Hard News by Russell Brown

Oh, and while I was looking at Stu Page's channel, I found this:

A little video for one of my favourite Clean songs, 'Outside the Cage', compiled from various sources.

Congrats on your sort of anniversary and wonderful stint at Listener Russell. Love your work . . . still!

PS: My darling and I are having a little dinner out tonight, to mark what is roughly 20 years together (not just knowing each other -- that's pushing 30). I think regularly how lucky we are to have each other.

You're not the only person who does that then. Every so often, I have this little voice pop up and say, "I hope you realise what a fortunate SOB you really are -- because you traded all the way up. David - not so much." :)

You're not the only person who does that then. Every so often, I have this little voice pop up and say, "I hope you realise what a fortunate SOB you really are -- because you traded all the way up. David - not so much." :)

Awwww ... but you know he thinks he's lucky to have you too.

And the alarming story of a mother called in to school to be confronted with allegations that her autistic daughter was being sexually abused -- on the evidence of a psychic …

Bizarre story that one. I am very impressed by the factual and sensible approach taken by the journalist writing the article, though. At the bottom they even have links to Q and As on autism and an article about how to tell if your child is autistic.

I know that our newspapers are under-resourced and we're a small country and all that, but how come WE can't have something like that more regularly? I know that Stuff does interlinking when it has big stories with multiple articles, but this sort of story seems more of a local news article.

When Israel invaded Lebanon I happened to have a look at a New York Times article on the subject, and noticed the elaborate backup stories about the background to the conflict. Maybe I'm missing these because I only read articles online, but we just don't seem to have that sort of reporting...

Anyway, endrant - hope everyone has a lovely weekend...

Awwww ... but you know he thinks he's lucky to have you too.

Just some times more than others (you know, when I'm not in rat-bastard freak mode), but I digress. To prove I'm either bonkers (or a Cylon), I not only have occasional interal dialogues, but when thinking of the better half there's a soundtrack!

Each evening the sun sets in five billion places,
Seen by ten billion eyes set in five billion faces,
Then they close, end the day, and wait for the dawing,
But the daylight and sunrise,
Are brighter in our eyes,
When night cannot devour golden solar power

Once we were dead now I guess we are angels
For we passed though the dark and avoided the dangers
Then I woke with a start to startling changes
All the tension is ended,
The sentence suspended,
And The darkenss, it sparkles and gleams.

And it all seems larger than life to me
I find it rather hard rather hard to believe.

So I stand as the sound goes straight through my body,
I'm so bloated up, happy, and I throw things around me.
And I'm growing in stages, and have been for ages,
Just singing and floating and free.

And who says being in love isn't a heavenly pop hit?

As it's Friday here's a thing.

This bunch have made something that looks as though it has potential.

...and congrats on the 20 years. My SO and I are passing our longer together than apart point in the next year or so. 'tis indeed a good thing™.

And the alarming story of a mother called in to school to be confronted with allegations that her autistic daughter was being sexually abused -- on the evidence of a psychic …

Fuck me. Makes me think this is even more warranted. Or, you know, a psychic-bankrupting civil suit.

Awww. Congratulations.

I have had the fortune to discover the Public Address site recently, and at the same party last Fri night where I spoke briefly to Russell - "love your work", etc - I FOOSH. That's what the discharge papers said, and apparently that means Fell On Out Stretched Hand.

So, I am recuperating from my broken wrist with company from my laptop, and indeed, I love your work.

Cheers.

rodgered: I yell at the TV at all those strange ads claiming relief from a whole range of sicknesses ranging from curing the common cold, to curing joint pain. Like psychics these people seem to pander to the weak and the vulnerable and the gullible. Why is there no EU type protection here in NZ???

I have had the fortune to discover the Public Address site recently, and at the same party last Fri night where I spoke briefly to Russell - "love your work", etc - I FOOSH. That's what the discharge papers said, and apparently that means Fell On Out Stretched Hand.

Oh god, what a bummer. Nice to meet you though -- and I feel guilty now for applauding you when you went down.

I should explain to readers that this all happened in the context of a bunch of grown-ups dancing maniacally to 'Le Freak' and 'I Feel Love' at 1am in a villa in Grey Lynn. It's all disco magic until someone FOOSHes, isn't it?

Huge congrats to you both, Russell & Fiona. When you throw out numbers like 20 years I get that we-are-not-in-Bonnington-Square-anymore feeling again. It's been a quick few decades, no?

dancing maniacally to 'Le Freak' and 'I Feel Love'

I wonder what the young lad who arrived at Rip It Up all those years ago would've thought about that ;)

I wonder what the young lad who arrived at Rip It Up all those years ago would've thought about that ;)

Well, there was the odd nightclub that provided an education: I recall going to the booth and asking Peter Urlich to drop Stephanie Mills' 'Pilot Error'. And of course the editor was wise in the ways of the Funk.

And I remember Hal Chapman coming through to the RIU office from Snake T-shirts offering to throttle me if I played 'Let the Music Play' another time ...

Which provides a brilliant intro to another delight from Chris Bourke. He's republished the 20-year Rip It Up retrospective he wrote in 1997.

Oh, and also Bob Frisbee kinda sold me last Friday on his theory that the best version of 'I Feel Love' is the original album version.

I think regularly how lucky we are to have each other.

You sweet, sweet man. What a lovely thing to say. Congratulations to you and your child bride.

And who says being in love isn't a heavenly pop hit?

Craig, too much.

Really, tears in the eyes, chaps. Nothing like a bit of loved up loving lovely love. And, I might add, isn't it the loveliest thing when you are so in love with someone, at the beginning of it all, that you can't imagine loving them anymore than you already do - only to find many years later that, in fact, you were completely wrong, and you love them more and more as time goes by. Fantastic.

And finally, over at The Hand Mirror, Ms Enid Tak-Entity's electrifying Feminist gets a wax, anaesthetises crotch with feminism. Ouch.

Yes, I read that the other day. It was fascinating. And then it led me to this (**NSFW**) and then on to this. Not directly of course, there were a few other pages/sites in between all three.

As I just commented on another thread, the web is quite a wacky place - it's breadcrumbs can lead you anywhere ...

Your Listener column was the only one I really bothered to read (aside from Bradford's Hollywood when I was a kid) the others I would just skim.

Oh, and also Bob Frisbee kinda sold me last Friday on his theory that the best version of 'I Feel Love' is the original album version.

It's more concise but I'm a sucker for the twisted Patrick Cowley 15 minuter, although the last five for are great for ending the party and sending everyone home.

Like psychics these people seem to pander to the weak and the vulnerable and the gullible. Why is there no EU type protection here in NZ???

It's interested how some things manage to wiggle through these little loopholes. The entire food legislation shitstorm last year was a great example of that - an entire industry wanting to be able to claim theraputic benefits but throwing a shitfit at the idea of being required to demonstrate that their products actually, you know, do what they say.

unfortunately most of New Zealand's consumer protection law requires you decide you've been ripped off and make a complaint.

Oh, and also Bob Frisbee kinda sold me last Friday on his theory that the best version of 'I Feel Love' is the original album version.

It's more concise but I'm a sucker for the twisted Patrick Cowley 15 minuter, although the last five for are great for ending the party and sending everyone home.

I had a 12" mix that was either 16 or 18 minutes long (can't remember exactly but it was looonnngg) and I too used it to clear the club when I DJ'd in the 80s. I thought it was a valid remix (not just a loop of the original) but it did go on. By the 3rd quarter it was just a dub beat with Ms Summer really moaning her heart out. Being the 80s the ladieez loved that bit, vamping it up, but it just kept going and going and going and even they would have to give up and clear the floor. At which point the song would kick in again and you could see their anguish: do I get back on the floor or do we call it a night? If they came back on the floor we'd freeze the lighting patterns ~ it was 5am FFS!

Your plight-slash-fight hit home recently, once removed, when one of my nephews was declared autistic. His father, sitting in the clinician's room thinking: "please, let it be bad parenting".

So, although we're insanely blessed with two boys who appear to be nothing but endowed with normality, I am thankful the universe isn't putting the learning curve other have had to endure onto my family.

And with that, congratulations to Mrs russb and your good self for making this journey together, and, somehow, finding time to celebrate your accomplishments - something we seem unable to do: a night off? Are you insane? ;-)

It blows me away that you have two "hard work" sons and still manage the output that you achieve...

... which really means Mr russb is covering your ass, ain't she?

Props to mrs B! Love and and credit all round!!! ;)

I had a 12" mix that was either 16 or 18 minutes long (can't remember exactly but it was looonnngg) and I too used it to clear the club when I DJ'd in the 80s.

This is the Cowley mix. Huge synth noises going crazy from about 7 minutes onwards and quite a revolutionary dance record.

Also, as the review says, excellent if the Becks catches up and you need to rush to the loo. In my DJing days records of that length were well handy.

In the words of David Bowie:

One day in Berlin ... (Brian) Eno came running in and said, 'I have heard the sound of the future.' … he puts on 'I Feel Love', by Donna Summer … He said, 'This is it, look no further. This single is going to change the sound of club music for the next fifteen years.' Which was more or less right.

With Russell's departure from The Listener, it doesn't leave much worth reading, except for Diana Wichtel and Nick Bollinger. Russell will be missed.
My SO* and I have a running joke about what might be the cover story in The Listener, when it arrives in the mail on Saturday morning--whether it will yet again be about house prices or investment or the shortcomings of NZ education.
* who is currently down in Tokaanu with a gaggle of 15 year old girls, with both roads out closed by snow and ice!

Russell, I'm a computer illiterate drongo, more or less, but I've read your Listener column for years. I used to enjoy Joseph Romanos too, and I wouldn't know a rugby ball from a hole in the ground. Good writing can do that.
I want to say how I've appreciated you sharing with Listener and PAS readers some of your family life with your boys, without making them the 'story of the week' or impinging on their privacy. (I think I recall Jollisa G. saying something about this, about her decision that it wasn't fair to make her children public property.) So thanks for your delicate touch, and showing something of ASD to the wider world. I never found three teenage girls easy, but your job as parents has been that much more of a challenge. Good for you. Two gold stars...