Posts by Robyn Gallagher
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Hard News: Who else forgot to get married?, in reply to Yamis,
For teachers especially. What happens when your grand children get married and their full name is Chester Lowe-Smith-Higgins-Carter-Jones-Samuels-Matoto-Yin ???
Double-barrelling is a luxury for the first generation. After that it gets complicated, especially when the surnames are multi-syllabic. I've always been interested in how couples deal with this. Will double-barrelled couples faced with four surnames just think "to hell with it!" and go back to the paternal grandfather's surname? One married couple I know have brilliantly given their three kids three different surnames - mother's surname, father's surname and the double-barrel.
As for women taking men's names, there's a bit of a mix amongst my friends. I know people who have taken their husband's name, hyphenators, those who have kept their birth name only for work, and those who never change. For the ones who change, sometimes it's done as a reflection of their beliefs, other times it's because the woman's name is something awkward like Pratt or Sidebottom that they're happy to be rid of. On the other hand, one newlywed I know of didn't change her exotic surname to her husband's plain Anglo-Saxon name.
I've always thought if Dave Dobbyn married me, I'd never take his surname.
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I've been in Auckland this weekend and went to the Street Chant EP launch last night. It was so good. A bunch of people crammed into a small room, BYO booze, smokes and more sound and chaos than a three-piece seemed capable of producing. The Blam Blam Blam cover isn't even the best track on the EP. I've been listening to it as I do a bit of exploring around this isthmus of a thousand lovers and it's full of quality tunes.
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Just needed somewhere to put a description of my “Music and the Internet” panel tomorrow, 11.30am in the main room at NetHui.
I watched it streaming online - and I listened too, once the audio feed kicked in! It was a good discussion. The one point that really stuck out for me, being relevant to my interests, was that NZ On Air no longer looks to television play as a measure of success for music videos. Now it's all about online plays, and that makes complete sense. The question now is - as iTunes thumbnails have changed album cover design, has YouTube changed the look of music videos?
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BTW, if there's Great Blend in Christchurch, I will go to it.
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Up Front: Somebody Think of the Young Adults!, in reply to Russell Brown,
Oh, wow. This editorial. You know "Don't read the comments"?
Read the comments.
I'm particularly impressed with the comment from the awesome Time Out bookstore of Mt Eden. It starts with, "We've been selling Into the River steadily since September 2012 and have not had one complaint about it's content. It's a book written for young adults that don't read - why is this being discouraged?"
Also, I wonder how many adults will buy this book and be disappointed that it's not a genital pop-up book?
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Hard News: Friday Music: Full-on First Person, in reply to Hebe,
I see this girl as open, showing vulnerability even. I find it disturbing that it is seen as being sexually provocative.
In a way it's a quintessential experience of being a teenage girl. There you are, wearing that cool skirt from Glassons you just bought, trying to be cool, trying not to be a total weirdo, when along comes some guy as old as your dad, who tells you you're being a bit of a saucy minx and you really shouldn't dress like that.
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Hard News: Friday Music: Full-on First Person, in reply to Max Rose,
It's hardly as if they're going for the Humbert Humbert market.
Heh, just imagine if Lorde had made a version of the "...Baby One More Time" video with her surly Takapuna Grammar mates.
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It doesn't help that the Lorde video refuses to do a traditional lip-sync, which some people find really really irritating. Like what the Pixies did with their "Here Comes Your Man" video.
It takes major presence to hold the camera like that for a whole song - like Sinead O'Connor in "Nothing Compares 2 U" or Alanis Morrissette in "Head Over Feet". It's a brave move for Lorde, but she pulls it off. It's more what's not shown in the video - the promise/threat of the unknown - that makes it work. What would she look like down at the tennis courts? With her hair down? Lip-synching the full song? And what is the bottom half of her shirt like? Crikey!
BTW, Benny Tipene's solo stuff is brilliant. He seems relentlessly focused on his music career, and even if he doesn't win The X Factor, surely he'll get snapped up by someone who recognises his many talents.
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Speaker: Music Extra: Manic Street…, in reply to JacksonP,
For reals? I find this hard to imagine.
Absolutely for reals! It's a completely weird booking, but it's sure to be interesting telly.
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And then just to make things even more awesome, they're going to perform on Monday night's elimination show of the X Factor. Seriously. This is fairly awesome as it means all the Moorhouse and Gap5 fans will be confronted with an act that's quite unlike anything that's previously happened on the show (though Benny Tipene came closest when he did a Smiths song).