Posts by BenWilson
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Muse: Hooray for Wellywood (Really!), in reply to Sofie Bribiesca,
Well it certainly will convey that message for visiting dignitaries, tourists even Monarchy and suchlike as they enter the Capital via aeroplane :)
Heh, yup, they get to see that NZ actually isn't "Little England" after all, but a nation that makes its own tasteless and lame jokes. Most likely they will then be greeted by some awful Maori tack, during a powhiri. They will not see any actual Maori warriors until they meet the Governor General, our most beautiful mixing of English and NZ silliness in a single human being.
-
Muse: Hooray for Wellywood (Really!), in reply to Sacha,
It also didn't have writing on it saying "Paris, the city of cheese" or suchlike.
No, it was "Paris, boasting the biggest penis in the world for 40 years". Which is cheezy, but still awesome, IMHO.
-
Muse: Hooray for Wellywood (Really!), in reply to mattgeeknz,
The sign is on airport land and is probably within Council rules, but the canvas is massive and encompasses a big chunk of Wellington.
I'm not sure what you mean by a massive canvas. The sign is as big as it is. Do you mean it can be seen from a massive chunk of Wellington?
No. Do we have the right to voice displeasure at a corporate artwork that purports to say something about Wellington as a whole? Absolutely.
Is it purporting that though? I thought, like Hollywood, that it was referring to a suburb in which a lot of movies are made. It's "Hollywood, in Wellington".
Even if it were purporting that, it's still an opinion, something people are allowed to express in NZ, so long as it doesn't break some quite basic rules. That is actually one of the things I most like about NZ, one of the few things that made me weep as I flew into NZ after my first trip abroad, that it is a place where people are allowed to be tacky. After flying into a dozen cities that looked as uniform from above as Coronation Street, there was something quite appealing to the idea that you can paint your house red as a fashion statement, or make a stupid joke on your land, or put a tacky gnome in your garden.
-
Muse: Hooray for Wellywood (Really!), in reply to Kumara Republic,
One big difference: the Eiffel never pretended to be an ersatz imitation of anything.
I'm not so sure. It would seem to have been designed to outdo the Washington Monument.
-
Hard News: Three months after, in reply to Lilith __,
But for most of us, everyday living gets more bearable.
So good to hear. It's hard to accept that a lot of Christchurch is a ground-up rebuild, and to that end getting it done in only a few years would be an astonishing testament to its people. Kia kaha.
-
I agree with you, Craig. It's not what I'd put on a sign, but it's not obscene, or anything else actionable. It's bad taste, and a bit silly, but that's pretty much half of what I see in public every day I drive around my town. Advertising usually is quite tacky.
-
Despite lies still being legion, I don't think they're on the rise generally. Truth will still be the best long term strategy for all parties. For all of the fear of National doing a big sell off, the fact that thousands of eyes are watching them closely has made any plans to do so take a very long time compared to how things moved when I was young. They're trying to manage perceptions with their manufactured debt crisis, but I don't think it's anywhere near as easy to do as it used to be. Key's maintenance of a personable image simply hasn't been majorly challenged by anything National has done, they are learning they can't have it both ways. Either they look nice and do nothing, or do something and the veil falls. Eventually doing nothing stops looking nice, because the truth that the economy is foundering in their hands can't be hidden forever.
-
Hard News: The Political Lie, in reply to Lilith __,
A place could really only be 100% pure if humans had never been there, and even then, what do we mean by “pure”, exactly?
We mean what Key meant. Nothing.
-
Hard News: The Political Lie, in reply to Bart Janssen,
In biology it's not usually a yes/no situation
heh, the first example you used was a yes/no. They occur everywhere. Narrowing down from many choices using multiple yes/noes. Science doesn't need funky logic, the old stuff still works.
-
Hard News: The Political Lie, in reply to linger,
Certainly care is needed - this rule only applies to the contradiction of a statement, not contraries. "Not yellow" is not the same as "blue". If a null hypothesis is unlikely, then the contradiction of it is likely. Eg, if it's unlikely I'm white, then it's likely I'm "not white". That's sound reasoning. "Not white" is not to be confused with "black", though.
Last ←Newer Page 1 … 593 594 595 596 597 … 1066 Older→ First