Gil Scott-Heron is dead, but his unique voice and inspiring words will live forever

Poet, novelist, musician, spoken-word guru, campaigner, thorn in the side of the establishment, victim of his own weaknesses: Gil Scott-Heron, who died in New York at the weekend, was a multi-faceted figure, one of the definitive African American voices of the past 50 years, alongside James Brown, Curtis Mayfield, Toni Morrison, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder and Prince.

For more go here 

Check out `The revolution will not be televised'

  

Oh the Irony

Here's a weird one for ya.  How is it that a company that produces a product if used as directed will fuck your lungs has got one of the most rigourous, as opposed to rigor mortis, health and safety policies I've ever seen. 

In BOLD words it states: We care about the health of our employees.  What it doesn't say is We couldn't give a fuck about the health of our customers, but I guess you can take that as read right?

Some recent builds

This is what me and the boys knocked up last week, if you're looking for a solid erection, we're your guys.

Attention All Concerned Citizens (gotta be at least 3 of ya)

There are very many talented people around us who make amazing art. At the same time, 18 people in New Zealand are currently being bankrupted by the cost of fighting questionable charges following the ‘Operation 8’ raids conducted around the country on October 15th, 2007. To address these concerns, more than 50 artists from around New Zealand are exhibiting their work in the hope of raising funds (and awareness) to support the victims of the raids and their families. 

Go to this link to find out more:  

https://sites.google.com/site/concernedcitizensexhibition/

 

Yahoo

Yahooxtra need to be shouted some top quality piss for this slideshow, give the photographer(s) a raise coz it gave me one:).

A Wee taste...you wish, not so sure how slide 15 got in there though.

Stunners in the stand - ultimate edition

Now that NZ have wrapped up another Sevens title we take a look back at some of the stunners who lit up the stands.

Photo by Getty Images

You know it's bad when...

Uh  Oh the lawyer has jacked it in, that can only mean one of two things:

either he sees the writing on the hill, or Tel hasn't paid his bill, AGAIN.

maybe the new airport sign should be BROKEARSEWOOD

Wallywood

And that's all I have to say  about that.

Didn't occur to me first time I read it, however...

Annette King said this yesterday:

“It still astounds me that in New Zealand we have a min­is­ter for race horses, a min­is­ter of the Rugby World Cup, a min­is­ter for senior cit­i­zens but no min­is­ter for the most vul­ner­a­ble in our com­mu­nity, our kids.”

Whaleoil pointed this out today: 


While it may astound Annette King that we have a min­is­ter for race­horses it must have escaped her, or per­haps she will­fully ignored the fact that she was a key mem­ber of cab­i­net that vastly increased sub­si­dies to the blood­stock indus­try and rac­ing clubs so that Win­ston peters could con­tinue to sup­port them. It prob­a­bly also escaped her that Winston’s secret back­ers were all race horse fanciers. So while she is astounded we are not.

1 nil to the Whale.

Best SSTimes headline ever

Front page of the Sunday Star Times today, print version only, bugger.

The story stated that science says we blokes have to relax on the couch after a hard days graft, we go to an early grave if we don't, however the missus goes to an early grave if she ends up doing all the work.


So science is on our side guys but the missus ain't gonna be if ya try this one on.

Comedy Review

Jan Maree live at the most unpleasant venue you could ever put a performer of her stature in.  Jan is FILTHY, FUNNY and FABULOUS lucky fucking Bitch.

If I was ever to set  myself up as a com-prom (comedy promoter) she would be my first booking - playing somewhere classy like the Matterhorn or the Roxy, perfect.

Unfucking believable

So this is yet another example of Labour's brilliant political strategy eh?
The clown who is in charge of their interweb thingy unleashes this, really!!!
Self fulfilling prophecy or simply going arse to mouth. Just like voting for labore, you just don't do it.

Operation 8 update

It's getting an even higher profile now...what did the policeman say to the artist?  What's that coming out of your arts?

Crusher's right into Boxing

Judith is very pleased to announce that the idea she had to put 2 prisoners in her box has really taken off.

Milking It

Whale has a very good post on his blog today about Dairy Farmers who pay fuck all in tax.

The aver­age dairy farmer is pay­ing less tax than a cou­ple on the pen­sion – rais­ing ques­tions about whether the sec­tor touted as the back­bone of the econ­omy is pay­ing its fair share.
As the Gov­ern­ment pre­pares one of the tight­est Bud­gets in recent years, cut­ting into middle-class fam­ily ben­e­fits and KiwiSaver sub­si­dies, new fig­ures sug­gest those cuts will hit peo­ple who are also shoul­der­ing the great­est tax bur­den – wage and salary earners.
Inland Rev­enue Depart­ment fig­ures pro­vided to Labour rev­enue spokesman Stu­art Nash show that, in the lat­est full year for which fig­ures were avail­able, the aver­age tax paid by dairy farms was $1506 a year. The 17,244 reg­is­tered as being in the dairy sec­tor, includ­ing com­pa­nies, trusts and indi­vid­u­als, paid only $26m in tax.
The fig­ures also show that more than half – 9014 – reported a loss for the 2009 year and another 2635 reported trad­ing income of between $1 and $20,000.

This is a major hit for an up and com­ing Labour MP. An issue that mat­ters, and for fol­lowers of global pol­i­tics a straight copy of the Uk Uncut protests that are rail­ing against cor­po­rates dodg­ing tax while the state sec­tor is being cut. The Farm­ing sec­tor are really cor­po­rate bludgers. If it rains they want hand outs, if it snows the hands come out, when prices are low they cry poor and when prices are at a record high they struc­ture their affairs to appear to be pau­pers. Mean­while they fill our rivers with cow­shit and expect to get water for free.

More on Planking

N.Z.'s Navy seals go planking in Wellington

82% want to see it

Can't get box office figures but this certainly looks favourable.

Oh no the great beast has awoken

So Goof-E has finally latched on to something he might get some traction with, but no, he's the Goof not Tame-iti so no one is even going to take any notice, must have a look at how Operation 8 is doing at the box office.

And as Whale has pointed out:  Intersting his position on it since he was Justice minister when they were arrested...has he forgotten that?

My reply to that?  `when your whole career has been constructed around a terror cell of hypocrisy you soon learn to assume the position if you know what I mean?'

Bizarro World

This was written in 2002, right on Justin, right on.

Decking

Meanwhile on the other side of town they're spending money like there's no tomorrow, hey maybe there isn't

Planking

How long is it going to take for this to catch on here?  Young, dumb, full of cum and flat on the ground, dead-wood, thick as two short planks.

Yay finally  testosterone fueled, pimple headed, pissed as, small town dick-heads  sail to their deaths in pursuit of 15 seconds of internet fame. 

Good on them, least their having a go eh?

Kim Hill & Jim Hansen

Kimmy was talking to Jimmy this morning about the state of the planet and it took exactly 8 mins 15 secs to get that one sorted.  But then as usual nothing was sorted and nothing will get done because if you adhere to the completely unscientific proposition that I do that the planet is just one big toilet, the humans represent the turds in that toilet and nature is in charge of the flush button and according to Jimmy climate change is all about nature flushing that button hard out and if politicians don't do something then we face the ultimate flush and future generations get to swim in the sludge, Yay, C U Jimmy.

Comedy Review Fringe Bar

Went to a couple of shows last night, Sat 14th.  The first was Nick Rado's show, Brilliant, the boy form Titahi Bay has made good.  Loved the story he told about chasing his one night stand all the way over to England, putting up with a shit job for three months in his quest to track her down, and then when he finally found her one night in a bar she informed him that she was now with another bloke and they were engaged to be married. Bugger.  As a final appeal he described the dream she had always had to sing karaoke in a bar across the road from Flying Burrito Brothers and opposite the longest running branch of Peaches & Cream in NZ.


She replied, `no Nick that's your dream not mine.'  And there he was on the stage of that very karaoke bar playing to a full house and living the dream, most excellent, very good Nick, very good.


The second show was Sarah Harpur's and it wasn't great. Maybe she was having an off night or something but she was struggling to get laughs.  I have seen her many times in the last three years and she has progressed from the 7 p.m. slot up to the late night slot and she has always been very funny but like a lot of performers in this modern age a perfectly adequate sound system and a few lights are not enough.  Sarah has decided to pad out her show with a newly acquired Mac Book and some pre prepared video's.  Weird how you can add a multi-media component to your show and it all goes a bit flat.  Need to work on that mate.

Karl Du Fresne had a column that was right on the money in todays Dom Post.

For example.  I detect a mood of growing public scepticism and disenchantment, even among rugby fans. You know something has gone seriously wrong when a high- profile sports writer, the New Zealand Herald's Chris Rattue, declares we were sold a pup.

and this:   But as Sydney rugby guru Spiro Zavos warns, nothing can be taken for granted. Promoting his book How To Watch The Rugby World Cup 2011, Zavos - a former journalist on this newspaper - says there are half a dozen teams that are capable of winning "on the day".

The All Blacks may be rated the best in the world, but when it comes down to the RWC final, assuming they make it that far, the result may turn on something as fickle as the bounce of the ball or a referee's call.

I like Zavos's laconic response when people ask him who's going to win. "We're having a rugby match to find that out," he tells them.

In the same paper today which may or may not be RWC related this story

It will be five years since they were charged if the trial is delayed until next year, lost forever in the black (pun intended) hole of the NZ justice system, you can check out any time you like but you can never leave.

This from Whaleoil today,  truly a solid pearl of wisdom:)

Gen­er­ally the Police do a great job, but occa­sion­ally they fluff stuff.

Brilliant insight from the Whale but the list of fuck ups by the NZ Police even as recently as the last five years is getting pretty fuckin long my friend, pretty long indeed....starting with the B's there's Bell, Burton....

Operation 8 update

By Graeme Tuckett Dom Post Sat May 7 (print only) Pg A28

The aftermath of the 2007 police raids in the Ureweras, and of various households around Auckland and Wellington, is about to play out in our courts.  Errol Wright and Abi King-Jones' film on the background to these raids, and of how it came to pass that black-clad and masked, heavily armed police found themselves holding women and children hostage without access to food or outside contact, is as timely as it is shocking.

Operation 8 carefull and rigorously advances the theory that if you tell a group of police investigators to go and find some terrorists, then after a year of two they will feel duty-bound to at least point the finger - if not the assault rifle-at someone.

whether or not anyone in the Ureweras was actually planning murder and mayhem is for the court to decide.  Having seen operation 8, you will seriously doubt it.

Interviewing ex-Red Squad member and National Party MP Ross Meurant was a coop for Wellington's Wright and King-Jones.  That he provides the most damning commentary of all on the actions of our police and government should be enough to convince most viewers that this film needed and deserved to be made.  Operation 8 is a terrific piece of NZ film-making.  Go see for yourself.

and Tracey Watkins, same paper, same day, Pg A25 under the headline Black and White Don't Make Grey. (Not Governor Grey surely?)

After worrying that the upcoming election was going to be shades of grey, suddenly it looks as if we're going to get fireworks instead.

Shayne P Carter - Last Train to Brockville

Went to a fucking blinder on Fri nite at the Bod. Packed house - it was going off, best  live gig for 2011 no contest.  He can now lay claim to most real rock star over 40 in this country and to think he was writing some of that shit at 15 and it was good shit then and it is truly international now, you da man Shayne, you da man.

Comedy Review Fringe Bar

Went to four comedy shows at the fringe bar on Thurs nite (May 5).

They were:

Logical Oddity Cameron Murray

Top To Tail Matiaha Paku

Sex, Religion & Politics Jerome Chandrahasen & Jim Stanton & TJ McDonald

Greg Proops

Cam must have been having an off night, not nearly as funny as he used to be three years ago when he had the fire in his belly and he was hungry to make it.

I saw Matiaha Paku's show during the fringe festival and it has endured well, Really good show that would tour the whole country very successfully iPredict.

Jerome, Jim, and TJ, well what can I say the leaps and strides they have all made in 3 quick years speak for themselves, full house and the audience loved them.

Great comedic menage e trois.

Greg is going to post his Proopcast in the next couple of weeks, well worth the wait, it was fucking hilarious and maybe you had to be their but you should be able to get the idea with just the audio recording.

http://antiwar.com/

I've always found this site right on the money as far as predicting the outcome of any military action the States have taken over the last few years.

Wanted Dead not Alive

So Obama vs Osama, and B comes before S or maybe it's BS.

Well this will seal (navy seal?)l a second term for the Big O, gonna be lots of loud American chest beating now, go Team America...well let's see how quickly the dust settles eh?

But even better news was this roasting that Obama gave the Don at the annual foreign correspondents dinner. go the Big `O'

The Mighty Jah - Rastafari

Reggae dance! Heavyweight UK reggae sound system 'The Roots Odyssey' hit Wellington for the first time, so pick up ya skankin feet and come join us for a night of upbeat conscious reggae music!

The Roots Odyssey are lucky enough to be supported by some of Wellington's finest selectors and vocalists:

DJ Art (NZ)
The Colonel (NZ)
Manaia Toa (NZ)
Fari (uk)
Desta (vocal genius)

With just a $5 door charge this event isn't to be missed!

Went to this last night, met Reggae Rick the UK DJ and the gorgeous Cini, dancehall princess, it was a fantastic night, got to be herbalizin, yeah Jah rastafari, or as we say in the Cuba Quarter, a bloody good night.