Posts by philipmatthews
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Currently making my way through Peter Carey's Parrot and Olivier in America. Like it very much - although it'd probably be even better if I'd read any de Tocqueville beforehand (the book draws heavily upon Democracy in America).
Might check that out on your recommendation. I've found Carey to be surprisingly hit and miss this past decade -- True History of the Kelly Gang was excellent but both My Life as a Fake and His Illegal Self were pretty disappointing, I thought.
I've just finished Junot Diaz's slim but very impressive story collection Drown which came out about 13 years ago. He had a massive case of writer's block/performance anxiety or what have you following it up with -- eventually -- The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, a novel I'd recommend to anyone.
Also: without wishing to reignite the PAS SF genre wars of not that long ago, there is a fairly monumental review by China Mieville of the JG Ballard collected stories at The Nation this week, where "the Atwood issue" -- as I'll euphemistically call it -- is mentioned in passing. Mieville also works in a crack at Martin Amis, which is no bad thing:
-
Lewis is to Tamaki what Stringer Bell is to Avon Barksdale.
(Have just belatedly finished Season One of The Wire)
Does that make John Campbell Omar? (Helps to have seen last night's Campbell Live )
-
Relevant quotes from a story about Anika Moa and her wedding in The Press today:
"Some papers in Auckland said some lies – don't believe everything you read. Journalists are different up there, there are some good ones but some of them are evil. I got hounded by Woman's Day to tell my story and I didn't want to do it. I felt for what Alison Mau went through. I had to get my manager to tell them to back off. The Herald on Sunday has a new gossip column, too, which is just awful. It hurts people."
Story here: http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/music/3411489/Anika-Moa-on-her-wedding
-
Palmy's a flood plain - it's right on the Manawatu River. What about Masterton? :-)
I knew that was going to backfire on me. So, Masterton. Or Timaru.
-
Still, you've got to love the cheerful obliviousness with with human beings build cities on flood plains, malarial swamps, fault lines and the flanks of active volcanoes.
The alternative is living in Palmerston North.
-
I see.
It's much like the et al project. Only without the art.
-
In Bats-related trivia, there was a lovely moment during Jens Lekman's recent set opening for Joanna Newsom in Christchurch: aware he was in the Bats' home town, he told his audience he wished he had something as brilliant and simple -- not his exact words, but close enough -- as "Block of Wood".
-
Tracy: Pull your head in. I put quotes around struggle because it was in fact a quote not because I was belittling the idea. I'm not telling anyone how to behave or what to do. Your struggles and difficulties are not the only kinds of struggles and difficulties.
-
It's very easy to forget that there's a big wide world out there -- and it doesn't all look like New Zealand, or the nice enlightened corner of teh interwebz call Public Address.
On a scale of one to ten, your patronising goes up to 11, Craig.
-
he didn't actually admit to any hot man-on-man action
I don't think there's any serious doubt about said action. This is Haggard's wife talking in the NY Daily News a little over a month ago:
Haggard admitted that her husband, who once led a church of nearly 14,000 worshipers, had a homosexual relationship early in their marriage.
"I think at that point I was ignorant of the gravity," she said.
"I felt as though, you know, we all struggle, you know, in different areas of our lives, and certainly in our sexuality, so I was willing to forgive him."
Haggard said he sought counseling then, and told her it wouldn't happen again.
"I felt as though the problem was pretty much solved," she said. But "it would reemerge in his life from time to time, and he wouldn't tell me about it."
Haggard also recounted the moment she learned there was "some truth" to the 2006 claims of drugs and gay sex that disgraced the religious leader, who at his height reportedly consulted with President George W. Bush.
To me, the public interest here isn't just the hypocrisy of an influential evangelist getting caught doing what he speaks against; it is that his story illustrates the sheer falsity of the idea -- still promoted by Haggard and others like him -- that homosexuality is a disorder that can be cured through counseling. If you're going to define your sexuality as a "struggle" -- rather than accept it and ask others to accept it -- this is what happens, right?