Posts by andrew gunn
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Hard News: Christchurch: Square Two,
I've just made the mistake of reading the Herald's "Your Views".
God's trousers...
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Hard News: Three months after,
There's a pledge - promising to stay here - that you can sign. I'm not. I've got no intention of leaving, I'm looking forward to (somehow) being part of the rebuild, but I also know there are people in vastly different circumstances from mine.
And, speaking only for myself, I have no problem with out-of-towners doing the earthquake tourism thing (not in residential streets of course, and the celebrity-CBD tours is a separate issue). I've been struck by the concern that people from all over continue to show for Christchurch. So come and look. Then buy something.
And on a final scatter-gun note: "5 Days In The Red Zone", TV1 last night. Made me feel good about people. And thanks New Zealand On Air.
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Hard News: Again: Is everyone okay?,
Random observations from this afternoon:
I walk into my ten-year-old's school just as the first big aftershock hits. The rugby goalposts are whipping back and forth and suddenly there she is, right in front of me, walking back to her class from the playground assembly point. Never has a hug been more timely.
The sky is abuzz with helicopters. We're on the flightpath of the Westpac Rescue as it shuttles back and forth. Another chopper is carrying a monsoon bucket. Into the city. It's bizarre. Later an Air Force Orion makes repeated low sweeps back and forth.
Ilam and Waimairi Roads are crawling nose-to-tail in both directions. I've never seen them like this before. Neither the driver-courtesy: with much after-you's and friendly waves.
We and everyone we know is safe, as far as we know. We are bracing ourselves: tomorrow as we find out more, this may change.
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Random Play: The Big Day Out: Lambs to…,
"They are Blooty and the Ho Fish (or whoever they were) for kids who last year loved High School Musical and have now graduated onto what they think is rock music"
I love the smell of condescension in the afternoon. -
oh go on, st ephen, take another swing - you know you want to
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Crikey
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I'm sure I'd have something witty to say if I knew who Hatherley was. Curse this cultural desert in which I was brought up!
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When I went to Ilam Primary it was a sea of white faces. Now my kids go there. At the last Cultural Day they did a rollcall of nationalities represented. I lost count after fifty.
And just as Emma says, that's the little bit of Christchurch I see. Could be different elsewhere, probably is.
Oh and this too: in all my years here I've never heard one local use the "more English than England" line in an irony-free way. It's the stuff of shoddily-written tourist and PR bumf. If there is a cult of anglophiles hereabouts, they're keeping a very low profile.
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Random Play: Racial’s coming home . . .…,
And in other news: 93% of people polled think winter is too cold, vote to have summer twelve months a year.
Because that's what democracy's all about.
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These old TV clips are choice. I have just watched Ep 1 with the famous Thingee eye-popping. Like with Kennedy's assassination and the crowning of Lorraine Downes, many people can remember what they were doing when this happened. But here's the spooky thing: it never actually aired on the Son Of A Gunn show - though folks will swear that's when they saw it. The show was pre-recorded and they did a retake. The clip only turned up on TV later as a blooper.
Why do I know? Well, I had a hand in writing the show. And if you don't believe me, ask a certain current TVNZ director who had a hand in Thingee.