Posts by Alex Gilks

  • Hard News: About Arie, in reply to George Darroch,

    Those comments from the Collins were sickening. If we can't expect a cabinet minister to deal calmly with an obvious scapegoat/venting of anger story, then no wonder we see regular locals losing the plot.
    I'm very uncomfortable overall with the over-reporting of these pretty insignificant 'looting' stories, even on national radio. Of course some people will nick stuff. So what?

    Upper Vauxhall, Dunedin • Since Apr 2007 • 17 posts Report Reply

  • OnPoint: Being a dick about Earth Hour,

    Great post and comments. The debate is about whether to do something slightly symbolic of doing something quite small. Wow, so much for living in interesting times.

    Upper Vauxhall, Dunedin • Since Apr 2007 • 17 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: So far from trivial,

    Aren't there quite a few precedents for (sports-related) public figures getting away with domestic violence accusations relatively unscathed?

    I'm not making excuses for that little jerk, but Joe Public might well get confused. Yes the 'he's a good guy' comments over on Stuff are way dumb.

    Didn't [name under suppression redacted -- please try not to do this --RB] get dropped for dragging his partner out of the house by her hair? (I may be remembering the folklore and not the facts ...). He was later back playing top rugby in NZ.

    Upper Vauxhall, Dunedin • Since Apr 2007 • 17 posts Report Reply

  • Speaker: Who is the bigger dick?,

    Split the dick award between that little prat Veitch and the geniuses from TVNZ who let that sad game show run so long.

    What a lineup: Mike King and his infamous answerphone message hate, Martin Devlin and his not famous enough email hate, and Matthew Ridge and ... I can't think what he's done, but he's a witless tool. And now an angry little bully who chucked his ex down the stairs.

    Upper Vauxhall, Dunedin • Since Apr 2007 • 17 posts Report Reply

  • Island Life: Hunting Squirrels,

    Nice suggestions Kyle Matthews. I wouldn't say it was risky to not depict front bench robots.

    How would it all look and sound? Remember the soft, slow 'Good morning America' thing Reagan used? Whatever it is, might as well experiment, try something radical. And change that terrible logo, quickly.

    top 5 (shooting from the hip; in no particular order; and thinking in terms of re-election messages supported by facts)

    economic development: how many cool resources there are for new businesses; consultation with big business

    • **not fighting in that war**

    • **health message**: how about nurses getting a payrise? And good bog-standard (but always heartening) stories of clever dedicated doctors fixing people

    • **human rights at home**

    • **working for families** being (somehow) intrinsically linked to health of society. Big swing votes here. Images of mums and dads. Suggestion that it is global (not domestic) pressures that make it a financial challenge for families in the first place

    »» bundled in a calm message about the complexity of these times, because god knows, there are so many voters who are hysterical about moral and economic thingies

    Upper Vauxhall, Dunedin • Since Apr 2007 • 17 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: The Art of the Interview,

    Right on, this consumer discontent ;)

    Freeview sounds cool but seriously, these engineers of TVs and related devices are total a***holes. A myriad of video formats, input jacks and cables; a new obselete connection with every new innovation. Why is a TV harder to drive than a car?

    The computer seems delightfully old-school compared to all this junk: network cable, power cable, keyboard and mouse, and you're pretty much good to go for anything (except stuff like Food in a Minute). No wonder my students are downloading and watching TV shows and avoiding TV.

    Upper Vauxhall, Dunedin • Since Apr 2007 • 17 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: The Art of the Interview,

    a quick YouTube aside: dunno if you've already mentioned here, but you can finally view higher-resolution clips there, by adding this little bit to URLs:

    &fmt=18

    from Wired

    Upper Vauxhall, Dunedin • Since Apr 2007 • 17 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: The Art of the Interview,

    As it happened I watched your show for first time last night. On TVNZ on demand. Quite watchable in fullscreen from a distance. Ok in meantime anyway :)

    Good show, like it. A reminder that if TV weren't so obsessed with having good-looking and only moderately sharp reporters, we might be able to watch way better interviews, instead of having to rely more on other media.

    Plunket is great I reckon, but can someone please tell him to stop doing those impatient little grunts when his subject is having their turn.

    Upper Vauxhall, Dunedin • Since Apr 2007 • 17 posts Report Reply

  • Speaker: Conditioning for Conditioning…,

    The NZ team don't seem to know how to win a knockout tournament, which isn't really about playing like you're the best team in the world. That's the lesson from top football tournaments anyway. You can still play the most attractive stuff and cruise to a win, like Brazil in 2002, but you need to be way better than all the opposition I think.

    They need to constantly revise tactics, look for opposition weaknesses and fatigue as the tournament progresses, target oppostion key players, try and keep some element of surprise about their approach. All the rotation does make a lot of sense, but in the end it couldn't prevent the fact that we couldn't seem to kick the French back into their own 22, both of our first-fives were bashed up on the bench.

    Upper Vauxhall, Dunedin • Since Apr 2007 • 17 posts Report Reply

  • Yellow Peril: My black heart bleeds,

    TV ads they were playing on their big screen through the new speaker system

    «shudder»
    Best quality badness in NZ stadium: Frank Sinatra and 2-player Playstation on the screen at the first ever one-dayer at the cake tin.
    Worst: every Highlanders game. The ABBA and Boney-M tribute bands are almost tolerable, kind of neat to have gay icons at rugby, but the franchise theme ('Otago Highlanders, that's our name') is a shocker. ORFU: in the unlikely event you are reading this, I promise to stop boycotting the games if you get a nice piece of music. No lyrics.

    Upper Vauxhall, Dunedin • Since Apr 2007 • 17 posts Report Reply

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