Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: Time to get a grip, in reply to BenWilson,
Don’t put someone who can’t be arsed into close electorate race.
To be fair, she was still recovering from viral hepatitis at the time, so it wasn’t strictly “can’t be arsed”. I gather there were also problems at the local electorate committee level, which led to a poor campaign.
Nikki Kaye, by contrast, spent the whole year knocking on doors, and deserved to win. But she still only got about as many votes as Pansy Wong got three years before. A lot of voters – on the face of it, Tizard/Labour voters – didn’t turn up.
In that sense, it’s the same lesson as John Banks being trounced by Hubbard in the mayoral race, then sweeping back three years later with almost exactly the same number of votes. If the Left gets its campaign right, it wins in central Auckland – but the right’s vote is much more reliable.
I would expect Jacinda Ardern to do well this year. Kaye’s had three years to impress, and really has not done so.
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Hard News: Time to get a grip, in reply to Grant McDougall,
I’m not so sure. Some of Tizard’s comments last week did come across as petulant and as sour grapes. Her criticism of Phil Goff, which I know she’s entitled to, was also a bad look as well.
She could have handled it better. But I think the shit flung at her was on another level altogether.
Meanwhile, Paddy Gower's still on the warpath.
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New post on Tizardmania:
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to Sacha,
Filter for bias.
That's putting it mildly.
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Up Front: Where You From?, in reply to Sacha,
named after your beloved, too - how sweet
Yeah. Nice, that.
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At the risk of being a cycle bore, my affection for and affinity with the Auckland isthmus has only grown since I started riding.
The presence of multiple boutique-sized volcanic cones is such a bonus. It takes a degree of fitness to get up some of them, but none are impossible -- and the views!
The ability to stand on these high points and see both the western and eastern coastlines, the two harbours, is truly remarkable. On the ground, it sprawls into dull suburbs that I'll never visit -- as I have noted, I spend more time in Wellington than Howick -- but Auckland from the volcanoes looks beautiful.
When I had to say where I was from in the course of a mihi I did at a wedding recently, I said I was from a headland on the Waitemata* -- Te Rae, Point Chevalier -- because that's the geography I identify with. I do love having local geography.
*I also said I am "from a family of brewers and bakers who took a thousand years to make their way across Europe". Which not only sounds great but is basically true. -
Wah-hey: it's here.
The new "Places" tab on all NZ On Screen clips takes geographical information provided by users.
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Hard News: Chasing the Trans-Pacific Express, in reply to Aidan,
UPDATE! Woo hoo! It looks like these cheapie AKAI boxes work if the country is set to France (must be a similar channel layout to NZ).
Anyone had any experience with this?
No, but I do recall talk of the spec being similar. Interesting!
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And here's the show ...
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Up Front: Where You From?, in reply to philipmatthews,
One of these days I’ll write up my notes for a long blog entry on Chch on film – the lost city. Heavenly Creatures, the Henderson “biopic”/fantasy We’re Here to Help, even the 5 minutes of old railway Chch in Goodbye Pork Pie. Are there others?
Hey, NZ On Screen has plans to allow geotagging of works on the site. We'd be more than delighted if you were to write up those notes!