Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: Friday Music! It's us, as culture, in reply to
Seemed fitting to follow up from the Volume Launch by seeing Don McGlashan and Shayne Carter at the Crystal Palace.
Cheers for the pics. After a very full-on work week, a third night out in a row just didn't seem possible, but I've heard nothing but good things about this tour.
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Hard News: Meth houses and stigma, in reply to
Benedict Collins did a great RNZ Checkpoint interview with Housing NZ, who seem to be blaming everyone other than themselves.
That was so well put together and he nailed that last interview. Bravo.
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All students have to do National Standards yet the schools’ reports must not mention that there are students with diverse educational needs in the aggregated data. Uniformity, not creativity is the aim.
It's hard to believe a system would be designed for such a result. Argh.
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Hard News: Music: Friends of Bill, in reply to
That is a damn fine pic
Seconded!
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Hard News: On seclusion rooms, in reply to
One of the autistic students at the school I teach at was often ‘calmed’ by being squished in a folded foam mattress by his Teacher Aide. I hate to think what anybody observing that thought.
Sounds like a good sort of squeeze machine to me.
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Hard News: On seclusion rooms, in reply to
All this is part of piece, isn’t it? The abysmal failure of the New Zealand educational system to adopt progressive ways of recognising, teaching and funding students with needs different to the great mass.
Our system does well for kids in the middle. Some schools – to their cost – do well for special-needs kids.
Challenging behaviour might be at the heart of it. The same intermediate that couldn’t deal with our younger son (and let me be clear, they weren’t bad people and they didn’t have the resources they needed) was a turning point for our older boy. Jim was the first recipient of an award sponsored by another family for the most-improved special needs pupil. That was wonderful. His brother needed something different.
The problem with the GSE caseworker (who was not attached to the school) was that she did not grasp that the apparently problematic behaviour was totally logical for the kid displaying it. I got that. She should have.
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Hard News: Music: Friends of Bill, in reply to
Ah, so I arrived during Set 2.
I also ducked out in the break to get a beer to bring back. Tbh, I rather enjoyed just getting into it and hardly talking to anyone :-)
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I bought How Music Came Out and have been reading it this afternoon. Given the personal tone of the book I feel like I have the extra bonus of Martin having been a friend both before and after he came out, and that it was music that brought us together in the first place. How nice.
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Notes & Queries: Breaking Down the Walls…, in reply to
I always liked the way that Two Nice Girls, a self-described "dyke rock" group from Texas, were able to incorporate a certain disco classic into their thing:
I interviewed them in London way back in the 80s. They were really cool, and not just 'cos I'm a sucker for any version of 'I Feel Love'.
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Hard News: On seclusion rooms, in reply to
I believe that was the theory at the time.
There is a reason that the place where people gather their thoughts before going on stage or on screen is called a "green room".
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