Posts by Steve Parks
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Geez. Russell only posted the topic midday yesterday, and already we have 37 pages and counting, with well over 700 responses!
I wonder if the discussion on the NZ election will be as massive. Is this one of PA's longest topic threads, I wonder?
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Did anyone else think Obama's speech was a bit lame?
No, not at all. This was not a time to repeat MLK. Those sort of speeches are now the job of the VP elect, which is why Biden was a pretty good choice (and Al Gore a lousy choice BTW).
Check the content.
Agreed. I'm with Don & Danielle and those others who think the speech was pretty darn good, all things considered. I look forward to the speeches to come from this guy.
I used to look forward to G W Bush's speeches too, but for different reasons.
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...or will he be the person he was for the entirety of his life prior to that point? A hard left activist who seemed to only associate with the most radical and dodgy of characters...
Just call him a Socialist who pals around with terrorists and be done with it, James.
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...can someone confirm if it's National intention to actively direct Pharmac on medicine spending?
Gareth,
From my memory and understanding of the TV3 news article last night, I got the distinct impression that Key was saying Pharmac would be directed to fund herceptin. But I'm not 100% on that as I was distracted by my travel planing at the time. But I'm pretty sure.
Simon (or anyone),
what is Wisharts latest story?
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Going back to earlier mention of the comic book, and soon to be movie, WATCHMEN, here's a discussion about the adaptation by a couple of geeks who saw 30 minutes of preview footage.
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I'm late to this thread as I've been away in the mountains.
We're sick of your excuses.
And just to commit the ultimate Trek heresy, I didn't think Enterprise was that bad
The ultimate Star Trek heresy was that awful song at the beginning. But yeah, it seemed okay otherwise, from what little I saw of it. I heard the last (3rd?) series was getting better.
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SF people think his SF is far better SF than his lit-fic is lit-fic.
"lit-fic" ?
Sounds vaguely... rude.
Anyway, his SF is as literary as his "lit-fic" (and surely more literally literary than the aforementioned Watchmen).
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It might have something to do with the fact that Romeo and Juliet is not, contrary to what I was told in high school English, the 'greatest love story ever', but a stupid story which makes very little sense and which makes me want to beat up the lead characters for being prissy little morons.
Amen.
Run Lola Run is crucial because it's a post-Fall film that makes use of the entire city- there's even a whole subplot about the fact one reason Lola's boyfriend got into this mess is the fact the Taxi driver is an eastener who didn't know much about the West side, and the film plays on the whole idea of "second chances," which is sorta analogous to the New Berlin etc.
I read some article about Run Lola Run in a newspaper a long while back, that, IIRC, was one of those 'what's wrong with film these days' type efforts. The author decried Lola as an example of how countries weren't making films that were true to the nation any more. Lola didn't, he contended, say anything about Germany in particular; about what it is to be German in the modern world.
Fuck off, I thought.
Even if he were right, why the hell does every film made by a German filmmaker (for example) have to say something expressly about German identity or what have you? What if a German filmmaker wants to make a movie that addresses wider social, political or philosophical issues, but doesn't specifically need to relate to 'German' culture? I'm pretty sure his last line went something like: "Every film outside of Hollywood should be earnest, worthy, Politically Correct, and especially boring."
(Well, okay, I may not have that quite right...)
Anyway, reading Matthew's observations above made me think the author of the article wasn't even correct in his initial premise. It's not so much that Lola couldn't be said to relate to Germany, but that he didn't have the imagination to see it.
While I'm ranting away, I also hate the sort of cultural tokenism whereby on a show like Shortland Street every time you hear a song in background on the radio etc, it is a kiwi song. (It may have changed since I stopped watching, though.)
And breath out...
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Indeed. I also wonder if it's because Banks is getting a teeny tad preachy in his middle-age
Yeah could be. See, I know The Wasp Factory was about things like sexism and religion, but there was nothing remotely preachy about it. And in his science fiction stuff (the ones I've read, anyway), while it is always reasonably clear where the author's sympathies are on the issues raised, it's all done pretty much sans the soap box.
By the time of Whit, there may be a bit of preachiness to it, but not enough to be distracting overall.
I haven't read any of his non science fiction work since then, but I have heard that The Business isn't the business. Maybe Song of Stone is where he jumped the shark?
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It's a shame that the intense guy wrote funnier (if undeniably nastier and sometimes rather unpleasant) novels. I often wonder when was the exact point his prose became so flat and the characterisation so bland, because his early work is fantastically vicious stuff.
I've not read anything later than WHIT, which I really liked (and it was, er, witty). General feedback since is less consistent, suggesting maybe he's "lost his touch" somewhat. I'm skeptical that someone can write a novel a year, as he's virtually managed, and still maintain freshness and creativity. I've heard he has taken a year or two off fiction writing, which might be a wise move.
I did like his travellogue about whisky in Scotland, though.
That's good to hear. I like a well written travelogue, and I like booze (in moderation, kids!), so I was hoping he pulled this off.
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To be fair, all those things _do_ happen in the film though...
I thought that was exactly her point? How’s that Simpson’s exchange go in the Hullabalooza episode?:
“Are you being sarcastic?”
“I just can’t tell anymore”.