I was happily doing my year of live sporting events – a bit of cricket, a Phoenix game, a dash of roller derby – when my football-loving workmate said she was organising a group outing for the All Whites versus Bahrain FIFA World Cup qualifier match. I have a vague memory of the last time [...]
I’m in a darkened room, sitting on a wooden bench, watching a film. It’s a psychedelic, experimental short from the late 1960s. Shapes and colours flicker around the screen. Soon the shapes make way to reveal humans – lovely young hippies. They’re naked and painting their bodies with abstract shapes, writhing together in a joyful [...]
Football or fußball or soccer is a game that’s always lingered in a distant corner of my life with really being anything that I’ve paid much attention to. In fact, my knowledge of football can be summed up thusly: Manchester United. David Beckham. “Fever Pitch” by Nick Hornby. The Hillsborough tragedy. Hooligans. That time in [...]
1984, the playing field of Matangi School, Waikato. My class was playing cricket for PE. (Ugh, I hate PE!) and I was doing that thing with throwing the ball. What’s it called? Oh yeah, bowling. And I threw the ball at my classmate who was holding the bat and somehow I did something good, a [...]
I showed up to Cuba Mall on Saturday. It was packed with people, but I found a small oasis of calm in the form of the Outdoor Knit area. It was manned by Knitsch and stiX who were hard at work knitting. Outdoor Knit is the local variant of that international scene (also known as [...]
I spent three days last week at the glorious Webstock conference. I was there as a volunteer, so I got to do such cool things as helping with the registration, showing speakers to the conference rooms, making sure the big doors in the Town Hall didn’t slam and looking after the Pleo. Actually being on [...]
The warm night air blew down Victoria Street. As I crossed the road, I saw a giant penis waddling down Manners Mall, testicles jauntily lurching from side to side. It was Wellington Sevens weekend. I ducked down a side street and fled to the safety of my flat. All I knew about the Wellington Sevens [...]
It’s a Saturday. I’m in Raglan. I have nothing better to do so I’m live-blogging the general election. 7.05 So I’ve decided to live blog the election results. I’m at my parents’ watching the election coverage on TV1, natch. 7.09 I voted earlier today at the Michael Fowler Centre (chosen for its splendid architecture). I [...]
The first time I heard of Barack Obama, I had three thoughts about him: That as he was a dirty filthy chain-smoker, I had no respect for him. That as I couldn’t relate to the “Obama Girl” video, he was obviously not up my alley. That there was no way a guy with the middle [...]
Exhibit A: Funkmaster George Clinton’s 1993 single Paint the White House black: It seems incredible to think that when that song came out – only 15 years ago – the idea of a black president seemed like wishful thinking. Back then, the other Clinton, Bill, was the newly elected pres and he was a friend [...]