Posts Tagged ‘Heroes’
Lying, my dear boy, just compounds the crime …
A while ago I posted a few thoughts: Potshots from behind a mask of anonymity are, by definition, cheap, saying in part… Internet anonymity has also clearly been abused by what I call cardboard cut-outs and glove puppets who pop up in online communities to anonymously denigrate their “enemies” without declaring their allegiances (or building […]
Take no prisoners
The canonization (OK, not really. He’s not dead!) of Jon Stewart — America’s most trusted newscaster — continues. I rate Stewart very highly indeed, which should go without saying, but hey, let me say it. His recent whack at Pres. Barack Obama’s underwhelming primetime televised oval office speech about the Gulf of Mexico oil spill sparked an […]
Get it off your chest, I say. It’s better.
From an interesting article about the soon-to-be-released first volume of Mark Twain’s full autobiography — which he instructed not to be published for 100 years after his death (which is now): “There is a perception that Twain spent his final years basking in the adoration of fans. The autobiography will perhaps show that it wasn’t such […]
RIP Merata Mita
Our household was sorry to hear of the death of NZ filmmaker and pioneer, the courageous Merata Mita yesterday. Merata was a contemporary, mate and colleague of many in what we used to call the ‘Maori Rights’ movement … but so much more. Her film Patu! about the civil disobedience protests around the 1981 Springbok […]
Speak up
REAL ESTATE ALERT from Neil Jenman Thursday May 27, 2010 Dear Subscriber A few weeks ago, my wife and I got an extortion demand – take down your web sites, abandon the publication of your book, Stitched! or your children will be targeted. On Friday May 14, Channel Seven ran a story about the threats […]
If you missed him last time …
Leonard Cohen and his nine-piece band will return to New Zealand for three shows later this year. Concerts in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch will form part of a nine-city Australasian tour in October and November. — NZ Herald today If you know who he is, I can’t recommend this highly enough — it was an […]
Ranting and raving? Oh yes, but sooo right!
I had lunch with my good friend Graeme today after he picked ‘the best song ever written’ on National Radio … and he hadn’t yet seen this absolutely wonderful recent rant and rave, telling-the-truth criticism of Glenn Beck by The Daily Show’s acerbic commentator, my hero Lewis Black …
Best song ever written …
Here’s my pal Graeme’s ‘best song ever written’ interview with Jim Mora on Radio NZ National today … [Audio clip: view full post to listen] … which I mention in the post above. Here’s Every Grain of Sand covered by Emmylou Harris (if you can find a Dylan version on the web, let me know. […]
The Band Played Waltzing Matilda
My son and I attended the Anzac Day parade and memorial service on the hill in our village today. Moving. There are big questions about our culture’s mix of the military and the ecclesiastical, but they can wait for another day. This song, first sung to me by my friend Ben in NYC, was in […]
Before the deluge – Jackson Browne
Some of them were dreamers And some of them were fools Who were making plans and thinking of the future With the energy of the innocent They were gathering the tools They would need to make their journey back to nature While the sand slipped through the opening And their hands reached for the golden […]
James Taylor and Carole King – Auckland 10/4/10
The phrase ‘music that is the soundtrack of our lives’ has acquired the quality of a cliché — but by golly, bathing in the glory of these two troubadours at their Auckland concert tonight, the phrase fits. I was so happy to hear them, to see them and enjoy their camaraderie and their art. They […]
Barricades Of Heaven – Jackson Browne
Bliss. I love his passion and his essence. “Pages turning, pages we were years from learning Straight into the night our hearts were flung Better bring your own redemption when you come To the barricades of Heaven where I’m from. All the world was shining from those hills The stars above and the lights below […]
Elizabeth Gilbert: What’s not to love?
Elizabeth Gilbert writing in her new book Committed: I am sorry to confess that I possessed a scant amount of honour in my youth, if any, and behaving in a flighty and thoughtless manner was a bit of a speciality of mine. But being a person of character matters to me now, and matters only […]
Fearless: Margaret Moth RIP
Margaret Moth was the trail-blazing, globe-trotting photojournalist and camera operator whose jaw was blown away by a sniper’s bullet as she and her CNN news crew were traveling through Sarajevo’s infamous Sniper’s Alley in the early 1990s. Terribly injured, she recovered and eventually went back to work, doing what she did best with tenacity and […]
What new media needs to learn from old media
COURAGE . What journalism should be: Dogged and fearless Wise words from one of my former editors, Don Rood, reviewing Nothing but the Truth by Anna Politkovskaya on Radio NZ this morning. Yeah! Damn right. Dogged and fearless. To proudly call yourself ‘new media‘ and talk about freedom of speech is good. But recognise that […]
