Posts by Russell Brown
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Hard News: Media Take: The selling of…, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
*written by the PR Partner of Chris Bishop – who is himself yet another Big Tobacco acolyte – like Todd Barclay – who has passed through the revolving door of service in Gerry Brownlee’s office and overseas corporate death peddlers.
I actually have quite a bit of time for Chris Bishop, who deserved to take his electorate – and was the subject of some shitty campaigning himself, in the repeated sniping implying he was somehow less fit a candidate because he doesn't have children. (Trevor Mallard being an embarrassment again, basically.)
But Jenna Raeburn's presentation as some sort of commentator when she was literally part of the National campaign has been absurd.
-
Hard News: Media Take: The selling of…, in reply to Glenn Jameson,
Details of Labour’s taxes may be found on their website [euphemistic quotes mine]:
Nice work not pointing to your actual citations.
Alcohol, *Petrol* and Tobacco “Levies”
What it actually says on the page called Labour’s tax plan is: "Alcohol, Petrol and Tobacco Levies – will be adjusted as per normal government practice and as set out in Budget documents."
That you think this supports your argument and the claims in the ad is quite telling.
Clean Water “Royalty”
I actually thought the way this was presented, as per Steven Price’s post, was the kind of breach the ASA would take a very dim view of in other settings. Depicting a levy on commercial bottled water by not showing a bottle? Seriously? It’s misleading.
Restore the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS)
Which isn’t a tax.
Commission a Tax Working Group to “review” a whole pile of new taxes including CGT and Land Tax, which everyone knows is unlikely to come back with a “Meh, don’t need it.”
Really? You appear to have forgotten National’s tax working group, which declared the status quo in the tax system “not viable” back in 2009 – and was really quite keen on a broad-based land tax (which it felt had a number of advantages over a CGT).
I think there’s little doubt any serious working group would go to the same place, because the tax system is unbalanced. Your argument here is just nihilism.
-
Hard News: Media Take: The selling of…, in reply to Glenn Jameson,
Not sure how you arrived at a “eugenicist vibe” on the Runners ad, when a third of the team featured a Maori family.
Oh, I don't know – maybe the part about the sick and weakly being left in the dirt while Team Teal thunders by. Even if the victors hadn't been wearing the same colours as the authoritarians in The Handmaid's Tale it would have been creepy.
And no, you don't get to claim that the unfortunates are only disabled by being roped to each other. Remember, we've all seen the casting call.
Apart from a anything else, it was woeful MMP politics, given that your client is now absolutely desperate to lash itself to one of those weaklings.
-
Hard News: Media Take: The selling of…, in reply to Glenn Jameson,
Russel Brown, by letting these exhaustive personal attacks go on without moderation, you’re effectively endorsing them. I wouldn’t have dipped in here if I knew your pool was as shallow as this.
You came in the the discussion without declaring a direct personal interest, which seems a bit disingenuous. It's a robust debate. You're feeling unduly sorry for yourself.
-
Hard News: Music: God Save the Clean, in reply to Matthew Goody,
If we’re including covers, we should not forget Wingtip Sloat’s cover of “Anything Can Happen” as it’s probably the earliest cover of the Clean from a band outside NZ.
Oh – that’s a pretty cool version!
But Australian comedy cowpunk band The Johnnys were playing the same song as early as 1985 (they toured here and one of their members was a Kiwi). It was quite a rockin’ version. They weren’t a subtle band.
I couldn’t find a video, but one of their members, Spencer P. Jones, played it as a duo with Gordon Gano(!) in 2014:
-
Hard News: Music: God Save the Clean, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
Is the top one a Ronnie? Anyway, we have one (Fiona was much better at keeping these things than me) and it’s gorgeous.
so much talent in one ensemble
Absolutely. How many bands are there where every member draws and paints?
-
Richard Langston also sent through his favourite Clean songs …
1 Getting Older
2 Anything Could Happen
3 Point That Thing Somewhere Else
4 Someone
5 Fish
6 Odditty
7 Too Much Violence
8 Twist Top
9 In The Dream Life U Need a Rubber Soul
10 Chumpy
11 At The Bottom
12 Stars
13 I Can’t StandThat last is, of course, a Velvet Underground song of which The Clean play a blinding cover version. Mt Maunganui, 2014 …
Their live version incorporates, to a greater or lesser degree on the night, their own song, ‘Quickstep’, which they’ve been playing since 1981:
-
-
Hard News: Media Take: The selling of…, in reply to Richard Wain,
Silly me – while it’s not exactly Epsom, the Labour candidate (whoever she was) actually got close to the Nat.
Helen White. She's very good.
-
Quite rarely, The Clean have changed up the instrumentation on 'Point That Thing'. It's always pretty special.
1999 in Dunedin, with a piano lead, as captured on the Slush Fund EP:
And 22 years later one nice day at the King's Arms, with a funky little keyboard and Hamish on lead vocals: