Posts by Christopher Dempsey
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Hard News: The Waterview Bore, in reply to Matthew Poole,
In my official capacity as Chair of the (former) Eden Albert Community Board, (and on the promptings of Mr Arbury) I wrote to NZTA and Council officers querying the lack of a bus way on SH16.
The reply was that because the rail line was so near, it was not good sense to duplicate PT modes so close to each other. I then measured (in Google earth) the distance at Te Atatu between the motorway and the rail line; something like 6k's.
Not sure what they meant by 'near'. I'm sorry to say I rolled my eyes at that point but failed with a follow up letter. Subsequently Phil Twyford picked up the busway baton, thankfully.
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Wearing Elected Rep hat, and as Heritage Leader for the WLB It would be wonderful to see if we could put up plaques with the information supplied above on each of the sites/buildings...
What do you think?
Doffing said hat. -
Capture: Cinema Scoped, in reply to Jackie Clark,
Richard (forget last name) who runs the Lido in Manukau Rd, did try to do something with the Crystal Palace in about 2006 or so. I became involved because I was on the Eden Albert Community Board at the time, and Richard was interested in taking over the lease for the theatre, re-opening it and running it along the same lines as the Lido, but was faced with an inane demand by the Resource Consent planners to provide something like 200 car parks as part of the Resource Consent to re-open. Totally absurd if you know the area, and totally absurd in general reflecting a stupid, moronic, mediocre and pathetic mindset developed during the 90s that cars were the answer to everything.
I lent my support to Richard, who also tried to enlist the support of then mayor Banks, but all to no avail, and even though both Banksie and I both emailed / talked to the responsible officers. Predictably Richard moved down the road to an existing cinema, the one on Balmoral Rd (forget it's name), where it already had a resource consent.
So the Crystal is still there, mouldering, for want of 200 or so carparks.
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I don't pretend to understand how publishing journal articles work. All I know is my experience as a finishing PhD student, sometime lecturer at University of Auckland, and sometime reviewer of academic books.
From my perspective, good quality journals are great (but few and far between). They aggregate research (within a general theme) within the one journal, or in a specific issue. I know that these are 'locked' behind a paywall, and am very grateful to the UoA for the access as I have been able to read a number of very brilliant articles.
Because of this pay-wall I infrequently use my ability to search journals to find pertinent research information for Council officers (wearing my Council hat momentarily) for particular topics - the last was on noise in the urban environment - which I download and send to officers for their information and contribution to policy analysis. I'm sure they are pleased to have the articles, as I am, as often the subject researched dovetails nicely with my lecture focus.
I'm not sure that I would necessarily appreciate a system that disaggregates research into individual researcher online repositories, viz;
" but to self-archive their peer-reviewed final draft in their institutional OA repository to make it free online for those who lack subscription access to the publisher’s version of record. This is called “Green OA.”
This would mean having to know a name, and to search across multiple names to find appropriate articles/research.
Just my 2c worth.
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I enjoyed the OGB (my first), and meeting Jackie Clarke, Scott (he of the delightful wit), and the lovely Hillary Stace from Wgton, there along with her sister and nephew, and Sofie and her partner.
The one striking memory I have is during the discussion when Russell asked a question about history. And that word just rolled around in my mind for some minutes afterwards, for the context of the question seemed to invoke a whole constellation of Western European cultures and I was busy thinking about History with capital H. Perhaps it's the academic in me.
The other memory is the amazing video that accompanied singer/rapper Loui the Zu. An otherworldly (it seemed to be shot in the deep ocean, so it was otherworldly) creature floating in water, roiling and folding. Magical backdrop to the Loui the Zu.
Thanks for organising it Russell!
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Hard News: Drunk Town, in reply to Sacha,
Agggh.
I worked for a while in the District Licensing Agency - the guys that hand out licences.
What I learnt is this; it is ridiculously easy to get a licence, and very difficult for the authorities to take it away from you.
Shouldn't it be the other way around? Very difficult to get and very easy to lose?
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Reckon you need to bundle these tunes that you discover up into an old fashioned CD and sell them at the local farmers market and online, here in this forum.
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I fear the Tube Steak reference might be just a little too gay for this thread...
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Rothko? Brings to mind that fabulous play by ATC about an afternoon in the life of Rothko, with a guy sent to be his assistant. Memorably it featured a large canvas at the back of the stage that was maniacally painted towards the end of the play. The play was a delight and indicated the strength of ATC.
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Hard News: It's In the Kete!, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
TVNZ take notes, is all I'll say.
Please don't encourage them Craig. Gaia know's how they will 'improve' the show...