Budget 2009, yay!

I'm only really writing this post to nudge the previous post down a little so it doesn't cover up the links to older posts. There's some really good analysis of the budget done by a lot of media commentators, especially Keith Ng on public address amongst others and so I'll refrain from trying to wax economics as I simply don't have the time. I will say that the budget had no real surprises, the cuts to the Cullen Fund are a downer but in all honesty I'm fairly sure everyone knew that was coming. Overall the budget has been described as a, "borrow and cross your fingers" budget, which is fairly correct although I would describe it more as a, "can't someone else do it," budget. It's quite clear that this has been National's plan to fight the recession all along, no ambitious ideas, no forward or progressive thinking, just cuts and wait for the rest of the world to sort their shit out - let's hope it works.

Eels up inside ya.

It's three days until the new album by the Eels officially comes out; however, sneaky people like myself have managed to find a leaked copy. I'm giving it the first listen right now and I have to say I'm enjoying it very much. The album "Hombre Lobo" which is Spanish for werewolf is a conceptual album about desire, and is considered to be a very loose sequel to the "Souljacker" album with its loud guitars, heavy distortion, and big beards - as seen here.



Also we have some rather beautiful ballads - if that's the right term, I've never really understood the constitution of a ballad - as shown right here - is that a bass mandolin?



Here's the first official music video which was directed by Jesse Dylan - yep, that's what one of Bob's kids does for a living. The video seems a little David Lynch, Mullholland Drive, slash Inland Empire inspired and the film-maker inside me finds it a little underwhelming, but it's a good song and worth a listen.



Apparently there will also be a b-side album which will be very interesting as Mark Oliver Everett, or E as he prefers to be called, makes some incredible b-sides which are rich in sample potential. In other musical news Sonic Youth's album "The Eternal," comes out in a week and half "officially," but there are places on the intertubes that provide preview listens. After Sonic Youth we will reach a kind of black hole of sorts as there will nothing of real mainstream interest to come out for a few months apart from remastered editions of some Rolling Stones and Beatles records, which I imagine will have some audiophiles creaming themselves in preparation for the arguments they will have about the dynamics being lost in the new masters.

Ok, time to shower and plan my long weekend.

Melissa Lee's Titanic impersonation.

So... If you follow my blog you'll notice I haven't blogged for a considerable amount of time. Why? Well, life happened: a pretty shocking flu - not swine related, or influenza b to be more correct - friends arriving for a catch up, a very interesting BBC series called The Ascent Of Man, art-house films aplenty from the interwebs, and a pile of things that needed more attention than blogging.

I originally intended to write something on the Mt Albert by-election; however the sands of time have meant that others have written far more depth analysis than I could ever hope to provide and it seems that the election is all over without a vote being cast. With the benefit of hindsight I can say now that I should've blogged as soon as I heard Melissa Lee on bfm for the sheer "told you so" factor; however not even Rasputin could of foreseen her complete and total collapse from a possible - although not very likely winner - to a hopeful third. There have been some very interesting phenomena occurring because of this election: Lee's self destruction - more on that later - the end to National's "honeymoon" period, the super city fiasco and finally the impact blogging has had on this election.
It wouldn't require anything more than a two minute google to see how much of the fighting has been done in the blogging trenches: first we had a particularly over zealous David Farrar claiming victory for the Nats because of his "Vote Twyford get Tizard" campaign which started in the Kiwiblog trenches, then we had the backlash from the left on The Standard following Russel Norman's decision to run and interestingly enough the mainstream media picked up both these stories and ran with them, adding some real tension and drama to what could have been a rather ho-hum affair. Much of the work around the supercity has also been done on the blogs, from organising marches, a hikoi, and of course providing information that gets left behind by the mainstream media, perhaps even the end of the honeymoon period can be attributed the work of numerous bloggers like no right turn, idiot savant, the standard community et al.

But let's focus on the destruction of Lee with a little back story.

Labour signaled very early what their campaign was going to hinge on: world experience, personality, credentials and so on. The Green's signaled that they were no longer going to be the whipping boy of NZ politics, no longer would they sit idly by and be picked last for the lunchtime game of touch rugby (the last drinking liberally was a further display of this particular sentiment) . Act began campaigning on all they know, big business good, people... irrelevant - they know they have no chance and instead are using the campaign as a branding exercise. The Nat's rolled out an ambitious, tough - kind of hot - woman who seemed to be a threat, at least on paper; however - as always - with National MP's one never gets a clear idea of what they stand for - we get pleasant platitudes and smiley faces but not much else. Then it became clear what Lee was going to run on, race. It started with a sneaky article in the Herald with a particularly racist chemist saying words to the effect of, I won't vote for a slant eyes like you - the actual quote is possibly even more racist than my interpretive sub-textual racial analysis - to which Lee mentioned the high percentage of Asian constituents inside the electorate. So it was clear from the get go what National's strategy was going to be, a dog whistle here, a few jabs at the previous government there, but it seems actually winning the by-election was never part of their strategy. As numerous commentators have already pointed out the real plan was to weaken the seat and claim a moral victory.

Proof of this came after listening to Melissa Lee on bfm with the other candidates, it was clear that winning the seat was a clear impossibility for National - people don't like brash, abrasive, arrogant politicians planning to demolish their houses for a mall or a new highway - and so the question has to be asked why did the Nat's run what they say was a very strong candidate instead of a well known candidate that had been active in the electorate for more than a few elections? If Melissa Lee was truly a face for the future of the National party why then did they distance themselves from her after some inflammatory comments at a election meeting and why were they made in the first place? Surely, Lee had some advisors that would've told her stereotyping the poorest and most populated area in NZ is not a good idea. Surely, they would've told her that phoning in an insincere apology after the comments is a bad move. And any advisor with even half a brain cell would've told her that admitting defeat is a move reserved for the likes of the nitwit parties like Bill and Ben, Aotearoa Legalize Cannabis Party, Destiny Church and the McGillycuddy party. It has been mind boggling, to say the least, for a political junkie like myself.

The fact National went negative from the start, the fact they rolled out a very controversial person like Christine Rankin at the same time seems even stranger. It makes one wonder if the wheel's are falling off the blue machine, but the truth is - as anyone that knows how incredibly good the National election machine is - that the by-election is the scenery and what's actually going on is something entirely different. Lee was never meant to win in Mt Albert, what she was meant to do and has done rather well is dog whistle to the party base. The Nat's got into bed with the Maori Party, a move not forgotten by their base, they recently got into bed with the Green's, a move that would scare most of its base, so really Lee's role is to let the National base know that, "hey we're still the tories, we haven't changed." This is why National ran her, this is why they have publicly left her hanging in the wind, so they can keep the veneer of being a soft-centre government for the masses by distancing themselves by her racial comments whilst winking at their party faithful. So I wouldn't be surprised if Lee stays in the party but later on gets bumped up the list.

And with that it's time to turn our attention to what is going to be the grimmest of budgets: prepare for the sky to fall in and the gates of hell to open up, prepare to watch panic pervade the media and people freak out in penny pinching hysteria, or have a glass of vino and chillax - wine's still affordable you know.

I like your old stuff better than your new stuff. (Take 302)

A while ago I mentioned that Bob Dylan had a new album coming out called, "Together Through Life." It would be like shooting fish in a barrel to say the album is nowhere near as vital and ground breaking as his earlier works a la Blonde On Blonde, Highway 61 Revisited, Blood On The Tracks and numerous others, so I won't say that. What I will say is that, "Together Through Life" is possibly the best Dylan album I've heard in years, sure it's got a senior citizen shuffle to it, but what we find on the album is some very catchy tunes sung by a particularly - can we say - rejuvenated Dylan. I've been doing a bit of a back track through Dylan's later catalogue and I have to say that, "Together Through Life" is Dylan's best work since "Oh, Mercy," which is definitely Dylan's best studio offering for the past two decades. There is three disc version of the album which has a - one must say - kooky, disc called "Friends and Neighbours" which is a mock radio show made by Dylan which contains a bunch of country, blues, grassroots and rock offerings introduced by a Dylan channeling a late night radio DJ - it's a particularly eerie listening experience let me tell you. So whilst I wouldn't go charging out to buy Dylan's latest offering it's nice to know that the "voice of a generation" is still alive and kicking, still pissed off, still lusting and getting his heart broken.

Here's the best song from Oh Mercy, which still sends a chill up my spine every time I hear it.



And here's the most immediately likeable song from the new album.



In other news, my friend Chris Matthews - Headless Chickens founding member - is in town with his latest musical vehicle, "Robot Monkey Orchestra" and will be performing songs off the debut album called, "Map Of Love" at Cassette Number Nine on Vulcan Lane - hopefully he'll also do some of his old stuff too. Tickets are $10 on the door, so if you're looking for something to do tonight why not pop down, also playing: Charlie Ash, Bang! Bang! Eche!, DJ A.D.A.M. There's also a benefit - of sorts - gig for the late Steve Android at the Bacco Room on Saturday night, Chris will be playing, as well as Newmatics, Spelling Mistakes and the Androids, entry to this is free.

Anyone sick of hearing about Swine Flu yet?

If there's one thing that's truly annoyed me this week, there has been a lot to annoy me, but we'll stick with the "public health" story that I imagine everyone has been hearing about ad nauseam, Swine Flu - sigh.

While there are some interesting facts about Swine Flu, like the fact that the people most at risk are those in supposedly peak physical condition - the age group of 20 to 40 - and the fact we're one of the first in the world to have an "outbreak" of it, we were even mentioned on Fox News - yay! The fact still remains that this flu isn't as scary as those in the media would have us believe. Remember S.A.R.S? Remember Bird Flu? Remember how many people actually died from those "super-flus," well neither do I, but after talking to a particularly scientifically minded friend of mine I learned some facts that will either scare, or fill you with some sort of glee: more people die from the common cold in the world then from new, funky, hip, cool, super-flus. A thousand or more people die in the United States from the common cold every year - I can't remember the exact figures given to me so you'll have to Google it yourself but we're in the ballpark though - and so considering that in NZ we've only had two actual confirmed cases of Swine Flu, one has to think that now we're aware of this new flu, the actual danger of it is very low - sure wash your hands and don't eat from rubbish bins - but there is a real question that needs to be asked, as it is something much more serious, much more life altering, and it hasn't even been thought about yet: how high is the price of bacon going to rise?

Surely with the pigs being eradicated overseas the demand for bacon is going to rise and we as an export minded country will be exporting more bacon, perhaps making bacon scarce at your local foodtown, maybe the weekend bacon and eggs at a cafe is going to become even more expensive. I wonder if it's time to invest in some pork commodities on the share market.