Posts by Lambert
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As a bit of a movie nerd, I tend to read a lot of reviews and my main criteria for judging the quality of a reviewer is the quality of their writing. As Simon points out, a 200 word review doesn't tell you much about anything, but a good feature review should be a piece of entertainment in itself. An enjoyable (albeit, one-sided) conversation with a knowledgable and articulate person about a shared interest, not some consumer guide for rating toasters.
Whether or not I always share a reviewer's tastes is largely irrelevant if they can justify their opinion in lively, well-informed prose - who cares how many stars the movie gets in the Time Out section. That tells you nothing. In fact, ban stars. And alphabetical ratings. And please no thumbs-up/thumbs-down either.
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Barring Chiefs supporters, did anyone in NZ watch the S14 beyond the midpoint?
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Gear may be the odd winger out - Rokocooko and Sitivini get a free pass as members of the reconditioning squad and Howlett does seem to have rediscovered his mojo of late.
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The Campbell piece last night reminded me of that brilliant Aussie current affairs satire, Frontline. In one episode, the Frontline team try every dirty, underhanded journo trick to get an exclusive interview with someone (the wife of a hostage, maybe? can't remember) without the competition finding out where she lives. But the media pack descends on the house before they have the chance to get the interview, so they do a "shame on the media pack" piece instead. Heh.
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By "getting love from the public", I don't mean anything gross...unfortunate turn of phrase on my part.
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Some cops are bastards. And there's no denying the Police culture has been, and probably still is to a lesser degree, sexist, macho and clannish.
But as someone who has a respected relative who's been in the force for a long time, and a friend who recently left after a decade or so in, I can understand how an insular police culture can develop.
As my mate told me once, being in a job where you are dealing with people all day, every day, who absolutely hate you is draining. I think these guys who, let's not forget, put their personal safety on the line everytime they go to work, feel pretty unappreciated a lot of the time. It doesn't encourage you to want to go outside your circle of work mates.
Both these guys are, incidentially, Maori. They're both good men with tons of integrity and, for the lack of a better description, high moral fibre (keeps them regular, I suppose). They are both under no illusions about the shortcomings of some of their colleagues and, although I haven't talked to either of them about the report or the rape trials et al, I'm sure they would be as disgusted with the behavior coming to light as the rest of us. I guess this is just a plea to spare a thought for all the good ones in uniform - if they don't get a bit of love from the public from time to time, they ain't be in blue for long and frankly, we need 'em.
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Excelllent. God has a Myspace page. http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=146471940
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I'm with you on that one Simon - nasty characters are doing all sorts horrible things to people around the world everyday but "serial killer" has such a cinematic ring to it.
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A mate of mine ended up in the mental health ward after taking party pills, and while just like pot, it probably acted as a catalyst for a pre-existing condition, if it wasn't for the pills he probably wouldn't have lost the plot.
Off topic a bit, but I'd be willing to bet that drugs - whether pot, party pills, P, or LSD - acted as a trigger for many, if not the majority, of people who suffer from serious mental illness.
I don't know anyone injured or killed in a crash caused by a drug-impaired driver (drink-impaired drivers on the other hand....) but I do know a more than a few people with serious mental health issues that surfaced at the same time as heavy dope smoking. They might have got sick regardless, but whenever they smoke a joint now, their mental health invariably deteriorates.
Obviously this is a small minority of people, but so are the number of drivers who crash while under the influence of drugs. Given the damage and cost to society - and the state of our mental health system - it's something that I'd like to see acknowledged, without getting too hysterical about it, by the likes of the Greens (I'd be happy to be corrected if the Greens have done this sometime in the past).
Maybe we should can the drug-driving checkpoints and bring back those Reefer Madness public service films instead?
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Incidentally....