Posts by DexterX
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Hard News: Television and the Public Good, in reply to merc,
we all must be so careful with our words, and Key doesn't.
A recent example of ths was possibly Tuesday with Key saying in relation to the s9 issue - that "water" and "air" were free and that no one owns them. That this folly was accepted and hte soundbite run on the networks without being challenged is beyond amazing.
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Hard News: The Mega Conspiracy, in reply to Sacha,
Truly breathtaking the level off resources applied abd the overkill in operation Dot Com as related by both the security guy Wayne Tempero and Assistant Police Commissioner Malcolm Burgess.
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Hard News: Review: Lana Del Rey, 'Born…, in reply to Dean Papa,
Wicked.
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Hard News: Review: Lana Del Rey, 'Born…, in reply to Russell Brown,
Lana Del Rey it is Ok
Without wanting to cause offence for what it worth - which isn’t much - my subjective opinion - Derivative of what? I hear elements of lots of things Tori Amos, Shakespeare’s Sister (the Siobhan Fahey half and not the Marcella Detroit bits), the Verve, 1990s Madonna, – I find the music of Del Ray and its projection to sit in the category of laments and dirges suitable for performance at a funeral where the focus is on the loss and over whelming sense of mourning rather than the joy of a life lived. But then I am not her target demographic.
I don’t see her vocal delivery or the production of the “music” as original and as the foundation for that is the song – I don’t find the music or the lyrics that original, and read to me like a cut and paste of well worn cliches, the strings and harp overlay are over done to my minds ear. The plodding chords sequences in the Song Video Game repeat that F#m A thing several times and then goes to C#m D thing too much.
To my ear the whole thang labours under the weight of its own mediocracy and goes nowhere. It does have lots of elements of parts of things but seems incomplete in itself to my minds ear.
I listem to music for the the pleasure of it, my addiction, and the ability it has to uplift me in the emotional sense – what I have listened to of Lana Del Rey it is Ok – but Ok doesn’t cut it – I can’t hear any beauty in it.
Looking at expression in art a poet of note will “sweat” just as much about what is taken out and what is left on the page. There are a lot of musicians and songs that do a lot better with a lot less. Here is an example and what I regard as one of the best songs ever written:
Though not making a direct comparison Anchor is fluid though the production is dated – it does more with less, Video Games gives me the vision of someone plodding up and dwon stair with gumboots full of slop.
There are enough elements in the music – she will do better next time I thinks – presently it is a triumph of marketing – but if people dig it and she does well and grows then all power to her – LDR is not my bag.
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Lana Del Rey it is Ok - but I have enough other great music to catch up on that is less derivative.to pay her any mind.
When you listen to someone who can sing and then go back and listen to some hack singing “pop” the difference stands out.
Where one sings or when one is a singer making the effort to possess good diction regardless of the idiosyncrasies of ones vocal timber or stylistic moves is something that my ears appreciate. If we are "talking" about great singers favs of mine are Peggy Lee, Patsy Cline, and Billie Holiday who have a quality of voice and diction to the standard that KD Lang maintains.
It is the combination fo singer the song an dhte passion in hte performance:.
“Blue, blue windows behind the stars,
Yellow moon on the rise,
Big birds flying across the sky,
Throwing shadows in our eyes” -
Not dwelling on the Kim Dot Com thing - but when the US Govt want NZ to change it laws to suit the US of A - so they can extradite NZ resdients at will or do other stuff - they don't send a team of lawyers and other lobbyists to advance the case through the normal channels,
What I understand they do is send a congressman who is good at hypnotizing chickens with a script to follow, and a copy of the relevant legislation they want enacted and then, hey presto ala kazzam ka pow, it happens.
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Hard News: The Mega Conspiracy, in reply to nzlemming,
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Hard News: Getting to the bottom of…, in reply to Chris Waugh,
Yes really - the fact that China is not hindered by the restrictions of human rights and Labour laws has been advanced as reasons for its success and the basis of why the West, including NZ can't compete.
I acknowledge that China in China will do some good stuff and even some green stuff and develop innovative solutions regarding all manner of things and some of these things will have a positive 'global effect"
I was looking at some of the big city transport solutions with buses (in the form of urban public transport platforms on wheels) that were raised up so that traffic could pass under then whilst they were stopped at a bus stop or terminus or travelling along a road - really mind blowing futuristic stuff.
As far as engineering and development of big projects there is a lot happening in China.
But there will also be violations of what are widely regarded as basic human rights and a lot of the tools and equipment that come here from China is of low quality. I bought a ruler and a string line made in China and they lasted less than a day.
Looking at the future for NZ it isn't a matter of competing with China but playing a different game - what concerns me is that NZ will find itself as the little skinny kid kept up the high side of the see saw by the much bigger stronger kid China and not able to come down.
NZ has, since the 1980s, opened itself up to the degree that it will shortly not possess enough of its own infrastructure and resources to provide an adequate quality life for the people that work here. Presently with the Nats we are set on a course to borrow and sell assets to sustain ourselves economically - the management of the economy in a manner that provides growth seems to me to be lacking.
I don’t trust the present govt to get the little stuff right let alone the big stuff they don’t seem to possess the wit or thoroughness, what one could call rigour, for such tasks.
An example of getting the little stuff wrong is abolishing LAQC so that someone setting up their own business in any year does not get to offset their loss against their taxable income – this will stop people from starting out in small business and have a detrimental effect on economic growth.
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Hard News: Getting to the bottom of…, in reply to Chris Waugh,
Whilst making a peanut butter and jam sandwich for someone small, I was just thinking about that very fact of the treacherous Labour lurch to the right and how the culmination of that disturbance in the force spewed forth the abomination that is Act and Rodney Hide, and others.
This term of Govt is all about finishing off the unfinished business - so we are back in the time warp again..
I had a vision of kicking Rodney, numerous select others including all of the 1984 Labour cabinet fair and square in the nads – but really it is far less than they deserve – I dismissed it as not worth the busfare and made myself a cup of coffee.
Funny how David Shearer and Len Brown aren’t really embracing the lot of working persons as regards POAL and all measure of things – IMHO. - I just wonder what these guys are about.
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Hard News: Getting to the bottom of…, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
Thanks I'll look around sometime later this year for something good to play with..