Paths and ways
The Christmas-New Year break is a nice time to ride a bike in Auckland. The weather is starting to come right, there's time for exploring and, crucially, there's a lot less traffic on the roads. ¶ I've been exploring off the…
Recent Posts
Music! That one album
If you know me by now, you'll know that I'm not terribly good at lists and best-ofs. Around this time of year I am generally driven to a mild panic reading the annual rundowns by people who have been interrogating…
Public Address founder "refutes" Word of the Year reports
Public Address founder Russell Brown today angrily denied that "post-truth" was the runaway winner of the site's annual Word of the Year poll. ¶ When it was pointed out to Brown that he had in fact personally announced "post-truth" as the…
2016: The arc of a year
The final episode of From Zero, my RNZ podcast series about New Zealanders and drugs, opens in New York City and concludes back home with the question: why can't we have the conversation we need to have about drug policy?…
Fleeing Syria for the sweatshops of the West
In a subterranean room Yassin upends a 15 litre tin and pours a viscous stream of industrial adhesive into an open container. He is a Syrian refugee in Istanbul. This is his work. ¶ As toxic fumes permeate the cold hue…
World of Food 4: American Samoa
Oka I'a ¶ "Is American Samoa a country?" ¶ "It belongs to the US. It's not part of it, though. And it's on my list." ¶ "To be fair, so is Antarctica." ¶ "But American Samoa has a flag. And it means I get…
The Up Front Guide to Internet Dating
Six months ago, I decided I’d write a column on internet dating. I’d been dating for a couple of years, and boy did I have some Reckons. Still, the people I’d been out with deserved their privacy. What I needed…
Public Address Word of the Year 2016: Now Vote!
It's on! The discussion has been had, the words have been nominated, and now it is time to put them to a vote. I’ve trimmed the list of nominated words and phrases to a manageable size and, as usual, you…
Public Address Word of the Year 2016
It’s that time again: the time to find the Public Address Word of the Year. And it really has been a hell of a year. Last year's top five – Quaxing, Red Peak, Twitterati, Ponytail, Campbell Live – was entirely of domestic…
The new Hep C drugs: fresh hopes and old frustrations
My story on the rollout of the first direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) funded by Pharmac to treat Hepatitis C has been published by Matters of Substance. I filed it a while ago and as journalists do on long lead times, caught…
Friday Music! Digging Doug
When the tales of music are written, they rarely include the people who aren't in the band, but make it all possible. So I'm delighted to see that Audioculture has this week published an article on my old friend Doug…
Greens drug policy 2: the animal testing problem
In an earlier post today, I've looked at what is undoubtedly the headline of the Green Party's new drug and alcohol policy: clear proposals for reform on both medical cannabis and cannabis law in general. But there's more there, including…
The Greens' pretty good new drug policy
The New Zealand Green Party today publishes a new drug and alcohol policy that, among other things, would legalise the possession and cultivation of cannabis for personal use. It also offers a robust take on medical cannabis that could be…
David Shearer: The one that went away
David Shearer, he’s not your usual danger junkie. You’d get Colin Firth to play him, on a good day, or maybe Steve Carroll. Just not Bruce Willis. And yet it turns out Hollywood isn’t like life after all: Shearer has…
World of Food 3: Algeria (Tadjine Djedj b’ Zeitoun)
My friend's mum died this week. Since he told me, I've had the strongest memory of walking into her house a few years back and being hit with the smell of soup on the stove top. That smell that only…
A letter from Aunt Daisy about your archives
Dear Russell,New Zealand's Archive of Film, Television and Sound, Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision is currently considering a proposal to close its offices in Auckland and Christchurch and centralise all its activity in the Wellington region. This includes moving the sound…
From Zero: The Business of Drugs
In 1920, the American federal government amended its constitution to prohibit the production, importation, transportation and sale of alcoholic beverages. What happened subsequently, over the 13 years till repeal, became a case study in the economics of illicit drug markets.…
World of Food 2: Albania (Kime Me Vez)
Ground meat reminds me of arguments. ¶ When I was a kid, the adult arguments I remember were often followed by bolognaise. I'm pretty sure my child brain twisted the memories a bit. There were likely arguments when mince wasn't served,…
Retraction: Three Strikes Five Years On
On September 30 2015, I published a post: The Greg King Memorial Blogpost: Three Strikes Five Years On. ¶ I retract that post. I am grateful to Dominion Post journalist Nikki Macdonald for her story published today looking at three strikes…
Friday Music! Be Square.
Here's some nice news: Auckland Live Summer in the Square is back and every day from now the end of March, there will be stuff happening and places to sit in Aotea Square. The music programme has again been put…
No seclusion in schools!
Note: this statement from the Autistic Collective was published earlier this month but not widely circulated. I'm happy to publish it here because it's important to hear the voices of adult autistic people first-hand, and because it serves an an…
ORCON IRL: How was your year?
"HOW WAS YOUR YEAR?" That's the question we'll put at the final Orcon IRL at Golden Dawn for 2016. ¶ RUSSELL BROWN and CHARLOTTE RYAN will quiz a bunch of people who did stuff about how it all went and the…
From Zero: The Meth Episode
The episode of the From Zero podcast published today looks at the state of things with methamphetamine. It finds a widespread belief that the official statistics – which have meth use at just over 1% of the population, half what it…
Help needed! Deciphering the Plan for High Cost Community Care
Back in June, Hilary Stace contributed a post on Public Address about the miserable existence of Ashley Peacock and the drive to have him released into community based care so he can live a more ordinary life. ¶ The last comment…
Do e-bikes ease traffic congestion? With a little help ...
I wrote a little while ago about how riding an e-bike changed my experience of cycling. I got places more quickly and with less effort than I initially realised, thanks to the electric boost. And that, in turn, influences my…