THOMAS OLIVER BAND
One of our mates is called Thomas Oliver and he has a band. They are choice, and you can find them here
www.myspace.com/thethomasoliverband
FLASH
SEO marketers be damned. What does it profit a company to hit the top of the Google search rankings to lose its audience within 30 seconds of visiting the site? We acknowledge that Flash may not be right for all businesses, but if you want to offer your audience an Internet experience that allows them to engage with your brand then Flash is without parallel. Full screen video? Hell yes. Surprise and delight? You bet. Hearts and minds? Flash may yet win the Design War on Terror. Check this out, for example, and then tell us with a straight face that it doesn’t rule
www.nike.com/sportswear/collections/fall09/
Or anything on here
KAMPUNG DELIGHTS’ MEE GORENG
It’s a well known fact that Wellington has a special affinity with Malaysian cuisine. You can find a Malaysian restaurant almost anywhere you look. Auckland does not have this same affinity and finding truly top notch Malay dishes was a bit of a challenge for us when we first arrived. Then we discovered the Mee Goreng from the Kampung Delights upstairs in the Food Alley on Albert Street. This is a dish so superior that it can even teach Wellington a lesson
HAVANA CLUB
Havana Club is the best rum in the world, except for the other ones that are better. But that’s none of the rums in our liquor cabinet because Havana Club is usually the one that we buy. Legend has it that Ernest Hemmingway was living in Cuba at the time of the revolution and was summoned before Castro, who was anxious to find an American symbol of support. “Will you go or will you stay?” the nascent dictator asked the great writer. “If you go it shows you are against us; if you stay it shows you are with us.” Hemmingway apparently considered this before asking: “Will there still be rum?” Castro, surprised, replied in the affirmative. “Then I am staying,” Hemmingway said. That’s good enough for us
MANNERS
We’re not sure if anyone else has noticed, but New Zealand today is apparently a nation of churls. While we’re happy to get a bit ruckus from time to time, you won’t catch us failing to hold the door open for others, saying please and thank you to bar people and waiters, or generally presenting to the world with a little bit of grace and pride in ourselves. Manners are awesome. They dignify both the giver and the recipient. And if you know how, you can be ruder with manners than you can with insults. We think there should be a national campaign for them like there is for seat belts
www.mtstcil.org/skills/manners-test.php
SCAMBAITERS
Every now and again something comes along that is righteous and wicked and just and deserves to be given a general award for being awesome. Scambaiters is precisely that thing. This group of rogue Internet users bait the scammers that spam you with phishing lures, stories about Nigerian peasants inheriting $30 million but needing your account to access it, or offering you rapid and extraordinary growth on the size of your penis / ego / balding head by taking the latest pill / cream / intravenous solution. Scambaiters scam them right back and it’s poetic and ironic and very, very funny
THE FAST SHOW
We know this show is old hat. The last series was recorded ages ago. But it’s still genius. Paul Whitehouse is one of the funniest and most talented actors we’ve ever seen. From Channel Nine News to Suit You Sir, this skit show still epitomises the very best of BBC comedy. If the Bones had a lawyer, or a Grandfather, it would undoubtedly be Rowley Birken QC. We’ve got them all on DVD but you can watch a bit here
SEVEN PERIODS WITH MR GORMSBY
Seven Periods With Mr Gormsby is some of the best comedy this country has ever produced. Ruthlessly funny and politically incorrect, a third series was never commissioned. This is evidence in the court of SKULL AND BONES on what an effete society we’ve become. You’ll get none of your nanny state macrame knitting hand wringing lesbian mummy didn’t breast feed me as a baby mumbo jumbo from old Gormsby, nor from the SKULL AND BONES neither. Buy it here and have yourself a really good laugh
http://filmshop.co.nz/products-page/comedy/seven-periods-with-mr-gormsby/
SHIHAD
Apart from ironically changing their name to Pacifier to pacify their American critics who thought their name sounded like Jihad, Shihad have never really done anything wrong. They are the greatest rock band ever to come out of New Zealand bar none, and it is a thing of amazement to us that they haven’t gone on to achieve world domination. Often heard playing very loud on the stereo in our offices