Posts by Damian Christie
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superglue a cushion to my chin?
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Yo - Didn't mean to start then abandon this thread - I've moved houses and was without interweb for a week. I've now got home phone and net through Vodafone, so I'll let you know how life without Telecom goes...
To answer a few questions:
1. I got the 2007 Vespa PX200, last of the PX series, two-stroke, so I don't know what that does for the environment, but it's damn good going up hills. It's 200CC, and it can definitely get over the harbour bridge.
2. It cost $5700 (+ about $300 for initial registration). The Belladonna's, which are the Indian made copies, are $4400. I'm sure they're fine, but I couldn't see the point in saving $1300 for something which is presumably not going to have a fraction of the resale value.
3. Unforrrrrrrtunately I also spent a shedload of money getting myself a whizzbang flash OPEN FACE helmet. Yes, it was all about style over substance, I admit it. In fact I think the Scooter shop ONLY had open face helmets. Then I log on in horror today and read all the stories about The People Who Used to Have Chins. Where were you people when I was making my purchase!? Is there some weird correlation between people who read Cracker, and people who have slammed face first into the road? So what should I do now? Consign my $450 helmet to the Attic of Poor Decisions?
4. One week on, I have spent approximately $8 on gas. I think it cost me more to take the Holden out for one evening than it did to use the scooter the other six days.
5. And no Che, my Holden is certainly not a muscle car - I see how it looked like I said it was - what I meant was the two ends of the spectrum - saving the planet vs driving a Dodge Charger like there's no tomorrow to worry about...
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If fiscal drag is a policy, I guess the only problem is perhaps its lack of transparency? i.e. By not announcing 'tax hikes', the tax rate effectively goes up each year. Having said that, the media have been banging on about it for a few years now, so it's hardly a state secret.
How long has fiscal drag been a stated policy though? Because when the top tax rate of 39% was introduced, didn't Cullen say at the time it was only ever intended to cover the top 5% of earners. And it's now somewhere around 14%? (Top of my head here, feel free to correct me...)
Oh, and political stock market game = great. I'm banking on the stubborn stupidity of the far right bloggers to sell the left cheap and cling to those "Roger Douglas for PM" futures.
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Like the caregiver of anything fledgling - I protect it with both fairness and ferocity.
Sarah, I've spent far too many years, overworked and underpaid, supporting bFM, Radio Active, George FM (which as Thane will tell you, I helped start, managed, PD'd etc for years) for my own good. The last thing I want to do is shit on the good work you guys are doing at Alt - and given the opportunity, I'd happily help promote it. What I don't appreciate is the BS that's been coming out from Alt via Driver recently about TVNZ/the mainstream and the work we do there. It seems to be one of Driver's rather tiresome hobbyhorses, and I sought only to put that in perspective.
I'm not sure about 6pm on One or 3, but I do know that almost everywhere I saw seemed to mention Alt with regard to Goff, so you shouldn't feel robbed there - and if it was, I seriously doubt it was because Alt is viewed as a competitor (as I say, they let me do a story about Alt on Close Up).
Having said that, in my experience, people will very rarely go back to the source or read the report or transcript to put things in context. Those people who do, and there's a few of them on this blog and elsewhere, are to be commended.
In that vein, seriously, please do keep going with what you're doing at Alt. What you have there is important and relevant. Like I say, many years doing current affairs at bFM tells me there are so many vaild reasons why you should be doing it. I just don't think anyone needs the BS that goes with it.
As to Craig's (and my) comments about form. These days, form does matter. If something sounds shitty, people are less inclined to listen to it. And sound is more important than picture, lighting etc. I know your main studio is a concrete floored, wide-open space with windows backing on to the CBD, it's never going to sound great. Perhaps the Frank interviews can be done elsewhere? They're obviously pre-recorded, so what about a smaller room? It's not about being a media snob, it's about being able to listen, easily, to what someone is saying.
DC -
Sarah,
Thanks for your comments. As you know, Alt has been going for a while now, and until last week I've never said a bad word against it. In fact, when I was a reporter at Close Up, I even did a story about Alt's search for a new presenter.
As far as alternative music television, I think Alt is great, and so no, I don't expect HD crystal clear THX sound and vision...
What I do object to, as part of the oft-vilified mainstream media, is Oliver Driver coming along and releasing quite frankly ridiculous statements on Alt TV letterhead, banging on about how TVNZ is failing the public, Alt TV is going to show the lazy old mainstream how to really make current affairs; naked news is going to prove some great ironic point about how all we do are stories about lost dogs etc.
I object to that quite a bit, because while TVNZ might have a bigger budget and flasher cameras, there are still a fuckload of dedicated people working really hard every day to produce the stories they do. Just because we're not suffering on a shoestring, it doesn't mean we're lolling about eating peeled grapes whilst being fanned with big palm fronds. People at TVNZ work hard, and give a shit about what they do.
The stories we produce might not all be Pulitzer-worthy works of brilliance, you might not agree with them all, sure. But every half-wit and his dog thinks she/he has the right to tell us what we're doing so very very wrong, and how it should be done.
My response regarding the Goff piece was not to say that Alt should have jumped up and down about the 'scoop', simply that in response to the "nyeh nyeh nyueh" email I received from someone at Alt (info@alttv.co.nz - but no name at the bottom), no, the media haven't been heaping praise on Alt TV over the last week. It's great publicity, but nothing more than that.
...Especially on TVNZ, where they didn't even mention the source of the quote - therefore not letting the viewer investigate further and make up their own minds.
And when I saw it on Midday news, Peter Williams most definitely did source it to Alt TV. He literally said, "on an interview on Alt TV with Oliver Driver" before playing the clip. I think that's pretty sourced. But feel free to have another crack at TVNZ if it makes you happier.
We'll keep on trucking over here, if you don't mind Damian. Even if the quality of our output doesn't match the crystalline brilliance some media lovers seek.
Please do. Just tell certain people you work with to stop banging on about how you're 'bringing it' to mainstream news and current affairs.
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Also, one I should mention via the Inbox, from Alt TV, pointing out that after last week's post saying Oliver Driver should stop telling everyone Alt's going to stick it to all the other media, I should be eating my hat this week, what with all the media heaping praise on Alt TV.
And yes, brilliant timing - I could say 'glad to know they were reading the blog, and decided to up their game ;) - but that's really not what's happened.
As Russell points out, the Alt TV press release showed quite clearly they didn't know they were on to the Story of the Week (apparently they were far more excited about what Goff said on prisons), and it took the NBR's Ben Thomas to point this out. None of the media has said "wow, brilliant interview, cutting questions, you really squeezed him into an admission, Driver is the new Paxman"...
I only hope that the Goff affair, which is without question great publicity for Alt, doesn't stop politicians coming on to the show and 'getting frank'.
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You're criticising one politician for not playing the political game as expected but then you criticise another politician for playing the political game as expected
Yes, I'm just a sorry mess of contradictions, me. :)
Umm... wasn't the entire point of my post (well, it was from my POV anyway) about how I have some admiration for politicians who speak plainly and don't hide behind tired conventions?
Personally, I'd prefer Phil Goff to make such statements, and make them knowing the consequences (because in time, if everyone did it, there wouldn't be such consequences).
And personally, I'd prefer National to get its arse and announce some bloody policy, rather than playing this stupid game.
So I don't think these two comments are really at odds. Perhaps if I put it this way: I'm disappointed but not surprised National are playing the Waiting for Policy game; I'm surprised but not disappointed Phil Goff made the statement he did...
How does that work, in the big Venn Diagram of life?
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Some politicians are charismatic and media-savvy; some have it thrust upon them; and others just fake it until they make it. I'd put Clark in the third group, and don't mean it as a snide back-hander.
I don't know. Part of me realises that Helen Clark wouldn't talk to bFM et al every single week (and she's been doing it since she was in opposition) if she didn't have something to gain from it, but at the same time, in the wider scheme of things, she really doesn't have to do it. She has chosen to be an accessible Prime Minister, whether she enjoys providing that access or not. And that's what I appreciate.
I probably wouldn't love our media either, if I was in her position...
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What's best about the coal-fired Chinese smelter, is that hopefully we can be the ones to also supply them the coal for it! So not only is it just as dirty as Huntly, we also consume more carbon getting it there...
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Craig:
Don't make this a JAFA vs Southlander thing, because it's not. You're launching a fallacious argument here buddy, by lumping everyone in Auckland in with my views, and then me in with a fictitious view of every Aucklander:
a) Not every Aucklander wants to shut down Tiwai. Probably not even a majority. In fact, I'm the only Aucklander I know talking about it. It's got fuck all to do with where I live.
b) I'm quite happy to pay for my pollution. Bring on the regional petrol taxes. I've got a bike, I use it. I walk. I drive when I have to and I'm happy to pay extra for that privilege.