Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: Another Saturday Night, in reply to Phil Wallington,
Change has happened – for the worse – on several fronts. The police have retired behind a wall of professional spin provided by communications consultants and few if any serving officers believe that journalists can be entrusted with sensitive details and information – off the record – but which enables the scribes to understand the often plodding and painstaking course of investigations.
Hi Phil!
As I said, something like this will never be a substitute for journalistic scrutiny. I wouldn't be entirely surprised if it was written by a comms person.
But I think this exercise is useful more for what it shows about what goes on outside our view, rather than for anything it says about the police themselves. The constant role of alcohol in particular.
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Hard News: Friday Music: The Story, in reply to Simon Sjorn,
Many people seem unhappy with the lyric to Royals – thinking it specifically attacks hip hop – lumping it in with Macklemore et al.
Ah. hadn't seen that, but a few of us having been talking about a really batshit Marxist critique posted recently. The imputation of a racial message to 'Royals' is maddening. She was specifically writing there about the Jay Z/Kanye album, which really is end-to-end bling. The idea that a kid in New Zealand can't contemplate that and measure is against her own experience is nuts.
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Hard News: Being Jim, in reply to Hilary Stace,
And a great deal of overall charm.
Everyone who's ever worked with Jim, from day one at school, has really liked him -- peers included. His personal charm and obvious lack of malice has served him well. But I've been thinking about how lucky he is in that. We both know there are people on the spectrum who don't have those qualities, who give offence without meaning to, or don't act the way other people might expect.
From a parent’s perspective I think we often don’t see the networks and abilities of our Aspie offspring. Their independence is not always our idea of independence, but with luck they find the right people who appreciate and get them and then they flourish. This video has been extensively shared and maybe the right person will see it and give him (and all those others out there) that employment chance.
We've always been aware that Jim was different away from home. Teachers would talk about his sense of humour. This has actually been our first opportunity to see that.
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Thanks for writing this, Amberleigh. If this is a step towards making some peace with your loss, I'm doubly happy about having it here.
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Hard News: Friday Music: The Story, in reply to Carol Stewart,
I preferred Kim Hill’s interview with Lorde yesterday here. Pretty impressive for a 16 year old to hold her own against KH. She came across as very warm and funny too, which I didn’t really get from the op-ed.
How good was “I’ve grown up listening to you – you’re like my fairy godmother.”?
It was good listening, but I actually Kim might have better questions – especially about literature.
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Hard News: Friday Music: The Story, in reply to Matthew Littlewood,
On another topic, I assume many PAS-ers have already read Lorde’s clear-headed and striking op-ed this weekend. She really does seem like someone who knows the score, in the best sense of the term. And the fact she name-drops Patti Smith and Nicki Minaj leaves you in no doubt of her age, too!
I thought it was interesting that people seemed to have been so surprised by it -- and one or two people who really should have known better aired the possibility that she hadn't really written it. Sheesh.
It kinda brought home to me that most people actually haven't been paying close attention. There seems to have been an assumption, absent evidence, that she must be an exploited airhead.
If she'd handed it to me as an editor, I'd have thought it was great. But I'd have subbed it here and there, where she overcooks it. It's almost a relief to discover she does still have a little of the 16 year-old about her prose style.
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Hard News: Another Saturday Night, in reply to Sacha,
a distressed state
grammar cop :)
There's not actually anything wrong with the grammar there. And despite the odd error, I think the tweets were actually well written. I know of certain journalists who struggle to frame a coherent idea in 140 characters.
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Hard News: Friday Music: The Story, in reply to Martin Brown,
Ella/Lorde still controls her own publishing – which is unusual at this level and good for her. No reason for her to change that, either.
Most composers sell their publishing -- ie: the right to manage a catalogue and exploit it on the composer's behalf -- for an advance at some point. The basic rule of thumb is to wait as long as you can before doing so.
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Hard News: Being Jim, in reply to thegirlstefan,
gosh that scene where Jimmy was a bit lost in the street was hard to watch without knowing him- I can’t imagine what it’s like to watch your own kid struggle in that situation..
Jim was pretty bummed when he came home that day. I talked to him about how it could and should go in the documentary.
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