Posts by Russell Brown
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Field Theory: How's that working out for…, in reply to Megan Wegan,
As I noted over at my place a couple of weeks ago, I can’t help but think if this tournament were for anything other than rugby, public sentiment would be very different.
I thought that was a point well made in your blog post. The same thing occurred to me.
You know, like how I hate yachting as a “sport” (I don’t believe it is), but I still bought red socks.
I thought the red socks thing was annoying bullshit, and yachting’s for bores from the Shore – but I really liked having the teams here for the defenses. It did wonders for the small businesses of some friends of mine, it was cool how there were French and Italian kids at Freeman’s Bay school and it was just, generally, fun to have something like that going on in the city.
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Field Theory: How's that working out for…, in reply to Tom Beard,
At our workplace, we're expected to wear RWC pins, and there's a "Cup up your desk" competition that, while not entirely compulsory, sets one up for withering "not a team player" glares if one doesn't plaster one's cubicle with rugby balls, flags and associated naffery.
Gawd. That does sound a bit tedious. But we've sort of slid from complaining about corporate sponsors to, well, people. They're annoying buggers, people, I'll grant you that.
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Field Theory: How's that working out for…, in reply to giovanni tiso,
Oh come on now. Their campaign is everywhere. I’ve seen a Maori TV poster once.
To be honest, I had to go and find the Sky ad, because I couldn’t remember it. Here it is for the similarly mystified, from November last year:
I’ve been more aware of promotions from Maori TV (there are billboards up here) and TV3 (the Hilary Barry-fronted online show with John Campbell etc).
And I don’t much care about who’s an official sponsor or who’s “the tournament”.
So why focus only on one and not the other?
My point is that two major campaigns thus far have plugged into this idea that the cup is something that we must, as opposite to will, enjoy. I don’t think it’s a coincidence, or an irrelevancy.
I’m not getting that at all. What I do know is that I’m quite excited that there will be tens of thousands of visitors from other countries looking to enjoy themselves over six weeks, and an array of events being staged. I’m going to have friends around to watch the games, and lamb shanks and beers and fun.
And I’m going to see Samoa play Fiji in front of 50,000 people in the capital of the Pacific. That will never happen again. Why would I not be excited about that prospect?
(And, really, it’s going to “open with fireworks”? What a world we live in!)
Good grief. Step back for a moment and listen to yourself. You’re being a grinch about fireworks.
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Field Theory: How's that working out for…, in reply to giovanni tiso,
Another way of looking at it is that the tournament is being marketed – for whatever reason, I don’t want to get all Lacanian on your collective arses – as something utterly joyless. The only people who are promoting fun are those in the business of selling alcohol, but then they always do.
Well, no. The embarrassing Abstain campaign isn't marketing for the tournament, it's for a telephone company which isn't a stranger to marketing balls-ups.
The Sky campaign is for a broadcaster, one of four offering coverage. Maori Television wants us to watch its coverage of all 48 games too, but its way of telling us is much happier.
The tournament itself is being launched with fireworks, massed waka and a Finn brothers show, and accompanied by a nationwide cultural festival.
I do feel sorry for Martin Snedden. Debacles like the 'Abstain' thing don't help him put on a good tournament, and neither does having to work with Murray McCully. But neither of those things are themselves the tournament.
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Field Theory: How's that working out for…, in reply to Sue,
I have some friends who are going to the game & booked accommodation super early, they are not paying anything unreasonable. But they got in super early.
and it’s Ireland, in Dunedin. That’s a popular game. So everywhere in Dunedin is booked out that weekend, so what little left is the tacky price gougers.
Quite. And without knowing what Tom was being asked to pay, I'm not sure even that's fair. It's not long before the tournament in a city where seats at the stadium far, far outnumber the number of accommodation beds. At this point, yes, whatever scarce accommodation remains is going to be expensive.
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Hard News: The new riot reporter, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
Which, without putting words in Duffy’s mouth (and looking forward to seeing the show) I hope she’d not put Greg McGee on the same level as that. I’m actually trying to make the transition from seething incoherence to seething coherence at this:
Aw, not even. She said she could understand the urge to get out from under a legacy like his, and noted that she knows both male writers doing the gender shuffle and women opting for the neutrality of initial capitals.
Greg was good value tonight, in the context of an enjoyable show – he struck me as authentic. Although he did nearly ruin my best freakin’ ad-lib of the year by trying to bolt the moment the crowd started applauding …
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Field Theory: How's that working out for…, in reply to Tom Beard,
This whole thing will be worthwhile if your name ends up associated with the top Google hit for the phrase "pimped-out fist-mobile"
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Field Theory: How's that working out for…, in reply to Hadyn Green,
That’s awesome! And exactly what I hope people will do, because this is never happening here again.
Presumably not the people briskly informing me via Twitter that way more people go to some or other event in some other country. I don't get the relentless negativity, I really don't.
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Yup. It's not edgy, just lame.*
* I am, however, willing to testify that that it's the edgiest thing ever if there's some free tickets in it.
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Hard News: When the Weather is the News, in reply to giovanni tiso,
think of it as “redistribution”
And you think of it as “I’m getting a bigger dog”.
A big dog owner is just a Marxist who's been mugged for firewood.