Author Archive
New Suzanne Vega
I just got Suzanne Vega’s new album Tales From the Realm of the Queen of Pentacles (iTunes… it’s very good — my early favourite track: ‘I Never Wear White’) … it led me to visit her website where this video NPR Tiny Desk Concert from a few days ago features as news. I enjoyed it, […]
I guess it depends what you mean by ‘highlights’ Eddie. (Wonderful!)
I’ve expressed before my enormous respect for broadcaster Eddie Mair who hosts BBC Radio 4’s PM news hour. He is silky smooth, a highly capable radio host and an intelligent, persistent interviewer whose voice often betrays a delightful sense of humour, a warm chuckle, and occasionally, gentle mockery, as in his interview with a squirming […]
Oh boy. Russian police choir covers Daft Punk’s ‘Get Lucky’
I think I caught a glimpse of a David Farrar look-alike (!?!) – P
Does anyone else think this spy agency ‘Discredit a target’ strategy might have been used against Julian Assange?
Wow, read this: Snowden Docs: British Spies Used Sex and ‘Dirty Tricks — NBC and ask yourself if Julian Assange might have been a ‘target’. British spies have developed “dirty tricks” for use against nations, hackers, terror groups, suspected criminals and arms dealers that include releasing computer viruses, spying on journalists and diplomats, jamming phones […]
There’s no ‘proper’ dose when it comes to heroin
From Aaron Sorkin’s obituary of Phillip Seymour Hoffman … Phil Hoffman, this kind, decent, magnificent, thunderous actor, who was never outwardly “right” for any role but who completely dominated the real estate upon which every one of his characters walked, did not die from an overdose of heroin — he died from heroin. We should […]
OK, if we’re reconsidering the flag, why not the national anthem?
Minuit – Aotearoa from Minuit on Vimeo.
Pretty impressive, Mr Key.
Anybody trying to portray this politician as out of steam is dreaming. This was a very competent performance today from John Key — admittedly, he appeared to be among friends, and was put under no pressure whatsoever by the cuddly host at NewstalkZB, Leighton Smith … but even so — very smooth, Mr Key.
‘Dead man waddling’
This line from an Esquire Politics Blog by Scott Raab, Why Christie Now Has Nothing to Lose, (and the Chris Christie Countdown Clock image) show how personally punishing US political media commentary can be. That’s its nature at times — a whirling clobbering machine, standing ready to attach clichéd labels. As for Christie, he’s a dead man waddling, […]
Judith Collins’ ‘really ugly’ attacks echo Muldoon’s tactics
I can’t help but see Mrs Collins as channelling (imitating?) the abusive, nasty personal attack style that Robert Muldoon used against his political opponents. In the House, Muldoon became friends with other new National MPs, notably Duncan MacIntyre and John Bowie (Peter) Gordon. The three became known as ‘the Young Turks’ because of their criticism […]
Lorde has her own ‘Piece of Me’ moment — here in New Zealand :(
Lorde’s ‘welcome home’ at Auckland airport this morning prompted these (perfectly reasonable) reactions and thoughts … … which reminded me of Britney Spears’ song Piece of Me. Is that what we want for our latest ‘teen singing sensation’? Nope. Give her some space, huh? – P Update: I see the NZ Herald has updated their […]
Stephen Fry on language pedants
Prompted by some discussion about Chris Finlayson’s style guide. See: Finlayson embarks on jargon jihad . Thanks to @philiplyth for reminding me of this most excellent Stephen Fry clip. Obviously, as an editor and publisher, I’m all for the use of ‘house’ stylesheets & style guides — mainly for consistency, and also, I admit, in pursuit […]
‘radically attenuating his own posterity’
Christopher Hitchens, writing about visiting his Polish ancestors’ land Breslau/Wrocław … One must beware of the temptation to invest everything with significance in retrospect, yet it chills the soul a bit to learn that from this great city-centre of humane science and medicine, which produced the good doctor Alois Alzheimer as well as the physicist […]
State surveillance as a tool against dissent. Lack of ‘patriotism’ as the easiest smear.
Earlier I linked to a NY Times video/upcoming book promotion revealing the source of leaks about the FBI’s sometimes illegal COINTELPRO activities against individuals and groups exercising their democratic right to express dissent with government policy. Reading about the state-sponsored surveillance of such ‘dissidents’ and ‘left-leaners’ put me in mind of the way the NZ […]
Speaking of comparisons to Stasi surveillance …
There’s been a wee fracas as Silicon Valley venture capitalist Marc Andreessen (of Netscape Navigator fame) popped a foot in his mouth with what looks like a thoughtless or uninformed defence of the NSA’s illegal spying activities with a suggestion that former East Germans would fail to see similarities between the NSA’s mass surveillance and […]
