Posts by Matthew Littlewood
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Walsh uses the example of eye-gouging; how much do you want to win that you are willing to damage another person's sight?
And yet in another way, it's not the best example, because eye gouging, and similarly violent incidents, are more frequently picked up and punished in the professional era.
Even compare the way rucking is done now to clips of the 70s matches- the stuff I've seen is actually quite uncomfortable to watch at times.
I think the professional era has been stronger on preventing outright thuggery, but maybe less so on cyncism- if he brought up diving, that would've been a very good example.
I think the real downside of encroaching professionalism is the loss of connection- the Franchise system US has is an extreme example, as, no matter what loyalty the supporters may have to the team, the franchise owner can up and leave- as evidenced in the last couple of years with the Seattle Supersonics NBA team. On a more frequent level, it's the way players are bought and sold, treated as brands rather than teammembers.
Then there's the focus on the Bottom Line, of which the NZRFU seems to be obsessed with at the moment, much to the detriment of the long term future and prosperity of the sport. Which in turn leads to leads to a system of haves and have nots, which is most apparent in Premier League Football.
It's not so much the sport, or even the results themselves, so much as the more nerfarious stuff around it. The loss of perspective, as the original post sagely puts it.
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Anyone of a certain age (say, 30s, early 40s), who liked Freaks and Geeks and who has a penchant for good 80s music (of the Replacements and Husker Du variety, although some 70s Nick Lowe and Big Star make appearances too) will probably like Adventureland. Very sweet, very funny.
I'm assuming someone in his 20s who likes all of those things will enjoy it too? :)
Anyway, I'm looking forward to it- as well as the Baader-Meinhoff film, Herzog's new doco, In the Loop, Soul Power and Departures. Thank christ I booked my annual leave to coincide with the Dunedin Film Fest screenings.
God I love the Regent Theatre. -
Nothing really to add except that was a really nicely written piece, Jolisa Gracewood.
Loved your diatribe about driving- I think it's even worse in smaller towns in NZ. Mind you, the very fact they gave me a licence is a damning indictment on our country's road safety....
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@Craig- Fair enough. I was commenting more on the fact that TV 3 had to use Cameron Bloody Slater. Other than all the other stuff about him that's well documented, he doesn't even give good quote- which is why lazy hacks go to the commentators in the first place.
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Btw- just to avoid confusion, I was implying that when it comes to media, Mr Jim Tully is a sage and wise individual, unlike Mr Slater, who is....well....never mind.
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Absolutely Rob- although, given my current employment, of course I would say that. There is something really egalitarian about a good newspaper, specifically because of its role as a journal of record.
Obviously there is a lot of give and take, and as Simon points out, in many cases, the newspapers in question only have themselves to blame for their current state.
I think the amusing thing is that as anyone who has studied the history of the media is that, in a weird way, we've been here before- more than 200 years ago, with the rise of journal culture.
It was fascinating doing a research essay on it for an honours English literature course, because so much of the approach is similar- not least in the fervency of the "debate" and the sheer furiousness of each of the scribes all out for something of their own.
The main difference between now and then, is that the speed of information transfer is far quicker, but those early Spectators and Tatlers really set out the new rules of engagement. And then there's Alexander Pope's the Dunciad, which delves depths that even the more unhinged kiwiblog user wouldn't countenance, albeit with much greater command of the English language.
But again, I'm probably getting myself between blogging as commentary and blogging as news-breaking.
Maybe in the future Tom Tomorrow will be the only trusted new source. We could do worse.
Just as an aside, who in good grace at TV 3 decided that Cameron Slater should be asked for comment about the NBR's plans? Did they want Jim Tully to look particularly intelligent during that segment or something? It's not as if he needs any help....
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That vid from ABC - is that the smell of denial? At least, from Mr David Simon, of unverified fear. It's the same as the copyright argument - "Change is bad, fear change" "We're not making as much money as we did, so someone must be blamed. It's the damn bloggers!".
Well, maybe it would seem that way, if you never read his full address, which is one of the more clear-eyed, if dissillusioned assesments on the state of newspapers today. If anything he's more critical of the US newspaper industry than bloggers- particularly the way they constantly shot themselves in the foot by refusing to invest in R&D,cutting away at key rounds and continually following the short-term profit model long before the internet reared its head.
Have a read of it here. Seriously. I'd be surprised if you disagree with it, becase he's essentially making the same points as you.
It's a tangled web, but publishes essential have to figure out whether they want to produce quality online or quality in print. And if they want both, then they need different models, business and journalistically for each. I would argue that at the moment, there is a lot of good commentary online, not so much actual hard journalism- as we can see by the fact that some of the more popular "news" sites, such as the Huffington Post, are aggregators. It's not so much a news source as a source where news is stored.
But that will change. What I find strange is how a magazine like Vanity Fair can get away with releasing all of their articles for free online and still make a relatively tidy profit from magazine sales. I mean, their features aren't thumbnail sketches by any stretch. Perhaps it's all about strength in brand.
Great opening post RB- there's a lot I agree with there. There are things I want to say but I'm bound by the fact I still want to keep my current job!
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Anyone wanting to get a handle on the strange story of Palin could do worse than Todd Parnum's piece in the latest Vanity Fair, which paints an interesting picture of a woman riddled with so many inconsistencies that the only consistent aspect about her seems to be her utter contempt for anyone who stands in her way.
Or maybe, it requires the reliably sane (and still awesome) Tom Tommorrow to sum things up.
Then again, Tom Tomrrow, along with Paul Krugman, are two "commentators" (for want of a better term- I'm fully aware Krugman has another identity as a Nobel-winning economist on Trade Theory) who seem to have approached the new age with the same amount of healthy skepticism and honesty as they have over last eight years.
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Actually, no, take that back- "Wanna Be Starting Something" still sounds great, notorious plagarism and all. "Billie Jean," "Beat It", "Thriller"...well, I'm done as soon as the first note begins.
As an aside, there's a very strong argument that the music business model popularised, if not necessarily pioneered, by the success of Thriller (i.e. release every song off the album as a single, hype each song with massive, expensive videos, blanket advertise in the belief that people will buy it through sheer exposure), sowed the seeds for much of the music industry's failings later on.
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Don't want to talk about the personal life, the scandal of Jackson. All that goes without saying, doesn't it. I will say of all the deaths I predicted for Jackson, a heart attack never figured. Nor the fact he was 50. And that he leaves behind 3 kids.
I should say that last year I finally picked up Off the Wall, in its remastered form, brand new for $2 at the Warehouse. Hell, that just boggles the mind.Anyway, what strikes most about it is the fact it's at once astronomically arrogant and yet, in its own way, utterly weightless. Quincy Jones's arrangements play a huge part in that- the way the synths and the horns, and hell, even the guitars glide over everything, but it's also the way Jackson sings on that record. I know it goes without saying, but there's something incredibly alien about the way his voice floats on "Rock with You", or the way it jitters with the supreme awareness of someone who only knows one life on "Working Day and Night", or the fact that as soon as you hear that opening falsetto on "Don't Stop Till You Get Enough", it practically stamps itself in your brain for eternity.
If I'm honest, I'm more inclined to play Chic than this record, but I'm always struck by the freakish absense of doubt throughout this record (which of course means it exists in an entirely different galaxy to Chic, who were all about doubt, and cynicisim, buried beneath the cut-glass grooves)- every single note has to fit in that place, every single vocal trill could only follow the last one, and while it slips up on the ballads ("She's Out of My Life" sets my teeth on edge at five paces), it's redeemed by the disco.
Easy to say now, but it's pretty much a culmination, and indeed, lamination of the style. For better or worse, but who cares when most of it is so good.
Btw, if I'm honest, I actually can't listen to any of the songs off Thriller these days- was there ever a time when those songs were fresh, and free from the shackles of over-familiarity? Probably not in my lifetime.
Obligatory "Michael Jackson was my first album anecdote": the first casette I ever owned was Bad, which was given to me, aged 5, after winning a talent quest.
Also, I'm pretty sure I owned the Michael Jackson "Moonwalk" game on the Sega Mastersystem, for my sins. Again, I was given it.
Obligatory Michael Jackson "Moonwalk" video.
Btw, that sucks about Steven Wells. I came to his writing pretty late, and in many ways, he was very one-note, but he did that note well and when he was on he was hilarious.
That site has some touching tributes- nice to see some familiar rock crit names (Elliot True, Kitty Empire, David Quatnick...)