Posts by Craig Ranapia
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It's a pretty hard brief. Even private studios that run solely for profit can't reliably pick winners.
Of course you can't, and Peter Jackson should know that better than anyone. I don't think there's any way you could spin The Frighteners as the commercial or critical highlight of his career. But it did build relationships in Hollywood for Jackson and Weta that paid off spectacularly down the line.
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Without disagreeing with any of the above sentiments, I'd be grateful if we could stop short of bringing down a rape conviction on the basis of a thing we heard on the news.
Entirely fair there, Russell. I just wish the likes of Ms. Woodham and Mr. Laws would extend the same courtesy all the way round. Making false criminal complaints and committing perjury are far from trivial offences.
Laws, in particular, has a very nasty habit of aiming intemperate abuse at people who don't have fifteen hours a week of radio air-time and a newspaper column to return fire.
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Oh, crap. I saw all the tweeting about that on Sunday, and had managed to avoid actually reading it. Then I clicked on your link, and now I have a sore head. From all the banging, you see.
I personally find it rather hard to argue with the headline that "If women want sexual freedom, they must accept sexual responsibility." Would be nice if women weren't expected to take on sexual responsibility for the animal penis brains as well... How have I survived all these years as a flaming faggot, without the restraining balm of a slutty (yet demure) angel of the hearth to keep my bestial instincts under control?
And the most bile-inducing passage from Ms. Woodham's piece:
The courts are there to deal with crimes that are alleged to have been committed; it appears the media's there to allow women scorned but not criminally-abused to wreak their vengeance.
Yes, because the columnists of the Sunday papers never tried, convicted and assassinated Louise Nicholas' character as a mentally unstable, vindictive whore...
ETA: Stephen -- stop poking the angry lady.
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In brief, this
Yeah, Michael Laws the brave speaker of truth to power. We all know he prefers to smear "brown slugs", parents who don't live up to his exquisite moral standards and people he can get rid off with a dump switch.
And I've got reason to think that Mike should be careful what he wishes for when he starts riding this moral high horse:
And who has more influence? A former All Black or a journalist? The answer is obvious – the latter. So why are not the private lives and pasts of journalists, broadcasters, newscasters and news editors not subject to the same scrutiny?
If bullying and beating up Brooke for actions of over a decade ago is their sport, then the accusers need to have their private pasts examined and published as well. Let's see if their own histories stand up to scrutiny.
OK, Laws -- let's play this game by your rules, and remind everyone exactly why you resigned from Parliament shall we?
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Having said that, Geoff Cumming has a reasonably even-handed summary about where it all leaves Brown (other than claims that the unfavourable publicity is all just coincidental).
Meh... well I'm going to say this again, since The Herald doesn't seem to give a shit, but my entirely parochial and unscientific read is that the turrn out on the Shore is going to be the worse ever unless both Brown and Banks get a clue. As things stand, there's over a quarter million people who can reasonably come to the conclusion that their next Mayor knows nothing, and cares even less, about anything happening north of the Harbour Bridge.
Those views seem rather different from published polls of the general public.
Well, yes. Just as I'm sure if The Herald polled Maori/PI or Asian voters, the results wouldn't necessarily be the same as "the general public". To be honest, I'm not really in the mood to do a fisk on the methodology, or the quality or otherwise of commentary on those results, but it's not necessarily a worthless argument. To be honest, I think Banks has a lot more to worry about than Brown.
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May I draw attention to Sir Pete's Film Commission review?
You certainly may. I'm sure there's PASers out there who are much more informed about the local film industry than I. but while the report most definitely is *cough* provocative and full of think-food, am I the only one wondering if there's some very unrealistic expectations of the Film Commission? And at the risk of being bitchy, if Jackson wants to talk about "rewarding mediocrity" then I hope he got paid DGA scale for The Lovely Bones. As indie producer (and mother of the New Queer Cinema) Christine Vachon said on Kim Hill's show recently, if there was some fool-proof algorithm for determining which films would be artistic and commercial successes, everyone would be doing it.
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Board chairman Christopher Dempsey says the controversial character is being honoured for focusing attention on water privatisation and pushing for transparency in council contracts. "If you put aside her persistent techniques - the controversial heat that she generates - she has done very valuable services for us."
Ah yes, well I guess Mr Dempsey can put those "techniques" aside quite easily. Russell, on the other hand, might want to chime in on whether his opinion of Bright and the Water Pressure Group have much changed since he said this on BFM back in February 2002, (or posted this on Public Address in December of the same year) :
Meanwhile, the Water Pressure Group, the people who delivered John Banks his majority on council, are carrying on as usual. Their media spokesperson, Penny Bright has released her correspondence with Auckland Central MP Judith Tizard, apparently believing it makes her look good and Tizard look bad. Quite the opposite, really.
What I find really extraordinary is Bright whingeing about "personal attacks on myself". Pardon? These are the people who've spent years making nasty, abusive attacks on Penny Sefuiva and Bruce Hucker and anyone else who does not share their religion.
I've had email abuse from them in the past, after I criticised the appalling way they hounded the terminally ill Phil Raffils at his home - and then not only failed to apologise but tried to bring a police prosecution against him. I daresay I'll cop some again. That's pretty much their style. I'm sick of walking my kids past their ugly, aggressive signage in Grey Lynn. It's not their views - I don't entirely disagree with them - it's their consistently horrible behaviour.
Perhaps The Dorklander's little puff piece should be cross-posted in the 'Disingenuous Media' & 'Grade-A lunacy. With your money' threads? Nor am I much surprised by Banks' "quasi-magnanimousness" -- I guess thuggish turkeys of a feather flock together, especially when they both think they're too righteous to bother with respecting people or the law, or show some common decency towards people they don't like.
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If you're an older, well-respected lady comic, you can be very surprising indeed: I actually cried with laughter at Bea Arthur's bit during the roast of Pamela Anderson
Yeah, but you know something: I have the the oddest suspicion that Pamela Anderson's big-titted airhead persona aside, she's actually smart enough to realise what being the guest of honour at a Friar's Club Roast entails. And like Dolly Parton, she's in on the joke more than anyone.
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I have become very jaundiced these days about the fuss that gets made everytime someone makes a joke about the Holocaust. Not because i don't think the holocaust was a uniquely horrific event, but because of the way an insincere hyper-sensitivity over the holocaust is used by right wing commentators to shut down anyone who might dare criticise Jewish lobbyists, or the Jewish state.
Oh, FFS, Tom... I'm sorry to tell you this, but perhaps there's a fuss from people who perfectly sincerely regard the attempted genocide of European Jewry as no more amusing than the Rape of Nanking, Pol Pot's Killing Fields or the corpse-filled pits of Srebrenica and Murambi? There's certainly communities in Auckland who get rather dull and humourless about those subjects.
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Your complaint would hold more weight if Labour wasn't openly active in local body politics while the Nats use CitRats as sockpuppets.
I guess that Karmic debt was better paid sooner rather than later.
[ETA: Remainder of comment deleted for ill-tempered and tedious failure to add to the sum total of human wisdom and amusement]
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