Posts by Graham Reid
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Speaker: Key: Concession Not Recession,
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RE: "I also don’t need you to issue general baggings to the PAS community" . . .
You are absolutely right and I am wrong. I withdraw and unreservedly apologise. Seriously. -
Speaker: Key: Concession Not Recession,
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One of the more personally amusing benefits of writing a piece like this (and yes, I was That Guy) is I get to sit back and watch. As Russell noted in his earlier piece about satire and how my columns had been received by Herald readers, some people Just Don't Get It.
I had credited PA readers with more humour/sense/wit etc.
But look back at this thread: humourless prats; willfully divisive agenda-advancing commentators; people who cannot spell; digression writers out for their own purpose; human canines who can't let an old bone go . . .
Jeez, I gotta (sp?) do this more often.
You guys are so much funnier than I was, or those mad-whacker callers to talkback.
Back at ya (sp?) soon. Maybe. (Fish/barrel, interesting though?)
BUT . . . this "Labour Party" we have . . . hmmm . . . ho ho ho -
Hard News: Friday Music: Scary Young,
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I did go to the Apra event and aside from some fine interpretations, a high point was Don McGlashan's uplifting but also politically barbed speech. An important message at this time. With his permission I have put it up at Elsewhere: http://www.elsewhere.co.nz/othervoicesotherrooms/
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Random Play: Police. Security. Screams.…,
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Relax Russell, it wasn't you. I didn't hear your similar comment, the one I heard was delivered with a sniff of derision by some woman. Context is all.
And I agree Tom: I constantly remind people who dump on Britney etc that I really have no opinion because she doesn't make music for me. Nor do the feelers -- but I don't want them to cease to exist. They are there for the pleasure of others.
As long as no one puts a gun to my head and says "you should listen to this" (as the alt.people are wont to do) or makes out some kind of music is morally superior to another (and don't classical folks just presume that?!) then we should just let a thousand styles and artists flourish.
Young Master Bieber will not trouble me. But I love to see people --- of whatever age -- enjoy whatever their music is.
Wilco were terrific by the way!
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Random Play: Life in the other lane,
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Good news! About two weeks ago I filled out a lot of paperwork to become a vendor to Whitcoulls and never heard any more about it. I gave up. It had been hard enough to get to that point.
But this very day I have heard back from a woman there wanting to know some small detail (was it the e-mail I sent the other day, or the PA posting I wonder?) and so maybe we could get copies there sometime soon.
I guess I now have to get into that whole sale-or-return thing -- although if I can find the right person there I might mention that my previous book also won their Whitcoulls Travel Book of the Year so maybe we could give this baby a bit of a push -- and maybe even a window display? (ho ho ho)
Lee Childs doesn't need to sell many more books, does he?
Book sellers . . . I am available for in-stores and have a nice line of jokes. And I can read my own words with expression and clarity.
It is a struggle getting interest (let alone the damn thing reviewed). I have approached some book shops directly and they simply don't get back in touch.
Andrew at Dymock's on Ponsonby Rd is noble exception.
I commend him and his store to you. He is an absolute gentleman and has been very supportive. -
Speaker: Towards a realistic drug policy,
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Apropos of this discussion, some of you may like to see what i wrote for the Herald a decade ago when decriminalisation was the issue.
I've posted it at www.elsewhere.co.nz/culturalelsewhere.
There are some oddball internal links too -- and the music track I've posted is kinda cool. -
Random Play: Goodbye to all that,
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You really are reading my book Sofie! Cool.
Yes, I agree it does depend on when you go to a place. For the benefit of the rest of you who don't know what we are talking about, I went to Brunei . . . during Ramadan. Different vibe -- but any place where you can't get a drink and sit and chat with people is kinda tough.
And the movie that Sofie mentions?
I went to a film to fill in time because I was bored witless and was the only person in the 500 seat cinema. Weird.And keep reading Sofie -- that long title story at the end might throw some perspective on what is happening in Australia right now with Mary MacKillop being hailed as a native saint.
Happier new year everyone.
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Random Play: Don’t Fall off The Mountain,
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Yes Grace and other folks, that is how you subscribe through the lin provided. Just fill in a few details and that be it. Done.
Just about to do the competition/giveaway for subscribers: concert tickets, a pack of CD and DVDs etc etc.
If you ain't in you can't win.
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Random Play: “Thank you, you’ve been a…,
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At a Sweetwaters, the second I think, I saw a guy asleep in one of the speaker cabinets at the side of the stage.
Anyone know who that profoundly stupid and possibly deaf guy might have been?
I worked in a t-shirt stall at the Tom Petty-Bob Dylan gig at Mt Smart back in the day. I was with a young girl and we were taking $20 notes hand over fist while Mongrel Mob and Highway 61 guys glowered at us and said, "Gizzus a t-shirt bro'."
When I made light of it and said "Oh mate, the boss'd kill me" they just stood around glowering and wathcing me shove literally hundreds of dollars into the front pouch of a toolbelt. (A sporran?)
It was terrfiying -- but mercifully most were so out of it they crashed right there.
I was watching the gate and people were guzzling their bottles of Jack, then coming in and falling over immediately. The police were simply lining up the bodies along the fence.
I'm too Scottish to pay for a ticket then miss the show. Although when the Powerstation had to start closing early I twice went at the appropriate rock'n'roll hour of around 11pm in time to hear "Thank you . . . and good night".
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Busytown: A turn-up for the books,
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I concede I have yet to read the book, but this explanation after the fact seems like one of those "bullshit baffles brains" exercises. We are not to know and will never know what that first draft was, but the apology seemed disingenuous and this account even more so.
He is inviting us to think he is being pilloried for being courageous enough to be trying a new kind of historical fiction.
I am still thinking of that lovely scene in I'm Alan Partridge where Alan goes to see his autobiography being pulped.
Will Witi be "Bouncing Back" like Alan?
Will he, like Alan, be able to write, "needless to say, I had the last laugh".
Ah-ha!