Hard News: A few (more) words on The Hobbit
1304 Responses
First ←Older Page 1 … 6 7 8 9 10 … 53 Newer→ Last
-
Thanks Joe & Ian & Petra et al - this interesting set of events may not have gone the way some of us would wish, but we can still make jokes, and we can still enjoy - kia ora tatou-
-
<it can't Gewurzt... can it?>
;- /LOL! :D
I wouldn't muscat, just in case.
-
this interesting set of events may not have gone the way some of us would wish, but we can still make jokes, and we can still enjoy
It's why I wanna give you a hug!
And here's a song for you:
-
LOL! :D
<blush>
-
That's quite a rosé glow you got there, Ian.
-
A, kai te pai! Lovely!
(Ooo, those eels in the hinaki!)
I have several of her CDs - just so satisfying-
sweet dreams all - early night for me, because early tide apopo- -
I first heard of her from the 1 Giant Leap project. I love her voice.
And time for me to crash, too. G'night. :) -
I personally find 'Reading the Maps' pretty great reading normally; thoughtful and erudite.
Same
But it's a pretty good sign that certain elements of the Left have lost their way when they start arguing that workers don't know what is best for themselves in industral disputes, and should just shut up and do whatever <pick self-annointed union-flavoured spokesperson> tells them to do.
That paternalistic tone worries me too - and that they don't seem to hear themselves uttering it. Nor correctly identify who their enemies are.
And especially, refuse to update their thinking and strategy to reflect the world as is now rather than an idealised past. Tired ends-justifies-means approaches seem to offer more harm than benefit for workers, especially if their supposed champions are smugly beyond reproach.
-
I find it utterly repulsive to be honest. Never more so than after having just gone through this mess. This kind of 'strength in unity no matter the truth, so just shut up and keep your eye on the goal' leads to all sorts of horrific historical nastiness, which I'd probably sound histrionic to mention, but I'm sure people can guess what I'm talking about.
It's exactly that kind of mentality that lead to this strike order going down with consulting with the workers that were being effected, and they almost suffered terribly for it.
I'm not about to say Scott's suggestions or Simon Whipp's actions are in the same league as the nastiness we've seen in National Socialism or Stalinism, because obviously that would make me a complete fool. But the ideals of 'strength in collectivity' being more important 'the truth', whether it be nationality, religion, or class, is the root of all those movements. It's how otherwise average, sensible people found themselves doing horrific things on a mass scale, and any sensible person should thoroughly detest it for the kind of intellectual and moral rotting that it inevitably leads to in a culture (whether it be a nation, trade union, political party, art gallery, or a section of the blogosphere) that accepts it.
I guess that's also (without thinking about it much) can't help but despise the 'national identity' model for defining the value of an art work.
Strength in unity will always be weaker than strength in truth, in the long run.
Okay, a little histrionic :/
Been a long month, and I'm very tired...
-
Comrade Lew further sullies the manifesto of socialist brotherhood.
Unions do not enjoy any legitimacy by virtue of their ideological rectitude; in fact, their commitment to Marxist ideological doctrine is a considerable disadvantage in terms of their survival. Because of this, the trade union which relinquishes its commitment to democracy also risks relinquishing its claim to legitimacy, and if trade unions as a whole start to cut corners on democracy, then the movement as a whole risks granting anti-union governments a pretext to weaken and outlaw unions on the basis that they don’t actually represent workers’ interests.
...
So there’s no way I’m going to overlook the real and serious damage caused to the trade union movement and the cause of workers’ rights by this upstart union who took excessive action without a mandate. They’ve done real and genuine harm to the trade union movement and they’ve made industrial relations — which should have been a Labour’s trump suit — an easy source of tricks for the government. And this at the very time the union movement was beginning to gather strength again!
-
which should have been a Labour’s trump suit
Labour have 12 months to win back 5% of the vote to centreleft/centre.
There is still a lot more going on than a film in this country labourwise.
Labour should let people breathe a bit then get back into labour relations.If this incident shows anything it shows the potential anarchy of the present bargaining system. We don't need to use English Labour Relations as a primary influence. What about Europe, the Japanese, new systems even.This system is too cap in hand.
-
and all respect to our brillant film industry but traditional film revenues are going to plummet very soon, much like the music industry because movies will be stolen in large numbers as the online revolution gets bigger and movie tickets get more expensive.
We need a plan for our film industry.
and let's hope warner brothers doesn't include our stance on global warming when they help tell the world what a great bunch of swell nature lovers we are.
-
Jesus fuck, Jeremy! Here we've been arguing about bullshit manifestos for the last month and you go spout another one. Do some research - the music industry has never been healthier. Some makers of CDs have had losses, but the industry has had bumper years for the last 3. Likewise the movie industry.
Planning is good, but don't base it on false assumptions. Learn something from Equity's screw-up.
Meh.
Going to bed. -
the music industry has never been healthier.
Learn something about the entertainment industries.
Music's lost decade: Sales cut in half .CNN
By David Goldman, staff writerFebruary 3, 2010: 9:52 AM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- If you watched the Grammy Awards Sunday night, it would appear all is well in the recording industry. But at the end of last year, the music business was worth half of what it was ten years ago and the decline doesn't look like it will be slowing anytime soon.Total revenue from U.S. music sales and licensing plunged to $6.3 billion in 2009, according to Forrester Research. In 1999, that revenue figure topped $14.6 billion.
Facebook Digg Twitter Buzz Up! Email Print Comment on this story
Although the Recording Industry Association of America will report its official figures in the early spring, the trend has been very clear: RIAA has reported declining revenue in nine of the past 10 years, with album sales falling an average of 8% each year. Last decade was the first ever in which sales were lower going out than coming in.
"There have been a lot of changes over the past 10 years," said Joshua Friedlander, vice president of research at RIAA. "The industry is adapting to consumer's demands of how they listen to music, when and where, and we've had some growing pains in terms of monetizing those changes."
The two recessions during the decade certainly didn't help music sales. It's also a bit unfair to compare the 2000s with the 1990s, since the '90s enjoyed an unnatural sales boost when consumers replaced their cassette tapes and vinyl records en masse with CDs.
But industry insiders and experts argue that the main culprit for the industry's massive decline was the growing popularity of digital music.
"The digital music business has been a war of attrition that nobody seems to be winning," said David Goldberg, the former head of Yahoo music. "The CD is still disappearing, and nothing is replacing it in entirety as a revenue generator."
-
@Andre, Sacha & Peter C: Monty Python pretty much summed it up...
-
Queasy? When a prime minister can use an international film company to change labour law under urgency, with no select commitee, no debate or negotiation? I'm outraged. It sounds like the thin end of a wedge to me and it must contravene at least a couple of ILO conventions that we're signed up to. I think it's John (Managing Director of Weta Workshop) Key's first longed-for step in the return to the ECA.
Yes. There's currently a conspiracy theory being shared amongst some of the actors that holds that Warners engineered the whole thing by paying huge money to an (unnamed) PR firm. It really does not pass a reality test.
Well, they hardly needed a conspiracy - they had an enthusiastic media and an uninformed public. A woman I know railed against the teachers union when she heard that someone's child was home from school: 'Bloody Unions! What are they trying to do? Stop The Hobbit?' I thought she reflected the level of analysis in the general media, rather well.
We have more things to be proud of than a movie from a book written by a dead Brit and produced by an enormous international film company - surely! Pet day at Dalesford School beats it for me.
I think Helen Kelly has been the only person whose analysis has been borne out by results.
I'd also like to nominate Sir Peter, Sir Richard and Philippa Boyens for well-deserved Oscars.
-
Talking of 'lynch mob mentality', enter stage right the New Zealand public.
-
We have more things to be proud of than a movie from a book written by a dead Brit and produced by an enormous international film company - surely!
I used to be be quite proud of the notion that culturally and politically we might have grown up a bit and moved beyond both forms of cultural cringe: The Cringe Direct, and the Cringe Inverted.
Not any more. Long-time readers will know I'm not a fan of "the trilogy", but I like crude mindless cultural (or political/economic) nationalism even less. Which is saying a lot.
BTW, Jan, planning to tell Elizabeth Knox & Lloyd Jones to dump their "enormous international" publishers and stop writing effete un-Kiwi bullshit about bisexual angels in France and a Dickens-obsessed teacher in war-torn Bougainville?
-
The whole thing has been such a shambles. Maybe they should change the sign to Wallywood!
-
Death threats fly over Hobbit
Talking of 'lynch mob mentality', enter stage right the New Zealand public.
And that would include the lefty ex-FB friend I kicked to the virtual curb for calling Philippa Boyens a "cunt" who was so good at spreading her legs for foreign corporations she deserved a good... well, you fill in the blanks.
Class not ass, Hobbiton!
-
Meanwhile, who wants to play 'Spot The Truthiness, Irony Deficiency and Situational Memory Loss' in yet another Herald editorial?
OK, that's unfair - it's far from the most mendacious Herald editorial I've ever read, and I mostly agree with the (badly made) substantive point. All the same, the sight of the Herald editorial board pontificating about falling for "hype and hysteria" is way too close to serial adulterer Newt Gingrich lecturing teh gayz on the sanctity of marriage.
And Warner Brothers has nothing on The Herald's proprietors who it comes to aggressive lobbying and playing very hard ball indeed with its employees and unions. Not that you'd ever read about that in the Herald...
-
We have more things to be proud of than a movie from a book written by a dead Brit and produced by an enormous international film company - surely! Pet day at Dalesford School beats it for me.
Pet day at the school doesn't keep thousands of creative people in work, or underpin their industry. It also hasn't made NZ a case study in movie-related tourism.
You don't have to like the films to add up the benefits of them being made here.
-
OK, that's unfair - it's far from the most mendacious Herald editorial I've ever read, and I mostly agree with the (badly made) substantive point.
And to be fair, it's not quite as witless as the first one on this topic was. But yes, it is a very poor piece of argument. Couldn't anyone look up s number or something?
-
A few point to consider re: the 'maps' analysis. Sorry if they've been raised already - I don't have time to read all to comments.
1. It's very hard to move a coalmine offshore.
2. the miners unions at the time of the strike had large memberships - it was very unusual not to be a union member.
3. The miners enjoyed support from large swathes of the UK population, who provided, among other things, monetary and material support when strike funds started to run dry.Contrast and compare...
-
1. It's very hard to move a coalmine offshore.
Nigh on impossible, one might say...
2. the miners unions at the time of the strike had large memberships - it was very unusual not to be a union member.
It wasn't possible, IIRC.
Post your response…
This topic is closed.