Curia who?

I find it interesting that the blog for party hack David Farrar's polling company Curia Research, while showing polling results from other sources, doesn't actually display any results from Curia's polling activity.

I'm wondering whether this is simply because his results get pooled together with other polling companies.

Or is this because his poll results are for the private use of the National party?

Just wondrin'.

I Told You They Were Freaky

For the last few days I've been enjoying reading American reviews of Flight of the Conchords (both DVDs and albums) and growing evermore stunned at how much the American press just don't get it. Of the course the Conchords insane success in the States doesn't reflect such a statement. The American's near-psychotic adoration for the bumbling kiwi duo is truly warming, and entirely down to Brett and Jermaines musical and comedic talent. But when it comes to explaining the phenomenon, well, the U.S.A. seems a little out of sorts.

It is a matter of cultural literacy, and the Conchords are a book that the Americans have never read before. It's pages are full of whimsy, irony, and 'hilarious misunderstanding's. It is not as stuffy and dry as the letters from across the Atlantic. One could almost say it is British humour that has been translated for America. But the constant self-deprecation of the duos New Zealand roots is an art that possibly only New Zealanders can truly understand.

The Americans find such self mockery hilarious, but to understand it they resort to comparisons with mockumentarys such as This is Spinal Tap, totally oblivious to the cultural references that are so obvious to us in Wellington. This is most apparent in Pitchforks (really quite funny) review of the Conchords self-titled release that followed Season One. Chris Dalen says

"Where do they draw the lines between the real-life band, the band we see struggling on the show, and the band that the struggling band wishes it could be? They bill themselves as New Zealand's fourth-best novelty act-- so should we laugh at the songs, or with them? And their love of AM radio love songs shrines true-- they thank Barry White in the album liner notes, probably not ironically-- but are we supposed to congratulate them for trying to do the same thing?"

Oh lol. Of course the very concept of Flight of the Conchords would make Pitchfork's head spin. To enjoy Flight of the Conchords it is mandatory to just relax and appreciate something for what it is - how are Pitchfork meant to do that?! And once again even the very concept the duo founded themselves on, "New Zealand's fourth-best novelty folk act" is poking fun the absolute direness of where the band come from.

I say to all Americans that it is truly great to watch you go absolutely apeshit for a couple of kiwi jokers on youtube, but if you truly want to get what Flight of the Conchords are doing, listen to the song Fly My Pretties by the assemble of the same name. Because these guys are hilarious, but the context of what it's like to be a struggling musician in Wellington is needed to understand the act of two struggling musicians from Wellington.

.. and the rest will follow.

How can anyone be so unkind
As to want to take another's peace of mind?
Is acceptance so implausible?
Well I know how the best will fall
And the rest will follow

It's important to recognize
In this world we live there is nothing worth dying
It's enough to say "hello, we're all human"
But I know how the best will fall
And the rest will follow

Is it so easy to resign
To ruin this world for everyone?
I guess when it's all said and done
It's just something in our design

When all of us are so capable of
The greatest acts of hate and the worst acts of love
I wonder sometimes what's the matter with us all
And I know how the best will fall
And the rest will follow

... And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead

Fossilised

You have to know your Climate Change policy is on pretty thin ice when you're comparing yourself to the three of the bottom ranking nations in the world concerning emission reduction targets. Yet, this is what John Key and Nick Smith did in parliament this week - to the applause of his party - saying New Zealand's emissions reduction target of 10-20% (let's go with 10%) is 'credible' considering the woeful ambitions of Australia, America, and the brain dead conservative government of Canada.

"New Zealand cannot afford a higher target" is the Prime Ministers message. Their fiscally responsible approach to climate change along with their winking disapproval of Brash's 2025 Task Force Report has made our government look positively independent and focussed on New Zealand's economic future... or is that indecision? Yet the continuing relegation of Climate Change behind vague economic priorities has earned New Zealand more shame internationally.

New Zealander's may be slow to learn that the "clean and green" myth is actually just a myth, but the international community is catching on quickly. Where is the international leadership? Where is the groundbreaking experiment of New Zealand? Is it chasing Australia, swimming to catch up with the Titanic?

New Zealand needs shame in Copenhagen. It needs to be lavished on. The Sign On and 10-20% Pure New Zealand movements here at home aren't moving the boulders, and protest just ostracise's those realists who want real action take on climate change as 'lefties'. International pressure however, that can be more credible. New Zealander's need external perspectives on National policies to swipe away that curtain of 'common sense' and view the portrait for what it really is: deformed.

I'm glad John Key is at Copenhagen. Maybe someone will throw a shoe at him.

A low morning

I tuned into 1035am this morning for some pre-breakfast junk food... and now I think I need some fillings.

They were broadcasting live from Coastlands in celebration of the malls fortieth birthday. Our national talk back station broadcasting from a fucking mall! Now maybe the absolute whorish-ness of this is down to individual taste. But c'mon, really? The live, chirpy hustle of consumerism in the background? Announcements of specials and sales every two minutes? This is the most poorly veiled attempt at mobilising an audience to buy I have witnessed. Coastlands is in incredibly poor shape. It is no doubt - visible even from its appearance - struggling financially. Could this have any relation to the number of ZB interviews with shop owners, security guards... the guy who handles Coastlands rent. "This is an important place, see? It's been here for forty years! Come buy!".

Sure Coastlands was the first indoor pig-fest in the Wellington area, but is this really where our priorities lie? Will there be a celebration when that consumer paradise Westfield Queensgate turns ten? And what exactly are we celebrating?

I understand that malls allow us to shop at seventy-five degrees for 363 days of the year, maybe this is something cool in Auckland. But not Wellington. Apart from the small town-centres, the entire Wellington region only has three 'malls': Porirua, Queensgate, and Coastlands. The Wellington CBD has none. We're not a mall city. Maybe we're a city of over-priced second hand clothes, under-performing sports teams, soy flat-whites, cultural capital, and as much short-term self-interest as any other city in the world, but a four-walled consumer hell-hole city we are not.

It's a deflating way to start the day.

Please leave the celebration of consumer culture in Devonport and Sylvia Park.

More Midway

I've discovered the blog of the Midway Journey of photographers and environmentalists. I heartily recommend checking it out. Here is a video off the blog.

A Winter Made

One of the problems the environmental movement is facing is the ambivalence of the media. The destruction around us does not suit the dogmatic principles of those in power and is therefore ignored. For the many kiwis who do care about the environment, the consequences are sometimes hard to see. We don't see ecosystems destroyed, water ways polluted, or the overall consequences of the consumer lifestyle when they are not reported.

This is highlighted by Paul Henry's quite incredible ignorance when discussing the environmental impact of plastic bags on Breakfast the other week. He said "what will a plastic bag do, honestly? One plastic bag does not a winter make".

Well on Midway Atoll the albatross are facing extinction, due to parents feeding their chicks plastics - which look like food - they find in the polluted water. On a diet of human trash thousands of Albatross chicks die every year on Midway alone from starvation, toxicity, and choking. Midway is 2000 kilometres away from it's nearest continent.

So for all to see here are the unaltered consequences plastics are having on the bird life on Midway Atoll:

So thank you once again for your opinion Mr. Henry, but I think the world is better off without it.

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