Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: Poor Choices, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
And boy, Burchill doesn’t like having hers challenged.
Tbh, I wouldn't mind so much if she wasn't so patently phoning it in.
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Okay, we’re through the looking glass.
Julie Burchill has written a column inspired by Charlotte Dawson’s death.
Because we really haven’t had enough rambling, narcissistic columns on this topic.
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Hard News: Poor Choices, in reply to Kracklite,
Obscene. Growing older, self-mutilation… and now partying and childlessness. Is there no depth to which The Herald won’t sink?
The one in the middle was Rosemary McLeod in the Dom Post. I don’t think you can pin this one on the papers involved – columnists generally do get to write what they want to write. But yeah, it’s pretty weird.
I kicked around in the same scene as Grimshaw describes, and her descriptions of it are very good. But then there’s her put-down of Dawson as “ordinary” (she pretty clearly wasn’t) and the monumental fits of judgement that follow.
It’s also particularly insensitive in light of the fact that Dawson aborted a pregnancy in 1999, under pressure from her husband, Olympic swimmer Scott Miller, and his coaches. I only mention this because it’s in her autobiography and has been widely reported for years.
Grimshaw effectively lecturing David Herkt for not settling down and starting a family, on the other hand, is just silly.
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Hard News: Poor Choices, in reply to ,
I think it is a cup of herb tea.
Boom! That's a zinger.
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Hard News: Poor Choices, in reply to ,
And well yes, I can see how twitter could be a good platform for people who like to write. I just don’t write so good so it’s not my gig.
No, it wouldn’t suit you in that respect. It does reward people who write easily and with economy. I know journalists whose skills are rather exposed in that respect.
Otoh, as Sacha points out, it’s pretty good just to read if you follow people you’re interested in.
Maybe you could work your way up to one zinger a day :-)
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Hard News: Poor Choices, in reply to Bart Janssen,
I’m pretty sure I know who at least one of them was and I think I might know someone who might still have the files – I’ll do some asking around tomorrow when my eyes go fuzzy from hideous excel spreadsheets
Oh! Please do. I have asked around in the past. I would dearly love to properly republish extracts.
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Hard News: Poor Choices, in reply to Jack Cottrell,
Apologies for the blatant self-promotion
Nah. This is not something I mind at all. Thanks.
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Hard News: Poor Choices, in reply to JacksonP,
Sadly, perhaps the greatest example of collaborative writing this country has ever seen appears lost.
In the mid-90s, two naughty scientists at a CRI set up the Shortland Street Script Generator (I think that's what it was called), a simple web app which allowed participants to write a fantasy Shorty script, by taking a line at a time.
The results were, frankly, incredible.
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Hard News: Friday Music: Cinema 'Tron, in reply to Danielle,
the truly horrendous Delta Dawn
GTFO.
Let's get Reddy to rumble!
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Hard News: Poor Choices, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
The pop charts? Chart rigging is so much easier without the expensive physical plastic – you just pay people a percentage to “buy” millions of downloads – and of course the record company gets most of the 67c back and adds the rest on to the artists ever-growing debit account.
Digital chart rigging happens in some places -- South Korea -- but not really in paid downloads. Streaming services are much more amenable to the click-farm model. It costs you nothing upfront and then you collect on the publishing.
One interesting example that no one can get to the bottom of: NZ On Air's Soundcloud account. It has a staggering 1.27 million followers, mostly from Asia, and no one knows why. There were celebratory noises when followers started to rocket, then slightly anxious "are we doing this?" messages. But no. It has just ... happened.
And if the government and media feel there’s far to much uncontrolled content getting out there and fancy locking the internet down a bit? Just hype up “cyber-bullying” and get your people posting heaps of fake nastiness to fuel the outrage machine.
Seriously? No. People come up with enough nastiness in their own.