Posts by Simon Grigg
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Hard News: Those were different times ..., in reply to recordari,
These are amongst my favourite teenage memories
I'm telling yer bro!
Went to a police licensing meeting once at Central. All the clubs were there. The cops began berating Brett Shepherd who owned Alfies for - night after night - pouring 14 and 15 year olds back onto High Street legless. Shepherd launched into a tirade which went on for 45 minutes or more, accusing the cops of harassment, homophobia, gay bashing and very much more. The cops shrugged their shoulders and closed the meeting. Alfies continued on it's merry way, providing favourite teenage memories to many.
I guess that's how it worked. Yummy, yummy, yummy.
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Hard News: Those were different times ..., in reply to Rich Lock,
leave Babs aloooone!!!11!!!
I won't y'know.
I clicked the first link and Brigid said "Sounds like a drag show at Alfies - what is it?"
The unfortunate thing (for me) about that was that those sorts of tunes were conflated with genuine groundbreakers like:
(as an aside, the improvised electric piano solo - from Leon Huff - a couple of minutes in, is one of recorded music's greatest moments. Or so Herbie Hancock said and he's right)
And - for our host:
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Hard News: Those were different times ..., in reply to Rich Lock,
It's also a subject covered in some detail in (if memory serves) the book 'last night a dj saved my life'
Also in the recent hip-hop history The Big Payback, which examines the racist overtones - blatant - of the US anti-disco movement. The irony being that disco, after The Bee Gees and Robert Stigwood's takeover (you can blame Australia) was mostly white after 1978, at least chart-wise with awful Barbra Streisand, Olivia Newton John and Andy Williams releases, amongst many, which were worth rallying against.
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Hard News: Those were different times ..., in reply to Jackie Clark,
Oh now I'm getting all nostalgic
I do remember a time when there was but one Indian restaurant in Auckland. That seems vaguely impossible now.
But, then I also recall an incredible Peruvian place in High Street in the early 1980s. Their chilli bowl (various chillies shredded into some sort of sweet vinegar) was a huge addiction.
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Hard News: Those were different times ..., in reply to Jackie Clark,
the Jade Garden
Bottom of Khyber Pass. It was maybe the first Dim Sim place, or one of them - there was a place on the corner of Victoria and Albert about the same time. It was a record label haunt in the days when they had money for such things.
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OnPoint: Sock-Puppeting Big Tobacco to…, in reply to BenWilson,
Far more annoying was being heckled to watch sex-acts, but each to their own.
See, I don't walk down those couple of streets that often/ever.
The skywalks in particular don't offer the upward dispersion as they have trains running above them. The clouds of smoke that filled the air up there were the subject of endless comment in the media. Maybe I missed the folks leaning over the side trying to blow it discretely away.
It's not that crowded,
Chatuchak market's 27 acres put between 200,000 and 300,000 people through every weekend day. On a holiday weekend it can rise to 500k - define crowded. Really.....
Here in non-crowded, temperate, windy NZ, I can't see any argument for them.
I'd argue my mother is one - she's 79 and not a state burden - she still pays taxes.
ETA: I'm not advocating wardens for Auckland - I am saying that my mother used to enjoy places like Mission Bay's green area but finds it increasingly arduous to do so.
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OnPoint: Sock-Puppeting Big Tobacco to…, in reply to Sacha,
As an aside, I'd like to thank Mr Grigg for my current soundtrack (#6, oh yeah)
As I recall, that was a killer live, no?
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OnPoint: Sock-Puppeting Big Tobacco to…, in reply to BenWilson,
OK, it's upthread some ways, but I only got into this because Simon Grigg suggested that in Thailand there are people who will actually make you stop smoking in public outdoor places. I really don't think that's cool at all.
I find an endless cloud of toxic smoke that I have to walk through on a stinking hot still day rather uncool too. Because that was the alternative. Those places - the parks, the walkways, the markets - are always crowded in a way New Zealanders often hard to imagine if they've not seen or been part of the daily mass.
I'm not denying the right of people to puff away anywhere where I don't have to suffer it, but surrounding my head with smoke is never cool. My asthmatic friends also applaud the wardens.
Others, my mother for example - who is not asthmatic - also suffer horrendously if exposed to second hand smoke. She needs water if she breathes it, to relax the tightness in her chest. It takes a few minutes.
The authorities here have gone out of the way to improve the air and the water (which is now mostly tap-drinkable). Making the public areas of the city walk-able is another part of the overall grand vision I guess. I'm not sure how that becomes uncool when seen from afar.
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Hard News: Those were different times ..., in reply to Ian Dalziel,
Probably because there was no room for a helicopter to lift off from the roof....
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we might be treated to the Vietnamese place at the back of the Civic, facing Aotea square, if my memory serves me well...
The Saigon.
I used to get taken there by Phil Warren on occasion too when he felt I needed mentorly 'advice'. The fact that he was head-tenant may have eased the fact he usually paid.