Posts by Craig Ranapia
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It covers several months of his life, including a period where he made a fine job of pursuing his passion for movies, working as a volunteer at the New Zealand International Film Festival in Auckland.
It’s also very nice having him (and Fi) at the Film Society. (Full Disclosure: I’m the Secretary, and would be happy as a sack of kittens if y’all signed up. End of infomercial.) It’s rather odd trying to have a naturalistic conversation while hoping that boom mic isn’t going to take your eye out. Jimmy handled it very well; I kept getting the existentially anxious giggles. :)
And don’t you think he’s a good-looking young man?
Yes, but don't tell him that.
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Hard News: Not so insane, in reply to ,
But it is socially acceptable to be drinking a bottle of wine every single night, when children live in the same house.
It's not in my house, but you know... I'm an alcoholic and my partner is on medication for which alcohol is contraindicated. Thank God we're not stupid plebs, all I've got to say, or we'd be fucked. In other news: Carl Jr's 'Bourbon Burger' ads make me feel like my brain's just powerchucked all over the inside of my skull.
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Hard News: Local interest, in reply to Russell Brown,
It’s very easy to condemn the people of Manukau when you don’t have to live or work in places where there are many street sex workers. I’d like to see someone do the much harder job of trying to come up with a solution that respects everyone’s rights.
Sure, but how many time do people have to point out to folks who really really should know better that child prostitution is illegal everywhere? And can we all agree Wayne Hawker is a creep? If this idiot get on Council, is he going to release the personal information of people he disapproves of when things don't go his way?
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Hard News: No Red Wedding, in reply to Russell Brown,
Oh, and notwithstanding a bitchy tweet from Chris Finlayson (for goodness sake, Minister, do us all a favour and go and do some work), I’m please to see the Arts, Culture and Heritage portfolio given continued prominence.
"Prominence" is all very nice, but I'd rather see policy with a decent signal-to-noise ratio. (There must be some Labour-supporting writer out there who'd volunteer to de-clutter the managementspeak.) Finlayson and Ardern might want to cash this reality check: However much it goes against every political instinct in their bodies, how about making some commitments with BUDGETS and DEADLINES you can actually be held accountable to?
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No Red Wedding
No, it was more like the Emmy broadcast this avo. Few real surprises when it came to the headline ranks, one serious WTF? moment (let's just hope Shane Jones has more to offer on economic development than handing beneficiaries a shovel and forcing them to move to Christchurch) and a not unpleasant sense of anti-climax.
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Hard News: Friday Music: Dancing Fool, in reply to Simon Bennett,
My dance phobia wasn’t helped by two years at drama school where I endured classes in tap, jazz, ballroom, renaissance, free movement (creative writhing) and super-aerobics with Michael Parmenter every morning for a year. The horror.
Hah... so it's not just me. I was a hideously unco child, so I ended up doing tap and jazz classes, and even if I say so myself I wasn't half bad but can't even think about dancing socially without fixating on what my hands are doing. Now, I can't dance unless I'm in my bathrobe, alone in the house and desperately trying to avoid productive activity by busting out my pole dancer playlist. It really does reveal I'm an uncool homosexual of a certain age...
Some automotive sexual innuendo with Miss Grace Jones...
Getting in touch with your interior Beyonce...
Scritti Politti, 'The Word Girl' (Yeah, there's a specific memory attached to this.)
And I have been known to jiggle awkwardly to Pat Wilson's 'Bop Girl'. (Yes, that is Nicole Kidman.)
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Hard News: Friday Music: History, motherfuckers, in reply to Kumara Republic,
#FirstWorldProblems
Yeah, nah... Folks who insist on being arseholes are everyone's problem. And if you ever come across someone who's been on the receiving end of cyber-bullying/harassment please don't snark it as "first world problems".
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Hard News: Moving on, in reply to Myles Thomas,
Meanwhile the channels are disappearing and NZOA wring their hands saying “there’s nothing we can do”. Not true. If NZOA genuinely want to see the parts of NZ that don’t rate on air they need to re-evaluate their funding policies and swiftly.
Miles: I’ve got my issues with NZOA, to put it mildly, but I think it’s really useful to remember this not-so-small point of fact. New Zealand on Air is an autonomous crown agency that has to comply with legislation, and apportion the funding the Government decides to give it. It’s beyond useless kicking the monkey because you don’t much like the tune the organ grinder is playing.
Does every other accessible television broadcaster in NZ chase the same demographic with the likes of home renovation shows, screaming cooking shows, and extremely over-commentated “world’s blahiest blah!” types of documentaries these days?
Well, here's another question, izogi. Why should Three and NZoA keep putting money into (excellent) local dramas and comedies like Hounds, Harry, and The Almighty Johnsons, when more people apparently are interested in watching repeats of some Irish drag queen telling fanny gags?
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Hard News: Event Season, in reply to Sacha,
Sounds like Downstage has not been performing well enough compared with other theatre companies. I’d welcome hearing more about that before joining the hand-wringing.
Hey, I'm supposed to be the heartless right-wing philistine around here. :) Yeah, it looks like Downstage just hasn't been getting bums on seats (which is a must for professional theatre, no matter how heavily subsidized those seats happen to be, and whether their source is public, private or a combination of the two) and there have been *cough* long-running site-specific issues with Downstage for many years.
But for all the bitching Creative New Zealand gets (both justified and not), it just seems to me that the arts have to work a lot harder to make the "economic benefit" case for public funding than the America's Cup. Not that those numbers that get thrown around with gay abandon shouldn't be treated with extreme scepticism, no matter where they come from.
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Hard News: Friday Music: History, motherfuckers, in reply to Dean Papa,
Soviet-style stalinist repression.
Oh, FFS... that hyperbole would be faintly amusing if the treatment of artists, writers, composers and film-makers under Stalin who didn't toe the party line wasn't as well documented as it was horrifying. (Reading is awesome!) To quote Helen Clark, the first thing to do when you're in a hole is stop digging. Not because I and the Feminazis want to suppress your free speech, but because it's just getting embarrasing.
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