Public Address

Hard News: A night on the town with Mr Slack

Russell Brown's Hard News russb@dubwise.co.nz — Fri, 09 May 2008 10:26:00 +1200

Public Address won the NetGuide People's Choice Award for "Best Blog" last night. Many of you will realise that it isn't the first time this has happened, but it's still nice to be recognised in a public vote. I had been studiously laid-back about it all, but it did occur to me as the announcement drew near that I'd be a bit bummed if we didn't win...

Random Play: Encounter with a master musician

Graham Reid's many things graham.reid@elsewhere.co.nz — Thu, 08 May 2008 11:31:00 +1200

So did I mention that right next to the Ahnkook Zen Centre in Seoul is the Seoul Museum of Chicken Art? Or that at the performance of The Princess Who Fell in Love With B-Boy (a cross-genre dance production with pounding hip-hop which is going to Broadway in October) that there were four middle-aged monks behind me in the audience of screaming girls and air-punching young men?...

Island Life: A simple 'your lordship' will do

David Slack on his own account speeches@gmail.com — Thu, 08 May 2008 09:41:00 +1200

My daughter calls me Dad. Her friends call me David. Likewise my accountant, my doctor, my neighbours. Mr Slack, to quote the surfer-dude turtle in Finding Nemo, is my father. About the only people who address me in that fashion are telemarketers and the IRD. Arguably, using such a title connotes respect. Do I really think some poor backpacker wearing a headset and sitting in a cramped cubicle farm has any respect for me as he reads me his dismal script?...

OnPoint: 复杂关系 (Relationship Status: It’s Complicated) - 1

Keith Ng: Cracking open a can of worms keith@point.org.nz — Thu, 08 May 2008 09:39:00 +1200

上周六的华侨学生集会是一个令人深深不安的经验；有许多比肉眼可见更深入的问题都浮现了。

首先，学生们都摆出了一张给公众看的面孔，倒不太真诚的。他们高呼英文口号：「We Love China, We Love New Zealand」，但集会的宣传单张上却以中文写着：「维护祖国统一」。有人拿着说明政治不应与奥运相提并论的告示牌及T-恤，但却有示威牌写上：「一个国家，一个家庭」 (One Country, One Family) –是非常明确并具很强政治性的讯息：西藏应继续是中国的一部分。学生可能试图以新西兰国旗等淡化火红色的民族主义讯息，但当数以百计的中国人挥舞着巨型中国国旗，开始唱中国国歌，这讯息就已大声清楚了。

(cont.)

Cracker: All Aboard!

Damian Christie - Cracker With Attitude damian.christie@gmail.com — Tue, 06 May 2008 15:19:00 +1200

So it doesn't matter if we own our own power network, electricity is so Twentieth Century anyway… nothing says "progress" like locomotives.

And why is it Michael Cullen keeps saying we have no money for this, no money for that (and by that I mean 'tax cuts'), we've got to tighten our belts and so on, then he forks out 2/3 of a billion dollars for some trains? I guess it's no fun having the tracks if you can't play with the engines. ...

Speaker: Apathy is where the heart is

Fri, 02 May 2008 09:32:00 +1200

There have been quite a few opinion pieces recently about the decline in interest for rugby. I’ve even written some. But I’m not sure that the authors (including me) were quite right. From what I can tell rugby fans’ attitudes are changing but their (our) enthusiasm is not dropping...

Busytown: A series of tubes

Jolisa Gracewood in New Haven jolisa@quarteracre.net — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 15:43:00 +1200

Ritual excuses for blog silence first: no, I haven’t been in jail, or unconscious, or on tour, or anything exciting, really. Just slowly waking up from my two year nap and attempting to establish a slender but reasonably sustainable professional life in the place where I actually live. ...

Southerly: Ian Wishart's 'Absolute Power: The Helen Clark Years' Rewritten as a One-act Play in the Style of Noël Coward's 'Brief Encounter'

David Haywood from Southland david.haywood@avon-river.net — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 23:21:00 +1200

ACT I:

The curtain opens to show the tea rooms of a railway station in Milford, England. The year is 1936. Ian, a failed journalist, and Laura, a middle-class housewife, are sitting together at a table. Teacups are set upon the table, but no-one is drinking....

Radiation: New season

Fiona Rae from the couch fiona@dubwise.co.nz — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 21:36:00 +1300

Pathetic. Absolutely pathetic. Welcome to the world’s worst television blog. A load of bloggery bollocks you might say. Actually, I’ve only just now managed to crawl out from under the sheer, crushing weight of the new season TV shows. Life, Grey’s, Pushing Daisies, Bionic Woman, House, Lost, Dirty Sexy Money. Not to mention the fab new shows that friends in England are sending over: Torchwood, Primeval, Ashes to Ashes. I am so earning these bags right now...

Legal Beagle: If it's Sunday...

Graeme Edgeler learns the lesson of history graeme.edgeler@gmail.com — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 17:46:00 +1300

The launch of TVNZ 7 – our public broadcaster's move into a dedicated factual channel – heralds Russell's true breakthrough into television, but its Wellington briefing included something rather different to whet my appetite for free-to-air digital television...

Yellow Peril: Bai bai

Reversing the invasion with Tze Ming Mok tzemingdynasty@gmail.com — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 13:26:00 +1300

After nearly three years of being the exotic dancing girl of Public Address, it's time for me to retreat behind the curtains of the champagne room. These Canto-peasant feet weren't made for stilettos.

Here are the reasons for my early retirement. ...

Club Politique: Jesus that cow can sing

End of the line with Dr. Che testcase2004@hotmail.com — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 08:15:00 +1200

Well, I guess this is goodbye. They say all good things must come to an end, and I guess they must be right. Except in Australia that is, where they say, "Go you good thing!". Which suggests they don't know when to give up. But that's another matter...

Poll Dancer: Pocabprescon Debrief

Keith Ng off the election trail keith.ng@paradise.net.nz — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 16:35:00 +1200

Helen went to some lengths to stonewall all the Cullen speculation at the Post-Cabinet Press Conference today, responding to every question with "ask him". She says that he's served her well and that she wants to keep him on for as long as possible - adding that she has every intention of fighting the next election - but Cullen stepping down would depend on Cullen, and she hasn't asked him about it...

Great New Zealand Argument: My Imaginary Journey

An historical weblog by various artists russb@dubwise.co.nz — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 09:27:00 +1300

If Rex Fairburn had been writing now he would surely have been a blogger. Not one whose work fell easily on the "left" or the "right", but assuredly one who would not shrink from a good argument...

Heat: That's all folks

Rob O'Neill live in Sydney o_neillrob@hotmail.com — Sun, 12 Sep 2004 23:50:00 +1200

In this life you get out what you put in, son.

That’s what I tell today’s insolent youth when I bail them up on the bus with their butt-crack showing above belt-less balloon pants.

Son, pull yourself together, I say. Straighten up and put something in. ...