Posts by Yamis
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Given rising costs of living they really need to cater for the poor in economy as well and to keep costs down I propose they have somewhere to plug in your 8-track and a turntable for those records. A table to but your ghetto blaster on would be sensible as well.
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Be interested to see what you make of the K-Pop and Hip hop. It can be an acquired taste and for most expats I know it's a taste that leads to vomiting. Problem is that there is some decent music there but it either rarely gets mainstream radio or TV time and when it does it's on those variety type shows where they play one or two songs and its on a glitzy set in front of screaming female teenagers because the boys are all either outside smoking, or blowing stuff up in the mountains.
There is even an underground punk scene based around Hongdae but it took me the best part of 2 years to even hear about that and about the same length of time to find any cds worth listening to but once you crack onto it it becomes a bit easier to find the rest.
Oh, and I recommend a few Korean movies. Gweumul (weta did the monster effects), taegugki, JSA, my sassy girl (yobgi yoja geunyang) and the one about the soldiers who get trained to assasinate Kim Sung-il is crazy as all hell and is true (only what really happened is crazier). There's plenty of others. They tend to be a bit offbeat though in a way can get boring as they tend to be rather repetitive.
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I basically haven't listened to talkback radio since about 1995 (well, excluding radio sport which on a rare occasion can get me hitting the off dial, like during Veitch, Deaker, Lose... OK so half of it).
I replaced all that time with bourban's & Cokes and plenty of beer.
It's been a beautiful time in my life.
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How's about the entry 'donation' also getting you into the exhibitions as well while those who choose not to give the 5 dollars can only go through the main part of the museum.
It seems crazy to charge people to see 'their own' damn stuff and then charge them more to see the exhibition of the day.
I just feel like I'm being milked for cash everywhere I go these days and it would be such an amazing and novel idea for SOMETHING, ANYTHING to be 'free' (aside from the $21 I already have taken off me each year).
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Yeah, the ANZ CUP players would definately play some club games. At the moment they play close to all of them because the Cup doesn't start until after the club finals or thereabouts.
But their idea is that it will run alongside the Super 14 (which essentially runs all season (for 20-25 weeks including pre season and playoffs) and that would mean that it's on at the same time as the club comps.
ANZ CUP would presumably run for about 10 weeks and then playoffs. It will likely lose money (or generate nothing anyway) as next to nobody will go to watch it.
The NZRU is going to have to negotiate a seriously awesome TV deal with whatever international or Super 10, 12, 14 ... games they come up with.
It's really going to be depressing otherwise for clubs to have their playing numbers fall, their best 2, 3, 4 players gone, their spectator numbers fall, their bar takings fall and in general their club to become quieter and their identity eroded and then the NZRU or the ARU or whoever say, here's a cheque for $10,000 to keep existing so we can take some more of your players next year.
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Kyle, I didn't say All Blacks should play club rugby but as someone who actually DOES watch club rugby from time to time I know that there are a lot of Super 14 players (or at least were) until recently pulling on the boots. And there have certainly been ANZ CUP players playing a lot of club football at least up until the moment.
Those are the players that I am talking about and it's them that DO attract quite a few people to games.
They won't play club football anymore. I watched the Massey Premiers a few times a couple of years ago and with Nick Williams and Anthony Tuitavake playing they got a few folks along. Now without them last year they got about two-thirds as many along.
This may not seem like much when you translate it into say 50 less people but if 15 of them were going to go into the club and spend $20 each that works out at $300 less dollars a weekend for the club.
That's all hypothetical of course but for most clubs a few hundred bucks here and there means a lot. Especially when so many have been struggling for years.
Playing numbers in NZ used to be about 200,000, now they are closer to 130,000 (the last figure I heard). That's not all due to rugby going professional but 99.9% of our players are playing club or school rugby and so if numbers have dropped like that then the amount of money from club fees has taken a pretty substantial cut.
In Auckland there were 21 clubs in about 1994 or thereabouts. Since then Bay Lynn folded into Suburbs, Grammar and Carlton merged resulting in a significant drop off in team numbers immediately, and this year Eden and Roskill merged, and Mt Wellington and Te Papapa have merged, while Waiheke and Tamaki appear unable to field senior teams in the new cut down 16 team single division.
Having watched senior teams 10-15 years ago and watched them now the standard is very clearly lower. Even watching the Gallaher Shield final in the last few years the quality of the games and players is fairly average considering they are the best club players and teams in Auckland.
One other thing that has exploded in recent times is average club players leaving to go and play in the northern hemisphere for lower tier clubs as well. That hasn't helped the clubs much either.
It all works out nicely if those players eventually come back to the clubs to play or coach, but if they don't serious damage is done. And the money filtering down from the NZRU may be reasonable but when they start running at a loss (and NPC teams are haemorraging money in many cases) what then?
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Oh yeah, there's one downside though.
Club football will be eroded further.
They will not have their Super 14 players ever (although since expansion to 14 teams and an early start that doesn't occur now anyway, I was watching Nick Williams, Anthony Tuitavake and George Pisi playing for Massey seniors a couple of years ago), and they will not have access to their NPC players which will now of course be the next tier down.
Whereas in the 80s you would have All Blacks running round in club jerseys for probably a dozen club games a year on a good year, you now only get half of your NPC squad for most of the year if you are lucky. Soon you won't even get that.
On the surface that might not seem like a big deal but remember, clubs are the heart and soul of the game so they will need to be careful how they spread round the pie to those clubs since their crowds will get smaller and their bar takings suffer further. Not to mention even less sponsorship.
I tell you what would be interesting. If clubs started contracting players and saying they will sell them to a Super 14 team for $200,000. The NZRU would kick them out of whatever competition they are in but since these clubs spend a lot of time and money bringing players through the ranks and turning them into very good footballers they deserve more than a "thanks guys, we'll take him now". And I doubt they even get that.
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Good points Kyle. By running the NPC alongside the Super 14 they could actually use it to put fringe players in, or guys coming back from injury, or pull guys up from it. Almost pretty much every professional football team worth their salt has. The NFL has the Canadian league, the EPL has reserve teams, the NRL has reserve teams and under 20 teams, the Major League Baseball teams have their minor league and farm teams which players come and go from during a season. Even our provincial cricket teams have club sides that players are pulled from.
As it stands if a guy is out of form or injured in the Super 14 then they just sit on the sideline and wait for their chance to play. Some would go right through the Super 14 and accumulate an hour or two of football in 13 weeks. Having one or two provincial teams for them to drop into would suit the coaches I'm sure and mean there's no need to rotate players because they could simply get games in the NPC side and the top side could be fielded week after week until injury. The way sport was meant to be played.
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Since it started out with a comment on the metro system perhaps...
Seoul Train
Since my K-League team upped and moved to Seoul (thanks to the owners, LG relocating them there from Anyang) we call them...
Seould FC
Sometimes I call them other things that would be inappropriate here.
In the meantime Koreans walk on water...
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/05/115_23681.html -
Graham, ask them about the "New Town" plans in Seoul.
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/04/113_22549.html
"The project is an urban redevelopment, ``beautification'' plan devised by the Seoul City government aimed at building an eco- and dweller-friendly community since 2002.
The local government designated three districts ― Eunpyeong, Seongbuk and Seongdong ― in 2002 as pilot project sites and 12 and 11 more districts were set aside for the purpose in 2003 and 2005, respectively."
But new Mayor Oh has said no, sorry, it will bump up house prices too much. The old mayor of Seoul has since become the President of Korea (Lee Myung Bak). My wife hates his guts. Something to do with that wee flaw most Korean politicians have called CORRUPTION. He's managed to dodge all the allegations so far.
The most amazing thing that I have seen in terms of urban design in my travels was the Chongyecheon 'restoration' in downtown Seoul. A river basically buried under the road and elevated highways for decades was revealed again after miles of the aforementioned highway were ripped up. It looks about as natural as Mt Rushmore, but a damn sight nicer than what was there and cost a freakin fortune.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheonggyecheon
And the 100,000 won you accidentally took out will be 1,000,000 won which is about 1,300 NZ dollars. Don't worry, I do not know a single foreigner that hasn't done that at least once while in Korea. Especially when the machines often ask you how many notes you want rather than how much money you want. Imagine an ATM in NZ asking how many twenties you would like and you want 50 dollars and so don't read the instructions properly and enter "50". It would then turn around and spit out 50 twenty dollar notes. It's like winning the pokie machines but somehow just not quite the same for some reason ;)