Posts by Russell Brown
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Speaker: Rugby, Racing and Emotions, in reply to BenWilson,
I took Kyle's point to be that sports appreciation is therapeutic, if you don't take it too seriously, and that somehow our inability to so thoroughly enjoy the catharsis in NZ is a problematic part of our national psyche.
1996 was an interesting year for me. It was the year a very large company served a lawsuit on me over something I'd written. Being properly sued sucks as a journalist and in this case it was less a lawsuit than a full-on carpet-bombing. Someone really wanted to get me. I was stressed and grumpy with my family for months until it went away.
1996 was also the first year of Super Rugby, and times at Eden Park watching the Blues dazzle their way towards becoming the inaugural victors were really the only times the stress subsided. It really did help a lot. I was quite a shouty fan that year.
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Speaker: Rugby, Racing and Emotions, in reply to simon g,
There's also much fun to be had in adopting a temporary allegiance. I was Welsh for a couple of hours and it was as good a mood-enhancer as any pill. Cymru am byth.
I felt a bit guilty abut how Georgian I felt when they beat Tonga. I mean, Tonga's local.
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Speaker: Rugby, Racing and Emotions, in reply to simon g,
It matters a lot to many, it doesn't matter absurdly much to anything like as many as we're told.
No. Although in the case of, say English football fans, I think it's fair to acknowledge that it can be deep and cultural.
I worked with a guy in London who had supported lowly Wimbeldon FC since childhood. He remarked to me afterwards that the half during which Wimbledon clung on to a 1-0 lead over Liverpool in an an FA Cup final (and the Dons' captain and keeper Dave Beasant saved a penalty!) was "the worst 45 minutes of my life".
Otoh, I was at that game (courtesy a Kiwi friend who'd decided to support Wimbledon and lucked in big time) and what struck me afterwards was the grace of the Liverpool supporters as we left the ground. They very much congratulated us personally, as if it were our victory too. I've never forgotten that.
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Fast forward to 2007 and I still remember sitting with my head in my hands, genuinely scared I was going to throw up on my carpet, the shot of Dan Carter looking similarly ill, sitting in the grandstand as white as a sheet, burned into my brain by emotion.
It was a bit grim, especially because it seemed so cosmically unfair. I went for a bike ride and made a nice brunch.
And then there’s the worst 20 minutes of my life. Suspended in the air on temporary seats at Eden Park, watching as we fumbled and muscled our way through the longest quarter of rugby in the history of the game, while 60,000 people wrung their hands, and screamed unintelligible expletives in sheer gut-wrenching frustration, followed of course by the elation best captured by Israel Dagg and Corey Jayne’s snow angels, as they lay ecstatic in the piles of tinsel on the hallowed turf.
That actually was terrible. Less because of the prospect of the All Blacks choking again – I follow the game keenly, but it is just a game – as much as the tedious orgy of hand-wringing, bloviating and recrimination that would have followed. [See: 2007.] I still felt slightly ill afterwards.
What I love about sport is its meaningless. If the All Blacks win or lose, life carries on.
Exactly. If I'm not actually involved (which is a wholly different level of commitment) then no actual injury has been done to my life and I should get on with it.
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Hard News: Friday Music: If DJ was your trade, in reply to Steve Barnes,
I can't let this slip by...
DJing is, at best, an art not a trade, by calling it a job, unless you are talking radio DJs, devalues both Art and Trade.The title of the post is actually a reference to a fairly obscure reggae album.
But being a working DJ is a job – you're being paid for your skills. I admire Murray Cammick, who makes most of his weekly income as a DJ, for the range of sets he can play – soul, disco, jazz, reggae, indie. And all on vinyl!
Murray is actually moving house the day before the event, which, if you know what Murray's record collection looks like, is a major relocation.
That's not to say DJing isn't an art too – look at people like Derrick Carter – but it's also both a job and a hobby, depending on what you're doing.
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Field Theory: It's about time, in reply to Sacha,
To be fair the NZRU asked to have the naming at parliament.
And you reckon they would have done that unless they already knew the answer was 'yes'?
It was still a bad idea. Richie's "but then half the country would hate me" was closer to the mark on the political front.
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Hard News: Friday Music: If DJ was your trade, in reply to JacksonP,
Listening to it now. Party Dadtronica.
And I actually don't mean that in a bad way.
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Speaker: Misrepresenting Kiribati and…, in reply to harry rickit,
Mr Teitiota was an overstayer and allegedly a violent man. Two strikes. Worse than that, he acted in his own self-interest, a charge never leveled against white migrants caught in a dilemma. Washing my hands of PA.
I fear you've missed the point of the post, which does not actually mention his overstayer status or his alleged violence.
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Hard News: Friday Music: If DJ was your trade, in reply to JacksonP,
In unrelated news, the much talked about New Order Music Complete dropped on iTunes today. Just listening now. Very Pet Shop Boys disco so far. Quite liked Tutti Frutti. It was. Very.
Oh! I totally missed the fact that it was released today. I'll have to give that a listen.
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Just added this to the post: Dubhead and Stinky Jim are celebrating their respective 25th radio birthdays tomorrow night with a boffo gig at Neck of the Woods tomorrow night.
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