When Jason Paris decamped in March from his transforming role as TVNZ's head of digital media and marketing to become CEO of MediaWorks TV – running TV3 and C4 -- it set the industry abuzz...
Looking at the price breakdown of the average $24.99 New Zealand novel is both depressing and illuminating:
Bookshop
$10.87
Printing & Publishing
$8.36 ...
**WARNING: Strong speech freedom follows. Reader discretion is advised.**
I may not agree with what Paul Henry said, but I will defend to the death my right to say that he's a cunt for saying it...
Eden Park was glorious yesterday. Kids and their parents streamed across, up and through the new South and East stands, queuing to have their pictures taken with the Web Ellis Trophy, or to get the signatures of Black Ferns, Blues, Aces and Benji Marshall...
There has been a chorus of informed post-mortems since it was announced that Real Groove magazine has ceased to exist as a monthly publication, and will be merged into its more modest sibling, the weekly listings freesheet Groove Guide...
"Some people are easily offended", offered Paul Henry in the first hours after his calculated race-baiting stunt went a bit Evel Knievel at Caesar's Palace, with overtones of Fonzie-on-water-skis. Funnily enough, Henry sounded a smidge offended himself. As if he'd been aiming a bit higher, hoping to offend the people it's really, really hard to offend, instead of the usual right-thinking fish in a barrel...
These are tough times to be an aspiring extra (sorry “background talent”), in the game of television or that falter-foot world of politics.
So let's be having with none of it.
Next week Chris Bourke launches his terrific book Blue Smoke: The Lost Dawn of New Zealand Popular Music 1918-1964 (AUP)...
Once every couple of months or so, someone tries to marry me. It seems to be expected: I'm supposed to be married, so people will marry me. They do it quite casually: "Your husband", they'll say. "You and your husband", "Emma's husband"...
It is a bright morning in Auckland, and I sense that something has changed. The fallout from Paul Henry's disgraceful suggestion that our governor general was somehow less of a New Zealander because of the colour of his skin leads the front page of the city's newspaper...
Just a quick update for those of you without the time (and fortitude) to wade through nearly 500 comments on the original Hobbit thread:
Just before midnight on Saturday, CTU president Helen Kelly posted the following short note to the thread:...
Some decades ago, after my dad and I had returned from an extended overseas trip, we were having dinner with some friends of my parents.
At some point one of the guests – perhaps annoyed we had been banging on about some interesting places we'd been – spoke up for the beauties of Auckland and said, “In what other city in the world can you be swimming in the beautiful sea in the morning and go skiing in the afternoon?”...
So you’re voting in an STV election, and you want know how to best use your vote? Well … here goes.
What is STV?
STV is Single Transferable Vote. It is a voting system where everyone gets one vote, but that vote, or part of that vote, can transfer from one candidate to another candidate. It can be used to elect one candidate – like a mayor – or to elect multiple candidates in a single ward. It is generally considered a proportional voting system...
First, despite today's reversion to recent poor form, can I just say Thank F***k the weather finally changed in Auckland. That first sunny day in (more or less) months coinciding with the first day of daylight savings. I felt like a jumbo box of antidepressants had just arrived in the mail...
Possibly because I spend far too much of my life taking the cynical adult world seriously – you know, disingenuous self-serving politicians like Hide and Carter, the blanket coverage of the Carmen case et al --- I have forgotten the delight of hearing an honest emotion expressed without guile...
It was quite a sight, last night, as what seemed like every actor in Auckland streamed into the Grey Lynn Community Centre to talk about industrial relations. I had been looking forward to hearing what was said, but the sign taped to the door reading "Performers only – NO MEDIA" indicated I wasn't welcome...
It seems fair to speculate that had Labour been in government, rather than opposition, it would not have made a flagship policy of zero-rating fresh fruit and vegetables for GST. It's an Opposition party policy – in that its benefits are potentially outweighed by practical issues, but it has significant power in terms of political branding...
So Hilary Calvert is a Member of Parliament. Let us be thankful that we have MMP.
Had David Garrett been wheeled in as an electorate candidate in support of the election of a broader church National Party he'd probably still be in Parliament. But as a list MP, he could only claim a mandate while continuing to represent the party his supporters actually voted for. So when it all became untenable, he had the good grace to move on. MPs representing arbitrarily-drawn geographical constituencies – rather than voters nationwide – have tended not to do that...
The first public report of the Organised and Financial Crime Agency of New Zealand doesn't say much you wouldn't expect it to say -- which hasn't stopped the press making headlines out of fairly old news...
Even if it’s true that this photo of the University of Canterbury library shelves tumbled like dominos was by far the worst of the library damage, it’s an image that has stuck in my head these past weeks. Imagine -- as with so much else about the quake -- if it had happened in daylight, on a working day! How many students would have been flattened like so many pressed flowers in a Victorian album?...
Two weeks on now, and the fact I don't have to tell you 'on from what' is pretty telling. Still, this appears to be about when our brains start working again. There's still only one topic of conversation in town. The up side of this is that I took two taxi trips on Saturday and was subjected to nobody's political views on anything. 2 a.m. driver told a quite freaky story of being out driving when one of the big aftershocks hit, and seeing the road actually undulate in front of him. Though he didn't use the word "undulate" and followed this up with his Theory of Ghosts...
