Public Address - Hard News (Home)

Heard any good tunes lately? | Aug 08, 2008 09:47

The APRA Silver Scrolls finalists have been announced. My record in guessing the feelings of the APRA members who vote for the overall best song of the year is dire, but I think Liam Finn must surely be a deserving candidate for 'Gather to the Chapel'.

I also like the Phoenix Foundation's 'Bright Grey' (I think it was Nick Bollinger who pointed out the tension between its bad hair day lyrics and the exuberant tune behind them) but I have a feeling that the members might be more inclined to plump for Op Shop. I bear Op Shop no will-will, but there's never been one of their songs that has stayed with me. I don't get it, basically. But good luck to all. The Silver Scrolls is one of my favourite evenings of the year.

Meanwhile APN is trying hard and royally missing the mark with its contest (staged along with Sunrise) to find a "star blogger" for its non-APN-branded events site The Hive -- with free tickets in exchange for gig reviews promised to the winner. They made quite a palaver of it all -- the five finalists appeared on Sunrise -- and then readers voted a winner.

WTF? The winning post is a short review of the Little Bushman show with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra. Unfortunately, the star blogger couldn't get the name of the band right. It's not "Little Bushmen" or "The Little Bushmen". The name of the band is Little Bushman. Perhaps this stuff should be left to the amateurs.

Unreconstructed lefties and fans of cocktail piano should have a look at Songs for Mickey Joe, a mini-album of songs crafted by Bill Direen (music) and Alan Brunton (words) for Brunton's play Comrade Savage in 1990 and packaged up by Bill and Powertool Records this year. It's an intriguing work; unlike any other local release you'll hear in 08, I'd wager.

Fans of Bill should also stay posted for the first Builders album in what must be two decades, recorded with the new Builders band Bill has been playing with in the past year. I've heard one track, '2 Reasons', and it's just how you'd want it to be.

The Auckland gig guide Mukuna now has a mobile version of its website.

And I don't know what to make of the collaboration between The Streets and Muse that has leaked out onto the internet.

Heard any good tunes lately? And are there any good parties in Wellington? I may be available this evening …

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Beijing: Ignoring it is not an option | Aug 07, 2008 09:05

It's the 2011 Rugby World Cup: our nation's turn in the spotlight. And the week of the opening begins with two separatists murdering 16 cops with homemade grenades and a bus. Do you think things might be a little bit tense in Aotearoa?

Consider, then, the churning, complex zeitgeist of China (is there a more culturally appropriate word than "zeitgeist"?) in a year literally shaken by a catalclysmic earthquake; and when blood was shed by a Tibetan uprising, and more blood by the forces that put it down. That response drew protests that wrecked the would-be glory of the Olympic torch relay, and the domestic counter-protests draw by, as Yiyi Lu notes in The Guardian, a sense of grievance about the Western press that isn't well acknowledged:

In a way, the west has been the victim of its own success. It has created high expectations about its behaviour, values and purposes. These protests result partly from a sense of disillusion among the Chinese youth. It is a backlash against the idea of a politically and morally superior west. The angry youths who protested against the west's biased coverage of Tibet and the Olympic torch relay had had their idealised views crushed. Their understanding of "balanced" reporting includes the highly unrealistic expectation that equal coverage would be given to every single perspective on every issue.

In these circumstances, you can understand -- if not excuse -- the sentiment that leads to the official new agencies acting like the terrorist attack in Xinjiang being ordered to behave as if nothing happened; and which leads officials who have spent 18 months training to help the Western media to still deploy " the hand in front of the camera, figuratively and literally."

There's the real and clamouring sense of arrival of ordinary Chinese people and the ambition and creative energy of those remarkable buildings set against forced clearances and the dull authoritarianism that keeps a blacklisted author and his young family locked up in their home for the duration of the games. The fact that this virtual house arrest takes place in a middle-class gated community is a clash of spheres all on its own.

Newsweek notes the dark humour of Beijing's bloggers ("mostly thirty or forty-something and male") as they do their daily dance with officialdom.

Looming over it all is the sheer commercial scale of these games, where the 12 global sponsors will spend $6 billion in advertising targeted at the Chinese market alone. A good deal of that budget will be delivered via social media.

YouTube will carry official coverage in the 77 countries (including the likes of India and South Korea) that do not have Olympic media partners. The rest of us will be blocked from seeing that in favour of our own media-partnered broadcasters.

In the US, it's all about the online video. NBC will deliver video "up to" HD quality using Microsoft's Silverlight technology, in a punt that Microsoft hopes might helpis haul in Adobe Flash's dominance of the web. There will be 200 hours live and 3000 on-demand. But -- of, of course -- it'll be tied up with DRM that locks out Mac OS and Linux users.

Not so, happily, with the four online channels that TVNZ is streaming, along with its dedicated Freeview channel. Meanwhile, Keith Quinn is blogging. Could it get any wilder than that?

And that's without even getting to the sport. Everyone will have their own views about the games and the merit of China hosting them. But simply ignoring Beijing doesn't seem like an option. There is simply too much there; including the potential that something may go terribly wrong. I don't know about you, but I don't think I'm going to be able to take my eyes off Beijing this month.

----

The episode of Media7 that screened last night concerned Sensing Murder. It was a riot.

The ondemand version is here. The other versions of the video are at our microsite, and on our YouTube channel, both of which should be populated by late morning. There are also some Sensing Murder links in the Media7 blog.

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All your Trade are belong to us | Aug 05, 2008 11:28

I understand the process by which Trade Me was obliged to provide information on the thousands of people who traded with eight suspects charged after last year's "terror raids", and that the police were obliged to provide that evidence to defence lawyers. But I'm damned if I'd want my name, address and trading records in the hands of Jamie Lockett.

Ironically, it's Lockett himself who spoke to The Listener's David Fisher for the story that brought the issue to light. (That's the story just before the eight pages of don't-worry-be-happy drivel that constitutes a cover story). "It's an absolute disgrace," Lockett tells Fisher.

Not so much. Imagine if a prosecution failed because defence lawyers were able to argue that the police had withheld evidence. Whatever prosecutions might be secured against the other seven defendants, they do not strike me as the kind of people who would employ the information as "a shopping list for criminals". Perhaps Lockett isn't either: but given that there is reason to believe that the original police affidavit passed through his hands on its way to the internet, I'm sure I'd rather he didn't have this stuff.

What we're seeing is a reminder that the people who provide services for us on the internet often hold our private information in trust. The peril that they might accidentally release it, or be compelled to provide it to lawyers, is always present.

I'd be more exercised if this were a civil case such as that between Google and Viacom over the viewing habits of millions of YouTube users. Happily the two companies have reached an agreement by which Google will anonymise the data before hand them over to Viacom. The same agreement will apply to other litigants seeking to bring copyright action against Google.

I suspect Trade Me would not have been able to bargain in such a way in this case. But I hope these events have provoked some thought about how it will handle such requests in future. The dating of the advisory email -- Sunday, after The Listener reached subscribers -- suggests that nobody thought ahead this time.

Anyway, here's that email:

From: support@trademe.co.nz
To: XXXXXXXXX
Date: Sun, 3 Aug 2008 16:40:49 +1200
Subject: Release Of Information

Dear XXXX

We are writing to make you aware of the provision of some of your personal information to the New Zealand Police.

The Police served a search warrant on Trade Me requiring information on people who had traded with 8 suspects associated with the "Urewera Raids" late last year. We are compelled by law to provide information in response to search warrants.

Some of your information was amongst that provided. There is no suggestion that you were in any way related to these events last year, apart from being one of 3000 who traded with someone that was a suspect in this investigation.

Both the Privacy Act 1993 (Principle 11) and the Trade Me Terms and Conditions (Section 6.10) and Privacy Policy allow for personal information to be provided in matters related to maintenance of the law by public sector agencies.

If you have any more questions in respect of the matter, the Police Detective leading the investigation is Aaron Pascoe (xxxxxxx@xxxxxxx).

We are sorry to have to bring this to your attention, but given current media focus on the issue we believed we should make you aware of the situation.

If you have concerns in respect of how we have acted in relation to the Privacy Act 1993, you can make complaint to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner (http://www.privacy.org.nz/ )

Sincerely

Trade Me Support
================

http://www.trademe.co.nz

Just so you know …

PS: It's nice to see Radio Live's complaints committee decide not to stonewall on Cindy Kiro's complaint about being baselessly slimed by Michael Laws on his radio show. It would be even better to hear Laws himself own up to his own despicable bullshit.

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John Key(nesian) | Aug 04, 2008 10:45

Between the philosophical light National actually chose to shed on its economic plans over the weekend and the insight offered by the clandestine recording of Bill English attempting to mollify an anxious delegate, I think we know a bit more about what's making the party tick in election year.

The formal and informal messages largely aren't seriously in conflict. "I believe in being pragmatic, and not being blinded by ideology," declared Key in his conference speech. Is National on an expansionary track? Sure is. As Key says in the same speech: "Because right now New Zealand doesn't have a debt problem, it has a growth problem."

All this was framed in the usual jargon, and about half the bullet points (get tough on gangs, fix the P problem, bureaucrats vs frontline services, yadda-yadda …) were things-people-want-to-hear more than actual policies, but let's not muck about here. Whatever words you have written on the signs, this is a Keynesian roadmap.

The problem Key identifies is insufficient growth; he's prepared to take a punt to get it. And yet the great consolation of our present position in the current global economic turmoil is the solid state of the government's books. As private finance companies vapourise on a weekly basis, that is no small thing.

So Labour is the party of conservative fiscal management, and National is punting for growth, even if that means more borrowing -- and if its plans for an infrastructure binge are a bit vague just yet -- and offering those "Labour Plus" voters "a bit more".

The principle extends to the environment: Labour will be a more conservative guardian of environmental resources; National is "determined to remove the handbrake the RMA places on growth." If National makes the Treasury benches, expect the competing imperatives of wealth (especially from the cow's teat) and environment to provide a good deal of the conflict. More so, I would wager, than the tension between public spending and revenue.

08 Wire has taken obvious pleasure in providing a transcript of English's chat with the delegate. It certainly has its embarrassing moments: notably where English appears to say that his former leader and his present one have both been a bit dim about the practicalities of economic policy, but -- like most of the policies National has announced so far -- it also functions as an endorsement of what Labour has done.

"The reality is," English explains, "if we had been the government with the surpluses they had, we would have had something like Working for Families, but not the same. We would have given them quite a bit of cash back."

Even the answer to the Kiwibank question is an acknowledgement. Might National sell Kiwibank?

"Well, eventually, but not now. Well, it's working. A lot of our supporters get a bit antsy about it, but it's working. It's like a lot of things …"

Quite.

Anyway, something most of us can agree on: it was so nice to see the All Blacks not just grind out a win on Saturday night, but play with such purpose, composure and energy as to reverse the bad karma from Sydney. Auckland bucked the forecasts and turned on a few precious hours of dry weather and it was, truly, a cracker of a match for which to be at the ground.

And … I'm sure there'll be quite a bit of interest in this week's Media7. We're taking a look at Sensing Murder, and our panel is the programme's producer David Harry Baldock; Caroll du Chateau (who was easily the most interesting voice in last week's repeat programme on the mysterious death of Agnes Ali'iva'a); and Jeremy Wells, who, of course, fronted the much-loved Sensing Bullshit item on Eating Media Lunch. If you've like to join us (with a friend if you want) at The Classic in Auckland early tomorrow evening, hit Reply and let me know.

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Food Show 08 | Aug 01, 2008 11:54

There was no competition for the most unusual new product at The Food Show this year: it's the paua pickle. It had never occurred to me that such a condiment might exist, but the products launched by Taranaki-based Toku Foods are apparently based on Katu family recipes that date back to the arrival of spices and vinegar with the European settlers of the early 1800s.

It was nice to be able to try some without having any idea what it would taste like before I put it in my mouth ("Everyone's been saying that," observed the Katu family member on the stand). I preferred the spicier sauce over the chutney: it was tangy and savoury, but not at all fishy. I hope it goes well for them.

I also liked the Gringo Killer Extra Hot Smoked Chilli Sauce. It's part of a large range of products created in West Auckland by Margaret Dagger, who organically grows (and in the case of the smoky sauce, smokes) her own chillis. I like her attitude. When the Back of the Y guys tasted that sauce during their bFM show last week, they praised its flavour, but observed that it was not as hot as all that. So she sent them her Big Cojones sauce, and brought in a radio to listen to the show while she kept her stand yesterday. Apparently, the Big Cojones sauce was hot enough.

One of the more useful things about the Food Show is that it provides an opportunity to check out convenience foods in search of handy meals that don't suck -- and, where appropriate, buy some at show prices. I tried the new lamb jus from Essential Cuisine (not yet in the shops, although their beef jus is): it was thick, sweet and savoury. I would totally use that to make my cooking appear more sophisticated than it really is.

I also like the Taste of India dhals, but it hadn't occurred to me that they could be used as sauces for meaty curries. The kidney bean dhal with mince was delicious.

I was actually there tagging along and scouting for Simon Pound and our cameraman Warren, who were making a report on foodie media to screen at some point on Media7. I found Paul Holmes, happily spruiking his olive oil and wearing large dark glasses inside. He gave Simon some old chat and cut me a sizeable discount on a couple of bottles of his frankly excellent oil. I won't hear a word against the man.

Daily product not stocked at my supermarket but for which I might actually have to go out of my way: the Yarrows breads. There's a story there too.

Non-daily product that I might have to start buying: the Tokyo Food company Gomawakame (seaweed salad), which comes in handy frozen packs. Shame they weren't selling anything at the show.

I also had a chat to the Freedom Farms people, who supply my local butcher with free-range pork. I like the fact that they've made non-factory pork products widely available at reasonable prices. I'm a meat-eater, but I draw the line at factory pork. Quite apart from the practices involved, the product sucks. The last non free-range pork roast I cooked left, literally, a bad taste in my mouth. Not so, tonight, however: I picked up a piece of epaulete de porc from the Freedom stand (eight bucks!) and I plan to braise the buggery out of it.

In order to make the magic of television, Simon and I were also obliged to stand up and sample some of the many wines on display at the show. I was quite taken with the Siebel Noble Semillion, which was a steal at $17 on the show floor. I also got a Tohu riesling and a bottle of the Clearview Estate unwooded chardonnay, which I don't seem to be able to find locally. The Clearview Reserve chardonnay is one of my favourite wines of all, and simple courtesy dictated that Simon and I should stick around and enjoy a good tasting portion of that. Of course.

Oh, and I kissed Alyson Gofton. Only on the cheek, mind.

---

On a related tip, will the shoe drop here too, after Starbucks' decision to close 61 of 84 stores in Australia? I was quite surprised to discover that we have more than 40 Starbucks outlets here. As the Financial Times put it:

The chain has been the victim of an ill-fated push in Australia, a market it only entered in 2000.

Starbucks was snubbed by many Australians, who have grown up on a diet of quality European-style coffee introduced in the last century to Australia by immigrants, especially from Italy.

It's interesting to see how differently Starbucks' present global difficulties can be viewed. US author Bryant Simon contends that Starbucks "sold not coffee but elevated status", and that had been a key to its consumer appeal.

Not here it wasn't: Starbucks has never been cool in New Zealand, except perhaps to kids who should really still have been drinking milkshakes. It might play its role in more meagre coffee markets, but here it's strictly for dorks and tourists. Its competition isn't Mojo, it's McDonald's.

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