Posts by Russell Brown
-
When I first started as a tech reporter at Computerworld back in 1997 I remember one Russell Brown gleefully proposing a cover story that consisted mainly of quotes from then Minister of Communications Maurice Williamson threatening to take action over an issue if everyone didn’t simmer down a bit.
From memory, each quote would be accompanied by a picture of Maurice “with beard, without beard, with beard” and so on.
Yep, it ran -- and the minister was not at all pleased about it. Small wonder, because actually listing all the times he'd said "don't make me up come up there" made him look a bit silly.
-
Hard News: Jonesing, in reply to Keir Leslie,
Trotter brings the disgusting. Wanker.
Surely you had to laugh at this bit:
In many respects Cunliffe’s predicament is akin to that of progressive Americans living in the USA during the McCarthyite “Red Scare”.
Honestly, what the fuck is wrong with these people?
-
Hard News: Game Lorde, in reply to Robyn Gallagher,
1. It’s not Miley vs Lorde. They are two young female pop singers but they are not the only pop singers out there. It’s even possible to like both Miley and Lorde. And there’s a lot of really good non-Miley and non-Lorde pop out there. Pop doesn’t need saving.
Okay .... let me put it another way: 'Royals' has jumped to No.3 on the US pop chart. The two songs above it, Katy Perry's 'Roar' and Rapey Douchebag's 'Blurred Lines', were both produced and co-written by one guy -- Dr Luke, a 40 year-old with a songwriting factory. So was the horrible new Miley song. I certainly don't dislike everything he's done ('I Kissed a Girl' is a great pop record) but I find it bloody wearying having him be the sound of of pop music.
If 'Royals' manages to get to No.1, it will be a breath of fresh air in more than one way. It'll be amazing that a US No.1 was produced not just outside the machine, but in a little studio in Morningside, Auckland. It'll be great that it sounds different, nimble and not at all bombastic. It's already great that a 16 year-old's sharp lyrical critique of pop music has become an actual pop hit itself.
She's not exactly reinventing the wheel -- she's signed to a proven hit-maker and that Billboard wrap-round probably cost half a million bucks -- but I honestly don't think it's unreasonable to think a song like 'Royals' is a good thing for pop music.
2. It’s ok to compare Lorde to artists who are not female or white. Her influences are obviously many and varied, but so often it’s Lana Del Ray and not Nicki Minaj or Paul Westerberg.
But when I heard 'Tennis Court' I thought it did sound like a cleverer version of Lana Del Rey (and I've played the Lana Del Rey album a lot). And she's really not like Paul Westerburg.
-
Hard News: Game Lorde, in reply to Matthew Littlewood,
–It’s fascinating how her lyrics can often be read as treatises on the pressures of fame or the pressures of “being yourself” as a teenager. “Buzzcut Season”, “The Love Club”, “Ribs” all seem really conflicted in that way- and there’s this striking uncertainty to them. In fact, I wonder whether her songs will make more sense if she breaks really big
There’s that conflict in ‘Tennis Court’, too: “pretty soon I’ll be getting on my first plane” (I kind of wondered whether there was a literal blow in that, given that she was getting on a plane the next day) and “I’m doing this for thrill of it”. She’s certainly an interesting writer.
It’s also really interesting watching performance clips of her and comparing them to the Miley Cyrus ones.
Good observation.
Ironically, Joel Little’s own stuff with Goodnight Nurse was the exact opposite of that- horrible, cramped, overly shiny and ultimately as dull as dishwater. He’s clearly got talent behind the decks.
I’ve been feeing like I need to apologise to the radio guy with whom I made a sort of bet regarding The Checks and Goodnight Nurse. I was correct in believing that The Checks would get a deal and play in Europe while Goodnight Nurse were derivative NZ-radio crap. But what Joel Little’s done with Lorde (and to an extent with Kids of 88) is miles bigger than anything The Checks did.
The Lana Del Rey comparisons don’t quite work for me, either, because LDR’s stuff is pretty much playing right into the “vulnerable girl who likes the bad men” vibe, and the arrangements on her tunes are (for good and ill) massive. Lorde doesn’t strike me as vulnerable.
But if you recall Lorde’s comments about LDR in interviews, … ‘Tennis Court’ refers to LDR stylistically, but completely rejects the I’m-in-love-with-a-bad-boy theme. I honestly see it as a bit of riposte.
I wonder whether Youtube’s smallscale nature has something to do with this.
If there’s a genre that YouTube can call its own, it’s the first-person lesson to camera – the vlog. So, yeah.
I like how us old dudes are debating this stuff, but I don’t think it’s that far from the mark.
-
Hard News: Jonesing, in reply to Kumara Republic,
Colonel Trotter seems to be putting words into Grant Robertson’s mouth (and David Cunliffe’s, for that matter).
Colonel Trotter completely lost the plot this week.
-
Hard News: Jonesing, in reply to Sacha,
I’d read his prompt action in standing Michie down as an olive branch, wouldn’t you?
I thought that.
-
Hard News: Jonesing, in reply to Stephen Judd,
Notice how Gower has conflated MPs who will give Grant their 1st preference with those who “hate his guts”.
Yes. It gets wearying.
-
Hard News: Jonesing, in reply to Steve Barnes,
I do believe however, that all the media bullshit and the tittle tatlle and tourtured tweets are just playing to the front bench of our fourth form humoured Government and their giggling gonad rack of a Prime Minister. A little more patience and less panic would be in order, I think.
Now that's on-topic.
-
Hard News: Game Lorde, in reply to Danielle,
Yeah, it’s not a great song by any means, but I’m not quite sure why we’re picking on this track in particular. Pop music has always had its fair share of bombastic dross, surely?
I only bothered because everyone was talking about it on Twitter, so I had to have a reckon. I dunno, it just seems to be an example of a particularly ugly and elephantine strand of popular music.
(Also, she WANTS us to laugh out loud at all the phallic stuff in the video, right? Because that’s what I did.)
Yeah, sorta, when she licked the sledgehammer all those times. But I don't really have a view on the video itself.
-
Hard News: Jonesing, in reply to Keir Leslie,
I have to say, while I think Curran was pretty clumsy, I don’t much sympathy for Michie. If she’d been asked “is Jones’ race an issue” and replied “Well, not for me, but for some people, and you’d have to be naive etc” everyone would agree that was hugely improper.
The right answer (if you’re a candidate surrogate) i
But she wasn't a candidate surrogate at the time. And she was answering a direct question and she really didn't say anything different from what Mike Williams said.
It was probably a good move by Cunliffe to drop her to end the flap, but it seems to have been a scandal ginned up out of very little indeed. Without Curran seizing on it and Gower adopting it for that evening's conflict report, I think what was said would have been of little moment.