Posts by Grant McDougall
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Not really, Sydney is a big place and only a small part is being sealed off. It would be the same as saying Auckland was in lockdown when in fact only the Viaduct area was closed. But yes, the media have latched on to this word Lockdown.
I expect (some of) the protest action to get nasty, although they will be hammered by the security forces.Good call. I've just gotten off the phone to my brother in Sydney and said that only small of the CBD was being sealed off.
I asked about the protest and he said extra ambulance officers have been rostered, in anticipation of injuries in a cops v. protestors stylee. (He's an ambulance officer).
Unfortunately, ruling against the protest is just going to inflame things, I reckon. The protest leader said on RNZ this morning that they were going to protest even if the decision went against them. The decision now adds fuel to the flames and will aggravate things.
The decision does Howard no favours either, reiterating his creepy, Bush's-puppet image.
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thugs like Collins
A total thug. Collins is clearly being groomed as a potential National Party govt's "boot-boy", in the same way that Mallard is Clark's, Birch was Bolger's, Prebble was Lange's and Muldoon was, er, Muldoon's.
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I was subbing on a provincial daily here in NZ when i heard about. It was at about 3pm on Sunday and I remember thinking "All hell's going to break loose at work tomorrow".
Anyway, I rolled into work at 7am on Monday, turned on my computer, flicked to the "Royal" category of the NZPA wire service...where there were over 120 stories about the death.
Later that day NZPA set up a special Diana category to handle the deluge of stories.I was subbing the "World" page(s) of the paper, so apart from doing them, guess who the poor sod was that had to slap together an instant tribute supplement?? That's right, Muggins here.
For the next week to 10 days I had to do the regular world news pages and a "Diana" page.The rest of the week there was at least 100 stories coming through per day, between 80 and 100 for the next month and three months later at least 50. Boy, was I getting sick of her.
There were inane, soppy features / interviews with all manner of people that once had some connection with her: mothers of kids that she'd taught at kindergarten, etc.I wouldn't wish anyone to die in a car-crash, but the level of overly-sentimental crap written was just ludicrous.
Fact: there has already been more written about Diana than about World War II - a sad indictnment on our priorities, if ever there was.I also remember having an argument with my flatmates. One blamed the media / paparazzi, oblivious to the irony that she always bought loads of womens' mags with her on the cover.
The other was an American, who, like most Americans, thought Diana was a saint and had no idea of the more negative class and political arguments against royalty.Yes, it's sad that someone died in a car-crash; but she was no saint, merely a high-born socialite that got lucky marrying into royalty, who developed into a calculating, manipulative individual.
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my mate Paul
Russell, is this Paul Rose? If so, what's he doing these days? I crossed paths with him when he lived in Dunedin and he always had great music-biz anecdotes.
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"I really have to choose very carefully what I sing. I have to restrict my vocabulary. Some songs, the old ones, they sound more religious … they're more …still, like as if I hadn't already become a nihilist.""
Nico's solo albums are some of the finest ever made. Yes, they are bleak and difficult, but also incredibly beautiful and rewarding to listen to.
I really, really recommend The Frozen Borderline, the recent two CD re-issue combining The Marble Index and Desertshore. The liner notes are really good and the bonus tracks as good as the main songs.
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ahemmmm.....nobody is supposed to mention that album....
Why?
Basically, it's due to what is known as "The Fall fiasco".
Mark E Smith gave Flying Nun permission to record and release it on the proviso that it only be released in NZ.
However, a small amount were sent to indie shops in in Britain. Smith found out and went mental on the phone to Chris Knox for 20 minutes.It became pretty pricey on second-hand vinyl; I once saw it Real Groovy for NZ$70 and read that it went for 50 pounds in Britain.
It was re-issued on cd on Smith's own Cog Sinister label about seven or eight years' back, but the sound quality was crap, as it was taken from a vinyl version. Apparently it's since been re-issued on cd again with better sound quality.
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Blair Parkes's contradictory greeting: "Hi, we're The Fall."
That was a bit of an in-joke. Blair, Marcus and I are all huge fans of The Fall (esp. the Marc Riley era) and before they went on-stage the previous evening at the Lyttelton Festival Of Light I told Blair I'd buy him a beer if he said "Good evening, we are The L.E.D.s."
This, of course, is a reference to Mark E Smith's "Good evening, we are The Fall" at the start of the legendary Fall In A Hole live album on Flying Nun, recorded in Auckland during their landmark 1982 tour here.I happily sprung a pint of Black Shag his way the next night at the Dux.
Also, the kids at the Dux were robot-dancing, non-ironically, to them, which was pretty entertaining to old codgers like me that remember the first wave of robot-dancing back in the early '80s.
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...to tag along with the Chills in Europe...
I remember reading the account of that in Rip It Up, it really captured the obvious sense of adventure of that tour and the trail-blazing The Chills did in Britain and Europe for Flying Nun in that era.
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Also, history is completely against Banks winning. The only man to have ever re-gained the Auckland mayoralty is Sir Dove-Myer Robinson in the late '60s.
As the illustrious Graeme Downes once sung "...he hasn't got a shit-show". -
I predict that Banks will get his sorry arse severely kicked in the mayoralty poll.
In the 2004 elections here in Dunedin former mayor Richard Walls (like Banks a one-time National MP) stood, claiming that people were feed up with excessive spending, wanted strong leadership, had changed his ways, private polling suggested he stood a good chance and all the spurious, trite cack that Banks is coming out with.
He came third.