through.

If you're going to boycott, try the main advertisers – I suspect that's more lucrative to the publishers than subscriptions or listeners/eyeballs.

And the next logical?

You mean the Press Council? Sure enough, but they've got no standing to consider criminal matters. Perhaps that is a bridge too far however.

Well, quite. I'm impressed with both your editor and the work you and others do for The Press.

Death to Fairfax! And death to the quisling traitor Phillip Matthews!

Actually no, I was thinking of contacting the major ad spenders in the SST and sending them a polite letter summarising Laws' various outrages and regretfully?

Out of interest: is there anywhere in Wellington where one can get the Christchurch?

That would be fine if you were seeking a conversation rather than a result – but their business model suggests peeling off a major advertiser is going to get?

what does that even mean in this context?
boycott
withdraw from commercial or social relations with (a country, organization, or person) as a punishment or protest.
? refuse to buy or handle (goods) as a punishment or protest.
??

I?ve finally figured it out. Lhaws is on the Pipe.

It's easy to see why people could assume the bile that passes for copy published in his (sometimes incoherent) column is the product of methamphetamine psychosis, but have a look at this description, you'll see his personality is literally a?

Hello Ian.

There's quite a lot of online stuff from the ODT – but nothing quite compares with reading the paper – I share a copy with my mother (i.e she gets to read it?

Regarding the Prolefeed, sorry, TV awards... if you want a vision of Henry & Lhaws' idea of humour, imagine a clown shoe stamping on a human face – forever.

Quick, someone write him a letter he can read out as an acceptance speech. Doubt it would be half as funny, but.

I'm aware of that. I just don't like it as a way of bringing about results. It gives a bigger voice to people who are?

Cool, huh?

In Korean they have a saying 'the essential ingredient'. Not saying in what context that was used previously, although I seem to remember Karaoke (KTV), Soju and... nope lost it.

But this would seem apposite. Keep it in mind for the Food blog. ;-)

I've thought of it as being able to draw a crowd.?

With a helluva lot of time & energy & organisation?

To be honest, there?s nothing more satisfying for me than having an idea and seeing it work. The last two Great Blends have been really good like that. I had a conscious moment a few hours before the one at the Civic last year of thinking?