Posts by Geoff Lealand
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The Chiefs were a trifle disappointing. though. With all that talent in the backline, you would think they would sweep through the Blue's defence. Even Luaki seemed to be getting nowhere...maybe it is an adjustment to the new rules which certainly speeded up the game..
Maybe they will do better against the Waratahs but they did do a demolition job on the Hurricanes on Saturday. -
And seeing as how I'm on a roll here (talking to myself), the changes in Wellington people comment on are a microcosm of changes across NZ. Quite frankly, in the last 15 years the whole country has become a better, more interesting place in which to live.
... I agree..We went out last night to a screening of F.W. Murnau's silent masterpiece 'Sunrise' (1927), part of Hamilton's Summer Garden Festival. It was extraordinary enjoyable, watching the film on a screen positioned in the Chinese pavilion, under a full moon and with much laughter from a sizeable crowd. I felt privileged to be living in any part of NZ.
Other screenings this week include The Locals (with director Greg Page in attendance), Gloomy Sunday and Rocky Horror.
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From the sidelines and faintly amused by the arguments and counter-arguments...I lived in Wellington between 1984-1992 and moved to a job at the University of Waikato (initially, a little reluctantly), largely because Victoria Univ was too slow in developing Media Studies, and I was getting sick of earning my keep through a series of contracts (with all demeaning kowtowing that involved). In those years, Wellington was a fairly dismal place if you had young children--especially when faced by months of cold, wet Sundays. The usual solution was 'take them to the bloody zoo again!'
Now, when I visit, it seems vastly changed, for the better...for parents, children and those people who think that cafes and coffee make a city. I think the dressing-up Rugby 7s is a sign of great change. I saw the 7s (via BBC Sports) in Edinburgh last year and there were no more than 20 drenched spectatorsPS damn Blues beat the Chiefs tonight!
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Love Love is the Drug!!
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It can't quite compare with fancy conference bags and quaffing whiskey but I did go to a fascinating talk by Judy Lessing at a local church hall last night. She took us through the processes of the US political system and certainly increased my understanding. What was particularly interesting was her analysis of the mess the Republicans are in, and what the chosen Democrat candidate might mean for international relations, and winning back some respect for the US.
Better analysis than I have encountered so far in the NZ print media! Someone should snap her up!
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Yikes!!! What a difference an extra letter makes. Of course, I meant 'moral panics'. But 'mortal panics' might make for a good title for a horror movie.
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I don't have much time for the National and its mediocre MPs. Katharine Rich has always been a notable exception. I can recall her phoning me once, in response to a piece I had written in a NZ parenting magazine (about the foolishness of mortal panics about media effects) and I was impressed by her intelligence and willingness to listen to contrary views.
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... and the swarming crowd of hideous real estate agents, who have a vested interest in pushing up house prices...as well as all the climb-the-ladder reality TV programmes and the bloody Living Channel (which I refer to as 'Real Estate Porn')
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... apologies for the few glitches in my grammar (I never had a grandma!)
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...and an even better post from Ben Wilson. Personally, I find a yearning to be somewhere than you live rather enervating. Call me optimist (who can't be, in wake of the remarkable changes happening today in Australia!) always but I have always considered that you look for the best in where you live. Which is why I get a bit pissed at cheap shots about Hamilton, which is a city that has given me much in the past ten years. When I got out to our backyard on a warm summer night and gaze upon the massive star-filled sky, or look out our kitchen windows, across the tree ferns and cabbage trees, to the river--I feel at home. Now, I will go down to my vegetable garden and pick tomatoes (the size of small pumpkins), which are growing furiously in our rich river terrace. We have all the cafes and shops and museums but they are not what makes for a sense of belonging.
Pheww!!!