NZBC

Deep water

2010-02-22T11:24:00.004+13:00

Ah, Shutter Island.

The NZ reviews I saw - rarely a pastime of unrestrained joy - went pretty soft on it. Not Martin Scorcese's best work but still worth your attention, they said.

Scorcese is a genius, but not his best work! It was utter pants. We walked out.

Everyone - DiCaprio, Kingsley, Ruffalo - was acting their arse off, and Scorcese's undeniable skill at winding up the strands of mystery on a spooky prison island meant you still wanted to know how it all washed up, so to speak. But the truth is, it was ropey hokum, with horribly melodramatic Holocaust sequences.

Anyway, the New York Times said everything I thought, only more artfully.

A website that told you the endings of crap movies would be good, I thought, ones you walked out of. Too late. Shutter Island here.

UPDATE: New Yorker weighs in on the Dachau scenes: "You do not have to cleave to Adorno’s thesis—that the writing of poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric—to be vexed by the artfulness of the compositions here, or to ask yourself, What cause do these images serve? Are they exhibits in a sober cross-examining of evil? No, when you come down to it, they are props in a piece of high-toned silliness. People in “Shutter Island” mutter grimly of Nazis and hydrogen bombs, but viewers are not here to see the wounds of history explored. They are here for the heebie-jeebies."

Broadcasting again

2010-02-18T22:07:00.006+13:00

Yes, it's been a long time coming, but we're pleased to announce, the Broadcasting Corporation is back!

Watch this space.

Death duties

2010-02-14T21:34:00.002+13:00

In the Auckland City Council's publicity sheet today about the purchase of land for the Monte Cecilia Park:

The [memorandum of understanding] provides for the school to be relocated over five years and guarantees existing owners of retirement units in Liston Village lifetime residency, over what is expected to be a 10-year period.

The key to increased productivity: more labour market regulation

2010-02-13T17:24:00.005+13:00

In New Zealand's search for increased productivity and similar salaries to our Australian mates, perhaps our political and business leaders should have a read of "Layoffs are bad for business" in Newsweek.

There is also empirical evidence showing that labor-market flexibility isn't necessarily so good for countries, either. A recent study of 20 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development economies over a 20-year period by two Dutch economists found that labor-productivity growth was higher in economies having more highly regulated industrial-relations systems — meaning they had more formal prohibitions against the letting go of workers.

The article is a challenging read, highlighting the shortsightedness of many business decisions and a frightening tendency among business leaders to just copy each other - no doubt under the label of inn0vation. Talking about one software company's experience:

It's an example of how managerial behavior can be contagious, spreading like the flu across companies. One study of downsizing over a 15-year period found a strong "adoption effect" — companies copied the behavior of other firms to which they had social ties.

Oh, and outsourcing may save you money, but it could kill your business, according to the Harvard Business Review.

The prevailing view of the past 25 years has been that the US can thrive as a center of innovation and leave the manufacturing of the products it invents and designs to others. Nothing could be further from the truth.

This logic is predicated on utterly false assumptions about the divisibility of R&D and manufacturing and basic competitive dynamics.

Ok, let's learn from the US's mistakes and maybe we will catch up to Australa. More regulation of business Mr Key?

Five minutes with Alain de Botton

2010-02-06T17:08:00.007+13:00

“We usually believe gossip about ourselves to have been inspired by a level of malice far greater [or more critical] than the malice we ourselves feel in relation to the last person we gossiped about, a person whose habits we could mock without this in any way altering our affection for them.” So wrote Alain de Botton (photo: Vincent Starr) in his book How Proust Can Change Your Life, quite a long time ago. Since then his writing has come in for a fair amount of malicious criticism of its own; at times even causing him to lose his temper, which is somehow hard to believe. But he’s also sold millions of copies of his books.

His TV series ‘The Perfect Home’ and ‘Status Anxiety’ have screened here. ‘The Perfect Home’, adapted from The Architecture of Happiness, is that rare beast: a TV show that educates. Its unmissable three hour-long episodes critique mass developer housing and make the case that property developers need to give house-buyers a choice before they glibly claim a particular architectural style is what they want. To paraphrase from How Proust Can Change Your Life, de Botton’s TV series do what more television should do: “Namely bring back to life, from the deadness caused by habit and inattention, valuable yet neglected aspects of experience.”

In The Pleasure and Sorrow of Work (discussed here on video) de Botton considers a loss of meaning through endless job specialisation, and mentions the break he made from academic writing when he decided to place himself in his work.

In 2009 de Botton won a search for a Writer-in-Residence at London’s Heathrow Airport, and wrote a book about his experiences, A Week at the Airport. Also last year, de Botton was made an honorary fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects in recognition of his services to architecture.

NZBC caught up with Alain for a Davidoff Café Riche, quizzed him on steamroller capitalism and asked for directions to Gate 12, Terminal One. Read on…

Happy 85th birthday, Russell Hoban

2010-02-04T09:29:00.003+13:00

“Twilight it was, the dying day shivering a little and huddling itself up in its cloak. Suddenly there came flying towards me with a mouse dangling from its beak an owl, what is called a veiled owl, with a limp mouse dangling from its cryptic heart-shaped face.” Pilgermann, Russell Hoban (Photograph of Russell Hoban by John Carey)

The real Shem-el-Nessim

2010-01-31T23:21:00.002+13:00

Long-time NZBC readers may remember my short story ‘Shem-el-Nessim’, first posted here in instalments, back in 2006. Since then, it has appeared in print, in Zahir magazine in the US and a Postscripts anthology called ‘This Is The Summer of Love’ in the UK.

The story was inspired by a framed advertisement from an old magazine for a real perfume called Shem-el-Nessim, made by the London company J. Grossmith and Son. Before writing it I did some internet research to attempt to find out whether the company still existed, what its address was in the 1920s when the story was set, and to try to find out as much as I could about the perfume’s history. At the time, other than some auctions of vintage packaging and advertising material on eBay, I couldn’t find much in the public domain. However, in the process, I did stumble on an unexpected link to the infamous occultist Aleister Crowley. That, of course, had to be included in the story.

You can imagine how pleased I was a couple of months ago to hear from a direct descendant of John Grossmith, Simon Brooke, who has recently re-launched Grossmith and its perfumes: “Your story is very special for me and I would very much like to know what inspired you,” Simon emailed.

He tells me Shem-el-Nessim is now the best seller of Grossmith’s three new launch scents, and today wrote with further news about the perfume and his connection with the Grossmith dynasty. Read on…

No bones, lovely

2010-01-04T21:58:00.002+13:00

I wasn't really looking forward to going and seeing The Lovely Bones - I felt I had to. But I came out a fan.

I've read what the critics have said and seen the, rather ugly, US box office numbers. I don't care, I like this film.

Yes, it is sentimental, pulling a lot of heartstrings - and sentimentality is the enemy of great art. But somehow Jackson, Wilde and company pull it off, for me anyway.

The CGI was significant, and at one point I thought too much, but then even that redeemed itself.

I've never read Alice Sebold's book and probably never will. But the film held my attention throughout with very good performances, tension and, I thought, great non-exploitative taste in the way a brutal subject was depicted.

Nabokov’s ‘The Original of Laura’

2009-12-22T12:22:00.003+13:00

All of the reviewers I’ve taken notice of so far seem uncertain about whether this book should have been published. I’ve only just started reading it so I’ll reserve judgement on its literary merits. But I’ve said it before and I think it bears saying again: the experience of a book shouldn’t be defined by story alone. A book can also—and nowadays I might even be able to make a case for should—be an artefact. Even insubstantial works can be something to treasure, to covet, to grace your furniture and your life. I’m enjoying just holding and looking at The Original of Laura; weighing the stock in my hand, marvelling at the care that went into the selection of the typefaces, the work that went into matching the printing of the reverse sides of the index cards with their fronts then micro-perforating them. Renowned book jacket designer Chip Kidd has shown great restraint in creating a cover that is both classy and modern. Some of the snootier reviewers are rattling on about questionable constructions in the introduction by and resorting to insults (calling Dmitri snobbish brings to mind the words pot, kettle and black). Others pointlessly compare it with earlier, completed works. For now I’m happy to enjoy Laura as artefact, reminding myself that we can still make luxurious mass-produced objects when we try, and confirming for myself that there’s no substitute for printed word on paper and won’t be for a while.

The Death of Bunny Munro: it’ll be nice when it’s finished

2009-12-18T11:15:00.003+13:00

Nick Cave’s The Death of Bunny Munro has rightly received upbeat notices elsewhere. For a book written by a rock star hobby novelist it’s admirably free of writerly showing off and holds the reader’s attention until the final line. It’s even rarer for a modern novel to be unencumbered by typographical and editing errors. At least, it is until you get to the ending; I’m going to be charitable and suggest it’s bad editing and not bad writing. Because it would be unusual for a writer to destroy so much of the goodwill he’s created in the preceding pages in the final paragraph. This book succeeds with a clunker. I’d go as far as to say I was loving it until I got to the final line, and I say this largely because I haven’t seen the ending referred to in any of the other reviews I’ve read.

The editors at the Text Publishing Company deserve to be locked in a room with access only to style manuals for a month for letting it go to press. It has a “Will this do?” quality, not to mention a tautology worthy of the late Hylda Baker. Anyway, you be the judge. Here, with the obligatory SPOILER ALERT for those who haven’t read it, is the final paragraph in its entirety.

“Bunny Junior watches a policewoman with long blonde hair trailing behind her like moulded plastic and her radio transmitter squelching its own private language and her warm, merciful, adult face smiling down at him as she kneels on the street and says, ‘Come on, little man, let me help you,’ and Bunny Junior gently pushes her outstretched hand to one side and, standing, stands up above.”

The day after the day after tomorrow

2009-11-30T13:45:00.003+13:00

Things I learned from watching 2012.

That the world values novelists, especially failed ones, and that they will be welcomed into refuge should the world look like ending, even if they endanger the lives of thousands of people.

That plastic surgeons will not be valued should the world look like ending, likewise Russian billionaires.

The Chinese can build anything, real quick.

A major shock will stop a seven-year-old wetting the bed.

Even if you are a neglectful, obsessive jerk, your ex-wife and children will forgive you, given enough time.

You should not live on an earthquake faultline, even if your career depends on it. Or in the Third World.

A few more words

2009-11-30T12:16:00.002+13:00

My week in the media for In a Word turned into a month or so, thanks to the interest of radio and TV. I did lots of interviews in the end, and had chats on Radio NZ and TVNZ, in the form of Media Watch and Media7, blabbing about words and subbing (and the book).

Mediawatch here and Media7 here.

I was very grateful for the attention, refreshed in finding that other people in the media still care about words, and hope my warbling made people who love language smile and nod and frown and shake their heads, and maybe a few pick up the book in shops to see if it's their thing.

Oddly, and it may be ironically, the papers and mags didn't make much of the book. In that I mean they hardly mentioned it. A very positive review appeared in the Your Weekend magazine that goes out in Saturday's DomPost, Press and Waikato Times, thanks, but I had hoped one of the nation's print publications, who seem to take words seriously, would have a good go at the book, spotting its strengths and weaknesses, its intent and hubris. Nup. Maybe someone in the UK press will, now it's over there.

My original week in the media is here.

Block heads

2009-11-30T11:58:00.003+13:00

A church has been fined for blocking cellphones during services.

You can, at least for the moment, freely import cellphone signal jammers, but you are not allowed to make or use them without gaining a licence from MED. Corrections is one of the few bodies that can use them, to curtail the freedom of prisoners digitally as well as physically.

This is the wrong way round. All cinemas should be able to block the use of cellphones, as should theatres, hospitals, restaurants, clubs and bars. Churches even. Anywhere people gather for pleasure and a bit of peace. Go outside.

Compare smoking. This is no longer permitted anywhere indoors for the deleterious effect it has on those who don't choose to inhale. Cellphone yappers and yellers should not be allowed to pollute the world of sound, or the cinema's dark cocoon with their flashlight screens. Be important somewhere else.

Thomas Pynchon: ‘Inherent Vice’

2009-11-23T23:23:00.005+13:00

See, hippie private investigator Doc Sportello is, like, incorruptible. Least, it seems he’s immune to LAPD Detective ‘Bigfoot’ Bjornsen’s offers of “Special Employee disbursements” in exchange for ratting on everyone he’s ever met.

It’s taken me two reads and a couple of months to make a start on this review, and somehow that feels just about right. Because one of the things reading Thomas Pynchon’s Inherent Vice drove home to me is that book reviews are all wrong, man. You need time. Time for the book to settle, to silt over; to gather moss… Not that I changed my ideas about Vice from the first read to the second. I knew I was going to like it soon’s I started reading. So I also, like, knew writing this was going to take a while, but I didn’t realise it’d take this long, man.

Actually I kinda thought I’d already written it. I guess I just dreamt that, or lost it or something… Anyway, before I’d even got to the end of the first chapter, Jeff Bridges as The Big Lebowski’s Dude had become Pynchon’s protagonist Doc Sportello. And in case you haven’t guessed, I’ve started channelling him. Read on…

Hmmm. So when did Labour get to do this?

2009-10-29T00:26:00.011+13:00

Yup the Bill English ads on TVNZ7 suck a huge unbalanced kumara.

I'd love to see the beneficiaries of such publicly funded advertising largesse, that is Bill English, calling foul in situations like this. But I guess a shareholding minister standing up, strong and proud, for editorial independence in his own state broadcaster is too much to expect.

You know? Leadership. Too much to expect.

It's not too much to expect of TVNZ's edirorial staff, though. Why aren't they speaking up, as opposed to their PR department?

National is heading down the same hubristic alley Labour went down. Given I voted for them for the first time ever at the last election, that saddens, but doesn't surprise me.

And while I'm at it, how come the "Fight for life" between Bill and Ted ain't on YouTube? Come on TVNZ, give us a bit of history.

Update: I hear the ed staff have been kicking up about it, so well done etc.

Expecting kids to act like adults

2009-10-21T08:32:00.005+13:00

Hey, did you hear the one about the bunch of high school kids who acted immaturely?

I simply cannot believe the reaction to these Grammar boys who got down and dirty at the Museum.

Auckland Grammar School principal John Morris said there was absolutely no justification for the immature and unthinking actions of the boys.

Ahh, there's your justification John. Those "boys" are, in fact, immature. They also have a lot of testosterone rolling around in their bodies. High spirits come easily at that age, remember?

Now, much as I enjoy seeing Grammar in a bad light, I remember doing Nazi salutes at High School back in 1975. We knew what those salutes were. We thought they were funny too - because it's a really, really pompous and ridiculous gesture.

We did it because it's outrageous.

Of course, there was no Facebook then to provide easy and cheap moral panics for the media.

Meanwhile, it looks as if National is as keen on the nanny state as Labour was, banning people from driving around in circles.

Hollywood nightmares

2009-10-19T10:41:00.004+13:00

The number of films produced in Hollywood is set to fall from 600-odd to 400, perhaps fewer.

The reasons, ostensibly, are three: the big banks massively pulling out of funding blockbusters and mid-size movies, the digital "revolution" in which the more savvy people download much of what they might want to see, and American films fighting smart new locally grown efforts.

Once-booming DVD sales have stalled, stemming a golden revenue stream that to some extent subsidised the big studios.

Mark Gill, head of the Film Department, an independent film finance firm, predicted that last year's peak of 606 films to emerge from Hollywood would fall to fewer than 400 next year "and it may go lower than that in future".

I say hooray.

Since I gave up film reviewing a few months ago - a combination of factors, since you ask, but mostly just not enough time to do justice to something I really enjoyed - I have seen precisely one film: An Education. (Terrific, by the way. I have no idea if Lynn Barber was really as self-possessed at 16 as young Jenny, but if she was, she would have had a train of wide-eyed, spotty uniformed boys drooling and terrified in equal measure.)

You realise, once you are no longer exposed to the new-release frisson, that of the 50-80 films a year you see (easily many more if you wanted), only about 5 would you really, really miss. Most films released are not unredeemable crap, but the vast majority are of a quality and interest that can be - and are - easily transferred to an ad-ribboned state on Saturday night TV two years hence.

And though the industry likes to demonise downloading, it is possible to argue that a better economic model might have helped slow the scree slide that's beneath this latest doom.

Movie fans place a value on new releases that varies according to desire. A horror fan is likely to pay a premium to see the latest exemplar of the genre with all the sleeve-note trimmings first, likewise a sci-fi or action nut. Why can't they? The market would, as it always does, find the price point, depending on punter: eager or blase, mortgaged to the hilt or independently wealthy, urban elite or theatre-bereft ruralite.

Surely, along those lines, it is possible to charge more for a much-anticipated movie for the first week or two it's showing in cinemas, but discount it for those would otherwise wait for the DVD or pay-TV window. The release (and discounting) of DVDs happens more speedily these days - but still too slowly to really counter downloads or take advantage of those who will pay something, if perhaps not as much as distributors anticipate under the current model.

Bright sparks

2009-10-14T18:00:00.001+13:00

Last week, I spoke to University of Auckland PhD students as part of a media tour for my word reference book, In a Word. (It's the best NZ uni in the country, my alma mater.)

As you'd expect, they were a bright bunch. A fair few were from other countries - China, Japan, Bolivia. They ranged across disciplines, including linguistics, which I was pleased to see, having done six papers in it back in the Jurassic era, and English, my major. I was fascinated with, and probably a bit envious of, all the theses they mentioned (Chinese-English differences, Spanish news reporting, forgotten 17th C novelists).

I was introduced by Dr Jennifer Curtin, a friend but, more importantly, the associate dean, and former NZ Herald editor Gavin Ellis. Gavin said horribly complimentary things about In a Word, including wishing he'd had it during his career, which, he noted, if mine had begun back in the Jurassic, had flourished in the Cretaceous.

I talked about Samuel Johnson and how dictionaries and thesauruses are brilliant - I have many - but don't do everything you want. So I wrote my own.

Afterwards, one PhDer asked me jokingly if I thought there would eventually be a "Broatch style", I guess something like Strunk & White. I said that I wouldn't be surprised, if the book sold well, that other publishers might try word books that cut words up in different ways, but no, no such style would emerge, I was confident.

It was the foreign students who bought most of the books. It heads towards proving another theory: one of the groups for which In a Word might be valuable is those with good English but who struggle with the subtleties and ridiculous variety of the language - which cheerfully steals from everywhere in pursuit of its global ambition.

Ventura Highway, in the sunshine

2009-10-11T14:13:00.007+13:00

Yup, Stateside. Skipped a connector between La and San Francisco, hired a car and hit the road for two days, up the coast on Highway 1. Parts of it are called the Ventura Highway, other times it blends in with 101, but it's best known as the road that runs up to Big Sur, former home of Henry Miller and the site of Kerouac's most famous drinking crisis in the book of the same name.

The car's a Pontiac, and a good little driver it is - though you need to travel light. First night was in Ventura, which was kinda non-descript. The drive up to San Louis Obispo is great, through orange groves and vineyards, along the coast and through the hills. But the Big Sur coast is the best.

If you ever do it, carry on on Highway 1 all the way to Half Moon Bay, on the coast west of San Fran at least. Very rural and lovely.

Lucked in at the Miller Library though. It was benefit concert night. Me, 200 odd others (some quite odd) and Marianne Faithful. Singing among the pines with one song so dirty you'd have to think Miller would have approved.

Now it's down to work.

Open book

2009-09-28T13:34:00.006+13:00

I just spent a week doing media interviews for my word-finder/vocab-builder/cheat-sheet book, In a Word.

Once I'd got over my nerves and it became clear that my questioners weren't going to pillory me on air, it was good fun. But it didn't start off well.

To read how my week went, continue here.

iPod shuffle insights

2009-08-13T11:04:00.004+12:00

NZBC friend Stephen Stratford, these days over at the always-good-value Quote Unquote blog, says he has detected a bit of a meme around the first 30 songs that come up on your iPod’s shuffle feature. He includes links to a couple of NZ bloggers who’ve done it. Well, I’m a shuffle enthusiast from way back but, nowadays, with a baby to care for, it’s rare for my iPod to chew through 30 consecutive titles before baby switches over to The Wiggles. But in the interests of me-tooism (and because there’s been naff-all else going on around here), here’s this morning’s First 10. Ah, for the time required to actually listen to them all.

1. One Man One Guitar - Jackie Leven
2. Nice Work If You Can Get It - Thelonious Monk
3. Dirty Epic – Underworld
4. Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds - The Beatles
5. A Glimpse of Heaven - The Strawbs
6. Beggar’s Blues – Duke Ellington
7. Hero’s Theme – The Strawbs
8. Pony St. – Elvis Costello
9. All In Love Is Fair – Michael McDonald
10. All This Useless Beauty – Elvis Costello

Try it for yourself: set your iPod to shuffle, write down the first 10 titles (or 30 if you don’t have kids) along with the artist names — no cheating — then post a comment.

And don’t even get me started on plumbers

2009-07-20T14:42:00.002+12:00

We recently moved house. The ‘new’ place was built in the early 1960s and was renovated just before we moved in; new bathroom, toilet, new fixtures and fittings. When our tenancy started I discovered that not a single waste-pipe in the house had even been finger-tightened. Water leaked into the laundry cupboard and the bathroom vanity. The water supply pipes under the house leaked. The new dishwasher hose leaked. The rubber seal built into the plug in the bathtub (a new design that is pushed down to both stop the plughole and release the water) had been stretched and so fell off every time the bath was emptied. The adjustable shower-head attachment — fitted over a vertical pole with a button to set the height — was missing its rubber gasket and so would not support the weight of the shower-head. There were so many things wrong with this supposedly new plumbing that you would have to suspect at least negligence, at the worst deliberate damage. To paraphrase the project manager in charge of the renovation, plumbers aren’t the brightest sparks and are impossible to get hold of when you need them to remedy their handiwork. Mind you, this is the same guy who uttered the immortal words, “That’s a sealed unit,” when referring to the broken shower head attachment. An old friend who’s a builder tells me this lack of attention to detail is pretty much standard for tradesmen, and when I suggested it seemed like a deliberate if misguided attempt to charge more money after being called back to fix the problem, he could only smile and nod his head. If I knew the name of the plumber I’d report this joker — but to whom? This crowd isn’t even internet-savvy enough to have added its members to the website yet.

Go out of business the easy way

2009-07-16T10:55:00.003+12:00

“I’m sorry, due to high call volumes we are unable to attend to your call.”

This is the terse recorded message you are likely to get if you call the toll-free or regular landline number of one New Zealand IT services company. You’re left with the choice of hanging up or leaving a message, which (it almost goes without saying) won’t be returned.

You shouldn’t need to pay for a consultant like one of these guys to find out that this is not good business practice. If I were a potential customer of this company I’d give it a maximum of two calls before I took my business elsewhere. And if you offer to take messages and then fail to call back, you deserve to go out of business.

‘The London suite’

2009-07-15T10:02:00.002+12:00

I’m re-reading Russell Hoban’s later London novels — that’s everything from Mr Rinyo-Clacton’s Offer until his most recent published adult book, My Tango With Barbara Strozzi — and have just finished Angelica’s Grotto. So here’s another quote from it:

“What is this non-existent grail that millions are seeking on the Internet? What is hidden refuses to stay hidden; the collective mind, as in a delirium, vomits up treasures of knowledge and images of longing and madness into the Internet. The seekers after the grail of enoughness think to be secret in the dark but the synapses of that heaving brain lead back to them; they can be found, exposed, discovered, unhidden…”

Russell Hoban, Chapter 29: ‘The gybe’, Angelica’s Grotto, Bloomsbury Publishing

Pink slip

2009-07-11T18:08:00.004+12:00

The Guardian loved it. The New York Times didn't and the New Yorker didn't particularly either. Most local reviewers fell for Sacha Baron Cohen's latest creation, Bruno. Here's what we thought.