Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: Christchurch: Square Two, in reply to recordari,
Russell, you briefly mentioned a Great Blend plan that was fostering before yesterday. Is there some opportunity for us to contribute and make it bigger or brighter?
Stay tuned. At the least, a koha at the door.
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Hard News: Christchurch: Square Two, in reply to Lucy Stewart,
I am, selfishly, desperate for people not to leave the city. I can deal with the place I left sinking slowly into the dust, in its physical form. If all the people leave as well – that’s it, really, it’s gone. Cities are people. The physical bits are just the framing. As long as the people stay, the city stays.
As I wrote at the time, it became clear to me that what happens on the "good" side of the fence is as important -- or in some ways more important -- than what happens in the red zone itself. If people clear out, the area dies. It's not hard to extrapolate that to the city itself.
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Hard News: Christchurch: Square Two, in reply to Lilith __,
They have? (your link seems to go to a map only)
If you click on the dot, the info box that comes up says 6.3. Their main page either hasn't been updated or is cached for speed.
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Meanwhile, GNS has upgraded yesterday's 6.0 to a 6.3.
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Should I start a new thread for this latest phase of the discussion? What do y'all think?
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Hard News: Three months after, in reply to BenWilson,
My sister was offered to do a show down there, and was telling me that it was embittering, because it’s not like Christchurch people have time for shows. I had to tell her that if there was anywhere more desperately in need of some cultured entertainment, it was Christchurch, that the disappearance of intellectual life when faced with hardship had to be strenuously resisted
Just quietly, I've been working with Emma, David and Blair on Christchurch-related ideas for an Auckland Great Blend in August. But we were all acting and talking as if the bad stuff was done with, when clearly now it isn't. That's a hard thought to have.
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Hard News: Three months after, in reply to Lilith __,
Heroic!!
Without wanting to get into that "you're all so brave!" territory -- because I can understand how that could get really old really quickly -- hell yes.
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Hard News: Three months after, in reply to Deborah,
And hearing the news of Avonside this morning… I’m hoping the Haywood / Hay family are safe.
All good. They have electricity (not water) and the new damage to the house isn't as bad as David initially feared.
Jen has a few bruises -- she was cycling when the 6.0 happened and was thrown off her bike. She then had to wade through knee-deep silt to get back to their house in Avonside. Last seen this morning offering to connect other people with a source of springwater.
Blair Parkes, who did the music for the last Great Blend, is also safe and well with his family in New Brighton.
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Hard News: Three months after, in reply to BenWilson,
It’s almost like the city is battling with a potentially life threatening illness, with slow progress of therapy and sudden disastrous reversals, as well as the underlying and constant malaise.
Similar metaphors occurred to me when I was down recently.