text:
I was interested in getting everyone's view on what you think were the most memorable/best/funniest/worse/most shocking moments of 2009. This does not have to be related to banking or finance or the business world (it can be related to anything). I figured this could be an interesting forum.
So here we go: most shocking moment - the death of Michael Jackson
Comments (10)
The house passing the healthcare bill (worst moment).
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The house passing the healthcare bill (worst moment).
I would like to piggy-back your statement....The inauguration of Obama- Worst
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Taibbi's Rolling Stone article in July - definitely in the running for best (or at least most influential) moment
definitely a naive question but..
why don't you like obama
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jeff chiang - funniest moment
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Jeff Chiang is nothing compared to the legend that was Aleksey Vayner..
definitely a naive question but..
why don't you like obama
I don't like the democratic or republic parties - they're both corrupt as fuck and really are just two sides of the same coin. Both parties as far as I can remember keep taking away your rights, expanding government power, increasing the national debt, and bullshitting through every election.
Obama is particularly bad only because the American people think he is a savior and therefore they trust his every move, even when he outright lies (i.e. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LsSppYxSHk). Look at all the bills he is trying to push through (healthcare, cap and trade, bailouts, etc.). They are all massive bills that expand government power. He has increased the deficit to an all-time high, yet he promises not to raise taxes... and he accepted a nobel peace prize, while sending more troops to Afghanistan. The guy is a fucking joke. I hope American wake up by 2012 and stop voting for these cronies in both parties.
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Obama and the healthcare bill. Two worst things of the year. I agree with the above post... How does he get a Nobel peace prize?
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I just went to an intro to Psychology course- can I get a Nobel prize? That took more effort than what Obama did
Reality hits you hard, bro...
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tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21315148114838880262016-05-02T23:10:14.485+12:00Quote Unquote"essentially a literary gossip column" – CK Stead, 18 April 2010Stephen Stratfordhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131514811483888026.post-20042326865912360922016-04-14T12:25:00.002+12:002016-04-14T12:25:52.766+12:00An editor writesHere is something I prepared earlier for the Spinoff. Also contains, thrillingly, a drawing by Steve Braunias.

The intro reads:

One of New Zealand's best and most illustrious book editors, Stephen Stratford ("I am a polite person, mostly"), vents about having to deal with writers and publishers.
Stephen Stratfordhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131514811483888026.post-74733117609354773382016-03-25T20:52:00.002+13:002016-03-25T20:52:18.236+13:00Help I'm a Rock #2
The previous post about Tracey Emin marrying a rock asked, "I wonder how the rock feels about this. Will no one consider the rocks?"

<o:p></o:p>

Rocks have feelings too. Maybe not all of them, but some do. Basalt not so much, probably, or granite, but atAmazon a large, Italian, maritime rock named Jamie considers the book How to Avoid Huge Ships (Cornell Maritime Pr/Tidewater Pub., 1993) by John W. Trimmer and gives it 3 out of 5 stars:<o:p></o:p>

Good Advice For Most Readers, But Doesn't Cover All The Bases

There is one major oversight in this generally well-written book, and that is that it addresses animate readers exclusively. As a large rock in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the coast of Giglio Island, I have recently been confronted with instances in which avoiding huge ships was of fundamental interest to my personal well-being. However, the methods presented in Capt. Trimmer's book were none too useful in my efforts to avoid huge ships, as I was recently struck by a very large ship indeed, a cruise vessel called the 'Costa Concordia'. I think the ship came off slightly worse in the exchange, but the experience was disruptive to my afternoon and rather jarring. In a situation such as this, Capt. Trimmer's advice would have been immensely beneficial to humans, fish, seabirds, and other animals, but I am none of those things. I'm a big rock. I can't zig-zag or duck and cover. Rocks don't do that. I've tried. I tried some time ago to scoot over to the left a bit to get some better sunlight, and it took me three thousand years! That's not fast enough to avoid even the slowest huge ships. It is for precisely this reason that I would advise Capt. Trimmer to augment this edition with a section intended for readers like me—perhaps "How To Avoid Huge Ships If You Are A Rock, Iceberg, Or Coral Reef". There is an audience out there for this, Capt. Trimmer, and I assure you it would be well worth your time and effort.

<o:p></o:p>
Stephen Stratfordhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131514811483888026.post-59056489986562144342016-03-24T19:45:00.000+13:002016-03-24T19:45:06.884+13:00Help I'm a Rock

The Art Newspaper reports that "last summer, under an olive tree in her garden in France and wearing her father's white funeral shroud", Tracey Emin, professor of drawing at the Royal Academy 2011-13 (above: Trying to Find You 1, 2007), married a rock. Not a rock star, a rock. Quote unquote:

<o:p></o:p>

You formed a union with a stone outside your studio in the south of France last summer. What does this mean to you?

It just means that at the moment I am not alone; somewhere on a hill facing the sea, there is a very beautiful ancient stone, and it's not going anywhere. It will be there, waiting for me.

<o:p></o:p>

I wonder how the rock feels about this. Slightly used? Will no one consider the rocks?<o:p></o:p>

So here are Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention with "Help, I'm a Rock" from their 1966 – 50 years ago on 27 June – debut album Freak Out!, the first double album in rock but not the last, oh no:

<o:p></o:p>
Stephen Stratfordhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131514811483888026.post-54724350496848985202016-03-21T21:47:00.001+13:002016-03-21T21:47:30.575+13:00What I'm reading #133
For the last two weeks I have mostly been reading three novels by JRR Tolkein. You might have heard of them. Kind of a trilogy. As in the recent post about a week spent reading three books by Stephen Fry, this was for work, not for pleasure. I also had to watch the DVDs of Peter Jackson's movie version of the trilogy. The extendededitions.

<o:p></o:p>

I expected the Jackson movies to be tedious, but I had completely forgotten how awful the Tolkein novels are. I loved them when I was a teenager , which just goes to show what terrible judgement teenagers have. <o:p></o:p>

<o:p></o:p>

Not quite an interview with, more an observation of, legendary journalist Clare Hollingworth. She did many great things but is best known for reporting live on Germany's invasion of Poland. She is still with us, aged 104. I had a drink with her once, in the FCC, aka the Foreign Correspondents' Club in Hong Kong. I say "with". We were seated side by side, were not introduced so did not speak, but I knew exactly who she was. It was thrilling just to be in her presence. Quote unquote:

By then, Clare was back in her Polish hotel in Katowice and saw the first German tanks moving past her window. When she called the British embassy in Warsaw, a diplomat refused to believe her story – so she held the telephone out of her bedroom window so he could hear the sound of German tank tracks.
<o:p></o:p>

Brent Underwood shows how to become a #1 Best-Selling Author on Amazon in five minutes. His one secret trick you won't believe? He took a photo of his foot and published it. Quote unquote:

I decided my foot was worthy of the "Transpersonal" category under psychology books and "Freemasonry & Secret Societies" category under social sciences books. I've always wanted to have an affiliation with the Freemasons.
<o:p></o:p>

The British composer Peter Maxwell Davies died last week, at 81. A good innings, though 81 does seem young these days. I saw him in the Auckland Town Hall some time in the very late 70s or early 80s conducting the Fires of London in Eight Songs for a Mad King, which featured a man screaming, and Le Jongleur de Notre Dame, which had a juggler. I have spent many evenings in the Auckland Town Hall, but that was the most memorable. Hereis a decent obituary from the Guardian. Quote unquote:

<o:p></o:p>

In these later years there was no let-up in Maxwell Davies's productivity. He was one of the most driven and hard-working composers of all time, with an output that easily exceeds the work-lists of Stravinsky and Schoenberg combined. His second opera, The Doctor of Myddfai (1995) was written in six weeks, during which Maxwell Davies worked 16 hours a day, pausing only to sleep or cook a quick bowl of pasta (the love of Italian food he had acquired in his Rome days was his one concession to human frailty). It was premiered by Welsh National Opera the following year.
This amazing productivity is actually an obstacle to the survival of his music. It is hard to know where to start, and plunging in at random may lead to one of the many grey patches in his music, particularly in the later works such as the Strathclyde concertos.
<o:p></o:p>

<o:p></o:p>

I've been playing that opera over the last few days – it's great fun. And I don't agree that the concertos are grey, not compared to the sludge of some of the symphonies. But his music is always interesting – as was the composer. Herefrom 2005 is the best story ever about him, when he was arrested for being in possession of a dead swan. Quote unquote:

He told the BBC: "I didn't realise the police had also taken some wings from previous swans which were hanging in the shed. I was going to give them to the school because they use them as Gabriel's wings in the nativity play.
"On Monday morning a police car came whizzing up the lane with a very charming young man and a very beautiful young lady. They didn't accuse me of killing the swan, they accused me of being in possession illegally of a corpse of a protected species.
"I had to give a statement. I offered them coffee and asked them if they would like to try some swan terrine but I think they were rather horrified. That was a mistake, wasn't it?"
<o:p></o:p>

<o:p></o:p>

<o:p></o:p>

 So here is Kelvin Thomas as King George III in Eight Songs of a Mad King, Salford, 2012. Talk about uneasy listening:

<o:p></o:p>
Stephen Stratfordhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131514811483888026.post-78048010591748341202016-03-16T18:02:00.000+13:002016-03-16T18:02:31.242+13:00Architectural historians
They can't all be like this, surely. Here is Nigel Farndale in the Spectator in a piece celebrating the magazine Country Life:

<o:p></o:p>

The Queen Mother was once drawing up a list of guests when someone suggested Country Life's architectural historian, John Cornforth. 'Oh no,' she said, 'Corners is far too grand for us.' I don't know about that, but Cornforth, who died in 2004, was certainly a convivial and flamboyant character who, it was rumoured, had a penchant for experimentation regarding the attire he wore in private. Chatelaines were said to lock their wardrobes when he came to stay, not least because he was ample–figured, and silk gowns tear easily.

<o:p></o:p>

I know a few architectural historians and writers, because for a few unhappy years I was editor of Architecture New Zealand, journal of the NZ Institute of Architects. Unhappy because while I was very interested in architecture and counted many architects as friends – two of them asked me to apply for the job – that was a problem for the publisher, who basically hated architects. I was regarded with deep suspicion because I had been to dinner at Patrick Clifford's, Malcolm Walker came to my wedding, I'd shared an office with Nigel Cook, I knew Marshall Cook, Jane Aimer and other big names in the NZIA, Peter Shaw was a former colleague and so on. And now there is Paul Litterick.

<o:p></o:p>

But I don't know that if any of these people came to stay I would have to lock up my wife's wardrobe.<o:p></o:p>

So here are Genesis with Peter Gabriel and Steve Hackett in the 1970s performing "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)":

<o:p></o:p>
Stephen Stratfordhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131514811483888026.post-64281788720560080292016-03-15T21:33:00.002+13:002016-03-15T21:33:28.737+13:00Books do furnish a room
I have always admired my friend Murray Grimsdale's decoration of the Leys Institute and Grey Lynn library. The 1722 Klementinum library in Prague lacks the South Pacific element Murray brings to much of his work, but even so it has a certain something:

And:

And:

Our libraries here in Cambridge and Te Awamutu are pretty good. But on balance I have to say that Prague is the winner on the day.

<o:p></o:p>
Stephen Stratfordhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131514811483888026.post-37447480086338505332016-02-28T18:28:00.000+13:002016-02-28T18:28:38.098+13:00What I'm reading #132
For the last week I have mostly been reading three books by Stephen Fry. This was for work, you understand, not for pleasure. I am not a fan. <o:p></o:p>

What an interesting fellow he must be: not yet 60, he has published three volumes about himself. In 1997, Moab is My Washpot, billed on the cover of the paperback edition as "The Bestselling Autobiography". In 2010, The Fry Chronicles: an autobiography. In 2014, More Fool Me: a memoir.<o:p></o:p>

Whether memoir or autobiography, they are all frightful. I am not sure if it is the faux self-deprecating preening self-regard and self-absorption or… No, it is the faux self-deprecating preening self-regard and self-absorption. But.<o:p></o:p>

One has to admire the work ethic. More Fool Me especially details a work rate that is nothing less than Stakhanovite. A voice-over in the morning, writing session with Hugh Laurie in the afternoon, a speech delivered in the evening, possibly in Manchester – and then the Groucho Club back in London and a drug intake that is astonishing. He was the Keith Richards of comedy. And as with Keef the work was good in the decade or so this book covers: four series of Blackadder, several series of A Little Bit of Fry and Laurie, roles in movies I've never seen – Peter's Friends, anyone? – and a couple of novels. Terrible novels, imho, but bestsellers. And two more novels to come. So, respect.<o:p></o:p>

What comes out of this third volume especially is what a saint Hugh Laurie must be to have put up with all of Fry's bad behaviour for all those years. What's also striking – maybe this is because of all the drugs – is that the best jokes are by others. A friend calls Sir Ian McKellen "Serena McKellen". Once heard, that cannot be unheard. And this from Barry Humphries as Dame Edna on Virginia Woolf:

Darling Virginia, a woman with whom I have so much in common, except of course that I can swim.

<o:p></o:p>

<o:p> </o:p>So here is a clip from A Little Bit of Fry and Laurie which Fry refers to approvingly as a parody of The Two Ronnies but – well, see if you think it's funny:

<o:p></o:p>

<o:p></o:p>
Stephen Stratfordhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131514811483888026.post-6308425214456129172016-02-22T20:42:00.000+13:002016-02-22T20:42:20.760+13:00Economist letter of the month
Possibly of the year, possibly of the decade.

My proudest publishing moment was getting a letter printed in the Economist. That beat getting a letter into the Spectator, even beat getting five pages in the Listener for my last book. Because OMG, the Economist. Best letters pages in the world, possibly.

An Economist reader passes

I am writing to tell you of the death of Martin Bud, possibly The Economist's longest-ever subscriber. He received his subscription on his 18th birthday in January 1938, and his last copy was delivered after more than 78 years of uninterrupted readership. His life was in many ways a mirror of the 20th century.

Born Jewish in Weimar Berlin to the family of a self-made economist and banker, his mother died of appendicitis when he was four, in the age before antibiotics. Returning from school one day he found himself between a great crowd and a motorcade, face to face with Hitler. His family escaped as refugees to England in 1935, where he qualified as an accountant with PriceWaterhouse. His father stopped him from joining the Republicans in the Spanish civil war and later the British army.

At the family firm, ENM, he developed sophisticated research tools for sales forecasting, which would later form the basis for some celebrated work by the music industry on modelling the long tail of digital consumption. In the 1960s he pioneered the use of microelectronics by British industry.
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The years after ENM's purchase were difficult, as this heir to the German industrial tradition chafed at what he felt was the plutocratic, lax and irrational management of the new owners. He later supplied equipment to many of the world's state lotteries, and enjoyed working in an industry which thrived by applying rational reasoning to the irrational. His wife of 58 years, Hanna, was a research chemist with Margaret Thatcher at J. Lyons Research. In 2009 the producers of Harry Potter wanted to use his house as a location. He conducted negotiations for the complex contract entirely in verse.
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ANDREW BUD
London

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Stephen Stratfordhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131514811483888026.post-63585457222844327942016-02-19T11:36:00.003+13:002016-02-19T11:37:51.058+13:00Waikato Times letter of the week #64
From the edition of Saturday 13 February. As always, spelling, punctuation, grammar and logic are exactly as printed in the Waikato Times:

Mental fitness

Crossword puzzles are a way of life for many people and have been since 1913, when Arthur Wynne, a Liverpool man devised the very first time-consuming crossword puzzle. Nobody knows why crossword puzzles are so popular. But the best theory that I can come up with is, apart from puzzles being time-consuming and mind-struggling, puzzles are a mental exercise to keep the mind fitter and healthier. I suppose it's like some people like going jogging or running to keep physically fit and healthy, while on the other hand it is the same way. Jogging and running keep the body fit and healthy while the crossword puzzles keep the mind fitter and healthier.

How many occupations combine both mental and physical exercise can you think of? I wonder if that is the reason why women live longer than men?

Ken Weldon

Matangi

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Stephen Stratfordhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131514811483888026.post-25396665159919052122016-02-16T20:30:00.001+13:002016-02-16T22:23:50.954+13:00What I'm reading #131

In the New York Times, Michiko Kakutani enthusesthat:<o:p></o:p>

Garth Risk Hallberg's "City on Fire" is a big, stunning first novel and an amazing virtual reality machine, whisking us back to New York City in the 1970s […] Despite being overstuffed, it's a novel of head-snapping ambition and heart-stopping power — a novel that attests to its young author's boundless and unflagging talents.

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At The Awl, Carmen Petaccio lists "The 50 Most Unacceptable Sentence in City on Fire, in order", starting with:

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50: "Just then, a horripilating Scaramouche appeared at her elbow."
49. "Detonations crash in from nearby like the walls she's a void at the center of."
48. "Every time a truck passed the frayed ends of the wine's wicker sleeve trembled like the needles of some exquisite seismometer."

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You see where we're heading? Towards:<o:p></o:p>

44. "She seemed to want to retract any extension of herself, to become a move-less white egg."

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Yes, that is only #44. The full list is here. The top 20 are quite something, but the top 10 are really special.<o:p></o:p>

Have you ever heard Virginia Woolf? Now, thanksto the Paris Review, you can. Here are seven minutes and 39 seconds of her talking about "Craftmanship": <o:p></o:p>

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To my ears, she sounds like Brian Sewell. If I may quote Quote Unquote:

Brian Sewell is an English art critic of a certain age and a certain disposition. My painter friends will be horrified by my confession that I have always enjoyed his writing. I did know that he spoke in the most affected accent ever, one that makes the Queen sound common, but had no means of sharing this. Until now. Don't miss the second page. Click fast enough on different links and you get a wonderful sequence that makes as much sense as most contemporary art criticism. Try his "Liverpool" and "Hungarian art". Then "White eunuch" and "Sliced cucumber", in that order. <o:p></o:p>

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After reading the recent biography by Jonathan Bates, CK Stead considersTed Hughes and, among other things, his infidelities:<o:p></o:p>

And when Bate, seeming to follow hints from Hughes, suggests 'his infidelity to others was a form of fidelity to [Plath]', I felt there was something shabby either about the poet, or his biographer, or perhaps both. Not that sexual fidelity is a necessary moral principle; but to make it a principle observed by non observance seems devious in the extreme.

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My father was an RAF navigator/bomb-aimer. After the war he achieved many things but, like his friend Les Munroof the Dambusters raid, for some reason he never got around to writing romance novels. Happily, that gap in the market for romance novels by former Lancaster bomber aircrew has been filled by Bill Spence, who has recently published his 25th novel as Jessica Blair. Quote unquote:

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"After the war there wasn't much call for a bomb-aimer. I spent a while with the RAF after the war, and never really got into teaching. I was bitten by the writing bug."

After publishing short stories and articles for newspapers and magazines, Bill released his first book in 1959. Dark Hell was a war novel which drew on his experiences. He chose one of his middle names for his byline of Duncan Spence, and began a writing career that has seen him adopt many different guises.

"After the first novel, I really wanted to get into Westerns," he says. "I wrote under the names Jim Bowden, Floyd Rogers and Kirk Ford, and did 30-odd Westerns."
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So, after the war novel came 30 Westerns and then 25 romance novels. That's 56 novels in 57 years. Makes the rest of us look pretty silly.<o:p></o:p>

Lucy Kellaway of the Financial Times explains how journalists should respond to advertisers, in this case Hewlett Packard, who are "disappointed" with a story and threaten to withdraw their advertising. This happened at Metroin the 1980s. Air New Zealand was annoyed by a big story and cancelled all advertising for – I can't remember, maybe two years. This was a big deal because it was a small magazine dependent on advertising but we had Warwick Roger as an editor and the owners weren't a multinational but were brave locals so the attitude was: "Get fucked." <o:p></o:p>

Kellaway's first response was mild. She reconsidered, and sent a politely blistering (how English!) follow-up. Quote unquote:<o:p></o:p>

You say the FT management should think about "unacceptable biases" and its relationship with its advertisers. My piece was not biased and I fear you misunderstand our business model. It is my editors' steadfast refusal to consider the impact of stories on advertisers that makes us the decent newspaper we are.
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Camille Paglia – she's back! – on Hillary Clinton and Gloria Steinem after the New Hampshire vote:<o:p></o:p>

Despite emergency efforts by Gloria Steinem, the crafty dowager empress of feminism, to push a faltering Hillary over the finish line, Sanders overwhelmingly won women's votes in every category except senior citizens. Last week, when she told TV host Bill Maher that young women supporting the Sanders campaign are just in it to meet boys, Steinem managed not only to insult the intelligence and idealism of the young but to vaporize every lesbian Sanders fan into a spectral non-person.

Steinem's polished humanitarian mask had slipped, revealing the mummified fascist within. I'm sure that my delight was shared by other dissident feminists everywhere. Never before has the general public, here or abroad, more clearly seen the arrogance and amoral manipulativeness of the power elite who hijacked and stunted second-wave feminism.
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We may get to evaluate Ms Steinem for ourselves later this year if the rumours are true that she will visit New Zealand and speak.<o:p></o:p>

So here is Gloria Gaynor with rollerskates:<o:p></o:p>

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Stephen Stratfordhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131514811483888026.post-86347751890598514402016-02-15T20:08:00.000+13:002016-02-15T20:08:15.329+13:00Book advertisement of the month
From the February 2016 issue of the Literary Review, a full-page ad, page 7, facing the Contributors* list on page 6, which is a hi-visibility spot:

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I think if it was my ₤2940 I would have included a direct link to the Amazon page where one could buy the Kindle book, but what do I know? <o:p></o:p>

That missing link ishere: it tells us nothing about the author but does reveal what the book is about:

Is Chris the founder of a new religion, the reviver of an old religion or is he stark, staring bonkers. Find out as the sun worshipper stumbles his way through a maze of religious, classical and literary allusions that are finely woven into the tapestry of the book.

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<o:p> </o:p>Well, good luck with that. It worked for Dan Brown.

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Elsewhere in this issue John Adamson of Cambridge University reviews The Holy Roman Empire: A Thousand Years of Europe's History by Peter H Wilson; historian Andrew Roberts reviews Churchill and Ireland by Paul Bew; medical and social history author Wendy Moore reviews When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi; and Keith Miller of the Daily Telegraph reviewsThe Noise of Time by Julian Barnes. That's just what's online. They aren't mad – they don't give it all away. <o:p></o:p>

Possibly my favourite in this issue is the review by Michael Burleigh, "CEO of the City political risk consultants Sea Change Partners" of The Elements of Power: Gadgets, Guns, and the Struggle for a Sustainable Future in the Rare Metal Age by David S Abraham. Quote unquote:

Environmentalists often deplore the physical and human damage caused by promiscuous mining. Yet their desire for more green vehicles, solar panels and wind turbines is precisely what is driving increased mining of rare metals, which are used in permanent magnets that drive the motors and lithium batteries that store the energy.

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*The Contributors list is not usually a hi-visibility page for a magazine, but with the Literary Review I always look at who the writers are because they are so good: many are academics of whom one has never heard, and/but write beautifully. As do the novelists, historians, biographers and the rest. Possibly the best-written magazine in the world.

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Stephen Stratfordhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131514811483888026.post-71810272372588069632016-02-10T13:02:00.002+13:002016-02-10T13:02:57.841+13:00Waikato Times letter of the week #63
From the edition of Wednesday 10 February. As always, spelling, punctuation, grammar and logic are exactly as printed in the Waikato Times.

Show some leadership

Prime Minister John Key needs to establish some form of management over his minders. His leadership has hit a snag centred on Waitangi. Waitangi is known for much civil disquiet with much exposure of matters of serious concern to Maori. This year is not very different from other years and there are many concerns Maori need addressing. Mr Key would have served New Zealand better if he had focused his address on matters that are progressing that will aid Maori and the nation. The signing of the TPP agreement would have been more appropriate had it been kept secret and signed in some more secret location. Perhaps in Hawaii were the Union Jack is safely part of the state flag.

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Barry Ashby
Raglan

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Stephen Stratfordhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131514811483888026.post-22515709310041350762016-02-04T20:41:00.004+13:002016-02-04T20:41:56.053+13:00This little piggy went to market
Before social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and whatever the young people use, authors had to promote themselves in other ways. I have no data on the success of this one:

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The caption reads:<o:p></o:p>

The Author in Fancy Dress as a Side of Bacon, designed by himself, which took the First Prize of Forty Guineas at the Covent Garden Fancy Dress Ball, April 1894

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Stephen Stratfordhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131514811483888026.post-48903307295056853182016-02-03T17:03:00.001+13:002016-02-03T17:03:30.242+13:00If I were a carpenter

I suppose this is the future of publishing: crowdsourcing. How depressing. The NZ Book Council's Booknotes Unbound reports:

This Mother's Day New Zealanders are being invited to become a part of Penguin Classics history.
Penguin Random House has been supporting mums around the world for more than 80 years, from pregnancy advice and bedtime stories, to homework help and 'mum time' escapism.
This year, New Zealanders are invited to become a part of Penguin Classics history, by having their messages to their mums published and immortalised in a heartfelt collection, titled Thanks Mum: A Kiwi Celebration.
Written by the New Zealand public for New Zealand mums, this limited edition book will be the ultimate thank you to Kiwi mums nationwide.
For the chance to have your message published, visit thanksmum.co.nz to submit your entry online.
Successful entries will be hand-picked and those published will receive a copy of Thanks Mum, to gift in time for Mother's Day, 8 May 2016.
Submissions close 29th February 2016.

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I hope it does well for them, but if I were an editor I would insert a comma into that title. On the other hand, if I were a carpenter like my friend Dean I would have a steady, well-paying job and be booked up a year in advance.

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So here is Robert Plant in 1993 with Tim Hardin's song "If I Were a Carpenter", a hit for Bobby Darin in 1966, the Four Tops in 1968 and, on the country charts, Johnny Cash and June Carter in 1970 (on YouTube, live in Sweden, here):

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Stephen Stratfordhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131514811483888026.post-68700180212892137682016-02-02T15:05:00.004+13:002016-02-02T15:22:48.653+13:00Waikato Times letter of the week #62
From the edition of Monday 2 February. As always, spelling, punctuation, grammar and logic are exactly as printed in the Waikato Times.

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Donald Trump

Has Donald trumped Donald Trump? His backing by Sarah Palin must put a huge amount of faith in the statement written on all their paper money notes.

Donald has not as yet claimed he can walk on water.

Except somewhere in Alaska when water is frozen. There will be no need or use for another Ark if he becomes president.

Barry Ashby

Raglan

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Stephen Stratfordhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131514811483888026.post-8283253507397961922016-01-28T18:49:00.001+13:002016-01-28T18:49:43.023+13:00Waikato Times letter of the week #61
From the edition of Thursday 28 January. This seems a very Waikato letter, and has perhaps the best-ever heading of any letter to the Waikato Times. As always, spelling, punctuation, grammar and logic are exactly as printed.

Hamilton is no Madrid

I was kind of revolted to find that it now costs an average of $200 a week to rent a one-bedroom concrete block flat in a block of concrete block flats in Hamilton.

You could live in Madrid – or Athens, if you felt like slumming it – for less.

Perhaps I'm the one at fault, but I can't see how Hamilton stacks up quite so magnificently next to either of them.

But, apparently, it does.

At a rental cost equivalent to 40kg of milk solids a week, the property farmers must be doing something right.

Moo.

Katherine Delaney

Hamilton

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Stephen Stratfordhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131514811483888026.post-44494874170847857962016-01-22T21:37:00.001+13:002016-01-22T21:39:53.050+13:00What I'm reading #130

My theory of magazines is that they live and die, rise and fall, on the quality of their columnists. The NZ Listener has Jane Clifton, Diana Wichtel and Bill Ralston; Quote Unquote had Bill Manhire, <o:p></o:p>

Kevin Ireland, Stephanie Johnson and Nigel Cox. Currently, the Spectator has the best columnists of any weekly: Jeremy Clarke, Rod Liddle, Tanya Gold, Martin van der Weyer, Deborah Ross, Rory Sutherland and a bunch of others. I would read it for any one of them. Writers like this are why one keeps reading a magazine. The columnists are the spine, the structure; the cover story is the cladding. <o:p></o:p>

I came across this book, pictured above, My Week: the secret diaries of almost everyone (The Robson Press, 2013) by Spectatorcolumnist Hugo Rifkind. It is very funny. He started writing these pieces for The Times in 2006. Totally random – honest – sample:

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Barack Obama 10 November 2012:
MONDAY
Today is a portentous day. For today is the day that may be the day before the day that America decides, on a fine autumn day, that there may be another day when the man who stands before you today as…
"Honey?" says Michelle." You're kinda raving again ."

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Wouldn't it be good if a New Zealand satirist could develop this idea from 2006?<o:p></o:p>

More on the singular they, as discussed here previously, also hereand here. I first heard it on The Archers, on the wireless some time in the 1960s, when a character was trying to avoid specifying the sex of the person she was talking about, and I thought: "That's useful." What else matters other than usefulness? The American Dialect Society chose it for 2015's Word of the Year, for a different reason. Well, a different usefulness reason. Quote unquote:<o:p></o:p>

While editors have increasingly moved to accepting singular they when used in a generic fashion, voters in the Word of the Year proceedings singled out its newer usage as an identifier for someone who may identify as "non-binary" in gender terms.
"In the past year, new expressions of gender identity have generated a deal of discussion, and singular they has become a particularly significant element of that conversation," Zimmer said. "While many novel gender-neutral pronouns have been proposed, they has the advantage of already being part of the language."

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If you have been following the strange case of the Hollywood actor Sean Penn interviewingthe Mexican psychopath El Chapo, aka Shorty, aka Joaquin Guzman Loera, here's how Hugo Rifkind described one of them in 2012:

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He's a spoon-faced humourless self-loathing pseudo-socialist twit, sure, but he's not a moron.
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Thisby Gerard McBurney is the best piece on the late Pierre Boulez I've seen – love his music, saw him conduct the Ensemble Contermporain in Wellington in 1988 (Birtwistle, Boulez and Donatoni, from memory) but had no idea he was so funny. Quote unquote:

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I was escorting him to a restaurant. The rest of the company had moved swiftly, but he was walking slowly, tired after rehearsal. Someone had told me on no account to mention Messiaen. So I did, and he immediately laughed, stopped and looked at me like a schoolboy preparing a whoopee cushion for a grownup.
"Ah, Messiaen, he is for me a big problem … [dramatic pause] The religion … [another pause, shrugged shoulders, and louder] The birds … [louder still, hands raised and in tones of pantomimic horror] Aand … my God … the ORGAN!" There was no doubt which of these three shockers was the worst.
I said I'd been inspired by his performances of Messiaen in London. He looked at me sideways. "Yes, there are some pieces of his I will do. But Turangalîla ... Never! For me this piece is … you know … a kind of Bernini of the suburbs!"

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Matthew Sweet in Intelligent Life on the Abba Museum in Stockholm and their one song in the past-modal perfect tense. Quote unquote:

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The sceptical eye might dismiss it as the unlovely detritus of Europop – a subterranean fire-trap of hen-night kitsch. But this would be to underestimate the semiotic thickness of ABBA's art – and trust me, you really wouldn't want to do that. The artefacts on display evoke, sometimes painfully, the band's personal and artistic trajectory: the vanishing grins, the collapsing marriages, the tour-bus melancholia, their progress towards that bleak and clear-eyed final album, "The Visitors" – their Winterreise. It's true that ABBA lyrics sometimes exhibit errors familiar to EFL teachers around the world ("since many years I haven't seen a rifle in your hand," says the narrator of "Fernando") but who else could have produced a song like their last recorded work, "The Day Before You Came" – an account of joy measured in the minutiae of depression, and possibly the only pop song ever written in the past-modal perfect tense? ("I'm sure I had my dinner watching something on TV," reflects Agnetha. "There's not, I think, a single episode of 'Dallas' that I didn't see.")

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So here are Abba with perhaps their saddest song, sung by Agnetha, their farewell:

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Stephen Stratfordhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131514811483888026.post-3828428975111898612016-01-19T16:16:00.002+13:002016-01-19T16:16:19.974+13:00NZ Listener letter of the month #1There have been no Waikato Times letters of the month for a while, because the paper hasn't  published any over the holidays: normal service will resume shortly. So while we're all waiting, here is one from the 23 January issue of the Listener:

Celebrating End to Tariffs

The Listenerwonders why New Zealanders are not dancing in the streets at the World Trade Organisation's announced removal of food-export barriers (Editorial, January 16). There are many reasons. […]

Economist Milton Keynes pointed out that exporting means giving up assets of real value in exchange for unreliable money, so should be limited by sensible domestic economies. […]

Gavin Maclean

(Cullerlie, Gisborne)

So here is a concert from Milton Keynes: two hours of Metallica in 1993, kicking off with "Creeping Death".

Stephen Stratfordhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131514811483888026.post-46329113531386636742016-01-13T20:19:00.000+13:002016-01-13T20:32:48.993+13:00Corbyn, Tchaikovsky and Hello Sailor

I wish I still had my poster of Hello Sailor in, I think, 1975 or 1976, playing a benefit for Gay Lib in Auckland University's cafeteria. It was a great gig: the poster featured a louche young gentleman in a lounge chair wearing a dressing gown and wielding a cigarette holder, beneath the legend "Relax With a Fag". This behaviour was illegal in New Zealand then and for another 10 years until, thanks to Labour MP Fran Wildse advocacy, 1986's Homosexual Reform Act. It is because of things like this that those of us who despair of today's party wish Labour well but…<o:p></o:p>

From the Economist'sBagehot columnof 2 January on England's Labour Party:<o:p></o:p>

Mr Corbyn's leadership should force his moderate MPs to take on a reality that even Mr Blair ducked: Labour has always been two parties, one social democratic and the other anti-capitalist. Over the years it has muddled through, as concessions, feints and tactical battles have postponed a decisive confrontation. No longer: as Mr Corbyn bears down on the moderates, they will have to decide whether to push back, concede the party to him or quit—en masse, not in a dribble, as did their predecessors in 1981 when Labour last swung left—and form a new party.

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Yes. One wishes Labour well, but…<o:p></o:p>

Above we see, via Composers Doing Normal Shit, the composer Peter Tchaikovsky relaxing with a fag. I wonder if, by any chance, he could be related to Jeremy Corbyn, below:<o:p></o:p>

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So here are Hello Sailor at the Whiskey A Go Go in c1979 with "Blue Lady". I had no idea this was on YouTube until reading pp 175-6 of Dave McArtney's memoir Gutter Black. The band sound pretty much as they did at the Globe Tavern in Auckland the year before, i.e. awesome:<o:p></o:p>

Stephen Stratfordhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131514811483888026.post-88695767194706598502015-12-22T20:07:00.000+13:002015-12-22T20:08:42.111+13:00What I'm reading #129

I would have liked to attend this book launch of Jeremy Noel-Tod's brilliant The Whitsun Wedding Video, Quote unquote:

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One of the great things about these essays is how Noel-Tod refuses to allow poetry to stay in its little poetry ghetto. It lives, if it lives at all, out in the real world where we live and breathe; this has always been the reason why JNT has held it to account for itself. He's not opinionated so much as something far rarer: smartly observant. […] The essay on Eliot – on whom Noel-Tod is an authority – is sublime; alone it's worth the price of the book. And the title makes me sick with envy.
The singular they excites grammar pedants possibly more than anything else, though it has an honourable lineage over the centuries. I use it because it's useful. Stroppy editor Tom Freeman also thinks it's OK. Quote unquote:

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Here are some early examples (mostly from the Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage):
Wycliffe's Bible, 1382: "Eche on in þer craft ys wijs." (Each one is wise in their craft.)
Rolls of Parliament, 1463–65: "Inheritementes, of which any of the seid persones… was seised by theym self, or joyntly with other."
William Roye (translation of Martin Luther), 1529: "So that yf the one shulde withdrawe them selves from the other deniyng them their bodyes to vse accordinge to naturall vsage permitted vnto mariage it is vndoubted that they shulde so defraude them and do them wronge."
Thomas More, 1533: "Neyther Tyndale there nor thys preacher here hath by theyr maner of expounynge… wonne them self mych wurshyp"
John Whitgift, 1574: "None is admitted to anye degree here in Cambridge, but the same is first presented… by some one of that facultie, who giueth his fidelitie for them."
Singular "they" has always been an option for writers. But during the 17th and 18th centuries, grammarians decided to get angry about this, and launched a coup on behalf of generic "he".

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 Sarah Waters' ten rules for writing fiction. Quote unquote:

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#3 Treat writing as a job.

Be disciplined. Lots of writers get a bit OCD-ish about this. Graham Greene famously wrote 500 words a day. Jean Plaidy managed 5,000 before lunch, then spent the afternoon answering fan mail. My minimum is 1,000 words a day – which is sometimes easy to achieve, and is sometimes, frankly, like shitting a brick, but I will make myself stay at my desk until I've got there, because I know that by doing that I am inching the book forward. Those 1,000 words might well be rubbish – they often are. But then, it is always easier to return to rubbish words at a later date and make them better.

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Terence Blacker's Seven Rules of Rejection. I have been both sender and receiver of these messages. He is absolutely right. Quote unquote:

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The third rule: distrust any request to rewrite your manuscript.

Some particularly wimpish editors will resort to the worst kind of rejection – one that offers false hope. They say that they would love certainly reconsider their decision if the manuscript were completely revised and rewritten.
It is a lie, and one which invariably costs authors months of work leading to more heartache. Any work which has been turned down once will be turned down again, however radically changed. Editors are too busy to have second thoughts. They rarely, if ever, change their mind.

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If anyone remembers Camille Paglia, here she is on Susan Sontag. Quote unquote:

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Camille Paglia, the soi-disant wild woman of nineties academe, has carefully studied Sontag's image, and wrote an essay on the subject, "Sontag, Bloody, Sontag." This was no mere intellectual exercise. She intended to use Sontag as a career model—to discern pop culture's reasons for celebrating Sontag and then exploit her findings to launch herself to similar stardom. "I'm the Sontag of the 1990s—there's no doubt about it," Paglia claimed in one of her typical bouts of modesty.

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If you are an old person and wonder why today's records all sound the same, here's why, with examples. Quote unquote:

So the business shifted from the console—the huge knob-covered desk in front of a pair of wardrobe-sized monitor speakers—to the computer screen. You weren't looking at the band or listening to the music, you were staring at 128 channels of wiggling coloured lines.

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One wonders, has kale had its heyday? Maybe so. Quote unquote:

"Kale is kind of over," she went on, "but the name's still powerful, so you can do kale sprouts. These aren't baby kales, but a hybrid between kale and brussels sprouts. […] They're inspiring to fritter or to fry because they're a little crinkly. Or brush them with oil and roast them kind of low." She paused. "Cauliflower is having a moment."

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So here is American composer Harry Partch in 1969 making rose-petal jam:

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Stephen Stratfordhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131514811483888026.post-70564880787359721792015-12-17T17:35:00.000+13:002015-12-17T17:35:23.937+13:00Copyright Licensing NZ grants
Drumroll, and then the press release:

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2015 CLNZ Contestable Fund Investments Announced

Now in its second year and with funds available increased to $60,000 the 2015 Copyright Licensing NZ Contestable Fund will this year make investments into seven projects that demonstrate writing and publishing or education sector growth and development.

The projects receiving funding contributions are:

Anna Mackenzie, $5500, writing
Huia Publishing, $4000, education
Janice Marriott, $3800, writing
Kelly Ana Morey, $20,000, writing
Keri Hulme, $1250, writing
Publishers Association, $15,000, sector development
Bridget Williams Books, $10,000, publishing

The selection panel* noted the strong mix of projects that applications were received for which made allocating the available funds challenging. Four of the successful applicants will undertake writing projects. Huia Publishing will develop teacher support resources that assist teachers to use Te Reo titles in the classroom. Bridget Williams Books will invest in writer development for the new BWB Texts on the back of their 2015 success with writers such as Hannah August and Andrew Dean and the Publishers Association will undertake a campaign in the education sector, "New Zealand Content Counts".

CLNZ CEO Paula Browning said, "The Contestable Fund criteria were established with broad scope and the diversity of applications this year endorses this approach."

Applications for the next round of the CLNZ Contestable Fund will be called for in mid-2016.

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*The selection panel was Karen Ferns, former publisher; Jill Rawnsley, former festival and artistic director of the Auckland Writers' Festival, former senior adviser for literature at Creative New Zealand; Paula Browning of CLNZ; and me. Four hours, no shouting. Quite a bit of gossip, a lot of laughter – and a lot of hard work before and during the meeting because there were so many strong applications.

It's a good result, I think. I'm especially pleased for Anna Mackenzie and Kelly Ana Morey, two writers I admire, who have terrific projects that take them into new territory.

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Our meeting was on 3 December. A week later the floor above caught fire. Coincidence, I'm sure.

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Stephen Stratfordhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131514811483888026.post-52959419258466957042015-12-16T15:09:00.003+13:002015-12-16T15:09:59.471+13:00Fire in Takapuna

Stuff reports:

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There was extensive damage to the building and windows exploded out on the north-west corner of the fifth floor.

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This was about 9pm last Thursday at the BDO tower, 19 Como Street, Takapuna. The Thursday before, I was in a four-hour meeting on the fourth floor to decide the recipients of the 2016 Copyright Licensing New Zealand cultural fund grants. CLNZ's distribution manager was working late the night the windows exploded – her office is directly below – but fortunately escaped safely. She is the person who looks after rightsholders and authorises all the money going out the door: authors and publishers really, really like her.<o:p></o:p>

So here is the Crazy World of Arthur Brown in 1968 on Top of the Pops with "Fire":<o:p></o:p>

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Stephen Stratfordhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131514811483888026.post-68930132197903403882015-12-12T17:21:00.000+13:002015-12-12T17:21:15.313+13:00In praise of: Fleur Adcock

On Wednesday I had lunch in Auckland with poet Kevin Ireland and novelist Graeme Lay, a fairly regular event, and also with poet Fleur Adcock, a first. Poet Peter Bland, usually a regular, was absent, as was poet Bernard Brown. In their place we had Cathy Odgers, like me a former student of Bernard's at Auckland University's law school, and Karyn Hay, fresh from her triumph with the Prime TV doco New Zealand Women in Rock. (Jane Clifton's review is here; you can watch the doco here. It is fantastic – the subjects are terrific; as Jane Clifton says, the music doesn't date; and Karyn is a superb interviewer.) <o:p></o:p>

"Did you see it?" Graeme Lay asked me. <o:p></o:p>

"I was in it," I replied, as witheringly as I could. Honestly. I was on-screen for at least two seconds in one of the Jenny Morris segments.<o:p></o:p>

The photo above was taken the night after our lunch, at a poetry reading in the Devonport Library, and shows Peter Bland (left), Kevin Ireland and Fleur Adcock. It must have been a great evening. Peter is reading from Hunting Elephants; Kevin is about to read from his latest collection, Looking out to Sea. I review that and Peter's latest, Expecting Miracles, here. <o:p></o:p>

At the Wednesday lunch Kevin's wife Janet Wilson asked if I would put on the blog the following call for submissions of abstracts for papers for a symposium on Fleur's poetry. Astonishingly, it seems that little has been published about her work, in the academic world, despite her success and all-round awesomeness. She is lyrical, conversational, thoughtful, funny, rude, intellectual – a great writer. She is also a brilliant reader of her work, as you can hear here. <o:p></o:p>

FLEUR ADCOCK: A SYMPOSIUM<o:p></o:p>

Saturday 21 May 2016, at University of Winchester<o:p></o:p>

Co-hosted by the University of Northampton<o:p></o:p>

Fleur Adcock, one of Britain's best loved poets, celebrated her 80th birthday last year while her most recent book The Land Ballot was published by Bloodaxe in 2015. Her compendious Poems 1960-2000 was published in 2000. In 1996 she was given an OBE; in 2006 was awarded the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry and in 2008 was named Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to literature..<o:p></o:p>

A New Zealander by birth but resident in the UK since 1963, Fleur was initially a member of the Group and then – when women poets were very much in the minority – she ploughed her own furrow; from her London base she has travelled extensively in Great Britain and Europe, holding residencies in Ambleside, Newcastle and Durham in the 1970s, and visiting Romania for the British Council in the 1980s. A persistent thread in her work is the ties of affection and family loyalties. In exploring and sustaining many of these connections she has visited New Zealand regularly over the decades; recently there are poems devoted (again) to her ancestors and her family history. She has also translated Romanian and Latin poetry.<o:p></o:p>

Adcock became known as a voice for women writers in the 1980s when she edited the Faber Book of Twentieth Century Women's Poetry, and wrote satirically about the Thatcher regime. Interwoven with these topics throughout her oeuvre are poems on her abiding passions: for animals and creatures, landscape and the environment, childhood and ageing, the state of the world.<o:p></o:p>

This symposium aims to celebrate Adcock's unique world of poetry. The organisers invite submissions of abstracts for papers of 20 minutes that may be on (but are not necessarily restricted to) the following topics:<o:p></o:p>

 Fleur Adcock and British post-war poetry<o:p></o:p>

 Fleur Adcock, 'feminism' and women's poetry?<o:p></o:p>

 Fleur Adcock, expatriatism and exile<o:p></o:p>

 Fleur Adcock: beginnings and their historical contexts<o:p></o:p>

 Fleur Adcock, family history, loyalties, and genealogy<o:p></o:p>

 Fleur Adcock: classical poetry and translation<o:p></o:p>

 Fleur Adcock and the craft of poetry<o:p></o:p>

 Fleur Adcock as a model for teaching Creative Writing<o:p></o:p>

 Fleur Adcock: creatures, animals and poetry<o:p></o:p>

 Fleur Adcock: places, landscape, travel<o:p></o:p>

 Fleur Adcock and her New Zealand/British contemporaries<o:p></o:p>

 Fleur Adcock, political issues and a public voice<o:p></o:p>

 Fleur Adcock, nature and the environment<o:p></o:p>

 Fleur Adcock, childhood, growing, ageing<o:p></o:p>

 Fleur Adcock and her literary legacy<o:p></o:p>

Please send abstracts of no more than 200 words to Professor Janet Wilson (email@example.com), by 1 March 2016; for further information write to Julian Stannard (email@example.com).<o:p></o:p>
Stephen Stratfordhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131514811483888026.post-24459888635422598272015-12-08T20:30:00.000+13:002015-12-08T20:30:06.907+13:00A poet's mother, with guns

A virtual chocolate fish to the first person who can identify which poet this is the mother of.

That could have been expressed more elegantly, I know, but it is late and I have miles to go before I sleep. (Not a clue.)

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Stephen Stratfordhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131514811483888026.post-35630106707808219462015-12-03T19:44:00.000+13:002015-12-03T19:44:21.384+13:00Restaurant reviews
Hereis Tanya Gold in Saturday's Spectator, reviewing a London restaurant called Sexy Fish. She likes the service, likes the food, but… She begins:

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Sexy Fish is a ludicrous restaurant with a ludicrous name in a ludicrous town. It is the latest venture from Richard Caring, major Tory donor and Asian fusion's very own Bond villain.

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In the middle she writes:<o:p></o:p>

In the basement private room there is a fish tank, where the 'sexy' fish — brightly coloured, minute and somehow heartbreaking — swim like tiny fishy slaves. I have never seen a restaurant whose ethos is so clearly and comprehensively, so preeningly and unapologetically: 'Fuck you, I'm rich and I want a golden cave and servants. I want a pony and all the hookers I can strangle. I want a pyramid of cocaine and an Audi -Quattro.' It is like being punched in the face by Abu Dhabi.

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Hereis John Gardner in the NZ Herald's Saturday magazine Canvas, reviewing an Auckland restaurant called Euro. He begins:

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Euro has long been one of Auckland's more prestigious eating venues and we were curious to see how its latest manifestation would fit into the niche.

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He concludes:<o:p></o:p>

The food had been good, the surroundings pleasing and spacious and the service efficient. Under its new direction, Euro remains a thoroughly professional and well integrated operation and it seems inevitably destined to enjoy a continuing level of success.

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Plonker. I wonder if the people who run the NZ Herald have heard of Tanya Gold (best story ever about her is the one about she tells about attempting to jump Brian Sewell), Jay Rayner, Terry Durack, Giles Coren – or anyone else who can write knowledgably and entertainingly about food. This bar was raised a long time ago.<o:p></o:p>

So here are Talking Heads live in 1978 with "The Big Country" from that year's album More Songs about Buildings and Food :

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Stephen Stratfordhttp://email@example.com


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Carnage on the streets of Sheffield: More shocking pictures reveal students worse for wear after organised pub crawl
- Britain's biggest student night Carnage UK was held in Sheffield last night
- Has caused storm of controversy in past by 'encouraging binge drinking'
- Drunken teenagers in ripped shirts were helped to walk by friends
- Hundreds attended event - which was tamer than those in past
Skimpily clad young women sway in towering heels, with little more than a ripped t-shirt and shorts to protect them from the October evening.
Overly refreshed young men are helped along the streets by bleary eyed friends, while others are bent double, and wretching in the streets.
These were the scenes in the early hours of this morning in Sheffield as the latest Carnage UK event hit the city.
Dubbed Britain's most debauched student pub crawl, the night certainly lived up to its name.
Hundreds of students took to the streets of Sheffield last night to join one of Britain's biggest student pub crawls
The Carnage UK event, held this weekend in Sheffield, certainly didn't disappoint the many Freshers who joined the crawl across the city
Young women dressed in small shorts and ripped t-shirts end the night in a sober fashion as they walk home
A girl in a ripped event t-shirt cradles the head of her friend as she crouches on the floor next to a takeaway chicken shop
The night looks to have proven too much for one reveler, as he leans over, apparently overcome with nausea
However, by the usual standards of the event - which promoters claim will give students 'the best night of their lives' - the night in Sheffield appeared somewhat tamer than previous events.
While previous fancy dress themes have included 'Pimps and Hoes' and 'Nympho nurses and dirty doctors', this year's circus theme lent itself to a slightly more Autumn friendly outfit.
The suspenders, stockings and basques of previous years were replaced in large by jean shorts, trainers and t-shirts.
While it may have descended into a drunken haze for some, this excitable bunch of friends instead end the night with a bite to eat
The night is somewhat tamer than previous events, and even the dress code appears to have been tailored to better tastes, with suspenders and basques swapped for tights, shorts and t-shirts
Young women rest against bollards and sit on the floor as they end the evening
A young man picks up his friend while another cheers him on outside a city centre pub
Weary youngsters forget the chill and pick a spot on the floor to sit
Amorous couples were still seen
canoodling in the streets, some sliding to the cold ground for a seat,
and weary party-goers flocked noisily to kebab and chicken shops to soak
up the booze with a takeaway.
The excitement looked to have proven too much for one young man, as he clutches on to a wall, overcome with nausea.
The Carnage UK organisers have repeatedly come under fire for promoting excessive binge drinking as students are encouraged to go from one bar to the next to consume copious amounts of alcohol.
Some students pick a spot on the edge of the road to eat their post evening snack
In the past, police have had to draft in extra man power during the event
In the past, the nights have ended in controversy. But this year's event in Sheffield seemed have passed without major incident
Some revelers appear to have opted for water as they chat after the event
A young woman speaks to her friend who has decided to take a rest on the pavement next to a parked car
In the past, the nights have ended in controversy.
2009, 19-year-old student Philip Laing desecrated a poppy wreath in
Sheffield and was later ordered to carry out 250 hours of community
service and pay £185 cost after admitting outraging public decency.
Following a Carnage event held the same year, police said they were looking into the possibility of charging the organisers for the cost of the extra police needed to be drafted in to man the streets.
Police in Exeter claimed the event cost them thousands of pounds.
In 2010 a court heard how a carnage pub crawl operator punched unconscious a resident who voiced concerns about noise levels at one of their events.
The MailOnline has contacted Carnage UK for comment.
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Spray on tans know when to say enough
Spray on tans know when to say enough
And then one Christmas, Mom finally got tired of the old argument and gave in to the boys' requests...because she realized that saying 'You'll put your eye out!' wasn't nearly as much fun as saying 'Told you so!'
One way or another, Gladys would be the first through the doors on Black Friday.
Hon! That crazy angel is trying to rapture the kids again! I'll call the cops and tell them she's violating the restraining order!


text:
The capitol city of Kuala Lumpur is one of Asia's biggest transit hubs and home of the only metro system in Malaysia. As of 2004 the metro lines, which originally operated as separate companies, merg
To unveil their newest camera the Leica M-D, the iconic camera company enlisted the perspectives of photographers Daniel Arnold, Nicholas La and Rui Palha, sending the three to Porto, Portugal to sho
Patti holds court on her love of the French poet Rimbuad that spawned her creative path while still a young woman in New Jersey.
The Diary, a collection of unissued material that Dilla assembled but never released, finally saw the light this month. "The Sickness," a bonus track off the album featuring Nas, just got a music vid
September, 2015 cover artist Richard Colman is the latest to participate Converse's Blank Canvas project, painting a colorful new mural in San Francisco.
Flanked by three arrows on both sides, this Popquiz is ready to be displayed across the country on the moving canvas.
Deep in the darkness of a tunnel for future generations or maybe even for other life forms to discover some day.
This is a behind the scenes look at the chemical lab where Dr.Sex concocts some his wild style formulas and techniques.
A reminder from Hindue that when you are actively painting trains out of a particular yard you have to maintain the yard in all aspects. Most importantly by regulating toys from painting there.
Parisian and New York graffiti writers have collaborated in vandalism for years in both cities. This time around these two get it done in Paris.
Each week we feature updates on current graffiti scenes in a number of major U.S. cities with the help of a few select photographers. Gordon Gekkoh delivers this week's Bay Area Scene Rep
Each week we feature updates on current graffiti scenes in a number of major U.S. cities with the help of a few select photographers. German Friday delivers this week's Detroit Scene
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A 2010 piece from Sawe in Barcelona, mixing real looking characters with a blob-like character into his piece


text:
Star Tracks
Panettiere arrives with a smile at Los Angeles International Airport. Plus: Reese & Jim, Salma Hayek, The Smith family and more
Credit: AKM-GSI
Published: Thursday May 30, 2013 | 07:00 PM EDT
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Lenny Kravitz
Lenny, Lenny, what happened? Things were going so well. You had chalked up three monster singles and graduated from playing halls to amphitheaters. And you were putting out solid music beyond the sometimes unfair "retro rock" tag. So why is your crucial new record easily the weakest in your entire catalog? Did you lose your mind with your dreads?
Lenny is a disappointing journey from start to finish, buoyed by only a handful of bright spots. Knowing Kravitz is capable of so much more, this feels like a hastily cobbled together jumble of outtakes.
Never the strongest lyricist, Kravitz sinks to new literary lows here. At best, couplets like "strife/life," "money/ honey" and "sacrifice/ paradise" would earn a C-plus in high school poetry class. The plodding clichés continue with the title "Yesterday Is Gone," and then Kravitz intones that he's a soldier on the "Battlefield of Love" (didn't Pat Benatar beat him to that Tora Bora de amor by about 20 years?). And when he exhorts "Let's Get High," it's -- surprise! -- on luuvvv! Who woulda thunk? Perhaps it's time for Kravitz to gaze beyond his own precious soul for material.
Musically, there's neither the dark adventurousness of Circus nor the righteous rock and meaningful ballads of 5. Vocal effects and techno beats plow previously charted territory, and he's definitely hit his quota of songs about the deep cosmic consciousness of love. At any rate, his moans about romance on "If I Could Fall in Love," "You Were in My Heart" and "Stillness of Heart" are hardly convincing.
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The two bright spots on the record are both forceful rockers: the catchy call to arms "Dig In" and the anarchic "Bank Robber Man." The latter -- complete with cop car sirens -- is a tongue-in-cheek recollection of Kravitz's real-life misadventure at the hands of police who mistook him for a stickup artist. It has the hint of humor and joyous abandon sorely missing on the rest of Lenny. Maybe he should get handcuffed more often -- and not just by European supermodels.
Kravitz has always had a more-than-healthy dose of egotism and a cooler-than-thou vibe that colors even fans' appreciation of his music. It's no accident that the man who is president and sergeant-at-arms of his own fan club has sported shades that all but scream "Rock Star!" on four of his last five record covers. But then in interviews Kravitz whines that people don't look beyond "the clothes, the hair and the women." Why should they? He does everything in his power to push all three to the forefront.
While Lenny may find him bowing before his maker on its other decent track, "God Save Us All," it's clear that Kravitz still knows he's the Christ of Cool. Maybe it's time to come down off the cross.
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I love these dreamy photos by London-based photographer Emma Hartvig. She says: "My work is based on my passion for film and cinematography. The storytelling and manipulation of vision you have in your hands as a filmmaker fascinates me."
I'm trying to decide on a favorite. Maybe the girl with the mirror?
8 Comments on Film and Storytelling
Definitely, the girl with the mirror.
I wish that the second shot through the window was mine. I spent the day playing with my camera and its settings only to be disappointed by the outcomes. …..Tomorrow is another day.
Warm wishes
Ohh these are so beautiful! And yes, I'd say definitely the one with the mirror
My favorite is definitely the girl with the mirror ! It is so hot here lately, the parks are empty because no one wants to be outside in the heat
All except for the crazy woman with the camera ( me ) .. besitos.
These are just lovely. (And yes, my favorite is the girl with the mirror as well.)
I like the last one. It looks like fun, but you can't quite be sure. I like the mystery of not seeing her face.
Beautiful photos! Dreamy is definitely the word to describe them. Girl with mirror is my favorite too, but the Basement Internet Cafe has a movie quality that I would love to know the rest of the story. Thank you for sharing such talent.
soooooo cute! love love loooove it!
wanna check out my blog and follow on bloglovin? im your fan already!
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Home > News > Molecular Foundry Groundbreaking, Nanoscience Forum
January 26th, 2004
Molecular Foundry Groundbreaking, Nanoscience Forum
What will it take for the San Francisco Bay Area to become the nation's leader in nanotechnology research and development? Berkeley Lab will host an exploration of this theme, as well as celebrate the beginning of one of Bay Area nanotech's most important projects, on Friday, January 30.
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We expose slave masters and people smugglers in suburban Britain.
Is there more to life than money?
14 Oct 2013 06:49 GMT | Politics, Middle East, Syria
The International Committee of the Red Cross has said that six of its aid workers and a member of the Syrian Red Crescent have been kidnapped by gunmen in Syria.
Live Box 2012108933861442
"Six ICRC staff members and one member of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent have been abducted in Idlib in northwestern Syria," ICRC spokesman Ewan Watson told the AFP news agency at the organisation's Geneva base on Sunday.
"We don't know who took them. It was unidentified armed men," he added.
The road on which the members were travelling is notorious for kidnappings, Al Jazeera's Omar Al Saleh reported. "We understand from talking to activists in that area there are a number of armed groups."
Magne Barth, head of the ICRC's delegation in Syria, has called for the immediate release of the members in a statement released on Sunday.
"Both the ICRC and the SARC work tirelessly to provide impartial humanitarian assistance for those most in need across Syria on both sides of the front lines, and incidents such as these potentially undermine our capacity to assist those who need us most," she said.
The team had travelled to Idlib on October 10 to assess the medical situation in the area and deliver supplies to Sarmin and Idlib city. The convoy, on its way to Damascus, was clearly marked with the ICRC emblem.
Kidnapping has become an increasing problem in Syria, with journalists and aid workers frequently targeted in rebel-held parts of the country, largely located in the north.
Last month a German aid worker held for almost four months escaped his kidnappers in Idlib, just like his two colleagues who managed to flee in July, according to Gruenhelme, the aid group they worked for.
Large parts of the province are under the control of groups who are fighting to oust Assad's regime in a conflict that has killed more than 115,000 people in two and a half years.
Suicide bombers
In other violence on Sunday, two cars laden with explosives and driven by suicide bombers blew up near the state broadcaster's headquarters at night in central Damascus, state media said.
A reporter for government television made no mention of any casualties, saying only that "there were some human remains at the scene, likely those of a suicide bomber".
State news agency SANA quoted one source as estimating there were about 100kg of explosives in one of the cars.
Rebels hold a number of suburbs in the outskirts of Damascus and have managed to carry out mortar and rocket strikes into central areas of the capital in recent months, although major attacks in the city centre are still relatively rare.
A car bomb killed at least 20 people and wounded dozens more last month when it exploded in Rankus, a town 30 km north of Damascus.
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies
With Russia's resurgence and American hesitance on Syria, there are hints that the world is moving on from US hegemony
Middle East
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Some say they extort money, but franeleros insist they are just trying to make a living in Mexico's informal economy.
Will a plastic bag levy be enough to fix Indonesia's rubbish problem?
For ethnic Hausa, the traditional form of boxing known as dambe is more than a sport - it is part of their identity.
Nigeria, Sport
Rape is Malawi's most reported crime. Ujamaa initiative is helping schoolkids defend themselves against perpetrators.
Malawi, Africa, Women
Government agrees to cessation of fighting near Damascus and Latakia but no sign of let up in bombardment of Aleppo.
Syria's Civil War, Middle East, War & Conflict
Morocco said it would study the resolution, but refused to comment on restoration of full civilian staffing levels.
Politics, UN, Morocco
A Pakistani cotton farmer travels to Dubai to make his fortune but soon discovers he wants more from life than money.
Pakistan, Immigration, Dubai
The South African opposition leader says the EFF would fight if the ANC responded violently to peaceful protests.
Julius Malema, South Africa, ANC
As the Doha oil summit fails to reach a deal to freeze production, we examine the state of the global oil industry.
Business & Economy, Oil Price, Saudi Arabia
We explore how the work of medieval chemists has impacted the evolution of modern chemistry.
Science & Technology, Middle East, Islam


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About افلام منى واصف
افلام منى واصف افلام كرتون نياكة Simply brush your lips lightly across the crown of their head. افلام يابانية كاملة فول سكسي Boys: when you`re with your girl pay attention to her every move. Blow Kiss While kissing with a little bit of tongue you blow into your partners` mouth causing there cheeks to poof up! Its so much fun and it`ll make your partner giggle! Don`t blow too hard! Bottom Lip Kiss While kissing your partner, gently suck on their bottom lip. Angel Kiss - A sweet, comforting kiss. افلام منى واصف 8-second, almost 11 seconds quicker than it takes a production Porsche 911 Turbo to reach the same speed? � that an NHRA Top Fuel dragster leaves the starting line with a force nearly five times that of gravity, the same force of the space shuttle when it leaves the launching pad at Cape Canaveral? � that an NHRA Funny Car is slowed by a reverse force more than seven times that of gravity when both parachutes deploy simultaneously?Breakout: Used only in handicap racing, `breakout` refers to a race car running quicker than the driver has predicted.As the number of Jaunty users rapidly increases over the near future, the Ubuntu developers would also like to remind our users of the recommended procedure for filing bugs correctly. افلام محارم كاملة مشاهدة Often the nose gets it rather than the lips. Lick Kiss - Just before kissing, gently run your tongue along you partners lip whether it be the top or bottom one depending on the position of your lips. This can be very exciting.
افلام محارم كاملة مشاهدة The difference in maximum RPM ratings also tells you why trucks need so many gears.
Because the RPM range between minimum and maximum is also so small on a diesel, there needs to be lots of different gears to keep the engine in its productive RPM range at any speed. whenever she looks at you, lick your lips constantly, that`ll make her want to kiss you even more {she`s tryin to hold back}.