The music of goodbye: farewell John Barry

It was with great sadness that I wrote an obit about my favourite composer, John Barry, today, and published it on the Lucire website.    While Barry didn’t have to do with fashion per se, his music was often fitting themes to each era. Who can write a complete history of 1960s’ music without some […]

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There’s got to be a morning after Quora

This blog post was originally published at Social Media NZ. Michael Moore-Jones has written a post in response here. I read with interest Michael Moore-Jones’s review of Quora. He is very enthusiastic about the new website, and with some good reasons.    I’m still in the “wait and see” camp. I joined, part of that […]

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How will Chevrolet go down in Korea?

Last week, GM announced it would drop the Daewoo marque, as it has done through Europe, in its native Korea, in favour of Chevrolet.    The company will also be renamed GM Korea, a name it once had nearly four decades ago.    While most will think this makes sense, so GM can concentrate on […]

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Ricky Gervais offends … actually, I don’t know whom

Normally I think Piers Morgan is a plonker, and the time Jeremy Clarkson punched him at the BAFTAs remains one of entertainment’s best stories.    However, I have enjoyed Life Stories, and he has been a worthy successor, in my mind, to Larry King. Of course it’s not the same show, but the important thing […]

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Mapping friends on TouchGraph

Although my piece on Social Media NZ about my scepticism toward Quora was published today, written while in a mood of being “virtually socialized out” (one that has not totally passed, incidentally), I did get a buzz with TouchGraph, which is an app that my friend Laura used on her Facebook in 2009. I only […]

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Surely something all Chinese can agree on

It’s 2011, which, by my calculations, is the centenary of China kicking out the corrupt Ching dynasty.    It’s the one event that both Republicans and Communists can agree on as being positive. It’s why Dr Sun Yat-sen is such a uniting figure for all Chinese, as the father of the nation.    I can’t […]

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Bonne 50e anniversaire, Renault 4

Before there was the Twingo, there was the Renault 4. It celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, as I was reminded on Tumblr earlier today. From Autocade: Renault 4 (R1121). 1961–94 (prod. 8,135,424). 5-door estate, utility convertible. F/F, 603, 747, 782, 845, 956, 1108 cm³ (4 cyl. OHV). Replacement for 4CV conceived as a response […]

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Ziln shifts to promoting Kiwi content

Initially I was disappointed to lose the foreign channels on Ziln, the New Zealand service that was broadcasting DW-TV, TV5 Monde, al-Jazeera English, etc. When I wrote to them, one of its bosses replied—on Christmas Day!    He explained to me that Ziln’s focus had changed to promoting New Zealand content, so if I knew […]

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The changing accent of Gillian Anderson

Gillian Anderson, Chicago-born, star of The X Files, grew up in North London and speaks with an accent that’s closer to Britain than the States. I noticed that she gets quite a bit of flak for this on YouTube comments, which is rather sad, perhaps revealing more about those who criticize her than anything else. […]

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MG taps into BMC’s small-car heritage to market the 3

SAIC is doing a great job in tapping to the heritage of MG and the companies that have gone before. Hop over to the SAIC–MG site and you’ll see this image to tie in to the launch of the B-class MG 3 hatchback:    The imagery tells a good deal of the story already: the […]

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