Posts by Craig Ranapia
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I found it embarrassing to listen to.
I'd trust your call on that one, Russell, and that's what we should be focused on -- you know, that boring policy shit. And that's the point I was not making terribly well: You don't have to be some wide-eyed tweaker to think Obama and Cameron's policy positions are a little more important than what they were toasting their muffins with twenty years ago.
And am I totally out of line in finding Rudman's valentine to Andy Williams ever so slightly cringe-inducing? Even if I didn't thoroughly despise Williams, I'd find this a rather tiresome exercise in self-conscious contrarianism:
For central government it's something of a nightmare. While both Mr Banks and Mr Brown in recent weeks have been biting their tongues and trying to keep relations with the government civil, Mr Williams thrives on winding Wellington up.
If he's not messaging Mr Key at 3am, he's using the Official Information Act to dig out the embarrassing details of Local Government Minister Rodney Hide's "official" trips to London and North America.
He has also campaigned loudly on behalf of a better deal for victims of leaky homes, alleging the Government stood to gain $2 billion from house repairs.
Like his two main rivals, eccentricity is part of Mr Williams' make-up.
Around Easter this year, at the height of the furore over his peeing incident, he fired off an email to two of his persecutors saying, "Two blokes got crucified this week ... and both will most certainly rise from the dead to come back to haunt a few people".
A couple of months later, Mr Brown, under pressure because of his expense claims, declared he was "under extraordinary scrutiny and maybe Jesus Christ was the only one to withstand that and come out completely pure".
There was much simulated shock from opponents after both comments, but they were soon forgotten. As Mr Williams argued on Saturday, we like a touch of eccentricity in our mayors.
They're not the messiahs, Brian, they're naughty little boys. Not for the first time, I have to wonder if keeping the media entertained is really the highest goal of a functional democracy. Greater Auckland might actually need a grown up with a grasp of policy and the ability to build bridges rather than pre-emptively fire bomb the foundations, even if it bores Mr. Rudman and his colleagues to sobs.
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Ah... yes...well, I'm a bit ashamed of that post. It was a cheap shot comparing McCully and Key to dogs.
Sorry dogs.
I know standing up for Murray McCully is just asking for a faecal facial, but what other "support" was Pete Bethune expecting from the Foreign Affairs Minister? I certainly hope that if Katsuya Okada.tried to "intervene" in legal proceedings against a Japanese pro-whaling activist in this country, he'd be politely but firmly told to fuck off. At least I'd hope so.
And Scotty, you might want to think this line through:
Bethune's tactics may not be to everyone's tastes, but give the guy some credit, because he stands by his principles.
And the perpetrators of the Rainbow Warrior Bombing were standing by their principles too -- that the interests of the French state security apparatus trumped everything else, not least the life of the man they killed. I'm an old-fashioned girl, but there's some things that don't earn you a gold star for effort.
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Any idea what was so 'stunning[ly] restor[ed]' about that one? The sound was poor (at both sessions, I'm told) and visually, it was full of all the scratches and rips you'd expect of a 40-year-old print.
Well, to be fair, the print was in the condition you'd expect for one that's been in circulation for over three years. Cannes gets prints barely dry from the lab, we're seldom that fortunate.
Paramount let the elements degrade terribly -- I looked at my DVD this morning, and the colour transfer was noticeably muted and the sound less than optimum. I did notice the wow and flutter in a number of sequences but I understand that couldn't have been fixed without totally re-recording the sound from scratch.
Film negatives are seldom stored in optimum conditions (many films have basically degraded beyond repair), and this film only got restored at all because of a partnership between Scorsese's Film Foundation and the Rome Film Festival.
The studios themselves, in my opinion, are guilty of cultural vandalism of barbarian proportions. The one moment on the commentary track of my DVD of Vertigo where I almost had a heart attack was restoration producer Robert Harris saying that if they'd gotten the greenlight five years later it wouldn't have been possible. I know film restorations aren't cheap, but I think studios are being penny wise and pound foolish in letting their archives rot. It's not only culturally irresponsible, but bad business.
I wouldn't say major scratches or deteriation, just the usual stuff, but it just didn't look or sound restored at all, unlike Gone with the Wind, 2001 etc. which really were stunning.
3410: Oh, I agree with you that the 70th anniversary re-releases of Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz were astounding. To be quite blunt, it helps when the respective studios were willing to commit years and enormous sums to the effort. 2001 was also helped by Kubrick being anal, in the very best sense of the word -- giving his films a buffing for BluRay/DVD re-releases was vastly helped by a director with the eye of an artist and the soul of a librarian.
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I don't think I'd be making the same claim if Prast had admitted smoking Pot, Craig. If Obama had said he'd had a wee crack habit before deciding to run, I think we'd probably be looking at the first Female President of the USA.
But Obama did admit to using cocaine, and considering the circles that David Cameron moved in before entering politics it's not beyond the realms of plausibility that a line or two of nose candy passed his nasal membranes.
I'm not defending P in any way shape or form, but given my own rather messy relationship with alcohol (and the long unpleasant history of piss-head politicians) I don't know if an admitted history of drug (ab)use is an automatic credibility killer.
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Re: Andy Haden, I'm very interested to get the following information:
1) how many of his celebrity rugby mates have been charged with rape after having refused to pay a girl money.
2) how many of his celebrity rugby mates have been charged with rape (or perhaps anticipated a rape charge), and subsequently instructed their lawyer to pay the complainant off to make it all go away.Here's a more pertinent question for me, Heather:
How many past and present All Blacks have passed their lives able to go out in public without acting like Visigoths with erections at the sight of a pretty woman? Those professional sportsmen who don't treat women like semen spitoons should grow a pair and speak up.
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It was a comment on a TV show, Russell, not a Papal Bull.
Whatever happened to robust debate about things? Must we all agree on everything--and close down debate on all those who don't agree with us?
"Robust debate" requires someone starting off with a coherent argument that bears some relationship to reality. I've done wonders for my blood pressure and general mental health since I've stopped trying to rationally engage with the fundamentally irrational, or rewarding mental and spiritual infants with attention.
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I'm still waiting for my DVDs from last year :-)
After seeing 'Once Upon A Time in The West' in it's full Civic glory, you can have my Leone DVDs. They're dead to me... :) And there's Senso and The Red Shoes still to come. I know the financials probably wouldn't stack up, but I envy cities that can sustain (however precariously) a decent repertory cinema. (OK, I now know what to do when I win Lotto -- right next door to the bookshop.)
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Russell:
Any chances of opening a Film Festival thread? I'd much rather talk about the two fucking incredible films I saw yesterday sans thread-jack.
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You'd have to imagine that's Mr Prast's chances at the Mayoralty, fanciful as they were to begin with, now completely up in smoke. Yes, pun intended.
Two points worth making here:
The incumbent President of the United States and the Prime Minister of Great Britain didn't see their electoral prospects go "up in smoke" when they admitted to previous drug use.
And a less charitable soul would suggest that current and habitual chemical enhancement is the only rational explanation for the clown troika of Messers Banks, Brown and Williams. I guess the difference is that Obama and Cameron stood behind a serious and well-scrutinized policy platform.
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As for Haden - he is entirely entitled to freely express his opinions, God knows they are shared by enough of his fellow New Zealanders.
He's not free to accuse anyone of committing a pretty damn serious criminal offence. Perhaps I'm totally out of the mainstream of public opinion here, but I take a very dim view of false and malicious rape allegations and wouldn't accuse anyone of such a vile thing without being absolutely certain of my facts.
To be honest, Tom, I don't give a shit if Deaker was "setting up" Haden. He's a grown-up who has to take responsibility for his actions, and their consequences.
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