Posts by Peter Calder
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If you live in Auckland check out http://www.home-essentials.co.nz , a store in New Lynn opposite Lynn Mall (in the block on the corner of veronica and great north). A lot of top-end stuff at half the ponceonby prices.
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Saw this, though lamentably only on DVD on a large TV. Highly recommend seeing it on the Civic's mighty screen. It's fantastic.
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Hard News: The Public Address 2012 Word…, in reply to Greg Wood,
Is 100% a word? No it's a lawnmower.
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(it seemed to me to be coming off DVD, rather than the network)
Russell, the NT Live productions, of which I have reviewed a dozen for the Herald, are broadcast in real time into cinemas in the right time zones (effectively from the east coast of the US to eastern Europe) and delivered here several weeks later on hard drive (not DVD; as Geoff Lealand says, only very out-of-the-way cinemas show DVDs) . Rialto Distribution has (very enterprisingly in my view) signed up for the programme even though they are extremely restricted by contract in the number of screenings they may have here (from memory it is 28 nationwide, I think because of an agreement with Actors’ Equity ). The $25 admission is steep by comparison with a movie, which they can screen as often as they choose but it has dropped and it is a hell of a lot cheaper than seeing the play live, assuming you could get a ticket (the shows concerned have usually sold the entire season by the time they open). And we have seen Jacobi’s Lear (the best I’ve ever seen); One Man, Two Guvnors; a blinding Hamlet; a belter Chekhov … I could go on. I think it has been a magnificent contribution to the cultural life of the country and I am astonished how few people have heard of it, despite my best efforts and those of the Listener and Sunday Star-Times reviewers.
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For the record, I read "It is now starting to develop a much more political dynamic that is unlikely to please National?, rather differently, as a heavily ironic litotes meaning “is likely to piss the Government off” [with no implication that it is a bad thing to piss the Government off]. The idea that a political correspondent of John’s stature would say of Edwards “Ooooh, you’re naughty, I’m going to tell Mr Key on you” seems to me a little far-fetched even if your starting point is that Armstrong is on the payroll of the PM’s media team.
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Hard News: Reviews: #NZGT and the Herald, in reply to Russell Brown,
In the old days in Herald features there was a sub - now, mercifully, not among us - who had to be physically restrained from changing "missed by a mile" to "missed by 1.6km". I am not making this up.
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The actual howler in that article is “Rob Stockley sits solemn in his dining room”. Should be “solemnly”)
If I’d subbed that I would have left it. I think you are being very stiff-necked and text-booky about the difference between an adverb and an adjective. It was Rob Stockley that was solemn, not the sitting that he was doing, so an adverb is far from mandatory. Change “solemn” to “impatient” and you will see what I mean. The point is arguable, but to call it a howler is … well, a howler.
And it was a bloody good piece – well written and a cracker story as well. -
Commercial television hates old people. Target demographics for advertisers top out at 49, and the programming reflects that.
I have never understood this. I would have thought the group in society with most disposable income would be people in their 50s and 60s, kids off their hands, no mortgage, take a trip a year and dammit yes I wouldn't mind a new watch/car/spa pool/barbecue &c. Why the feck do advertisers fall over themselves to target people who, once they've paid mortgage, power, rates and insurance have $100 left for groceries? Apart from the sellers of rest-home care, snake-oil cures for joint pain and incontinence pads (not really fiftysomething products) no one seems interested in this market. Genuinely interested to know why.
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A related question about having to buy the whole nine yards when you only want 2.5cm or so ... what possible reason is there (other than that telecoms companies are bastards) for not being able to buy a given amount of date for use on a mobile device and using it at any rate you want? I bought an iPad but eschewed the 3G/4G version because I thought it was unlikely I would want to use it more than half a dozen times a year, to check an address or whatever, but I had to buy a shitload of data that would expire if unused after 30 days. Forgive me if this is a how-do-you-operate-a-photocopier kind of question.
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The Herald – via the Herald on Sunday’s David Fisher – followed up the next day, with some more detail.
The estimable Mr Fisher, of whom I am sure John Banks speaks very highly, is now a Herald, not a HoS, staffer.