Posts by Rob Stowell

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  • Field Theory: A post about art (sort of),

    For example if I decide I am interested and decide I am an Artist does that make what I produce Art ?

    If my wife is interested in my drawings does that make them Art ?

    No: you need to be accepted, by people more disinterested than your wife.

    I don't think this 'small-tent' interpretation is Dickie's. I seem to recall his position being wider: pretty much anyone can be a member of the 'art-world'. And as a 'member' can confer the status/role of art on what they produce.
    But maybe that was the intrepretation of my lecturer... who was a paid-up subscriber :)
    The institutional theory of art seemed a little like democracy: y'know- the worst possible theory of art, except for all the others :)

    Whakaraupo • Since Nov 2006 • 2120 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: The Internet in New Zealand,

    Healthcare for the USA.
    Welcome to the civilised world, guys :)

    Whakaraupo • Since Nov 2006 • 2120 posts Report Reply

  • Cracker: Wallywood,

    That's quite a radical position, Ben. Not surprising, given your similar take (it boils down to 'taste') on morality/ethics.
    But you'd save yourself some aggro if you stated it clearly up-front :)

    Whakaraupo • Since Nov 2006 • 2120 posts Report Reply

  • Busytown: Holiday reading lust,

    A found otter?

    Whakaraupo • Since Nov 2006 • 2120 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: The Auckland Council as leaky…,

    Who the hell do these people think they are?

    un-elected and unaccountable?

    Whakaraupo • Since Nov 2006 • 2120 posts Report Reply

  • Busytown: Holiday reading lust,

    I'd be in good company ... with kumara and carrots, boil my head- though thin gruel and close to unpalatable- no luxury, I fear :)
    It's a bit of a slow-cooker, though, The Wire. Takes the first season to warm up. Second season changes gear, comes to a remarkable (greek tragedy, fate unfolding like a horrible mechanical chair) penultimate episode...
    Series three and four it's really into its stride, and quite addictive. So y'know, maybe long winter nights?

    Whakaraupo • Since Nov 2006 • 2120 posts Report Reply

  • Busytown: Holiday reading lust,

    I, ur, really hate crime series...
    They make crime look so - um - containable. Solveable. *Rational*.

    You'd probably like The Wire, then. You have to trust us on this :)

    Whakaraupo • Since Nov 2006 • 2120 posts Report Reply

  • Busytown: Holiday reading lust,

    Edmund White's "City Boy" is a good read. A mash-up of high culture, literary gossip and gutter sex, in 60s and 70s New York. Tying it together is a strong sense of the pleasures and rewards of friendship- which, at least in this telling- can endure love, sex, drugs, and even success.
    Best Xmas reading: Charlotte Grimshaw's Opportunity. The stories are great; tense and funny. And the 'follow-up/other side' (also called 'Opportunity" I think?) of the title story- published in another anthology- is worth searching out. It adds a few extra twists, and hints at more possible points of view.
    Which are probably further explored in "Singularity" (Grimshaw's 2009 short-story collection). Maybe Easter reading?

    Whakaraupo • Since Nov 2006 • 2120 posts Report Reply

  • Busytown: Holiday reading lust,

    (sorry, think I've said this before)... When I tried reading Huck Finn (one of the truely great books ever- despite Tom returning to ahem, kind've ruin the last 20% ) to the kids, I found it very hard. This was mostly down to my near-inability to say the word 'nigger' out loud (and maybe especially to kids). It's everywhere. I struggled with this- it almost seemed phobic- but I think the kids sensed it, and we gave up.
    A lot of the book's greatness relates specifically to slavery and racism: how it colours the way Huck and Jim see themselves, each other, and their relationship- and how their friendship carefully negotiates, stumbles over, and manages to transcend this. Not reading it aloud seemed a shame (though probably mostly for me!)
    Love to know how anyone else feels about/works past this.

    Whakaraupo • Since Nov 2006 • 2120 posts Report Reply

  • Somebody Had To Say This....,

    Yeah. I have a ghost investor who'd like to buy shares in your deceased Nigerian grandmother's spirit. Preferential shares.
    Will pay in genuine afterlife Ruberian nuples- or a simulcra suitable for this world, if required.
    (You are from the SPCA, aren't you?)

    Whakaraupo • Since Nov 2006 • 2120 posts Report Reply

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