I previously wrote about the excitement of having a gossip column online, in a sort of sarcastic way knowing that I would be reading it in a car-crashy kinda way. And then there came this sentence today:

Getting the bash has never been so topical.

That is insanely offensive, even coming from a pile of flake like Rachel Glucina, and pisses me off so much that I have nothing further to say about Tony Veitch except for this: I have a code of conduct where I work, and I imagine that you do, and I know that TVNZ does. Ugh.

Into interesting eyewear? Own more than one scarf? Judge snack food by noise potential? Well you’re right in the demographic for the Auckland International Film Festival, which starts Thursday and boasts a classier line up than Scarface.

95BFM’s ace film guy Fabian Fanboy recommends Zombie movies [REC] and George A. Romero’s Diary of the Dead, documentaries Bigger, Stronger, Faster (roids), Stranded: I’ve Come from a Plane that Crashed on the Mountains (Rugby players eating their mates), and The King of Kong (video game nerd-off). Fabian also recommends time travel thriller Timecrimes, the original The Adventures of Robin Hood, and The Red Balloon - you know, that movie. With the Balloon.

That’s only the tip of the iceberg of course, be sure to check the full programme, which is blocking open just about ever shop door in town (bonus - it should be much easier to navigate than the website). Sick shit fans should check out the Ant Timpson-curated Incredibly Strange Film Festival, his sordid little festival within the festival.

I was dead keen to get into town this morning, expecting a Spielberg-ian disaster zone, with people wailing and crying openly in the streets at the devastating gridlock bringing our largest city to its’ knees.

Actually, it was a bit of a laugh.

Sure, unless you were on two wheels, you weren’t going anywhere on Queen Street. Truckies had it fairly well clogged in both directions, but with good humor, happily chatting to anyone who wandered up to their cabs for a yarn.  Pedestrians were laughing at the spectacle, most with a phone-camera at the ready. The media were heavily represented, with photographers clambering over awnings to get the best views, and TV reporters being crossed live to all over the place. For cyclists, it was awesome, with a whole Queen Street lane utterly empty for your swooping pleasure.

This protest was most notable for people trying to high-jack it for their own purposes; one GPS company had branded vehicles parked conspicuously close to the TV cameras, and the guy with the ‘Stop Using Petrol’ sign was doing a lot of work.

Still, no-one in my office was greatly inconvenienced - one North Shore commuter who brazenly left home at 8.00am described it as the best commute ever, and rumours were the North-Western motorway was empty. Even the horns couldn’t drown out the photocopier in our office (a stone’s throw form Queen St). If the truckies wanted media coverage, they got it alright, but did the trucks really cause serious chaos to make their point? This wasn’t farmers in Paris by any stretch, it was too polite by half for that, with the route and times well publicised ahead of time. As far as I could tell, everyone got into town fine, and went home happy.

 
I think I’ve mentioned before that the only good thing about the Metro website is their Gossipwatch column, which they’re very conveniently not even linking to anymore (although you can search for it). But finally, we’re one step closer to not needing that at all now that the Herald website has finally seen fit to give Rachel Glucina her own blog.

So how does it stack up against her competition, About Town by Bridget Saunders? It’s better written, for a start, with fewer exclamation points and more complete sentences. Perhaps she has a copy-editor. And there so far seem to be fewer personal agendas. But still, both are a great way to kill off brain cells, and remind yourself why some people don’t like Auckland…

After the successful launch of Drinking Liberally in Wellington, it was inevitable that it would come to Auckland. After all, who doesn’t like to sit around with lefties, drinking and talking ’bout politics?

What: Premiere of Drinking Liberally, Auckland
When: 7.30pm, Wednesday 2 July (and then the fourth Wednesday of every month)
Where: London Bar, Cnr Queen and Wellesley Streets
Speaker: David Slack - blogger/author/radio commentator/all-round-nice-guy, speaking on the subject of “New Zealand the way you want it?”

Still no word on whether the conservative equivalent, “National Drinking Problem”, will similarly come to Auckland.