Posts by Joe Wylie

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  • Hard News: The Spiral of Events,

    I really feel queasy about people who think playing fast and loose with seriously loaded imagery like that is an acceptable mode of campaigning having any influence over legislation that might just have a serious impact on my life.

    Can't have art impinging on one's precious politics can we.
    I'm with Gerald Scarfe on this one:

    "I've always been accused of taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut, of overdoing things. But I think sometimes my cartoons aren't hard enough."

    To illustrate this last point he cites an encounter with Tony Blair, during which the cartoonist mentioned that he was sometimes accused of cruelty. The Prime Minister said he didn't find Scarfe's drawings cruel. "I said, 'I must try harder in future.'"

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report

  • Hard News: The Spiral of Events,

    It's here in Trotter's blog. It's simply bizarre:

    Poor Trotter, he appears to be in a form of terminal decline that affects both right and left. An example from the distant past, from The Chaser (http://www.chaser.com.au/content/view/3286/127/):

    **Billy Snedden**

    While not a cold-blooded killer, the 1970s Federal Liberal leader certainly was a character. Legend has it he died on top of his mistress in a cheap Rushcutters Bay motel – apparently the unlucky lass was his son's old girlfriend. But the good-looking conservative would have been dead soon anyway, given his terminal case of foot in mouth disease. He once described a bunch of peaceful protesters as ‘political bikies pack-raping democracy'. Legend has it during a speech at a Liberal function in Queensland in the 1970's a well-lubricated Snedden dropped this clanger: "Well, first I'd like to thank the good ladies of the branch for providing such a scrumptious repast, and old Jack here for fixing up the hall, and Fred for getting us the sound system and his lovely wife for the flowers, and well, I'm sure there are other people I've forgotten, but who gives a fuck". That kind of humour didn't really go down very well in pious Sir Joh country.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report

  • Hard News: Rain on his parade,

    Grow up, dude.

    As in, I will if you will.
    Sphincter-brained little twirp.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report

  • Hard News: Trust. Us.,

    . . . Nippert excelled this week by calling Bernardo Bertolucci a French director.

    Thanks for reminding me why I no longer read the bloody thing. Once upon a time Peter Wells reviewed films for the Listener. A real filmmaker who always produced challenging and thoughtful pieces, and was far too involved and passionate to care about maintaining any kind of cool factor. Which, IMHO, made him a seriously cool reviewer. Totally incompatible with the present don't-frighten-the-chooks editorial approach.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report

  • Hard News: Rain on his parade,

    I went outside today and the Graphics where indeed, crap.

    You're starting to sound like one of those wussy Pauline Xtians - can't hit the sinful streets without feeling that you're about to lose your lunch.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report

  • Hard News: Rain on his parade,

    I love a good slanging match as much as the next guy, but being one of the bad guys here I consider myself more prone to being banned.

    Well I wish I could give Brother Bill his great thrill
    I would set him in chains at the top of the hill
    Then send out for some pillars and Cecil B. DeMille
    He could die happily ever after

    Bob Dylan, Tombstone Blues.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report

  • Hard News: Trust. Us.,

    Levin was where I spent the first 17 years of my life. For most of my high school days I worked after school and Saturdays in the late Corrie Swanwick's nursery, keeping the Horowhenua's mainly Chinese market gardeners supplied with cabbage & cauli seedlings. In his retirement Corrie's formidable memory and hitherto undiscovered writing talent launched him into a new career as Levin's unofficial historian. His weekly column appeared in the Chronicle through most of the 80s, and though the paper itself may have all but vanished most of his work is now online at the excellent Kete Horowhenua site:

    http://horowhenua.kete.net.nz/

    APN and the Levin Council may have killed the Chronicle, but the sheer wealth of material at the community-run Kete Horowhenua is bloody impressive.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report

  • Hard News: Rain on his parade,

    No, Grant's a Pauline Christian. They tend to regard Jesus as a bleeding heart liberal, and the Apostle Paul as the he-man author of the faith.

    Surprising, seeing it has such a girly name.
    I guess the usual bumph about ravening she-bears and prescriptions against lying with thy neighbour's ox must feature large in there somewhere. From Grant's tone of ponderous certitude he seems not so much a muscular as a musclebound Christian.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report

  • Up Front: Not Such a Hard Word After All,

    DPF is a friend of mine but I'll stick to my view that it's a matter of when not if one of his resident psycho-trolls lands him in court.

    In the meantime it's hard to escape the impression that, to borrow Spike Milligan's words, there's a cancer in the public breast, and Mr. Farrar feels that it's his duty to nurture it.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report

  • Hard News: Just marketing to the base,

    By the way, if any of you haven't read Orwell's terrific essay on Dickens, I'd thoroughly recommend it.
    He is all fragments, all details — rotten architecture, but wonderful gargoyles.
    Spot on George, spot on...
    It's online here:
    http://www.orwell.ru/library/reviews/dickens/english/e_chd</quote>


    Ripping good read, big thanks Richard C.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report

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