Posts by Craig Ranapia
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Muse: TV Review: Good Gods Almighty!, in reply to recordari,
Are you reviewing SuperCity?
I'll give it a second episode and pray I warm to it a lot. To be fair, I'm enormously hard on local comedies. But at the moment, I like Madeline Sami and Taika Waititi a lot but the episode felt like a one-woman Comedy Festival show that could have done with some more time in development. It's not as if Sami isn't very funny (she had me pissing my pants in Jackie Brown Diaries) and has the acting chops to pull off playing multiple characters - she was awe-inspiring in Toa Fraser's No. 2. But a string of meh-some sketches uncomfortably strung together isn't worthy of the real talents involved.
So why am I giving Super City a second chance? Because the first episode of Chris Lilley's We Can Be Heroes: Finding The Australian of the Year felt like a one-note gimmick too, and that made more sense with episode two.
Finger and legs crossed that lightning strikes twice. :)
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Muse: TV Review: Good Gods Almighty!, in reply to Russell Brown,
You could be not the least bit racist and still be seen to have co-opted or mocked Maori and Pasifika mythology.
Quite - I'm huge fan of Chinese and Japanese culture, but would still tread very carefully indeed before appropriating something as deeply culturally significant as The Journey to the West or The Tale of Genji. They're not just literary classics to be plundered at will like some Orientalist dress up box. They exist suspended in incredibly complex social, political, religious and cultural contexts that should be treated carefully. Not out of political correctness, but simple honour for other cultures that deserve it.
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Muse: TV Review: Good Gods Almighty!, in reply to Jacqui Dunn,
Actually, Craig, I thought the femmes – they of the Tarot and heaps of coolth – looked pretty interesting too.
Three old bats reading the runes and looking anxious – how could we not have have much hilarity, chaos and bloodshed ensuing from that? :) I did mention them, but cut it because it was a little spoiler-ish, and forgot to fix it up. As you may have noticed, I suck at meeting deadlines – even self-imposed ones.
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Hard News: Gaying Out, in reply to Andre Alessi,
Which leads me to wonder: hypothetically speaking, if the Marriage Act was updated to be gender-neutral, and two men wanted to get married in a church whose congregation they both belonged to, what would their legal options be in forcing the church to allow the ceremony?
Why would you want to? Seriously. – it’s a vaguely interesting thought experiment, but do you really want the judiciary getting into the business of dictating doctrine and practice to churches? If I wanted to live a de facto theocracy, I’m hardly spoiled for choice.
And emotionally, I can’t even begin to articulate how much I don’t want something so precious and incredibly solemn conducted at the business end of a court order.
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Hard News: Gaying Out, in reply to Russell Brown,
The limits on how and where you can get married in Britain are just bloody silly.
Quite. Though to be fair, they tend to be the long tail of brutal sectarian divisions we've never had to endure in New Zealand. Though it’s a whole other can of worms that our head of state still has to meet a religious qualification that would be flat out illegal where our legislators and judiciary are concerned.
Adding insult to injury: Said religious qualification was imposed twelve thousand miles away and three centuries ago by the British Parliament. And, incidentally, our head of state is explicitly forbidden by the same law from marrying anyone who doesn’t belong to the Church of England.
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Hard News: Gaying Out, in reply to TracyMac,
I’m not in favour of marriage at all, personally – I think it should ALL be civil unions. You want to have a ceremony under the auspices of your god, great, go to it – I just don’t think that should have any legal relevance.
Doing a quick flick through the mental appointment book, I haven’t been to a religious wedding ceremony for four or five years – and it took, IIRC, some swift footwork for my parents’ wedding to be conducted in a Catholic church since Dad wasn’t a Catholic. But, in terms of civil law, all that was irrelevant. I certainly hope that my parents' marriage is legal under the Marriage Act, or I really am a bastard. :)
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Meanwhile, if Key and Goff aren’t embarrassed enough by being shown up by Ted-fucking-Olson here’s an outbreak of civilization from the British Tory-LibDem coalition:
Ministers are expected to announce plans allowing same-sex couples to register civil partnerships in church, removing a key legal distinction between the ceremony and marriage.
The move, likely to be announced by Lynne Featherstone, the equalities minister, would lift the ban on civil partnerships taking place in religious settings in England and Wales. Same-sex couples are currently not allowed to use hymns or Bible readings in civil ceremonies, but it is unclear whether this would change or whether civil partnership ceremonies in places of worship could formally be described as marriages.
The Home Office said: “The government is currently considering what the next stage should be for civil partnerships, including how some religious organisations can allow same-sex couples to register their relationship in a religious setting if they wish to do so."
Though I've to to admit I find it bizarre that, even in a country with a de facto state religion, the British Government can regulate the use of Bible readings and hymns.
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Hard News: Gaying Out, in reply to Michael Stevens,
To save you the trouble of searching for it, here is my take on the politicians and us homos at the BGO over here
Uncle Toms? Bitch, you’re really going there?
Look at National – I think it’s the last party to have closeted MPs sitting in it.
But please give up the day job – a long and brilliant career in stand-up comedy stretches before you. I don’t do outings, but if you’re going to pull my middle leg like I'll have to insist you respect my 'no home base until the third date' rule. I may be a whore, but not a cheap one.
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Hard News: Gaying Out, in reply to Stewart,
He appears to want all the trappings and status of being PM but can’t be bothered with being a leader of the opposition now he’s ticked the “be PM” box. Truly, I can’t admire that and I am surprised Craig has let this slide without comment.
Honestly, I’ve no idea why I’m supposed to comment on a statement by Key I haven’t see or heard first-hand. But since you went there, I wasn’t inclined to bitch Helen Clark for not wanting to have a second go at being opposition leader. Nor was I that surprised that, as it turned out, she repeatedly (and understandably) lied about her intentions to the media in the last weeks of the campaign when a Labour defeat was looking likely. (Unless you seriously expect me to believe her resignation and seamless transition to Turtle Bay was the result of a sudden rush of blood to the head. I have a lot more respect for Clark than that.)
If you look at the increasingly pathetic and marginalised figures Muldoon and Lange cut in their post-Prime Ministerial parliamentary careers, I’d have to say I respect Clark a lot for not hanging around and collecting her salary. And I wouldn’t be that harsh on Key if he followed suit. Not all of us can be John Howard – or want to be, come to that.
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Hard News: Gaying Out, in reply to Russell Brown,
And met his CUP-cake (Alf who's a real sweetie pie) when they were in the same rugby team. Hell, if you're going to have the usual suspects gay-panicking all over the place, you might as well not piss around.
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