Public Address | Cafe | Hard News: Chill out: it's a party

Steve Barnes

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 13:54:44 +1200

Watching the Australia v Ireland match the other day I overheard a rather loud Aussie supporter comment about member of his own team "They should just get rid of that F*in' Black C*nt, he's Fuin' useless"
Combine this comment with Australia's refugee stance and the way it treats its indigenous…

Paul Williams

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 13:49:00 +1200

In the absence of any underarm bowls or bankrupt airlines, the hate seems a bit precious.

I think there's good reason why the Sydney Cricket Ground now only serves mid-strength beer; in the cheaper seats, too many dickheads drink too much all day with predictable results.

Kumara Republic

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 13:21:51 +1200

It can be yes, but I’ve sadly experienced real hostility too. Booze is often the factor that converts funny to foul.

In the absence of any underarm bowls or bankrupt airlines, the hate seems a bit precious. Maybe it's not too different from soccer hooliganism in Europe.

Sacha

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 13:09:32 +1200

for sure

Paul Williams

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 12:47:27 +1200

My Reo isn't that flash, perhaps there was a exclusion tucked in there that I missed or do you mean Manly and Bondi (hope it doesn't apply to Matapouri)?

Sacha

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 12:43:12 +1200

we owe all Manuhiri our hospitality and protection

but not if you live near an expensive beach, naturally

Paul Williams

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 12:27:04 +1200

I frankly find the Aussie media playing Miss Manners more than a little hard to take.

Indeed, and in comments, this point has been frequently made.

I always found Ozzie sledging to be the good natured variety.

It can be yes, but I've sadly experienced real hostility too. Booze is…

Sofie Bribiesca

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 09:20:24 +1200

One only has to read kiwibog to see where the nastiness could manifest onto a stadium seat or pub. Even the spiteful daily attacks on Red Alert are another indication of the mindset of some people with nothing better to do. The comraderie in numbers is encouragement to do more…

BenWilson

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 00:34:19 +1200

I always found Ozzie sledging to be the good natured variety. Even in small rural towns, from crusty old truck drivers who had an actual bona fide reason to dislike me. But perhaps I didn't draw the dark side out. I've had much worse from NZers.

Craig Ranapia

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 23:38:08 +1200

Fark, this story, is exactly what we don’t need.

Um, yes and it goes without saying here that one incident of that nature is one too many. But after seeing Fire In Babylon, and in passing just how poisonous Aussie "sledging" both on the field and off could be, I…

Russell Brown

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 14:50:46 +1200

Fark, this story, is exactly what we don’t need. There’s dickheads on both sides of the Tasman who take the rivalry too far, Quade Cooper’s one of them, but I reckon as hosts, it needs to be reigned in, off the field at least.

Was just reading it. Ugh.

Prepare…

Paul Williams

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 14:34:49 +1200

Fark, this story, is exactly what we don't need. There's dickheads on both sides of the Tasman who take the rivalry too far, Quade Cooper's one of them, but I reckon as hosts, it needs to be reigned in, off the field at least.

DexterX

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 21:32:26 +1200

Key misses out on the wave in the hair, a depth of voice, and a skilled command of the english as a language.

BenWilson

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 12:36:43 +1200

Yes, that's my take, precisely. I've got a lot of time for Australians, because they have a lot of time for NZers. Of course they give us shit, but they give each other shit. They believe in the giving and receiving of shit as a form of social bonding.

I'm…

Paul Williams

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 12:17:10 +1200

Has anyone observed particular hostilities to Australians? Cooper's copping it 'cause he's a git, but in the space of 24 hours I've heard of two stories of Australian supporters being subjected to OTT abuse – once in Hamilton, once in Akl. It'd be a hell of a shame if we…

bronwyn

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 16:40:01 +1200

Oh yes agree – I wasn't try to say it was the fault of anyone apart from the people who decided to assault him, just that there were some pretty unpleasant incidents happening on the night- which again is in no dispute. (I think my original point, which I totally…

Sacha

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 15:41:00 +1200

the phrase "talking New Zealand down"

First time I've seen it.

Craig Ranapia

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 15:36:31 +1200

The “Labour are being negative ninnies” thing was just a spin line to avoid talking about McCully in Parliament.

Well, yes... and during the term of the Fifth Labour Government too many people who should have known better let the phrase "talking New Zealand down" cross their lips in an…

Sofie Bribiesca

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 15:25:52 +1200

This isn’t the Middle East.

I think their alcohol free zones would be a little bigger ;)

Russell Brown

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 14:51:39 +1200

Not to be a downer, but there was one near-miss on the opening night in Auckland – a security guard was set upon by a group (ostensibly in the city for the celebrations) in Albert Park and quite seriously injured.

Nasty, but its really hard to see how something that…

Russell Brown

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 14:50:04 +1200

Here's the One News report on the crowding in Kingsland, which is really quite misinformed.

Despite Auckland Transport making the numbers available very promptly, Donna-Marie Lever says that "fans shunned the failed transport network" — which simply doesn't tally with the numbers recorded, which were almost the same as the…

bronwyn

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 14:39:11 +1200

Rob Stowell

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 14:32:11 +1200

Very relaxed cops at the Dunedin games, too. Quite a few down from Chch for the event, and rather enjoying themselves, I got the impression.

BenWilson

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 14:23:44 +1200

That's just nuts. This isn't the Middle East.

Kumara Republic

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 14:20:36 +1200

and Prostetnic Vogon Joyce

Fix'd.

Christian Mair

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 14:12:20 +1200

I was in Hamilton yesterday and the police was very relaxed despite being there in big numbers. Before the game I asked a cop where we could have our pre-game drinks in peace because the pub was too full and he just pointed us to some places where no cop…

Sacha

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 14:06:17 +1200

and Mr Joyce

Sofie Bribiesca

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 13:58:57 +1200

Methinks you underestimate MachiMcCully. :)

Bart Janssen

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 13:57:48 +1200

No ‘put your shirts on lads’, no ‘can you stop having so much fun with the other fans’, no ‘see how NZ can put on a good-natured RWC’, just gone. Evicted.

WTF !?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Paul Campbell

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 13:52:05 +1200

(I think my point is that from here at least it looks like National playing for an Auckland audience, but not running a campaign in the rest of the country – there's all sorts of nuanced stuff going on in that issue that means nothing to most of the rest…

Russell Brown

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 13:46:33 +1200

I couldn’t imagine Phoenix fans in Wellington taking kindly to being prevented from taking their shirts off :)

In which sense it's a bit like the security guards I described in the post — over-eager security sometimes has a counterproductive effect.

Russell Brown

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 13:45:22 +1200

um – but hasn’t this whole Auckland party central storm-in-a-teacup thing been driven by electioneering on National’s part, trying to make McCully and the Nats look positive and jumping in to do the right thing, and that evil lefty proxy-Labour council bad in comparison

Yes, but I remain of the…

Russell Brown

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 13:42:09 +1200

How utterly, utterly absurd.

I suppose it was a "miracle" no one caught a fucking cold or something.

Paul Campbell

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 13:40:20 +1200

um – but hasn't this whole Auckland party central storm-in-a-teacup thing been driven by electioneering on National's part, trying to make McCully and the Nats look positive and jumping in to do the right thing, and that evil lefty proxy-Labour council bad in comparison – at least many of the…

Richard Llewellyn

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 13:39:24 +1200

Sorry – meant to say just before half-time, so at least they saw half the game.

I couldn't imagine Phoenix fans in Wellington taking kindly to being prevented from taking their shirts off :)

Richard Llewellyn

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 13:37:26 +1200

I was at the Ireland v Australia game on Saturday (fantastic atmosphere by the way, and the rendition of Whisky in the Jar that rang around the stadium at the end sent some Irish fans nearby into a joyous frenzy), but I have to comment about one of the worse…

Steve Barnes

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 13:36:26 +1200

There is a single upside to Smiley John: Thoughts of "that nice Mr Key" might divert the wizened from voting for "That nice Mr Peters".

Dare I say it? Even that "Nice Mr Peters" has some good points.

Russell Brown

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 13:36:07 +1200

ETA: BTW, my David worked on Saturday night and when he rolled in at 2.30am he said the most eventful thing that happened was helping to steer a couple of benignly drunk Irishmen towards a taxi rack.

Glad to hear it. And they shipped a lot of people.

Russell Brown

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 13:34:57 +1200

It’s interesting that the liquor laws (as interpreted) require rigid segregation of 18+ drinkers from under 18’s at Big Day Out, but not at a sporting event.

Or at Queen's Wharf. I saw one child at The Cloud — dancing happily — but that seemed to be excuse enough to…

Russell Brown

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 13:33:30 +1200

There is something about the Irish – reports from publicans after the Ireland/USA game in New Plymouth said that while they drink heavily, they do not get aggro or stupid when drunk*. Instead they get happier and mellow.

Oh, they're capable of getting very passionate. But yeah. Some of the…

Rich of Observationz

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 13:32:44 +1200

while they drink heavily, they do not get aggro or stupid when drunk

Firstly, I think it's down to perception of what "aggro or stupid" is. For this event, TPTB have obviously decided on a fairly high tolerance level. For a music event (or the one-day cricket), less so. It's…

Russell Brown

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 13:30:50 +1200

Yeah, Tapu, it's not as if The Herald had editors who could have decided the "Minister of Bad Manners" story had no news value. I really love the way media folks act as if they've no influence over their own editorial and news judgement. Do magic elves assemble newspapers, television…

Sofie Bribiesca

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 13:27:35 +1200

is anyone actually campaigning?

Yep , got door knockers for Labour Saturday. It was persisting down and they were soaked but extremely upbeat :)

recordari

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 13:27:09 +1200

it would be really nice if the Herald would engage in some honest self-reflection about whether it adds value to public discourse.

But, according to today's Rugby Herald, it's 'The paper they read in heaven'. Divine status doesn't come with mirrors.

Richard Grevers

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 13:23:19 +1200

There is a single upside to Smiley John: Thoughts of "that nice Mr Key" might divert the wizened from voting for "That nice Mr Peters".

Ian Dalziel

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 13:08:48 +1200

from Balls to Ballot...
Assuredly, the RWC is taking focus from the elections, but I don't think it's doing it in a way that particularly benefits any party.
Billboards aside, is anyone actually campaigning?
Kinda reminds me of what happened in Chchch Council Elections – campaigning went out the window,…

Paul Williams

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 13:07:41 +1200

Yesterday I was a bit bummed about Samoa losing. This morning I chatted to my elderly Samoan neighbor, and said "Sorry about the Wales game, bad luck, eh?". He just laughed and said "Nah, Wales played good and hard. And we've still got the All Blacks".

There was a great…

Sacha

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 13:00:32 +1200

magic elves

outsourced

Craig Ranapia

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 12:57:01 +1200

I'm rather bemused how a gossip item in the bowels of the Sydney Morning Herald (and which was deemed to require no further coverage there) got turned into some demented diplomatic non-troversy by... well, The New Zealand Herald among others.

Sorry for sounding like a broken record, but it would…

Richard Grevers

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 12:53:02 +1200

BenWilson

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 12:45:21 +1200

how they're having their dissent crushed by

...their own children. Out of the mouths of babes.

Craig Ranapia

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 12:39:22 +1200

Tapu Misa quotes me in her column but sort of misses my point.

Oh, Tapu… love you, love your work, build a bridge and get the frak over yourself. I’m sorry, but a particularly tiresome columnist trope is how they’re having their dissent crushed by… well, abso-fucking-loutely nothing in the…

BenWilson

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 12:27:06 +1200

"He didn't want me to ruin his perfect memory of the night."

She totally undermined her own point with that line. It was one of the things I most loved about opening night, that the crowd was young and determined to party, against all odds. Because they wanted to party.…

Russell Brown

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 12:10:39 +1200

Tapu Misa quotes me in her column but sort of misses my point.

Happy as I am for anyone to bag the minister, I'm not really up for complaining about how no one's allowed to complain. Because it seems to me that everyone's complaining.

Even Misa admits to coming into town…

BenWilson

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 12:06:03 +1200

Everyone having fun doesn't make for exciting news stories.

It does break the dour narrative that televized news seems to be all about. But I'd have thought "Biggest party ever in NZ" would have been great news, made for great footage. Certainly a lot better than "We could have had…

recordari

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 12:01:36 +1200

Moral panic in the wake of this incident inflated it in the popular imagination to a full-scale riot instigated by rebellious young people.
Priceless*. I imagine in years to come we'll be talking about people rioting up Queen Street as Dave Dobbyn took to the stage.

Wait, what?

* Ben…

BenWilson

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 11:49:58 +1200

Classic. Love the bogans in the van pulling a huge burnout. But what happened to the half naked barbarian woman on the side, that used to be obligatory? They just looked like their van had been tagged. And there's never been a better time to wear black t-shirts and jeans!

Sacha

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 11:41:44 +1200

We can sort it all out at the "After Cup Debriefing"

chill man, it's just a party

Luke Williamson

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 11:23:15 +1200

Everyone having fun doesn't make for exciting news stories. Much better to keep harping on endlessly about how terrible it all was and, by extension, how awful we are as a nation at trying to do anything that them overseas can do better. Much like the All Blacks themselves -…

Gareth Ward

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 11:22:16 +1200

Maybe someone should look at closing New North Road along the Kingsland strip on game nights

Kinda shocked it isn't. I heard Bond St was, is that right?

Russell Brown

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 10:57:51 +1200

And hey, at least it's not like the 1960 Hastings Blossom Festival.

Ian Dalziel

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 10:56:10 +1200

The Kiwi-can to-do attitude...
When they finally did find something worthy of their time – a young woman with a single white Steinlager can – the slightly-built offender was rushed away by three large men.
Probably renditioned to Heineken's Camp Can-Contaminato, or whisked off to their Red Star Chamber to…

Bart Janssen

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 10:53:00 +1200

It has been one of the best things so far about the RWC that fans appear to be just happy to see good Rugby and happy to have a party afterwards. Chatting to couple of cops last Sunday and their biggest worry on opening night was the folks with pushchairs…

Steve Barnes

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 10:48:04 +1200

I’d welcome more detail about their reasoning,

Ok, you get the details, I'll get the beers.
We can sort it all out at the "After Cup Debriefing", we could call that the ACD if you prefer. You can then tell us about your "Post Party Analysis" or PPA and we…

Russell Brown

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 10:46:32 +1200

Just found this excellent coverage of opening night frolics in Auckland, from some outfit called Zonic.tv:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lv_Hy87rHqc

Sofie Bribiesca

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 10:40:28 +1200

My head hurts ;)

George Darroch

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 10:20:12 +1200

learning something...

I'd welcome more detail about their reasoning, and about how this compares with previous publicity that the strip would be made pedestrian-only.

...or perhaps not.

Sacha

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 10:06:35 +1200

Maybe someone should look at closing New North Road along the Kingsland strip on game nights

You'd think. The Herald story references the Council CEO about why not.

Auckland management committee chairman Doug McKay said thought had been given to closing a section of New North Rd at Kingsland but the…

George Darroch

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 09:55:59 +1200

I was in town Saturday night. I had a very good time. After the game, the streets and bars were filled with happy people. Even the Australians were cheerful, considering (they need to drink for a while first). At 3am, when I was calling it quits, things were still lively,…

Public Address

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 09:55:59 +1200

Discussion from blog post.