To Be Blunt

This story on Stuff this morning made me laugh.

An attempt to set a world record by smoking the world's largest joint (or marijuana cigarette for you squares out there) was stopped after the organisers discovered that it would be illegal. Those crazy dope fiends.

Craftwerk

Jeez, Martha just linked to me so I had better put up some pics.

I'll be at Craftwerk on Thursday evening (Southern Cross Tavern, top of Cuba St, Wellington) selling my screenprinted t-shirts.

Martha will be there too, as will many other people. Should be a blast!

Prizes for Nothing!

Nominations for the First Annual Wellingtonista Awards for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence* have been announced. You have ten days to vote for the best of our lovely harbour capital.

Who do you think should win “I spent all my rent money on dinner here, but at least when the bailiffs beat me to death I will die blissfully” category?

What about the “If this building was a person, I would be making sweet luuurve to it right now” category?

What about “The single best thing I've had in my mouth all year”?

And did I mention the prizes for entering? Well? Get to it!


* yes you have heard that name before.

More on the Gridiron

Randy Moss was traded to Oakland after grumbling through his last season in Minnesota. I imagine Oakland wasn’t his first pick given their lousy QB Kerry Collins. In order to utilise Randy’s huge potential the Raiders passed on franchise QB Matt Leinart in the 2006 draft and instead signed New Orleans’ useless cast-off Aaron Brooks, who sucked. They then replaced Brooks with Andrew Walter, who also sucks.

So now Randy is grumbling again, but this time it’s quieter, more depressed. Randy wants to run; he wants to catch the ball and streak to the endzone. He doesn’t to keep seeing the ball fly well over his head or hit the ground five metres in front of him or to see he is QB lying on the ground still holding the ball. So what can he do?

He could follow Jerry Porter’s lead and hold-out on his contract. But that would do no good for his player value and could have him traded someplace worse (though I’m not sure where that would be at the moment).

I think that Randy needs to buy himself out of his contract like LaVar Arrington did. Arrington had some years left on his contract with the Washington Redskins, but instead of playing them he simply paid out the team and left. Most NFL players don’t do this as it costs them money and is risky but if you are a top level player like Arrington or Moss it is relatively safer.

Moss just needs to pay the Raiders out for whatever is left on his contract (unless he stupidly signed a 7-year extension) and then declare himself a free agent. Some teams that would take him in a heartbeat (and that Randy would/should consider going to):

• New England
• Tennessee
• Jacksonville
• Minnesota (seriously)
• San Francisco (again, seriously)

So Exciting!

The short film I co-wrote is picking up momentum. Admittedly it’s not Sundance material but Night of the Hell Hamsters is making waves in “the industry” or at least the horror and short film circuits.

And now it has a page on the IMDB. But slightly cooler is the fact that I (and Mike) now have a page on the IMDB!!! This can only mean huge studio deals are gonna start pouring into my inbox any minute. I’m going to go wait for them.

Tiki-Tiki

Those of you who have read my comments on here and Tom’s blog will know that I am a big fan of Tiki culture.

Hence I now want this truck. Not too practical for Wellington, but who cares!?! It’s a freakin’ Tiki Truck!

Mahalo

Stade de Farce

So our options for a venue for the 2011 Rugby World Cup final seem to be

• Eden Park
• Bledisloe Wharf
• [undisclosed] other waterfront location.

If it’s either of the last two we’ll get something called Stadium Aotearoa. Wooooo

What a terrible name by the way. Stadiums shouldn’t be named anything like that because then it’s harder to sell naming rights later (remember the Basin Reserve’s problems) and naming rights help pay for the thing. I believe that for New Zealand’s premiere rugby venue you could expect $5M over three years for naming rights, at least.

Bledisloe Wharf

Auckland Mayor Dick Hubbard got a little too excited over the Bledisloe Wharf idea, claiming that ground work could start on “the next Tuesday” if the Government O.K.ed it. Ports of Auckland pulled him back saying that no such thing could happen while they were still around. See Bledisloe Wharf is a large section of the Ports of Auckland, the same ports through which a THIRD of NZ exports and imports move through, the same Ports of Auckland that contribute huge amounts of money into our economy, the same Ports of Auckland that are the reason that the Auckland motorway system is so important.

Moreover, there is a Treaty Claim on the land by Ngati Whatua o Orakei that has to be taken into consideration. This might not be a deal breaker but it’s pretty bad that that Ngati Whatua weren’t consulted earlier.

And finally we’ve been lied to slightly. We’ve all seen the pics of the “the Bedpan” (left).

That stadium is the Allianz Arena in Munich. The Arena is a large football (soccer) stadium that featured prominently in the recent Football World Cup and is the home field for Munich’s two local teams.

Using the magic of Google Maps I laid the Allianz Arena onto the Bledisloe Wharf but no matter how I tried, I wouldn’t actually fit. It kept spilling out the side.

Then I see on Campbell Live that the idea also calls for the extension of the wharf meaning we get this:

It looks like the Bledisloe idea is dead and it's a good thing.

Eden Park

If another stadium is built in Auckland, Eden Park is dead. Just like Athletic Park in Wellington. Eden Park has giant amounts of rugby history behind it. There’s even a French clothing brand called Eden Park based on a rugby game (played with pink bow ties I believe).

The redesign looks good but doesn’t address the biggest issues about the park. The number one problem being that it is located right in the middle of a very rich suburb. The other problem is that it isn’t a stadium; it’s a collection of stands.

Also if we are doing up Eden Park we can’t hold events there. Or if we do the upgrade in parts we’ll never be able to reach capacity and so will be making less money from the park on the years leading into 2011.

I would leave Eden Park even though at the moment it is the “best” option on the table.

Other waterfront location

Where? Where are you going to put a stadium on Auckland’s Waterfront? Have a look.

Now where are you going to put a 60,000+ seat stadium? 60,000 seats mean 60,000 people. And lets be honest most of them will drive. I did a post about stadiums a while back. In that I briefly discussed the parking issue. At the time New York was bidding for the Olympics and had proposed a wonderful waterfront stadium. One that was much cooler than most stadiums I’ve seen recently (self-sustained power and water purification). But it got killed because it was going to disrupt the city too much. And that stadium had a train station IN IT!

Traffic along Auckland’s waterfront gets backed up if it’s a sunny day. Dominion Road after (and before) a Rugby game is horrible! And let’s not forget Auckland has a large part of its population on the other side of the harbour. Can they catch the train to the waterfront? Let’s go back to Munich’s Allianz Arena. Seen in it's natural state (below).

Notice that it’s on two major highways and what looks like a rail system as well. There is nothing like that on the Auckland waterfront. Nothing at all. In fact by putting the thing on the waterfront you are blocking three directions for people leave the stadium. (Westpac Stadium in Wellington is similar but not the same). A ferry service could work but probably wouldn’t be too practical.

So can we please, please, stop talking about the Auckland waterfront as an option? It just plain isn’t. It should be in Auckland though. And whatever happens, the new stadium needs to be called Eden Park (which the Eden Park trust can pay for).

So what about all of the other games? I assume that wherever the new stadium goes that’s where the All Blacks will be based for the tournament. But what about the other big teams that will have large numbers of followers? England, Australia, South Africa? Where are they going to play?

Our current list of stadiums is (North to South):

• Somewhere in Auckland
• North Harbour “Stadium” (One stand doesn’t make it a stadium)
• Rugby Park (Hamilton)
• Westpac Trust Stadium (Wellington)
• Jade Stadium (Christchurch)
• Carisbrook (Dunedin, also undergoing possible redevelopment)

Smaller venues include

• Tauranga
• Rotorua
• New Plymouth
• Napier
• Invercargill
  

Shouldn’t we be trying to milk this cash cow? Why aren’t we upgrading ALL of our stadiums to pack in those Poms, Ockers, and Yarpies and fleece them for every penny? And why aren’t the smaller venues saying things like “we can host Japan versus Tonga”?

By the way, I would love to watch Japan versus Tonga.

Stadium Arcadium

I'm going to do a biggish post on the Rugby World Cup stadium debate very soon (probably today). I'm waiting on all of the proposals to be put forward.

so stay tuned...

Rocktober is over, bring on Movember!

Tena Koutou,

Today is the first of Movember and as such it is the first day of life for my new moustache. I'll be growin the 'tache for the entire month (the month formerly known as November). But why am I telling you about it? Prostate cancer and money.

Basically there is a formal sponsoring system through the (completely above board) Movember website. By sponsoring my 'tache you not only make a statement about men's fashion but also about health. and to make it sweeter all donations over $5 are tax deductible!!!

How do you do it?

• Go here, enter my Rego number which is 22427 (if it hasn't already)and your credit card details. (Again the site is completely above board)

The money raised by Movember will be used to create awareness and fund support networks for those that suffer from prostate cancer.

You can also track my mo's progress (and the progress of my 'tache teammates) on my blog dropkicks.blogspot.com (eventually, I'll put photos up very soon).

Cheers
Hadyn

ps. This post is basically me asking for your hard-earned money, and I do feel stink for doing it, but it is for a good cause.

pps. below are some bad stats about men's health.

Male health is a major issue, did you know:

• Men are far less healthy than women. The average life expectancy of males is 6 years less than females.
• Every year in New Zealand about 600 men die of prostate cancer – about the same as the number of women who die from breast cancer.

More info is available at www.movember.com.au

Movember is run in partnership with the Prostate Cancer Foundation of New Zealand.