Posts by James Butler
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(FFS, David: if you really want to raise the tone of your comments, don't fanny about giving "20 demerit points". Just ban these people.)
That would be prescriptive nanny-blogism.
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Speaker: How to Look Good as a Nazi,
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I would have got three other guys and gone as Kraftwerk.
Two mannequins with laptops would be enough.
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Up Front: Get Your Hand Off It,
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A nice analysis of some of the (socio-political) issues with To Kill A Mockingbird
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Hard News: Invasion of the pagan matrons,
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AFAIK, there's been no use of the word "quadrant" in any official Wellington tourism marketing, so it might just be Russell's coinage.
It was, entirely. It just seemed the appropriate word for the small area we traversed.
Well, I guess that's allowable.
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Hard News: Invasion of the pagan matrons,
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@Tom:
My main beef with 'Quarter' is not that it's unoriginal or pretentious, but that (in Wellington's case) rather than being preexisting common usage of the inhabitants, it was entirely a product of marketing types wanting something to write on silly signs (literary types - help me out here, surely there's a word for that? And a German word for the particular kind of foolishness involved in trying to pretend otherwise?). I would more impressed if they had named the quarters by their usage - Hipster Quarter, Yuppie Quarter, Bureaucrat Quarter etc.Left Bank is one of the least pretentious places in Wellington, and is probably more Cuba St than Cuba St itself these days.
I don't dispute that, and at Satay Kingdom your delicious, cheap meal is usually ready before you've sat down.
"The bits around Cuba Street"?
This one.
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Hard News: Invasion of the pagan matrons,
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the heart of the Cuba quadrant
Oh puh-lease... when I last lived in WN the council were trying to pretend it was Paris (Left Bank anyone?) with their "Lambton Quarter" "Cuba Quarter" signs etc... and now they want us to believe it's Westminster?
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Hard News: Bowie for the BDO?,
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No-one's mentioned Fidel's yet?
Last time I was back in WN Fidels was a disappointment. Maybe it's just my rose-tinted nostalgia, but when I used to go there in my school lunchtime the coffee was consistently amongst the best around... now, not so much. I think Havana beans are still pretty good, so it must be the baristas. Kids now days, jeez.
Mind you, kudos to them and Midnight Espresso for resisting the urge to redecorate.
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Hard News: Bowie for the BDO?,
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I'm not going to post a link, but the best song about technology ever is clearly every track on Computer World.
Also +1 Floriditas - nice crockery too.
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Up Front: Actors Don't Hunt in Packs,
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This reminds me that the Shakespeare Club at my high school, they were the smartest and (secretly) filthiest kids.
LOL I remember a friend of mine whose parents didn't usually let her go to parties - but Shakespeare Society parties were considered OK. I don't think they ever clicked.
Also, +1 for loving acting at school but being bad at it - although I did have a reasonable gift for remembering screeds of lines and regurgitating them slowly and clearly, which is often handy in Shakespeare.
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Up Front: Actors Don't Hunt in Packs,
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I was eight, I think, when I appeared on stage for the first time – a tiny cameo in The Visit. I don't remember much about the play, except an air of grim creepiness and a sound effect of a panther which I might be imagining.
Do you have an unexplained deep-seated aversion to yellow shoes by any chance?