Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: Game Lorde, in reply to Hugh Sundae,
That was our first real test streaming to mobiles, about time huh? All Herald streams (Silver Scrolls, Film Awards, Critics Choice Prize etc) will stream to mobiles from now on too.
So was that first run for the new solution you're using? Which product is it? And who directed the live video?
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Hard News: Game Lorde, in reply to Robyn Gallagher,
Just hold your horses there. “Royals” is good but it ain’t no “Wuthering Heights”. And Kate Bush is still around, still creating.
I don’t think it’s out of the question that she’ll achieve a similar stature in her time, though. But she’s a different artist, for sure – certainly much more plugged into the popular music of her era. In the pre-show interview, she enthused about Taylor Swift’s ability to hold a crowd for two hours, and you can see she’s aiming for a similar command of the stage.
Before the NetHui panel, I asked Adam Holt what he thought about Benny Tipene’s chances, and what he said was really interesting: he wasn’t sure whether Benny had developed the necessary good taste yet. Lorde’s got that in spades.
Thought: maybe Bjork is the better comparison.
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Hard News: Game Lorde, in reply to Lilith __,
I agree that there were some rough edges, and those few minutes when she wasn’t quite hitting the mark, but man. She kept her composure and brought it right back. One young woman in that huge venue. What sangfroid.
Indeed. She’s been on stage in one way or another for much of her life, but had played about 10, mostly small, gigs as Lorde before last night. And that format is really hard in such a big venue. I thought she got overheated and maybe a bit overwhelmed during ‘Tennis Court’, which had a lot of backing track going on. He mic hand was shaking, and she hid under her hair at the end. It seemed to help when she was able to regather and set her own pitch for ‘Swingin’ Party’.
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Jotted down some thoughts on the Lorde show in a new post.
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Hard News: Jonesing, in reply to Danielle,
Because everyone banging on about how terrible “identity politics” are for Labour’s chances – that has absolutely no effect on how women in the party might feel about taking on leadership roles?
I don’t even think it’s that. There’s an obvious leadership candidate in Jacinda Ardern, but she’s only 33 and hasn’t been a minister or won an electorate. Her deciding it’s not her time yet certainly isn’t a matter of lacking courage.
Annette King has recently been deputy leader, but she knows she's not the new face the party needs to present. Again, nothing at all to do with courage or the lack of it.
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Scathing column on the show from Fran O'Sullivan today. Burn.
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Hard News: Friday Music: Specks of Money…, in reply to Caleb D'Anvers,
On another note entirely, however (and I know this contradicts pretty much my entire comment above), look! Siltbreeze just released a Victor Dimisich Band retrospective. Download those “Native Waiter” MP3s today!
Yay.
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Hard News: Friday Music: Specks of Money…, in reply to Martin Brown,
Naughty DRM have been recently challenging/claiming NZ clips on YT they don’t manage rights for/distribute – ie. you’re an artist, you’ve put your own video/song ( your publishing and master rights ) up there and next minute DRM has flagged it as theirs.
Interesting. That very clearly should not be happening. I'll follow that up and report back. Feel free to email me with specific instances.
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Hard News: Friday Music: Partners in Vacancy, in reply to Danielle,
The rapey douchebaggery is sort of tangential to the point, though, Russell. I’m just talking about how I enjoy the sound of the song, not whether or not it’s lyrically objectionable. (Of course it is. But so are a lot of things.)
But you still don't get to call me a "fogey" for not liking a creepy song by a 36 year-old!
BTW, I think the best nickname I've heard for Thicke is Douche Bublé. Genius.
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Hard News: Jonesing, in reply to Keir Leslie,
I don’t think that party members (or affiliates) are voting blind. I think that one rather revealing thing is that the actual electors commenting here at PAS seem to have a pretty clear grip on the candidates and process.
Indeed.
I also wound up by chance at the birthday drinks of a friend of a friend. He and his wife were Labour Party members, and they were really up for the hustings meeting at Western Springs the next evening.
He was planning to ask questions of the candidates, but given how long the birthday drinks went on, I suspect he may have contented himself with being there :-)