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Amanda Riddell
May 20, 20241 min read
Everything is a drug
I've been seeing a Puritan streak in NZ media regarding drug use. People are talking about giving up coffee and alcohol as if drugs are...
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Amanda Riddell
May 6, 20243 min read
Musicals: the cross-cultural perspective
Well, I was brought up in a music culture that prized ethnomusicology and electroacoustic music as roughly on the same level as classical...
19 views2 comments
Amanda Riddell
Apr 25, 20241 min read
"The Movie Business Is Over"
Riffing on a substack post by Ted Gioia. I don't think that's true: Bollywood is thriving, and so are many national cinemas. Hollywood...
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Amanda Riddell
Apr 22, 20246 min read
The future of classical music
Well, the conservatives are losing, and it's becoming de rigeur across the planet to use pops evenings and film score evenings to shore...
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Amanda Riddell
Apr 11, 20241 min read
archival research
I saw a profile on Billy Porter where he said that he was writing a James Baldwin biopic and that as a writer one shouldn't speculate...
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Amanda Riddell
Apr 10, 20241 min read
Amanda continues schooling gays/queers on trans issues
What I have done is actually called a social transition. This is exactly what it means: I changed my fashion to women's clothes, I chose...
12 views1 comment
Amanda Riddell
Apr 9, 20241 min read
Polyamoury???
Well, it came up while chatting with a mate this arvo. I reckon that there's an implicit assumption that when one discusses polyamoury,...
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Amanda Riddell
Mar 28, 20241 min read
Detangling the Alphabet Soup
A quick lesson in New Zealand English from someone that used to edit it for RNZ. So, obviously, the LGBTQIA+ thing is easy to mock. In...
38 views1 comment
Amanda Riddell
Mar 25, 20244 min read
cease and desist - my motivations
I wrote a big rant, but it got deleted. Short version: VUW isn't my family, and they made that clear when I came out. Long version: my...
23 views1 comment
Amanda Riddell
Mar 20, 20246 min read
Quick science mic drop
Well, Glen McConnell managed to trigger me with an article that he wrote about disabled people, so here's me quickly explaining my...
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Amanda Riddell
Mar 17, 20241 min read
early thoughts: drug law reform 2024-2026.
As I've said several times, moving onto party drugs is probably the way of moving that drug checking thinking into the mainstream. I...
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Amanda Riddell
Mar 16, 20241 min read
serious thought for Peter Jones
I reckon that Stephen Sondheim's films might be of interest to people. But yeah, I have no idea if they survived the fire in the late...
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Amanda Riddell
Mar 15, 20242 min read
'distress'
I think that can be a faulty lens regarding mental health. With bipolar disorder, it's entirely possible to feel great while acting in an...
19 views1 comment
Amanda Riddell
Mar 5, 20241 min read
Baseketball
I know that Trey and Matt hate that film, but I loved it as a kid. I've seen it loads of times. To me, when I found out that...
18 views1 comment
Amanda Riddell
Mar 4, 20241 min read
Books that changed my life
Well, every book changes your life, but this is about that 16-20 phase where everything that goes on seems extra-important. So, here's...
17 views1 comment
Amanda Riddell
Feb 29, 20243 min read
What does copyright law mean?
Well, if you hadn't noticed, I've spent the last four years fighting my alma mater, NZSM (New Zealand School of Music) and complaining...
10 views1 comment
Amanda Riddell
Feb 23, 20241 min read
To Tova O'Brien
Rebates aren't really what I envision for the future of film funding. I think that we need something more like CNZ that is slightly...
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Amanda Riddell
Feb 16, 20242 min read
Amanda vs. the drag community
This has some backstory. In 2020, while I was in the middle of my Make It Legal protests, there was an article in Stuff where the drag...
18 views3 comments
Amanda Riddell
Feb 13, 20243 min read
Being an activist
(note: the formatting looked different in the preview!) Well, this is for those that are finding my Facebook page annoying. This...
23 views1 comment
Amanda Riddell
Feb 12, 20243 min read
quipping
Well, in terms of my foreign influences, I'd say that I bring an LA and Milan vibe rather than the stereotypical New York and Paris vibe...
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