As a child growing up in Wellington, there were a few TV series that shaped my beliefs about being grown-up in the occident. The first I’ve written about before: The Persuaders, which is in part where this blog gets its name. I’ve probably mentioned Return of the Saint elsewhere, not to mention the plethora of […]
Read More… from I wanted to grow up and be the Dean Martin version of Matt Helm
In 2002, I did something really stupid. I bought a brand-new, 750 Mbyte Zip drive. After all, I had had three years of use out of my 100 Mbyte one, and since 750s looked like the way of the future, I had one installed. I can still count the number of times […]
Read More… from Why do the major parties insist on holding us back?
A Fairfax Press headline today: ‘“Large-scale breach” of privacy rules by NZ Post’. The Privacy Commissioner has found New Zealand Post breached privacy rules in a promotion in July 2009, which I thought would have been a juicy story back then. The reporters write: The 2009 survey asked participants 57 multi-choice questions, ranging from […]
Today, those of us on the anti-‘Wellywood’ sign page got some welcome news: that Wellington Airport would reconsider. But, I had to point out, this is again déjà vu. Last time, the Airport flip-flopped as well, and said it would consult the public. Given that the resource consent for ‘Wellywood’ was for nine […]
Read More… from Wellington Airport flip-flops again, but pennies drop more quickly in Queensland
Two years ago, I blogged about The Paradise Club’s unavailability on DVD and the reasons behind it. As a show nearly forgotten after 20 years, perhaps it isn’t surprising to find there are no Facebook fan pages for it. There is the one that Facebook generates from Wikipedia, but that’s it, as far as […]
Read More… from The Paradise Club’s Facebook page (not an adult joint)
I think this shows just how badly Wellington Airport CEO Steve Fitzgerald misses the point: Being niche and understated is cool positioning for a local audience, but to be relevant on the world tourism trail, we need to shout about why we are great. Actually, not always. And even if we did have to […]
Read More… from With ‘Wellywood’, Wellington Airport misses the point about how to brand a city
Wellywood sign: see blog posts from last year (like this). You’d think Wellington Airport would know that the majority of residents are against this awful idea. An intelligent person would think: floating an idea in 2011 that was nearly universally rejected in Wellington in 2010 isn’t smart. Yet that’s exactly what they’ve done. […]
In 2011, the issues that I spoke about during my campaign remain as pressing as they always did. We still need better, wider and earlier consultation, whether we streamline current processes or create new ones for citizen engagement. We still need to build a city-wide wifi network, one which exists but needs a […]
Read More… from One year on, the same issues remain pressing
It’s shows like The Apprentice that have kept me away from watching TV. I was surprised to learn, in conversation last week, that TV viewership is up, while print is down. Shows you can’t base too much of what the general public does on your own experience. I estimate my magazine and book […]
Read More… from It’s about content, especially when reality is more appealing than reality TV
The Christchurch earthquake is certainly not over, not while the city rebuilds. And the bill, at a meeting I had with some other luminaries last Thursday, is estimated to be in excess of the NZ$20,000 million that the New Zealand Government predicts. So, other than juggling the funds, what does the Government intend to […]
Read More… from In the wake of the ’quake, a time to be bold