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Posted at 11:45AM on 21 Jan 08. Permalink.

Shihad playing 'Pacifier'. My mobile phone was freaking out but I think it captures the scale of the occasion quite well. You can hear the crowd singing:

Someone else's clip (also during 'Pacifier') of an "old dude going off to shihad". The Big Day Out is all about personal expression:

And another: Battles playing 'Atlas':

Posted at 12:04PM on 21 Jan 08. Permalink.

we got back home in pretty good time

I certainly have to give to props to the organisers - years of experience really seems to have nailed the logistical side of things. While I admittedly got there late and left just as Rage were ending, I was amazed that a sell-out crowd in heat like that was able to move around so easily.
I had no idea how I was going to get home, yet walking out the back of the Boiler Room to actually being home in Grey Lynn (via a brilliantly organised on-site city bus service and a walk over Hopetoun Bridge) was slightly under 40 minutes. That's pretty smooth...

Posted at 12:06PM on 21 Jan 08. Permalink.

In itself, it's hardly a scandal, but The Standard has hammered David Farrar regularly for his National Party links, which often go undeclared when he's tapped as an "independent commentator" in the media.

Come on Russell, it's gotten a little more thrashing, screaming and outright pants-pooing than that. By the Standard standard, you're a honorary Hollow Man and National Party media whore by failing to 'declare' my National Party links on PA Radio. Hell, if you want to get really pathological about it Joanne Black and Jane Clifton should be sacked until they stop (literally) sleeping with the enemy, and polluting the Listener with their sexual treason.

In the end, it's the hypocrisy stupid. Because it takes precisely zero imagination to picture The Standard going up like a flaming bag of dogshit if Kiwiblog had an equally 'technical' connection with the National Party.

Posted at 12:15PM on 21 Jan 08. Permalink.

In the end, it's the hypocrisy stupid. Because it takes precisely zero imagination to picture The Standard going up like a flaming bag of dogshit if Kiwiblog had an equally 'technical' connection with the National Party.

I agree, it's hypocritical, and that's precisely their problem.

But by Prentice's notably measured account, he also hosts sites for groups that are not only not connected with Labour, but almost anathema to them. The screaming and bitching from some of the Kiwiblog commenters is a bit much, especially given the interesting revelation by the Southland Times about who's bankrolling Shadbolt. There's a lot more money involved in the latter.

Posted at 12:24PM on 21 Jan 08. Permalink.

The screaming & bitching from KB is because of the success of Kiwiblogblog & The Standard at exposing Farrar's links to the Nats and exposing (in their opinion) the hyprocrisy of the Right in the same way that Farrar et al has exposed the "hypocrisy" of the government.

Part of the problem is that both sides are preaching to the choir, I'd be surprised if either side wins any new converts, so shrill is their tone. The only interesting outcome is when the MSM picks up on a point made by one side or another, IMHO that is the success of the Standard.

I'd have thought that the screaming & bitching is really restricted to a relatively small group of political weirdos from either side (most us a weirdos!) and it won't have much impact in the real world (am free to be corrected though).

Posted at 12:27PM on 21 Jan 08. Permalink.

After that, Bjork was intriguing and avant-garde, but not entirely what the Rage crowd wanted to hear.

I like Bjork, but have to admit she doesn't exactly make it easy -- like Tori Amos (who I also adore - go figure) the line between utter genius and tooth-grinding pretension is a very fine one indeed. But I thought the successful BDO experience involved getting thrown all the way out of your musical comfort zone at least once. I have a friend who in Oz who had that experience with PJ Harvey -- caught her set, hated it, but couldn't quite get it out of her head. For me, that's when music, art, cinema and literature gets exciting -- the completely unexpected - perhaps even unwelcome - connection.

Posted at 12:39PM on 21 Jan 08. Permalink.

Part of the problem is that both sides are preaching to the choir, I'd be surprised if either side wins any new converts, so shrill is their tone.

Agreed. This stuff is doing my head in at the moment -- it's not fun. I've just had to go and deny a confident claim from a Kiwiblog commenter that I'm a part of some ninth-floor-directed conspiracy to defame whaleoil by calling him a paedophile.

It's all going to be in the papers, apparently.

I certainly hope not, because it's complete and utter bullshit.

Posted at 12:42PM on 21 Jan 08. Permalink.

have a friend who in Oz who had that experience with PJ Harvey -- caught her set, hated it, but couldn't quite get it out of her head.

Unfortunately I had a similar experience at the weekend. My kids were playing a Wiggles DVD and I haven't been able to get that out of my head. Culture? I wish :)

Posted at 12:44PM on 21 Jan 08. Permalink.

Paul - this is exposing the links to the Nats which I voluntarily disclose in a prominent place on my blog?

NB: I'll leave this here because the following comments won't make any sense without it, but this post isn't actually by Whaleoil. It's David Farrar falling victim to some sort of cookie glitch and posting while he was logged in as the wrong user on his laptop. RB

Posted at 12:50PM on 21 Jan 08. Permalink.

Whaleoil, I don't understand what you are getting at.

Posted at 12:50PM on 21 Jan 08. Permalink.

Man, that's a crapload of people in front of Shihad. I haven't been to a BDO since 1996, but I'm not sure if I would enjoyed such a press of humanity, or just felt sick and overwhelmed. Looks like everyone there was enjoying it anyway.

Maybe they'll do a small acoustic gig for me one day. Er Shihad? Hullo?

Posted at 12:55PM on 21 Jan 08. Permalink.

I don't know when the hell I am going to write that 'biography' for rage against the machine given the work that needs doing round the house before I go back to school to teach this years monkeys but I suppose I can get it done this month...maybe.

Unfortunately the D'Area or whatever its called is too small so we didn't feel like trying to crush in there for an hour so had to be content with being about 75 metres back. Lucky I'm 6 foot and could see over most people and the video screen is very useful. Should be up 5 metres higher though for all those (mainly young ladies) who couldn't see a thing the whole time.

As an aside, Rage must be the only group thats headlined at the BDO that gets the entire crowd cranking with songs that are now 16 years old. Or am I forgetting somebody? Metallica maybe though I don't know if they would play nearly half their set from an album that came out in 1992 or earlier when a lot in the audience were wearing nappies.

Posted at 1:01PM on 21 Jan 08. Permalink.

Agreed. This stuff is doing my head in at the moment -- it's not fun. I've just had to go and deny a confident claim from a Kiwiblog commenter that I'm a part of some ninth-floor-directed conspiracy to defame whaleoil by calling him a paedophile.

Oooh, I can top that -- the rather charming lefty-troll on Kiwiblog who repeatedly accused me of 'supporting' the 'pedophile' Mark Foley. Feh... I should not have made the mistake of thinking such people are susceptible to rational engagement. And much as I hate to say this, I think its a matter of when not if DPF finds himself on the sharp end of a serious defamation action.

The screaming & bitching from KB is because of the success of Kiwiblogblog & The Standard at exposing Farrar's links to the Nats and exposing (in their opinion) the hyprocrisy of the Right in the same way that Farrar et al has exposed the "hypocrisy" of the government.

Paul, I'm sure RB can speak for himself, but I wish Farrar and the Standard/Kiwiblogbog folks would get a room -- preferably one with padded walls and no handle on the inside of the (locked) door -- and fuck already. Their blog-bitching is about as tiresome as listening to Uncle Ken and Aunt Barbie's relentless, petty and poisonous bickering every time they're out in public.

Posted at 1:04PM on 21 Jan 08. Permalink.

Paul: To my immense surprise the comment above appeared as user:whaleoil instead of as user:dpf. I have absolutely no idea how or why but checking the page I then saw somehow I was logged in as whaleoil.

Now before anyone asks, no I am not pretending to be Cameron, and have never posted as him (or in fact as anyone but myself on any political blog). I am absolutely bemused as to how my laptop logged me in as whaleoil.

All I can think, is that possible Cameron once logged in from this laptop, and a cookie remembered his details. But the last time Cameron used my laptop (going off memory) was the local body election night in October.

I would have though I would have commented on PA since then (maybe someone can check), and I would be surprised that the laptop would remember a username for so long without requiring a new password. I've also checked my username/password masterlist in Firefox and the only PA accounts listed there are dpf and dpfdpf.

It is quite baffling to me how it happened, and I am 1000% happy for anyone from the PA crew to check the technical logs and reveal IP addresses, when the user logged in etc etc.

Anyway, that above comment Paul may make more sense when you realise it was from me.

Posted at 1:08PM on 21 Jan 08. Permalink.

Oh man. Björk and band flew 40 hours to get there and people booed the encore? Classy!

Posted at 1:10PM on 21 Jan 08. Permalink.

Craig: I have commented just twice in the thread on the the issue of The Standard's lack of disclosure, with a gentle suggestion to Tane that voluntary disclosure at the time they accepted the hosting may have been desirable.

And off memory I have only twice posted about KBB, once being to point out I was actually defending the Govt when they accused me of spinning Nat Party lines. To suggest I spend all my day picking fights with them is ridicolous. I in fact ignore 95% of what they throw at me.

Posted at 1:15PM on 21 Jan 08. Permalink.

Oh man. Björk and band flew 40 hours to get there and people booed the encore? Classy!

I am incredibly glad that I missed that moment, having nipped off early for LCD Soundsystem. Cringe.

Posted at 1:18PM on 21 Jan 08. Permalink.

It is quite baffling to me how it happened, and I am 1000% happy for anyone from the PA crew to check the technical logs and reveal IP addresses, when the user logged in etc etc.

Oh God, there's no need for that. You have posted here more recently, but I'm sure it was just an odd cookie glitch.

And I'm relieved to see that your reader Bok is backing down a bit. Apparently I'm no longer "implicated" in the Beehive plot.

Posted at 1:19PM on 21 Jan 08. Permalink.

And off memory I have only twice posted about KBB, once being to point out I was actually defending the Govt when they accused me of spinning Nat Party lines. To suggest I spend all my day picking fights with them is ridiculous. I in fact ignore 95% of what they throw at me.

Um, I don't see where I suggested you "spend all my day picking fights with them" but if you took that away, my apologies. I just don't see why you bother engaging with them at all -- especially in the specific example you cited. Its not as if people who are absolutely convinced you're a lying Tory sock puppet who regurgitates talking points as a dog returns to its vomit are going to change their minds in the face of rational rebuttal!

Posted at 1:23PM on 21 Jan 08. Permalink.

And off memory I have only twice posted about KBB, once being to point out I was actually defending the Govt when they accused me of spinning Nat Party lines. To suggest I spend all my day picking fights with them is ridicolous. I in fact ignore 95% of what they throw at me.

Their attacks on you are tedious, DPF. But you do preside over some vile shit that flows the other way.

OTOH, possibly the worst dad4justice comment episode I can recall seeing (he really did a number on a PA reader, a woman, in an unprovoked and very, very nasty way) was published last week by The Standard. I don't understand why anyone lets that happen.