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6:00 am, May 14th, 2026 - 39 comments
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Open mike is your post.
For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.
The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).
Step up to the mike …
CNN reports on mutualistic relations in social ecology:
Media derives from the medial function represented in mythos by Mercury, the god in between. Cohabiting with a spirit-animal in the 21st century seems a tad unusual, but is genuinely traditional in Ethiopia. They have aardwolves. Who knew?
If a hyena is felt to be a newsman with a message of spiritual import, I wonder how the person getting the message senses it. In Oz, aborigines live in dream-time, in which mythos is perennial, and after 40+ millennia of that tradition we ought to expect thoroughly embedded cognition for that with immense inertial influence. I suspect the same effect applies to Ethiopian and other residual ancient ethnicities.
Put on my black John Bulls, Levis and hooded black duffel coat and went out on the town to watch Hadestown last night.
It was fabulous.
I believe it's the best live show I've ever been to. Hermes was there (Mercury, if you will), Hades too, Euridyce and Persophene. The story is beyond tragic but hey, Greek mythology is no walk in the park at the best of times. Jung would have thrilled to it.
Losing the last election was certainly a disappointment but it pales into insignificance beside the crushing defeat Orpheus suffered. I'd like to think, that'll never happen to me, but of course, we're all infrit, as Burglar Bill would say!
"Hadestown is a musical with music, lyrics, and book by Anaïs Mitchell. It blends versions of two ancient Greek myths, Orpheus and Eurydice and Hades and Persephone, to explore enduring and contemporary themes. The story begins with Eurydice, a hungry young girl, going to work in a hellish industrial version of the Greek underworld to escape poverty and the cold, and a poor singer-songwriter lover Orpheus proposing to her."
Where did you see it?
I agree that it's a stellar musical – with lots of scope for great performances by the cast – and an engaging plot line.
I've seen a professional production, and a couple of amateur ones (teen edition) – and enjoyed it every time.
Yes, it was a "teen edition" and way beyond my expectations 🙂 You're fortunate to have seen a professional production; I wonder how gruelling was the "Eurydice snatched back to Hades" scene then; it was tough last night and I'm well-versed in that story! I had to steel myself and I know my adult daughter cried 🙂 The long-haul back to the Overworld was fabulously done and the atmosphere was both oppressive and ethereal.
Hopeful that the Australian season will be revived (sold out in 2025) and then hop the ditch to NZ.
"hooded black duffel coat" I had one of those at University, with imitation shark tooth fasteners, which I wore like a cloak with scarf carelessly thrown over the left shoulder whilst smoking a pipe…… no wonder I took to the stage with amateur dramatic societies. Since then I knew I could never look scornfully at what the young of the day were wearing- even onesies and dyed purple hair!
Thinking about how literature and art are perennially accurate with their descriptions and predictions, yesterday I sang a '70s song by John Prine, "Paradise", in which a "coal company came with the world's largest shovel" and "stripped all the timber and tortured the land . They dug for that coal till the land was forsaken and wrote it on down to the progrerss of man".
Then later that day I read about an Australian coal mine being taken to court over the total environmental cost of the emissions from 380 million tonnes of coal. Meanwhile here in NZ we remove that legal sanction in a way that I am sure Shane Jones would describe as 'the progress of man'.
I think I reported it onsite here when covid took out John Prine. I bought that album in '72 after the rave review in Rollingstone & Kris Kristofferson calling him the next big thing. Mainly for Illegal Smile, which got enough airplay on Aotearoan radio to make me do an illegal smile each time.
Got a 3CD set of his radio broadcasts from the '70s & '80s from Marbecks for $35 but still in the cellophane wrapper. Have my old stereo set up in the front lounge but only used once in the past decade. So much to do, so little time…
I took my most played LPs and transferred them onto CDs, sticks and onto computer hard drives. That's how I play them now. The thing about Paradise was that it was a town in Kentucky which can no longer be found on maps as it was located on top of a soon-to-be open-cast mine and removed to allow access to that coal shovel.
"Paradise Lost". It's the stuff of literature, music and art.
Since the Garden of Eden. Yeah I also ended up with around 4000 that play on autorotate in both my vehicles. I've sung along with Paradise & others ever since I made my own cassettes. Eventually his weird accent became instinctive! The Torch-singer is a classic. The Accident likewise.
Daimonds in the Rough has him doing gospel with no instruments. Reminded me how christianity works (in a positive sense)…
Must get me a scarf'n'pipe now (and listen to some John Prine)!
That duffel fits like a glove but I'm told I cut a Gothic figure and I'm about as far away from Gormenghast as one could be 🙂
"Thinking about how literature and art are perennially accurate with their descriptions and predictions"
Me too.
Hmm – remember "Let's Get Our Country Back On Track"?
Anti-worker + anti-public services + anti-Māori + anti-environment + anti-judiciary + anti-youth + anti-Smokefree = anti-Kiwi 🙁 Whatever next, anti-landLords? [just kidding]
"New Zealanders deserve better" than "It's Labour's Fault" from these entitled ratbags.
"After two and a half years of this Government, this NActF Government is in total disarray. They're tired, they're divided, they're arrogant, and they're out of ideas."
Ouch!
But wait-Luxon's latest nasty sorry brilliant idea is to promise measures that stop immigrants coming here and undermining "social stability". That should get them elected. (Sarc)
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/top/595075/christopher-luxon-signals-immigration-policy-more-capital-spending-in-budget-2026
Luxo's increasingly… desperately flailing attempt to appeal to the
racistsNat voter loss to ACT/NZ Fist.Here Prof Paul Spoonley….ah, calls it.
I think NZrs view immigration as a non issue because NZ has had a flow of immigrants since the country was first colonised. We've all grown up around immigrants, be they school mates, shop keeper/owners, nurses/doctors, neighbours etc, it's just a part of our fabric.
I'm sure all of us here on this site have a member of the family that are immigrants, or remember an immigrant grandparent or great grand parent. My great grand parents were immigrants that I remember, Croatians.
I know the anti-immigrant bullshit that NZ 1st & now National I guess are fermenting is more racist than anti-immigrant (brown immigrants = bad, white immigrants = good), but I really do think it's too ingrained to be an issue here, a positive (or if not postive then a "meh") attitude towards migrants.
My view anyhoo.
I've decided to buy some takeaways every week and talk to the peoples. Indian, Turkish, Afghani, Thai, and we all say hi. They are more alive than the average Kiwi and may be our saving. While the government is making savings on ordinary Kiwis to pass on to those who foster and fancy themselves. Gummint wants to strip the rest of us, ignore our reasoned ideas, and find ways to privatise everything and charge like wounded bulls. It would cow every ordinary person. Some are moo-ving away.
Ardern; talented and generous!
"Dame Jacinda Ardern will donate the $3000 prize money from her win at tonight’s Ockham New Zealand Book Awards to a literacy charity.
Her best-selling memoir, A Different Kind of Power, won the E.H. McCormick Prize for General Non-Fiction, which is for the best first book of general non-fiction."
Seems she isn't driven by the same belief in the entitlement that is characteristic of other high-profile "entitled" New Zealanders who profess themselves to be entitled to their entitlements.
Who she donated to. IMO says a lot…
Read NZ are wonderful! I imagine Jacinda's own child will have a rich reading and listening life. I wish it upon every child in New Zealand. I have grandchildren. Last week, knowing the eldest was reading Harry Potter, I gave him T.H.White's "The Sword in the Stone" and some encouragement to think more favourably of the latter than the former.
As you are aware : all Kids are different.One stand out as a kid was Jack London's Call of the Wild .
And good onya for being interested ! As a yoof I was into all the kinds : SciFi, Historical, Mythology, War…. Cartoons (still am : ), et al…
Re Sword in the Stone….(dont be horrified 🙂 Disney film.
So many times I have read…where a book has transformed a person…..sometimes for worse….but mostly IMO …for the better : )
We need to be more like Spain (my absolute favourite other country to live).
https://substack.com/home/post/p-196907713
"…In the first four months of 2026, the average wholesale electricity price in Spain was €44 per megawatt-hour. In Italy, it was €127. In Germany, €96. In the UK, €103. Spain is now cheaper than France, well below the central-European bloc, and within striking distance of the Nordic hydro-and-nuclear heavyweights that have always topped the cheap-power league…"
Spain my favourite country when looking for better employment conditions for all people :https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondragon_Corporation
More facts: Note 2.2 million in Basque country. https://www.caixabankresearch.com/en/publications/autonomous-community-profiles/basque-country
Also I have been interested in Sicily since NZr James McNeish spent time living and working there in Danilo Dolci's time. (Will NZ be similar?)
Sicily,Italy population 4.7m. In 2024 tourist area, Agrigento had to turn away tourists its main industry, because of water shortage. https://www.newstarget.com/2024-07-11-sicily-turning-away-tourists-severe-water-shortage.html
In NZ unhealthy, polluted water would be as bad as not having adequate supplies and this could happen to us and is now happening in non-tourist areas.
We need an organisation dedicated to having strong businesses based in our own area under our co-operative ownership. So no heady seductive idea of being a great dealmaker signing away our autonomy. Or is it too late, have we already been bamboozled.
I have made comments on The Standard both recently…and literally for years, about our Young.
Here is an article which IMO posits interesting ideas….
And why I am so concerned?
I worry about their mental health…very much!
Being punched down on continuously, by the NACT1 coalition as useless, couch gamers, will do this…talk about bullies : Louise Upston et al : (
Labor AU and the Liberals both see the rise of the populist right as sound reason to go bold or in the Liberals place to go down:
'From Farage to Farrer': Rising populist tide makes Labor bolder – ABC News
That CGT $10 Billion that Labor will raise from its negative gearing CGT changes will be a mighty capacity to return dividends for workers in the next election.
The supposed response
That is some sort of regulatory management voodoo, maybe the employer has to contract a housing provider to supply a new build with each migrant job placement (but what about the New Zealanders).
"but what about the New Zealanders" – yes, a perfect irony when it is NZrs who are the immigrants.
New Zealanders are not categorised as immigrants – but also impact housing.
Well done Donald!
"[Due to] the Iran war, China has successfully harnessed a newfound power in mitigating energy challenges…..It has shown that “fossil fuels are unstable” in comparison to clean energy and that “buying Chinese products that get you off the fossil fuel freight train…provide more stable electricity than any other source.”
Even before the U.S.-Israel attacks on Iran sent global oil prices skyrocketing, China’s exports of solar panels, EVs and batteries were soaring — in the 12 months prior to March, China exported $243 billion worth of clean tech goods….The war has only supercharged that trend, experts said.
Last month, Chinese passenger EV and hybrid vehicles surged to 53 percent of all exports, up more than 100 percent in the last year and outpacing vehicles with internal combustion engines. Those exports are largely headed to Asia and Europe — America’s stiff tariffs on Chinese autos has so far mostly kept them out of the U.S. market.
China’s solar exports in March doubled the previous month to reach 68 gigawatts “amid high energy prices due to the US-Israel war with Iran and an additional boost from changes to Chinese tax rebates,”. Fifty countries set all-time records for Chinese solar imports in March, the group’s report said. Battery exports were also up 44 percent in March."
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/05/13/iran-war-is-fueling-chinas-clean-energy-surge-ahead-of-trump-xi-talks-00918799
I see Jo Galer has won the Dunedin Council position …by a very narrow margin ahead of Aaron Hawkins.
I definitely know of Aaron Hawkins….but nothing much of Jo Galer ? (apart from being endorsed by...Lee Vandervis !)
Bugger…Hawkins, who is Green, lost by 89 votes.
Galer is aligned with Lee Vandervis who leans well to the Right.
The Council rang Galer up a couple of days ago to tell he she had won when she was 800 votes ahead after 85% and I thought mmmm…late and special votes might swing this.
Jeez that was even closer ! (I presume a recount has been thought?)
Indeed a loss for us….on both counts : (
IMO looking to The Big One…we do not want any of that !
He ran as an independent but still def green, very disapointing, so close! & yeah she ran on "common sense" & rate caps & Lee Vandervis (yech).
None of the Above is shifting into contention: https://www.taxpayers.org.nz/maypoll_2026tucur
Labour's lead over National dips into margin of error. Other leaps the MMP threshold, so lateral-thinkers who register the Other brand with the Electoral Commission after recruiting 500 members (with the offer of a free chocolate fish) will surge into political contention well ahead of TOP. Gamechanger! Game on!
Crowd-sourcing the Other brand's policies could be done via a suitable online platform. We could get an Adams initiative – Pacifica? A brother & sister collab. Brother has been playing with a ball too long already (needs to grow up) sister has the gift of the gab (heard her interviewed the other day) – the combo would be a real goer I reckon.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/595207/move-on-orders-for-rough-sleepers-set-to-go-into-force
Each rough sleeper must be found a reasonably safe, warm sleeping place and with toilet and private washing facilities, and a member of the reigning political party get to try it out for the first night, for each needy sleeper. We are all precious, only the farts in the best seats are more 'precious' than the rest of us and should check out the facilities first, while they are clean and nice before the hoi polloi move in.
This reflects our NZ 'robust' attitudes to childhood and anybody really, for all to see. Wealthy people do it less, but may send their kids to boarding school so they aren't around with their irritating ways.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/ldr/595181/kids-punched-by-sideline-parents-at-under-14-school-rugby-game-witness-says
Fascinating to see Commonwealth Bank of Australia share price take a big drop today.
Shows how much profit they were getting from negative gearing rental properties.
Top stuff Albanese you're getting bolder
Interesting that he is brave enough to look for the younger vote.
Move on orders for rough sleepers set to go into force https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/595207/move-on-orders-for-rough-sleepers-set-to-go-into-force
people are concerned about reclaiming their streets and town squares and so we're getting on with it," [Goldsmith] said…
What about the suburbs where the people will be relocated to? Or, don't we count? Betcha they don't get transported to Golfsmith's electorate.
"Golfsmith" – very good.
Is it possible to arrange that they do? (asking' for a friend).
This should be a BFD.
Breakfast, Winston Peters said National will try to raid the Cullen Fund to pay for their budget because of their "failed economic policies"