Walk this way
Welcome to Idealog Weekly, the free email newsletter for New Zealand commercial creatives, entrepreneurs and anyone rich with ideas.
In this week’s issue: walk this way, dumbed down, the great cover up, D.I.Y. everything, the joy of cringe, a little help from your friends, virtual protest, nice day for a white heading, quote of the week.
Walk this way
Okay, so maybe we’re not completely stuffed. True, we did infer our country might be heading that way in last issue’s ‘The Road to Nowhere’, but after a lot of laidback Kiwis sat up and wrote in we’re feeling a little bit cheerier now. In this month’s issue Vincent Heeringa writes about where to from drear—our current dwelling at the bottom of the OECD wealth chart.
Dumbed down
If you’re fond of wearing hot pink pants on a Sunday arvo (and really, who isn’t?) don’t move to Oz. According to DumbLaws.com being hotpants-free after church is just one of the many dumb laws that you’ll have to abide by in the land of the budgie smuggler. While there are no New Zealand entries (word of the smacking bill must be travelling slowly) there are surprise, surprise, a litany of dumb American laws. And for those less litigious readers, you may be more interested in Dumb Auctions, Dumb Bumpers, Dumb Facts, Dumb Flash Games, Dumb Inventions, Dumb Photos, Dumb Quotes, or, watch out: Dumb Warnings.
The great cover up
The Burger King girls may have been stripped of their bikinis but you can’t keep a good model down. Yup, the girls are back on the box—but don’t worry N. Strathmore (male public enemy #1), there are no “young women riding horse back semi-naked”, just three skin-tight jumpsuited young women helping Greg Murphy with his cockpit. For those still wanting to reminisce about the less clad days, drop into the BK Mansion.
D.I.Y. everything
If you’ve always wanted “step-by-step instructions for making things you never knew you wanted” Instructables is the site for you. Get detailed directions on how to get stuck coins out of a vending machine, send your voice over a beam of light, paint your bike—or, if you never got near the bike shed, how to kiss. Bookmark this page—after all, you never know when you’ll need to whip up a dachshund wheelchair
The joy of cringe
Kiwi fans of British comedian Catherine Tate needn’t wait for TVNZ to buy the show and bury it at 2am. A ton of new skits have cropped up on YouTube recently, and our current office fave is this, Ms Tate in full party mode. Oh the sympathy pain.
A little help from your friends
It’s been a slow week here at the Idealog office, so we’ve decided to stir up a bit of Beatle mania. We have one of only 1,000 Sgt P catalogues by Otago artist Jim Cooper to give away—oh, and to celebrate Cooper’s exhibition, which in turn celebrates the 40th anniversary of Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club at The New Dowse. At last sighting, the catalogue contained posters, a mask, a colouring in sheet and postcards—the perfect creative outlet for all your psycedelic Sergeant Pepper-inspired times. Send us a good reason to give to you and we’ll, um, give it to you.
Virtual protest
When in Venezuela … don’t protest like a Venezuelan or you’ll get arrested. So the good people of this increasingly repressed country are taking their virtual placards to Second Life. Shinya Tandino, a leader in Second Life’s “RCTV Libertad expresion VENEZUELA” group says “[T]he protest in my country are peaceful but the government will say the opposite… we need and we want other ways that let us raise our voice in a peaceful way.” This could be the beginning of a big thing. Next up: former KGB spies pose as bean-spilling avatars.
Nice day for a white heading
Snow’s up at the Queenstown Winter Festival so head to your garage. Those skis have to be in there somewhere. Get yourself snowsuited up for more than 60 events including birdman flying and super sliding—and that’s before the nightly marathon at the pubs.
Follow the script
If you’re sick of following someone else’s agenda, it could be time to write your own script—literally—at The Writer’s Room. This is a last-Tuesday-of-the-month monthly series run by screenwriting development organisation Script to Screen, for developing networks and exploring the journey screenwriters take in getting scripts to the screen. Dig out a legal pad and a black trench and head along to the Classic on Auckland’s upper Queen Street.
Check out Idealog’s events guide, Agenda, online and in print. Anyone can add an event to Agenda—just fill out the form on our website.
Quote of the week
“With most young singers, you can still see some of the scaffolding—the influences, the insecurities, all the bits and pieces that make up who they are on stage. With Hollie, you just get Hollie—entirely centred in her craft, and entirely sure of her reasons for being there.”
—Friend and mentor Don McGlashan on Hollie Smith
More at Idealog online
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Gena Tuffery
Senior writer
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