R-Money

Just came across the best nickname for Mitt Romney in the comments section of a Vice article. Introducing:

R-Money!!!

The NZ Herald

Would simply reporting the news be so terrible?? Spaces at a memorial service are not a competition.

Based on our respective populations and the numbers that served at Gallipoli we are getting a disproportionate share already.

New Years Eve

So September is about to turn into October which means there is only three months left until New Year's Eve and the New Year. Now the New Year is a time for "rebirth", "reawakenings" and resolutions, but New Year's Eve is a chance for a massive blowout before all that.

The problem with New Year's Eve is that it is built up to such a massive degree that people expect it to be the night of the year (the equivalent of ten awesome Saturday night's in one) and it often just turns into another average Saturday night.

There are exceptions of course, NYE 2010 which I spent in Budapest was fours days of absolute mayhem and it was awesome (The image above is from the Sparty we went to).

So the question is how do you have a blowout New Year's eve or at least dampen the expectations that come with it?

The great thing is that this year you don't have to worry. Last year La De Da was a wet, muddy and miserable experience and to top off the horrible weather the headline act was absolute pants, despite the fact they have a video that tugs at the heart strings of scarfie memories and talk that they were awesome live (they weren't). In January of this year there was no chance I was going back to La De Da. But...

But they have managed to redeem themselves. This year the headline act for La De Da will be Shapeshifter. Shapeshifter (for those that don't know) are New Zealand's premier live band, they don't do concerts they do earth-shattering out of body experiences. With Shapeshifter bringing in the New Year at La De Da it is guaranteed to be an epic (and hence elusive) New Year's.

De La Soul are also dropping by but more exciting are likely to be Dub FX (who were one of the highlights of last year) and the Wellington rapper Tommy Ill and band Brockaflowersaurus Rex and The Blueberry Biscuit.

The Naked Truth

Jonathan Jones has a fantastic piece on the Kate Middleton topless photographs scandal.

The best bit is:

The real distress the Closer photographs have caused the royal family is not personal, or private, but political. They undermine the fabrication of royal power. In a year when the British have reinvigorated their archaic cult, these pictures revealed the naked truth that royals are just like everyone else. The royal titters in the Pacific suggest that to anyone who joins the Windsor family, that idea is so difficult to comprehend, it's funny.