Naturally, the batshit insane personalities and policies of the Republican primary needed good, slick American-​style TV (in 2011, read “youtube”) ads to go alongside them. Here are ten of the best.

Robbie Cooper (b.1969) is a British artist working in photography, video, and explorable 3D. His work focuses on the similarities and differences between how people present themselves in reality, and their online personas.

The 2008 general election produced the lowest voter turnout in NZ in over 120 years. So how could we fix this?

“Voter turnout has been decreasing in most established democracies over the past 30 years or so. Which is not to absolve New Zealand’s responsibility for sorting its shit out, but to get people who are soulsearching on this to cast their net a little wider than blaming, say, Phil Goff. Or MMP. Or The Feelers. Or offering up a comparison of the 1887 general election. I don’t know.”

Don’t vote for anyone who is a dick on election day.

“Calling cards” from Chicago gangs

An excerpt from Taboo (of Black Eyed Peas fame)‘s new ‘autobiography’

Joe Nunweek reports from the front lines of the Incubattle

(I was asked to write the following as the text accompaniment to Dylan Scott’s “Google Squalor” this month, on exhibition at the University of Auckland’s Window Gallery. It’s a fine install, with a political edge that Auckland art doesn’t always have — less so, for example, than what you see in Wellington. Dylan talked persuasively about rock, copyright, Black Flag and “Lipstick Traces” in his proposal, which influenced me in turn. It’s perhaps not the most sober-​minded look at New Zealand’s ‘three strikes’ bill […]

A disclaimer: I need to fully acknowledge that for all my fumbling and inarticulate attempts at getting to grips with this topic, I’m trespassing onto potentially painful and intimate territory as a male with the contents of this post (ie: triggering). That said, the only other NZ male commentary I’ve read on the Internet is this uncharacteristically dogshit summary from the DimPost (dude has an insane strike rate, though, better and more prolifigate than mine, so what’s one dashed off post?) I figure […]