Posts by Craig Ranapia
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Muse: The Good Word, Bad Numbers and The…, in reply to merc,
Then it was his intention to mislead?
Probably not – but it’s hardly unknown for people to be less inclined to be less inclined to run the bullshit detector over people telling them what they want to hear. Personally, I’d be very unhappy about being fed bum information by staffers who are pretty well-paid for knowing their arses from their elbows. Then again, I'm never going to get a ministerial warrant so what do I know?
To re-jig what I said up-thread: Ministers are perfectly entitled to advance policy agendas, but they’re not entitled to do so by blithely shoveling bullshit.
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Muse: The Good Word, Bad Numbers and The…, in reply to Russell Brown,
Just to note that Linda Herrick called while I was out and is keen to make a correction. So that’s good.
Bloody oath it is, and I’ve updated the post to say so. Credit where due etc. – but could someone kick Ms. Herrick a rung or four up the greasy pole at the Herald because this needs to become a feature not a bug of the Herald’s editorial OS.
Coleman said he got the figure from officials and wasn’t concerned that it was misleading.
Officials are always convenient scapegoats for idiot ministers (considering they're professionally restrained from calling their political masters incompetent liars in public), but even if true you'd think he'd be very concerned.
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Muse: The Good Word, Bad Numbers and The…, in reply to Islander,
Legz Akimbo? Brett’s triumphant return to socially relevant live theatre…
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Muse: The Good Word, Bad Numbers and The…, in reply to Russell Brown,
Part of me feels bad about raising the issue, because it’s just a detail in a sympathetic story.
Yeah, but… broadcasting isn’t the only part of the cultural beat where it really does matter that the numbers aren’t still sticky from being pulled out of someone’s arse. As I said to Drinnan elsewhere, The Herald is perfectly entitled to take a hostile editorial line against public arts/culture funding but it’s not entitled to bolster that argument with junk stats.
Media Ethics 101: Get your facts right, and if you don't acknowledge, retract and correct. FFS, Keith deleted a whole post last week because it was premised on a fundamental fact fail. Shyne Currie, OTOH and as you've pointed out, is just being intransigent. To paraphrase Mr. M. Loaf, zero out of three is pretty fraking bad.
I might recast the post to make it more explicit that my beef isn’t with Rebecca Barry Hill or the story she wrote. But if it’s going to close with an appeal for readers to express their views on the “impending lack of television coverage of the arts and books in New Zealand” then it’s fair comment to suggest the largest newspaper in New Zealand could bear to lift its own game.
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And why is the on-line version of that story gibberish?
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Muse: Freakanomics (TVNZ Edition), in reply to Russell Brown,
SERIOUSLY, WTF ELSE AM I SUPPOSED TO DO HERE? GRAR!
You could (politely) e-mail Herald arts editor Linda Herrick at linda.herrick@nzherald.co.nz and suggest she lift the quality of media arts coverage by keeping this false fact out of her corner of the Herald.
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Muse: Freakanomics (TVNZ Edition), in reply to Jeremy Eade,
As an economic gesture I guess the $$$$$ thinking is it will rate highly
Almost certainly will, which demands someone ask why it can't be paid for on an entirely commercial basis.
however it has a slim chance of bombing.
Sure - it wasn't exactly a huge hit for Prime back in 2008, But, again, I don't think New Zealand on Air was ever intended to create a slush fund for risk underwriting. Certainly not the definition of "public arts funding" I'd go balls out to defend.
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Cracker: Dinner and a Show (Everybody’s…, in reply to Rageaholic,
I loved the New Order show, but was horrified when I went to get a beer and the cup wasn’t big enough so I had to stand at the bar and chug the 1/3 of the bottle that didn’t fit in the cup.
Yay! Big score for effete losers who might want to savor their over-priced weasel urine.
So maybe in a way you are right, they just kind of go through the motions and rely on their fantastic songs and tight, faultless musicianship to get them through a gig without having to dig deep emotionally.
After seeing that Pixies doco LoudQUIETloud a few years back, it’s hard not to come to the conclusion Black and the rest of the band put all their emotional energy into their deep, abiding and mutual loathing. I’m intrigued by the kind of dynamic where you have to force yourself to re-build some kind of creative relationship with a person (or a whole band) you can otherwise barely be in a room with.
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Muse: The Curmudgeon's Guide To The…, in reply to Steve Parks,
as did the screenwriters Bridget O'Connor and Peter Straughan.
I endorse that - it was the best prune-and-simplify adaptation I've been since Curtis Hanson and Brian Hegeland's Oscar-winning screenplay for L.A. Confidential. (I love James Ellroy, but a transcription of that book would be about fifty hours long, have a cast of hundreds and be utterly incomprehensible.)
It would also have been nice if Straughan could have accepted an Oscar on behalf of his late wife, who died of cancer before the film started shooting.
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Muse: The Curmudgeon's Guide To The…, in reply to BenWilson,
Apes was enjoyable, but I am curious what redeeming feature in Thor you picked up o
Kenneth Brannagh isn’t Michael Bay, basically. It ain’t the Elder Edda by any stretch of the imagination, but the story made sense and a more-than-decent cast weren’t treated as mere placeholders for the CGI. I’d rather watch Kat Demmings taser impossibly buff gods than deliver rape gags on the excremental 2 Racist Girls.
Does it get better after the start? Or should I just accept that it’s not my cup of tea, even though others say it’s good?
Nah, Rango is what it is. If the first quarter hour makes you feel like your eyes have been waterboarded it’s not going to get any better. Three attempts is more than a fair chance.
Also, to parphrase our host: Torturing your children by making them watch films they don’t like on my say-so? It’s not OK.
However, if your kids aren’t utterly beguiled by Une vie de chat (A Cat in Paris) they have no souls, and need to be returned for store credit before they kill you in your sleep.
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