Posts by bronwyn
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Not to be a downer, but there was one near-miss on the opening night in Auckland - a security guard was set upon by a group (ostensibly in the city for the celebrations) in Albert Park and quite seriously injured. Apparently only the quick thinking and calm reaction of one of his fellow guards who happened to come upon the scene saved his life.
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Speaker: What PACE actually does, in reply to jessica scott,
Jessica, I think we may have had the same case worker (or at least they'd been on the the same course). In 2003, after moving back from the the UK with not much money, I went to the local WINZ office, explained that I was looking for a job in theatre - what I'd been doing in the bloody West End for the previous few years - and would love to be on PACE so I had time to find some work. The case worker explained to me, in the way you would with a small child, that I wasn't eligible for PACE because:
a) "You might see one of those jobs advertised in the paper, not like if you were a flute player or something."
b) "You can't really give me any evidence that you actually have the experience to work in this area." (despite having written references that stated the opposite).
So I ended up on regular unemployment benefit for about five weeks until I got a pretty depressing job until I could get a better one.
Luckily I had a much more positive experience a few years later after some post-grad study and was on PACE for 6 months, which was a really valuable time, giving me the space and time to work and get experience. There wasn't many courses, except one where a horrible angry man shouted at me and told me it was no wonder I was on the dole if I couldn't make it to the course on time (actually I had run out of petrol precisely because I was on the dole) but a pretty great case worker who was totally supportive.
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But since the evidence is there in black and white, screw the lot of them and their hypocritical entitlement.
I think this is what is upsetting most people - the fact that some MPs think that they're not going to get caught, so who cares? Anyone who's ever had an overpriced beer from the minibar on a work trip knows that it takes another minute at check out time to pay for all of these things separately, and therefore avoid awkward questions at reimbursement time.
(I actually type this from a hotel room, on a work trip. I'd be raiding said mini bar but all I can find is some pottles of long life milk).
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Many folk with noise-induced hearing loss are left both deaf and with tinnitus
About 6 months after my tinnitus started, I thought, well, maybe it would be better if I just lost the hearing in that ear, and then it would go away - five minutes with Dr. Google convinced me that somehow deliberately making myself deaf wouldn't be a good option.
Christopher- that's an intriguing technique, I shall try it.
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Benka Borodovsky Bordello Band
are no longer, having imploded...
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@Lyndon: yes, I kept feeling like I was missing something in Eleven and Twelve, and that I would all become clear on a second viewing. Hmm. The only other festival show I got to see was The Tragic Life of Cheeseboy, which was properly magical and I may have even clapped my hands with glee at one stage - if only theatre made for adults could elicit the same response more often.
Also, Philip - I went to Colm Toibin's talk today at the Writers Festival, where he spoke about Brooklyn - it could have been great as he is clearly articulate and engaging but I don't think that a fellow writer necessarily makes a great interviewer. The interviewer also spent the first ten minutes or so making a big deal of Toibin's sexuality which was completely bizarre and enraging (for me, although Toibin was very gracious about it).
Apart from Wilco and the Pixies - two of the best gigs I've been to within months of each other - I had a great personal cultural highlight right at the start of the year when I played a gig in Karamea, got to meet all the locals, watched a local young lad's crotch get wrapped in glad-wrap (guess why?), and then pretended to be a DJ until 3am on a Monday morning. Those coasters can wipe the floor when it comes to partying, seriously impressive. The next day I had a great couple of hours with Barry at the Hector Country Music Museum.
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I always become a bit despondent when someone suggests going to Monsoon Poon, because I am certain that:
a) the food will be ok, but I could probably get something better for less elsewhere
b) given that that person has chosen it, I suspect they aren't very exciting and hence conversation may not be that exciting either
c) I'll have to spend a lot of the night trying not to rant about all the racist, sorry "ironic", sayings all over the place. -
A friend and I tried out the new TVNZ on demand service on the PS3 the other night - not knowing what to watch, we basically just clicked the first thing on the first list we got to, which was The Apprentice. We couldn't get over how unintentionally hilarous it was. (It possibly helped that we had a strong injection of wine at the time).
Also, they call him "Sir"? For real? This, along with the crushingly mundane tasks make it seem more like the world's strangest boarding school rather than a way to find a hot shot business talent.
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Examples please.
Ha, I'm glad I accidentally deleted my first post and saw Russell's much more extensive list.
I'd also add Kim Choe, now at TV3, and Paul Deady, the current bfm news and editorial director - he's a great interviewer.
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Cutting The Wire in half is a terrible, terrible move
That is REALLY bad news. Apart from the being one of the few radio shows that can interview people for up to 20mins at a time without ads, it's been a really rich training ground for journalists and broadcasters.