Posts by Grant McDougall
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Jolisa, I hit 40 last Sunday, so I have considerable sympathy for your predicament. Like you, I also found myself pondering the big "what the hell am I doing with my life ?" stuff.
Regarding my age, rather than saying I'm older than I am, I'm often lucky enough to have people think I'm still somewhat younger. However, the notable emergence of grey hairs around the sidies has made this somewhat less of an occurence. :(
However, I took considerable solace from a story that was all over the media last week. According to that bastion of cutting edge journalism, Cosmopolitian, the hottest men in the world are all over 40.
Unfortunately, this has yet to result in a queue of nubile, stunningly attractive, young women at my front door, seeking to have their wicked way with me. But I'm sure it'll happen any day soon... ;)
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Excuse my ignorance, but what actually is a "robocall" ? I assume it's an automatically-generated phone call that indiscriminately rings loads of people and recites dodgy messages to whoever answers ?
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Ah....Mr Tony Murdoch, who used to be in a killer band called Marching Orders. Grant and I mused over him back here..
An amazing individual. I could tell you stories about him that would make your eye-balls explode. It's thanks to him that I'm the music junkie I am. In Gisborne, back in the late '70s to mid-'80s, Tony had a msuic shop called Vibes and as an impressionable teenager that's where I first started to buy music. As Pete alludes to, he was superb at pointing people in the right direction.
After literally almost being beaten to death by a Mongrel Mob associate in mid-'84, Tony left for Wellington and hasn't looked back. He opened up Soul Mine in Kilbirnie and flourished. He one told me he makes more money in Wellington in a day than he made in Gisborne in a week.
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Also, for Chris Hart to blame the demise on down-loading, JB Hi-Fi, The Warehouse, etc, is rubbish.
Well, Chris might have a point.
He does, but down-loading and competition are red herrings. By his own admission it's the bad foreign exchange deal (read "umpteen container loads of crap) that's landed them in trouble.
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I shed no tears for Real Groovy's demise, they shot themselves in the foot and the gangrene spread.
I used to love scoring LPs at the Queen St branch whenever I visited Auckland. But they really made a hash of things when they took over Echo. I've never heard of Echo "failing". I've never looked at their books obviously, but Dunedin's a small town and I knew loads of people that worked there and didn't hear any gossip to that effect.It got quickly worse when it became Real Groovy. The prices for both new and second-hand stuff jumped up, with some of the s/h prices really getting into the taking-the-piss territory. It's not surprising that a lot of people started calling it "Real Greedy".
If they'd left Echo alone, Dunedin would still have a quality music shop. Now we have nothing. Since Roy Colbert sold Records Records three years ago that shop rapidly became mediocre; obscenely high prices, a terminally dire selection and offering "credit" instead of cash.
Also, for Chris Hart to blame the demise on down-loading, JB Hi-Fi, The Warehouse, etc, is rubbish. Down-loading and The Warehouse were around long before they made the ludicrous decision to splash out on 572 container loads of bloody Rumours LPs and delude themselves they would instantly sell at $8 each. Next joke.
I can but hope that either - or preferably both - Borders or JB Hi-Fi open in Dunedin before too long.
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@ Stewart and Rachel: Hey, don't take it too seriously, I'm a big fan of the Rolling Stones, The Fall and Julian Cope myself.
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John Key's just said he'll form a "razor gang" to slash bureaucracy.
Christ on a bloody bike, could he not think of a more dumb-arse expression to use ?Is he unaware that when the Bolger govt was elected, the likes of Jenny Shipley, Bill Birch, Simon Upton, etc, were the "razor gang" then and slashed social welfare, health, housing, this, that and the next thing. And what did it achieve ? Sod all, apart from misery.
You can bet that Labour will immediately react to that comment by saying "We all know what happened last time National had a 'razor gang'...".
If Key wants to reduce spending on bureaucracy (and our civil service is a very small amount of govt spending compared to other OECD countries), well, he's free to aedvocate it.
But to phrase it that way is just stupid and plays into Labour's hands.
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Michael Cullen's stepchildren
Craig, it is a little known fact, but Michael Cullen actually has one child of his own, a son (presumably an adult now). I've no idea if he actually has any step-children.
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What I want to know is whether John Key will actually address the students in Dunedin in an address-type situation- usually he just does the "speak to the marketing students/first year pol sci students" thing.
According to Critic he's not appearing on campus. I briefly spoke to the ODT's political writer, Dene McKenzie, before Clark's appearance and he said that while Key's in Dunedin on Thursday, the media won't know his actual schedule until that morning.
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Grant McDougall was inside when I walked past earlier, hopefully he'll report.
Oooh, if I must...it's interesting that the commentators are saying that Labour's more energetic as the campaign begins. I saw Clark speak at Otago Uni in 2005 as well and she seemed very robotic and blandly efficient in giving her stump speech. It was lacklustre.
But today, in front of about 1000 people (more than last time), including a few boisterous hecklers from the Alliance, she seemed somewhat more full of beans.
Admittedly speaking to a bunch of (mainly) students in one of Labour's safest electorates is pretty much preaching to the converted.The annoucement on student loans, etc, had the predicted positive response (which, no doubt, was made to ensure it looked good on TV). Then she rattled through various comments on the economy, the Treaty, employment, Iraq, trust, yadda, yadda, yadda; basically all the buzz-words we'll be heartily sick of come Nov 8.
While the student loans announcement is nice, I was more pleased - or more accurately - relieved by the TV ad for Labour I've just seen.
It's like the opening broadcast on Friday: Clark, sitting down, discussing an issue, as the camera pans gently from left to right.
It's nothing amazing, but it's a hell of a lot easier to understand than those appalling, inept, baffling 2005 TV ads of the baby suspended in mid-air and the old biddy booting the rugby ball.Apparently John Key was in my hometown, Gisborne, today and will be in Dunedin on Thursday. I wonder if I'll be able to see him talk here ?