Hard News: Mercury Special
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3410,
Gil Scott Heron has died
May I highly recommend this set.
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Publisher and friend Jamie Byng who wrote a recent Guardian story on Gil Scott-Heron is the only source so far, via Twitter.
Gil Scott-Heron's death is NOT a rumour. I just called by Dorothy who is staying with Aunt Mimi in NY to tell me the news. I'm so sad.
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Russell Brown, in reply to
May I highly recommend this set.
Thank you!
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This perhaps needs a repost too:
Full screen required
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In the end, the revolution never got televised. It's going online instead.
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Coming up shortly (after a piece on Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" album), Radio NZ National talks to Dan Charnas about his book, "The Big Payback: The History of the Business of Hip-Hop".
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So, so sad to hear of Gil Scott-Heron's death - he was a hero of mine,.
Whoever made the photo montage to "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" was too young to know who "Julia" refers to in the song.
The "Julia" Gil Scott-Heron was referring to was this:
Though Julia is now remembered as being groundbreaking, while on the air, it was derided by critics for being apolitical and unrealistic. Diahann Carroll remarked in 1968, "At the moment we're presenting the white Negro. And he has very little Negroness." [2] The Saturday Review's Robert Lewis Shayon wrote that Julia's "plush, suburban setting" was "a far, far cry from the bitter realities of Negro life in the urban ghetto, the pit of America's explosion potential." [3] Ebony published a somewhat more supportive assessment of the program. "As a slice of Black America, Julia does not explode on the TV screen with the impact of a ghetto riot. It is not that kind of show. Since the networks have had a rash of shows dealing with the nation's racial problems, the light-hearted Julia provides welcome relief, if, indeed, relief is even acceptable in these troubled times." [4] The series also came under criticism from African-American viewers for its depiction of a fatherless Black family. Excluding a Black male lead, it was argued, "rendered the series safer" and "less likely to grapple with issues that might upset white viewers."
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Very sad. I'm new here.
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Just went in and did some trades at Real Groovy. Picked up a very tidy 2nd-hand 12" of Gil's 'Re-Ron' for 10 bucks. Seemed very right.
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I bought I'm New Here and Winter In America in the HMV in Hong Kong a short while back.
They were in the Easy Listening section.....
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Russell Brown, in reply to
I bought I'm New Here and Winter In America in the HMV in Hong Kong a short while back.
I grabbed the 'Live at the Bottom Line' MP3 that 3410 linked to above, too. It's great.
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Possibly not safe for work:
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Sacha, in reply to
Possibly not safe for work
Ja
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Here's a curiousity. In 1980, Auckland University fine arts student Justin Keen designed, built and operated a campus TV station for Orientation.
OMG! Orientation1980! I was there, a fresh-faced Stage I, and at the Toy Love gig!
Thanks for the memory - terrible to think it is so long ago though.I love how articulate the students are in the interviews. "Did you like the film?" "It was OK". "Did you enjoy yourself?" "Oh Yeah". "Will you see any more of these films?" "I guess".
David Merritt as Vitalstatistix
That's a name I haven't heard in a long time. He used to do an amazing Fred Dagg impersonation too (especially the weather forecast sketch).
Another obit: Yvonne du Fresne, one of our best and most underrated novelists. Wrote wonderfully about the experiences of Scandanavian immigrants in the Manawatu. Can recommend "Motherland" to those who haven't read it
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The Standing in Silence show was pretty magical last night -- I don't think I've seen anything like it before.
And, oh my, that Mercury Theatre is nice. What's the deal there? It was a base for Equippers church for a long time, and they seem to have looked after it well. Who manages it now?
Were the downstairs seats removed for the recent Fat Freddy's Drop show? And has the seat pitch in the venue always been like that? I don't have long legs, and yet I couldn't sit with my knees together -- there wasn't enough room between my seat and the one in front.
But still ... I'm very glad to see this venue return to public use and be available for gigs. Mikee Tucker literally had to bring in a bar for the show, but that worked fine. Yay.
PS: What is the deal with the public car park off Cross Street behind K Road? It's bizarre. After taking a ticket and driving in, we had to search around for a pay stations. When we found one on the ground floor, it had the usual instructions about pressing the button to select Prepay -- but no Prepay was actually available and the machine kept trying to charge us for the 5 minutes we'd been in the building.
And then there was the issue of how long we could leave the car there. One sign said the car park closed at 10pm. Another puzzled punter said he'd seen a sign saying 9pm. Near the exit, one chalkboard sign said "This car park will be closed and secured at 11pm" -- and 10pm on the other side. One guy said the bloke at the bar round the corner told him to ignore the signs -- the place was actually open all night.
Although we were running a bit late, we decided we shouldn't risk being locked in. So I went back up two floors to get the car and bring it down to the exit. As I got down I realised that I still hadn't paid the dollar owing on the parking ticket. But it didn't matter -- because there were no barriers and the exits were wide open anyway.
WTF?
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Ken Sparks, in reply to
We had our car locked in overnight at that carpark whilst at the Fat Freddy's Drop show (excellent I thought but couldn't they do with a drummer?). There were a few other disgruntled punters around but it was a fine night and we just walked home. There was a $9 fee to pay to get out the next morning - but it seems to be a very user unfriendly operation.
I loved being back in the Mercury Theatre again - it's such a great venue but could obviously do with some sensitive refurbishment. Didn't think the seats were a problem - mind you we weren't sitting down for long. -
Sacha, in reply to
One sign said the car park closed at 10pm.
Because there's no nightlife around there, eh
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Jackie Clark, in reply to
Hamish's pronouncement was that it was the best concert by a NZer he has ever seen. Which went then into his "NZ is a cultural wasteland these days. The arts are dying here. The artists who make it don't take government money. The whole funding mechanism is broken down" etc. Believe me, this argument went on ALL DAY.
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Russell Brown, in reply to
Hamish's pronouncement was that it was the best concert by a NZer he has ever seen. Which went then into his "NZ is a cultural wasteland these days. The arts are dying here. The artists who make it don't take government money. The whole funding mechanism is broken down" etc. Believe me, this argument went on ALL DAY.
Rhian's had $15,000 in video funding and been on three hit discs, but basically is the kind of artist who can pay the bills with film and commercial work. Note his extensive experience there.
Not everyone has the skills or makes the kind of music to be able to do that. There's no shame in getting a little help from NZ On Air, at all.
Let's look at Ladi6 -- who won a Pacific Music Award last night and the Taite Music Prize last month, and is playing shows across Europe. She's had two rounds of album funding plus several videos, hit discs, etc. Funding has no bearing on the quality of her work.
Feel free to use this in arguments with Hamish.
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Ian Dalziel, in reply to
Lars Out Loud
everyone loves a Trier... -
Jackie Clark, in reply to
I knew you'd know all that! Ta xx
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Sacha, in reply to
Is Hamish based in NZ or the UK at moment?
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