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pearce

@pearced.bsky.social
560 followers 296 following 3.7K posts

They pay me in woims. Books, music, movies and politics. One-time President of the VUW Muppet Club. Te Awa Kairangi ki Tai, Aotearoa. Ngāi Tahu. He/him.

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pearce @pearced.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
No. I don't make decisions. I let the wind carry me.
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pearce @pearced.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
The Roxy in Wellington is playing one of the funniest movies in many years this Friday, Hundreds of Beavers. Highly recommended by me.
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David Ritchie @dritchie.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
newzealandcurriculum.tahurangi.education.govt.nz/new-zealand-...
An excerpt from the New Zealand Curriculum
Social Sciences Years 0–10 (specifically Year 8)

People can work with others to influence public attitudes,
values, and government decision-making by engaging with
MPs, writing submissions, signing petitions, creating public
campaigns, and participating in respectful protests on issues
such as social, environmental, economic, human rights, and
minority rights concerns. Examples include student groups,
trade unions, business associations, and social action groups,
for example:

- young people have opportunities to engage in interest groups
for change (e.g. Students Against Dangerous Driving and
Disability Rights Groups) and promote change in other ways
(e.g. Ngā Manu Kōrero, Student Volunteer Army, Pacific
Youth Leadership and Transformation (PYLAT))**
- the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions (NZCTU) makes
submissions on legislation, runs campaigns, publishes
research, and advocates for workers' interests
- national business associations (e.g. Chambers of Commerce,
BusinessNZ, Federated Farmers) influence government
decision-making by lobbying politicians, making submissions
on proposed laws, and using the media to promote policies
that support business growth and economic development
- the New Zealand Taxpayers' Union aims to influence
government spending through public campaigns, media
engagement, and direct lobbying
- the Polynesian Panthers formed in 1971 to challenge racism,
inequality, discriminatory policing, and immigration
enforcement facing Pacific peoples in New Zealand, including
the Dawn Raids
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pearce @pearced.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Halfway through Dirty Work, going to bed and will finish in the morning. Jordan Williams doesn't seem like a very nice person.
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pearce @pearced.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
The story of how the book came to be is fuckin' priceless I'm sure irs already being shared far and wide
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Felix Geiringer @barristernz.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
“First and most damaging is the influence of private donors. Private money needs to be banned in our electoral system.”
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pearce @pearced.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
That recent documentary on Anderton was excellent. I saw people complain that it didn't include enough from people who disagree with him, but that is what like all mainstream news outlets are for.
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pearce @pearced.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
This is true, but it only works if they actually do appeal to centrists instead of, increasingly, to nobody.
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pearce @pearced.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Quite a few people here half an hour before it starts
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pearce @pearced.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Reckon I might go to a book launch tonight
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pearce @pearced.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Instead of making the third filmed adaptation of Stephen King's The Mist, Mike Flanagan should make the first filmed adaptation of James Herbert's 1975 novel The Fog.
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pearce @pearced.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Sometimes what looks like vandalism is just making an editorial correction, e.g. the billboard on the Hutt Motorway that someone changed from "No New Taxes" to "10 New Taxes"
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pearce @pearced.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Finished my 100th book of 2026 the other day, The Route of Ice and Salt by José Luis Zárate. It retells the voyage of the Demeter in Dracula from the POV of the unnamed Russian captain, who Zárate portrays as a gay man viewing the experience through the lens of the homophobia he experienced.
The cover of The Route of Ice and Salt by José Luis Zárate, translated by David Bowles. First published in Spanish in 1998, I think it's the first full-length retelling of the voyage of the Demeter from Dracula by Bram Stoker. Several books, comics and movies have done it since.
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pearce @pearced.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
"PM Luxon and Peters" sounds accurate
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pearce @pearced.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
I know it's been a few years, but what soulless bureaucrat decided to rename the Wellington Museum of City and Sea to Wellington Museum?
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pearce @pearced.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Trains in Wellington are expensive, but they're on on time, right? No. Are they comfortable and spacious? Uh-uh. Well are they at least seldom cancelled? Listen buddy,
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pearce @pearced.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Here I am once again at Aro Video Secret Cinema, last Wednesday of every month, at Massey Cinema in Wellington. Why aren't you here?
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pearce @pearced.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Without saying your age, what's your favorite movie that came out when you were 20 years old?
static.klipy.com
Before Sunrise: Awkward Conversation
Alt: Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke in Before Sunrise
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pearce @pearced.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
"Did Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem meet on Vicky Christina Barcelona?" @josholson.bsky.social please let me recommend Jamon Jamon to you, they already have amazing chemistry in that in 1992. It's co-written & directed by Bigas Luna, who had made Anguish and it is so much fun.
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pearce @pearced.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
I just recorded a two and a half hour podcast guest spot talking about Barb Wire (1996), who would have thought I had so much to say about that movie?
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pearce @pearced.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Plan a horrorfest using only your first name Perfect Blue (1997) Eko Eko Azarak II: Birth of the Wizard (1996) At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul (1964) Razorback (1984) City of the Dead (1960) Encounters of the Spooky Kind (1980)
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pearce @pearced.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
I'll pick up any book by or about an Aotearoa political figure if it's cheap enough, even if I find them loathsome. Found this one for $1 at a book fair some years ago, and just opened it for the first time. Prebble had recently won the Wellington Central electorate over Labour's Alick Shaw.
The front cover to What Happens Next by Richard Prebble, from 1997. The cover (by caricature artist and former cricketer Murray Webb) shows Prebble with a small crystal ball.The title page of What Happens Next by Richard Prebble. He has inscribed it:

"To Alick, I read in the paper that you won't buy my book - so I thought I would give you one! I would have you to miss out. Richard Prebble 21/11/97"
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Stabbins McGee: Mack Daddy; Math Zaddy 🇵🇸 @stabbinsmcgee.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Windows 98 finding out you don’t go to Start → Shut Down to turn off your computer.
"Risky boots will destroy us all!"
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pearce @pearced.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Never thought I'd voluntarily read another book by an economist, but Escape From Capitalism: Economics is Political, and Other Liberating Truths by Clara Mattei was an inspiring & surprisingly breezy read, basically a manifesto for alternatives to austerity. Can't wait to dig into The Capital Order.
A photograph of my copy of Escape From Capitalism: Economics is Political, and Other Liberating Truths by Clara Mattei. The cover is that text in a black font against a yellow background.
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pearce @pearced.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
"One party wants to tax and spend more, one party wants to tax and spend less" is certainly a choice of how to frame the difference between the major parties' economic policies. Another could be, "one wants higher wages and lower unemployment, the other wants the opposite."
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pearce @pearced.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
🧵 Every year I have about a week and a half when I can go to see a lot of indie movies at the cinema. It's called the New Zealand International Film Festival and it's happening right now in my city, Wellington.
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petrisaurus.bsky.social @petrisaurus.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
THIS IS WHY WE DON'T LISTEN TO THE CENTRISTS. Alt text version:
Image: poll results for 4 questions about Black civil rights demonstrations in the 1960s US. Results of each question are shown on a bar with pro-Black responses in blue, anti-Black responses in red, and neutral responses in gray.
First section is titled "Freedom Riders, sit-ins (May 1961)" with two questions. 
Q1: Do you approve or disapprove of what the "Freedom Riders" are doing? Results: 22% approve, 61% disapprove, 18% no opinion. 
Q2: Do you think "sit-ins" at lunch counters, "freedom buses" and other demonstrations by Negroes will hurt or help the Negro's chances of being integrated in the South? Results: 28% help, 57% hurt, 16% no opinion. 
Second section is titled "March on Washington (August 1963)" with one question. 
Q: What are your feelings about this [proposed mass civil rights rally]? Results: 23% favorable, 60% unfavorable, 17% no opinion/undecided.
Third section is titled "Whites on 'demonstrations by Negroes' (October 1966)".
Q: All in all, do you feel the demonstrations by Negroes on civil rights have helped more or hurt more in the advancement of Negro rights? Results: 15% helps, 85% hurts.

At the bottom of the image are the following notes: 
Note: White respondents only. Source: Conducted by Louis Harris & Associates during October 1966, and based on personal interviews with a national adult sample of 1,250. Sample size is approximate. As reported in The Philadelphia Inquirer. Data provided by the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research. Image is labeled "The Washington Post".
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pearce @pearced.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Hope tonight's late film by a septuagenarian director (The Blood Countess by Ulrike Ottinger) is better than last night's (Father Mother Sister Brother by Jim Jarmusch)
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pearce @pearced.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Poster for the children's animated mocie All Fogs Go To Heaven with a big red R rating sticker on it
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pearce @pearced.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Not unexpected but still gutting.
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pearce @pearced.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Instead of adding a couple of dozen new movies in the week after the New Zealand International Film Festival ends, I wonder if NZIFF could consider just making it two weeks long again like it used to be.
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pearce @pearced.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
There was an announcement on the train just now that there will be mo disruptions to services this weekend, wild that it's so rare they need to inform us
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pearce @pearced.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
I know the election is late this year, but Labour probably should start campaigning.
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pearce @pearced.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
What I would say to you is, less democracy is a party policy, and I'm definitely not just saying that because I'm a weak leader being walked over by minor parties.
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pearce @pearced.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Your favourite horror film of every year in the '60s? 60: City of the Dead 61: Night Tide 62: The Brain That Wouldn't Die 63: The Whip and the Body 64: Onibaba 65: Planet of the Vampires 66: The Diabolical Dr Z 67: Spider Baby 68: Whistle and I'll Cone To You 69: Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed
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G. Willow Wilson @gwillow.me · 05/08/2026
Finally
Screenshot of Kermit the Frog in a tuxedo, from a Muppets Christmas special
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pearce @pearced.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Just found out that Billy Martin has been publishing horror fiction again under his old pen name, Poppy Z. Brite. I was a huge fan back in the '90s. No doubt this is old news for many.
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pearce @pearced.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
There was a time when Aotearoa had reason to be proud of what was being accomplished in the arts on the world stage. To the point where it was actively driving tourism. The burning down of funding means there'll soon be very little that even exists, apart from hobbyists and the independently wealthy
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pearce @pearced.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
I really do need to get into reading Swan Boy and not just his letterboxd reviews
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pearce @pearced.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
"The last person I ever wanted to talk to as a CEO [of a state-owned enterprise] was [our majority shareholder] the Government." Sounds a bit different in that context, eh?
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pearce @pearced.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
Wait, which business did he build? He worked at Unilever from 1993 until 2011 and at Air New Zealand from 2011 until 2019. Both were around for decades before he was born. I can't find any record of him ever founding or owning a business.
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pearce @pearced.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
Yes, and I'd love for anyone criticising the "meanness" of Emily Wilson's Odyssey review to have to sit down and read the attacks on her for the the first line of her translation to see what "shockingly harsh language" really looks like.
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pearce @pearced.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
It seems to me that a renowned classicist who's translated both of Homers's epics should be allowed to have some reckons about an adaptation of The Odyssey. Wilson had to endure far meaner and much more personal attacks for her translations than anything she's directed at the movie.
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pearce @pearced.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Pop quiz: which New Zealand politician said this? "I’m sorry, I only came to politics in 2020. I don’t know what happened in the past."
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pearce @pearced.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Most Wuthering Heights Day had me pulling out all my Kate Bush records and reminding myself that The Dreaming is about as avant garde an album as a popular hit maker ever released. Reckon I've loved her music since being entranced by her music videos at three years old. youtu.be/cxxd5JNweUk
youtu.be
Get Out Of My House
YouTube video by Kate Bush - Topic
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pearce @pearced.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
Haven't logged in for a while, wonder what's going on? *click, click* "New Zealand should genetically engineer miniature Haast Eagles to control the rat population."
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pearce @pearced.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Actual footage of Stuart Nash attempting to engage in politics
static.klipy.com
Sideshow Bob Rake
Alt: Sideshow Bob continually taking a rake to the face
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pearce @pearced.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
And I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know
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pearce @pearced.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
In Hell
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Elle @elleisanisland.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
When you've defeated the cone they put you in the Hannibal Lector
A cat whose entire head is in a helmet with ear, eye and nose holes
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