I've mentioned several times here the New Zealand response to the Lily Allen 'Fuck You' YouTube meme. We showed a rough cut at the last Great Blend, and we only had time for a short look at the finished clip on Media7 last night, but here it is on YouTube, in all its gay, gay glory:
The link is here
Onya Anne, Tess and James -- and everyone in the video. Much love.
Speaking of Media7 last night -- it's online for viewing. First up is Tim Pankhurst talking about the police attempt to make John Campbell and his colleagues give up the identity of the so-called medal thief. Then it's a panel on disability and the media with Curtis Palmer from Attitude, Sacha Dylan from hereabouts, and the sparkling Sally Wenley (also, a few soundbites from Philip Patston). And then it's strong language in the media with Pam Corkery, James Griffin and Bill Hastings. We swear a lot.
Look out also for a nice report by Simon Pound about Sticky Pictures.
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Issue 2 of Gordon Campbell's excellent webzine, Werewolf, is out now. The feature is an interesting interview with Phil Goff, Transformer.
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Back in the early 90s, we ran a very lengthy interview with Camille Paglia in Planet magazine, in which she said things like "Post-modernism is nothing but a bunch of depressive, mediocre, bullshit artists saying that they can't make an artwork," and, "Australian men are very macho, they're very athletic, they're very beautiful. They have a cult there, of manhood, because Australia and New Zealand are frontier countries …" and "I used to dream about my cars. The car is the ultimate symbol to be of human freedom."
Back then, all the cool kids were hanging on Paglia's every word. These days … not so much. Indeed, the only real reason you'd read Paglia's columns on Salon is to see her get merrily taken to bits by Salon readers. Their letters are funny as hell; her columns are sometimes spectacularly dumb.
Her most recent effort is dedicated to Sarah Palin, working-class hero, and incorporates sycophantic "letters" from fans, real or imaginary. The actual Salon reader letters are here.
As a bonus, here's the famous 1993 Julie Burchill-Paglia "fax war", in which Paglia comes off as humourless and smug, and Burchill signs off with the immortal:
Dear Professor Paglia,
Fuck off you crazy old dyke.
Always,
Julie Burchill
Always loved that.
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We have a download for you. b-Net listeners may have heard 'Kingmaker', the first single from Come Howling, the debut album of Wellington seven-piece The Family Cactus. It's a great song, and for the next week or so, you can grab it here, as a 13MB MP3 file. (Right-click to download.)
The album itself is out on Monday, and the band are playing as follows:
SATURDAY 18TH JULY – Wellington BODEGA with Dimmer
FRI 24TH JULY – Auckland LEIGH SAWMILL with The Sing Songs and Special Guests
SAT 25TH JULY - Auckland BACCO ROOM with The Sing Songs and Special Guests
FRIDAY 14TH AUGUST – Christchurch GOODBYE BLUE MONDAY with The Eastern and Undercurrents
FRIDAY 21ST AUGUST – Wellington – SAN FRANCICSO BATH HOUSE with Dictaphone Blues and The Sing Songs
I am now going to ride my new bicycle. Yay. Have a good weekend all.