Posts by llew40
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Culturally, the Australian cricket team really can be a bunch of nobs.Warner, Watson et al seem to revel in the ugly Aussie image. It's been part of the DNA for decades (Chappelli etc) but it does seem to have developed further)
I can't work out if it's because they're tone deaf, or they don't care, or if they believe it gives them a competitive advantage. I suspect the latter (and they may be right, a riled opponent is a distracted opponent)
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Hard News: How about that cricket, eh?, in reply to Glenn Pearce,
I saw that too, although preferred to ascribe it to massive disappointment and sheer knackerism (with a twanged hammy to boot) rather than petulance :) Everything else seemed to suggest a lot of respect between the teams.
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Forgot to mention, Mr Scruff is offering a download of his Splore set via his Facebook page.
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Oh, and Roy Ayers, was in front of that and someone shouted at me "its like being at a Commodores concert". Ten minutes later, "its more like a James Brown concert". etc etc, He sure fits in a lot of references.
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Trinity Roots were very very fine. Warren Maxwell is some kind of serious muso, I'd imagine he and Roy Ayers would have a lot in common. He certainly seems to have jazz sensibilities.
Missed Phoenix Foundation alas (in fact, part of the challenge of Splore is the impossibility of trying to see all the things you want to see).
And really, often the most delightful things are the less expected (like watching the young boy doing his best to sync in with the Wet Hot Beauties).
Was OK with Cat Empire - sound wasnt great for sure, but thought they did a good job of readying the crowd for later, better acts. A bit lite.
Thought the Correspondents were outstanding. Sheer infectious energy, and the right thing at the right time for many.
Also enjoyed Earl Gateshead's banter "heavy yeah yeah, this one is warrior reggae, but dont see too many warriors out there"
Spent a lot of time in the Living Lounge this year as opposed to the Beach Bar. Saw some reasonably strange and wonderful things in there.
Our teenagers were totally enthralled by Tinashe. Not quite my thing, but they were all completely buzzing and grinning from ear to ear after spending the whole gig right up against the front barrier.
And Mr Scruff worked - as you say, a great soundtrack to the end of the festival.
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I think the fan-gathering might have been for Lorde, who we saw in with the punters in front of Jungle, and was (nice to report) getting very little over-attention that we could see, aside from the odd startled double-take from people making their way past. So New Zealand.
I didn't mind Jungle at all, I quite like seeing a mid-afternoon band getting a groove going, starts setting up the rest of the day a bit better. Also thought Courtney Barnett clearly didnt give a rats what others think in the nicest and most time-honoured rock best sense of the word way. With more than a hint of Paul Kelly.
I'm not much of a metal fan. but I really liked Jakob - realise I hadn't given them any credit before, but they were putting out some massive proggy noise, and their drummer is awesome.
Saw a little bit of Eagull in the Thunderdome. Lead singer sporting some impressive tude, noise a little bit fuzzy and squally so hard to hear what he was saying. Only lasted a few songs before decamping.
Loved Little Dragon - right time and right place for that sound.
Also thought Future Islands were great - lived up to the billing, and always good to see a lead singer putting in the effort (you can say what you like about Bono - lord knows I have - but you can usually not fault his effort, and the Future Islands guy was the same).
FKA Twigs also a highlight.
Underwhelmed by Mac De Marco (possibly because my 15 year old daughter is a fan and I was sub-consciously maintaining a generation gap), and by Belle & Sebastian who felt a little Pet Shop Boys-lite on the day.
Always a good day. Saw some seriously sun-burnt people though!
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Best non-fiction book I've read all year was Night Games: Sex, Power and a Journey into the Dark Heart of Sport by Anna Krien
Won the William Hill Sports Book of the year award this year - and its an unputdownable and harrowing examination of something very rotten at the heart of the AFL.
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Amazing how often people trot out the myth that the British Labour Party was unelectable until Blair won the leadership
Well ..... it is factually correct to say that the British Labour Party - at least from Thatcher onwards - was unelected until Blair won the leadership. I guess we can all draw our own conclusions as to the correlation.
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I agree with intensification. Simply no other way to accommodate growth, avoid economic cost of sprawl, as well as get a bit more big-city vibrancy.
Not sure I like the characterisation of the inner-west as 'uncooling' though :). I returned to NZ 10 years ago after decades overseas in UK and Australia.
The lure of the NZ lifestyle, the desire for our children to grow up as New Zealanders and the wish to spend more time with our wider circle of (aging) family and friends became too hard to ignore.
Armed with money gained from selling an apartment in inner-west Sydney, we had dreams of buying a hip-pad in Ponsonby.
Reality meant looking in Ponsonby, becoming aghast and then disillusioned by the prices, then readjusting sights to Grey Lynn, Westmere, Western Springs, Pt Chev, and then ultimately to a do-up bungalow in Mt Albert.
As a family we've had some of the best years of our life here in Mt Albert (despite the - first-world problem - paucity of decent bars and restaurants that our London and Sydney lives had sensitised us for).
The area is full of people in similar positions to ourselves - people who have lived elsewhere and returned to Auckland and NZ aspiring to live in a vibrant, varied city and making a contribution to that in their own way. I don't think of that as 'un-cooling' the area.
Intensification is happening - albeit not in a particularly planned way. But in my street alone nearly half of the sections have already been sub-divided.
I'm even OK with the idea of Unitech getting to develop some of their extensive land holding for residential purposes.
I just wish they hadnt gone about it in such an appallingly ham-fisted way. Instead of approaching the community to pitch the idea of more community amenities, more school space (in an area chronically short of room in primary and intermediate schools) and more scope for bars and restaurants, we get an attempt to force a change through the back-door without any community consultation.
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A good piece and thought-provoking. Some thoughts:
a man with a question the public wants answering connecting with the public servant who has the information.
Is it possibly a bit hyperbolic to say that media questions are by definition ones that the "public wants answering"? - thats not always been my experience,
Is it possible that media have also been complicit in driving the perversion/expansion of the "no surprises" policy by reducing all bureacratic cock-ups to a public call for some political head to roll? (or by giving a megaphone to an opposition politician who will use it to make that call?).