Posts Tagged Politics
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August 3, 2018 by Simon Sweetman
Sweetman Podcast: Episode 127 – Ray Ahipene-Mercer
Welcome to episode 127 of Sweetman Podcast with support from our sponsors – T Leaf T, Yeastie Boys and La Petite Chocolat. I first met Ray Mercer some 15+ years ago. I had met him through a friend. And then, when I was commissioned to write my first professional piece for the then-Evening Post, a housing feature, of all things, I […]Archive
July 21, 2018 by Simon Sweetman
Sweetman Podcast: Episode 125 – Russell Self
Welcome to episode 125 of Sweetman Podcast with support from our sponsors – T Leaf T, Yeastie Boys and La Petite Chocolat. Here I had a chat with Russell Self. He’s a Wellington-based, English-born musician and poet. Russell’s held many jobs, let many more go, he’s been a busker, a troubadour, he recites his own poems and sings covers – he also […]Archive
June 8, 2018 by Simon Sweetman
Sweetman Podcast: Episode 119 – Sarah Bradley
Welcome to episode 119 of Sweetman Podcast with support from our sponsors – T Leaf T, Yeastie Boys and Le Petite Chocolat. I caught up with Sarah Bradley. We worked together on the Good Morning TV Show. I was one of the regular music reviewers there for about seven or eight years. Sarah (along with co-host Brendon Pongia) came on board […]Archive
May 16, 2018 by Simon Sweetman
Problems: Theatre
Problems Direction: Gavin Rutherford (written by Joe Musaphia) Circa Theatre; Circa One (May 11 – 26) We walk in past the murals of The Great Leader and Madame Great Leader and we’re sat in front of two huge doors. Behind them…The Great Leader. He’s having his nap. With a loaded gun. Two guards (Stephan, played […]Archive
May 5, 2018 by Simon Sweetman
The 1001 Albums Challenge # 58: Burning Spear – “Marcus Garvey”
I like Burning Spear – but I didn’t know this album. And that seems a crime. But hey, this is all about fixing such crimes… I’m always on the lookout for good reggae. Because I think there’s a perception that I don’t like reggae (not true). But more than that I’m on the lookout for […]Archive
April 7, 2018 by Simon Sweetman
The 1001 Albums Challenge # 49: War – “The World Is A Ghetto”
War – another band I really only know from compilations, from hearing at other people’s places, recommendations that I’ve never quite followed up on. But as with the previous entry in this series (The Temptations) this is so totally in my wheelhouse as to be a gross oversight not knowing it already – and I’m […]Archive
March 14, 2018 by Simon Sweetman
NZ Festival Writers & Readers: A C Grayling – Democracy In Crisis
A C Grayling: Democracy in Crisis Renoulf Foyer, MFC Sunday, March 11 This Writers & Readers session was a straight-up lecture by British author, philosopher, public intellectual A C Grayling. The topic Democracy in Crisis coming from his latest work, Democracy And Its Crisis. He also spoke the previous night, although I missed that on […]Archive
February 20, 2018 by Simon Sweetman
Billy Bragg: Bridges Not Walls (ep)
Billy Bragg Bridges Not Walls – EP Billy Bragg/Cooking Vinyl The fucking Brexit nonsense and the rise of Trump and general non-thinking must be exciting to someone like Billy Bragg. I’m not trying to be churlish, but imagine how easy it is for him to write songs around that? Well, actually, it has proved fine […]Archive
December 13, 2017 by Simon Sweetman
Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib: They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us
They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us: Essays Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib Two Dollar Radio I don’t mean this to sound at all trite, I mean it as a huge compliment – even if it might feel a forced comparison, but Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib’s work here in this book of profoundly moving, politically urgent, poetic essays reads […]Archive
December 6, 2017 by Simon Sweetman
Poem: The TED.Nugent Talks
* The first I knew of Ted Nugent was ‘Cat Scratch Fever’ – it seemed to be the first thing anyone knew of Nugent then. Now, the way most people know Ted Nugent is through the awful things he says, like: “What’s a feminist anyways? A fat pig who doesn’t get it often enough? (Don’t […]Archive
December 5, 2017 by Simon Sweetman