Posts by Robyn Gallagher
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Hard News: Game Lorde, in reply to andrew r,
Wow -- so was it kind of like seeing the Sex Pistols at the 100 club London in 1976 ?
Grown-ups are being so painfully serious about the whole Lorde thing. Under the minimalist beats and bitchy resting face she's still a teen pop star.
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Meanwhile, I'm bracing myself for the flood of Lorde clones over the next 18 months, from both New Zealand and overseas, trying to capture a slice of Lorde's magic. But not quite getting it.
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Hard News: Game Lorde, in reply to Shaun Lott,
The Kate Bush of her time?
Just hold your horses there. "Royals" is good but it ain't no "Wuthering Heights". And Kate Bush is still around, still creating.
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Perhaps I'm just old, but it seems to me that the problem with some modern pop music is that it is so empty of the things pop music is supposed to possess.
The same could have been said in the 1970s about punk.
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The best thing about all the Miley Cyrus hand-wringing and pearl-clutching is that in the midst of it all is some quite good writing about pop music culture. I like this essay about how profoundly sad Miley's single is - the one she performed at the VMAs that wasn't "Blurred Lines".
But what bothers me about all the Miley obsessing is the fact that there was actually a whole lot of really amazing stuff at the VMAs that everyone seems to have forgotten about (or didn't even watch in the first place, if their exposure to the VMAs was only a flipped YouTube video of the Miley performance). My highlights:
* Lady Gaga's opening number, featuring five different wig/costume combos, effortlessly switched. And she finished wearing a tiny seashell bikini, which she kept wearing for the rest of the evening as she watched the show in the audience. Yeah, she's still got it.
* Kanye West's minimalist performance of "Blood on the Leaves", with his silhouette against a projection of a photo of lynching tree. Pretty much the exact opposite of Miley's giant foam fun finger.
* Nsync reunited! Justin Timberlake seemed conflicted about being awarded the Vanguard award (and I don't think his body of work justifies it) but while the five were reunited for a brief Nsync medley, the stadium partied like it was 1999. So much joy! And One Direction caught an uncomfortable glimpse of their future - who will be the Justin Timberlake and who will be the Joey Fatone?
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The Skeptics film screening was the most glorious film festival experience since I saw Muriel's Wedding at a matinee session in 1994, with a mostly middle-aged lady audience who laughed and laughed and laughed.
Sheen of Gold was played nice and loud, and the documentary itself wasn't afraid to let whole songs play in their entirety, rather than using the music as a background. It was great seeing old music videos, especially ones other than the notorious "A.F.F.C.O." There were so many wonderful moments in the film, goosebumps galore and moments where I kept realising I was feeling so happy. But mainly it was great to see the film in an audience with a whole lot of other Skeptics fans, like a secret society of people who have discovered one of the greatest bands in the world.
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Hard News: Friday Music: I'm Over The Edge, in reply to Russell Brown,
The woman on the door asked if I 'have a gun or anything like that'
That and the chewing gum incident make it sound like the Edge's security policy has been written by a bunch of parents from rural Southland who have never been to Auckland but have heard about what goes on there and are determined to put a stop to it.
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My grandfather was a saw doctor and knew a thing or two about a good blade. He hand made this bread knife for my parents and 40 years later it is still the business. The wooden handle especially is a pleasure to hold.
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RollingStone magazine put an extremely controversial selfie on its latest cover.
My take on it - if I can write about myself, why shouldn't I be able to take photos of myself?
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Hard News: Who else forgot to get married?, in reply to Danielle,
I just want to be “person who exists and is an adult autonomous female and apparently requires a title on forms”, which is why Ms works for me.
I also like using Ms. I feel like I'm too _mature_ to use Miss (though Helen Clark was always Miss Helen Clark). To me, Ms feels like the French Madame - you don't use it when you get married, but when you are of a certain age. (I was chuffed when a waiter at Pastis called me Madame!)
