Hard News: Assault by Monstrous, Cancerous Used Condom Destroys Auckland. And so on ...
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oops try again- isn't McCully a total tosser. all reports from those there were that DD's performance went down a treat. also not sure he is " in HC's camp" so much post Zaoui. what McCully might usefully tell us is quite why if you were desperate to find the identities of people who "stole" your emails, you would ensure that no one can ever publish them, which presumably would be a give you a good place to start in identifying who has them. also if this is all about the right to privacy of personal emails, why did Brash tell NZH that he sent very few personal emails from his work address.
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After a weekend spent around people who are convinced they know what they're talking about, I've decided to take the lazy way out on stadium discussions. I'm just going to nod and make listening noises from now on.
However, I will say one thing: is it just me, or is the (weekday) Herald single-handedly turning the whole thing into more of a shit fight than it actually needs to be? It's like there was a little bit of heat there that wasn't going to sell many papers, so they threw all their leftover fireworks on it.
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The Alex books were my absolute favourite things to read while I was growing up - so much so that even though I usually despise the phrase 'role model' I have to use it about them and say that Alex was one of the best role models for a girl to have while growing up, which makes the Tessa Duder comment sadder. All this talk of stadiums gets my vote for the most annoying-and-neverending-and-boring news hype of the year.
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Out here on the edge, the empire shut up shop in 1947 when New Zealand signed up (16 years late) to the Statute of Westminster. It's doing well to be still fading after nearly 60 years.
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However, I will say one thing: is it just me, or is the (weekday) Herald single-handedly turning the whole thing into more of a shit fight than it actually needs to be?
Yes.
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I used to live and work down in the old Britomart ghetto and I spent many sad lunchtimes searching for a way to sneak through the red iron fence and get closer to the harbour. This is the perfect oppurtunity to make public claim on some of the locked-up Ports of Auckland land.
Describing the Waterfront design as "cancerous" is totally silly. I took a drive down to Quay St and then around Eden Park. It's the latter that deserves this label. And they want to make it bigger?!
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Oh, and in regards to this,
And from the dozens of songs he could have selected for the event, Dobbin sang "Welcome Home". Noted, of course, for the line "the empire is fading by the day." How very very classy
I'd think that the very fact that many New Zealanders feel like British empire has little relevance to them nowadays but still feel like it's important to pay tribute to Armistice Day and the people who gave their lives to make this country what it is makes it all the more poignant. Besides, what are the odds that the royals who were actually awake during the ceremony bothered to listen to the lyrics?
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Herald = shitfight
sigh... yes. bloody sensationalist newsprint media. do you think, if NZ had an impartial bbc-style news service, would anyone would pay attention? or would it be too boring?
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I am pretty over this whole thing too, I share Idiot/Savant's lack of care for the most part (although of course I managed to muster up enough feeling to blog about it).
It just goes to show the paucity of other news though. How many column inches has the Herald wasted now on its lists of Yes and No voters? I guess it's a lot cheaper to run than employing journalists to investigate and report on stories.
As for McCully's criticism of Mr Dobbyn's lyric about empire - I thought even the British recognised they don't have an empire anymore?
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I went googling to find out what McCully got his knickers in a twist about. Here's some of the lyrics of the song:
tonight I am feeling for you
under the state of a strange land
you have sacrificed much to be here
‘there but for grace…’ as I offer my hand
welcome home, i bid you welcome, i bid you welcome
welcome home from the bottom of my heart
out here on the edge
the empire is fading by the day
and the world is so weary in war
maybe we’ll find that new waySounds like an entirely fair summation of what should be sung at a war memorial to me, even though the song is, I understand it, inspired by an anti-racism protest. Those last four lines could just as easily be the story of NZ's involvement in World Wars and how many of us feel about it.
And if Murray has a problem with one particular line, then he should take a history line - one of the major threads of 20th century world history is the fading of the empire upon which the sun never set. As NZers in particular it's been incredibly important on our nation and on us, and one of the ironies of our history is the fact that NZers signed up in droves to go fight wars for King and Country in far away places, while the vestiges of empire were slowly taken, or pushed away.
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Has anyone yet seen a real poll on the stadium options? So far we have been treated to countless stories around self selecting surveys, even National radio fails to mention the dubious nature of these sort of "polls".
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Sometimes, scrap that most of the times politicians just love the sound of their own voice, that inextricable need to be in the piublic view.
What was it Bono said about sanity and standing up in front of 70,000 people demanding their love. Politicians all too often suffer from this affliction.
The only thing unclassy out of the whole affair (apart from McCully demeaning it) was the royals getting their kip during the ceremonies. If the sad old farts had stayed awake to notice a few lyrics, if they had taken them in, if they understood the whole Clark Dobbyn republican context, if if if. McCully what a tosser.
As for the stadium, I'm not letting up on this, I even pulled family ranks and got Deaker to read my email over the radio, he's staunch against it, but I thought bugger it. To his credit he did. But the best thing he did was get a councillor on from Vancouver where they are going through a similar process. Deaks thought he's be supporting the eden park upgrade, but from what I took from it was not quite the opposite, but he thought it was courageous and a great move. Biggest thing from the interview though was they are only allocating 150 car parks for 33,000 seat stadium, as the pedestrian car only makes up 20% of the donwtown traffic!!! Imagine Vancouver slightly larger than Auckland with similar urban spraw and only 150 car parks (not for the [public), that is how well the Canucks have taken to public transport there (and the other parking options). Having lived in Vancouver twice I can fully understand this, their busses are no more than 5-8 mins apart, $1.50 will get you anywhere for and hour and a half, including the skytrain, walking and biking is still a fun way to get around, and this with a climate similar to auckland's too. Sad indictment on Auckland really.
Lastly, could someone take a photo of the pristine view that Tessa is talking about. I know Auckalnd relatively well, but I can't rememeber a unobstructed view through the high rises down past the containers, the wharfes and ships to the water, those clean glistening water where one just can't wait to swim in?
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What was it Bono said about sanity and standing up in front of 70,000 people demanding their love.
Whatever it was he said, he clearly didn't say it in Auckland. Not enough stadium capacity.
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Re DD at the commemoration. Was Neil Finn busy or something? Why wasn't there some real real Kiwiana on display - marching girls, pipe bands, All Blacks, Sir Howard Morrison, that bush band from the west coast, Dame Kiri or Malvina, John Hore, Sir Edmund...how did we end up with boring old DD trying to be profound? Thank god he didn't sing that Yaugting song. Sorry, All Blacks were on display.
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I think there is a larger cultural issue at work here: New Zealanders tend to have a problem with Bigness.
We are a young society that mostly exists on the threshold of land and sea. We do not have a deep experience of Bigness in our history, and through circumstance and a relatively low population density we are only now beginning to learn how to deal with it. Previous examples such as the Clyde Dam and Te Papa proved controversial, windfarms and power pylons provoke extreme and irrational responses, and a comprehensive rail network for Auckland seems beyond our comprehension. The only Bigness we seem comfortable with are (unfortunately) motorways.
The proposed waterfront stadium is therefore an affront to so many people, who cannot imagine something so Big being placed on the foreshore, their threshold. Even if that threshold is a conduit for adding to the current account deficit and dumping more carbon into the atmosphere.
The notion of Bigness seems to be closely linked to the idealised image of landscape, and our connection with it, that is so base to our culture. Bigness only occludes the view of Landscape. Despite the dramatic improvement in public space in our cities over the last 15 years (closely linked with coffee, of course), I think our culture is still digesting the concept of constructed landscape and how Bigness can comfortably sit within that, even to add to it.
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what McCully might usefully tell us is quite why if you were desperate to find the identities of people who "stole" your emails, you would ensure that no one can ever publish them, which presumably would be a give you a good place to start in identifying who has them. also if this is all about the right to privacy of personal emails, why did Brash tell NZH that he sent very few personal emails from his work address.
Grant: Don't assume the _interim_ injunction will remain in place. Assuming that a publisher and/or media organisation(s) are poised to go public any day now (which is what the rumblings in the media would suggest), one would expect one or more prominent legal challenges to the injunction in the next few days, followed by publication (assuming public interest outweighs privacy, in the Court's mind).
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"a monstrous, cancerous protrusion into the harbour"
People who don't actually have a clear, reasoned argument usually resort to exaggeration and name calling.
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Biggest thing from the interview though was they are only allocating 150 car parks for 33,000 seat stadium, as the pedestrian car only makes up 20% of the donwtown traffic!!! Imagine Vancouver slightly larger than Auckland with similar urban spraw and only 150 car parks (not for the [public), that is how well the Canucks have taken to public transport there (and the other parking options).
Compie - Vancouver has two downtown stadia (GM Place for the Canucks NHL team; BC Place for the Lions CFL team and concerts), and a third planned nearby for the Whitecaps soccer team. I'm not sure which of these you're referring to, but regardless, the lack of vehicular traffic around the Canucks game I went to at BC Place last month was great. There sure as heck was a lot of pedestrian traffic though.
BTW, you may be saddened to know that a one zone bus/skytrain/seabus ticket now costs $2.25. It still lasts 90 mins though.
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Or whoever has the emails could just walk into a city centre internet cafe, hand over a gold coin, post the emails onto a few dozen blogs, and rapidly retire to a safe distance...
On the much over-commented subject of the stadium, could I just point out one thing:
"three flagship op-ed columnists" - is it me, or is there a strong correlation between those who will get undoubtedly get complementary tickets for the 2011 world cup final, and those who are showing enthusiastic support for the new stadium. Most of the rest of us have maybe a 50:1 shot of getting a finals seat and will have to be content with watching an England/Fiji pool match. In Hamilton.
But we (the great un-comped) are still having to fork out several hundred dollars in tax for the shiny new stadium. It's a long way from user pays to "everyone except the user pays"!
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dc_red, argh noooooooo!!!
I'm off to Vancouver for another 6 months next year, oh the humnaity $2.25.Busses in Vancouver were so bloody good that when it came time to pack up and head for the sunny hills of Dunedin, we just took all our crap and jumped on the bus.
I was refering to the new Whitecaps soccer stadium. Should be a real asset to the town. I've been to GM Place twice for the Hockey and The Eagles (thank god they didn't come on stage in zimmer frames or I was outta there). Both times all I need to do was catch the bus from Kitsonlano, one transfer and da da.
If Mallard can go to Vancouver to see the whitecaps proposal first hand, why couldn't some Auckland councillors and transit personel jump on board the same plane have a big chin wag.
The coolest public transport in Vancouver is without a doubt the little putt putt ferries http://www.granvilleislandferries.bc.ca/home.html . Even better you can book one for an hour and a half, take a picnic and some wine and watch the sun set.
A Vancouver what a stunning city!!!
Interseting to note that people are now putting the debt ridden Aussie Stadium as a point of caution. Shame that Sydney has several cometing major stadiums with very limited all round use as an example.
While we are mentioning Vancouver, a good example would be BC place where they play Canadian Football (cooler version of gridiron). tha stadium is used over 250 days of the year, run by the council too (shock horror).
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BTW,
if anyone is even slightly interested, on behalf of the greater vancouver tourist board and Don Brash's exiting NZ masses...
http://www.translink.bc.ca/Transportation_Services/SkyTrain/
(take your bike on it too!!!)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SkyTrain_(Vancouver)
What have Auckland planners been doing for the last 3 decades?
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I'm sick of all the complaints that the stadium design looks like a condom/haemorrhoid cushion/donut.
I mean, it's a round structure with a hole in the middle. Of course it's going to resemble other round things with holes in the middle.
We as humans don't think that round things with holes in the middle are inherently ugly (c.f. the mouth), and I don't see why the stadium should be considered ugly because of this reason.
As far as buildings that resemble things goes, some say the Sky Tower looks like a hypodermic needle (does it really?), but that hasn't stopped it from turning into a loved icon of Auckland.
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However, I will say one thing: is it just me, or is the (weekday) Herald single-handedly turning the whole thing into more of a shit fight than it actually needs to be?
The Business is taking it even further:
[Supporting the waterfront stadium is] a risky political strategy that could result in the statium turning the 2008 election into a virtual referendum in many Auckland seats.
...I'm sorry, but what the hell are you talking about?!?!
The day the location of a sporting arena becomes an election issue is the day I return my New Zealand citizenship and emigrate to somewhere like the Congo where they have proper election issues (like ninjas.)
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The coolest public transport in Vancouver is without a doubt the little putt putt ferries
Let's have some of that! I think the harbour is a criminally ignored means of transport in Auckland.
Interesting to note that people are now putting the debt ridden Aussie Stadium as a point of caution. Shame that Sydney has several competing major stadiums with very limited all round use as an example.
The stronger point on Stadium Australia is its location in Homebush - 15-20km from the CBD, with nothing around it. I can't believe people keep proposing North Harbour Stadium, a ground which managed to open (not fill, mind, just bother to open) more than 50% of its modest quantity of seating once in this year's provincial rugby competition.
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Well, what I've found rather amusing about the Weekend O'Herald's 'flagship columnists' (particularly Fran O'Sullivan) is how very lukewarm they've tended to be about politicians having attacks of the 'vision thing' - to paraphrase the first President Bush.
Sorry, Russell, but if we're calling 'bullshit' on the Herald, perhaps you need to look a bit closer to home at your *ahem* rather dim view of the disdain Messers Mills and Banks had for the niceties of public scrutiny and planning law where their pet projects were concerned. What's the difference?
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