Posts by Robyn Gallagher
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Ah, so I was 10 in 1985. I remember watching the Young Ones involved the ritual of programming our crappy Beta video, so it must have been a Saturday morning treat for my brother and I. Better than What Now!
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I was about eight years old when I first saw The Young Ones, and like a lot of kids, I loved it, literally rolling on the floor laughing and memorising lines. And the magic of the show was how its comedy appealed to different audiences, with there being more to appreciate and laugh at as I got older.
As I got older, I began to explore the UK alternative comedy scene and other projects from Mayall and pals - The Comic Strip, Filthy Rich & Catflap, Bottom, Rik Mayall Presents - if it wasn't on TV, whatever United Video in Hamilton East had in their large comedy section. And I'll tell you what, if there's any great source of inspiration for the lolz in my life, it's Rik Mayall.
His death is terribly, awfully sad, but one bright thing has come out of it. This morning Twitter is full of people sharing their favourite Rik moments, a flood of lolz and love.
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Damn, I miss living in the (non-posh part of the) Epsom electorate. Election time was always madness. I once had a pretend polling phone call where all the questions were worded to be pro-ACT propaganda, a voicemail where a recording of Rodney Hide pretended to be leaving a casual message, and a full set of the Brethren pamphlets.
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Hey, here's some modern hip hop. Chris Brown has a song called "Loyal". Sonically it's a quality tune, but the lyrics are a bit shit, with the refrain "these ho's ain't loyal". And, you know, general Chris Brown ickiness.
But there's a cool remix with a lunch of female MCs subverting the lyrics, flipping around the notion of loyal, or lack thereof.
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Hard News: Friday Music: Original Beats, in reply to Peter Johnston,
but it took me a long time to get past the language. Not the bling, but the constant sexual references.
This is nothing new. When I was listening to hip hop when I was a teen in the '90s, it was full of sexual lyrics. Which of course is terribly thrilling when you're 16.
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But it occured to me the other day that in the case of hip hop, I’m generally some guy stranded in the 80s.
You should check out Kendrick Lamar, specifically his most recent album Good Kid, M.A.A.D City. He's the one who was nominated for all the Grammys but lost out to Macklemore. This is the first single, "Swimming Pools (Drank)", which is the dopest track about alcoholism.
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Let's have a moment of silence for The Corner, the rather good New Zealand music blog that's closing after a quality five years. The Corner did a lot of good things, including the annual Awesome Feeling series. It's sad The Corner is closing, but in a way it's better to go out on top than to suffer a decline like the beloved NZmusic.com did a decade prior. #boohoo
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About 15 years I had a weird conversation with my aunt that started with her asking "What do you eat?" when she discovered I lived by myself. Cooking for one is easy. It's like regular cooking except you either reduce the recipe or you make the lot and refrigerate or freeze the rest.
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Hard News: Friday Music: The Superstar Economy, in reply to nzlemming,
I am no irrevocably scarred, and agree wholeheartedly with Craig.
Well, I could have posted a link to some of the brilliant pop songs that have won in recent years, but what's the fun in that?
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Hard News: Friday Music: The Superstar Economy, in reply to Russell Brown,
I gather several former eastern bloc countries are in open uproar at the prospect of this impeding spectacle of western moral collapse.
Yep, groups in Russia, Armenia and Belarus have been petitioning against Ms Wurst’s appearance in the competition. It’s no surprise given that ex-Soviet countries tend to a lot more conservative than the liberal west – they’re not keen on gay or non-European contestants.
But Conchita is taking it all in stride – indeed her song is all about overcoming haters, so wotevz. It should also be noted that there is no animosity between the performers themselves. It’s a fairly loved up scene in Copenhagen at the moment!
And let’s not forget that not all ex-Soviet countries are so conservative. After all, in 2007 Ukraine came second with this masterpiece: