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Dec 27, 2023Liked by Cam Peters

Vincent Ward's "The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey" had a huge impact on me as a 9 year old and remains one of my favorite films. Also loved Mauricee Gee's "The Halfmen of O" at that age, though only a few elements of the writing are still interesting as an adult.

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No love for Jane Campion?

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For music: The flying nun record label is seminal in the indie space.

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Isn't it Jemaine Clement, not Jermaine?

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Great list, but one minor correction - it's James (or Jim) Flynn, rather than Richard:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Flynn_(academic)

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Whoops. I think I muddled that up with Richard Lynn who is a very different IQ researcher.

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like that. It gave the feeling of hiking in a planet-sized garden.

- Feeling like a village - Driving around South Island (coming back from Milford Sound), I heard a radio news report about a break-in in Auckland. What?! I thought, this would be like being in Chicago and hearing a report of a break-in in Los Angeles. Well not really. I grew up in the greater Philly area; the population of NZ is roughly the same, but Philly still has a lot more crime. You'll hear about a break-in on the news maybe in your town, which exactly produced the effect you're describing.

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I agree with pervasive complacency in NZ (I think allied to the reduced incidence of ‘overseas experience’ and significant brain drain, as a long time Kiwi living in Asia who often returns, i find an all pervading victim-hood (linked to tyranny of low expectations) and increasing petty lawlessness… and a significant failure (shared with some western societies) to invest in the future. We kiwis are often our own worst critics, but ‘godzown’ it no longer is

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One thing sorely missing in your list: vowels.

New Zealanders do not distinguish between e and i.

Better sounds like Bitter.

Get sounds like Git.

The famous vowel shift.

Don't even get started about "six".....

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I was just talking about my big deck to non-kiwis the other day

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Indeed. When did you last live in New Zealand? It would be nice if you recognised that the country continued to change after you left.

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6 months ago. I'm not quite catching your criticism. Do you think the recommendations are not recent enough?

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