Posts by Geoff Lealand
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Just to be contrary, the thought of more hobbits on screen depresses the hell out me.
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Having prised the rail system from Toll's cold and deadly hands, what I hope for now is the reinstatement of regional railcar services. Some years back, there was such a daily service from Hamilton to Auckland but it departed at a ghastly hour (6am) and crawled its way to Auckland. It was also poorly promoted but there was some pleasure in moving along merrily past the stalled traffic on the motorway. Had some right jolly people on board but I guess they knew their days were numbered.
I am not a train romantic but having just experienced the remarkable JR/subway system in Yokohama and Tokyo, it is an enormous efficient means of moving people around.
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kia ora David: I guess I am the first Hamiltonian to jump to the defence my city of choice for the past 10 years. Nevertheless, I do find the need to do so rather tedious. It just seem ridiculous, in a country where you can travel from one end of the North Island to the other end in a day, that people continue to make gross generalisations about the places they pass through.
I have always been a great believer in making the most of the place where you live--and I have lived in towns such as Hawera and Stratford in Taranaki, and Palmerston North.
Still, glad you found Hamiton less dull than your expectations. I had my misgivings about the V8s (in these days of alarms about dwindling oil stocks) and we were in Japan whilst they were on. But, by all accounts, the races were a great success for the city but there is more to it than petrol heads. Come down for the next summer Garden's festival, or the balloon festival.
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What?? Havoc and Newsboy did it first in 2001 when they used a ladder to climb the fence, roamed around a bit and had a pee on on the facilities. In some ways, it was more audacious as they did it with the aim of putting their actions on primetime TV, to show the non-existent security.
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Taking a slight tangent, have people seen the story about the petition calling for a referendum on the 'anti-smacking' legislation being given the heave-ho. There is a rather curious formula being applied: 285,027 (or 10% of registered voters) signatures were required; 324,511 were submitted but a check of a sub-sample resulted in an estimate of 267,000 'valid' signatures--after duplicate signatures, illegible signatures and names not on the Electoral Roll were deleted.
It is a victory of sorts, but rather a hollow one. I would suspect that 10-20% of signatures on all petitions would be screwy. I have been known to sign 'Adolf Hitler' or 'Benito Mussolini" on petitions that offend me (yes, I know it is adolescent! ) I once also put one of Richard Prebble's books through a shredder, and returned it as requested, after it had been left in our letter-box during an election campaign.
Amyway, our Japan visit was fan-bloody-tastic. I will be putting up a piece about on kiwiboomers.com in a week or two.
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I am in Japan at the moment and, coincidentally, went on a guided tour of NHK yesterday and encountered their experiments with 3-D television (television without special glasses). Seemed very much work-in-progress (more nausea-inducing than impressive) but the HDTV television demos were magnificent--like peering into a hyper reality.
Watched several productions being recorded. all courtesy of a long-time contact who works in audience research for NHK.
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Makes the Chiefs demolition of the Brumbies last week all the more sweeter! Bring on the Crusaders!
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Sounds like a great night out. Finally viewed the YouTube version on Media7 and it will go to the top of my bookmarks.
We are packing for a trip to Japan, to be out of town when the V8s take over the streets of Hamilton. Personally, I feel embarrassed that the Waikato's contribution to global warming is to burn up more fuel, sending overcharged cars around in meaningless circles.
My first trip to Japan and it is panning out like Peter Carey's 'Wrong About Japan' ie my offspring are heading straight for Akihabura and the cos-players; Josephine and I are heading for the old temples (the 'real Japan') .
But we are all going on a guided tour of NHK next Wednesday. -
...Ah copyright. The desperate, hopeless and pointless fight against piracy continues...
A report in the Media Guardian this week ("Home copying--burnt into teenage psyche", Monday 7 April) cites a survey by the British Music Rights that showed that 95% of 1,158 Brits surveyed 'engaged in some form of copying'
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On biofuels and foodstuffs--there is a giant cheese toastie still simmering in Tamahere, on the outskirts of Hamilton. My daughter is complaining that everything she eats tastes of burnt cheese!