Posts by George Darroch
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Up Front: Towards a Sex-Positive Utopia, in reply to Danielle,
Danielle, and so have I. With an 18 year old sister who's a 1Direction fan, the incongruity seems stark.
I have to put it down to 'safety', that such people allow to express their sexuality in ways which are entirely harmless, directed at the unattainable - and thus non-productive. Creating a desire and not fulfilling it is a wonderful way to drive sales. You see this in advertising, and in much pornography.
We live in a society in which desire isn't so much repressed (which requires a lot of energy in destroying and dissipating it), but contained, curtailed, and directed. It's interesting to think about what would happen if this semi-fulfilment was deconstructed.
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I have to confess I've seen it just once, having lived in Auckland a little in the last year, but only in a house without Freeview. What I saw I enjoyed.
A genuine loss - it amazes me to think there are people who think a nation can sustain a meaningful existence on Police Ten Seven and Two and a Half Men. Genuine understanding of the country and world we live in is not merely "nice to have", it is essential.
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An interesting panel. I grew up in a household dominated by Christian media; Rhema was the only station my parents listened to, so I only heard the music and voices they broadcast (I did start wondering what the Beatles sounded like - in the age before YouTube), then Southern Star and Life FM as they expanded their empire. Similarly, the Challenge was a key piece of written information for the family.
Though actively practicing Christians form a minority, and those who depend on Christian media to that extent a further minority, it's worth noting how deep that immersion can go. The effect is to enforce a degree of epistemic closure, something that besets all environments to varying degrees.* In an abstract sense I don't think of this as an entirely negative process - not all information is equally worthwhile, of course, but it is interesting to note.
*The current xkcd makes humorous light of this (use different browsers).
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Hard News: One man’s Meat Puppets is…, in reply to Bevan Shortridge,
D Generation - Five In A Row <edit> - itself released as a single
This monstrosity was all over Aussie radio two years ago. I was working in a kitchen where I heard it many, many times.
Australian commercial radio is so bad that a mundane nationwide 'youth' station Triple J is allowed by law to market itself as fresh and innovative.
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Many people find it very hard to get to the end of this one.
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Hard News: One man’s Meat Puppets is…, in reply to Tom Beard,
Can’t believe I’ve never heard that Kraftwerk. Clearly I need to spend more time with Der Katalog. And yes, Gravy Rainbow infects.
This is another one of those songs I love but which turns others I know seriously the wrong way.
When I was in a spell in 2010, I think I listened to this continuously on repeat for over a week.
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Again, I don't even pretend to understand likelihoods and technicalities, so I'm not going to say anything, except that 'Thoughts on the Huawei kerfuffle' by Vikram Kumar of Internet NZ is interesting.
As to China and the US? I rather like foreign policy position taken by others, and one NZ pretended to take for just a couple of years, of having "many friends and no enemies", or at the very least minor-power neutrality. Whatever decision NZ takes should be in its own interest, and not from a desire to satiate the narrowly defined interests of the US foreign policy cabal, or a false perception that pragmatic dealings with China mean stepping around all sensitive issues.
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Tom, I just ninja'd you. Sorry! Yeah, I dig that. Though I'm the sort that listens to a lot of minimalist glitch.
(Sample)
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Punk’s impact was especially on mid-teens like me who lurved Lou Reed, David Bowie, the Velvets, T Rex, the Kinks, the Animals, the Rolling Stones, psychedelic pop and that sort of groove.
See, in the 90s I was listening to Oasis, Blur, Bob Dylan, Lou Reed and other things (both good and bad). And trying to understand punk, which by 1999 seemed like a worn out photocopy of a cliche. And then I read an article in Real Groove describing ATR as the most punk band on the planet…
It warped my mind in ways I can’t describe. Posting, because it’s ostensibly unlistenable on so many levels. They’ve deliberately digitally manipulated the mid-range frequencies that evoke anxiety in humans. I’m not sure if I still like them, but that unease I feel provokes warm nostalgia.
And similar, but really bad, and genuinely awful: Steve Aoki
It was very difficult not to hear this in clothing shops and bars all over Canberra two years ago. It bothered me, for a while, so I think this counts as dislike.
(edited to add correct Aoki video. Though the Refused cover is also appalling in a rather pathetic way)
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How about these?
LOVE IT. There's no reason one shouldn't enjoy Maiden, Little River Band, Can, Creed, and Paul Holmes. Though that McCartney track, I think I actually draw the line there...
relativist
And proud.