Posts by Matthew Littlewood
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@Danielle
Was (Songs for Beethoven) recorded when he was the support for Blur? I was at that show. Was Joel Tobeck on bass...?
Yep, that's the one!
And yes, I'm pretty sure one Joel Toebeck was playing bass, to add to the hilarity. I wasn't there, but it sounds like he was brilliant, and from what I gather from reviews at the time Blur were pretty sharp that night, too.I sometimes wonder how good his debut LP could've been, if he ever got the chance to record it. Certainly he had the goods, and the sound, to boot.
@Rich of Observationz
Flight of the Conchords have only done two seasons*, surely it's too early for them to be jumping the shark? For what it's worth, although the songs weren't quite as good for the second season, I'd say the actual dialogue, performances and direction were better, so the trade-off was worth it.*on TV that is- they already had several hundred gigs and an award-winning radio show under their belt before that, of course...
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He used to crash parties and Maseratis.
But give him his due, he never shook babies nor did he beat no ladies.
(It occurs to me that Darcy Clay was probably the first of the 'rediscovering "Jolene"' people, wasn't he? So there, Jack White!)
Indeed! He also had the good sense to absolutely murder the 1997 Diana-version of "Candle in the Wind"...and then claim the song was his.
( Songs for Beethoven is a hilarious live EP) -
I'd rather Bacherlorette got the success Ladyhawke's now getting, but I can kinda see why she's not. As formally perfect as Bacherlorette's debut EP and LP were, it was an altogether more insidious, even introverted proposition. I guess it doesn't help that her second album suffered the typical sophomore jitters either- it's fidgety where Isolation Loops was relaxed, stuffy where the original was expansive.
Still, I wish Ladyhawke aka Pip Brown all the very best (her singles are good revisionist fun), even if I wonder whether, rightly or wrongly, her international career may go the same way as the Datsuns- i.e. a brief, bright spark only to come crashing down when the press moves onto the next fad. She came accross as a top sort at the awards, though. Good for her.
Anika Moa is always entertaining at these things. I'm not the biggest fan of her work, but she's put on a great show every time I've seen her and her stint as a backing singer for Dimmer in 2004 was superb- Carter and Moa really bounced off oneanother.
And can I just say that I'm pysched to be seeing the Dead C and Dimmer on the same bill this weekend? Seriously, does it get any better?
Great clip of Darcy Clay, RB, I guess I'm off the (horribly young) age where that was the first NZ alternative classic that hit me at the time of its release, rather than coming to it several years after the fact, as I was forced to do with much of prime Flying Nun. What happened to him was just awful.
No matter, he left his mark...he used to do lots of things.
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A quick google search yields nothing. Got a link, DPF? I remember cancerous and corrosive, and Winston Peter's calling the Herald treasonous, and Chris Trotter calling Guyon Epsiner treasonous. And people accusing Helen Clark of treason, but the closest I get for Clark herself is Don Brash's uncyclopedia page :-)
Quite. Indeed, I searched "Helen Clark" and "treasonous" in Fairfax's text library, with covers all of their published articles in all of their newspapers back to 1997, and the only mention I could find was Winston's mentioning slur on the Herald.
DPF is being disingenuous. Me, I think he should be more concerned at the way he lets bigots like redbaiter run rampant all over his board.
Re: Maori TV getting the RWC. While it would be nice if they used different methods than the ones implied in RB's opening post, I think they would do a great job of coverage. Nearly every time they've had a big event- whether it's ANZAC ceremonies, Sir Howard's funeral or the election, I've found their style really fresh and non-hysterical. Indeed, their election coverage was quite old-fashioned...in a good way.
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The best thing the Spar of the Century has done for Boxing in NZ is the same thing that the Mahe Drysdale v Rod Waddell row-off last year did for rowing last year - it's peaked interest in the sport.
True enough, but I think there's a palpable difference between the two.
In the case of Drysdale vs Waddel, you really had a classic sports narrative: arguably the two best of their era, with one in the prime form of his life, the other mounting a comeback bid after nearly a decade away from the sport (which is what makes Waddel's effort so remarkable, really- the fact he could get back in the boat, so to speak, and still challenge the current world champion).
You also had a really satisfying contest, which went down to a deciding race- one that also ended in slight controversy, in that Waddel suffered heart problems in the final stretch.
It really was quite fantastic, and both played pretty much to the peak of their abilities. Why Rowing NZ were so precious about spectators coming to the event I'll never work out. It could have been a real coup for them. In a way it was, but I can't help but feel they deserved to do more.
As for Tua vs Cameron- I suppose it has its elements, but really, without wanting to sound too cruel, it was a "has-been" vs a "never-was".
I can sort of see the interest in terms of the return of Tua, who never really was quite up with the best, making a proper return to the ring after spending more time litigating rather than boxing, but the whole thing seemed horribly hollow to me. But oh well.
But that's enough about that- the real contest is on tonight. That is, as long as the Black Caps actually manage to string together a team...jeez, the oddest thing about this all is that they've had more than half a dozen player changes due to injury in the last fortnight- yet Bond is still there, bowling away (though not quite with the same venom or accuracy of two years ago).
I wonder what he thinks about that...
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http://www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-times/news/2882818/1-Undie-500-beer-promo-irresponsible
Why am I not surprised at all that this went on. I think if we really want to address many of the problems involved, the sheer cynical opportunism of the liquor retailers has to be considered. -
Although I do not support Glen Beck's 912 Project, I fully endorse Stephen Colbert's 10.31 project.
Regarding the "9/11" Truth movement, I always thought Matt Taibbi summed up the trouble with their argument:
The people who really run America don't send the likes of George Bush and Dick Cheney to the White House to cook up boat-rocking, maniacal world-domination plans and commit massive criminal conspiracies on live national television; they send them there to repeal PUCHA and dole out funds for the F-22 and pass energy bills with $14 billion tax breaks and slash fuel efficiency standards and do all the other shit that never makes the papers but keeps Wall Street and the country's corporate boardrooms happy. You don't elect politicians to commit crimes; you elect politicians to make your crimes legal.
That is the whole purpose of the racket of government. Another other use of it would be a terrible investment, and the financial class in this country didn't get to where it is by betting on the ability of a president whose lips move when he reads to blow up two Manhattan skyscrapers in broad daylight without getting caught.
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But according to 9/11 Truth lore, the financial patrons of democratic government were game for exactly that sort of gamble. According to the movement, the Powers That Be in the year 2000 spent $200 million electing George Bush and Dick Cheney because they were insufficiently impressed with the docility of the American population. What was needed, apparently, was a mass distraction, a gruesome mass murder that would whip the American population into a war frenzy.
The same people who had managed in the 2000 election to sell billionaire petro-royalist George Bush as an ordinary down-to-earth ranch hand apparently so completely lacked confidence in their own propaganda skills that they resorted to ordering a mass murder on American soil as a way of cajoling America to go to war against a second-rate tyrant like Saddam Hussein. As if getting America to support going to war even against innocent countries had ever been hard before!
The other problem with the " 9/11 truth movement" I have is that it almost wilfully ignores any discussion of the geopolitical involvement which probably led such an incident in the first place. It's no surprise that many of the "truthers" are paleoconservatives like Alex Jones.
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Hate to break it to everyone but if Baccus's plan goes through- as is looking depressingly likely, then the grand plans to reform health care would've pretty much died in the ditch. Seriously, his solution offers the worst of both worlds- firstly by not giving decent incentives to private companies to keep their prices down, and secondly, not actually allowing a public option to be avaliable to those that aren't covered at all.
And yet, even a plan as fundamentally half-arsed as his appears to have next to no Republican support- the very side Baccus is trying to appease. Oh well. Maybe they'll sort it out in another 40 years time.
Sometimes I wonder how much better it all would've turned out if Tom Daschle actually bothered to pay his taxes. Certainly, I can't imagine a more timid reform plan from a party with a near-Super Majority. But that's what happens when you give over the reigns to guys like Baccus who have an active interest in blocking anything widescale (i.e. if they actually tackle the privates then they'll lose most of their lobby donations).
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Quite. For me, density will usually have more positives than negatives, and I'm all in favour of the extra vitality and variety that a whole lot of people can bring to a neighbourhood. But anyone who's read Jane Jacobs will know that density also requires mixed use, and IIRC North Dunedin didn't have much back in the day other than flats and a 24-hour dairy. Has that changed? Or has the density increased without introducing other amenities and activities?
It's pretty much the latter- unless you count university campus as one giant amenity. You only need to go down North East Valley to see exactly what sort of squalor students live in, and seemingly of their own accord. It's really quite eerie walking down that area once all the students leave...only for them to return three months later as if they had never departed. Different faces, same crowd.
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I'm mostly in the "if you throw a bottle at the cops you ought to end up in court" camp ... burning your own couch shouldn't be that big a deal provided you have the appropriate permits and stuff from the fire dept - and if not spraying the area with a fire hose should probably be in order
Yeah, I'd agree with that.
The whole couch burning thing will right itself eventually - there's only a fixed number of couches in circulation in the 2nd had stores of Dunedin ... I bet the number hasn't been increasing .... eventually it will get close enough to 0 that no one will want to give them up
I remember going to an ODI against Australia at Carisbrook back in 2000 where at least three couhces were burnt within the space of 30 minutes. It really was quite ridiculous.
Then again, it provided some distraction from the fact that Gilchrist was hammering our bowlers all over the park. He was a monster that day...