Posts by philipmatthews
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Ah, the brown note - I heard about it as a rumour attached to the Butthole Surfers, but it seems to be an urban myth. Shame, no illegal bowel disruptors for us...
I think the same sort of thing was said about the Swans. Who used to play very loud indeed during the Holy Money/Public Castration era. This quote from Michael Gira: "I used volume as a way to become transported by the music. The sheer physicality of it was so enthralling. It just felt good."
And this description from an old Simon Reynolds live review, from Melody Maker, 1986:
Some bands use noise to blow the mind. The Swans music acts more like a compression of consciousness, a soul mangling. We were frozen in their noise, our minds unable to wander.
Wish I'd seen that.
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Didn't the Foundation select their winners long before this storm blew up?
They did, but they seem to have discussed whether or not to revoke it, as in the Herald story from Wednesday:
Ihimaera had told the foundation of the plagiarism claim before it became public and it did generate discussion among the selectors.
However, Mr [Arts Foundation executive director Simon] Bowden said those things weren't enough to change their minds because Ihimaera was an artist whose writing had been enjoyed by generations. Though Mr Bowden had had only positive reaction from those he had spoken to about the issue, he accepted there could be some adverse feedback from the arts community. He believed most would congratulate the Arts Foundation on carrying on with the award.
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Ahead was a jewel sparkling in a sea of indescribable beauty; dark purple, pink, streaked with layers of gold and deepening to vermilion. Just below the surface was a layer of pink jellyfish, like a bed of aquatic flowers strewn across our pathway. Then, leaping, spraying high, came a school of great giant whales to create an avenue of arching rainbows.
Hopefully he can add unicorns in v2.
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Hang on though, who's the victim of Ihimaera's crimes?
The authors of the books quoted? Have they sued for copyright infringement? Or is a quote (especially of reported historical dialogue) fair use, even if unattributed?
I dare you to open one of these "what-is-plagiarism-and-why-is-it-a-crime?" cans of worms at this stage. I write as a veteran of last weekend's PA plagiarism wars ...
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Especially since it should be pusillanimousness.
Thanks for that. His typo corrected.
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Hopefully Peter Wells won't mind if his comment at Graham Beattie's blog, under the CK Stead story Giovanni linked to, is also posted here. Only Peter can get away with phrases like "poltroons of pusillanimousness" ...
Thank you CK Stead for saying something so obvious. The role of Auckland University in this is scandalous. They are the poltroons of pusillanimousness. The least they can do is say they are investigating the novel closely to establish how much is 'sampled' without creditation. But to wave it all aside is to embrace the most fatuous aspects of celebrity culture.
It interests me that there is a resounding silence from other authors on this subject.
'Cultural sensitivity' can become a gag. We all like and to a degree respect Witi for his past work. But the fact is as authors we all labour daily with the problem of 'making it new', creating something - it is very hard work - so this instance of 'sampling' cannot be brushed away as some small fault, which somehow happened without anyone knowing about it...or taking responsibillity - until - humiliatingly - the author in question is caught out.
I also have to say the acceptance of the 'laureate award' was a masterpiece of mistiming for this one-time diplomat. -
apparently - I didn't see the end result - Rollins didn't take the banter in great spirit, hoisted Chris off the ground and pinned to him to a wall while advising him not to do it again.
fair dinkum?
I seem to remember Graham Reid writing about this. If Graham's out there, maybe he can pop in and, er, lay it on us. I have a vague memory of the story but not sure how reliable -- I wasn't there (if there's one thing I hate more than Rollins' music it's his spoken word, although I admire what he's done in publishing; but overall a hugely over-rated individual in my view).
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funniest crowd interaction had to be the pissed-up plonker who tried to start an argument with Jello Biafra about vegetarianism
Speaking of Jello Biafra, a great description of lively crowd interaction during a Dead Kennedys visit to Auckland in 1983:
They slam into Moral Majority. A song about organised religion. The messy frantic song breaks down toward the end as fighting sparks out on the dance floor between punks and bootboys.
“HOLD IT!” Biafra shouts. “If you want to fight, get the fuck outta here. If all you wanna do is spread violence, why don’t you just leave? Why don’t you just fuckin’ leave? Yeah, you.” He points to a skinhead. “You’re too small,” Biafra points to his head, “Up here.” This provokes more loud cheers and clapping from the crowd (“Dog bite on your leg”).
“Why don’t you leave if all you want to do is hit people. You wonder why no-one respects you, and now we know. Macho insecurity, here we go again,” Biafra continues. The skins are fighting, abusing Biafra and sieg heiling. Biafra pistons the mic twenty feet out at them and hits one in the jaw. The bootboy tries to climb up onto the stage. An old hippie roadie lets loose a flying kick, but the lucky skin is pulled back by his mates just in time. He retreats, continuing to yell abuse, and spit blood. Biafra taunting him: “How hardcore. I’ve got a song for you called Nazi Rednecks Fuck Off.”
Sourced from Andrew Schmidt's Mysterex. Link here:
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Aren't these interesting quotes? From the Stuff story that just went up.
When accepting the laureate award yesterday, Ihimaera explained to Stuff.co.nz, the unacknowledged use of other authors' material in his book came about as he struggled to create a new form of fiction.
"I believe that what I am trying to do with The Trowenna Sea, which is a big novel, is something that is just a little bit different in terms of the genre of historic fiction.
"Normally with historic fiction what you get is a piece of work where history is treated as fiction. But with The Trowenna Sea, I have always tried to be on the cutting edge of fictional devices, what I have been attempting to do with that book is to create fiction as history. So I think what Trowenna Sea is, is the beginning of a hybrid book in which [you have] the problematics of acknowledgement of historical material and historical inspirations. Where you have non fiction writers traversing that area then they can use footnotes but fiction writers can't so I am having to try to figure out creative ways of addressing that and I think that what we will end up with is in fact a very, very exciting new approach to creating a framework to those new fictions.
"The first draft for instance was completely historical. With historical fiction what you traditionally get is the history as background but I wasn't happy with that because as a Maori writer detail is important to me and so therefore making sure that detail wasn't background but fully integrated into the whole novel itself is what I was attempting."
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I do wonder though how much less tolerant I've become as I've aged. My son and I went to the Red Hot Chili Peppers at Vector a wee while ago. I got distinctly bored and grumpy at the end when they turned into a pointlessly noodling jam band.
You're not wrong and definitely not intolerant. RHCPs are rubbish, a fraud perpetrated on popular music. There's a great Nick Cave anecdote in a Guardian review of the RHCPs' Stadium Arcadium (I mean, the title alone ...):
Two years ago, when asked about current music, Nick Cave focused his ire on one band in particular. "I'm forever near a stereo saying, 'What the fuck is this GARBAGE?'" he fumed. "And the answer is always the Red Hot Chili Peppers."