Posts by Robyn Gallagher
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Sometimes, he’s like a wild 13 year-old boy, and it’s honest and appealing, even unto the culturally-acquired American accent.
Whoa! I had always assumed that Randa was American- or Canadian-born. His accent sounds so authentic that it didn't seem possible it was just a performance gimmick. His speaking voice sounds mid-Pacific, kind of like Rachel Hunter.
-
How much does this have to do with the revelation earlier this year that some staff in the Maori and Pacific unit were doing campaigning for the Labour Party using company resources, on company time?
Are TVNZ wanting to remove the possibility of anything like this happening in the future? If it's an external production company with misbehaving staff, that's a lot less sticky than an in-house unit.
-
Hard News: TVNZ: Emptied out, in reply to Rob Stowell,
The news vans - some of them - have their own links, for those precious 'live' moments (where the reporter gazes earnestly at the camera, standing in front of something faintly news-worthy clutching their ear-piece and trying to stop the wind whipping their hair in their eyes, while the studio presenter asks them simple questions : 'Where are you now, Lindsay? Can you hear me?")
My fave live cross location - on the balcony of the TVNZ cafeteria, chatting to the news presenter several floors below. I actually haven't seen this happen lately, but they used to do it a lot.
-
You know what's cool? The upcoming soundtrack for The Hunger Games 3 that Lorde has curated. Just look at the track list:
1. "Meltdown" - Stromae ft. Lorde, Pusha T, Q-Tip & Haim
2. "Dead Air" - CHVRCHES
3. "Scream My Name" - Tove Lo
4. "Kingdom" - Charli XCX ft. Simon Le Bon
5. TO BE ANNOUNCED
6. "Lost Souls" - Raury
7. "Yellow Flicker Beat" - Lorde
8. "The Leap" - Tinashe
9. "Plan The Escape" - Bat For Lashes
10. "Original Beast" - Grace Jones
11. "Flicker" (Kanye West Rework) - Lorde
12. "Animal" - XOV
13. "This Is Not A Game" - The Chemical Brothers ft. Miguel
14. "Ladder Song" - LordeIt's 100% fab, a combination of current alt pop kids, legends from olden times and brand new artists of whom it's perfectly reasonable to have a "never heard of them" reaction. And the best bit - Lorde coordinated the whole album after hours on her American tour. Her mum wrote a sweet post on Instagram about seeing Ella working away into the night, in the back on the tour bus, hunched over her laptop. How many 17-year-olds do you know roll like this?
I'm most excited about track one. Not only is it a new track from Stromae, but it also features Pusha T, Q-Tip, Haim and Ms Yelich-O'Connor herself. Hurry up, 17 November!
-
Hard News: Friday Music: An accompanied korero, in reply to Ken Sparks,
Maybe someone needs to approach Nga Taonga Sound and Vision to see if they can supervise the cull?
Isn't that exactly what's happening? The old TVNZ Archive is now under the guardianship of Nga Taonga Sound & Vision, so it's not TVNZ doing the culling, it's Nga Taonga. I'm interested to see what the culling process will involve. I mean, if they're just removing duplicates that are also in the old Film Archive, that's not such a terrible thing.
-
Hard News: Friday Music: There have been…, in reply to Russell Brown,
I know there was quite a bit of discomfort with the way Shona Laing was treated by the crowd last year -- she deserved her time for a speech, but by that time at the Music Awards, people are getting boisterous, and there's not a lot you can do about that. There's some feeling that the legacy part deserves its own time and space.
Supergroove are a fab band and are worthy of recognition,, but their induction in 2014 seems like a crowd-pleasing casting choice more than a genuine reflection that their time has come.
The awkward thing is that as well as being an awards ceremony, the VNZMAs are also a television programme that has to keep viewers entertained. Supergroove would do that, but viewers might be less impressed with some older singer that none of the kids recognise.
Random other thought: sooner or later the Feelers are going to have to get inducted into the Hall. And that's going to be very interesting.
-
I have an issue with how few women have been inducted into the NZ Music Hall of Fame. Counting Supergroove, 15 acts have been inducted into the Hall. Of those, only three include women: the Topp Twins, Toy Love (Jane Walker) and Shona Laing. Or if you want to look at the total number of band members, it's four women versus 67 men. Bloody hell. Yeah, the music biz is undeniably male dominated, but nowhere near to the extent that is reflected in the Hall of Fame.
Just in case Recorded Music NZ and APRA have forgotten, here are some worthy wahine: Bic Runga, Sharon O'Neill, Jenny Morris, Annie Crummer, Moana, as well as bands Ardijah and Strawpeople.
It will be very interesting to see who is announced as APRA's inductee at this year's Silver Scrolls.
-
Hard News: Friday Music: Festival of Non-Dudeyness, in reply to Russell Brown,
But good point: how many of the songs actually appear in the film? That's well outside my area of understanding.
My understanding is that the film itself only has an orchestral score, with "Yellow Flicker Beat" and a couple of other songs from the soundtrack playing on the closing credits. Let's blame Prince's Batman soundtrack - popularising a soundtrack record also that had songs "inspired by" the film.
BTW, I don't think you need to have an understanding of the Hunger Games to appreciate the song. It is ostensibly about Katniss Everdeen's story, but can also serve as a bit of commentary on Lorde's life. "They used to shout my name, now they whisper it." Aw yeah.
And this is interesting - "Yellow Flicker Beat" was co-written by the usual team of Lorde and Joel Little, but this time it was produced not by Little, but by Paul Epworth, best known for his Grammy-winning work with Adele.
-
(in Australia, which has had compulsory voting for nearly a century, the fine – strictly enforced – is $20).
...
In the 2011 election, non-voters were much more likely to be young, unemployed, and poor.
A $20 fine is pocket fluff to most of us, but where does a poor person come up with that much money?
-
Hard News: The sole party of government, in reply to Alfie,
Who’s to say that your dominant male isn’t already collecting the entire family’s EasyVote cards and tripping around a few polling booths with his mates?
Dominant Male parks his ute down a side street and walks around the corner to the school hall.
Dominant Male is uncomfortable in the size 12 skinny jeans and One Direction hoodie and the $2 shop blonde party wig is starting to itch.
Dominant Male walks into the hall, goes up to a table and slaps down his daughter’s Easy Vote card.
Dominant Male says: “Yeah, gidday. I’d like to vote. Uh, I mean… Hi. I wanna vote. Yolo?”
Doris the deputy returning officer looks down at the electoral roll, then looks up at Dominant Male.
Doris the deputy returning officer laughs until there are tears streaming down her face.