Posts by Robyn Gallagher
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Oh man, this thread is going to be overrun with dad music.
Part of growing up is finding out what kind of music you like. My dad liked Simon and Garfunkel. I didn't. My mum liked classical music. I didn't. I liked De La Soul. My parents didn't.
We all need to go through phases of liking music that our parents hate, of falling in love with shitty pop music just because it was the soundtrack to good times. And we all need to grow up remaining convinced that the music of our youth represented a golden period, the likes of which we will never see again, and that most modern music is rubbish.
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Wow! Where in the world would you get the head of a govt funding agency personally entering an online debate?
Back in the day on NZmusic.com, every time there was a new NZ on Air funding round announced there would be a lot of, uh, robust debate on the forums, with all sorts of conspiracy theories, halftruths and outrage flying about.
The regulars usually did a good job of sorting out the moaners, but every now and then Brendan Smyth would pop in and give his side of things. I think everyone really appreciated that he was willing to do that.
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Wait, does this mean that if I wear a hoodie then middle-aged men will think that I, a 33-year-old lady, am a N.O.T.O.R.I.O.U.S criminal gangsta villain?
Cos I send to avoid hoodies cos they aren't very flattering on me, but if this will earn me street cred with politicians, I might visit Hallensteins and pick one up.
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About 10 years ago, I wrote a thing on my website (you know, before blogs were around) about what I'd like my funeral to be. My ideas are still about the same - perhaps I should revisit it.
My dad recently told me about a funeral he attended where the celebrant forgot the name of the deceased and seemed to be working off an "insert dead person's name here" template for the proceedings. So Dad declared that when it came time for his funeral, we were to get a local to conduct it - someone who knew him.
It's interesting that funerals seem to be a lot about music. You see these top 10 lists of funeral songs - usually ones that proclaim the subject of the song to be an angel in heaven - but these songs seem to be more for the benefit of the mourners, rather than the deceased.
I've been to funerals that have had fun party bits to them, but there's also a lot of sadness and pain, and it seems to me that it's hard to have fun at a party when you're torn up on the inside, wondering how you're going to survive without the dead person.
I suppose it all depends on the death. We probably would like to think that we'll all live to a ripe old age and that our funerals will be filled with people celebrating our life. But there's always the hit-by-a-bus scenario, when things get horrible.
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I grew up reading Dolly magazine, including all the frank advice about contraception and STDs. The funny thing was, boys were not paying me the slightest bit of attention, so even though I had a headful of knowledge, I had no way of putting it to practice. How annoying!
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Another thing - while I do most things with my left hand, I can only use scissors with my right hand. I suspect this might have stemmed from using my mum's dressmaking scissors, that came with serious moulded handles.
But it's got to the point where I can't even open some scissors with my left hand. It's like it's scissor-weak.
And I do all sorts of intricate cutting and craft stuff with scissors - it's never been a problem using my right hand.
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Finn's partner, Sophie, and Finn's dad, Sean, sent us down a heap of his old recordings and we used them in our film.
That's a really lovely thought. I can't wait to see it.
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Erm, excuse my ignorance (many do, including me) but how are lift buttons handed at all... aren't they just, well, buttons?
Cos lift buttons tend to be located to the right of the doors so if you're left-handed you have to reach across your body and swivel to the right to push a button, whereas a right-handed person just sticks their arm out.
Hi! I'm left-handed too!
ATMs annoy me. Everything is located on the right. Everything makes me reach across from the left to the right.
It's strange cos left-handedness isn't quite a disability, it's more that the world is right-handed so things are just that little bit harder. Perhaps it does breed fighters.
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...so tow-the-line...
...hamstrung, blinkered and line-towing...
Bloody hell, Christie. It's __toe__ the line.
Think soldiers lining up in a straight line, obeying orders, not, uh, a tow-truck driver...
(And I won't get into the TV political reporter who mentioned politicians "towing the party line". WTF?!)
</subeditor>
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Speaking of Kate Moss, she's about six months older than me. When she posed for the topless photos, aged 15, in The Face in 1989, I was an impressionable Face-reading 14-year-old but this did not lead me to think that getting my tits out was rad, fly or dope.
And over the years, while Miss Moss has been all skinny and druggy and yet still fabulous, this has not caused me to accumulate and eating disorder or drug habit in an attempt to emulate her.
Because I'm smart, I know that what makes Kate Moss Kate Moss is more than the sum of her parts.
And I like to think that the teenage girls of today are just as smart.