Posts by Geoff Lealand
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The handsome and steady-eyed Patrick McGoohan, who has died aged 80
We have a bumper sticker "I am not a number" on our car (and another "I have escaped" on our ancient caravan, which sits under a tree in our front garden) but very few get the references. Bought a complete set of The Prisoner for my 21 year old son for Christmas.
For better or worse, McGoohan will be remembered for The Prisoner. If you ever get to Wales (Ceregion, North Wales), do pay a visit to Portmerrion--a fascinating and odd place.
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I once said something critical about Wayne to a Herald journalist and received unsolicited, vehement letters from Aggrieved of Ashburton and Outraged of Oamaru.
Can't say I am too charmed by the emergence of Noelle McCarthy. She may sound like a crate of Guiness but really hasn't much of substance to contribute.
And then there was the string of listener texts I heard yesterday, along the lines of "I haven't had a TV set for 35 years and my life is so much richer than yours" . I guess they were seeking a pat on the back; I wanted to kick them in the shins!
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When did summer in New Zealand get so busy? Over four pages of diversions and excursions in today's Time Out--makes you feel a little guilty about lounging around on a beach, doing nothing.
Missing BDO tomorrow and 90 minutes of Neil Young, but it came to a toss-up between Mt. Smart and Leonard C. next week.
Have I been missing anything by largely ignoring National Radio this summer? It all seemed a bit tired and limp, with a forced jollity, times I tuned in.
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However, the Ohio Theater really is something else.
'fer sure. I recall see a silent movie there (Lon Chaney in "Laugh, Clown, Laugh), with full Wurlitzer. How did you get from Pittsburgh to Columbus, Jake? Did you go by the r'n'r Hall of Fame in Cleveland (I have a liking for those , slightly shabby mid-Western cities--Toledo, Akron, Cinncinnati). And I would travel anywhere in the world to see Tom Waits!i
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but I'm a firm believer in the importance of imagination in most things
Me too, but very visually oriented. Which I why I won't eat anything I do not like the look of--which includes shellfish and offal. I once gagged down an oyster, for people speak of them as one of life's great pleasure. Once was enough.
Steven: you were up at 4am on a Sunday morning??
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A dispatch from Collingwood, NW Nelson. Everything (houses, cafes) is still for sale here, as they are every summer. It is a wonderful spot but people still are captivated by its summer glories, buy up locally, then move on once they have experienced a winter or two of 8 weeks of rain.
We are staying again in the old Masters House on Beach Road (we are usually a few houses along) and it retains its quaint charms--a bit like sleeping over at the museum. The sea is like warm tea (not sure what warm coffee would be like)
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oops.. I intended to write "the over-lapping dialogue in a Robert Altman movie". I realise we have the Preview facility but an impulsive press of the Post Reply button sends out all your mistakes for the world to read (blame it on it having to rely on a PC keyboard and having to pay for internet access!)
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Coming in rather late to a rather extended conversation, which resembles the over-lappingin a Robert Altman movie. Just to add my two-cents worth (well, more properly 50 cents worth, given the charges for internet use in Collingwood, NW Nelson);
* the debate about about anarchism. The problem is that anarchism seems to often be only a sliver of difference azway from libertarianism, whereby a concern about the well-being of one's fellows quickly to to self-interest and authoritarianism.
* the Hattie 'research' (more meta-analysis, or an extensive literature review, than new research). My wife Josephine (a very good teacher) points out, quite correctly, that it once again puts full responsibility on the teacher, with little regard for the willingness/preparedness/attitude of students. We don't, as the bloke from Auckland Grammar suggested, need "compliant students" but we certainly need students open to learning, respectful to teachers, willing to move beyond their own subjectivity, and open to surprises. Intertesting too, that there no similar measure of the performance of tertiary teaching, other than rather futile 'Course Evaluations' given out at the end of each semester--if they are good, you use them in promotion bids; if they are bad, you ignore them.Best wishes to all from the beach.
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Have you taken Bob to the Jorvic Centre? A fair amount of excavation and front-end loading has gone on there.
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Not sure whether I want to be embroiled in the latest direction this conversation has taken (it it mean't to be reporting on holiday plans and I should report that we are about to set forth for Tahanui Beach). But I do recommend an article in this morning's Press, by David Aaronovitch "Hamas or Hannas, not black or white". Aaronovitch discusses the banality/obscenity of equating Israel's actions in Gaza with the Nazis. .Sorry, don't have time to find the link as the warm sea beckons.