Merry Christmas!

As is tradition, we end the year by inviting Mike from Riot Radio to share a few bottles and discuss all the music we loved, hated, spat at, made, saw, heard and laughed at in 2015.

As per, we've made a Spotify playlist for you to play along at home.

Being the festive season, this is a marathon length episode, for you to dice up and consume at whatever pace you feel comfortable with.

See you in 2016.

Hello, it's us.  You may have once known us as The Egonomist - those times are over.  This is our final form: At The Drive Thru.

We get off to an awesome restart by Dave not having his mic on for 13mins, during which time the nation's opinion of vegans can go unchallenged.  The politics of food may well be, ironically, the most toxic substance known to man.

Also the UK voted to bomb Syria.  Savvy trumps humanity most days but this is especially bad news.

Hey, how's it going?

In the news: our new name is revealed!

Plus, there's a cabinet reshuffle/unshuffle/deshuffle/stacking.  Seymour turns down a job and doesn't lose his benefit.  Collins comes in to clean up a mess she created and somebody else found.

Also; punk.  Specifically; Blink 182.

Hey how's it going?

We haven't rerenamed ourselves yet, so there's still time to flick that recommendation through, brah.

In the news this hour: what we did in our weekend (raves, it turns out).  Smoking.  Being told off.  Pigeons.  Twitter.

This was recorded seven days ago.  World events of the weekend, should we ever talk about them, happened after this was recorded.

Hey,

Big things going on - we still need a name for one. At me.

Labour Party Conference was last weekend, and was atypically chill.  There's a a focus on the economy, but Boots Theory argues that doesn't mean they've neglected the human side of politics.

The disgraceful scenes in parliament show no sign of abating.  Nor the injustice in Australia.

Hey!

We are still BLUE STREAK while we figure out what we should actually be called. Got an idea? Yell it @_BlueStreak.

In the bloody news: Unemployment up, Wellington council contractors' pay up, Irish drug restrictions down, Goff sideways.

This was recorded well in advance of the travesty in parliament today. We'll get there.

Thanks everybody for sticking by us as we overhaul this mother.  Actually had a bit of a stats bump in the midst of this.  Did you all hate the old name after all?  Thanks for letting us know, you champions.

Hey, we've changed our name.  You may have know us as the Egonomist before, that's over.  We are, for the next couple of weeks, BLUE STREAK.  When we come up with something better, we'll change it again for good.  YOU CAN HELP!  Let us know your suggestions - gizza tweet.

Today we talk about Guy Fawkes, NZ First, Parihaka, Dave's cricket career, Prince Charles gets a kiss.

Hello!

New look for us, and iTunes are being dorks so you might not see this if you aren't subscribed. Who knows - we live in uncertain times.

In the UK there was a a near-constitutional crisis which has been totally resolved since recording but at the time was a big deal.  Also sports are a big deal - too big a deal for satire in any case.

Have a nice day.

Hey!

What's with New Zealand journalism when two reporters get done in by the fuzz? Heather du Plessis-Allan gets a gun, and trouble.  Tova O'Brien sneaks cameras into a thing, or whatever, and goes to gaol.

Is Renoir a bad painter? Yes, he's dead.

And would you like LIES with that? A big mac is served with a big whack taken out of it, and nobody's owning up to chomping it.

Hey, Dave was a guest on The Year Of Reading Massively episodes 8 parts 1 and 2, and it was a blast.

Hello!

You can't go two minutes these days without running smack into bitter intergenerational warfare, can you?

And now; Sport: We do our very best to understand the current scandal rocking the cricket world.   We try to understand the hoopla and horror around the Rugby World Cup.  Sports journalism vs politics journalism - which is better?  (Trick question).

And in literature news: Slater's got a new book out about unions. His next book probably won't be PR tips.

PS: I've re-uploaded the previous episode with fixed audio if that was bothering you.  Who knows what we're doing.

Hi!

Bill English stumbled over a surplus, accidentally fulfilling a promise he's made now for several years - but at what cost.  Talks of the state pushing contraception and the concept of click-bait government - do they actually mean any of it?  CYF reform gets passed out wide to Paula Rebstock.  And Dan encounters a mattress.

Hello - right before you get stuck into this I think you aught to be aware that the top of this discussion spends some time on sexual violence, in particular violence against trans women being held in male correctional facilities.

Please read http://noprideinprisons.org.nz

A note from Dave: in this I misspoke and said "it could have been anyone" when discussing the sexual violence experienced by a trans women incarcerated in a male prison.  What I meant to convey by that is that the double-bunking of prisoners is a catalyst and multiplier of violence and risk for all incarcerated people.  However this particular violence experienced by this trans women could not have happened to anybody - it is a violence faced exclusively by incarcerated trans women as a result of a confluence of shitty policies and inaction.  Hopefully the wider point is made in the rest of the discussion around it but that line I used has been bugging me since I said it - it is incorrect.

In more a more light-hearted, light-headed vein: Dan went to the gym and you'll never guess what happened next.

Hey!

Serious and horrific goings on in the middle east theatre of war.  Is history repeating as Cold War players line up for a rematch?  The history of the nuclear deterrent and the horrid little mistakes which got us here.

The TPPA, at time of recording, has yet to be finalised.  What will it look like?  Are we all going to be paying $700 a pill while pouring milk out into the sink?

Hey how's it going?

Today, sex stories.  Wait; a funny one, at least.

Also, what's up in music today, and the entertaining results of producing your own biopic.

You know what this is about.

David Hameron gets a hammerin' in the press.  You've read about. We've all read about it. You know what this is about.

Also; the shady shark-like forces hovering just below the surface of social media. Are they real? And local body politics gets even less engaging by tackling issues which don't exist.

Hello!  It's a bumper feature-length single episode as we are overdue.

Scout NZ launched, ha ha.  Corbyn won the leadership of the UK Labour Party - does second place win two leaderships of the UK Labour Party?  Ha ha.  The flag debate, process, or whatever you want to call it.  Klaxons sound as Tony Abbott is the one millionth sitting Australian prime minister to be rolled from office.  And the horrifying images of the horrifying reality of our horrifying world - the west's refugee narative is thrown into schreeching discord with the suddenly obvious and unignorable needs of humans undergoing tradgety.

Hello.

Tattoos, getting chucked from bars and human rights!  A wizard makes the apes go bananas!  Burgers!  Washing your car!  It's a mouthbreather comment bonanza episode.

Also the absolute capitulation on the government's duty of care which is the confused, incomplete and failed health and safety legislation.

A note: This was recorded August 30th.  Had it been recorded a few days later we would not have been so flippant about human rights issues at the top of this episode given the stories currently in the headlines.

Hey, how's it going!?

Sorry if we were a bit late in getting this to you, it's been a busy month.  By way of compromise you can check out Dave talking on Wellington Access Radio's NZ Music show (link to 24mb MP3) about his group You Barbarians, and their new release.

In the news: the stockmarkets took everybody on a screaming roller coaster of headlines.  And Jeremy Corbyn is here so that other people can tell you it's stupid to vote for what you want.  The anglosphere Left all moved to the centre over the past couple of decades - is the concentional wisdom that this is how you do things able to explain itself this time around?

Hi!  There's a ton of new music out at the moment, not to mention the new ways to listen to music also.  Apple Music is here - is it dece?

This was recorded prior to the TPPA marches this weekend, but it was a topic at the forefront of our minds.  Is the PR mission being lost?  In related news; our dairy industry takes another lonely step towards the wall with prices hovering at or below the break-even point for NZ farmers, all while details emerge of the legnths to which our government will go to in order to help out a single sheep farm on the other side of the world.

Is it Key's time to go anyway?  Your mates in the boardroom (might) reckon.  Over the pond Abbott finally kinda deals with Bishop, and the right wing stand up and fight for your right to a beer during the rugby world cup.

And hey, Dave's band You Barbarians is releasing its debut EP this Friday the 21st.  Check it out, come have a drink upstairs at JJ Murphy's on the 21st from 8pm and say "hey, Dave, congrats on taking two years to finish a five-song record. Can I purchase a copy please paying cash right here? My mother doesn't let me purchase items off the internet with a credit card" and I will say "Thanks, sure, I've got download cards and also beautiful hand-foiled digipak CD versions available.  Which would you like?".  Alternatively you can pre-order online, mate.  It'll be a good time.

Hey how's it going?

Today we delve deep into the national psyche via the mixed paradigms of opinions on journalism, the man drought, and the pervasive miscellenous suburban feeling that everything is just fine, shut up and go away.

Also! The breathalyser she couldn't refuse! The Barenstæin Bæars freakout, and Dave's band has its freaken debut EP coming out NEXT WEEK.

Hey!

The National Party had its conference this past weekend.  Just what's still in the tank 7 years into government?

Fast food news: most everything in the world has changed and requires reevaluating.  Secrets, lies, noodles, rice.

Special report: do you love science, or do you love living science? Yes you.

And either sport or beer came next, can't remember!

Hi, how's it going?

In less serious news; Len Brown parked an electric car for a minute over a unoperational cycle lane, and will pay the price.

In more serious news, serious issues are coming to light with the management of for-profit privately run Mt Eden prison.  The company in question, Serco, is no stranger to controversy and has a history of mismanagement in an industry where that carries a real human cost.

Download | iTunes Hey, how’s it going! In Fast Food News: new escalation in the breakfast wars with some chicken thing Dan likes coz of course he would.  Another oral history on smoking – this time the roll-your-own-revolution. And in News News: how does the government persistently quote expert advice which is directly contradicted by those experts?  Easy! … Continue reading Episode 464: Chuffin and Puffin’

Download | iTunes Hey, how’s it going!? The Labour Party team up with the Herald for a race-baiting remix of a song you’ve heard before.  Also at the Herald, damage control protocols swing into action in response to response to Pebbles Hooper’s response to tragedy.

Download | iTunes Hey!  Giovanni Tiso is with us again for round two.  Check his writings at his blog or at Overland.  Check the Doctors call for legal MDMA – how has drug liberalisation worked around the world?  What can be done in an internationalised drug market?  Greenpeace hit the roof!  Nick Smith is on a roll, becoming … Continue reading Episode 462: The Agony And The Ecstasy