Public Address | Cafe | Random Play: Auckland: The past is present https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/ en-us Copyright (c) 2026 Public Address Ben Austin https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/random-play-auckland-the-past-is-present/?p=19078#post19078 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/random-play-auckland-the-past-is-present/?p=19078#post19078 Lets take a leaf out of Question Time as well, and plant patsy questioners. I just hope someone has the moral courage to ask the all time greatest patsy question of all:

Everybody loves you, why are you so great?

]]> Fri, 25 May 2007 17:55:46 +1200 Chris Bell https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/random-play-auckland-the-past-is-present/?p=19060#post19060 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/random-play-auckland-the-past-is-present/?p=19060#post19060 Fri, 25 May 2007 15:49:48 +1200 Caron Copek https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/random-play-auckland-the-past-is-present/?p=18899#post18899 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/random-play-auckland-the-past-is-present/?p=18899#post18899 Wed, 23 May 2007 13:06:29 +1200 Nobody Important https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/random-play-auckland-the-past-is-present/?p=18891#post18891 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/random-play-auckland-the-past-is-present/?p=18891#post18891 good = could

(but you figured that out, didn't you?)

]]> Wed, 23 May 2007 11:53:26 +1200 Nobody Important https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/random-play-auckland-the-past-is-present/?p=18890#post18890 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/random-play-auckland-the-past-is-present/?p=18890#post18890 You ever need a bouncer to put a suit in a headlock I'm your man Graham! Just say the word.....Hey, who needs to be asked? Let's all go down there (PA readers in Auckland) on Thursday and look nonchalant until Mr BusinessSuit gets testy again. AND THEN WE POUNCE AND… ]]> Wed, 23 May 2007 11:52:06 +1200 Shayne Stuchbery https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/random-play-auckland-the-past-is-present/?p=18888#post18888 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/random-play-auckland-the-past-is-present/?p=18888#post18888 Wed, 23 May 2007 11:39:41 +1200 Michael Stevens https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/random-play-auckland-the-past-is-present/?p=18877#post18877 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/random-play-auckland-the-past-is-present/?p=18877#post18877 Have you looked through the delights of "Almighty Auckland?" Gives some nice slightly more up to date views on the place.

OK, vested interest – I wrote one of the chapters.

]]> Wed, 23 May 2007 10:54:49 +1200 Chockasunday https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/random-play-auckland-the-past-is-present/?p=18794#post18794 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/random-play-auckland-the-past-is-present/?p=18794#post18794 It seems like there's way too many people in New Zealand who complain for the sake of complaining.
This is particularly apparent when reading the letters section of any major NZ newspaper.
I bet half of the people complaining about boy racers never run across any in their own lives.…

]]> Tue, 22 May 2007 19:34:31 +1200 Joe Wylie https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/random-play-auckland-the-past-is-present/?p=18786#post18786 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/random-play-auckland-the-past-is-present/?p=18786#post18786 Nice historical time-slices, thank you.
From a little before the "Funky seaside village" era – late '77/early '78: as you rounded the point heading towards the city, on the ruined sewage-structure that later became Kelly Tarlton's was the clearly-visible graffiti NZ – DISCO DUMP.

]]> Tue, 22 May 2007 18:54:00 +1200 Russell Brown https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/random-play-auckland-the-past-is-present/?p=18783#post18783 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/random-play-auckland-the-past-is-present/?p=18783#post18783 Nice one – but you should have told me!

In late 2000, I was commissioned to write a my-generation-and-Auckland thinkpiece for Metro, and came up with the phrase "Funky seaside village", which was true at the time. Baby-boomers were whining (Ralston wrote a daft piece complaing about how everything was…

]]> Tue, 22 May 2007 18:40:21 +1200 Public Address https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/random-play-auckland-the-past-is-present/?p=18782#post18782 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/random-play-auckland-the-past-is-present/?p=18782#post18782 Discussion from blog post.

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