Posts by Craig Ranapia

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  • Radiation: Television hell,

    OK, I'm going to commit blasphemy and admit it took a while for Outrageous Fortune to grow on me. Like most people (I suspect), I'm a lot less willing to give comedy a second chance than drama. having said that, I caught up up with The Insider's Guide to Happiness on DVD (after raves from people I don't dismiss as tasteless retards), because I couldn't get past the pretentious, incoherent first episode first time around.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • Hard News: Deriving satisfaction from…,

    Schadenfreude is a low and degrading emotion.

    I'll just say this is proof that there is a merciful and loving God (and one with a great sense of cosmic irony), who really wants to be left out of New Zealand's domestic politics.

    Can I get an amen!

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • Radiation: Television hell,

    I've asked some American fans about all the NZ in-jokes - mostly, they just fly right over their heads, but they still like the show.

    At the risk of sounding really pretentious, I think the way to the universal is through the specific. TFoTC is resonating with people, because there will always be gawky hetero lifemates in the world. Just as I don't love 30 Rock for all the SNL in-jokes, but because we're all worked in places that seem like badly run lunatic asylums where the inmates were always in charge.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • Radiation: Television hell,

    Very very 'kiwi' too, I'm quite surprised the americans audience actually gets it.

    Well, the reviews I've seen have been pretty mixed. Then again, I don't get Entourage and wish I could give back Curb Your Enthusiasm.

    Oh, and am I the only person for whom the impossible happened while watching The Tudors? I'm bored watching Jonathan Rhys Meyers dry hump everything in a skirt that isn't Sam Neil. Even beginning to wish he'd put on a buttoned up shirt now and then.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • Radiation: Television hell,

    fanboys, Ellen Muth is going to be at Armaggedon.

    OK, I'd pay her good money to tell me to 'fuck off' (which she did rather a lot during Dead Like Me's two seasons) - just because I'm orally masochistic, and she's so good at the passive-aggressive whine.

    But the Armageddon guest I'd really like to meet is Elisabeth Röhm - seriously cool recurring character in the first two seasons of Angel. But what I'd really like to ask her was whether I'm the only one who thinks her departure from Law and Order was the weirdest teleivison outing ever.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • Hard News: He might be crazy, but he's…,

    Robyn, Robyn, Robyn... don't you realise our tourism industry is screwed if they realise Peter Jackson and Lucy Lawless aren't the only New Zealanders taller than three foot six?

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • Hard News: He might be crazy, but he's…,

    Too late: I've seen Velvet Goldmine.

    Don't you have to love Ewan McGregor - it's the Star Wars prequels he's publicly embarrassed by, not the parade of queers, junkies, assorted scumbags and dancing fools that round out the CV.

    I'm not sure if we should be throwing a parade for those guys finally acknowledging the undeniable. It rankled with Mahy from the beginning but she was always too nice about it.

    If it happened today the lawyers would be exchanging emails by close of business!

    Well, I didn't want to harsh the buzz by saying the money probably would have been very useful when Mahy was holding down a full-time job, raising a daughter by herself and trying to squeeze in a bit of time to write. Tessa Duder's 2005 biography is (thankfully) light on the salacious details, but you don't have to read too far between the lines to pick up that being a literary icon isn't a career choice over-burdened with financial security. And even now, it's a fraking disgrace that Mahy was for so many years a writer more recognized in kid lit circles abroad, then in her own country.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • Hard News: He might be crazy, but he's…,

    D'you mean the slightly smutty double entendre? No idea what you're talking about.

    I prefer unintentional vileness, myself. I still have burned on my memory a Herald gig review that cheerfully declared "Iggy Pop blew the band off-stage." Well, I guess that's one way to cut costs - be your own groupie. :)

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • Hard News: He might be crazy, but he's…,

    Corben Simpson and Geoff Murphy had come to APRA to request a change to the writing credit on Blerta's 'Dance All Around the World', which still earns rights money. In the middle of the song, there is a poem by Margaret Mahy. They wanted her to have a songwriting credit, which means she will also derive income from performances of the song. She is, apparently, chuffed about it.

    You're scholars and gentlemen, Messers Simpson and Murphy and it couldn't have happened to a nicer lady. I think there are a few people around who could pay tribute to her generosity. I'll have to rack down the source, but I remember her once saying her least favourite word was 'no'. :)

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • Hard News: Get a Clue,

    And one final bitch to get the bile out of my system: The day Deborah Coddington (of all people), writing in the Herald on Sunday (who managed to have Sharon Shipton unemployed and leaving her husband, to her considerable surprise) becomes a credible source of ethical instruction to anyone, the Four Horsepersons of the Apocalypse can't be far off.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

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