December 2008
58 posts
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“I ask whether she liked the Friedan book. “Yeah, I did. God, she was a...”
– This snippet from this interview made me think Kate Winslet needs a new P.A.
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Topshoppery →
My lastest buy - a black spandex strapless body suit. I plan to wear it with a stonewashed denim pencil skirt (which I will hopefully find at Fast & Loose, my favourite vintage shop in Auckland,) and this scarf. Bring on summer!
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Following on from my Winston Peters post (and at...
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So, American Wife
I recently wagged blogging because was so engrossed in this book. By the end, I felt let down by the main character - I found her cowardly.
I can understand, as the politician’s wife you might need to put on a public persona for your partner on things you personally don’t agree with (I doubt I could manage this though, unless someone put a bridle on me) but even in her personal life...
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The private life of Ashley Cole
Here is popbitch’s take on the upcoming Ashley Cole privacy case (which I have been banging on about):
2008’s most high-profile privacy case involved Max Mosley. 2009 is shaping up to be Ashley Cole’s year. Ashley, husband of “National Treasure Cheryl” Cole will be going to court to defend his right to celebrity privacy in the Autumn.
Cole is...
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Shock horror: Cosmo writes rubbish →
Scarlett Johanssen is threatening to sue UK Cosmopolitan unless it prints a retraction of quotes she says are “absolutely fabricated”.
Cosmo refutes the allegation, saying that it merged an interview done by the US edition of the magazine with quotes taken from an agency interview.
Ooooh I hear the sound of eggshells being treaded. What I didn’t realise before I worked in...
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Hello
I have been wagging the tumblr-sphere as I’ve been engrossed in American Wife. I am really enjoying it but my sympathy for Alice Blackwell, the main character, has been progressively waning. She may well redeem herself but I doubt it.
Nearly there! Back soon.
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Blogger Beware →
This TechCrunch post underlines the importance of taking website security seriously (though the guy it refers to sounds like a crook). At work, web agreements with smaller parties have often been delayed or frustrated by our insistence on data security; if you misuse or mislay your customer data you may as well use your brand for loo roll.
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Do they have crowd scenes chorusing "who ate all... →
Shane Warne the Musical has just debuted in Melbourne. Hope it comes to London!
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Clash of the Titans: Chezza vs Heat →
Current focus of a nation’s obsession Cheryl Cole has threatened to sue Heat magazine in respect of allegations made regarding a recent Vogue fashion shoot, which Chez claims are false. She’s seeking a full retraction and apology and payment of legal costs.
If you google now you might catch the allegations before every copycat media outlet pulls them off their website. I didn’t...
Watchsomethingchanged:
Around the world in 4 minutes! This is 2008, my (overseas) year in pictures, painstakingly assembled with iPhoto and iMovie during a long phone conference this afternoon.
Check out the fantastic clip my interwebz pal made of her travels in 2008. NYC 09 twin! Heart the Ladyhawke soundtrack.
Photo via Jessica_Flickr
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But I remembered when I was in Dunedin in the... →
Love love. I just searched “Wah Lee”, as I’m looking for chinese lanterns to buy when I’m back in Auckland and the Wah Lee Company is the place for things Chinese in Auckland. Anyway I found this very cute blog, pondering the friendliness of South Islanders versus North Islanders by proprietor Barry Wah Lee. He has another squiddo page here.
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Frothing at the mouth re employment bill possibly... →
Good article here by David Beatson as to why the “ramming through” of the Employment Probation Bill isn’t quite as sinister as I first might have thought. The comments bit at the end is worth a look too. I’m still inherenetly distrustful of legislation like this and the uncertainty it creates for those most in need of the protection of employment legislation. BUT I can see...
Work Choices returns. →
Remember - the ill fated employment legislation that Australia just chucked out? Only this time it’s on the other side of the Tasman. WTF. Well educated professional people (like the Hag, dare I say it) won’t be affected by this Bill; the marginalised and those most in need of security of income will.
At least have the guts to get it properly debated.
*rage*
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Boring web news: .Tel registrations open →
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, through UK company Telnic, have launched a new domain name, .TEL, which is apparently going to be an ”online telephone directory” without the need for businesses to maintain domain names and the like. Apparently it will also make life easier for the average punter to find such businesses, as they won’t have to make those...
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Barbie vs Bratz →
No more Bratz for the brats - Barbie killed them.
I think this case is more accurately framed as an employment dispute - without reading the judgment it seems the crux of the matter was that Carter Bryant, the creator of the Bratz dolls, was employed for Mattel when he came up with the Bratz idea. I think it’s of secondary importance that the Bratz resemble Barbie (both plastic slappers -...
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Dubya not as batshit crazy as we all thought? →
I think this interview of President Bush is more interesting on account of what he’s let the electorate believe over the last eight years, rather than who he says he really is. If this interview is to be believed, George W. is a realist, a politician of broad religious tolerance, and not some crackpot fundamentalist on a mission from God.
So far so good. This is the kind of religious belief...
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Feckless millennials →
Here’s another article on the Noelle McCarthy plagiarism story, (which I have commented on previously) which seems to be the hot New Zealand story at the moment.
I resent this lazy generalisation of all “millennials” as bone-idle, work-shy, light-fingered content pinchers. In my mind this was an instance of a journalist taking the mickey - nothing to do with the year she was...
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Content costs money. →
This article by Andrew Sullivan in today’s Sunday Times is bang on - pointing out that, while print media is in dramatic decline and their online counterparts are on the up, the creators of online content often don’t have the resources of the old school newsrooms, and thus content quality will suffer.
His idea of a “luxury” print edition, with an expanded online product...
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"Music for bedwetters*" plagiarism? →
*as Coldplay’s music was famously and aptly dubbed by Oasis manager Alan McGee.
Rock guitarist Joe Satriani has filed papers in Los Angeles alleging that Coldplay song Viva la Vida uses one of his riffs without permission.
I don’t know what the song sounds like, thankfully, as I wear earplugs when there’s any danger of being in a Coldplay Aural Zone.
It will be interesting to...
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Shut up you smart alec →
God I do not miss Law School one bit.
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My Christmas present to myself →
is a copy of The Great New Zealand Argument, a collection of works about what defines New Zealand and New Zealanders, by Russell Brown.
I intend to read it lying in the sun at the Parnell Baths, one of my favourite spots in Auckland. Two weeks and one day til I get on that plane!
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New Zealand joins the digital world at glacial... →
Or is it just Bill Ralston? For a start, his starting point was flawed - I’ve never thought of ”convergence” as an uber monster that was going to knock out all our best loved forms of technology… more a smorgasbord that would satisfy a ADD-esque interest in The Media (all of it).
More and more though, it is impossible to put my media consumption into discrete boxes: I...
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Gutless Amazon →
I have very little patience for hyper sensitive religious (or quasi religious)institutions who can’t handle criticism. You want to tell people how to run their lives, you can deal with a bit of flak.
This kind of gutlessness by Amazon (or by anyone) really irks me. The reason for pulling the book: “Unfortunately, we have had to withdraw The Complex by John Duignan in the UK because we...
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the institution of marriage is irreparably unjust →
Purported feminist arguments like this make me really angry. Who says marriage is irreparably unjust? Of course I understand that, historically, it marriage has been a tool of opression for women.
Be the change you want to see in the world - make your marriage an example of using this flawed old institution and creating something just and fair within it. Or don’t. I don’t care. Just...
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