Posts by Matthew Littlewood
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Hard News: For want of some purpose, in reply to Hilary Stace,
On The Panel this afternoon Jane Clifton puzzled at the strong reaction to the closure of TVNZ7....
Meanwhile, her Listener stablemate, Diana Wichtel, has long been a supporter of TVNZ7, and was even drawing attention to it last year in her when ratings rule:
TVNZ doesn’t seem to be shedding too many tears over the decision, but what a waste. The channel has only been going for three years, has produced some good democracy-enhancing shows – Media 7, The Good Word, Talk Talk, Back Benches, science shows – and has provided something we are supposed to get more of and seldom actually do in market-driven times: choice.
I will really miss TVNZ7, and I hope whatever happens to take its place in the future will actually have proper coherent support by whoever the Govt will be.
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I should be able to make this one! I'll keep in touch over the next fortnight or so. Anyway, it looks like a great line-up. Good work, Russell.
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Congrats, Russell, highly deserved. On a similar but different note, while I was a fan of Media 7, Backbenchers, the Good Word etc, what I really liked were the wide range of science-related docos (most of them from the BBC) that screened on TVNZ7. They were often the sort of lively, enlightening, and hugely accessible sort of thing that used to screen in the weekends on TV1 back in the day. The Brian Cox-hosted ones were particularly infectious. And the local and international news service on TVNZ7 was much more indepth and varied than most of the stuff we get on terrestrial channels at a reasonable hour. Any word on whether those aspects are going to be picked up at all?
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Hard News: Friday Music: The Jazz, in reply to Richard Stewart,
It’s an odd genre, Jazz. I can’t think of any other, except perhaps Hip-Hop (and perhaps Country), that invokes such extreme reactions from people; you either like it or you hate it.
I think it's even more complicated like that- much like hip hop and rap, you get a lot of people liking a very defined era/aspect of the music, and declaring antipathy for the rest. Think of the way that the Golden Age of hip hop is venerated- I mean, it's justified in that a lot of the music from that era is just about the best music ever, to these ears, but it also can lead to a rather backward or reactionary stance on everything that's happened since, good bad, or otherwise.
I've gotta admit that for myself, my knowledge of Jazz is largely limited to the "canon"- i.e. John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, Ornette Coleman, et al- but my favourite stuff in that hits me like no other music possibly can. I'll post perhaps two of the most obvious choices ever, largely because, in the case of the first one, there's a sense of absolute calm and space that seems to transport me, whereas the second one swings like nothing else on this planet. Sure nuff.
I will also say that there has been a lot more great literature about jazz music than there has about rock music, largely due to the conflict and personalities, not to mention historical context. And this is coming from someone who loves a great book about rock more than anything else (just picked up a copy of Stanley Booth's the True Adventures of the Rolling Stones for cheap, it's exhilirating stuff.)
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Without wanting to rub it in (again), I actually think tonight's 27-20 loss against the Highlanders tonite was more emblematic of their season than last week's embarrassing capitulation against the Crusaders. Rather than playing like they had nothing to lose, the Blues were unfocused, and failed to capitalise on several unforced errors from the Highlanders, who were able to control the match up to the 65 minute mark by going about their business making sure they snaffled their opportunities.
The Highlanders' two tries early into the second half exemplified this- Gear's finishing was clinical, while Thomson looked like the kid in a candy store as he nabbed quite possibly the easiest one of his career off a seriously bizarre Blues defensive lineout.
And yet the Blues' last 10 or so minutes showed that if they had bothered to play with some purpose and flair, they could well have snatched it. Nonu and Braid looked really up for it. Granted, the Highlanders have made a habit this season of starting strongly, fading away and then holding on for grim life in the dying stages. But they were still vulnerable, particularly considering many of their front-line would've been knackered after their victory over the Bulls the week previous.
The Blues have had more bad luck than any of the NZ S15 sides, particularly in regards to the horror run of injuries. But they haven't done many of the simple things when it matters the most.
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Hard News: " To prostitute yourself to…, in reply to Russell Brown,
No, I think what was on show wasn't something she learned in the last year, but what took her to the top of the organisations for which she worked. It was both highly impressive and unnerving.
Absolutely. The Vanity Fair background profile on her is required reading. It seems she barely held any true ideology or values of her own, and was so focused on upward movement as to leave nothing to chance. "Impressive and unnerving" doesn't begin to uncover it.
Anyway, I think it's safe to say that with Brooks being charged for perverting the course of justice, shit has officially got real, but I can't help but wonder who she's going to take down with her. And what the next play with be for everyone involved.
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Hard News: " To prostitute yourself to…, in reply to Sacha,
..inspiring Citizen Kane. #silverlining
So much so that Hearst pretty much ordered a near-complete clampdown on it. And won.
Pauline Kael's Raising Kane, is absolutely recommended reading. As expansive, influential and contentious as the film itself (in its small-scale way), even if it is a little harsh on Welles and perhaps a __little_ easy on screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz...;)
Sorry for the digression!
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Hard News: " To prostitute yourself to…, in reply to Russell Brown,
Even Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger has freely acknowledged the debt the rest of Fleet Street owes Murdoch for forcing technological change in the 1980s. He had to break the print unions to do it, and that got nasty – but those unions were hurting both publishers and readers by refusing to migrate from hot-metal and linotype print presses to electronic composition. Britain was already years behind in production processes by the time things changed.
Bill Bryson's Notes from a Small Island (his best book) devotes an entire chapter to his joining the office the Times on the financial desk right in the heat of that union battle. It's worth reading, Bryson suggests that the sheer militancy and bull-headedness of the print workers unions actually made it a very scary place to work at during this period.
There's also a very acidic, yet funny, section on the fact that just before the changeover, management presented the reporting staff with a brochure of the wonderful new utopia that was going to come about as a result of the restructuring. Every single staff member apparently remembered it differently (suggestions of everything from double-time wages to a new swimming pool), but, needless to say, none of their dreams came true, and all they got were wet sandwhiches.
As an aside, I'd like to say the Guardian's Nick Davies has become something of a personal hero. People forget that he has been on the NOTW "hacking" story for almost a decade, and for much of the time, he got little support from his peers. The Millie Dowler revelation merely broke the dam.
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Hard News: Really The Blues, in reply to Geoff Lealand,
Good luck! As a Chiefs supporter, it would be good to see some other NZ team win occasionally.
Ha! The Highlanders and the Crusaders haven't done so bad this year, either. (Although I predict that the Crusaders are building up for the season, whereas the Highlanders might be stretched near the end). But you're right, the Chiefs have been blindingly good this year, and wonderful to watch too. Makes up for seasons of underachievement.
Well done to the Blues, 25-3 is a convincing win, but christ both sides were shambolic at times.
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Muse: What The Frig, Police?, in reply to Russell Brown,
We are – or should be – long past the time when police and petty officials get to tell us what culture we’re allowed. Or are we resigned to a future where facilities constructed and run with OUR money can only be used subject to a musical sniff test from a policeman?
The more I read about the decision, the more I think it stinks, frankly. Davison's response seems massively counterproductive and prejudicial. On a happier note, that's some really enjoyable footage, Russell.: bloody fantastic support lineup, almost be worth it for catching those acts, to say nothing of the headliner.
I really should drag out my copy of By All Means Necessary. A bloody striking record, not least because it seems to be an honest attempt to address the issue of violence in rap from both sides of the coin, and find the right sonic backdrop to match it.