Posts by Russell Brown
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The PA System version of this post has been viewed 1894 times as compared to the "Classic" version without the thread with 524 views ...
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A few years back, a planned feature about home invasion in one of our big metropolitans that was going to show how in fear we should all be at this mushrooming crime was pulled when the stats didn't back it up.
Well, at least they didn't just run the story anyway. That happens.
But you're right. I've been horrified at the extent to which certain editors tell writers what their conclusion will be before the writers actually get to determine the facts.
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Get a police investigation to conclude theft, and you might have a point here.
Graeme, I daresay the police, if invited, would conclude theft in many other cases where embarrassing documents have found their way to journalists -- including, quite probably, documents handled by Opposition MPs.
The difference between "theft" and leakage seems very much in the eye of the beholder.
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Perhaps this is the route for content - for Russell to make money fast he needs more mentions of Britney Spears nude videos, stores with New Zealand iPhones still available and the reason Antoine Dixon is being retried.
The example I have often used is this:
As you might expect, PA traffic rose considerably during the 2005 election campaign, and although it subsided a bit eventually, there was a sustained increase thereafter.
But ... the spike didn't start with any political story. It was the "celebrity drug scandal" that kicked it off. I led with it one the first morning, and traffic went nuts.
"Cool," I thought, and led with it again. It worked again -- an the next day.
This is one of the dirty little secrets of web traffic. The News Ltd papers in Australia are huge on getting journalists to blog, because it drives comments traffic.
But ... when I had it explained to me, one blogger (from nearly 100) was responsible for 40% of the comments traffic. Was he the most thoughtful or intelligent? No, he was the most provocative, angry and bigoted. Both sides of the argument flocked there to either praise or damn him.
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Hi all -- you may notice I've deleted several posts making a certain speculation about Veitch. Perhaps you could stay off that. It's one thing to comment on news stories, another to make stuff up.
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There may be more important things going on but RB posted this on a Sunday. Surely the end of the world isn’t that imminent that we can’t all have a chuckle on a Sunday??
That was my thinking. I've even posted a serious-ish blog this morning ...
BTW, I’m thinking The Hairy Armpit is a fictional creation of a right-wing blogger in order to wind up his mates. It just ticks too many boxes.
Yes, quite possible. Which would make the flame war even funnier.
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In 1950, the Japanese Government began to designate certain individuals or groups who were "bearers of important intangible cultural assets" as “living national treasures”. I’d be quite happy to start beating the drum for NZ Film Festival Director Bill Gosden and the good folks at the Square Eyes New Zealand Children’s Film Foundation. Sorry, PJ, you’ll just have to wait.
My default position where children are concerned is that they should be seen and not heard — and even then, their hands should be in view at all times. So, the better half and I taking three boys — ages six to nine — to the movies on a wet, winter Auckland morning is a recipe for disaster. Right?
Once they got that they weren’t going to be loaded up with sugar at ten in the morning, not at all.
Not when you’re seeing The Adventures of Robin Hood, Michael Curtiz’s 1938 epic in the equally opulent surrounds of Auckland’s Civic Theatre. Erroll Flynn swashed his buckles in the fight against injustice, Basil Rathbone buckled his swashes as the dastardly Guy of Gisbourne. Claude Raines’ Prince John preened and purred like a cat locked in an aviary. Olivia De Haviland deployed her full arsenal of limpid glances, heaving bosoms and chilly glares as Lady Marion.
I loved every minute of it. The three wise kids came to the conclusion that the fight scenes were cool (and there’s a lot of them), the talky bits were kind of dull, and the kissy bits had their eyes firmly pointed to the Civic’s star-flecked ceiling.
But what I’d forgotten about this movie is how lightly it wears a very simple moral. Errol Flynn’s Robin Hood is jaunty, dashing, and fearless — as quick with the snappy retort as he is with bow and sword. But there’s also an absence of angst and cruelty about him. Curtiz has room for knockabout physical comedy; romance not a set up for a gratuitous sex scenes and tacky dick jokes — not only between Robin and Marian, but between Much and Bess who, being a little down the social scale, don’t waste time meeting cute. The cruelty of Prince John and his henchmen is left in no doubt — but we don’t get our noses rubbed in it with sadistic glee.
And it’s obvious that even though Curtiz was a notorious hard taskmaster, that everyone concerned was having a lot of fun and well as doing damn fine work.
It’s easy to look at films like Robin Hood and dismiss them with a smirk. But is it really so terrible that for a little over an hour and an half, we can live in a world where someone can say with a straight face “It’s injustice I hate, not the Normans”. Or to smuggle in the radical notion that injustice is not only to be resisted, but can be defeated without becoming hard and joyless in turn?
I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t mind the real world being a little more like this. Even if I had to wear gaudy tights and a silly hat.
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Robin Hood will be screening at the Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin festivals over the next couple of weeks. Details can be found at the New Zealand Film Festivals website.
The Square Eyes New Zealand Children's Film Foundation also has a website, including details of the ‘Around The World’ programs running in Auckland and Wellington from next month.
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Oh how hugely funny. Russel won't link to my blog but easily links to a radical, lesbian, man hating, christian hating website.
Which I am far from sure is real, actually ...
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Police have confirmed both bodies were male.
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Well, it may be as simple as the position of one of the bodies - and the nature of the crime scene ...
Yeah, I'm sure it's just some procedural thing. It just sounded freaky when I heard the bulletin.
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