Posts by Matthew Littlewood
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I'm not going to wade into the feminist labelling debate, but I will say that of all the varied and variable anti-SATC2 tirades unleashed of late, Mark Kermode's was the most entertaining. Granted, it's not as jaw-dropping as documentary on Werner Herzog (what is? ), or as ahem, "reasoned" as his reviews for Sight & Sound, or the Guardian , but it is a great example of taking an idea and running with it to its natural conclusion:
My trouble with the Lindy West piece was its smugness, actually, beyond the other issues others might have with it. Oddly, it didn't feel absolutely honest as a tirade.
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I don't have much to add other than to say that's a beautiful piece of writing, David. I'm really sorry for your loss.
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I'm pretty sure I'm describing almost anywhere in NZ, on second thoughts....
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Don't you be dissing the House of H now. It's clothed me and my kids for a while now!
On a slightly serious note, the ubiquitousness of Hallensteins (and Glassons) clothes on a night out on the town in either Christchurch or Dunedin is one of those eternal things, like the wind in Wellington, Black Caps middle-order collapses, or the Highlanders getting progressively worse with each passing year.
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This advice is all well and good Emma, but where does it leave a respective male such as myself? Especially one holed up in Timaru for most of the time.
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Maybe she didn't know what she was given.
I think it's more that she didn't have any genuine personality in the first place.
That's probably the truth of the matter.
@Danielle- yeah, I'll concede that "Toxic" works. Actually, it was reminds me of the first time I listened to f Sweedish pop star Robyn's s/t record (thankyou, free promos!). Musically, it was pretty similar- if sleeker and less brazen-to a lot of the stuff Britney gets given, but it was so knowing that it practically commented on itself mid-song. It's a curious record, like she desperately wanted to be a star but felt she needed to explain herself. Which might have been something to do with the fact she was/is a bit older (mid-20s) than her contemporaries as well as having already faied once in the gig.
I also spent a day with with the young Billie (later to become Billie Piper) and she was lovely – although I had more in common with her dad of course who was trying to negotiate the difficult waters for his daughter. (She later married a much older DJ, so I guess he failed.)
She seems to have done pretty well for herself since, mind. I'm looking for a nautical analogy to go with your "difficult waters" comment, but I can't think of any!
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After that I had an ongoing dalliance with some of the glam rock boys - Sweet, Slade, Mud et al (Bowie and T-Rex were a little grown-up for me, however)...
...who all, incidentally, have all received fairly extensive reissues and fulsome appreciations from Mojo magazine at some point.
Which I guess goes to show that even the ephemeral has a significant half-life. I'm more of a Bowie and T-Rex man though.
For what it's worth, I guess this one baffles me because it's the first time a teen artist became absolutely massive without me even knowing about him. As I'm 26 years of age, it was bound to eventually happen to me. I kept up with the play being a music reviewer, but I've been pretty slack over the last couple of years.
Whether or not it's not "for me" is beside the point- I hadn't heard of him! I guess I'm officially old.
Regarding Britney, I've always been disappointed by her music. Even with the best production team in the world, she still manages not to put any real personality into her work. Especially compared to the late Aaliyah, who became a conduit for Timbaland and Missy Elliott's best production, or Kelis, for that matter. A (sometimes literally) wasted opportunity. Maybe she didn't know what she was given.
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Thanks Sacha- I really enjoyed that afternoon too- I think, actually, the best piece summing up the situation as it stands, would be Paul Gorman's "Who Killed ECan?" feature which was published in a weekend edition of the Press last month. Hopefully your local library will have it on file. And as Emma alluded to, Sam Mahon's The Water Thieves has some of the historical political background as well.
If you're wanting to get to grips with the water issue specifically as it relates to the Mackenzie/South Canterbury, then, loathe as I am to link my own work this is a good backgrounder of the two "sides" and their points of view-and yes, I know it's not as black and white as that- but there are word limits to deal with etc.There are other issues swirling in the background, not least the fact the territorial authorities in South Canterbury and Christchurch have frequently expressed their desire to form a "breakaway" authorities to replace ECan.
As an aside, I find it a bit ironic that television (well, TV 1 and TV 3) only gets interested in covering the regional council now. I think you can count one hand how many ECan meetings they attended in the last two years- even the ODT's coverage of ECan has been more comprehensive in that time*. It might just be down to the fact that they're both short-staffed, and usually, council meetings don't make for good visuals (unless you drag a coffin into the middle of the chambers).
*thanks to the strange boundaries, the Waitaki falls between the rulings of both the ORC and ECan, which can make it a bit of a logistical nightmare.
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And you'd like Matthew Littlewood, but he's only in Timaru on much the same conditions Russell was.
Russell did PD in Timaru?
The judge assigned me to being the regional council and the environment reporter for the Timaru Herald. It's an extended sentence.
(I will not bad-mouth Timaru on this thread, partly because I value and enjoy both my job and my life. You never know who in the Aoraki mafia might be reading this. )
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That was a beautiful piece of writing, Jolisa, I hope you're going to re-write that and freelance it somewhere. Because I think more people need to read stories like this, just to underline where the attitude that surrounds standardised testing and teaching takes us if it's viewed merely as an end, rather than a means. Christ, it's pretty heartbreaking stuff, though.