Random Play: Let me take you down . . .
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And frankly I wouldn't care if an Australian designed this eye-catching, innovative, multi-purpose building which also includes cinemas, smaller galleries and museums and with restaurants and bars along the harbour side.
If we have an international competition (and we should) and someone of the foreign persuasion comes up with the best design, isn't that just fine?
Counting foreigners out is just silly xenophobia. The Australians got a Danish man to design their opera house by the harbour, and look how proud they are of that.
Of course, it only half works because they decided to do something that had never been done before on a limited budget, so we might end up with something that is only beautiful. Best, as you suggest, to use proven technologies.
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Have a look at the new Ironbank Building on K Rd - best bit of new city design I've seen here for ages. We can do good contemporary architecture.
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Great sugguestion Graeme re. cultural tourism.
We've just returned from a trip to Porto, and spent a good 4 hours or so at the Casa de Musica (designed by the Dutch architect Rem Kolhaas) there, without even seeing a concert (which we also would have done if we hadn't had a previous engagement with a restaurant) - went on a tour with a genuinely engaged guide, hung about and listened to sound sculptures, bought some token items from the unobtrusive gift shop etc. etc. It was all tremendous, and that one visit made me think very kindly of Porto as a whole, and want to return.
I do think that's interesting that people are far more likely to visit galleries, museums etc. when they are on holiday then when they are at home - this is totally based on anecdotal evidence though!
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My take on Queen's Wharf is that I'd be happier with a semi-temporary solution (like the Copeland one) than getting stuck with a ferry terminal done on the cheap.
A gallery would be wonderful, but I fear our chances are slim given that the Auckland City Art Gallery is being extended right now.
After another visit to the Christchurch Art Gallery, I'm convinced that a great opportunity for a new gallery building near Auckland's waterfront was missed with the commitment to the extension of the existing site. It really does look like another classic Auckland second-best decision.
BTW: Graham's new book of travelling observations is great. We'll have to work out a stonking launch.
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" . . .the new Ironbank Building on K Rd - best bit of new city design I've seen here for ages. We can do good contemporary architecture . . ."
Hmm, I saw that the other day and with it's block lettering, menacing and impenetrable facade etc i could only think "neo-fascist bank" of the kind you might have seen/see in Mussolini's EUR outside of Rome.
Not my kind of architecture, but let's hear what others have to say.Over to you architects/designers . . .
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BTW: Graham's new book of travelling observations is great. We'll have to work out a stonking launch.
I'm in.
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Yay! McCartney! I am, however, sad ('so saaaaaaaaad') that you called 'Another Day' vacuous, because I think it's very pretty indeed.
Oh my god. Tomorrow is September 1. It's Beatles Month!
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Also, I could not love Thrillington more. It's like I am your Evil Twin McCartney Fan, Graham.
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If you are gonna talk about the new the clean album, may as well chuck in the (great) album put out by the excellent morr music who are their label overseas. "- Not Given Lightly - A Tribute To the Giant Golden Book Of New Zealand`s Alternative Music Scene". http://www.morrmusic.com/artist/Various%20Artists/release/118
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This architect will do for me. Santiago
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Zaha Hadid is kinda out there.
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Not my kind of architecture, but let's hear what others have to say.
Took photos over the weekend. I think it immediately grabs your attention although on closer study found certain detail to be clumsy and unnecessary. The upper office suites being clad in iron did give the idea of a fine balance with the relatively lightweight (glass) ground level. So teetering almost tumbling blocks is where it it took me. I thought they could be fun apartments. The photos came out pretty good but I wasn't concentrating on the gates. I was looking up and against the skyline, it played nicely. I imagine very personal views from each suite. I liked it.
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Ah Graham, you did go around the back (in Cross St) because quite a different feel to the front?
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Graham, I love your gallery/museum idea! I think it's quite possible for a waterfront gallery to do something different from the Auckland City Art Gallery, such as craft art or applied art. And maybe some space given to recent local contemporary art, which is an area often not well served by our city galleries.
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For such a long time now Auckland has been driven by people acting out of self interest, simultaneously lacking the vision to drive the city into a truly great one and the will to carry it out.
I'm still disturbed by the way this super city notion seems (from a distance at least) to have been promoted as a fait accompli, springing from nowhere with very little public consultation. And then to see some of the directions being put forward, well it just leads to despair.
Unless we get the fundamental things right Auckland will never achieve it's potential to be great. There are so many major things that just aren't done properly - town planning (particularly the cbd), public parks and stadiums, social housing and responsibility, common aims amongst councils and worst of all the public transport - I've said before any city worth it's salt MUST have a multi platform (rail, bus, ferry, subway even, and not forgetting decent cycle facilities) public transport system.
The one reason there ARE so many cars is that it's just not feasible (reliabitly and cost) to rely on the existing public transport systems to get you places cheaply and on time.
I don't have the answer to any of these things - but I do know that they have to happen for Auckland to be able to move ahead into the 21st century. Getting rid of the greed and self interest could be a start but the whole super city proposal just seems to be furthering those causes, yet again.
Thanks for a great article Graham.
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My city would have a long-running, multi-culti, Pacific rim arts festival where musicians and artists from Okinawa and the Solomons would be exhibiting and working alongside our own people and those from South America, Hawaii, Oregon and Alaska.
Hundreds then thousands would come to an arts festival like that, just as they flock to the Venice Biennale and the like. And that would be just part of a whole lot of other integrated arts/sports/cultural events.
And just get used to the idea that ambitious arts festivals are just going to require very long term financial commitments, and run serious deficits. That's not being negative, that's dealing with reality -- as anyone who's been involved with the Wellington International Arts Festival for more than five minutes will tell you.
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And even if you dislike the guy he actually cracked some interesting but ignored albums. I’ve only covered McCartney in the Seventies and the Eighties so far, the Nineties come next week.
In those great music dicotomies that anoraks like - "you can love John or Paul, but not both" - I've decided I'm a Paul - Maybe I'm Amazed and Every Night more thn make up for your occasional frog choruses...
The others:
Beatles v Elvis - I'm definitely The Beatles
Beatles v Stones - I prove the whole process is flawed cos I am definitely both....
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"you can love John or Paul, but not both"
I'm playing the arse card on the anoraks, because I have enough love for all members of the Beatles *and* Elvis, even in his white flared jumpsuit period.
(I have slightly less love for the Stones, but I do like them.)
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I think there's a(deleted?) scene in Pulp Fiction where whatshername says - you can *like* both, but you can only , truly, deeply, in the bottom of yr heart, *love* one, and you gotta choose.
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Nice McCartney fest Graham, but I'm going to say I agree with Danielle, Another Day is rather lovely.
And I'm gonna argue with you about the 10m Revolution too, I think Take 20, as it's called is rather special, and may be the definitive version, especially as it ties all three Revolutions together rather coherently.
But, yeah, Carnival Of Light and Helter Skelter, and all that awful Get Back doodling deserve to to remain unreleased, even if, as Paul says in your comments, they are easily sourced by the curious.
And I doubt we'll ever see Let It Be, the movie, on DVD, at least in Paul's lifetime.
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And, and for me, if there was only to be one Wings album (which may be a very good idea), it would be Wildlife. I simply never understood why it was received the way it was and am pleased it's gained some stature over the years.
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3410,
I simply never understood why it [Wild Life] was received the way it was
Because what you want from McCartney is great songs and there's only one proper McCartney-type song - Some People Never Know - in the first two thirds of the album (with 2 more at the end).
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And who is going to pay for this? Well, we are aren’t we? Just as we are going to be paying for the 2011 Rugby World Cup long after the event. (Anybody yet heard how Eden Park will be filled and pay its way when the tumult and the shouts of “awww ref” have died?)
Stick a big tent over the top and fill it with "a gallery of contemporary art from around the Pacific rim, with special spaces for Maori, Pacific and New Zealand artists of whatever cultural background, would be a real earner." Call it the Millennium and a little bit Dome.
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Because what you want from McCartney is great songs
I think that he signalled that it wasn't always going to be that way from now on when he released his first solo album.
I've always thought that the critical savaging of Wildlife was one of the reason he retreated to so much flimsy dross in the years afterwards. It wasn't until the late eighties, and even more so in the 1990s that he found his muse again in any meaningful way.
I gotta put my hand up too for the unreleased McCartney / Costello sessions (much bootleged naturally). The duet of So Like Candy kills the released version (on Costello's Mighty Like A Rose) and sends shivers. Why in god's name is this still sitting in the vaults.
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3410,
I think that he signalled that it wasn't always going to be that way from now on when he released his first solo album.
Absolutely, but that ain't gonna change what the people want.
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