Posts by Grant McDougall
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Hard News: Rugby has a problem, in reply to Tom Semmens,
It is corrupt organisation, if you define corruption as riddled with patronage, nepotism, jobs for the boys, and elitism of the unearned sort.
Back in the mid-90s, a sports reporter told me that the hapless Mark Carter's father was the president / chairman (one or the other) of the ARU. His close mate also just happened to be John Hart...
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Hard News: Rugby has a problem, in reply to dcrobertson01,
A coaches job is to win games. If the rules are such that a particlar style of play increases your teams chances of winning, then that is what you coach and how you play.
Well that doesn't explain why the Blues are on a losing streak. Every other coach in the S15 has to deal with the same rules and most manage to win. So presumably, going from your logic, Kirwan's failed to adapt to the rules and use the considerable talent at his disposal to the Blues' advantage.
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A good friend of mine is highish-up at one of the eight regional DOC officers and is a long-term DOC staffer. I can't name him for obvious reasons, but as he said in a text to me a few days' ago: "Environmentalists are the strongest advocates for 1080. It will be a rabid red-neck hunter that has done it"[made the threat, etc].
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Technically Shayne did two gigs at Taste Merchants, a 6pm and an 8pm (I was at the latter).
Graeme Downes opened both, just him and an electric guitar; it was excellent. He did about eight songs, most from the forth-coming Verlaines' double album (!).It was neat to hear just his voice and guitar. Everyone knows he can do the ornate, orchestrated pop / rock very, very well, but it'd be neat to have him do an album of just voiced and guitar songs, as they came across superbly.
This was the first time I've ever seen Shayne play an acoustic guitar, again, was really good. He did about 14 songs, mostly new stuff, plus two Dimmer, two SJF and finishing with 'Randolph'.
The only blight was some schmuck up front periodically clapping and stamping loudly and badly out of time. Thankfully Shayne called him out and the bar owner gave him the death-stare for a while.
That aside, was a lot of fun. As a ex-Gisborne boy, I was especially happy that Shayne did a song about Mahia, 'What's A Few Tears To The Ocean' off There, My Dear. -
For those of us south of the Bombay Hills, there is considerable schadenfraude at the Blues' form in recent years. However, as Highlanders fan, I know all too well the pain of supporting a struggling team. But Blues' fans also know what it's like to support a good team, so should at least appreciate that the Highlanders are having a decent spell since Jamie Joseph became coach.
The Blues' problems can be summed up in two words: John Kirwan. He is clearly a very dedicated coach and means well. However he is the epitome of someone who was an outstanding player, but a poor coach, as per Graeme Mourie, David Kirk and John Mitchell as basic examples. (This happens in all sports, not just rugby, too).
He is there on reputation and not form.As for Steve Hansen's whining, all I can say is "pot, kettle, black" given he happily coached the Crusaders to bore opposition to death and slowing down the ball before becoming Graeme Henry's deputy.
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Hard News: Friday Music: Christchurch,…, in reply to Rob Stowell,
Andrew Schmidt’s ‘mysterex’ blog was the go-to for Chch 80s music scene writing, but it seems to have disappeared :(
All of Andrew's NZ music articles for Mysterex have been absorbed into the excellent audioculture.co.nz website.
Russell's friend Blair Parkes also has a blog with several very good, highly-detailed features on the many Chch bands he's been in since the early '80s. If you just google his name it should come up.
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Hard News: Haphazardly to war, in reply to Joe Wylie,
Despite Key’s intemperate blurt at Little’s lack of enthusiasm for the coming offal-toss, he’s showing no sign of making the kind of impulsive captain’s call that Muldoon apparently did off his own bat during the Falklands War, when he offered a frigate to relieve a Royal Navy vessel for combat duties.
Well, not yet, anyway. Speaking of Muldoon, Thea Muldoon's just passed away, too.
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Hard News: CWC 2015: Contains graphic horror, in reply to Josh Petyt,
What’s the deal with Danny Morrison?
How many days do you have ?
But seriously, he's usually a commentator on Sky coverage - unfortunately he is also utterly tedious in doing so. Which is a pity, as he was a superb bowler and always came across as an ok bloke in interviews.
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Muse: A C!#& and Balls Story, in reply to Russell Brown,
I’m not sure that one was installed ahead of the others actually. The work at a whole is still being installed. It’ll look quite different when the lights go on.
Ok. I'm just a bit confused, because the media pics so far are just of "that" one, yet the other pics includes a few others, so I'd assumed they'd all be together. But are they being installed around different locations ?
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I think the main "problem" as it were, is that if one of the other pieces in the sculpture had been installed first, there wouldn't even be a story. However, the above piece was, so there was opportunity for the NZ Herald to make up the nonsense it has about the piece.
If the other pieces were installed first, or all the pieces at once there'd be no story. Silly, silly Herald.