Posts by Tom Beard
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Hard News: Criminalising Journalism, in reply to merc,
an honest Key voter
...no, I'm not going to bite.
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Hard News: The perils of political confidence, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
Cock-up over conspiracy, Keystone Cop trumps Machiavelli.
Not necessarily conspiratorial, just disdainful. It's not inconsistent with their normal approach to RNZ.
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Hard News: The perils of political confidence, in reply to Deborah,
a meeting in private might suggest that they really were plotting something
nastyWhat, nastier than their actual manifestos and public statements? Now, that's scary.
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Hard News: The perils of political confidence, in reply to Matthew Hooton,
the Zac Guildford story, which was a massive story by anyone's news judgment
Not by my judgement. Gossip? yes. Sports news? yes. Worth a few sniggers on Twitter? definitely. Deserving most of every front page in the frickin' country? Hell no.
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Up Front: Casual, Shallow and Meaningless, in reply to Amy Gale,
Does that work on many young people?
On the ones worth talking to, it does.
Which sounds very snobbish, even for me, but even if I'm not expecting a conversation about literary criticism, I find that the people with whom I'm most likely to have engaging conversations would be able to respond to that question with something other than a blank stare.
It might have something to do with the fact that my imagination is primarily linguistic, whereas others' are sometimes visual or musical, and that I'm more likely to make connections (in form and content) with people who read and/or write fiction, poetry, philosophy, politics, history and the like than with those who don't. Even with those whose creative interests lie elsewhere, text is so ubiquitous a medium that for most people the question could lead onto a discussion of their interests: "I've just read a review of Pina, and I'm really looking forward to seeing it", "Have you seen Q's best band awards? What a bunch of out-of-touch old farts!", "I've just found this wonderful collection of old maps".
Of course, reading "books" is no guarantee of a good conversation, but that makes the question useful as a test. If one's interlocutor responds with a panegyric to Dan Brown, Ken Ring or Ayn Rand, it's a good opportunity to remember an urgent appointment elsewhere.
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Wow, so much small talk! I've been out of the loop for a few days and look what happens...
I'm often not too bad at small talk, though I don't particularly relish it. I'd like to be better at (a) initiating small talk in social situations so that I can then (b) make a transition to middling talk, thus working out whether there's an opportunity to move on to big talk. But what I loathe is premature big talk that I'm either not interested in (see under "children" above) or that assumes I share my interlocutor's prejudices, and is thus likely to end in tears.
What I do enjoy is conversation that is neither formulaic niceties nor serious discourse, but that for want of a better word I'll call "banter". It's a mixture of puns, flirtation, double entendres, gossip, anecdotes, kvetching, ranting, playful jibes and general silliness, with the occasional seasoning of more serious content. It generally
only applies between good friends and established drinking buddies (yes, drinking helps), but if you meet someone who sparks into your conversation straight away then they'll probably fall into one of those two categories before long. Even if we're not exactly the Algonquin Round Table, it's a form of social interaction that I'm glad I get to enjoy several times a week.Funnily enough, I really enjoy talking with my hairdresser, and we mostly talk about sex. Over the years I've got to know a lot of surprisingly intimate details about her sex life, and she's got to know a lot about mine ... which means that the two are now highly unlikely to overlap.
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Hard News: Winning the RWC: it's complicated, in reply to Russell Brown,
The only time I've watched much recently was when I was too sick to get up & turn on my laptop, let alone watch a TV, so just picking up my phone & watching in bed was fine by me. Otherwise, I usually only turn on my TV to briefly watch the news (waste of time) and a bit of Simpsons re-runs. On the few evenings I spend at home I tend to have a puritan view that I ought to spend the time creating something (writing, designing, making music) or reading books, and if I actually went out and spent money on a TV and related gadgets I'd feel that I'd be encouraging my own laziness.
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Hard News: Winning the RWC: it's complicated, in reply to Russell Brown,
A little upstart repeatedly taking cheap shots on a man with McCaw's mana isn't going to end well.
Ah, that explains it: I hadn't seen much Super N or Tri Nations this year, so couldn't quite work out why he was singled out for such vitriol.
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Hard News: Winning the RWC: it's complicated, in reply to Russell Brown,
Not sure I'll bother just yet: I'll save the money and update my iPhone 3GS to a 4S eventually. After all, I watch shows more on my phone than on my TV, and will continue to do so unless NickFromFulham stops uploading.
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Hard News: Winning the RWC: it's complicated, in reply to Emma Hart,
I suggested in a tweet that perhaps people who were sick of hearing about rugby (which I completely sympathise with) not read or comment on rugby-specific columns or articles.
Not all that easy (apologies for the FB link: I'm not sure if it's been posted elsewhere).