Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: The remarkable rise of…, in reply to Neil,
A friend went down the rabbit hole over Syria – all based on material from social media.
My partner got trapped into a conversation with such a person at a party on Saturday. Nice enough chap otherwise, but lordy.
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Today’s The 11th Hour With Brian Williams is pretty good. Ashley Parker and Robert Costa of the Washington Post are both very interesting. I’m kind of amazed at the level these guys operate at. They’re reporting and writing all day, then turning up and being articulate on night-time TV.
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Hard News: The remarkable rise of…, in reply to John Morrison,
How do you think this sad state of affairs has come about?
Years of decline into partisan media, accelerated by the appearance of a candidate who simply has no concept of truth.
I mean, Giuliani yesterday doubled down on his claim that Hillary Clinton was nowhere to be seen at Ground Zero after the 9/11 attacks. There are not only hundreds of pictures of her there, there are multiple pictures of her there with Giuliani.
I've been watching US cable news shows on YouTube over the past few nights and I can't be bothered with the more partisan shows on MSNBC in particular (Lawrence O'Donnell is a windbag and even Maddow strains my patience these days). But they're at least reasonably grounded in observable reality ...
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Hard News: The shared-use path that no…, in reply to Max Robitzsch,
As for the design overall – Bike AKL clearly stated about Stage 1 (which “added” the shared paths east of the interchange) that we don’t consider them cycleways (we still grudgingly supported the signalisation of Bullock Track / GNR because of the various safety issues).
I'm coming around to the idea of just closing the bottom of the Bullock Track and making life safer for everyone, tbh. But I am surprised by how terribly half-arsed the shared-use paths in Stage 1 are.
In the interim, we are very keen to see raised tables – with bike and pedestrian priority! – added to the slip lane. That is a real strong safety and convenience improvement, including for people who still ride on road. I know people hate incrementalism, but until we get some revolutionaries in power, its where it’s at
Yup, fair call.
Also, I've just realised that I left a pic out of the post last night (I think I had it in there and accidentally deleted it). The one past the Caltex, which makes things look a bit nicer (and has a cyclist on it!). Back in now, so the text makes sense.
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Hard News: Friday Music: The Shopping News, in reply to TracyMac,
It sounded amazing with well-produced vinyl (there was a lot of shit vinyl, remember – there were some very ropey pressings from iconic kiwi labels).
So true – although it wasn't the labels, it was the pressing plants. Funny thing is, some of those records now fetch ludicrous prices from obsessive European collectors :-)
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Hard News: Friday Music: The Shopping News, in reply to TracyMac,
These discussions remind me a bit of the difference between people who love books and people who love reading. They're not exactly the same (although obviously the overlap is massive). I love ebooks because I literally have scores of them wherever I go. Other people can't bear not having the physical object. I won't buy art or architecture books in digital format, and there are a few hardcover novels I own that are genuinely beautiful objects I love having. For 99% of my reading, though, digital is great.
Yeah, nearly all my home listening is digital, AirPlayed from devices to where I want it. I really only buy vinyl, new or used, that I might DJ with. My favourite thing really is finding old records – there's nothing like having a dig. I'm amazed at how the 12" I found recently of Herb Alpert's 'Rise' sounds – I've played it out a couple of times and it's deep and loud af.
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Well that was fun!
I played some records at Marbecks, then used the Queen's Arcade escalator to get a video of Sandy Mill and band.
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Hard News: Friday Music: The Shopping News, in reply to Kebabette,
Put together a blog post with some deets of 2018 RSD in Chch.
Thanks! I've added that to the post too.
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This digital poster just arrived in the Flying Out mailer. They also have a limited run of t-shirts bearing the old Alec Bathgate-designed Flying Nun logo in in the style of Sun Records.
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Hard News: Paying for the storms to come, in reply to Sacha,
Welli’s most likely trees would have already fallen down in your normal breezes.
Exactly.
Although some big-assed trees came down last Tuesday. The gum tree by the supermarket in Richmond Road, for instance, was apparently healthy. I wonder if the way the most extreme winds were very localised might also have been a factor.
