Posts by Craig Ranapia
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Hard News: Ante Up, in reply to izogi,
Hi Russell. I agree, but I also think it worth emphasising that there's more to public television than screening programmes that don't fit the target demographic for advertisers.
No it isn't. As Russell pointed out to me on Twitter yesterday there are a lot of local documentaries - and a fair chunk of public money, FWIW - that TVNZ and Three just aren't interested in showing. Hell, if we must have a 'public broadcaster' it would be damn nice if they got slightly wider circulation than a handful of off-peak screenings on the festival circuit.
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Muse: Indecision 2011: Writing Policy on…, in reply to Steve Curtis,
Steve:
The links I posted are to PDF format documents which your browser may find indigestible. I will amend the post to note that.
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I'm sure this doesn't need to be said, but anyone who's thinking about being a twatcock in the comments will get them turned off.
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I'm disappointed that Labour, having advanced some good ideas and averred its belief in public broadcasting, has lacked the courage to say how it would pay for those ideas.
Quite, and depressingly enough I'd say much the same about National and Labour's Arts policies releases today. Little in either this pointy headed arty-farty would object to on principle, but damn... talk is not only cheap but completely fucking worthless to arts organisations that can't operate on fairy dust and unicorn farts.
FULL DISCLOSURE: I am currently secretary of the Auckland Film Society, which has gratefully received indirect programming support - via the New Zealand Federation of Film Societies -- from the New Zealand Film Commission, and the Ministry of Arts Culture & Heritage. The opinions expressed here are my own, and do not reflect those of the AFS or NZFFS.)
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Labour has done the right thing in starting this debate, and has put the change out a sensible distance to assuage the fear that people might feel about it.
You know what, I see the politics of it (hey, Boomers vote. Younglings, not so much) but shall we stop trying to paint electoral calculus as either “sensible” or :ballsy”? IF raising the retirement age is a TINA moment surely the sooner the pain the quicker the gain?
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[Oh, and by the way, I was right about Winston not standing, see.]
Point to Mr. Christie. Won’t stop the media’s “get a room and fuck already” bad bromance with Peters, though. Gaga, oooh la la…
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Cracker: On the trail, pt 1., in reply to Danielle,
why do other parental people feel compelled to gather around you and direly warn you of things like a lot of horrible vultures?; etcetera.
Oy… I know too many women who would have found pregnancy a much more pleasant experience if they weren’t surrounded by people hanging out for a re-enactment of that scene from Alien.
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Cracker: On the trail, pt 1., in reply to bulbul,
And you want them to do all this while living on “tea and milk biscuits” because you do not like paying for their measly superannuation ?
Um… hi there, bulbul. I don’t think we’re acquainted but my partner of sixteen years is 66, still working and I’ve abso-fraking-loutely no problem with a portion of my taxes going to paying superannuation. We really like a nice round wine with our cup of tea of an evening.
I do have problems with this policy that I’ve laid out at some length elsewhere. Is the only way to sustainably fund super screwing over the young, Maori and Pasifika (who statistically have lower life expectancies than Pakeha) and the working poor by moving the goal posts further away? (I’m also singularly unconvinced that Messers Brash, Key and Goff need to receive a pension at all but that’s a whole other kete of kai moana.)
To put it mildly, I’m not in the mainstream of PAS opinion on this subject (and many others) but nobody else has accused me of being a gerontophobe. Bacause, really, I’m not aroused by the thought of old people eating cat food while hunched over a one-bar heater. Hell, I’m literally sleeping with the enemy.
ETA: Oh, crap. Did I get punked again?
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Muse: Thirteen Ways of Looking at A…, in reply to Rob Hosking,
I still bow before the sublime Wendy Cope – anyone who could reduce The Waste Land to limericks is some kind of wonderful.
In April one seldom feels cheerful;
Dry stones, sun and dust make me fearful;
Clairvoyants distress me,
Commuters depress me—
Met Stetson and gave him an earful.Cope isn’t the most prolific of poets – six volumes, including two for children, since 1986 – but she’s not only a deft parodist but proves that “light verse” isn’t light in the head, or the heart.
Proverbial Ballade
Fine words won’t turn the icing pink;
A wild rose has no employees;
Who boils his socks will make them shrink;
Who catches cold is sure to sneeze.
Who has two legs must wash his knees;
Who breaks the egg will find the yolk;
Who locks his door will need his keys—
So say I and so say the folk.You can’t shave with a tiddlywinks,
Nor make red wine from garden peas,
Nor show a blindworm how to blink,
Nor teach an old raccoon Chinese.
The juiciest orange feels the squeeze;
Who spends his portion will be broke;
Who has no milk can make no cheese—
So say I and so say the folk.He makes no blot who has no ink,
Nor gathers honey who keeps no bees.
The ship that does not float will sink;
Who’d travel far must cross the seas.
Lone wolves are seldom seen in threes;
A conker ne’er becomes an oak;
Rome wasn’t built by chimpanzees—
So say I and so say the folk.Envoi
Dear friends! If adages like these
Should seem banal, or just a joke,
Remember fish don’t grow on trees—
So say I and so say the folk. -
With a baby due, um, Wednesday
You lie, sir. You look twelve. Always have. Always will. Keep your damn baby off my lawn. Harumph.
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