Hard News: Every scene needs its stars
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Yes, got my monthly phone/internet bill yesterday. Despite assuring me last month that there'd be no moving fee for those forced from their home by the Christchurch earthquake, I've been hit with a $60 charge. After 3+ years of regularly paying my bills, that really sucks.
Might be worth calling and escalating (or even making a media fuss). Taking Advantage Of Innocent Earthquake Victims is pretty bad publicity for any company, and it's not like telecomms companies usually need any more bad publicity.
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Cats are ambivalent about you.
Of course - that's why I love them!
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Thanks for that, Samuel. One of the things that really interests me is that having previously disparaged much contemporary music
I am with you on this, Jackie. There is a (hipster?) tendency to celebrate the obscure and new over the old, which often leads to an exclusion of the past. This has always been a characteristic of popular music, with it high redundancy rate and need to seek out the new and profitable. I sometimes play a track like Bo Diddley's "Bo Diddley" to my students, and ask them when it was recorded. Most opt for the 1980s or 1990s; 1955 is the correct date. Then we talk about how music today is a recycling of the past--not to damn it, but to recognise that popular culture is not about invention, but re-invention.
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Funny you should say that, Geoff. When I first heard the Cee-Lo Green track, I thought it was an oldie - until the chorus!
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Might be worth calling and escalating (or even making a media fuss). Taking Advantage Of Innocent Earthquake Victims is pretty bad publicity for any company, and it's not like telecomms companies usually need any more bad publicity.
Most of Telstraclear's customer service involves dealing with someone in the Philippines. Despite a message on their website stating that there would be no surcharges for earthquake-related mishaps, as of three weeks ago no-one had bothered to tell the support staff in Asia. It's not easy to talk to a human being here in NZ unless you want to buy something. Anyway, I was eventually given an assurance, linked to my customer number, that I wouldn't be charged. Seems that it didn't make it into the billing system as promised. So thanks Lucy, I'll certainly be fighting this.
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Just so weird that they have never rolled out their cable network in Auckland.
Um, because Saturn overreached themselves and went belly-up before they got around to it? Having endured Telstra's blatant price-gouging of their largely captive Australian market in the years when Optus was on the ropes, I'm very sceptical of any claims of altruism in the corporate sector. Especially telcos.
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Then we talk about how music today is a recycling of the past--not to damn it, but to recognise that popular culture is not about invention, but re-invention.
Illustrated by this brief Nina Paley clip of dancing statuary - can't embed here.
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Thanks Samuel. Regarding UMO that was pretty cool what she was doing to her new Westinghouse fridge. Why isn't there that level of functionality these days?
And regarding Holy Fuck, can anyone tell me what all the junk on the table is that they are playing?
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Gosh, loved that Nina Paley clip. Thanks for that!
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...and hey any other Telstra customers out there? They just upped my internet speed to 15mbs and my allowance from 10 to 20 gig without changing the charge. boom.
I'm with Telstra too - great infrastructure, shame about the helpdesk. Not that I've had to call their helpdesk much to begin with anyway.
And urban legend has it that Blizzard Entertainment considered relocating Warcraft's Oceanic servers to Sydney, but rather colourfully couldn't come to an agreement with Telstra.
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I signed with Telstraclear knowing full well the unpleasant experiences I'd had with their Australian parent. As you say, great infrastructure, and their relative underdog position here means they generally deliver better than Sphincterlogo.
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As you say, great infrastructure, and their relative underdog position here means they generally deliver better than Sphincterlogo.
I always liked Keith Ng's coinages regarding our major telecoms players - Telescum and Testicular.
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the hiphop... crap
The tiny Boy George in me asks Jackie plaintively: do you really want to hurt me? Do you really want to make me cry?
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oh darling, I like some hiphop sort of stuff. I quite like a bit of rap - a bit of what my bro used to do when Breaks Co-op was him and Zane and words, a bit of Nesian Mystic. But hiphop usually just leaves me cold. Anyway, everybody has their own tastes, don't they? Do I get hurt and offended when people slag off Simply Red, or Elton John, or Wet, Wet, Wet or.......well, any number of the musical artists that I love so dearly? No. Cos it's okay. We likes what we likes.
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Do I get hurt and offended when people slag off Simply Red,....No.
That is lucky as that band gets a pretty tough time from music snobs such as myself (for which I apologise, I can't help it!). Simon Sweetman likes them though....
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Yes, but he also likes Phil Collins -- which I thought only Patrick Bateman could get away with.
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Sphincterlogo
mwahahahahaha, nice one Joe
where's the 'like' button?? :)
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At the moment I can kind of hear Mr Simply from my house as they play to the matrons of Hawkes Bay at Church Road winery. At least they have a nice night for it. Nice to see you've organised a gig at the Cabana Mr Scott.
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That is lucky as that band gets a pretty tough time from music snobs such as myself (for which I apologise, I can't help it!). Simon Sweetman likes them though....
that's alright, Samuel - I love your music too so my taste isn't all in my bum, is it? No, seriously, Simply Red and bands like them seem only to appeal, in the main, to people who were there when the music was fresh, and something different. Which, believe it or not, in the 80's I think it was. Not all people of my age like them, of course. And to be fair to you, Samuel, one of the things I have always loved about my brother, who is 40, is that he loves all sorts of music. His tastes are incredibly eclectic, but I'm pretty sure that Simply Red doesn't float his boat either.
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Last night's Media7, featuring an interview with Mediaworks TV CEO Jason Paris is here. It includes nice reports from Jose on the Lyall Bay cinema and the Big Sleepout project
4 days later that was a very good show IMO.
Simply Red and bands like them seem only to appeal, in the main, to people who were there when the music was fresh
And in its original form SR's biggie is still fresh.
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Oh, Andin. Just wonderful. I had no idea it was a cover that SR did. I have to say that I like this one better.
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I have to say that I like this one better.
A victory for common sense! ;)
I hope you also like the original version of 'If You Don't Know Me By Now'. It's so beautiful - such sad and desperate vocals. Hucknall has good taste in covers, I'll give him that.
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OMG, Danielle. Destroy my whole belief system, why don't you? In the 80's, believe me, Mick Hucknall was something a bit different. A white man that sounded so souly and bluesy was quite unusual. Oh, don't make me justify it, okay? Likes what I likes.
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Ok, I just saw this fun video on tele....
No reason to recommend it except to say its got dogs, you know... to balance out the kittehs.
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Jackie, lemme swing a little to Hucknall's defence. Whilst I'm no fan of his band - that Valentine Bros track was a huge club hit in NZ in the early 1980s (I still have my 12") and I hated the remake - he was responsible for this mighty fine record label, now sadly defunct.
Also, in 1990 when they toured NZ, his management aproached us and asked if Mick could DJ in The Box. We agreed, reluctantly, and we booked him on a Sunday.
He was incredible - an absolutely stonking DJ set of soul, funk, reggae, ska and dub the likes of which I've never heard bettered. He played for about 4 hours.
Sadly, he was an absolute dick to deal with, before, after and during - arrogant, demanding and utterly full of his own self worth.
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