Posts by Joe Wylie
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Hard News: NZ On Air and the bill that…, in reply to Hilary Stace,
They once publicly objected to Mojo travelling to Masterton to talk on community radio. So the Bill needs to have safeguards against such attacks.
That was one of their earliest outings, from which they rapidly retreated with their trousers on fire.
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Hard News: Friday Music: Aretha and the…, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
Stuff’s cartoonist Tom Scott has perplexed me with his ‘tribute’ to Aretha Franklin.
Why has he chosen to use Milton Glaser’s iconic 'psychedelic Bob Dylan hair' as part of his image-making?Sure Glaser did do a portrait of Aretha but it looks completely different to the Dylan image – why introduce the well known graphic shorthand for Bob Dylan into the exercise? – some lame – or lazy – ’60s reference maybe…
Not a shred of genuine feeling for Aretha or her music in evidence there. Why, ffs? As his John Key-era work demonstrates, Scott never lost his natural-born gift for inspired caricature. Why didn't he employ it in an Aretha tribute? Did he knock something up in a hurry in response to an editorial ask? It's the most generous explanation I can muster for what looks sadly like a senior moment candidate for great Photoshop fails, NZ edition.
Thanks for the Always Running link. A nice cherry on top of one of the richest Friday Music posts yet.
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Hard News: Dilemmas: the drug-driving ad…, in reply to Rob Stowell,
But he's a kinder (and funnier and hipper) bloke than you'll see on TV. At least he used to be.
I don't doubt it, though I had the mildly disconcerting impression a few years back that he was being positioned as a possible successor to the now mostly unlamented Mayor Bob. Back around the time of the wacky white lights of hope, when Chchchians would still vote for anyone who'd been on TV.
Stay classy Jase, just say no.
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Hard News: On joining the international…, in reply to BenWilson,
We make excuses after the fact for things we did not make efforts with at the time, trying to blame teachers and the education system for not forcing the knowledge into our unwilling brains. This goes as much for any attempt to teach “life skills” as any subject. From memory, when I was in high school (the 80s)...
In the late 80s there was a follow-up program for those diagnosed with cognitive disabilities who'd left school the year before. Former "special class" kids spent two weeks at Carrington Tech learning how to decipher supermarket specials, operate a bank account, and maybe plan towards getting a driver's license.
A touch of campus life called for a wardrobe upgrade, so it was off to The Warehouse, where the prize score was a sweatshirt proudly emblazoned with UNIVERSITY OF PARIS, SORBONNE. And why the hell not? It's all tertiary education, after all.
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Hard News: Dilemmas: the drug-driving ad…, in reply to Pete,
I think it is quite rational that someone would want to hit Jason Gunn, he has a very smackable face
Jase wouldn't mind, as long as he was on TV.
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Hard News: On joining the international…, in reply to BenWilson,
...this tedious old fool.
Anyone who believes that Brash is in any way his own man has to be compensating for some kind of trauma, such as the shock of discovering that one was deceived over the existence of Santa Claus in childhood.
From having his keyboard hand guided by John "Kiwi-Iwi" Ansell when "posting" in Kiwiblog's comments, through delivering a speech ghost-written by Michael Bassett, it's only ever a question of which team he's currently taking one for. You could count the genuine public intellectuals in this country on the fingers of one hand, though there's no lack of preening crackpots. Brash is a crackpot's crackpot.
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Hard News: Dilemmas: the drug-driving ad…, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
...but only because he is a 'useful idiot'!
I thought they were playing that angle for laughs, especially when Jason Gunn popped up. Perhaps they should eliminate any ambiguity by replacing him with Don Brash.
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Hard News: On joining the international…, in reply to Moz,
Joe, I don't understand your point. You ask for examples of leaving it to someone else not working, the provide an example of direct action working. Or do you mean that the great majority of people left it to someone else and got a good outcome anyway?
The latter. I took your mention of "leaving it to someone else" to mean resolving local race relations issues. I clearly remember He Taua's attack on the haka party as an event of real significance, and my feelings now are the same as they were then - came the bloody dawn. I think it's a prime example of Maori succeeding in the absence of overt Pakeha goodwill.
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Hard News: On joining the international…, in reply to Moz,
Leaving it to someone else has historically not worked out well with this particular politics.
Examples? Consider He Taua's decisive action to rid NZ once and for all of the abomination of racist 'haka parties'. In that case those affected acted directly where decades of polite overtures had been met with contempt, and we're a better country for their having done so.
The outpouring of preening pomposity from the likes of Garner, Trotter and Watkin in response to a pair of cynical provocateurs bait-wrapping their racist schtick as "freedom of speech" has been a weird thing to behold.
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Hard News: On joining the international…, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
I'm thinking Russia's recent appointment of Steven Seagal as Special Envoy to the USofA also isn't one of their table-slamming 'Checkmate!!' moves either...
Fat Bastard works for Dr. Evil. Fancy that.