Posts by philipmatthews
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The trouble with the specialised model too, Tom, is that people will end up reading about only those things they think they want to read about. If I go to the Guardian website, I'll read stories under the heading "culture" or "media", but if I had the physical newspaper in front of me -- or the Herald or Press or ODT or DomPost -- I'll read about all sorts of stuff I didn't know I was interested in. And if we lose that sense of going beyond our narrow interests -- not to say yours are narrow, but you know what I mean -- or beyond opinions we agree with -- and if we read daily papers we see plenty of opinions we don't agree with -- then you have to worry a bit about the shape of community and democracy. And, yes, I work for a daily paper.
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This has probably been said, but the key (sorry) thing is that this is not a victory for the right, but a victory for the centre. I think it was Steven Joyce on Agenda, certainly someone from the Nats, who said that this wasn't won in the provinces -- which the Nats already owned -- but in the suburbs of Auckland and Chch. In electorates like Mt Roskill and Mt Albert, or Wigram and Port Hills, you saw Labour MPs comfortably re-elected (call Jim Anderton Labour for the purposes of this) but a National party vote coming in surprisingly high. In Roskill, National's party vote was higher than Labour's; in Wigram, National's party vote was within hundreds of Labour's. Clearly, people were splitting their vote, one red and one blue, and I'd be interested to know if that's ever happened like this before. And so it's nothing other than a vote for the exact middle. Definitely not a vote for Act, and esp not for Douglas. If Act exerts any influence, then Key will disappoint a lot of people who thought nothing would be very different under this kinder, gentler National government.
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Good on you, DPF. Now expect a Whale Oil headline along these lines: "Farrar pussies out and reveals self to be a pinko socialist feminazi girlyman."
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That Selwyn Manning analysis is fascinating indeed, especially around his prediction that the Nats might take Auckland Central. I know that the Kiwiblog right have been saying this all year, but then you'd expect them to. Interesting to see it coming from somewhere more neutral.
I've been out of Auckland for a year, so what are Aucklanders' views on this? A result of gentrification -- the Herne Bay effect -- or dissatisfaction with Tizard? Or both?
From what I know of the South Island, I'd say Manning's calling that right, which makes me confident about his views on the north.
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If NZ First is Britney Spears, then Helen Clark can only be Madonna. And that would surely make Jim Anderton Prince -- a huge burst of relevance in the '80s but playing to the faithful ever since.
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Maybe a victim of their own success, in a funny way. In an age of Warehouse and JB HiFi selling new stuff much cheaper, the only way forward was to be a good niche specialist, but the thing about the Auckland store is that, while it was huge, none of the genre categories were especially well-stocked, compared to stores like Amoeba in the US (probably the model). If you really liked NZ alternative or electronica or metal or whatever, you either needed to find a specialist store or go online.
Also, their imports were unjustifiably expensive at a time when anyone can see what they cost on Amazon or other sites. Every now and then, I used to wander into the Auckland store and look at their copy of the Criterion two-disc DVD of Solaris (er, the Tarkovsky one) and think about whether I should part with $90 for it. Bought it last week in Melbourne for A$50-something. On Amazon, it's no more than US$30 plus postage. Just unacceptably high prices at RG, really. I think they didn't adjust the prices back down when the exchange rate became more favourable.
But it is sad. Those of us old enough can remember when Auckland had a really good circuit of second-hand record stores -- the one up on Victoria St, the one underneath Whitcoulls corner, a couple up on K Rd, Real Groovy. At school, we used to do the rounds on a Saturday morning. And I did really like the ambience at the Auckland store.
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A very interesting show and Douglas Jenkin, especially, is always good value.
One thing about Judith Halberstam -- that shift from old-Disney conformism to Pixar-era rebellion seems a little simplistic. There's an interesting book by Douglas Brode called From Walt to Woodstock that argues that Disney films actually seeded the 60s counterculture in the US rather than being one of the cultural institutions that was reacted against by it. Some info here:
http://www.utexas.edu/utpress/books/brofro.html
Unsurprisingly, it's a pretty controversial position.
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On the Fiona and Rupert question, it's really just a personal preference. I know that Body Blow and George were big sellers, and I enjoyed those shows at the time, but the line-up with Rupert E Taylor on co-lead vocals with Chris Matthews was something else. That's the Stunt Clown era.
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When did this cute "Natty" get coined? New spin on Natty Dread this year, I suppose.
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Which Headless Chickens? Fiona era or Rupert? I'd opt for the latter.