Werewolf #11 Out Now - Bleak Outlook For Libraries

Hi readers - and I’m hoping that fact marks you out as the target audience for the cover story in Werewolf this month, which looks at the bleak funding outlook for libraries around the country. At a wider level, libraries are also a prime battleground between those who think local democracy should be about using rates to fund services that are actually used by the community, and those who think local councils primarily should serve as the helpmates for local business, and make that the priority for the funds available. In a separate but related story, we outline the terrible outcome in Colorado for communities that have gone down this ‘cut rates, reduce local government’ road – and ask why Local Government Minister Rodney Hide and his mates at the Business Roundtable are even considering the imposition of such a failed US model on New Zealand.

Elsewhere in this edition Cushla McKinney explores the intersection between law and science when it comes in determining when to pull the plug on a human life. Like me, you may be surprised to discover just who, under the law, has the power to make that final decision. In his movies column, Brannavan Gnanalingham analyses the Hong Kong kung fu classic The 36th Chamber of Shaolin and in the children’s classic slot this month, Werewolf has decided to feature Dumbo, the finest achievement of Disney Studios, bar none. Melody Thomas makes a welcome return to this magazine with a personal essay about our fickle sense of beauty and body image, while Lyndon Hood manages to make more sense about what’s really going on in politics than a roomful of gallery hacks – though, true, that is a bit like shooting fish in a barrel. In the travel section Conor MacHugh bellies up to the backgammon table - in Monaco ! – for a smackdown with the world’s finest, and discovers that backgammon is really the winner on the night, in the shape and form of a robot from Japan. Cartoon Alley this month features reviews by Leo Hupert and Tim Bollinger, and new work by Ned Wenlock, Brent Willis and Tim Bollinger. In The Complicatist we look at some of the political uses to which folk music has been put in the past, and celebrate the Appalachian minstrel Bascom Lamar Lunsford.

Werewolf exists as a thank you’ to Scoop.co.nz supporters, and to provide a fresh outlet for writers and cartoonists. If you’d like to be part of it, email me at gordon@werewolf.co.nz. and we can talk about it. Thanks to Alastair Thompson for helping to edit and post this issue.

Cheers,
Gordon Campbell
Werewolf/Scoop

The contents of this edition are:

Closing The Books on Libraries
http://werewolf.co.nz/2010/05/closing-the-books-on-libraries/
The current climate in local government, and the fate of libraries
by Gordon Campbell

Making the Final Call
http://werewolf.co.nz/2010/05/making-the-final-call/
The science of determining when life is over
by Cushla McKinney

Rodney Hide’s Wet, Hot Colorado Dream
http://werewolf.co.nz/2010/05/rodney-hides-wet-hot-colorado-dream/
How the Supercity will ratchet down spending on public services
by Gordon Campbell

Musings on Beauty
http://werewolf.co.nz/2010/05/musings-on-beauty/
Feeling bad about your beautiful body
by Melody Thomas

Classics : Dumbo (1941)
http://werewolf.co.nz/2010/05/classics-dumbo-1941/
… until you seen an elephant fly
by Gordon Campbell

From The Hood : Faster Liberals, Kill! Kill!
http://werewolf.co.nz/2010/05/from-the-hood-faster-liberals-kill-kill/
Suddenly the Government’s strategy makes sens
by Lyndon Hood

Left Coasting : Family Fight
http://werewolf.co.nz/2010/05/left-coasting-family-fight/
Harman vs Winograd : the Democratic Party at war, with itself
by Rosalea Barker

Milestone Movies : The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978)
http://werewolf.co.nz/2010/05/milestone-movies-the-36th-chamber-of-haolin/
Hong Kong’s great gift to cinema
by Brannavan Gnanalingham

Travelling Light : Monaco, mano-a-mano
http://werewolf.co.nz/2010/05/travelling-light-monaco-mano-a-mano/
In backgammon, they take no prisoners
by Conor MacHugh

The Complicatist : Bascom Lamar Lunsford and the mongrel nature of folk music
http://werewolf.co.nz/2010/05/the-complicatist-bascom-lamar-lunsford-and-the-mongrel-nature-of-folk-music/
Or, why your taste in music totally sucks
by Gordon Campbell

Cartoon Alley
http://werewolf.co.nz/2010/05/cartoon-alley/
Reviews, commentary and comics from local artists
by Werewolf

Cartoon Alley : Reviews and commentary #6… by Leo Hupert
http://werewolf.co.nz/2010/05/cartoon-alley-reviews-and-commentary-by-leo-hupert/
Unknown Soldier, The Imposter, Saurian Era & Luna Park
by Leo Hupert

Cartoon Alley : Reviews and commentary #7… by Tim Bollinger
http://werewolf.co.nz/2010/05/cartoon-alley-reviews-and-commentary-by-tim-bollinger/
Utopia Now Vol. 1
by Tim Bollinger

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from Scoop General Manager Alastair Thompson

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