Who let that happen??

You know some people I know don't see the value in having a campaign carry out advance checks ahead of the candidate's visit. Well let this little snippet be a lesson for you.

Clearly the McCain campaign don't believe in a decent advance either - unbelievably, a Palin impersonator appeared right behind McCain at a rally over the weekend. I love how she smiles, nods and waves to the crowd as McCain talks up his running mate. Who let her up there? Absolutely classic.

Yes you can can

I checked out Young at Heart tonight, the inspiring story of a choir made up of 80-somethings who sing rock songs. Not only was it absolutely hilarious to see oldies singing tracks by Bowie, The Clash, Talking Heads, Sonic Youth, the Bee Gees, James Brown etc, but it was actually at time incredibly moving.

The doco followed the groups preparations for their new show - Alive and Well. Naturally given their age there are losses along the way and Fred's Johnny Cash-esque performance of Coldplay's Fix You that he dedicated to Bob and Joe, stole the show for me. Mind you Forever Young at the Prison was fantastic as was their video of the Ramones, I Want to Be Sedated and Bowie's Golden Years.

Young at Heart is the sort of film that is impossible to watch without smiling and I definitely recommend checking it out. It came out last year and was part of the film festival earlier this year - so it should be easy enough to find. Trailer below.

Having a good pick

This week at work we are going to do a combined US/NZ election sweep - in both cases it could either be a close win for the underdog or a landslide. We're going to pick the party vote percentages in NZ and electoral college in the states.

So here goes
NZ
National 44
Labour 38
Green 8
NZ First 5
Maori 2.3 and will win 4 seats
ACT 1.6 but will lose Epsom and be gone
UF 0.5
Prog 0.5

Ok so in Epsom I'm hoping Labourites actually use their brain and vote for Richard Worth (10-15% of Labour voters supported Hide last time FFS). On the Maori seats - I don't believe the hype that they will win all seven Maori seats, they talked up how they were going to get at least 2 new Maori seats last year when the Maori roll was open - and they were embarrassingly way off.

USA
Im going with my heart and picking a landslide - Im backing Obama to pick up Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Florida, Iowa, Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, Virginia and Indiana on top of the states Kerry won in 04. So that would make it Obama 364 votes to McCain's 174.

In saying that though - I dont think many of those will be big wins and the reality is that even if Obama picks up some of those states it won't matter if McCain can pick up Pennsylvania and hold Indiana, Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida - he will win. But hey I'm a betting man and will go with the heart on this one.

Why don't we have coverage like this?

This year Sky News has stole a march on lame-o 3 news and TVNZ's election with their Campaign 08 coverage - they have actual in-depth interviews with leaders! Well the ones that show up anyway. All the same I think its great to see the more mainstream channels being shown again how to do their jobs.

Speaking of which, here is MSNBC's very excellent Rachel Maddow opening up a can on Palin over her abuse of power in the trooper-gate episode. Its annoying that we don't get MSNBC here, but hey the interwebs mean you can get your fix through the Rachel Maddow podcast on iTunes.

TV3 - One big family?

Just saw this over on the spare room - now I've thought at times that Campbell Live wasn't far off the ABC's excellent satire - Frontline, but TV3 seem to have taken it to a new level... They've actually ripped off Frontline's hammy 'One Big Family' promo - but not in an ironic way, they're actually serious. I wonder if the similarities extend to the stars not actually wanting to be in each others company - the bit where they get someone else to do Brooke's high-five with the weatherman after she refused to touch him was classic!

Spot the difference -

Credit crunch?

Last week a finance company offered me $7000 then today I got a text from a finance company offering me a pre-approved $5000 loan and when I got home there was a letter from the bank offering me a another credit card. WTF? I thought we were in some sort of crisis?

It would be rude to say no though right?

McCain accidently left on campaign bus

Rimutaka uh-huh

I think the Rimutaka seat is going to be way tighter than most pundits are picking. While Paul Swain held an 8000 strong majority, the seat has picked up the very tory Belmont hills and dropped the very red Taita suburb and with high profile NZ First MP Ron Mark standing, there is a real chance of a split vote.

So today I thought I would have a look at the tory candidate's website.... and I found this. Dude wtf?

He's an award winning Elvis impersonator - Upper Hutt's greatest in fact. I wonder if he does the Vegas-Elvis karate moves during candidates debates? I would vote for that shit.

The Enemies of Reason

After doing something incredibly irrational (watching the NZ Cricket team flail about in Chittagong) I watched The Enemies of Reason, Richard Dawkins' follow up to his fantastic documentary on organised religion - The Root of All Evil, to balance me out. The new doco examines how superstition and new age treatments and alternative therapies are being presented as cool, regularly filling column inches in magazines and newspapers, despite having no scientific evidence to prove that they work or that they are anything more than a sham.

As you might have guessed, I'm no fan of alternative medicine or therapies. In fact I think the term 'alternative' is a little kind and somewhat misleading - it basically means untested, unproven and unlikely to work. If it works - get it tested and proven. But they know its a sham and they know proper testing will likely prove that.

In New Zealand this whole hokum industry is a particular concern as people seem willing to give this crap a go and more so since the government failed to pass the Joint Trans-Tasman Therapeutic Products Authority legislation. So given there is no regulation you can basically bottle any old rubbish and chuck a label on it claiming it can cure cancer - and that would be legal. Worse still, utter rubbish like Sensing Murder seems to have a huge audience - despite the fact that its psychics have been exposed as sham with an Australian Current Affairs show finding that psychic Deb Webber can talk to dead people - even if they never existed.

I agree with Dawkins - like religion, these conjurers are actually dangerous and shouldnt be hailed by the media or idiotic celebrities (including Prince Charles and Hillary - Chopra). Rational people need to actually call this crap for what it is - false hope for those desperately seeking a cure or closure after the loss of a loved one.

Anyway below is a clip with Dawkins challenging an astrologist to test his readings and a psychic doing a reading.

Burn After Reading

I checked out the Coen Brothers new film, Burn After Reading, the other night. Its a return to their more unorthodox black comedy fare of the Fargo or Barton Fink kind and a welcome one at that.

It follows John Malkovich's character Osbourne Cox who ends up the victim of a weird blackmail attempt after quiting his job as a CIA agent after being demoted and losing his wife Katie (Tilda Swinton) to a wooden-floor-obsessed Treasury Department official played by George Clooney.

Throughout you are unsure where the hell the story is going as two inept gym bunnies - the depressed middle aged woman, Linda Litzke, played by Frances McDormand and the ultra camp himbo, Chad, played by Brad Pitt - try to extort money for Linda's cosmetic surgery from Cox after they find a disc containing classified material at the gym.

At the same time you have Clooney's character being followed throughout by sinister looking characters while he is also constructing something using menacing looking tubes in his basement - leaving you wondering when it is going to inadvertently turn dark.

Ultimately though this is a great satirical take on the CIA, espionage and how the US sees itself in the world. Its almost a wink to the rest of the world that the whole US intelligence thing is just as shambolic as everywhere else!

I won't say exactly what ends up happening or what Clooney is building, but this is a classic Coen work with a fucked up climax of Fargo proportions. Definitely check it out, trailer below

Feel good about yourself and all that

This seems to have flown under the radar a little, but that doyenne of the green movement, Mobil, has brought biofuels to Wellington. Yay.

Back in June Mobil began trialling the fuel at its Johnsonville station and a couple of weeks ago it arrived at the Karori station and 'two others' - which I assume means the Kilbirnie one and a Hutt one.

The 98 or super has up to 10% biofuels and the 91 has up to 3% - but anyway its a good start.

Lame

I'm actually starting to think the Brits might be on to something with not bothering with TV debates. They're a sham.

Every single debate I have seen this year has been a rock solid waste of time. Tonight's TV One debate between Clark and Key fell right into that category, I think I spoke for many when I shouted "would someone tell John Key to shut the fuck up?"

I can't have been the only one to get hacked off with Key constantly blahhing on while Helen was talking. The stupid thing is - if that was Biden shouting over Palin or Obama shouting over Clinton's answers, they would have been called sexist and patronising - but here, Key does it with a smile and Armstrong calls him 'prime minister in waiting' FFS.

Our lame media still seem to think repeating a couple of slogans with an earnest look on your face is enough - I ask you, what the hell were the Herald journalists watching?? Does Audrey get in trouble with her father and brother if she doesnt talk Key up? I don't normally agree with Fran but at least she is rational:

Clark scored best on the issue du jour - the international credit crisis. She has a post-election plan. Key doesn't.

Key was initially ineffectual letting Clark walk over him (shades of Don Brash). He recovered and successfully challenged Clark's rhetoric on climate change and crime.

But to win, he needs to come up with fresh material at the next debate to convince us he can deal with the crisis. Not just talk slogans.

Also while I'm at it - did John Key have more hair? Is he a male pattern baldness denier? Just putting it out there - but I'm suspecting some ruggage.

I think I would sooner watch hour long in depth interviews with someone like Kim Hill - or even someone new like Oliver Driver, who did excellent interviews on Alt and was all over that clown on the dopey new copyright law this morning. Hell lets get Katie Couric!

Uncanny

Well that was some weekend huh? Obviously someone forgot to tell Mr Key that the green light means go. So far he seems to be doing his best impression of Garth Tander's performance at Bathurst over the weekend - starting on pole, Tander butchered his race... just like someone else on the very same afternoon... As the title says - its uncanny. (only watch the first 40 or secs to get the idea)



Meanwhile Helen looks like she's trying to emulate Kiwi's amazing run in the 83 Melbourne Cup - within two days we have re-training policies, a universal student allowance announcement and an actual approach to the economic crisis!

Damn Aro hippies

I haven't really been enthused enough to talk politics on here in the last few weeks - despite the rapidly approaching elections! So far its just been a little same old-same old for my liking. But I do live in a neighbourhood where there is a relatively high amount of activism, so I thought I would take a look at what has been happening around these parts.

There was the now infamous 'meet the candidates' event in the living room of a flat down Aro St, but apart from that it has actually been the minor parties who have been loudest.

During the last City Council elections, I only received propaganda from the Greens, and as I result (and due to the poor selection of candidates) I gave my '1' vote to them for the City ward.

Now given the area I currently live in has a reputation for being a lefty/greeny haven, it's no great surprise that I get stuff from the Greens - but obviously with the developments down Aro St the right also seem to be thinking this is fertile ground.

We're four weeks into the campaign and this is what I have got so far and the number of hoardings they have in the valley:

Greens: 2 pamphlets, 0 direct mail, 4 hoardings
ACT: 2 pamphlets, 1 direct mail, 1 hoarding
National: 1 pamphlet, 0 direct mail, 3 hoardings
Labour: 0 pamphlets, 0 direct mail, 2 hoardings
Alliance: 0 pamphlets, 0, direct mail, 1 Hoarding
Workers Party: 1 painted sheet with logo (where else would you find that?)

Early days, but I think I might need to reassess my voting habits! The hard-right hippies might have a difficult choice??

Update: This week we have the more official Aro Valley Meet the Candidates at the Community Centre (Tues 14 Oct at 7pm), but it does clash with the Shepherds Quiz so doubt I'll be there.

Cactussing the night away

Last night ended up being quite a big one.

I checked out the Family Cactus at Mighty Mighty with all the cool kids. It was their first Wellington gig in about six months, having spent a shit load of time pulling together a debut album!

It was a great night - they sound a whole lot like the Phoenix Foundation but with country (Cardinals) influences and our Adam sounded a whole lot like the vocalist from the Strokes.

So keep your eyes open for their debut album.

First willing Chinese astronauts

Devoid of inspiration so more video!