Posts by Craig Ranapia

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  • Radiation: New season,

    And this season sees the return of Martha Jones from Doctor Who. (Wait, has she actually made an appearance on NZ TV yet? It's hard to keep up...)

    Yes, and it looks like the new zeason of who is going to go off. Though the retro big bad this series have to be the most God-awful silly looking creatures in the Who-niverse. (though geek points that the chap under all the latex is Christopher Ryan. Yes, Mike from The Young Ones.)

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

  • OnPoint: AIA and Maori Seats,

    The Maori seats were conceived to give Maori representation in Parliament at a time when there was no way they could get there, because we were a FPP system, Maori were few and dispersed, and the general electorate would never vote for a Maori MP. With MMP, none of those arguments stand

    No, Keith. The Maori seats were introduced at a time when there was a property qualification to vote. It's one of life's delicious ironies that Maori men had universal suffrage about twenty years before their honky brethren. (The wahine, like their pakeha sisters, had to wait a little longer.)

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

  • OnPoint: AIA and Maori Seats,

    I though Mark Weldon had a pretty good take on it on Morning Report today: as a policy move, it's very much in line with international trends, but the manner and timing of it are more ... unusual.

    What's unusual about it, pimping xenophobia and junk economics for poll points is hardly a rarity. Just ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs.

    Anyway, why doesn't the Government just bite the bullet and nationalise the airports, ports and rail network and tell us what social services are going to be cut to pay for it all? :)

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

  • Radiation: New season,

    But Craig, you've said that before about Helen Mirren. You're mot two-timing, are you?

    OK, I'm a bad Cylon. Colonial polytheism all the way. :) Seriously, BSG better get some serious Emmy-love on its way out the door because (IMNSHO) the only reason a remarkable ensemble cast hasn't gotten more award recognition is good old fashioned genre snobbery.

    I didn't view it as homophobic at all, just a very funny piss-take.

    And Sarah and Jimmy aren't exactly brilliant role models for the heterosexist patriarchal Reich. :)

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

  • Radiation: New season,

    Dang, Reaper isnt being renewed for next season, according to Popcandy. Oh well. ..

    But I can't look at Ray Wise without seeing Leland Palmer. I still pop on the first season of Twin Peaks occasionally, and wonder how the hell David Lynch and Mark Frost got away with it, and the prequel movie Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me is seriously under-rated.

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

  • Radiation: New season,

    I am midway through wire season 5 (I love it too much to bother waiting for it to appear on NZ tv)

    Am I the only person who is quite happy to give heavily 'serialised' shows like The Wire a pass on network TV and wait for the DVDs? One reason I checked out of Lost was because I'd be utterly... well, lost if I missed a couple of episodes. I really enjoy long-form storytelling with large ensemble casts, but not in 40 minutes bites once a week (especially when they're being regularly pre-empted or bounced around the schedule).

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

  • Radiation: New season,

    Aaargh...

    **Closely followed by Ellen Pompeo over at..**

    Grey's Anatomy. I'm sure Ms. Pompeo is a very nice woman, but if I have to listen to another of her self-absorbed whines... Wait a mo', I don't!

    And am I the only person who thinks Boston Legal has finally jumped the shark? I've reached the point where I no longer find James Spader and William Shatner's heterosexual bro-mance creepy but intriguing, but just creepy. And everything else just looks like it was dragged in from a bad parody of Alley McBeal -- the self-consciously 'kooky' new cast members, and freak of the weak plotlines are exhausting.

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

  • Radiation: New season,

    In other frakking fantastic news, Battlestar Galactica is back on air April 4. Advance publicity includes this frakking fantastic Last Supper. Six is Jesus!

    Tricia Helfer is the one true Goddess in our house (and one more iteration of Six raising merry hell is only a good thing), but the truly squee worthy news is that Lucy Lawlwss' D'Anna Biers/Three is back for at least two episodes, and the rumours are that she's at the heart of a plot arc where the shit hits the fan for everyone with more force than usual.

    I thought both clips were funny, but Kimmel's left an unpleasant aftertaste. It really did seem dated in what it's concept of 'the gay lifestyle' was. Very last century

    IO, I think that was kinda the joke. I'd kinda of impressed at the way Affleck and Damon have always shrugged their shoulders at the same old tabloid rumours that two guys who are that close, and take their mothers as Oscar dates, must be queer as a three dollar bill.

    Pushing Daisies has already fallen by the wayside

    I think watching Pushing Daisies depends on your tolerance for twee whimsy, but am staying just this side of a diabetic coma. The show is helped enormously by a solid cast and eye-poppingly luscious production values. Jim Dale has pipped Heroes for the Blade Runner Cup for Most Gratuitously Irritating Voice-Over Narration. Closely followed by Ellen Pompeo over at...

    Lost went MIA for me in Season 2, but I'll admit to a hankering to rent the box set on DVD just to see if really does get better so maybe it's just AWOL.

    This season is, IMO, a return to form -- so naturally, the WGA strike comes along. If my memory serves, its still uip in the air whether we're going to be seeing much more of Zoe Bell.

    Dirty Sexy Money? I'm still watching, but not sure why ...

    Eye candy -- pure camp nonsense that has absolutely no pretensions to being anything more. Though it still has some distance to reach the demented majesty that is the best of Dallas or Dynasty. Now they were Greek tragedy with feather perms and shoulder pads you could land a fighter jet on.

    Much the same reason why (to my great surprise) I've become quite a fan of __Psych__ and __Burn Notice__. Not great art, but certainly enormous fun done with some style and intelligence.

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

  • Hard News: Laying Down the Law,

    I do feel that when Labour gets back in after the failure of the Key government, it'll be time for utu against the Herald and Dom Post (not to mention the Press). [...] They should propose this pre-election, and have a quiet word with the owners of APN and Fairfax as to what will happen to their long-term investment if they persist in being propaganda sheets for the National Party.

    Rich: You're extracting the urine, aren't you?

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

  • Hard News: Laying Down the Law,

    I wonder if the Herald will be concerned about Key trying to get journalists fired?

    Well, Snowy, I suspect if The Herald did want to follow up Cullen's allegation (faithfully repeated by The Standard) they'd have a hard time finding a source willing to go on the record. Funny how often that happens, doesn't it? But I guess on the record attribution is so last millennium.

    And I'd respectfully suggest that I've heard some interesting gossip about certain Minister's offices who've threatened to "make life difficult" for insufficiently deferential hacks. Any sensible hack or editor, in my experience, ignores them.

    But for real (and endless) arguments about vote-splitting, and who let who in, see "first past the post" elections, a system we're well rid of.

    simon -- simple reality is that if a hundred or so people had voted for O'Regan over Wilson (while still casting their party votes for Labour or anyone other than National), Winston Peters and his squalid personality cult would have been gone. That's something we would be well rid of.

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

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