Hard News: The Wall and the Paper
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I will admit to subscribing to the SST (for the timebeing). I generally like the Focus and the Culture insert but was quite disappointed last weekend to read two references that I found sexist and youth-hating. Some comment about a third year university student being bored to her low-riders and another one with a 14 year old scrawling pictures of boys she likes. Neither was necessary, or clever or funny. Wot, don't they think women or parents or teenagers read their newspaper?
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Steve Barnes, in reply to
she has good contacts and knows how to use them.
I've only seen her in those yellow tinted glasses.
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Steve Barnes, in reply to
Even crap can create its own momentum.
Even after it has his its own fans.
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Sacha, in reply to
isn’t “heritage” all about political acceptability applied to private property?
Isn't it about the public interest in both private and public property and spaces that are part of our shared history in this place? Its balance with private interests is a political decision, yes.
Who gets to decide what colour you paint your house?
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I must say that after a mis-spent childhood reading comics that advertised these things, it was a major disappointment to actually eat one the first time I was in the USA.
A bit like chewing on a sweetish sports sock. Did once see a great art piece (in Washington DC) of ‘Twinkies At War’–a reconstruction of a naval battle, made entirely of Twinkies.
In respect of Gawif Morgan, he is being a complete arse over the Maungatautari ecological mountain/island south of Cambridge–threatening to withdraw sponsorship money in order to deny local iwi a rightful place on the governance board.
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Carol Stewart, in reply to
Who gets to decide what colour you paint your house?
Well, actually, in Norway, the authorities do. Apparently, in some locations at least, there is an approved range of paint colours for house exteriors. And you know what? The landscape is really very beautiful and harmonious as a result. Check this out - Norway is quite well represented in this list.
NB: my sole claim to authority here is in having a Norwegian auntie, and in having visited the countryside around Sognefjord.
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Fran O'Sullivan writes a solid article about shareholder activism against the recent Hotchin spinfest. It's the balancing of power and challenging of fellow media I'd like to see more of from our journos and editors.
Frankly, it is important that the counter-view to Hotchin's claims gets aired. Herald columnist Brian Gaynor did a great job puncturing some of the myths in his March 4 column - "Mark Hotchin - own up or shut up".
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As [shareholder activist] Hepburn disclosed in his letter to the TVNZ board - which covered some of the material in a previous letter to Close Up producer Mike Valintine and frontman Mark Sainsbury - the issues that the Securities Commission and Serious Fraud Office are probing are much more complex than a media tussle between Hotchin and Allied Farmers' Rob Alloway as to which of them sold the former Hanover depositors the greatest pup.
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Surely TVNZ has it within itself to get these facts in front of its audience. Particularly, as the Hotchin PR campaign has now created a groundswell where some - who should know better - are turning the finger back at greedy investors for investing in risky finance companies.
It's surely obvious that the authorities are basing their investigations on more solid ground than that.
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Russell Brown, in reply to
I don’t miss Braunias – wittering Kiwiana has only so much to give and he’s been on repeat for a very long time.
The Sunday column waxed and waned, but Braunias still has powers of description well beyond those of most columnists. He's one of relatively few NZ print columnists who make me think "I wish I'd written that".
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I’m sorry, when someone mentions Norway, and house decoration (in a thread titled wall and paper), I cannot help but think of
this visual symphony
be sure to check out the full glory of the interior decoration. -
Jeremy Andrew, in reply to
the international sign for “dude, I’ve seen sceptic tanks less full of crap than you.”
+1 Sceptic tank - is that like a think tank that's pretty sure you're full of shit?
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Russell Brown, in reply to
Well, actually, in Norway, the authorities do. Apparently, in some locations at least, there is an approved range of paint colours for house exteriors. And you know what? The landscape is really very beautiful and harmonious as a result.
Which is fair enough. But this was a wall in an urban environment, 100m from funky K Road. If you were developing location-appropriate standards for that area, Askew's work would pretty much be it.
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Kumara Republic, in reply to
He's like a Twinkie. Will still be edible in the post-zombie-apocalypse world, but not really very nice even when brand new.
And we haven't gotten to the infamous Twinkie Defence yet. It wouldn't be too far-fetched either with Mr Lhaws' remarks bordering on incitement.
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Russell Brown, in reply to
The only real reason to continue to buy the SST is Rod Oram’s business column.
Nah.
That would be my reason for cancelling my subscription.
Perhaps someone should give Hilary Calvert a column then? Is she really the best you guys could come up with?
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Carol Stewart, in reply to
I think this sounds entirely good and right for K road. The Norway comparison is probably more appropriate to, say, central Otago landscapes which have such a distinct character.
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Well, actually, in Norway, the authorities do. Apparently, in some locations at least, there is an approved range of paint colours for house exteriors.
And in parts of Banks Peninsula and the Bay of Islands, I believe.
Though the BP district plan has been through so many variations and drawn-out negotiations (over a ten-year period, during which the BPDC ceased to exist :)) it's been difficult to keep up.
Even for planning staff. -
Christopher Dempsey, in reply to
Fran O’Sullivan we’ve all bagged at one time or another, but she’s not unreasonable per se, just starting from a very different set of political axioms.
And her actual reporting is pretty damn solid – she has good contacts and knows how to use them.
If she could bear to get past her fixtation on grey zip up shoes and salmon pink walls. Her obsession with the revolution and its vainglourious ideologies is quite off-putting. She needs a makeover, a socialist - oh, I mean, capitalist, because capital is the new socialist movement in a round about way.
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French street artist JR creates inclusive art that engages communities that are the most in need of something more than ordinary.
http://www.ted.com/talks/jr_s_ted_prize_wish_use_art_to_turn_the_world_inside_out.html
However if his affiliated large scale pasted wall posters started appearing all around our supercity, as is his TED wish, what would our city officials make of it.
Askew’s predicament has set my mind spinning as it touches upon many ideals dear to my own identity.
Prostituting creative talent within the imposed restraints of an artistically talentless entity tops my list. If an unelected dictator of creative direction and manipulator of local governmental approval required me to paint ‘’people mowing lawns’’ as he did to Askew, I would instantly take my creative energies elsewhere.
Please let us not have no-name people blankly painting over inspired efforts to communicate. Like them or not, these sub-cultured communiques provide something more than ordinary for a community to talk about.
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BenWilson, in reply to
I must say that after a mis-spent childhood reading comics that advertised these things
I'd go so far as to say everything advertised in them is disappointing. Ever seen a Sea Monkey (tm). With the naked eye? How about "Unbeatable fighting power in 3 days?". I've seen what people in martial arts clubs are like after 3 days training. How about "Charles Atlas Muscles"?. Try flexing yourself heaps and see if you get muscle mass any time soon.
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It was the x-ray specs that did it for me. Not actually being able to see through girl's clothing was extremely disappointing.
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Sue,
is the sideroom now some cool kids only space?
i keep getting 403 -
3410,
Try flexing yourself heaps and see if you get muscle mass any time soon.
I can still do it in 3 days, last time I checked.
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As noted, I believe you could have a nice drink with Karl du Fresne and reach amicable conclusions on some subset of the worlds' problems without fear of violence. Fran O'Sullivan we've all bagged at one time or another, but she's not unreasonable per se, just starting from a very different set of political axioms.
You're right Stephen, there are decent writers from other perspectives and, I imagine, these people are influential. Still, and isn't this where we started, the celebrity journalists promoted to front page are generally hysterics.
It's the first time that's the hardest.
Yeah, the electorate does appear to have a odd tolerance for fools. You apear to have to be a complete nut to get unelected.
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Speaking of columnists, who is Eric Thompson and what nightmarish parallel dimension does he inhabit? Every column of his chronicles a new set of annoyances and misfortunes, which he seems to believe are universal tragedies experienced by everyone all the time. Poor guy.
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Russell Brown, in reply to
I’d go so far as to say everything advertised in them is disappointing. Ever seen a Sea Monkey (tm). With the naked eye? How about “Unbeatable fighting power in 3 days?”. I’ve seen what people in martial arts clubs are like after 3 days training. How about “Charles Atlas Muscles”?. Try flexing yourself heaps and see if you get muscle mass any time soon.
But what about that mini-submarine? That must have been real.
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The Sunday column waxed and waned, but Braunias still has powers of description well beyond those of most columnists. He's one of relatively few NZ print columnists who make me think "I wish I'd written that".
His long-form pieces in North & South on various "small towns" in New Zealand were often so funny, sympathetic and strangely revealing that I was reminded how much I missed his work in the Listener. Jane Ussher's too, her photography for those pieces was equally evocative. He really should anthologise those articles, they're among his best writing, which is saying something.
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