Month: April 2009

How To Get Out Of A Recession

The same way you got in, apparently.

Front page of the DomPost today, the nation’s Head Boy John Key talks about how very much he agrees with his finance minister about getting NZ out of recession:

“We have the same strategy and … we are in agreement about what is required,” he said. “The speed you can argue about, but the prescription’s the same.”

That included getting better performance from the government sector, less regulation, a lower tax environment, trade links with the world, and policy reforms, such as to the Resource Management Act.

Hmmm. That prescription sounds suspiciously familiar. Is it, perhaps, exactly the same prescription offered by the Nats consistently for the last decade, regardless of the prevailing economic conditions? And, in fact, isn’t it exactly the same prescription offered by the right everywhere around the world, for every problem? Lily the Pink would be envious of the broad applicability of this particular medicinal compound…

(Edit: of course, I misrepresent the Head Boy’s plan, which has got one new bit in it – a national cycleway! Oh – hang on…)

Hail Daffyd

How good was my weekend? It was so good that seeing Peter Davison live on stage was only the second best part of my Saturday.
For on that day I went to the wedding of the proprietor of this blog David R and his lovely Katy.
David R should be familiar to long-time readers here. Not only is his blog merely a click away at the top of my blogroll, but every year where I don’t forget I mark the occasion of Daffydmas on his birthday. My blogging career began thanks to his proactive move, some years ago, to set it up the blog for me. We have collaborated on numerous nonsensical projects over the years, and the list of projects which we never actually got around to doing is significantly longer. (My favourite un-fulfilled promise: the Pantheon of Plastic, a website hall of fame into which we would snarkily induct those actors who had been immortalised in action-figure form for two or more separate parts. The first inductee would, of course, have been Lorne Green. As the years went past, however, other services rose up to fill this gap.)
In short, he is a gent, and he is also my patron here on additiverich, and now he’s married to an absolutely wonderful woman. Dave and Katy – seeing you guys smooch was way better than seeing Peter Davison and Mark Strickson ham it up on stage. Rocking.
(Also worth noting: David is a hopeless case. The first thing he did after getting the ring on her finger was duck into a corner and announce it on Twitter. LOLZOR!)

Links Frinks

The epic, inspiring journalism of Izzy Stone – what independent journalism looked like in the 50s and 60s. Original publications visible here – pick one at random.
Kiwi cartoonist Toby Morris sketches his life in Amsterdam.
UK mediawatch done smart: MailWatch keeps an eye on the Daily Mail, and The Sun Lies tracks uber-tabloid The Sun.
An incredible tale of a true-life diamond heist.
Dollhouse watchers, get yer analysis from The Exploding Kinetoscope and Capitalism Bad, Tree Pretty. And don’t forget the weird and under-noticed online experience.
Gameheads – check out StoryTron and try to manage the international aftermath of 9/11. Interesting stuff.
Alan Moore’s long-lost Big Numbers #3 turns up in photocopied form!
And finally… Dan Meth’s Pop Cultural Charts

Birthday Wisdom 2K9

Thirty three, he said, its not such a bad age, got a nice sort of rhythm to it, still young enough to swing on a playground swing.
So every year when this day rolls around I ask the patient readers of From The Morgue to give me a small gift – to comment with a quote of some kind.
Last year put it nicely:

It can be a quote from a song or a poem or a movie or a conversation or an advertising brochure or a blog or a speech or a legal opinion or a sports commentary or a magazine article or a comic book or a novel or a motivational poster or the website you have open on the other browser tab.
Give me a quote that means something to you, or a quote that means nothing to you, or a quote that couldn’t mean anything to anybody even if they tried.
Every year, this collection of random bits of the world makes me happy, and I like to be happy on my birthday. C’mon and indulge me.

This is the sixth year I’ve done this! Previous Birthday Wisdoms: 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004
Also, best wishes to my newest birthday buddy: Arthur son of Chuckles, one year old today!

Snail Chase In Wellington


Hear ye hear ye: delightful friend Ed’s film The Last Great Snail Chase is playing at the Film Archive in Wellington this Friday and Saturday (7pm both days).
This is a chance to see this very interesting, expressive and entertaining film on the big screen (or, indeed, at all).
Here’s an interview with Ed about the film at Lumiere, a couple of reviews at Flicks, and my post about seeing the premiere two years ago.

Writing Update – March

So my plan to write twelve short stories in twelve months continues. Yesterday I sent the first two for the year off to local lit journal JAAM.
Story #3, promised to readers a month ago, has been mothballed – it just doesn’t work and I don’t want to send anyone to sleep. I need to totally rethink what I’ve done there and see if I can salvage anything. There’s one really cool idea in it but everything else feels wrong and the cool idea isn’t leveraged well enough. Gah.
Story #4 is in progress. This one I actually sat down and made some notes about in advance of writing the first word, a level of planning that is rare for me. It helped me find the right way into the idea, I’m sure, but I’m now second-guessing where I thought I was going. Still, I think there’s promise in it. To be continued.
There is no story #5. Yet.
Overall, I’m pretty happy with my progress. I could definitely be going faster but it does feel like things are getting done. So that’s good.
Meanwhile, I’m meeting with comics artist girl for an hour every Monday to work on page design and tighten up scripts. It is fruitful. I wish I could draw as well as she does.