Posts by Scott A
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Yeah, that photo... just shook me to my core. Context, I guess, but wow, what a span.
I'm not in Christchurch, I'm in Wellington and can't stop crying and shaking. One friend has still not checked in, two others have reported no more than 'ok' then silence.
I know it's okay to feel like this, but I don't want to feel like this.
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TV3's started to get footage in from the suburbs in the last hour or so. Mostly on that massive landslide in Sumner, however.
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I like filter coffee...
...ok, yes, ostracise me, sue me, exile me, cast me aside from the richly dark espresso holes in your heart. But I like it.
And one thing that I, as a Wellington civil servant, who lives and works in the city centre has found, over the last five or so years... is you just can't get decent filter coffee anywhere, any more.
Because espresso has killed it. And the few cafes left in the inner city that still have a bubbling percolator disdain it, disown it, and don't care if the coffee going in, or out, is of a drinkable status. Because, as we all know, everyone drinks espresso.
So, as a filter coffee lover, I have to find the 'near est-enough' substitute. That which tastes close enough. And, as the GIs found in Europe in the 1940s and 1950s, there is a way espresso can be made to resemble filter - the Americano, where the hot water is poured over (not under) the espresso shot. It's a simple difference between an americano and a long black, but it is an important one, with regards to crema, consistency and flavour.
I love filter coffee, as I have said. And I now have to seek out decent americanos because it is damn near impossible to find a good americano in downtown wellington, due to the obsessive snobbery involved with hissing, spitting espresso machines.
Except Starbucks. Starbucks, of all the coffee places near my work, do a damn great americano. It's almost like having a filter coffee to your taste. But we're not allowed to do that anymore, in these enlightened times.
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Hard News: A very roundabout review of…, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
Proto-cyberpunks like Burce Sterling and John Shirley were also picking up on something in the air before Tron came along.
P.K. Dick and Harlan Ellison to be specific. Speculative fiction like this is always a continuum, not a revolution; but films can sometimes appear to be due to the lengthy development time. But, even so, watch enough movies for long enough and you'll see how every idea has its antecedent, every camera move his it's ancestor.
Avatar, on the other hand, to my view, is a reflection of the deliberate corporatist and commercialised adoption of 'green' politics. Sure, I don't doubt Cameron and the writers were heart-felt in their core concepts, but there's no doubt now in the capitalist mind that money can be made from green.
Which is why New Zealand may shortly be bottling 'Fiji Water' for the Californians...
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Hard News: My Year in Culture, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
Why this sudden obsession with "purity" of beer. It doesn't make it taste nice and it won't stop you getting a hangover.
GASP
Ok. Ok. I guess I understand this if your experience with beer has been the awful, chemical, continuous fermentation 'light lager' commercial beer that's dominated the brewing world for the last fifty years (thanks to the invention of the process by a New Zealander, one Morton W. Coutts, who is now being celebrated in marketing by faux 'old-fashioned' packaged but still crap continuously fermented lager).
For me, that's my cultural marker of 2010, at least down here in Wellington - the explosion in popularity, appreciation and availability of quality craft beers, fine locally produced ales and award winning lagers. With stores and supermarkets (Regional Wines and Spirits, of course, the New World franchise down here, especially Island Bay New World) buying and selling the stuff, trusting the drinkers to experiment with beer that costs $15 a bottle.
And the bars, Hashigo Zake has just gone gangbusters within the year, The Malthouse has rediscovered its reason for existence, and more and more bars are not only putting local craft ales on their taps and in their fridges, but more and more are using that as a marketing point.
It's becoming fashionable to drink beer again - good beer - so that's why we're going to see the big breweries try to edge in there with their 'single source' or 'handcrafted' attempts. They'll get it wrong of course. They'll continue to use the continuous fermentation process; they'll continue to focus more on the marketing and the gimmick, and the beer as an alcohol delivery device, rather than putting an effort into making the damn stuff drinkable and enjoyable.
But, in a year when Croucher's Pilsner; from a small craft brewery in Rotorua, won the top prize for an lager in New Zealand, and those not drinking wine at my work Christmas party were there with bottles from Renaissance, Yeastie Boys, Epic, Green Man, Townshend, etc etc etc... yup. Good times for craft brewing in New Zealand.
And, back to the reply. One of the great things about craft brewing is the huge ranges of flavours possible by well handled malts, yeasts and hops. Even if you don't touch beer because of that sour, funky, off-taste that comes from the continuous fermentation process, you'll certainly find something in craft ale that you like. From sweet and fluffy Belgian styles, to dark, dense and complex porters. From citrusy hoppy explosions of pale ales, to warm, rich biscuity tones of a well made pilsner (i.e., not by Monteiths). You'll find something you like.
And best thing of all, without the chemicals and preservatives, you can avoid the worst of the hangover just by staying hydrated.
Ah, (well-made) beer, is there nothing it can't do?
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Hard News: The Public Address Word of…, in reply to giovanni tiso,
Love the twatcockery, but the word must be “iPad”. Remember the naysayers, the scorn, but now the ubiquity
Yes, it’s literally everywhere. For instance, nobody I know outside of this place has one.
A bit like the usage of the word "twatcock" really; hasn't reached the popular parlance outside of PAS, not like words/phrases like "vuvuzela," "liquefaction", "iPad" and "real New Zealander".
The late introduction of "relaxed" is a great idea!
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I finally popped over to Brian Edwards Media and read his rather passive-aggressive call for rescue heroics. I'm not sure why it surprised me, but it did leave a rather foul taste in my mouth when I realised, reading the comment thread, that Edwards was using the "I'm just saying what others are thinking" defence to his irresponsible call to action.
And I was even more saddened that when the second (then a third, now a fourth) explosion revealed exactly why a posse of West Coasters charging to the rescue was a fundamentally bad idea that Edwards' response was to silence his critics and close off the comment thread.
I do appreciate that in Edward's explanation of why he closed the thread, he ended with this:
What can be said is that whether the decisions made by the police, the search and rescue teams and the management of the mine were right or wrong, they were the decisions that, on the available information and advice, they genuinely believed to be right. You cannot ask more than that.
But, still, it's still not going as far to say that they were making the right call. Edwards was one of those who used 'public opinion' to attempt to pressure those in charge of the rescue to take rash action, and now chooses to silence the debate when his position was proved to be very very wrong.
It seems, following the comment thread, that Edwards position shifted to concern that the police were not doing enough to tell people exactly why no rescue was being attempted. However I, mostly from Morning Report and this thread, came to understand why that was the case. So the message was getting out there; but not in more mainstream media. The questions were being asked, but the answers not being reported. Why not?
Perhaps, as Edwards himself did, it's an outcome of reporting on 'feelings' and 'public mood' as the primary story, rather than the relaying of information and interpretation of that information.
Mediawatch got off to a good start with unpicking this media side of this story this morning, and I'm going to be interested to see what more can be revealed over the coming weeks and months about the media side of this tragedy.
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Snobs maybe, but elitist? Never!
Well, a member of the group would say that, wouldn't they?
On the other hand, I've encountered quite a number of people who roll their eyes, shake their heads, and respond to the TAWAs using the "h" word. Yes, "hipsters". There I said it.
I think a key distinction may be that this group doesn't have a 'favourite suburban destination' because they live in the suburbs already.
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Something occurred to me this morning that made me think that the real solution to New Zealand motorist's issues with cyclists is, simply, more cyclists.
I was driving down to the shops; from Kingston to Island Bay and back. And, in those five minutes to-and-from I had what, I guess, I'd call two 'near-miss' incidents with cyclists.
Now, like most, I think of myself as a good driver. A safe driver. I've driven for twenty years without any kind of crash, prang or insurance claim. I am confident in my abilities to drive to the conditions without harm to others, and (of course) myself. As an indicator of this, driving this Saturday morning when Adelaide Road was teeming with parents parking cars and white-clad children rushing to the day's traffic, I was ultra-cautious, ultra-careful, ultra-safe. Yet, still, two near-misses with cyclists. Why?
Innate training and movement, I think. As a driver, over my twenty years, I've become very accustomed, acclimatised, aware of movement; relative speed to me in my car. Think ahead, look ahead, anticipate the worse possible movement by someone else on or near the road, so you can instinctively react quickly and safely to any occurrence. A street lined with cars with lots of children; drive cautious, anticipate someone walking out from behind a car at every distance, react safely, instinctively.
But with cyclists, I realised, my brain doesn’t anticipate the movement as it should. The size, the speed, delivers an instinctive ‘pedestrian’ response, and of course cyclists move far quicker than that. I have to consciously react to a cyclist, while my reactions to a pedestrian (even randomly darting children) have become near-instinctive.
There’s only one solution to this; training. More time on the road with cyclists around me. The boom in cycling is fairly recent, and so my behaviours haven’t had time to become instinctive. And only one thing will make them so; being conscious of cyclists until, ultimately, my reactions become unconscious.
And I think I’m not alone in this; I feel most New Zealand drivers are the same. We learned to drive in an environment where cyclists were the exception, not the rule, and so we didn’t learn how to behave. And we need more cyclists, not less, to ensure that both current drivers, and those yet to start to learn, are able to react-to and understand the movement of cyclists just as good drivers react-to and understand the movement of pedestrians and other cars.
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Hard News: Where nature may win, in reply to James George,
But the rescue that isn't a rescue, is really the worst of this awful 'blast from the past'
*boom*
Poor choice of words, perhaps, James George. Do you have anything to add to your criticism of those making the decisions about rescue, now? Those who you said were "just a pain in the ass that needed to be humoured"?
"Nothing about the explosion & the mine, has changed since Friday night", and "the cause another explosion excuse is difficult because..." because of what, exactly?
I'll be interested in hearing your reaction to today's events, James George.