phlawless

A shameless troll



Michael Laws

Seriously, why do people give this arsehole the oxygen of any attention? You can just imagine that guy sitting in his masturbation lair in Whanganui, giggling inanely and muttering "PROBLEM PARAPLEGICS?" to himself, over and over again.

One of the saddest things that has happened in this country for the last 25 years is the "touristification" of the national consciousness. We have made ourselves a country which grovels and capers so that rich foreigners will throw us money. I can't stand the NZ of docile waiters, bungie jump operators, and cheap labour for foreign films... I love the NZ of the #8 wire mentality, of Split Enz and Flying Nun, and yes, of "Bad Taste" and "Meet The Feebles". (And of course the material basis of that reality was a country with heavy import controls and huge state-funded Railways workshops and the like, where ingenuity was forced-fed on a very lack of resources and foreign investment.)

I can't stand the NZ where, on one hand, we're supposed to agonize over the fact that Australians make much more money than us; and, on the other hand, a foaming hysteria is building up against teachers, doctors, and yes, actors who actually want higher wages and better conditions and are trying, howsoever unsuccessfully, to fight for them. So that can only mean one thing - we must want working NZers to get poorer so that rich NZers can make more money. Like the Teabaggers in the USA, we are prepared to impoverish ourselves so that other people can live a fantasy life which we can then vicariously share.

Is your national pride and personal identity so freakin' dependent on living in a country which is some tourists' fantasy vision of Middle Earth? (Prof. Tolkien would be spinning, of course, because his fantasy world was designed to be quintessentially English and the Shire is actually Warwickshire/Oxfordshire, not freakin' Matamata.) In fact, that's what I have so many issues with tourists to this country. They come here for the scenery. They avoid the actual lived experience of the people - except in so far as we're serving them coffee, of course.

But I do not base my personal identity on living in a country where big-budget fantasy films (even very good ones, based on books I love) are made. Nor do I resent any group of workers, anywhere, anytime, trying their best to get a fair deal, although I might disagree with their tactics. I remember when I worked at a university during an industrial dispute, and students were actually talking about getting together fascist-style squads to bust our picket lines. Is there deep down an actual hatred of organised workers in this country? Why is it "jealousy" or "tall poppy syndrome" to be skeptical of how "Sir Peter" (or Terry Serepisos, for that matter) makes his money, but perfectly okay to unleash our negativity on groups of working people just trying to get a better deal?

I happily posted on Facebook the other day about my appreciation of Shock Treatment, especially the songs thereof. Many Rocky Horror fans rushed to disagree. Heartily.

Here are my thoughts on the subject:

1) Of course we all know that Shocky has problems as a film. Many of these are caused by the fact that the studio was hit by strike action during filming, leading to the abandonment of all exterior locations and setting the entire thing in a soundstage. This lends, I feel, a kind of "claustrophobic", even paranoid feel to the film - appropriate for the subject matter, but very far from the kind of universal, liberatory dynamic of RHPS.

2) I have read according to at least one source that many of the songs for Shocky were recycled from an abandoned RHPS sequel - in particular "Thank God I'm a Man" and "Looking For Trade". A project put together from bits of another project is never red hot on the score of coherency.

3) You do realise, don't you, that Shocky accurately predicted reality TV fifteen years in advance?

4) RHPS has the advantage, as far as longevity goes, of having been "retro" right from the start - looking back to the already-campy world of cheesy 50s rock'n'roll and even cheesier scifi-horror films. Shocky is so 80's it hurts. The only way it could have been more 80s is if the soundtrack had been entirely composed on a Yamaha DX7 and a Linn drum machine. But thankfully Shocky leans closer to the New Wave / "power pop" of the time. (The thudding drums of the title track and "Duel Duet" seem to owe a lot to the Burundi beat of Bow Wow Wow or Adam and the Ants. I like it.)

5) Barry Humphries, Rik Mayall and Ruby Wax in the same film? What's not to like?

6) Charles Gray, he's okay, but he's got no fuckin' neck shouldn't have been allowed to "sing".