Field Theory by Hadyn Green

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Field Theory: How's that working out for you? Being clever?

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  • Gareth Ward,

    Given the TV-types what hang around here - does anybody know of the HD broadcast plans for the everyone-but-Sky's? Are MaoriTV and/or 3 are putting the bigger games out on HD? I'm doubting that MaoriTV has the broadcast bandwidth but I'm hoping TV3 are...

    Auckland, NZ • Since Mar 2007 • 1727 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown, in reply to Bart Janssen,

    Some of the preparations have been stupidly over the top, 11 day waka?

    A poorly conceived political jack-up that has done no favours for the RWC organisers or the Auckland Council, which actually had an events plan.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • 3410,

    Debacle hardly seems a strong enough word.

    I don't know. At least it was quick.

    Auckland • Since Jan 2007 • 2618 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown, in reply to Gareth Ward,

    Given the TV-types what hang around here – does anybody know of the HD broadcast plans for the everyone-but-Sky’s? Are MaoriTV and/or 3 are putting the bigger games out on HD? I’m doubting that MaoriTV has the broadcast bandwidth but I’m hoping TV3 are…

    All Sky and TV3 games are in HD and TVNZ and Maori TV will have a mix of HD and SD broadcasts.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Danielle, in reply to 3410,

    Premature, even. (The joke possibilities are practically endless.)

    Charo World. Cuchi-cuchi!… • Since Nov 2006 • 3828 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia, in reply to Russell Brown,

    They’re annoying buggers, people, I’ll grant you that.

    Yeah, people who fan-wank over football games are annoying. You’ll never catch me being an obsessive geek while everyone else shuffles towards the fire exit. No, sir…

    and yachting’s for bores from the Shore –

    Pish-posh you hipster wanker. :) I prefer to think of it as a plausible but flimsy rationale for packing a picnic basket and finding a good spot on North Head. Funny how a blazing summer's day in agreeable company is great Grinch solvent.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Hadyn Green, in reply to Danielle,

    I'm just noting that I find Hadyn's threads a little difficult at the moment.

    Next one is all about the tournament itself, no isms of either stripe: optim or pessim.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2090 posts Report Reply

  • Gareth Ward, in reply to Russell Brown,

    All Sky and TV3 games are in HD and TVNZ and Maori TV will have a mix of HD and SD broadcasts.

    Merci monsieur. Won't be ponying up for Sky Sport then...
    I didn't realise TVNZ were in on that too, so for the big games they'll likely be (at least) five separate channels showing the same game at the same time? Ha.

    Auckland, NZ • Since Mar 2007 • 1727 posts Report Reply

  • Danielle, in reply to Hadyn Green,

    Don't you be too sure: if there's one thing we know how to do, it's digress resentfully.

    Charo World. Cuchi-cuchi!… • Since Nov 2006 • 3828 posts Report Reply

  • BenWilson,

    Is it possible, Gio, that you haven't grasped that the "joyless" advertising is a joke? It's actually NZers poking fun at themselves about taking the RWC seriously. The abstain thing is, too. The entire idea, so far as I can see, is to make us have threads like this, which are all about the rugby. The fact that it's totally silly is the point. Self-deprecating irony is a long suit in NZ humor. If you have something funnier to contribute, please do. I very much doubt we're actually expected to abstain from sex. The point is to get us talking about rugby, and sex, thereby conflating thoughts about rugby to heights in our minds that are generally only occupied by things like sex. Which is hardly ever going to work on Islander, who has said many times that sex never enters her head at all. It's not going to work on you, because you don't like rugby and don't get the joke. But it is going to work on hundreds of thousands of fans.

    It's deliberate self-mocking hyperbole. OK? I hate explaining jokes, it makes me sound German, and robs them of any humor they had left, but sometimes people don't get it.

    Personally, I don't actually give a shit about this ad campaign, nor any of the other promotional stuff. I don't ever take advertising seriously. It might make for a few weak laughs and a bit of ice-breaking with foreign crowds getting stuck into any black ring they see. If they do, the main point of it, is that they're thinking of kiwis as sexual beings rather than bitter sporting enemies, and that's all good, because we actually are. Nothing more serious than that, really. I don't actually care that rugby has become commercialized, because it was never a sacred cow to me in the first place. I don't care that Dan Carter can frequently be seen in his underpants on billboards, nor do I really think that's why we keep losing the World Cup. He's still IMHO the best rugby player in the world, however much he might be selling undies to girls and gays.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 10657 posts Report Reply

  • Tom Beard, in reply to Russell Brown,

    As I noted over at my place a couple of weeks ago, I can’t help but think if this tournament were for anything other than rugby, public sentiment would be very different.

    Then again, I can't think of any other sport that has so starkly divided the country into urban liberals and rural racists, that has enabled people to beat the crap out of (or at least sneer "whaddarya?!" to) anyone who would rather play another sport, that has perpetuated a tiresome parochial rivalry among the otherwise vanished concept of "provinces", and that has erased the existence of non-fans by telling us that we're all part of a "stadium of four million".

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 1040 posts Report Reply

  • Hadyn Green,

    Possibly the most controversial comment posted in this thread: Yachting is totally a sport.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2090 posts Report Reply

  • giovanni tiso, in reply to Russell Brown,

    But we've sort of slid from complaining about corporate sponsors to, well, people. They're annoying buggers, people, I'll grant you that.

    But these annoying individuals live in the country that is selling the bollocks cultural nationalism and the stadium of four million rhetoric along with the sporting event. Your endless complaining that people should stop being grumpy is exactly the same thing as the stares that Tom gets at work. This thing is huge and is monopolising the country's attention and resources for a very significant amount of time. You actually want some people to be against it, surely, for the whole idea to have its critics. Or do we need to become nineteen-sixties Bulgaria for you to be able to enjoy yourself?

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report Reply

  • Rich Lock, in reply to Danielle,

    Of course you’re bringing the joylessness yourself. They’re your feelings! I don’t understand your point.

    There's possibly a certain amount of 'with us or against us' vibe to some of the promotion.

    I'm actually mildly excited about the fireworks, though. First time for fireworks for my daughter, and I'll keep her up and climb Mt Vic for a good view. The rest of the tournament? Well, I hope everyone enjoys it, but I'm not too bothered. Unless England start winning, in which case I've always loved rugby, wonderful game, long time fan, so evocative, the sound of leather on willow...

    Telecom scraps no sex RWC campaign

    What a waste of a good fistmobile.

    back in the mother countr… • Since Feb 2007 • 2728 posts Report Reply

  • Megan Wegan, in reply to Hadyn Green,

    Possibly the most controversial comment posted in this thread: Yachting is totally a sport.

    I have fought with you over this before. Let's not start again. (or, let's because then I won't be forced to apologise for rugby yet again.)

    Welly • Since Jul 2008 • 1275 posts Report Reply

  • BenWilson, in reply to Russell Brown,

    I thought the red socks thing was annoying bullshit, and yachting’s for bores from the Shore

    My thoughts exactly. But just like you, I liked it when the tournament was here, it made a buzz that Auckland sorely lacks in it's fucking dire nightlife. The fact that it justified a transformation of our waterfront seemed like a good flow on benefit - we now have another facility in the city, one that I've used many times. It will be part of Auckland forever, now.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 10657 posts Report Reply

  • BenWilson, in reply to Craig Ranapia,

    Funny how a blazing summer's day in agreeable company is great Grinch solvent.

    Yes! Totally. I stopped being po-faced about horse racing after my first Melbourne Cup. It's not about the stupid gambling. It's about the hats, and the hotties under them. And carousing. Most people only gamble in a sweep anyway, so the odds are fair, unless it's for some minor cause, in which case I always just wrote the money off as a contribution.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 10657 posts Report Reply

  • giovanni tiso, in reply to BenWilson,

    Is it possible, Gio, that you haven't grasped that the "joyless" advertising is a joke? It's actually NZers poking fun at themselves about taking the RWC seriously.

    No. Just no. It is screaming that it's what it's doing, but it doesn't achieve it because under the thin veneer of the joke it actually takes the proposition seriously.

    The joke you are describing was actually made once, in the film Old Scores. And there it worked.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report Reply

  • Megan Wegan, in reply to Tom Beard,

    Hey, both Danielle and I have acknowledged that there are problems inherent in the culture of rugby, particularly gendered ones. No one is arguing that.

    But there are any number of people who enjoy watching rugby, who like going to games, who think Daniel Carter has delicious cheekbones, who don't participate in those aspects of the game.

    We're not asking you to forget those things. We're not asking you to participate, or even have fun - and those people in you office can piss off, and you should tell them so.

    What I, at least, am asking, is to be allowed to have my fun, without being told on a pretty regular basis, that the RWC is A Problem and Here's Why.

    Huh. Well, I guess what this conversation has managed to do is turn me from someone who didn't much care into someone who really, really does.

    Welly • Since Jul 2008 • 1275 posts Report Reply

  • Hadyn Green, in reply to Megan Wegan,

    I have fought with you over this before.

    I'll go you one better, mountain climbing isn't a sport (hence Ed Hilary is not a sportsman).

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2090 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia, in reply to Tom Beard,

    Then again, I can’t think of any other sport that has so starkly divided the country into urban liberals and rural racists…

    By urban liberal "creatives" who work for fashionable ad shops? Sorry, not trolling for a fight but it needed to be said.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Megan Wegan, in reply to Hadyn Green,

    I’ll go you one better, mountain climbing isn’t a sport (hence Ed Hilary is not a sportsman).

    Wait, you don't think yachting is a sport either? Maybe we haven't fought about this.

    Welly • Since Jul 2008 • 1275 posts Report Reply

  • Danielle, in reply to Rich Lock,

    There’s possibly a certain amount of ‘with us or against us’ vibe to some of the promotion.

    OK, I have had a belated brainwave: maybe this is my problem. Because I work from home, and I have MySky on *both* televisions, and don’t get the paper, and my son is one year old, and our house is more of a shrine to American sports because of my American husband, the only RWC-esque stuff I’m really engaging with is here, blogs, and FB/Twitter. So let’s just say that the people I tend to associate with online are, by and large, really anti-sport in general and rugby in particular. So it can, to someone in my position, feel a bit like ‘you are an absolute idiot for liking sport and, additionally, this is one of the shittiest things to happen in New Zealand ever’. Now, that’s probably not the general NZ vibe at all, so I am obviously approaching things from a not-very-objective perspective.

    It’s about the hats

    Ben, in life, it's *always* about the hats.

    Charo World. Cuchi-cuchi!… • Since Nov 2006 • 3828 posts Report Reply

  • giovanni tiso,

    Mountain yachting, OTOH: totally a sport.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown, in reply to giovanni tiso,

    Your endless complaining that people should stop being grumpy is exactly the same thing as the stares that Tom gets at work.

    What got me yesterday was observing online that, Telecom debacle notwithstanding, I was looking forward to seeing all the visitors in town -- and then having a series of apparently rational people queue up to tell me how many more people go to a book show in Germany or an air show in America or a market in Thailand.

    Just ... why? Why was everyone so eager to put me in my place? If there was a Cultural Cringe World Cup I think we'd be favorites for that too.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

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