Posts by Craig Ranapia
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Don:
Thanks for drawing the distinction between secularists and athiests. I'm a Catholic, but I'm perfectly happy to live in a country where our Government - and our education system - isn't run on the basis of canon law. (I do think it's rather odd that New Zealand's head of state has to meet a religious qualification imposed by the British Parliament almost three centuries ago, but that's a whole other kettle of rotten fish.)
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Juha wrote:
It always struck me as blatantly unfair that only religionists are entitled to protection as well as instruction so as to further their superstitions.Um, really? I have my moments when I wish Richard Dwakins and Brain Tamiki would STFU and stop being so hysterical and self-righteous (I also wish they'd be a little less self-serving in their grossly simplistic reading of history and culture), but I'm just cranky that way. :(
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Good, so I'm not only one who finds the ARC website user-unfriendly. I thought I was just a tech-tard. :)
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Ike Finau's signs?!?! Well, some argued that free speech shouldn't be constrained by the same rules that govern the advertising of beer and cars... I'm just glad I wasn't involved in that debate.
Well, if you're standing for re-election this year I'm sure someone is going to ask you whether you have a position on Auckland City's own environmental bylaws being enforced rigorously and without fear or favour. Will be interested in your answer. I think that's a little more important than the billboard non-crisis, because nothing is more destructive of respect for the rule of law than the perception of bias on the part of those who make and enforce them.
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Robyn:
Remember when 'facardism' was a briefly - though not briefly enough IMO - fashion in architectural vandalism? That's went you leave "significant architectural features" visible, when you've demolished everything behind the façade and put up an arse-ugly tower block. There's some fine examples on Queen Street and around Wellywood.
In the end, I'm with Russell. Even when you're focused on 'urban design' issues, I think there's a lot more important (and more complex) matters for the ACC to address than the billboard non-crisis. IMO, it would contribute more to the beautification of Auckland - or Aotea Square anyway - if the Aotea Centre & the ACC's Adminstration Building fell into a black hole
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Nais:
Oh lovely... I've seen spreads in a Martha Stewart catalogue more interesting than that 'after' photo. Speaking of the Ken Lay of chintz, did anyone read the story in Canvas a couple of weeks back about Marthatowns', where you can live her fabulous life (sorta)... as long as you sign a covenant regulating everything from the colours you can use on the living room wall to the plants allowed in the backyard? I'm not suggesting the ACC's on the highway to that particular aesthetic hell - yet - but a bit of fugliness is infinitely preferable to my eye than having the ACC turning Auckland into a giant episode of Bland Eye For The Peasant Guy.
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Something you can moan about: the Auckland City Council's jihad against business signage and billboards. Does anybody care about this as much as stuff as Bruce Hucker seems to?
If you want to talk about visual pollution, how about the election hoardings (vandalised, often with obscene and offensive graffiti, more often than not) that spring up like mould in a shower stall every three years? Do hope City Vision will be leading by example this campaign season. :)
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Peter:
I think you and Muriel have got your wires crossed: I warmly recommend catching Pan's Labryinth, but it's not a DVD to show the kiddies unless you want 'em running around with knives, playing Fascist Torturer while chanting in Spanish "you're not the first pig I've gutted, motherfucker." (I would take too long to explain - just see the damn film.)
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Careful dissing that High School Musical thing, if they could navigate their way through PAS, you'd have a whole can of whoop-arse being opened on you by millions of irate tweenies ...... truly a phenomenon for the little people (and better songs than Dreamgirls)
Oh, God yes. Don't ask why, but I ended up being forced to watch the damn thing and it was like a very wholesome midnight screening of Rocky Horror Picture Show , where everyone else had every frame of the film burned into their DNA. I don't get it, but then again I'm not supposed to.
And I didn't mean to dis the Weta - who are enormously talented people who contribute much to the Wellywood economy and the gaiety of nations. But I'm just rather bored with hearing variations on the line, "well, the story was crap, the acting non-existent but the effects looked great." To which my response is, if you can't make a good-looking film after being handed the GDP of a small African nation, you're either blind, incompetent or everyone is stealing. At the risk of sounding like a pretentious film snob, I like films where I've got to actively bring my imagination to the party rather than just lying back while the FX wash over you like a warm bath. And let's be honest, was Revenge of the Shit a better movie than The Empire Strikes Back because Yoda was bouncy CGI against an eye-poppingly lush virtual landscape instead of a diva-ish muppet in a puddle on a physical set?
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Labyrinth was horrible. It had Muppets in FFS.
Whereas, it's our patriotic duty to drool over anything with Wetas in it. :) I'd pick up Farscape or the aforementioned Mirrormask, and tell me the Henson Company's only contribution to Western Civ. is Big Bird and the inter-species freak-a-palooza that his Kermit and Miss Piggy.
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