KEY POINTS:
Ever get the feeling you are influencing events by watching them. You know the old Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, y'know the one, only applied to sport? I had just that sort of weekend.
Turn on the sevens finals having ignored the tournament, we lose to England. Head to Cheltenham Beach for a swim and see my first Louis Vutton series race out on the water and Team New Zealand go down to the Brits. And boy there's something endearing about blokes juggling a small child, binoculars and a large radio wandering up and down the sand trying to tell the boats apart. Later that night I hang on in there for the cricket on Sunday night,
for the possible series decider, while enduring the godawful Australian commentary and constant promos for Oz TV - memo Sky TV: Why? - and we come up short. Anyone putting any money on those early Super 14 rounds? For a small fee I can be your cooler. Only NZ teams though, it seems.
Item two: I silently cheered at the Weekend Herald front page in which reporter Vaimoana Tapaleao broke the story about Smashproof's new video for Brother which re-enacts the confrontation between Pihema Cameron and Bruce Emery which ended in the 15-year-old tagger's death. Not because of the case itself. And that's not the only South Auckland sadness Chris Graham's powerful clip illustrates.
It's a long time since hip-hop, especially the local stuff, has made the front page or the 6 o'clock news, which it did that night. It's not that NZ hip-hop has lacked for something to say about its stamping ground, just the way to say it with clarity and purpose.
Smashproof's quietly powerful song - helped by the counterpoint vocals of Gin Wigmore - and accompanying clip does that. Just a pity it took an angry white guy other than say Eminem to inspire them all the way to the number two spot in the singles charts. Oh and there's a nice symmetry here somewhere. Smashproof have previously worked with producer Juse. Now they've got Gin. Those who know their Snoop Dogg will think that's quite a punchline.
Item three: No, someone as old and pale as I should possibly be not writing about hip-hop (everyone else here writes about Leonard Cohen). I am clearly outside the demographic. I am also outside the demographic to review local movie The Map Reader, according to the film's producer John Davies who took great and lengthy umbrage at last Saturday's review. It's been a couple of days and I am still getting through his missive.
But I dispute the demographic thing because the film is about a perplexed teenage boy and I was one once, and often behave like one now. At least when director Harold Brodie weighed in with his own thoughts on the two-star appraisal he made some succinct valid points about where I had erred. Here, for the record, they are:
a) The budget of the film was not $300,000 but $225,000. The review did say that the cinematography looked 10 times pricier so there goes $750,000 worth of hyperbole.
b) The New Zealand Film Commission provided "post production finance" as well as script development money, not just the latter. That was granted on the film's acceptance into a respected international film festival.
c) Mr Brodie's previous film was called Orphans and Angels not Angels and Orphans. Whoops.
d) Despite the film being set in Helensville a kite flying scene was filmed on the Whangaparoa Peninsula and not Kaipara Heads as geographically guestimated in the review. Just as folks flocked to Karekare to see the piano at the high tide mark, Shakespear Regional Park should expect an influx of sightseers asking to see the location of the great Map Reader kite flying scene.
d) Mr Brodie says it was "grossly misleading" to say his leading actor is "seen running flat-out from one end of town to another for reasons unclear" every few minutes. He disputes his actor's pedometer reading and his motivation - "He always has a reason for running that audiences heretofore have understood."
Well, I have no motivation to run so I'm outside the demographic there too.
Final item: Getting back to talk of famous court cases depicted on screen - Cohen Holloway's performance as David Dougherty on TV One's Sunday Theatre Until Proven Innocent ... man, he was terrific.
