Posts by Grant McDougall
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
I saw CTU boss Helen Kelly buying three copies of the book at UBS, Dunedin, this morning; doubtless it'll give her plenty of food for thought, too.
-
When the former candidate, Julian Blanchard, tired of competing in an unwinable seat (which has become even less winnable with recent boundary changes), the Rangitata LEC seems to have collapsed and Gibson, who had only recently even joined the party, became the new candidate.
I’m reliably informed that much the same applies to Labour’s Horowhenua candidate. They’re on a hiding to nothing there and needed someone to “take one for the team.”
Which just shows how much as changed there since Judy Keall held it for Labour in the ’90s.
-
That fifth photo looks remarkably similar to the cover for the classic Flesh ep by(the band that more or less morphed into Headless Chickens) early '80s Auckland band Children's Hour.
-
...and now Colin Craig's starting to play the race card
-
Hard News: It was 30 years ago today, in reply to Mr Mark,
Well, yeah, Hebe, but I’d suggest most of the 830,000 people who voted Labour were either unaware of Douglas’s newly-formed agenda or assumed, as my 19 year-old self did at the time of the 1984 Election, that the Lange Cabinet would rein him in.
Good call. A few years ago at uni I wrote an essay on the fourth Labour gov't and in one book (sorry, forgotten which one) a Labour MP was quoted as saying that the senior caucus was far too busy dealing with other policies and / or uninterested in economics that they just let Douglas have his way policy-wise, genuinely unaware of the implications until it was too late.
-
I'm surprised that Dotcom is waiting until a mere five days before the election.
Unless his revelation is absolutely massive it'll have no effect one way or the other.
NZ voters tend to make up their minds well before five days beforehand, I reckon.
If he makes a huge revelation about a month beforehand then it'll be the major election issue, otherwise it'll be too little, too late.
-
Seeing Peter solo and drumming for Cyclops around Dunedin in the late '80s and early '90s was one hell of a privilege - he always delivered.
He was one of the first musicians I met down here in early '89. At a party at Bob Scott's place I drunkenly told Peter "You should be like Syd Barrett and make a really good solo album".
He replied "I already have" - and viola! Last Great Challenge came out as a tape (!) later that year.
I was also lucky enough to see the first three Dimmer gigs, with Peter drumming; their debut was at Shayne Carter's sister Natasha Griffiths' 21st, then a Fri and Sat at the Empire the next week.
My friends and I in '94 were really into Electricity as well, to the point we'd drop it into routine conversations: "I'm going to the shop to buy the paper, some milk and some Electricity, the doctor said I've got too much of it inside me..."
I'd be completely fine if Peter doesn't release any more new music - he's clearly got whatever he's had to get out of his system and he has a great body of work already.
-
Things have been a bit fiddly for indie bands in Youtube for a while, but this will just make things worse.
More than a couple of times over the years someone's tried to post a Headless Chickens' clip on their F/b page, only for it to be denied because it's "not available in this country" or "the artist has not given their permission" or some such.
Chris Matthews has then tried to contact F/b and say "Well, I'm the artist, it's ok with me" and gotten nowhere. There's all sorts of fiddly legal things involved and basically Chris' hands are tied, damn it.
I'm para-phrasing a bit, but that's the basic gist. Russell, I'm sure if you contact Chris himself he'll give a more accurate, detailed account.
-
That win flattered Italy, I reckon. England were competitive and unlucky not to win, but Italy looked stodgy and one-dimensional. Brazil, Argentina, Netherlands or Germany would've beaten them easily, I reckon.
-
I'm going to the test here in Dunedin on Saturday. If the ABs don't drastically improve, I suspect it'll be nasty viewing.
If they'd played the Boks last Saturday, they'd have been hammered.
The fitba World Cup should be great viewing. I'd love to see the Dutch win it, they've been so near yet so far, so often.