Posts by Grant McDougall
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I dunno what all the fuss is about. NZ had a PM nick-named "Piggy" decades ago...
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I was talking to a mate about this the other day and he made the point that this issue is tailor-made for one Winston Peters.
He reckons that as the referendum(s) near, Peters will stir up the Grey Power sector of the electorate and really hype them up against it.
Also, he reckons that voter apathy will have an effect, because the only people will bother voting are a) the Grey Power sector, b) political geeks and c) people that want to have a free swipe at John Key. Collectively, this will result in them successfully voting for the status quo. -
I pretty much agree with the general gist of your post Hadyn, but complaining about the National Party being linked to rugby is a bit like complaining about the Greens being popular with people in the arts - that's simply the crowd they attract, historically.
Also, to state the obvious, the explosion of social media has enhanced and made public those links. I expect that beforehand, plenty of All Blacks, rightly or wrongly, voted National, but didn't have the need or means to say they'd done so, publically.
Even if they hadn't said so publically, it'd pretty much be a foregone conclusion that, to use an above example, Dan Carter, would've voted National anyway, given he's from a small, rural town.
Their politics aside, I also have reservations about the ABs RWC squad, too. Too many ,such as McCaw are a yard off the pace, too many others are there on reputation not form (especially among the tight five) and others shouldn't even be there.
The recent win over a so-so Wallabies is a flash in the pan. We will struggle in the knock-out games, simple as that.
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I really like rugby. But John Key's cynical exploitation of the All Blacks leaves me cold.
Also, there are some pretty annoying blanket statements above about what sort of people rugby fans allegedly are (macho, boorish, conservative, etc, etc). Well, that's a stereotype with all the flaws that stereotypes usually have.
I'd like people to realise that there's a big difference between someone that likes rugby and your stereotypical redneck boofhead that hangs out at rugby clubs, ok ?
As a basic comparison, just because Guns N Roses or their ilk are morons, doesn't mean to say that all other musicians are too, ok ?
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I see the Street Chant tour poster has the Flying Nun logo on it.
Does this mean that Hauora will be on FN and not Arch Hill ?
Given that both are ran by Ben Howe it's just a bit puzzling. I'm curious, that's all.
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Hard News: The Sky Trench, in reply to Patrick Reynolds,
The justification for the rush is a ribbon cutting deadline set by the PM’s office.
The naming of the All Blacks' World Cup squad at Parliament this Sunday also smacks of a craven photo-opportunity, too.
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Hard News: Friday Music: Criminal Life, in reply to Robyn Gallagher,
BTW, for those worried that New Zealand music isn’t selling (or whatever), the No.2 album this week is the brilliantly titled Give Up Your Dreams by the Phoenix Foundation, only kept from No.1 by Dr Dre. And there are seven other albums by New Zealand artists in the top 40, which is brilliant.
The chart display at JB Hi-Fi has Phoenix Foundation at #1 !
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Apart from the noted changes in technology and retail formats, another factor is simple demographics. NZ just has a small population and an even smaller percentage of that population that spends money on the arts, let alone music specifically.
As I've been saying for 25 years "If you're in the 100th-most-popular band in America or Britain, you'll probably be a millionaire - or certainly very wealthy. If you're in the 100th-most-popular band in NZ, you still need to have a day job".
Another friend of mine had an art gallery in central Auckland for many years. He exhibited big names like Woolaston, McWhannel, etc, but was on the bones of his arse financially most of the time, except for when every now and again someone like Jenny Gibbs would spend $30,000 once in a blue moon, if he was lucky.
We just don't have the numbers. Having said this, I wonder if musicians in Australia with it's considerably larger (in comparison) are also struggling ?
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which has the additional virtue of having provoked Mike Hosking in an Alan Partridge moment
Could you elaborate or, if there's one, post a link, please ?
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She's So Rad aren't bad, but that song and the one of there's just played on RNZ Nat suffer a lot from having that really shitty '80s Phil-Collins-type drum sound.
I realize they probably weren't even alive then, but all the same it just grates like hell.