Posts by Russell Brown
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Visiting Afghanistan, Damian Christie finds a New Zealander -- renewable energy expert Tony Woods -- working on the ground.
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Who needs talkback? Morning Report's 'listener feedback' ran a charming request for 'the whingers' who should piss off to Zimbabwe or Myanmar and STFU. Gentle listener, to paraphrase Chris Rock, you low-expectation-having mother****er!
Yes, I thought the same thing when I heard that.
I somehow doubt Labour would find a winning slogan in "Helen! Not as bad as Mugabe! More generous than the Generals of Myanmar!"
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__sigh ... they were named and quoted in the booklets that came with the discs. I'm surprised a music historian wouldn't know that.__
That's the best thing you can think to attack me on? I made some very valid and serious observations and all you can come up with is a sigh and 'I thought you would have read the cd sleeves and memorised them"
For goodness sake, I'm not "attacking" you. You just said you didn't believe something Brendan said, which, as far as I can recall, is a matter of record.
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Oh, and lost amid the general Budget punditry ...
The New Zealand Music Commission gets an additional $4.8 million in baseline funding over four years to do its work.
Given that the commission has subsisted on year-by-year funding since 2000, this is both welcome and significant.
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When my Dad died, his body was embalmed and brought home. I appreciated being able to sit with (and talk to) what was at least a symbol for who he'd been.
But I love the idea of a natural burial. I finding something profound in the idea of my atoms being swiftly recycled for re-use by the Universe. And that doesn't go with embalming ...
I like Kevin Ireland's idea of celebrating a good innings. Some of the happiest times in my life have been spent eating, drinking and talking with friends, and I won't mind not being able to participate. The throwing of the party is the thing.
Music will be important: 'Messin' with the Kid' by The Saints to hold down the melancholy end, and some boofy dance music to cheer up the party later on.
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Screw the cheese. What about the wine?
Wine's going to be bloody cheap for the next year or two. Unlike cheese.
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I may be proved wrong but Opshop and Brooke Fraser are exactly the sort of NZ records that don’t stand a shot outside NZ.
Ironically, that boring, earnest Brooke Fraser song, and the OpShop song that I couldn't hum to you if I tried were up against two inspired, original pop songs in 'Beautiful Haze' and 'Crazy? Yes! Dumb? No!' at last year's Silver Scrolls ...
And who did the APRA members pick? Brooke.
Will people look back in years to come and think of 'Albertine' as the sound of '07? Nope.
Ah well.
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__the Kiwi Hit Disc and the Indie Hit Discs were tracklisted by radio programmers,__
Really, I find that hard to believe. There were great tracks on indie hit discs that commercial radio would never have picked. Unless you mean you consulted b net programmers as well, who I have no issue with. Please elaborate on who actually did pick the indie hit disc tracks and the more alternative tracks?
Sigh ... they were named and quoted in the booklets that came with the discs. I'm surprised a music historian wouldn't know that.
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I don't think anyone here would argue that calling yourself a feminist means that you are one. Or that it's a uniform movement, for that matter. Neither of which makes the "women are the authors of their own misfortune" argument any more valid.
That's a super paragraph.
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I wonder if this year, with its various storms, will come to be regarded as a pivotal one for leadership in China.
The real-time mythologising of Wen Jiabao ("This is Grandpa Wen Jiabao, hang on child, we will rescue you!") strikes a bum note in the West, but I don't doubt the real effort (and, in at least one case, sacrifice) that has gone into the rescue effort.
That this disaster has been documented, that its stories haven't been erased, is novel and important. And whatever political will has been on display, I also think it's an example of the democratising effect of communications technology. This couldn't have been wholly suppressed.
Look at the radical broadening of access to information the internet has brought to people around the Pacific Rim. That's why, even in the case of Myanmar, I'm inclined to the view that connectivity can be the friend of freedom.
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