Why did it have to be Moet? Couldn't Dean Barker and his crew have squirted each other with a good New Zealand bubbly? The Pelorus, perhaps? Or even the Deutz. There's loads of that to go around, and I'm sure it would have got them every bit as wet and sticky as that French muck.
Still, it's all on now - by which I mean we can all now set about pretending to (a) understand, and (b) give a crap about yachting. At least until they lose the final, at which time the talkback radio hordes will doubtless find several angles for bitter recrimination.
If they (sorry, "we") win, we can look forward to endless media storms involving whoever happens to be the relevant minister, the Auckland City Council and everyone who doesn't live in Auckland. The problem, of course, is that most of the space that was devoted to team facilities at the two Auckland regattas has now been built over with apartment buildings for rich wankers.
It does rather bemuse me that everyone was all in fits about the proposed waterfront stadium, when at the other end of the waterfront, the public has been shut out from its harbour by what amounts to a six-storey wall, and no one's made a peep. Ditto, in fact, most of the way down Quay Street, and of, course, amid the nouveau canyons that sit where the vegetable markets used to be.
The next public-spirited architect who proposes a "residential mix" for Auckland's waterfront can piss off. Building swanky apartments for your mates kills public space. Bah.
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Anyway, the lovely folk at WFMU
are reminding the people about Look Blue Go Purple. They have a couple of clips and a link to a live version of their Buffy St Marie cover 'Codeine', which I've put in OurTube.
Also in OurTube, the (literally) steamy clip for Sharon O'Neill's 'Asian Paradise', and, seeing as we had the Anika cover, the Mint Chicks' 'Crazy? Yes! Dumb? No!'.
The tireless Simon Grigg has published a singles catalogue for the Pagan and Antenna labels, with track notes by Trevor Reekie himself. Nice.
Matt Cooney at Idealog has a quirky selection of YouTube clips to accompany his story on the new reality of television.
Greg Taylor directed me to this interesting report on something I looked at last year with Steven Price: the distinct philosophical differences in the way the internet is regulated and legislated in Australia and New Zealand respectively. Guess where you’d rather be.
And there are some new podcast posts from Public Address Radio, including Ryan Hutchings' report from Goa, chats with Toa Fraser and Don McGlashan about their new collaboration, and Craig Ranapia on gods and monsters.
Okay, seeing as the productive work isn't going very well, I might have to see if I can think of something witty for NZBC's most excellent discussion of proverbs for the new century. Stephen Straford is currently setting the pace:
A friend in need is to be avoided.
Marry in Hastings, repent at leisure.
A man is known by how many friends he has on MySpace.
After a storm comes the insurance claim.
It never rains in Australia but it pours in Auckland.
The grass is always greener in Coromandel.
There's no fool like Garth George.
Heh. Have a nice weekend.