Posts by andrew gunn
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oh go on, st ephen, take another swing - you know you want to
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Crikey
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I'm sure I'd have something witty to say if I knew who Hatherley was. Curse this cultural desert in which I was brought up!
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When I went to Ilam Primary it was a sea of white faces. Now my kids go there. At the last Cultural Day they did a rollcall of nationalities represented. I lost count after fifty.
And just as Emma says, that's the little bit of Christchurch I see. Could be different elsewhere, probably is.
Oh and this too: in all my years here I've never heard one local use the "more English than England" line in an irony-free way. It's the stuff of shoddily-written tourist and PR bumf. If there is a cult of anglophiles hereabouts, they're keeping a very low profile.
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And in other news: 93% of people polled think winter is too cold, vote to have summer twelve months a year.
Because that's what democracy's all about.
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These old TV clips are choice. I have just watched Ep 1 with the famous Thingee eye-popping. Like with Kennedy's assassination and the crowning of Lorraine Downes, many people can remember what they were doing when this happened. But here's the spooky thing: it never actually aired on the Son Of A Gunn show - though folks will swear that's when they saw it. The show was pre-recorded and they did a retake. The clip only turned up on TV later as a blooper.
Why do I know? Well, I had a hand in writing the show. And if you don't believe me, ask a certain current TVNZ director who had a hand in Thingee.
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Is it at all possible that a public service ad aimed at the male perpetrators, or maybe their peers who could have some influence over them, could get any traction?
Pragmatically, we'll be talking with our daughters in years to come about looking after themselves in the big wide world, but I would like to see something that tells men it's time to step up and stop being a dick, and that goes for your mates as well.
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What gets me cranky about the Listener is how it's all about me. Middle-class, mortgaged, married with children me. My house and how it's losing value, my frightening retirement prospects, my kids who are either doing the wrong NCEA subjects or doing P, my elderly relatives languishing in shoddy retirement homes, my cholesterol, my mid-life crisis, me me me me me me.
Thankfully there are more things to heaven and earth than are dreamt of in the Listener's editorial department, but if they don't fit the "what's in it for me?" test they won't be making it to the front page any time soon.
And re the portrayal of women in TV ads: if you're cynical you'll say it's just a branding exercise, but can I recommend the Dove "Onslaught" clip. I can't do the linky thing, but google it. I'm a father of daughters and I think it rocks.
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I'm forever intriqued by the "we smack but only as a last resort" position. I always want to reply: look, if you're right and smacking is effective and good and God-given, why arse around with those other child-rearing techniques - just hit the kid and no mucking about.
For now though it is time for me to retire, having been woken up too early both mornings this weekend by the raucous crowing of the Too-Often-Spotted Baldock
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I once saw a potato that, viewed from a certain angle, didn't look like Jim Bolger