Posts by philipmatthews
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I was in Australia last week and one of the good things was getting both The Daily Show and The Colbert Report between 7 and 8pm every night on ABC2. The latter had one of the great comedy moments -- Colbert explaining that Islam had even infiltrated America's Christmas carols. As in, "Fal-lah Al-lah Al-lah Al-lah lah lah".
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The "mexicans with cellphones" comments also angers me and is very outdated. The mexican film industry is extremely strong and I have worked with a number of highly skilled mexican film crew members. Guillermo del Toro is Mexican, as is Alfonso Cuaron and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu.
Out of interest -- when was the last time one of the above directed a film shot in Mexico?
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the educational systems of other countries like the US
This excellent piece has some bearing on that. Eg:
Hanushek has released studies showing that teacher quality accounts for about 7.5–10 percent of student test score gains. Several other high-quality analyses echo this finding, and while estimates vary a bit, there is a relative consensus: teachers statistically account for around 10–20 percent of achievement outcomes. Teachers are the most important factor within schools.
But the same body of research shows that nonschool factors matter even more than teachers. According to University of Washington economist Dan Goldhaber, about 60 percent of achievement is explained by nonschool factors, such as family income. So while teachers are the most important factor within schools, their effects pale in comparison with those of students’ backgrounds, families, and other factors beyond the control of schools and teachers. Teachers can have a profound effect on students, but it would be foolish to believe that teachers alone can undo the damage caused by poverty and its associated burdens.
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I guess it isn't hard for music to be digitised and made available, even "unofficially" -- ie you can't buy originals by acts like Children's Hour, This Kind of Punishment, Victor Dimisich Band, Scorched Earth Policy, etc on CD now (just to pick at one strand of disappearing musical history), but you will find a blog easily that circulates it -- and Simon Coffey's Tally Ho is a good example of how poster art can be presented online. It seems to me that the gap is media: in my ideal world, the NZ rock archive would have a version of the National Library's Papers Past project where back issues of Rip It Up, Real Groove and more obscure publications are digitised and easily searchable, along with the rock columns out of the Auckland Star, Listener, NZ Herald, Christchurch Star, and so on.
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The tireless Andrew Schmidt at Mysterex -- a NZ music archive in itself -- has been musing on this too. link.
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Yes, but he also likes Phil Collins -- which I thought only Patrick Bateman could get away with.
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Always liked this clip ...
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Forever Monday Morning
A catchy tune about a breakfast TV host who is forced to relive his moment of greatest public ignominy, again and again and again.The Screwtop Letters
Shihad's CS Lewis-inspired concept album.I Go Mild
The Bats pen a campaign tune for Phil Goff in 2011. Sadly, the public prefers Gin Wigmore's excruciatingly catchy cover of Melanie's "Brand New Key", leading to an entire album: Songs in the Life of Key.Computer Games People Play for Today is the Greatest Day I've Ever Known
The Mi-Sex/Alan Parsons Project/Cure/Smashing Pumpkins collaboration was scuppered by ego clashes in the studio. -
Cistern Virtue
Long before Chris Knox and Tiki Taane, Emma Paki sold her song to advertising -- in this case, a short-lived toilet cleaner campaign.Peking Man Alone
The Urliches rewrite John Mulgan's nationalist classic as an 80s rock opera. Margaret Urlich's follow-up attempt to form a Flying Nun-covering all-girl supergroup -- When the Cactus Cat's Away -- was equally disappointing. -
If I may quote from my own profile of the Christchurch Mayor's wife, from back in late 2007. A glimpse of the Parkers' living room:
Home to the couple's youthful entertainments. All four Alien movies on DVD. Concert films demonstrating the guitar prowess of Peter Frampton, Joe Satriani, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Mark Knopfler -- the mayor, we know, is an enthusiastic guitarist. An Xbox for two players (today's game: Superman Returns). A kitchen stocked with sugar-free energy drinks. There's just one visible book, and it's about public speaking.