Find me on Substack
Hi there,
I last wrote this blog a few years ago, but you can now find me on substack at https://joehendren.substack.com/
Thanks
Joe
Hi there,
I last wrote this blog a few years ago, but you can now find me on substack at https://joehendren.substack.com/
Thanks
Joe
Sad to hear about the death of David McPhail today.
When I was 11-12 McPhail and Gadsby was one of my favourite programmes on TV, and my Dad was also a big fan of McPhail in particular.
In my last year at Mt Pleasant Primary School (1988) I wrote a series sketch comedy pieces for our end of year school concert to perform with my friends. My biggest inspirations were McPhail and Gadsby and the Muppets. To most I assume it signalled there was something pretty odd about this 12 year old, but that show was my first public political act.
Long before I was an Alliance 'die hard', I didn't like the Forth Labour government. I admit to playing Richard Prebble in one sketch but in my defence I played him as a dog - an 'asset hound'
In another I was a newsreader who announced a plane carrying an orchestra had experienced engine trouble and was forced to jettison some of the instruments - "There is no danger, whatsoever, to the public". I was then hit from above by a 'piano' made out of cardboard that was rigged up on a pulley. My friend did a perfect shot on the night and it landed directly on my head. This was followed by a weather report that a 'cold front was sweeping across the country' - my friend then crossed the stage with a broom.
As you can see my sense of humour has not improved.
Our little show was a big hit with the parents, and my brothers class also gave us a big cheer before we started as they had some idea as to what was to come. Now that I have attended school concerts as a parent I have more of an idea as to how out of the box our little show was!
All I wanted to say was a big thank to you to David McPhail - you are a taonga and an inspiration who will be long remembered - even for out of the box 12 year olds with an keen interest in political satire and surrealist humour.
Labels: humour
Labels: Green party
Labels: campaigning, corporations, industrial action, unions
Last week we saw the sad sight of the 124 year old Palace Hotel fall to the ground, seemingly as some 'reconstruction' work was going on. Auckland lost another piece of its history - it is unfortunate the CBD has so few such pieces left.
Labels: Auckland, public transport, Rail, transport
Sad to hear that Bloglines will be shutting down its servers, just over a week away, on 1 October 2010.
Labels: blog, blogosphere
Act MP David Garrett today confirmed he is to travel to Israel to meet with officials and security experts to discuss identity theft and passport fraud.
Labels: ACT party, humour, intelligence agencies, Israel
During Question Time in Parliament today, Green MP Sue Kedgley asked how the Government could possibly reduce alcohol related harm while it continues to allow the liquor industry to spend $73 million a year promoting alcohol. To support her question Kedgley sought to table a CD containing recent television advertisements for liquor.
Labels: Green party, humour, parliament
The Australian election over the weekend has dealt a hung parliament with neither Labor or Liberals (ie Tories) with a overall majority.
Labels: Australia, elections, electoral reform
In my last post I looked at how Labour leader Phil Goff was handling the fallout from Chris Carter's brain explosion, and the reaction of Labour MP George Hawkins to being mentioned in Carter's missive.
Labels: elections, employment, Labour, National, parliament, The Game of Politics
Overall Labour leader Phil Goff has handled the impact of his MP Chris Carter's brain explosion reasonably well. Carter's antics, which have included sending an unnamed gossip sheet to the parliamentary press gallery yet addressing the envelopes in his own handwriting, must go down in New Zealand political history as one of the most inept attempted coups ever. It has to take a vain individual to start an whisper campaign against his leader, when the said individual secretly wants everyone to know it was him all along.
Labels: elections, Labour, parliament, Phil Goff, The Game of Politics
Heading along tonight to the second part of 'Economics for Everyone' a free presentation by Canadian union economist Jim Standford, hosted by the Fabian Society.
Labels: economics, Neo-liberalism, political meetings
So, for a 50th Anniversary of television broadcasting in New Zealand, TVNZ did a mock celebrity game show with heavily forced product placement.
Labels: broadcasting, privatisation