Posts by Grant McDougall
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Hard News: A right old Barney, in reply to Russell Brown,
The bottom line for me and everyone I knew was that NO had been interesting but a bit of a mess, and that they clearly weren’t in the same league as Simple Minds at Mainstreet a few months earlier. Those guys tore the roof off the joint and just blew people away. NO, not so much.
Intriguing.
A mate of mine saw that Simple Minds gig and reckons much the same. He next saw them in early '84 at Sweetwaters and reckons they were, in his words "stadium rock shit" then.
It's as if they made some sort of Faustian pact to bland out their music in exchange for becoming huge. -
I don't think they're half the band they once were creatively and the falling-out with Peter Hook is very unseemly, but nonetheless I hope they play a damn good show all the same.
John Cooper Clarke is performing at the Dunedin Fringe festival in March too, btw.
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Capture: Ngāi Tahu, in reply to Russell Brown,
And suddenly, I am put in mind of Leo Koziol's wonderful Naked in Nukaha series of writings.
It's a great little place and certainly inspired a decent amount of writing over the years. Andrew Fagan had a poem about it in one of his poetry books in the late '80s and Richard Langston also had one in one of his poetry books.
Apart from Nuhaka being nice unto itself, the nearby Mahia Peninsula features soem of the finest beaches in the country, or if it's cold you can go up the road a few kms to the Morere thermal pools.
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Adrienne, Jackson, many thanks for the fine photos.
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Capture: Ngāi Tahu, in reply to JacksonP,
When we first starting planning this, Adrienne offered images of either Ngāi Tahu or various places around the country, including the East Cape, which has a special resonance for me.
As a former Gisborne lad, I'd love to see some East Coast pics, too. It really is a unique part of the country.
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So which are the actual safe / safe-ish roads regularly used by cyclists in Auckland ? There must be some, surely they're not all as hazardous as Tamaki Drive ?
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"What we need in Auckland is quite separate cycle lanes."
The evidence from other cities is that this is both possible and practical. So let's start doing it, now.
As a non-Aucklander, I'd like some more info on this, please. Of the main popular cycling routes, how many have separate cycle lanes - or are there none at all ? If there are none or very few, this is just extraordinary. You'd think the Supercity Council (or its predecessors) would've been more proactive about creating them.
It's just baffling that they haven't. Also, I admire anyone who cycles in such crazy conditions, they're braver than I am.
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My perspective on 'Radio'...a heart-bursting arrangement of (yet more) strings and Bel Air keyboards.
It sounds like the second half of Can's majestic Future Days ? Crikey.
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I gotta admit, my first reaction when this story broke wasn't "Wow, big crime and IT story" but "This guy lives in the outskirts of Auckland ?".
I see Winston Peters is already trying to manipulate it into a political story too, surprise, surprise.
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I was at the first one too Andre and share your sentiments.
The BDO was discussed on Radio One this morning. Host Aaron Hawkins said the best comment he'd heard was that the end of the BDO was like putting down a much-loved family pet: it's all, new, young, vibrant and exciting for the first few years, then settles into a comfortable, rewarding familiarity. But then in recent years it's gotten old, dribbly and toothless and while it's not nice, it's for it's own good that it's put down.