Posts by Grant McDougall
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I am very rarely inclined to agree with "Banksy" but the injunction seeking and general opposition is merely giving it the oxygen of publicity.
I suspect very few people were unaware of the impending parade until the news of the injunction broke. (Though Aucklanders may well have been bombarded with promo billboards, posters, etc, I don't know).
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Are there any links to Simon Pound's story on The Chronicle ? I had a look at the Herald and Stuff, but couldn't see anything.
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the impending demise of the Levin Chronicle, the award-winning local daily that APN is to turn into just another bi-weekly freesheet.
What ??!! The Chronicle was the first paper I ever worked on, after leaving Welly journo school in late '95.
I actually asked in my interview with then-editor David Saunders (one of at least four people in the country by that name, incidentally) what the future of the paper was and he told me "I can see it lasting for at least another 20 years".
It's pretty easy to take the psis out of the smaller provincial dailies, but they pretty much run on the smell of an oily rag.
They also provide a place for good journalists to kick-off their careers; RNZ Nat's Danya Levy and Elizabeth Banas were there when I was there, for example. Plenty of others went on to bigger and better medja jobs from The Chronicle as well.
Levin was a crap-heap to live in, but The Chronicle was a good place to work at, I learnt a lot in my two years there. About a year into it, the paper was given a big redesign and it looked heaps better.
I understand that in recent years it's exapnded from covering Horowhenua into Kapiti as well (correct me if I'm wrong). Maybe this proved to be uneconomic and gave the excuse to end its life as a daily?
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Russell, my condolences at the loss of a friend.
It's quite funny how that Winston blog slags of the media, yet it's basically another case of a writer interviewing theuir keyboard.
Still, he'll have plenty of time to write indepth, well-researched pieces after the election, when Doug Kidd's prediction that "NZ First will be dog tucker" does eventually occur.Re: Headless Chickens, it's the Fiona line-up, going from what I've read elsewhere. No Michael Lawry either, apparently.
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Ex-players should coach, although there is too much of an emphasis on that too.
A coach needs to be able to understand and communicate a higher technical understanding to his smaller but more focussed.
I disagree. Being a good player doesn't automatically mean they'll also be a good coach. There's a lot of good ex-players that are mediocre coaches. Graeme Mourie, David Kirk and John Kirwan, for example, were fine players, but unsuccessful coaches.
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Haydn, just a question out of curiousity: do you play / participate in any sport yourself?
(I used to write a lot of music articles / reviews despite never being a musician and if you don't play sport I don't see that preventing you from writing about sport).
I'm a long-distance runner, myself.
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bitching about McBeth and Quinn
Look on the bright side - at least it's not Tony Veitch.
Yes, McBeth and Quinn are silly old bores, but at least they're not obnoxious, braying "celebrities". Also, they both genuinely have a passion and depth of knowledge for sport, unlike Veitch.
Also, while we're discussing sport...if you'll forgive me for blowing my own trumpet, my team, Leith #2, beat 20 other teams to win the 40km, eight-stage Peninsula Relay, one of the most prestigious events on the Otago athletics schedule, on Saturday. Not quite the Olympics I know, but, hey, indulge me. ;)
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Am I alone in finding Brooke Fraser downright sinister?
I wouldn't say she's sinister, as such. However, regardless of how utterly mediocre her music is, I will always forgive her. Why, you ask ?
Because her father is the truly great Bernie Fraser, that's why. -
Adrian Sherwood and Tackhead at the powerstation
I was at that gig as well; it was my 27th birthday and I also reviewed it for Real Groove.
A Japanese band called Audio Active went on first. They were all dressed in white boiler suits and their first song was a humungous drone with the lyrics "free marijuana, free marijuana, free marijuana...". They were great.Sherwood and Tackhead were amazing, great stuff.
It was also incredibly loud. I didn't realise how shot my hearing was until the next morning, when I bumped into a mate in Corner Records (RIP), who'd also been at the gig and the shop assistant came up to us and asked us to stop yelling at each other. :)
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the eight pages of don't-worry-be-happy drivel that constitutes a cover story
Slagging the utterly mediocre Listener is shooting fish in a barrel territory these days I know, but that article really is abject, insipid, twaddle bereft of any genuine merit.
As I've said before, why don't they just change their name to Self-Help Weekly and get it over and done with ?
It guts me how weak and pathetic that magazine has became.
I mean, how many times have they ran cover stories with the the words "How To..." or "How You Can..." ?