Author Archive
So emotionally real
I’m really impressed with the emotional honesty and fairness of this song by Gotye featuring Kiwi songstress on the rise Kimbra. Terrific. And what a beautifully directed and shot video!
Hitchens on Clinton
He’ll say anything. He’ll try anything. He’s a complete solipsist and completely without scruple. Christopher Hitchens RIP
Trying to find our own truths
This, from Deborah Hill Cone’s farewell column Black-and-white thoughts on a world of grey in the NZ Herald today echoes something … I just write because I’m trying to work out things for myself, which is shamefully indulgent. So I really should be thanking you, Dear Fabulous Readers, after all. Thing is, we’re all just […]
Paris Review: Hunter S. Thompson
As I noted, I’m reading (and thoroughly enjoying) Gonzo. So I looked up his Paris Review Interview: Hunter S. Thompson, The Art of Journalism No. 1 – Interviewed by Douglas Brinkley, Terry McDonell A great read. -P
Losing the shine? Maybe. We’ll see.
Post mortems don’t always render a conclusive or even useful diagnosis, especially when tackling multi-faceted puzzles like an election campaign, but I nodded as I read TV3 political editor Duncan Garner’s round up of the political year … in which he shares some of the same conclusions I expressed in my pre-election post Teflon John […]
Stop asking
Excellent article on the blogger claiming rights of a journalist controversy by Rebecca J. Rosen at The Atlantic … Perceiving attack, the Internet’s collective fur shot up on its back: Do bloggers not merit the same protections as journalists? Many people have argued that the medium in which you publish should have no bearing as […]
Think like a man?
I spotted this on a friend’s tumblr. Does it make sense? Blogger Cactus Kate wrote a little while back that she thinks like a man, as part of a serious and worthwhile exploration of the single female’s social scene but somehow I don’t think she meant this: Look like a girl Act like a […]
‘YOU don’t say who or who isn’t a journalist’
Here’s an article worth reading, which relates in a peripheral manner to our recent discussion about definitions of ‘news media’ vis-à-vis bloggers. I Was Arrested at Occupy Bronx—for Writing About It – Carla Murphy, The Daily Beast 10 Dec …While the four protesters left, I stayed behind to complain to Captain Garcia. His flank, as […]
Wishful thinking about MMP. From both sides of the debate.
Predictable comments after the MMP referendum result, I guess. What caught my eye about this piece from Radio New Zealand is that it’s basically a platform for Jordan Williams to kvetch about how unfair it all was. His point, shared by his rabbit shooting buddies, appears to be that the anti-MMP debate was ‘lost’ because […]
Gonzo
I’m reading this oral history-style biography of one of my heroes, Hunter S. Thompson which I picked up at Real Groovy in Queen Street last weekend. Good book. I’ve been reading Thompson since being astonished by Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas in the late1970s. I always found his writing worthwhile, particularly his political reportage […]
Europe: the ‘you have to act quickly’ sales pitch?
People who work in sales are familiar with the use of the ‘urgency’ or ‘impending event’ ploy to try to achieve a purchase decision. The sound of ‘I want to think about it’ is like finger nails on a blackboard to a salesman. Potential buyers use that statement or similar to put some distance between […]
Bloggers v journalists
The blogosphere has been atwitter about a blogger who wanted her un-sourced ‘comments’ and denigration of a businessman to be protected under Oregon’s ‘shield laws’ — designed to stop legitimate news media from being compelled to reveal their sources. By far the best comment I’ve read about it was from Forbes’ Kashmir Hill in her […]
Scrutiny and criticism starts at home
It is my belief that the writer, the free-lance author, should be and must be a critic of the society in which he lives. It is easy enough, and always profitable, to rail away at national enemies beyond the sea, at foreign powers beyond our borders who question the prevailing order. But the moral duty […]
Oh Patrick Gower!
Well worth watching … 50 seconds of … well, of … Patrick Gower. You know, the [allegedly] ‘deceitful bastard’ ACT leader-on-the-skids Don Brash wouldn’t talk to — three times. Good on him. From TV3’s Firstline (full clip). Look how he cracks up Rachel Smalley … who sometimes indulges in a wee bit of humour […]
