Posts by webweaver
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I've never set anything on fire either
Well, except a crowd of over 10,000
OK that really did make me laugh out loud. Heh.
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ah but I didn't actually get collided with by said truck. It stopped about an inch away from the back of my car. Hey! It musta been a MIRACLE!
(That slow-mo thing you get when you're in the middle of impending doom is quite cool though)
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oh I think it's never too soon for the Prodigy...
I too feel left out cos I've never set anything on fire either. Happy for it to stay that way, natch.
On the other hand I have spun my American car into the path of an oncoming truck the first day I drove it (wrong side of road, wrong side of car, automatic with power steering and brakes, none of which I'd experienced before) - does that count?
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For me, a teenager living in England in 1976, punk was an entirely British phenomenon at the beginning. We weren't really aware of any American punk bands back then - it seemed to us as though it started in London with the Sex Pistols - and that Malcolm and Vivienne's Sex shop provided (in a massively important way) the "look" that went with the sound.
All the bands we loved and pogo'd to and spat at at innumerable gigs in those first two or three years of punk were either English, Irish or Scottish (our discovery of American punks such as The Ramones and Blondie came a couple of years later) - and for us, the clothes were almost as important as the music - and the attitude was equally important.
It was the classic teenage rebellion "fuck you if you're over 25" thing - but in addition (and this was something we'd certainly never come across in popular music before) - it was the DIY ethic. The idea that any one of us could pick up a guitar and form a punk band and that it would be good, and joyous, and wonderful, and angry, and rebellious, and political if we wanted it to be - this was an entirely new concept, and one which we all embraced with great enthusiasm.
I think Malcolm had a lot to do with fostering and developing this ethic, whether he did it deliberately or not.
He lit a fire in those of us at the perfect age to appreciate and adopt all the aspects of punk culture - and what a blaze it was! I'm so incredibly grateful to have had punk as my seminal musical influence. It was a wonderful time to be growing up, and a wonderful soundtrack to my teenage and University years.
I can see shadows of that same DIY ethic coming through at many other times of my life - like travelling to the far side of the world straight after University when no-one we had ever met had even considered doing such a thing; eventually coming to live in NZ even though I didn't know a soul when I arrived; forming a world music band in Welli in the 90s; organising dance parties and eventually getting involved in The Gathering; making our own documentary about TheG; even the freelance and contract web design/dev work I do these days - it's all about making things happen yourself and not relying on anyone else to do it for you.
I learnt when I first went travelling that "you can make anything happen if you want it badly enough" - and although I thought I'd figured that one out for myself, in retrospect I think it was a concept that was already sitting in my brain, planted there by all the punk bands I ever saw, and ever loved.
Malcolm McLaren introduced me to the very first of those punk bands, and for that I am extremely grateful.
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Video of Tuesday's anti-mining demo:
I bumped into a friend of mine today and had a most interesting conversation. She and I are very much not on the same page when it comes to voting preferences, and have had a few conversations in the past which have been somewhat uncomfortable because of this.
I mentioned I'd been to the demo on Tuesday and she told me she's extremely unhappy with National's stance on the mining issue. She'd read the SST poll report at the weekend and said she could almost be one of the 13% of National voters who wouldn't vote National if the election were held today. This is a BIG deal. She's always been very strongly National all the way.
And then she mentioned the ECan debacle and said she wasn't comfortable with that either - and even mentioned David Carter's conflict of interest and how unimpressed she was with that (so she's definitely paying attention) - and then she said she was fundamentally opposed to Paula Bennett's attacks on beneficiaries (her words).
The most interesting thing for me (in addition to the fact that she's so uncomfortable with so many of National's policies at the moment - which is huge in itself) is the wording she used when she brought up each new issue. She kept on saying "I don't trust so-and-so on this issue". Very interesting. Trust would seem to me to be kinda vital in any party/voter relationship. If they're losing their supporters' trust, that would seem to me to be a potential problem for National. Trust is a hard thing to win back once you've lost it.
She doesn't know who to vote for now... Amazing!
I'm hoping she's representative of a large swathe of National voters - and also hoping she still feels the same way in 18 months' time.
And also - a perfectly-timed April Fool's Day post from Danyl at The Dim-Post - Government to dig up conservation areas
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Oooh you're way ahead of me Sofie - I haven't written mine yet.
We had a great demo - lots of chanting, awesome speeches (especially Metiria Turei - and Phil Goff wasn't bad either) - plus some very cool folks from F&B, Greenpeace, Coromandel Watch and others.
At least 500 people there as far as I could tell (I couldn't see everyone cos I was at the front) - "the first ripple in a wave of protest"
Oh - and me and my banner made the paper. Tee hee.
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Hooray! See you there James - I'm bringing extra placards if you want one...
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Yup that's a good point Sacha.
If anyone's interested - there's a big demo planned at Parliament tomorrow (Tuesday) 12.30-1.30pm to protest against National's mining plans.
It's being organised by 2precious2mine, which is an umbrella group representing all the groups campaigning against mining in National Parks - Coromandel Watchdog, Environment and Conservation Organisations (ECO), Federated Mountain Clubs, Forest and Bird, Green Party, Greenpeace, Save Happy Valley Coalition and World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
Seems to me that it's a heck of a lot easier to nip these crazy policies in the bud, rather than wait until we're having to chain ourselves to the bulldozers. In order to do that, we need BIG NUMBERS in any demonstration opposing mining in National Parks.
Please - if you're in Wellington on Tuesday and this matters to you, come along and show your support.
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Seeing as Stephen Fry's already been to NZ and oohed and ahhed about the kakapo and our awesome work in increasing population numbers (see last week's Last Chance to See) I was thinking we could try to get his attention via Twitter and tell him what's going on - he's good for a million or so pairs of eyes getting behind him on the Issue of Teh Day...
Oh - and check this out - National's now admitting they "may" have told the mining industry they intended pursuing mining as an economic development policy two years before the 2008 election. What a surprise! National admits dropping nugget to mining firms before election
Brownlee said National "probably" held discussions with miners before the election, but said he was "unaware of any campaign contributions to National from mining companies before the 2008 election".
Hmmmm. Anyone feel like digging into National's campaign contribution information to see what they can find?
Funny that they forgot to mention any of this during the election campaign, isn't it?
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Naa Craig, that's not my style - I may be being rude about what she's doing, but it's not nice to have a go at someone based on their appearance or where they're from. And "class traitor" is so old-school Socialist Worker's Party - not my thing at all.
I just find it sad that she - who knows exactly what it's like to get trapped into the cycle of joblessness - and I take nothing away from her achievement in getting out of it - good on her - she appears to take such delight in putting the screws on those still in the place that she used to be.
I'm not wanting to thread-jack and I'm sure there'll be opportunity to discuss this at some point on a more appropriate thread - but where does she think all these jobs are going to magically appear from when we're still in a recession and we've got the highest unemployment figures in years?