Kiwi graffiti artist Askew One features in this mini-doco:
French winery Cave Fin Bec brought in eight graffiti artists from around the globe to paint on large wooden canvases made from wine crates. The art was then used for a series of wine labels. The winery commissioned by old friend Chris Courtney of Rebild.tv to document the project. myFINBEC
Some of Farrar’s lot were out spreading the gold in Italy when they ran into bottles of wine that were offensive.
Michael Hirsch, a lawyer from Philadelphia, complained to local media after he found a supermarket near his hotel was stocking wine bottles with Hitler in various poses and another bottle featuring an image of Pope John Paul II.
“It is very shocking and startling to us,” Mr Hirsch told The Daily Telegraph on Wednesday. “We would think of it as neo-Nazism It makes you wonder about the sympathies of the local people.”
One bottle features Hitler with his arm raised in the Nazi, another is labelled ‘Mein Kampf” and another was labelled “Ein volk, ein Reich, ein Fuhrer” (one people, one empire, one Fuhrer), Mr Hirsch said.
It doesn’t appear that the wine bottles have broken any laws, so the prosecutor wants a new one.
Prosecutor Mario Giulio Schinaia told news agency ANSA that inquiries were under way.
“The only crime that could be currently attributable to this is that of apologising for fascism,” prosecutor Mario Giulio Schinaia told Ansa. “At this point though it would be opportune to invent the crime of human stupidity”.
Human stupidity is probably not going to be on the statute books any time soon. Thought the Greens and labour give it a good crack as often as they can.
David Cunliffe is said to be on an extended family holiday.
Actually he has gone to his College Reunion and is moonlighting as a New Zealand Primary Produce rep by shilling wine in Wales…at a castle no less.
Sounds awfully like troughing to me, I bet McCully is jealous as hell. Good on David Cunliffe for combining the three ‘W’ of politics…W(h)ales, Wine and Whiskers….ok the third one is actually winning but he can’t seem to master that.
Don’t tell Labour or the Greens but the biggest wine company in China has been buying our vineyards. From their rightful owners who actually own them, rather than the collective us of New Zealanders who actually have no property rights over their vineyard.
The company has quietly acquired vineyards in Italy, Canada and New Zealand without the attention paid to Chinese purchases of trophy châteaus in Bordeaux.
Where is Michael Fay when you need him…or is he just after a steal?
A very bad case of butter-fingers:
A charitable punter who shelled out $52,000 for a bottle of Prime Minister John Key’s JK label dropped it on his way out to the car after the auction.
Key revealed the tale of woe on TVNZ’s breakfast programme today and said he sent them another bottle to make up for it.
The expensive bottle of plonk was bought in a charity auction to raise money for Christchurch earthquake victims.
“Two people bought a bottle and they bought it for $26,000 each right and then another guy said ‘I’ll double it’ because it was for Christchurch so it sold for $52,000 a bottle,” Key told TVNZ.
“And funnily enough one of the people who bought it wandered out into the carpark and dropped it by mistake.
“So for $52,000 I sent them another bottle,” he said.
In February 2010 Phil Heatley resigned over two bottle of wine valued at $70.
Key explained the inconsistency in Heatley’s expenses documents.
“It came to my attention yesterday that the documentation used to support Mr Heatley’s expenses claim for $70 in Christchurch last year was incorrect,” Key says.
The expenses claim said the spending was listed as ‘Minister and Spouse: dinner’.
But the credit card receipt showed the card was used for two bottles of wine for his and his wife’s table at the National Party Conference.
“I have asked Mr Heatley to explain the inconsistency and he has indicated to me that this was an unintentional error on his part, and he had not sought to mislead Ministerial Services in the characterisation of his claim.
“However, he feels that he has not lived up to the high standards required of a minister and has resigned his portfolios.”
Phil Heatley was later re-instated once an investigation showed there was no intent in his actions. Contrast that with Five Fingers Feeley attitude for the same value of wine:
“I would struggle to think that any reasonable person would consider a $70 bottle of wine an outlandish recognition … I doubt that any reasonable person would take issue with the use to which the drink was put.”
No remorse, shows intent. Unrepentant. All for the same amount of money.
This isn’t about the value this is about the head of an organisation responsible for maintaining and enforcing high ethical standards in business and government, getting a five finger discount on a bottle of wine and thinking there is nothing at all wrong with that. Phil Heatley knew the difference, he resigned and showed a refreshing amount of integrity.
What is astounding is the fact that Bill English, who has no responsibility for either the SFO or the State Services Commission sees fit to wade into the debate and pass judgment on what is an employment matter. If I was Labour I’d be loading up a whole heap of questions to Collins and Ryall about the meddling in their portfolios by Bill English.
I just read a quick article on how a “pro” decants wine. Apparently he uses a blender.
Wine lovers have known for centuries that decanting wine before serving it often improves its flavor. Whatever the dominant process, the traditional decanter is a rather pathetic tool to accomplish it. A few years ago, I found I could get much better results by using an ordinary kitchen blender. I just pour the wine in, frappé away at the highest power setting for 30 to 60 seconds, and then allow the froth to subside (which happens quickly) before serving. I call it “hyperdecanting.”
Although torturing an expensive wine in this way may cause sensitive oenophiles to avert their eyes, it almost invariably improves red wines—particularly younger ones, but even a 1982 Château Margaux. Don’t just take my word for it, try it yourself.
Discuss.
So we all helped Busted Blonde take home the piss in the crass Veuve Clicquot/NBR competition.
What the silly bitch didn’t know was just how much work went in behind the scenes to amp the the pressure on the stupid Managing Editor who clearly had a rush of shit tot he brains when engaging with social media.
Chaos and mayhem was sole driver to blogosphere support, In between extensive tweets, facebook posts and blog post there were also pre-emptory emails to the idiot managing editor predicting the coming shit storm across the blogosphere. The fool even emailed me to ask what he could do to avoid making NBR and Veuve Clicquot famous in a “bad way” and then spectacularly failed to take my advice. Make no mistake the blogopshere saw this as a chance to kick Barry Colman, his pay-wall, his rag of a mag and Veuve Clicquot squarely in the nuts.
Another person who prefers the sound of her own voice and fails to listen to advice is the Busted Blonde also known as Brunette. She caved just when NBR was flat on the floor and settled for about half the amount of piss she could have got had the sting continued to run.
It was out of complete disgust with her blancmange pudding like softness that stopped me dropping a copy of the birthday edition of NBR and a bottle of Veuve Clicquot with some hookers and a video camera.
As the kicking was being administered across the blogosphere Busted Blonde was desperately trying to appear concilairoty in an attempt to “make bloggers appear nice”. Well excuse me, but who asked for her fucking opinion. Bloggers aren’t nice, we are evil and especially when delivering one of the best kickings ever to the double target of a mainstream media outlet (The owner of which hates bloggers) and a worldwide premium brand in the guise of Veuve Clicquot.
The fact that we were getting a blow by blow account of Barry Colman’s rage as it unfolding on the poor fool of a managing editor was even more special.
And the ultimate aim, a whole pile of piss to the weight of an extremely fat woman and a party in Frank Kitts lagoon.
Have we seen the party? Of course not, because Busted Blonde, the bloody great pudding wants to have a charity function woth the free piss comepletly against her stated ambitions for winning the competition. It seems only fair that if we kicked the shit out of “Liar” Joe Holden then we should do the same to Busted Blonde.
When Barry Colman finally realised what his fool of an editor had unleashed he dipped into his own pocket to stump up with the piss. This si what that tough blogger Busted Blonde had to say about it in emails.
We won. They have apologised. I win my weight in veuve clicquot. Now we under no circumstances gloat. They are putting up a full apology on nbr. So say nothing till it goes up. Now we have a party for charity to organise. And thanks everyone. NBR themselves are putting up the veuve.
That was the first anyone had heard about a so called charity function. The equally spongy soft Farrar likewise thought gloating wasn’t in order. Screw that, this was a massive hit against the big boys and the really big were going soft. Trying to stay good with Barry Colman. Like good little troughers suckling at the trough they didn’t want to bite the hands that feed them.
Well, the legal attache and the enforcer of the VRWC had two words to say about charity, especially as Colman was a tight-arse and only coughed 58 bottle of Veuve Clicquot.
I called for a vote to evict Busted Blonde from the VRWC because she was now fawning all over Barry Colman, even begging me to remove the image of a Veuve Clicquot bottle jammed p someones arse. My answer was that I wasn’t playing her game, I never was. she was now off on a tangent far removed from the piss up of wankers in Frank Kitts lagoon. She doesn’t want to raise money for charity, she wants to make herself look good and to create her own “legend”. The fact is that without Dpf, me or Cactus plus the other heavy hitters of the VRWC she would never have made it across the line and would have settled for what she got in the first place, a stink magnum of the vile Veuve Clicquot.
I waited for the thanks to arrive too. And waited. And waited. None, not even one little bottle was forthcoming. Neither was an invitation to the pissup. The reason apparently was “her integrity” would be at risk. Right…let’s examine that shall we….an anonymous blogger who likes to brag about her posts on Facebook, so isn’t so anonymous, who got in trouble at her job for blogging so retired the character only to revitalise the lifeless corpse for a compeition to win piss, all the time still blogging under the new blogname of Brunette, in the same style as Busted Blonde, still posting the posts to Facebook and all the time pretending they aren’t the same person. Hmmmm….how is that integrity holding up…..straining as much as the elastic on her panties one would suspect.
Once I started pointing out that 60 bottles of low-class Veuve Clicquot would be hoovered up in about 60 seconds by all her leeching media mates in Wellington, who would refuse to attend said charity function unless they had a freebie and starte to also work out that the fat slapper was mouthing of around Wellington what a great job she did in winning the competition I hit the roof. Hel Cactus Kate and I drank 10 bottles of champagnes election night 2008 between us. How long does Busted Blonde think 60 bottles are going to last once Sean Plunket and the other media heavy weights hoe into it. nd how long did she think her pretense of anonymity was going to last at her public sector trough job once she started promoting a failure of a charity event.
The problem Busted Blonde has is this, she caved when put under pressure, she craves the limelight but her job precludes it, which was why we got the gay V3 cartoon image of a blonde several hundred kilos lighter than the real thing, and she promised literally hundreds of people a party which she now wants to charge us all to attend.
My idea of dropping the pallet of piss down in front of the City Mission and watching chaos and mayhem ensue and video it all for Youtube holds more apeal than sharing a third of a glass of champagne with people I can’t stand. Well screw her and her non-thanks, and screw her and her stupid idea of a charity function. Next thing she will be wanting to raise money for the uninsured of Christchurch.
I almost wish “Liar” Joe Holden had won, at least he would have had a piss up.
I have a new policy in place now that stands for all the fuckwits that I have helped without a word of thanks, its called the Fuck You policy. I can and will go postal on you when I get the chance, think of it as my way of saying fuck you very much. I will no longer be taken for granted.
De-friending and de-linking policy is in force. FFS sake everyone, except Busted Blonde/Brunette knows not to piss on the Whale. She must be stupid, but then that is probably why she works for a government department.
So Barry Colman has returned from his holiday to find his flagship brand has been assaulted and violated by his inept staff and conscientious, diligent, vicious bloggers holding them to account.
He, note he…because as NBR have announced:
The National Business Review unreservedly apologises for the confusion surrounding our 40th birthday competition. It was never our intention to cause confusion about the voting for the Win Your Weight in Veuve promotion but people have expressed frustration and we have listened to their concerns.
The official winner (as chosen by the judges from the top 10 voted entries) will be announced, on schedule, in NBR print tomorrow.
In addition, the publisher will personally provide Busted Blonde’s weight in Veuve Clicquot to her to demonstrate that NBR will not allow its integrity, transparency or honesty in its dealings with its readers to be compromised in any way. She received the most online votes in the competition and NBR happily salutes that success.
As a responsible host, the publisher would, however, appeal to Busted Blonde to urge her guests to wear life jackets if celebrating their win on Wellington Harbour.
Let the festivities begin.
So NBR found a conscience, or at least Barry Colman did, whilst Veuve Clicquot have remained staunch in spiking Busted Blonde. But the win isn’t as the press release says. “The Publisher” isn’t providing Busted Blondes weight in champagne, he is providing only 62 bottles. That is 62 x 750ml bottles of Veuve Clicquot. Given that 750ml of champagne weighs around 800gms without the bottle then either Busted Blonde has had the fastest weight-loss known to man and is now a svelte 49.6 kilos or “The Publisher” is a tight-arse cheapskate and included the weight of the glass receptacle holding the champagne.
Given their Terms and Conditions state that the prize is the winners weight in champagne, not champagne bottles, this seems stingy and mean. The only reason the VRWC backed Busted Blonde is because she said she weighs heaps, which means heaps of booze, sans bottles. 100kgs of Veuve Clicquot is actually 125 bottles or rounded to 22 cases of champagne.
NBR-Veuve Clicquot - T&C
NBR, Colman and Veuve Cliquot need to man-up and settle properly. Their reasons for Busted Blonde not winning in the first place were because her entry was too crass, yes, that’s right, too crass. Exactly how that is measured when the competition is to win your weight in piss, flying in the face of Pedobear Power’s concerns over binge brinking, albeit high priced piss is beyond me. The competition is crass in and of itself. Not only that the competition also encourages rapid weight gain and obesity linked with excessive alcohol consumption….responsible advertising involving alcohol…I think not.
They had a competition, they enlisted social media, they changed the rules and got smashed via social media. It isn’t good enough to get away without a penalty payment, and I say they should pay her weight in champagne, as per the terms and conditions, without the bottle.
Here’s hoping NBR enjoys their birthday as much as I am going to. I’m thinking….another sponsor….100 kilos of champagne…a real party….and no Veuve Clicquot in sight. My ban on Vueve Clicquot stands. Anyway it is rubbish champagne, especially when you can get Champagne Bruno Paillard from The Wine Vault for the same price. The nice guys at the store and the distributor even said to me today that if you buy Champagne Bruno Paillard from them and mention that you heard about it on Whaleoil then you can get a 10% discount on it, making this champagne, not only better than Veuve Clicquot but better priced too.
NBR - Veuve Clicquot Award
