Posts by kw
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Hard News: Friday Music: The Beatles'…, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
On the subject of venues and eras this tribute to Chicks from last week's Critic might amuse some of you.
(Should have gone with the Sammy's thread, but much easier to follow Ian's comment.)
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Speaker: The real problem with the ‘Kiwimeter’, in reply to EJ,
This:
To be fair, some of the NZAVS questions are a bit tricky for pedants as well, I vaguely remember a couple of gender questions making my eyes narrow. But I never mind putting in my two cents for the 50% of us whose aspirations differ.
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Legal Beagle: The flag referendum:…, in reply to izogi,
My chief current bugbears are the overuse of words like immature and petulant to describe people like me who lean left, favour a change, but don't like what's on offer.
It all comes back down to process. Last year, those of us who favour change said, let's ask first whether we want to change on principle, and were told we couldn't be expected to make up our minds unless we knew what the alternative would be. Now we know what the alternative is, we're being abused for not voting on principle.
I ticked the box for the current flag because I don't like the silver fern that much. At this time of year, I have stronger nationalistic pride about Bluff oysters. (Did anyone suggest a hologram paua flag? That would have been magnificent, if difficult to replicate.)
So I also strongly object to the likes of Jonathan Milne informing me that my choice was all about the PM. If there is such a thing as KDS, maybe its manifestation is to think that everything is about him. Some of us try not to think much about politicians...
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Hard News: The CRL and the nature of change, in reply to kw,
I posted that too quickly, sorry. What I really wanted to say is that this projected growth is another issue to address. We have to fix Auckland, but we can also make life better for everyone by trying to reduce this rate and spread it across other parts of the country. So yes, that regional approach is really important. Keeping Auckland's growth in proportion would help with its infrastructure problems, instead of being so fatalistic about preparing for the flood instead of setting up better defences.
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Hard News: The CRL and the nature of change, in reply to Russell Brown,
Greater Auckland is home to 34% of New Zealanders and responsible for 35% of GDP. Per capita, Aucklanders get less government expenditure than people in any of the other regions. Even transport spending is only commensurate with Auckland’s share of the tax take. And infrastructure spending is about growth expectations – in the next 30 years, Auckland is expected to account for nearly two thirds of New Zealand’s population growth. You can’t not plan for that.
Last time I looked, 66% was almost twice 34%. In the asset sales referendum, more non-Aucklanders voted than there were registered voters in the Ak electorates. It's only that they don't all vote the same way - much like Ak itself.
And
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He accepted an OBE in 1988, so he wasn't entirely unrecognised. I was more surprised that he doesn't seem to have been an arts foundation laureate - not as far as I can tell, but their site doesn't seem to have a search option.
He spoke at the opening of an Otago Museum exhibition of Ralph Hotere's pottery collection, much of it was his work, gifts that related to the time he lived down this way while some stuff was being built up north. Almost the first thing he said was that he would send down some samples of clay so that people could feel the texture of various pot surfaces, which he did. He struck me as a very humble and political kind of guy, which might also explain the lack of subsequent higher honours - they are, after all, self-selecting. (This is why more amazing people like him are not in the ONZ.)
The Dowse got a tribute up pdq.
A thought too, as this is a music thread, for Alec Wishart. I adored Hogsnort Rupert when I was a kid.
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I was too young for Slade and Wizard at the time, but both of those songs are great fun. It's a toss up between the two, isn't it?
A couple of months back, there was a charming piece in the Guardian about Noddy Holder - "people think I live in a cave all year and come out in December shouting It's Chriiistmaaasss".
I won't hear a word against Snoopy's Christmas either. On the other hand, that monstrosity about grandma and reindeer and Wonderful Christmastime...no excuse.
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Up Front: Reading Murder Books, in reply to Biobbs,
Had forgotten about Sam Jones and Saz Martin - Sam in particular seemed to have been left dangling a bit, but I guess there's only so many times a sculptor can get herself tangled up in crime without it being completely preposterous. (Not that I cared.) Zoe Sharp's Charlie Fox series is another I look out for - she's a bodyguard with a complicated military back story, a bit like a professional, sane, female Reacher.
As for Murray Whelan - maybe I enjoy them because I lived in Melbourne for a few years a long time back. But that vernacular humour is much like the Paul Thomas or Chris Brookmyre's Parlabane novels.
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Among Australians who travel as well as Peter Temple, there's also Shane Maloney's Murray Whelan novels, which are fun, and a couple by Adrian Hyland set in the outback.
I have a weakness for (Scot) Chris Brookmyre as well, and the new series is far less ranty than those with Jack Parlabane.
Adrian McKinty's pretty good too, set in Belfast.
Aside from Brookmyre, none of these guys are into double figures yet, so good for Christmas binge reading.
And while I haven't picked up a Cornwell in years, two of her contemporaries in Sara Paretsky and Sue Grafton have not lost their mojo and this year's offerings by both were terrific.
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A quick link to a couple of posts by Lizzy Marvelly on her Villainesse blog (I'll just link to the first here, it will get to both, Why we should not change the flag and The pros and cons of spoiling your vote. They're thoughful and essentially polite - the strongest language might be a "foisted" and "let's do it properly", which compares favourably to many of the pro-flag pieces I've seen, particularly the propensity to categorise pro-current flag types as older, male, and either conservative or irrational lefty extremists.