Posts by Ethan Tucker
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Hard News: Holiday Music: Pop TV Lives, in reply to Russell Brown,
If you've not seen the DVD version, the chummy insiders' intro by Mark Ellen & David Hepworth sets the scene nicely:
ME: This is fantastic footage, and a couple of things struck me about it. One was that this is 'The Wailers', before Island Records repositioned them as 'Bob Marley & The Wailers' and before Peter Tosh and Bunny [Wailer] walked out, and Bob was then able to get a group roughly the same height as himself... and you hear the backing vocals done then by Peter Tosh, who is just a matchless singer.
DH: And this is the first time the Wailers came to the UK, so this is 1973.
ME: On a tour that was almost a disaster.
DH: As far as I know, they did Whistle Test, they played Leeds University, it snowed.
ME: They couldn't get any vegetarian food, they were homesick and miserable.
DH: And they said that's it, we're off home.
ME: The other thing that struck me about this performance is that it must have been really hard for them coming on and doing those Whistle Test shows. Coming to a big old cold studio, playing to three camera operatives.
DH: Three blokes in cardigans! Two of them would've had pipes. And they wore headphones in order to keep the noise away! So this was not the most sympathetic atmosphere for Bob Marley to work in.
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Hard News: Holiday Music: Pop TV Lives, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
I sometimes record Letterman just to flick to the end to see who's playing live. And what about this NZ moment from 2008, when Liam Finn plays Second Chance with EJ Barnes? Love how Letterman sounds a bit concerned when Finn finishes his fantastic drum solo in a frenzy.
Now all I need to do is find that Letterman clip - if it's out there - of the tiny Oscar-era Anna Paquin shooting a mean basket long-shot using her school netball skills and winning $10,000 for charity.
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Hard News: Holiday Music: Pop TV Lives, in reply to JacksonP,
LOVE the Whistle Test (b.1971 d.1987). These two favourites are both from the first DVD compilation, which has some great stuff on it:
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Brown could take a lot of the heat out of the present situation if he said, 'I am the best person to lead Auckland for the next three years, but I acknowledge that I have brought the office into some disrepute. Therefore I will not stand for re-election in 2016'. Then (if we're being cynical) in 2016 he could miraculously change his mind and would probably win again.
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Doors - 7.30pm
That Jim Morrison sure gets around these days. (I'm here all week.)
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I'm utterly happy to be an atheist but can also dig the pure joy in this taut, springy song for Big Ol' Jesus by the Reverend Al Green. First heard it on a great Under The Influence compilation by Paul Heaton from the Beautiful South, who has impeccable taste.
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Hard News: The non-binary council, in reply to Russell Brown,
...depending on where you voted, there were whole slates of "Independent" candidates offering similar blandishments. But it seems that prior party allegiances aren't a great predictor in Auckland local body politics.
Yes, I agree. While some candidates may have left a considerable trail of political activism on the internet, most voters aren't inclined to spend hours hunting around for obscure evidence. I'm not saying that political party membership is something to be ashamed of - far from it. Political parties are a great shorthand that make decision-making easier for voters, and I think that voluntary disclosure would be beneficial, particularly when the forms of media that most people rely on (TV, major newspapers) don't delve too deeply into the stated policy platforms of the candidates.
That's also a good point about party loyalties not being a perfect predictor. It's encouraging that once in office councillors can work across the spectrum - Parliamentarians do it too, but generally it's behind the scenes in select committees, where it's not reported. I agree with another poster who mentioned the Generation Zero survey - that's another good example of how a policy-based initiative can tease out a more meaningful platform amongst the tendency to generalise.
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Perhaps instead of worrying about online voting a simpler solution would be to survey every candidate before the next local elections and ask them 'are you a current or former member of any political party, and if so, name them'. And refuse to cast your votes for anyone who declines to participate. I think much of the confusion and lack of engagement in the elections results from candidates hiding behind the independent label and recycling identikit generalities in their candidate statements. If they were up-front and stated their party loyalties it would make voting decisions much easier.
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Noting the demotion of Trevor Mallard, I wonder if this means there's a stronger possibility of Winston Peters being offered the Speaker's chair if a Labour/Green coalition needs his votes. Poacher turned gamekeeper.
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Thanks for posting the California Soul remix - I'd not heard that track before. The 1969 original by Marlena Shaw is pretty snappy in its own right too: