Posts by Craig Ranapia

Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First

  • Hard News: Grateful for 'Rain',

    Given your m/o on this site it's not surprising you fail to understand the implicit threat in Slater's actions.

    Thank you for playing, Snowy. I'm not.

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

  • Hard News: Grateful for 'Rain',

    Perhaps I'm just touchy because I'm heir to a modernist bach myself which carries with it a lifetime of happy memories. I couldn't give a shit what art critics think of it, I think it's awesome. One of my favorite places on Earth.

    You asked for it, Ben! It's karaoke time!

    A room is a still a room, even when there's nothin' there but gloom
    But a room is not a house and a house is not a home
    When the two of us are far apart
    And one of us has a broken heart.

    I will do Dusty at your next event for a modest fee. :)

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

  • Hard News: Grateful for 'Rain',

    I stand by it.

    I'd expect nothing less, Idiot/Savant. Just as I know I'm never going to convince the usual suspects over at Kiwiblog to stop screaming 'Stalinst' until Helen Clark finally gets around to turning Waiheke Island into a giant gulag for her enemies, engineers a famine that kills millions, establishing an elaborate apparatus of state terror and intimidation and so forth...

    But one keeps banging on...

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

  • Hard News: Grateful for 'Rain',

    That's true - there is a difference between printing a picture of someone who is posing in front of his house for PR purposes (he does need to spend some time on that lawn) and printing a pic of someones house that was taken apparently for the purposes of stalking.

    Um, perhaps we should let the courts hand down the "stalking" convictions, Paul? Without wanting to defend the indefensible Mr. Slater, I don't see the publication of Minto's home address, phone number, or personal details of where his partner works or his children goes to school. As far as I'm concerned, publishing photos of someone's home without their specific and explicit consent is totally beyond the pale. But 'cyber-stalking'?

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

  • Hard News: Grateful for 'Rain',

    i am that professional Craig

    You're a nit-wit, Snowy, and I can't be bothered wasting any more time on you.

    As for Kyle:

    Or does your contrary angle not have an off switch, even when people are expressing sadness?

    Short answer: No. Please feel free to deck yourself in sackcloth and ashes and you feel fit, but I'd rather honor the memory of Sir Edmund by sharing a little of his impatience with cant, pretension and insincerity.

    I've cut the Himalayan Trust a hundred dollar cheque - and as far as I'm concerned, that's an entirely appropriate tribute to a fine man who lived a long and rich life. Full stop and period.

    Over the last year, I've buried my grandmother and foster mother (who both died on the same day), two close friends, and attended a memorial for the sixth child in five years miscarried by another friend.

    Pardon me if -- with all due respect to those who feel differently -- I can't regard the death of Sir Ed., the ABs being knocked out of the World Cup or the tenth anniversary of the death of the Prince of Walkes' first wife as occasions for breast beating and rending of garments.

    It might just have a little more to do with a different perspective than pathological bloody-mindedness, chaps.

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

  • Hard News: Grateful for 'Rain',

    Clearly Craig is pathologically contrarian. I guess he needs the attention.

    For future reference, Snowy, I prefer to have my 'pathology' diagnosed and treated by qualified professionals I've established an appropriate therapeutic relationship with. (Hint: It usually starts by being in the same room.)

    You might wish to turn your mind-reading abilities to scoring that $20 grand Tony Andrews is offering - though I don't fancy your chances.

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

  • Hard News: Grateful for 'Rain',

    I can. It's called 'choosing your style' as opposed to 'letting the Victorians choose your style'.

    Sure, and I can't understand why folks don't just go the whole hog and demolish the Victorian cottage -- or sell it to someone who wants it, and is willing to have it removed -- and build a moderne shoe box if that's their 'style'. Perhaps its my untidy not-so-young-anymore fogey genes, but I get creeped out by houses that look like they've been lifted straight from a Wallpaper spread. Just can't imagine kicking your shoes off on a Sunday morning and making a mess. And I can't remember who said it, but who wants to bet that open plan living was cooked up by a childless male architect who never did his own housework. :)

    To me Key's Bach just looks like an excellent place to chill out looking out on the water. It's hard to know from the one photo, but I get a real feeling of sour grapes about the commentary.

    I actually agree with you, Ben. From what I've seen in the public prints, John Key's taste in architecture certainly isn't mine. But, really, so what? Anyone with any sense of cultural history should know that today's fashions never last, and how often have we seen the reverse? How soon we forget that there was a time when (to advanced eyes) today's million dollar, lovingly restored Devonport villa was a sad relic of a dead world that couldn't be toched soon enough.

    To get all Victorian again, I'm reminded of a lovely line from [url|R.S. Surtees]]: "The only infallible rule we know is that the man who is always talking about being a gentleman never is." Well, I sometime wonder if the man who is always proclaiming his own exquisite taste knows the difference between style and fashion.

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

  • Hard News: Grateful for 'Rain',

    Someone is chopping down our giants. Very sad.

    Someone? Her perhaps?

    For God's sake -- Tuwhare was bloody eighty five, not one to turn down a drink or a good feed that wouldn't exactly win the approval of the diet cops, and had been in pretty poor health for a while.

    Sorry for sounding ghoulish, but I saw my grandfather -- a strong, vital man -- just fade away, bit by bit, for the best part of a decade. Wouldn't wish it on a dog, and perhaps we should focus on the fact that Hillary and Tuwhare lived long and full lives, and they died quickly but knowing they were respected and loved for their achievements. Doesn't happen to all of us, Kyle.Too many people die hard - alone and forgotten.

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

  • Hard News: Grateful for 'Rain',

    Re: Key's Bach. Doesn't look too bad to me.

    Well, I think it's absolutely hideous -- but I can't understand the thought processes behind gutting a villa in a chi chi inner city suburb and turning it into a set from 2001. There's a thesis to be written about the house as the last respectable locus for Kiwi snobbery and class consciousness, and is there anything more ball-achingly vulgar than the bourgeois who think 'taste' can be had for the price of a sub to House & Garden or Wallpaper? Fashions come and go, but unfortunately a house is harder to get rid of than an ugly arse pair of shoes.

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

  • Hard News: Grateful for 'Rain',

    You mean you're not all-tidy-all-the-time? You'll have the Gay Mafia wanting their membership card back.

    You have seen how I dress, Mr. Brown? The gay mafia put a contract out on my fat, Hallensteins-clad arse years ago. :)

    I'm more of the Quentin Crisp school of housekeeping when it comes to doing windows - ""After the first four years the dirt doesn't get any worse." Do get a bit picky about the laundry and kitchen, because scabies and explosive diarrhea isn't how I want to die.

    Otherwise, I don't disturb the dust. The dust doesn't disturb me. The garden is what I call English Urban Council Estate. We exist in a perfect state of mutual indifference.

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

Last ←Newer Page 1 1098 1099 1100 1101 1102 1235 Older→ First