Waitangi Day – New Zealand’s national day. There’s a lot I could say about this but I will again resist temptation (aided of course by my desire to go to sleep).
Instead I will highlight two quotes from two different folk involved in the tumult of Waitangi Day 2004:
“Mud throwing is not the way for New Zealand to advance to the future.”
– Don Brash, after being splattered with mud
(from here)
“Go up and find out for yourself.”
– tree-climbing protester when asked by a reporter what it was like up the
tree
(from here)
Non-Kiwis won’t get enough context to get more than mild amusement at the state of our politics. Locals, though, might appreciate the richness of how these two quotes symbolise the issues. At least they do for me. Maybe I’m just reading too much in.
Amusing, anyway, alongside the seriousness of it all. Yes, it can be both at once. Politics usually is.
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Went to see ‘Taking Sides’ tonight at Kings Theatre. Julian Glover. Just felt the need for some stage-stuff, and the queue for the free preview of Death of a Salesman was ten million people long.
It was… okay. I dunno why I didn’t warm to it more, given how it touched on many themes dear to my heart in ways I thought were clever and even wise – , maybe it was because it was built around a conundrum which I resolved to my satisfaction a decade ago.
Certainly the sheer theatricality of the production startled me. Actors booming their lines out into the audience, exaggerating their gestures, dialogue that sound like Highly Charged Aphorisms strung together. I’ve gotten so used to naturalism that I couldn’t get past it in this show. Although it could just have been that the show itself was badly written and directed.
Nah.
Anyway, much cheaper stuff at the festival was much better. Of course.
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I’ve just web-published a long-term project. It’s a roleplaying game ruleset, and I’m quite proud of it. However, if you’re not interested in the nuts-and-bolts side of RPGs then don’t bother following this link for more info.