Posts by giovanni tiso

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  • Hard News: Being Worked,

    Linda Hallinan (editor of New Zealand Gardener)

    Qantas Supreme Best Magazine winner... of our hearts.

    (Seriously, if there's a magazine that beats NZ Gardener, I have yet to find it.)

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report

  • Stories: The Internet,

    Am I also the only person alive who uses an apostrophe for truncated words like 'eighties or 'cello?

    I know at least one person who uses it for 'phone.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report

  • Hard News: Being Worked,

    What is the legitimate role of the media in exposing social ills from unverifiable sources?

    Making quite a bit of money for the shareholders?

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report

  • Stories: The Internet,

    I met my husband in 1997, in what may be *the* nerdiest place on the internet:

    Costello-l. The Elvis Costello discussion listserv.

    You just can't get a nerdier starting place than that for a long-term relationship. I'm sorry. You can all try, but you will not top it. It is totally ludicrous.

    I'm with you there, and what a great story.
    I trust the band at the wedding were Elvis impersonators?

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report

  • Hard News: Trust. Us.,

    In Nippert's defence, he is a very good feature writer.

    I never said he wasn't, but he's no film reviewer. He just can't put the films in any sort of context. So long as you're planning to compete, that's an area where things are made easier for you (although strictly speaking you'd be comparing yourself to Helen Wong I guess, and that's a whole different thing. Still.)

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report

  • Up Front: They Have the Best Rides,

    What about all the investment vehicles eg.Blue Chip?

    You can certainly screw a much greater number of people that way, it would appear, yes.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report

  • Hard News: Trust. Us.,

    Monday: Cinema (David Haywood)

    possible slogan: "Like 'The Listener', but free, and not crap". [NOTE 24AUG07: this is a joke]

    Tell you what: it might as well not be a joke. As we've been routinely discussing in these parts, columnists at the Listener have been dropping like flies, and never a word of thanks or explanation even for long serving ones, like Russell, Romanos, and lately Philip Matthews. Now I'm sure some of these people were pushed, others moved on by their own choice. As a reader who's not privy to the backstage, I can only hope none of them were sent to a nice farm upstate, if you catch my drift.

    Back to the subject of Philip Matthews, who's been replaced by two staff writers, Barnett and Nippert, who are doing an absolutely marvellous job of proving that not just anybody can write film reviews, and it in fact helps to, how shall I put it, know the first thing about films. Which they don't appear to, or if they do it's just not transpiring from their work. It's by no means just factually that the pair is deficient, but Nippert excelled this week by calling Bernardo Bertolucci a French director. Without wanting to sound too parochial, BB is no minor arthouse European bozo. He's a major arthouse European bozo.

    If you listened closely, you could just hear the sound of another Listener subscription being cancelled.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report

  • Up Front: They Have the Best Rides,

    Whereas seeing other men's faces all screwed-up and kumfasa doesn't really do it for het men ...

    The DomPost goes for the classy - check out how they cropped the picture of Radcliffe in Equus on their homepage today (scroll down to entertainment news), just above his titular protestation "I'm no pornstar". Clowns.

    And I hate to be the guy who tells others posters what to do, I really do... but let's not let this thread be hijacked by Grant's bullshit, okay? Let him troll anywhere on PA but here, it would be a real shame. So not taking the bait, please.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report

  • Up Front: They Have the Best Rides,

    Erm... I think I might have cried in Broken Blossoms. I am a dork. :)

    It's a gem of a film, no question. But it's a testament to our ability to suspend disbelief that we don't fall over backwards whenever Battling Burrows darts one of his brutish glances, is all I'm saying. It's the same kind of allowance that one makes for the shocking racism.

    Look at it another way: I couple of years ago I caught a bit of Ghostbusters. Now I swear that when I saw it for the first time the special effects looked fantastic and the monsters looked real. Now they look crude and ridicolous. The representational convetions have changed, the visual language has evolved, in spite of the fact that my ability to apprehend reality hasn't. In the same way, I think one should look at porn acting as another set of convetions, and if one buys into them then they will seem realistic, I have no doubt.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report

  • Up Front: They Have the Best Rides,

    Catch something like Broken Blossoms, in a good print, at the right speed & with live music, and prepared to be amazed at how sophisticated cinema was in 1919.

    I defy anybody, and I mean anybody, to watch Broken Blossom and not laugh at the acting. Lillian Gish has a couple of moments that we'd nowadays define as almost restrained. That's it.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report

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