Posts by Jackie Clark
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
I'm strictly a mainstream kind of woman, music wise, mostly. So I have no stunningly obscure personal best NZ albums to share. My favourite NZ album of all time is a toss up between Hello Sailors' Last Chance to Dance (1982), and th' Dudes' Right First Time (1979) Th' Dudes win marginally, because I was 15 when they burst on the scene, and that record was the catalyst for the start of my 30 year love affair with the music of Dobbyn. I went to the St James show last year, and they were even better this time around.
-
I've seen reproductions of Jackson Pollock's Blue Poles hundreds of times, but standing before the physical object in the NGA is over-whelming.
I'm afraid that I lived in London for three years, and only went in the National Art Gallery once - I went in the front door, almost fainted with the emotion of being in the same building as so many of the paintings I knew as an Art History major, and had to leave forthwith. The Tate I could handle (I stood for hours in front of the Ucello), the Cortauld Collection was wonderful ( hold your hand just centimetres away from a Rembrandt and tell me you don't feel the love), but the NAG was just too, too much.
-
Thanks for that Russell. It would be far too easy, as the editorial says, to dismiss what was heard, on the surveillance tapes, as the ramblings of wannabes. But to my mind, the police were justified in mounting the surveillance, carrying out the arrests and attempting to secure convictions. It is one thing to talk about the machinations of revolution, and quite another to act. These people were practising, however. And isn't that the step before the real thing? They may never have walked their talk, and I suspect some in the group were more radical than others, but I'm glad that they were intercepted. The Dominion has done NZers a favour.
-
Thanks so much Leo for the clips. Like the others said, post some more soon, now, y'hear?
-
Congratulations, Margaret! And David, please try and ignore silly troll-y people. I am childless by choice, and I didn't think that was a whiny post at all. It was completely delightful to read. I think the others will agree when I say that there isn't too much that makes one laugh out loud, and your writing about your lovely boy surely raised more than a few audible chuckles from me. As a kindergarten teacher for the last decade or so, I have met alot of parents. (Not to mention that I'm 43, and come from a huge family and circle of friends and have always been surrounded by junior human beings). All of them from different cultures, different socio-economic strata, different upbringings, different ages. I have taught the children of Somalian refugees, and the children of multi generational Kiwi families; I have taught the children of university professors and cleaners; I have taught the children of 20 year olds and 50 year olds; I have taught the children of gang members and churchgoers.For all those differences, all of them have had several things in common. They want the best for their child/children; they want you as a teacher to care about their child; they all want their child to be happy people with successful lives - whatever those words may mean to them. And all of them, rest assured, have lived through the sleepless nights, the wrenchingly heartbreaking screaming, the helplessness, the projectile vomit. All of them have also experienced the joy and love and responsibility of being the primary role model for a very small, very vulnerable human being. Like most jobs, when you take it on, you do the best you know how. I love reading your writing about parenthood, and Jolisa's, because it's honest and funny. The world needs more honest and funny. Your little man will continue to grow and flourish, and so will you. And that's as it should be.
-
Oh god that was funny, David. Funny and honest. Good for you.
-
I like fireworks, my dog likes fireworks. Ban them? And then what do the people who like to make things go bang do?
-
lovely boy he is - I may not be the demographic for his wee travel show, but I am enjoying it nonetheless.
-
See, I don't care if two grown men had a fisticuffs, and I certainly don't give a toss whether Mallard got sacked or not. And I sure as hell wouldn't give a stuff about the reshuffle either - except I am delighted that Chris Carter is the Minister of Education. I liked Mallard for one reason only - he got us kindergarten teachers pay parity with Primary. Good man. Steve Maharey? Oh dear, not good from an ECE point of view. But Chris Carter? He'll do us, thanks very much.
-
Memorable meals, there have been a few. My first meal of snails - I was about 10 I think, and we were at the White Heron hotel restaurant. Loved those. Rare roast beef on Sundays when I worked at a wee pub called the Inn on the Pond in the depths of Surrey. Hated the people I worked with, loved the food. My mother's gin chops. Fantastic. All the Xmas meals I've ever had with my family. The venison steaks my brothers cook. The lamb fillet my brother Marcus cooks. Any meal that includes potato salad - the anglokiwi version is lovely, but I adore the Cook Island version way more. Mayonnaise is the BEST. (Pronounced Minus, or at least that's the way my mate Aue says it). As a child, my father took us out to dinner alot - and in those days, the only good places to eat in Auckland were in hotels or places like Four Steps to Heaven or the Gourmet or the Tony's restaurants, or even places like Michaels in Takapuna. And funnily enough, it was Tony's Britannia in Takapuna that gave me one of my major thrills as a child. They had a salad bar, and sizzling steaks and baked potatoes with sour cream. It was paradise, or that's how I remember it at least.