Posts by Hebe
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Hard News: When A City Falls, in reply to Stupid,
The Hollywood in Sumner is a good wee theatre, one of the few (only one?) left, there are eating places open around there. My in-her-80s mother-in-law was there watching When A City Falls the other day when a nearby 3.4 hit; said she levitated but stayed staunch to see the film through until the end. Getting out to Sumner, do watch the road from Mount Pleasant corner on, over 35km/h in the dark and the surf effect starts to get rough.
-
Hard News: Democracy Night, in reply to Keir Leslie,
Policy is not the problem. The Labour Party has so much policy it isn't funny. (And it is good policy, too!)
What the Labour Party does not have is a translation of that policy into message.Exactly! Too much policy. Too many committees. Organise it under half a dozen broad headings, then work on those headings to make easily understable bullet points, and you have a party that the voter can look at and decide if they want to vote for without having to read a book.
-
Hard News: Democracy Night, in reply to Bart Janssen,
But the Labour Party seems much less defined. I don't think it is just a communication issue
Tell people what Labour stands for; what are the core values and beliefs, what are its policies, how will NZ become a better country to live in if Labour is the government.
@Keir Leslie: I understand what you are saying and that you genuinely think those actions will sort out Labour. But those very issues of process are what digs the party into the mire. Too much procedure, not enough policy that is clearly and concisely spelt out. Then voters can look at it and say "I like it" - or not. If enough people buy into the party's beliefs and stated policy, you have won an election. I entirely agree the Greens' ways are not Labour's -- I'm not sure they could easily translate to a government either.
-
Hard News: Democracy Night, in reply to Keir Leslie,
Agree. It was a two-horse race really so most specials will not foloow the higher Green and NZ First vote trend.
-
Hard News: Democracy Night, in reply to Conrad Lake,
Ha! And they have your id now: the ultimate swing vote; get him and you're in.
-
Hard News: When A City Falls, in reply to Lucy Stewart,
Have a look at the Facebook page for When A City Falls. News like that is on there; from memory next year.
-
Hard News: When A City Falls, in reply to Emma Hart,
Ah... My partner and I are considering going to see it on our anniversary on Thursday. Which would be kind of appropriate, because our first 'leaving the house' date? Was a screening of Once Were Warriors
I reluctantly went to the premiere (yep I wuz scared) and it was very worthwhile. I came out up, not down, so I don't think it's daft as an anniversary date at all. I'm with Russell on the noise of the earthquakes: I did the mature thing, having been warned that the bits of earthquake noise were very realistic, and put earplugs in for the first bit. I think I just shut out everything apart from dialogue because everyone says the music is great, but I don't remember any of it. I didn't have the crap sleep I expected that night either.
-
Calder is right to say that the visits at the end of the film to look at reconstruction efforts in San Francisco, New Orleans and Portland (which suffered only the trauma of conventional urban decay) "seem jarring, not just because they are so fleeting. They make room for some high-sounding platitudes that are so conspicuously absent from the film as a whole."
The "clunky" bits were a deliberate attempt to raise the audience's eyes from what had happened to what could be, so people -- particularly in Christchurch -- would walk out of the movie feeling stronger and uplifted not traumatised by reliving some of the hardest days of our lives.
Gerard and my partner Greg and others worked together in March or April to reset the theme of the film for that reason: it had to add to our city's recovery not just redocument trauma. At that time it was an incredibly uplifting idea to be even tangentially involved with: every day people here were slowly finding out about
what they had lost as well as going through their own personal journeys through the mire; good news was hard to find and clung on to and polished when it was found. That is why the future became so important; the idea of reinvention not just rebuilding.I read the reviews and think "yeah that's a valid quibble" but that's an intellectual exercise; not really relevant to living through it all. I'll be one of those old bats who harks back to the Blitz; it wasn't the best of times, but it was a tranformative time and showed what sort of person I and the people around me are at core.
-
Hard News: Democracy Night, in reply to Emma Hart,
Chch Central was always a bit of a worry: the emptied-out city centre, a fewer than 1000-vote majority, redrawn boundaries a few years ago and Brendon Burns being a nice guy without an ounce of mongrel in him. Craig didn't know the seat any more than I know Auckland Central, so he didn't pick it.
-
When the result is so close, and a number of seats are undecided which will determine any coalition composition, why is anyone allowed to say they have formed a government? Seems to me that is the National strategists end-running the democratic process.
And the media, especially newspaper reportage: MMP means you sometimes have to wait a couple of weeks to call a winner, OK? Reporting is still done FPP-style under an MMP system: it doesn't work and even worse is allowing old snakes like Steven Joyce to start forming a "government" when the count is not over.
The media are as gullible now as they were in the first MMP vote; curiously not able to wrap their heads around a different voting system, and the politicians who understand it like Joyce play with them. My partner was a political reporter in the first MMP election when Winston Peters was spinning out the talks and saying nothing, driving the media into a frenzy. Winston emerged from what was said to be the caucus' deciding vote to a herd of hacks. He paused to speak to my man, sending even the TV reporter into a sonorous voice-over about him giving favoured hacks a clue about his coalition intentions and the rest scramlbing. What he said, with a serious face and a huge twinkle in the eye, having just heard on the grapevine: "Having twins are you? Congratulations."