Pixies Heaven
Back in 2010, when the Pixies last played Vector Arena, we all thought this would be the last, and ultimate, Pixies concert of all time, and that seeing them re-formed with Kim Deal made life worth living, and nothing could…
Recent Posts
Friday Music: It all leads to a disco fiesta
Lorde has busted out another preview from Melodrama and it's a touching, impressive piano ballad called 'Liability'. Seems like there might be a lot of piano on this album. ¶ ¶ She also revealed Melodrama's release date – June 16 – and she'll be…
Disability and International Women’s Day
I cannot begin to think about International Women’s Day, or indeed the experience of being a woman, without first acknowledging the role that disability plays in my life. I am a woman with a disability, a disabled woman. ¶ Both identities…
Meet the new bots, same as the old bots?
The picture below is a screenshot of my last nine followers on Twitter, as of about 10 minutes ago. You'll note that they are all "eggs" – that is, accounts that lack a personal avatar and instead carry the default Twitter…
Superannuation: Back to the Future
The National government's bold move to bind a future government, nearly 20 years hence, to phase in a rise in the age of elibility for National Superannuation, from 65 to 67, invites a yawn on its face. But it's significant…
For Your Own Safety
A couple of weeks ago, I went to a cricket game at Hagley Oval, because that’s what I do in summer. The oddest thing about it wasn’t that the Black Caps won, it was the toilets. For the second time…
Vodafone, Sky and the Commerce Commission: it's all about the Internet
Like others, I spent a fair bit of time on February 23 reacting to the decision by the Commerce Commission to deny clearance to the plans of Sky and Vodafone to merge their businesses in New Zealand. It had been…
Friday Music: Welcome back Lorde. Thanks for making it interesting.
In late 2011 an Auckland 16 year-old began going to to a tiny commercial studio in Morningside most days after school and, with exactly one other person, made first an EP and then an album that turned out to be…
Privacy and the right to consent are all some people have left. But not for long.
Community organisations funded by the Ministry of Social Development under the Government’s Social Investment Strategy will soon have to hand over detailed identifiable information about their clients to the Government to get funding. This shockingly unethical policy was revealed by…
Hep C: When doctors do the wrong thing
My story for Matters of Substance last year about the rollout of newly Pharmac-funded antiviral drugs that cure Hepatitis C contained both good and bad news. The good news lay in the fact of funding and in the compassionate, innovative…
Drugs, testing and workplaces
Late last year, New Zealand Rugby announced that it was to begin random, out-of-competition drug-testing of players, coaches and administrators – not for drugs that might be used to gain any performance advantage, but for illicit recreational drugs. ¶ The messaging around…
If this was ever funny, it's not any more
Two months ago, White Press Secretary in waiting Sean Spicer said in an interview that denying of access to out-of-favour media organisations – as President-elect Trump had done for much of his campaign – would take America from a democracy to a…
Mt Albert: Cooperating, competing and carpooling
In the week of the Mount Albert by-election, our household received four phone calls about voting. There were two from Labour humans checking that we were planning to vote and knew how and where (one on Saturday), one from the…
Friday Music: Nadia 2
It's a testament to the power and control of Nadia Reid's singing and playing that matching her studio recordings in session seems to hold no fears for her. And thus was the case with her BBC 6 Music Live Room…
Splore 2017
I'm a fitful photographer at festivals: I kick off keen but by the time the party really starts, I'm happy enough to simply avoid losing my phone, let alone take it out and point it at things. ¶ And thus it…
Sky and 2020
On May 1 this year, it will be 21 years since Telecom launched its first real consumer ISP – Xtra – kicking off the mainstreaming of of the internet in New Zealand. The company had finally surrendered its stance that the country…
Public Address and PressPatron
Last week we flicked the switch on something that's been a while coming: a new payments platform called PressPatron that provides a way for you to support not only Public Address, but, before long, a range of other blogs and…
#DisabledAndCute
The tweets that are retweeted into my timeline are mostly either Trump-related or are aggressively cute images to counteract the Trump effect. As I was scrolling through the emotional rollercoaster that is now Twitter, terrified at the implications of a…
The Little Things
So you know that thing where you’re using up all your Coping on dealing with international political coverage without going mad, and then your city literally catches fire? And you find you’re again waking up to the ambient sound of…
Friday (Thursday) Music: Heavens
The first year I went to Splore was the year Erykah Badu played. My memory is of arriving on the Friday afternoon to an idyll where everyone was smiling, the sun shone and children frolicked. I felt like the 5000th…
Broadcasting and the Public Interest
Recently I got involved in a Twitter discussion about public broadcasting and the future of TVNZ. It was precipitated by Gareth Morgan’s recent announcement that his new political party, The Opportunities Party, would sell off TVNZ and invest the money…
I tried Sativex: it was no fun at all
Sativex, an oromucosal spray, is the only pharmaceutical-grade medical cannabis product approved by Medsafe for use in New Zealand. It can't simply be prescribed by doctors – even after promised changes to regulations, prescriptions will have to be approved by an…
The inflation adjustment of benefits; or a bill for Keith
A little while back on Twitter, I got sucked into a thread on inflation. Someone argued that the general consumer price index was a poor estimate of the effect of inflation on lower income households. Several of us argued back…
After Hollywood
Last night was my second visit to Hollywood Avondale as a music venue, with the first being Tiny Ruins and friends in December last year. It has quickly become a favourite. ¶ An easy 7 minutes drive from home, and although…
Listening Lounge 2017: More good talk at Splore
Family, sustainability, drug safety and election-year politics: that's the scope of the 2017 Splore Listening Lounge talk programme. The "headline act" sees the Mount Albert by-election contest come to Splore, as Labour's Jacinda Ardern and the Green Party's Julie Anne…