Posts by Grant McDougall
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I loath it when "average" is used wrongly to signify poor, mediocre, appalling, bad, etc. Sports commentators are especially bad with this.
If Daniel Carter averages, say, 20 points per game and in his next game he only scores, say, three, that is not an "average" performance, it is poor, mediocre, sub-standard, etc.I also hate it when sports commentators say that a player / team "lacks intestinal fortitude", when they mean "internal fortitude".
Since when do intestines have to be brave ? -
Rockin' at Sammy's.
I was at that gig: May, 4, '89 (I know, cos for years I had a promo poster for the gig bearing the legend "Wed, May 4, Sammy's").
It was the first time I ever saw The Clean. My mates and I were flabbergasted, we never, ever thought we would ever see them.
Sammy's was jammed to the gunnels, absolutely chocker. The atmosphere was, to this day, the most electric I've ever experienced at a gig, big or small, big star or cult act.
Lee Harvey kicked off, then Chris Knox, then JPSE, then The Clean. They were as great as everyone that saw 'em in the early '80s said they would be.
An anecdote: a mate of mine, the late Andrew Heal, was outside with the delightful Catherine Scully, nervously about to do the whole "Um, um, er, er, um...I really like you and want to go out with you" talk with her, when he heard a huge cheer, then that riff as The Clean opened up with 'Tally Ho'.
He suddenly realised to he had to hurry up and ask her, otherwise he was missing The Clean. He blurted it out, she said "yes" and they rushed back inside.
They were together for 11 years, until he drowned in early 2000. -
It peaves me no end, it really does.
God I know what you mean, I feel the same way about bad spelling :)
Doh! rumbled.
Anyway, Ralston...it's ironic that he slags off RNZ for being dull and irrelevant, yet happily accepts a pay cheque from that bastion of mediocrity, the Listener.
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Kim Hill is the biggest brain on radio but if she says 'fillum' one more time, the radio will be out the window.
Christ on a bike, that annoys the crap outta me too. It peaves me no end, it really does.
Whenever I hear her say "fillum", I always ask myself if she also has "milluck" in her tea or coffee.
I once heard her explain her pronounciation of "film" as "fillum" as being due to the fact that he Irish dad used to pronounce it like that, so she learnt to say it that way as well.
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Whispers here are that the Dompost haven’t finished yet. Not by a long shot.
Yes. I heard there's more tomorrow.
I was saying yesterday to a mate that the Dom will treat this story like they did with Tuku Morgan's undies - they'll drip-feed the story bit by bit for all it's worth.
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The Tui billboard is up already in Auckland, according to Stuff.
"Here's a hundred grand - keep it quiet. Yeah right".
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And, finally, Hamilton's very own robot band The Trons have become an internet sensation. Truly, this is good news for hard times …
It is good news and I am especially pleased for Greg Locke, as he's an old friend of mine. He's always been very clever with technical and mechanical stuff, plus he's been a fixture in the Hamiltron music scene for years.
David Farrier did a neat article on The Trons for Nightline a few weeks back (it's on Youtube) and it was neat how the start of the article makes it seem as if The Trons are a real band.
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Reports?
I'm sorry, I suspect your complimentary coffee didn't arrive. I did put through the order ...
I put one on this morning's Hard News a couple of hours ago. Hopefully the coffee will turn up sooner or later.
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The Dunedinista :) was out drinking last night, too. We met at the Craft Bar in the Octagon; many thanks to them and Monteith's for their excellent hospitality. The Doppelbock Winter Ale is highly recommended.
Kyle was the winner of the signed copy of The L.E.D.s We Are The L.E.D.s. (The L.E.D.s have a new album out soon, I reckon it'll be another splendid listen).It was neat to finally put faces to names. While we were introducing ourselves, it became more apparent just how small a country NZ is; a lot of us turned out to have mutual friends and acquantances.
It turned out I've known Sara's brother for years and a lot of us had crossed paths with Kyle's partner, as well. We were also impressed that Melanie's Dad is a popular, very likable technical expert on a well-established consumer affairs TV programme.
We started off by slagging that crappy, cheesey new "office party" Telecom ad (shooting fish in a barrel I know, but, hey...).
We talked about a heap of other things and it would've been great to have shot the breeze even longer. NZ politics was eventually (inevitably?) touched on, I even accidentally committed the malapropism of calling Bill English "Bill Birch" a few times.It was another of those neat occassions when you realise that the people you're with an endless source of interesting anecdotes, info, views and opinions.
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The rights and wrongs of their actual policies aside, should Labour lose the election, it's remarkable that Helen Clark will have been Prime Minister for longer than anyone else in the past 100 years, with the exception of Keith Jacka Holyoake.
Holyoake was PM for 12 years, Muldoon for nine. But I recently looked through a book on NZ PMs which listed each PM's term from first day to last and Clark will beat Muldoon by about four or five months. I find that absolutely bloody amazing and a mark of her political skill and tenacity.
If you'd told me 20 years ago that the then-Minister of Housing would be one of our longest-serving PMs, I'd have thought you were certifiable. Yet she has been in the top job longer than Holland, Muldoon, Lange, Bolger and several others.
If John Key is still PM in 2017, I'll be surprised, but impressed.