Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: Modern Lolz

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  • Mark Easterbrook,

    In the good old days, silver bullets killed vampires; right?

    Nope. You're thinking of werewolves and other sundry lycanthropes.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 265 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha,

    Geoff, I love the way True Blood weaves in the racial politics so skillfully.

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • LegBreak,

    Thanks Mark,

    Damn; I was wrong.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 1162 posts Report Reply

  • Geoff Lealand,

    actually an old 1950's song.

    Originally sung by The Four Lads, along with all the other ghastly music my parents used to subject me to on National Radio in the old days (Red Sails in the Sunset; Shrimpboats are Acomin'--Patti Page and other horrors).

    Screen & Media Studies, U… • Since Oct 2007 • 2562 posts Report Reply

  • Geoff Lealand,

    Geoff, I love the way True Blood weaves in the racial politics so skillfully.

    We just luuurvvvv Lafeyette, the very stroppy, gay Black short-order cook.

    Yikes--I better get back to my essay marking!

    Screen & Media Studies, U… • Since Oct 2007 • 2562 posts Report Reply

  • Stuart Coats,

    along with all the other ghastly music my parents used to subject me

    I must be younger, because I got all that folk music from the 60's, like the Chad Mitchell Trio. As so brilliantly stated in A Mighty Wind there was abuse in my family but it was mostly musical in nature

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 192 posts Report Reply

  • Geoff Lealand,

    all that folk music from the 60's, like the Chad Mitchell Trio.

    'Folk' in the sense that they had moving body parts?

    Screen & Media Studies, U… • Since Oct 2007 • 2562 posts Report Reply

  • Kim Sokolich,

    @Stuart
    I should have known that a music encyclopedia such as Alan would put me right. I never checked the writing credits. Please tell me Dr Worm and Birdhouse in Your Soul aren't covers.
    @Gareth
    Your 15 year old daughter has great taste not to like Twilight.
    @Sacha
    True Blood - the best show on the box currently.

    Since Oct 2008 • 47 posts Report Reply

  • Kim Sokolich,

    I mean Geoff. Who's Gareth...?

    Since Oct 2008 • 47 posts Report Reply

  • Lucy Stewart,

    I second that. The love story of Sookie and Bill the Vampire are universes and generations distant from Twilight (which my 15 year old daughter despises). It is all blood, sex, mayhem, sex and, somewhere in there, truly fascinating ideas.

    I've read the original books, though not found time for the show yet. Girl-meets-vampire is practically a subgenre in its own right; I think True Blood is good because it's *aware* of the genre and works with it to, as you say, ask some fascinating and intelligent questions. Twilight thinks it's entirely original. That's its really besetting sin.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2105 posts Report Reply

  • giovanni tiso,

    Geoff, I love the way True Blood weaves in the racial politics so skillfully.

    Please, nobody tell Paul Litterick!

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report Reply

  • Alan Perrott,

    typing of vampires - anyone else tracking this.

    http://dracula-feed.blogspot.com/

    Bram Stoker's throatgnasher done in a blog stylee.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 438 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    Not comedy, Craig, but now you've got me thinking of True Blood. Find any favour?

    It's growing on me, because I've never really been much of a fan of writer Alan Ball. But Anna Paquin seems to have settled on an accent, and I'm just hoping the second season is going to kick True Blood up from being a pleasant enough waste of time to a multiple fun-gasm, a la Chuck and Burn Notice.

    We just luuurvvvv Lafeyette, the very stroppy, gay Black short-order cook.

    Yup, the drug-dealing man-whore gay man of colour. Represent, sistah!

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

  • Kim Sokolich,

    You are right Lucy. It has its own sub-genre. In the book trade it is known as 'Bite 'n' Bonk'. Charlaine Harris is one of the better known proponents and her books sell heaps in the US. Another that sells even more is Laurell K Hamilton's Anita Blake series although they are more bonk than bite lately I've heard. Twilight due to its earlier-pointed-out Mormon author never gets beyond some heavy petting... i've heard...
    Charlaine Harris was somewhat shocked at how explicit True Blood was so she sits somewhere between Hamilton and Meyer in Bite to Bonk scale. Lesson over.

    Since Oct 2008 • 47 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    In the good old days, silver bullets killed vampires; right?

    Well, in some versions of the vampire myth silver was a metal of purity, and therefore could wound or impede their progress. Or not, depending on who's doing the telling.

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

  • Gareth Ward,

    Who's Gareth...?

    I'm still trying to work that out actually...

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

  • Craig Ranapia,

    Charlaine Harris was somewhat shocked at how explicit True Blood was so she sits somewhere between Hamilton and Meyer in Bite to Bonk scale.

    The books are also rather funny, which I like. But remember we're talking about Alan Ball -- the man who brought us Six Feet Under and American Beauty -- who can't walk past creepy sex and obvious statements about the suckitude of the American imperium.

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

  • Sam F,

    Alan: ta! Bookmarked that one.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 1611 posts Report Reply

  • giovanni tiso,

    who can't walk past creepy sex and obvious statements about the suckitude of the American imperium.

    I'll get the popcorn then.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report Reply

  • Kim Sokolich,

    Who's Gareth...?

    I'm still trying to work that out actually...


    LOL - I knew there was one somewhere on these boards.

    Since Oct 2008 • 47 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha,

    Back to the Families Commission, Peter Dunne is not at all happy about Christine Rankin's appointment:

    "She is divisive and controversial and her appointment will be disruptive to the ongoing work of the Commission"

    while Family Fist says it:

    "will bring the Commission ‘down to earth’ and rather than being blinded by ideology, it will hopefully start listening to the voice of families"

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Tom Beard,

    I went and saw Dylan moran on Saturday night. He is on the cutting edge of comedy, and a very funny man.

    I agree he's very funny, though I wouldn't say he's on the "cutting edge". It's pretty conventional stand-up, and some of his grumpy-old-man youth-bashing is a bit predictable, and it's more his persona and delivery that makes him stand out. But stand out he does.

    I thought whilst fresh and funny he wasn't properly prepared for a New Zealand audience and several of his jokes - easily modified for local consumption if he had done his homework - fell flat. Which only goes to show even the very best can struggle to get it right for the full show.

    I saw him on Sunday, and he certainly had a lot of localised content. We all laughed heartliy at his Invercargill jokes, but I wonder whether he tells the same ones in Auckland as Wellington jokes...

    I think that local references can go too far, and we can be a bit scared of overseas content. Granted, I'm still English enough to understand references to Curly Wurlies, but there's a whole lot of recent British comedy that seems never to have aired here AFAIK. I can understand (but not forgive) that the references to obscure back-bench Tory politicians in Have I Got News For You, or clips of Top of the Pops performances from 90s rave one hit wonders on Never Mind The Buzzcocks, might be enough to put off the programmers. But I know enough non-Anglophiles who have wet themselves with uncontrollable laughter over both, so surely they could take a punt. And there's no excuse for not showing Brass Eye or QI, for god's sake.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 1040 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    Back to the Families Commission, Peter Dunne is not at all happy about Christine Rankin's appointment:

    Now that's funny -- considering the squalid Christianist bigots Dunne was willing to bend over and spread his political cheeks for, he's got a flaming fuckload of nerve calling Rankin "divisive".

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

  • Paul Williams,

    I agree he's very funny, though I wouldn't say he's on the "cutting edge". It's pretty conventional stand-up, and some of his grumpy-old-man youth-bashing is a bit predictable, and it's more his persona and delivery that makes him stand out. But stand out he does.

    I'm sorry I missed Moran in Sydney.

    John Clarke is a genius. His NZ roots are not well known on this west side of the Tasman (though there's a good scene in the games where he mutters "go Black" as he wanders past a TV showing a Bledisloe test). My youngest daughter's also very keen on his Hide and Seeky Bird track.

    FWIW, Eddie Izzard - my nomination for international comedian of the year award - is planning on touring Australia, at least, according to his tweets.

    Sydney • Since Nov 2006 • 2273 posts Report Reply

  • Paul Williams,

    Sydney • Since Nov 2006 • 2273 posts Report Reply

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