This year American singer, Katy Perry has received a lot of flak for her new political image. She has also received a lot of flak for her music and even the artwork of her new album, Witness.
Let's start by talking about the artwork for Witness.
It features Katy Perry with her new blonde pixie cut slicked back and her hands over her eyes. An eye is in her mount and it almost looks as if she is naked with a shadow of colour around her.
Rather than jumping to conclusions and saying the album cover is awful (which on the surface it is) we should actually dissect it and analyse it.
When you look at the colours, it almost looks as if the background could be Katy's aura. One part of the aura is purple. A quick search shows that purple is a colour of vision, imagination and daydreaming. With Katy's new political image, it's no surprise that she would choose a colour symbolic of her desire to look to the future. The pastel pink on the other hand symbolises a need for serenity and sensitivity, which definitely seems to tie in with Katy's new image.
The blocked eyes conveys a message that people have their eyes closed and don't want to see what's going on in the world around them. This is a fairly true analysis of how most people live there lives. You only have to look at people when they're on public transport and you'll see that they all look like zombies. In fact, on that note, I was on a bus a couple of days ago and some guy said that exact same thing. I had been the only one to pay attention to what he said. Most people ignore their surroundings.
They tend to just speak.
That's where the second part of the cover comes in. She has an eye in her mouth. In an interview Katy said that she sees her voice as her eye the world and that she speaks what she sees.
Basically the cover is about her opening her eyes and rather than just speaking, watching what's around her.
Her view on the world is evident in her song, Chained to the Rhythm.
Are we crazy?
Living our lives through a lens
Trapped in our white-picket fence
Like ornaments
So comfortable, we live in a bubble, a bubble
So comfortable, we cannot see the trouble, the trouble
Aren't you lonely
Up there in utopia
Where nothing will ever be enough?
Happily numb
It clearly indicates that people are going on in their lives without looking at what's around them. They're just focused on their everyday existences without even questioning what's happening. People like to live in a bubble.
Katy's previous music was pop like this, however it was very superficial whereas this isn't. When you really look at the lyrics and see them, they have an excellent meaning, and are about serious issues.
Witness is similar, however it's a love song, where Katy sings and questions, "would you stay with me if I lost it all?" It's an interesting question given she's been in the public eye for more than 10 years now. She wants to know if the people around her are genuine or if they're only around her for her success.
The second single from the album, Swish Swish is rumoured to be about Taylor Swift who she has been feuding with for the last few years, but is it really? It could really be about any friendship that has turned sour. One line in the song sounds like another song.
It's the line:
Another one in the basket
It sounds very much like the song Another one bites the dust featured below.
It's very subtle though, but there is definitely a similarity.
Power, sounds like it's a follow up to one of Katy's earlier tracks, Pearl, featured on her album Teenage Dream. It's a little bit faster paced than Pearl though and sounds like it could have been written when she was with Russell Brand.
The album changes pace with the song, Miss you more, which is a love ballad. Katy sings of missing an ex and reflecting on the times gone by.
Another couple of standout tracks are Tsunami, Save as Draft and Into Me You See, which closes off the album.
The album is much better than what you'd expect based on the first three singles.
It's confusing why the songs chosen as the singles were actually the singles. Collaborations, as they all are, are never ever good. The album generally speaking retains Katy's old sound.
My only criticism of the album (aside from the cover, but from a visual point of view, the cover is rather fitting) is the collaborations and the amount of auto tune used on the songs. They'd be better if they were more raw but that is true of most music released today.
Every week there is at least one headline where New Zealand citizens are either whinging about a lack of access to welfare in Australia or the cost of studying. It's not just New Zealand citizens whinging about fees but for the purposes of this article that is what I will focus on (because we all know how much I love NZ bashing).
So when the budget was announced last month the idea was that permanent residents will pay full fees for university education and that the fees for New Zealand citizens will also increase.
The picture painted by the mainstream media was that these fee increases will be astronomical and will force some people to leave the country because they no longer get subsidised education and will have to pay up front.
Let's talk about that though. Is it really a problem?
Presumably the majority of New Zealand citizens are of working age, and let's say they live in Sydney and earn the average salary of around $80,000. That's around $1500 per week.
Let's then assume the average rent or mortgage payment each individual pays is $500 per week. That still leaves $1000 but minus tax and you're left with $700.
Now to make another assumption, living expenses would be $200-$300 per week which leaves you with $400-$500 per week worth of discretionary income.
Each undergraduate university unit costs anywhere from $793 - $1324. It can be as high as $2900 for some units.
Either way, that's still very affordable.
Now let's analyse the cost of living in Auckland (Auckland is used because that's where the majority of jobs are).
The average wage is allegedly $76,000 (Im doubtful of this based on viewings of Seek advertisements and think it's closer to $50,000. Wages tend to peak lower in NZ than they do in Australia where $100,000-$200,000 is not impossible). Rent is around $300 a week per person and the cost of living would be comparable with that. When you minus tax you'd have about $200-$300 left over.
The average university unit in New Zealand would cost $886 for an undergraduate qualification.
So the question is, which country is more affordable for tertiary education?
As you'd expect, I'm going to say Australia and I'll explain why.
The fees are comparable between the two countries and although the cost of living in Sydney is more than in Auckland, the higher wages compensate for that. There is a greater capacity to earn a very high income in Sydney than there is in Auckland.
Yes, New Zealand citizens do have to pay up front but most people would easily spend thousands of dollars a year on things they don't need so is paying for education really a huge cost? When you consider that your earning potential and job opportunities are greater, it's actually a tiny investment.
Most people who don't have qualifications end up stuck in jobs that aren't going anywhere because they don't have anything to offer their employer. They have limited knowledge and few jobs are open to them unlike those with tertiary qualifications.
This brings me to my next point.
Are New Zealand citizens just looking for an excuse to go back to New Zealand? I would say yes. If people truly wanted to live in Australia then they would find any way to do so. The other question is, is it truly that people can't afford an education or is it that they don't value it? These same people who criticise the up front fee payment would no doubt be taking at least one holiday per year which would cost them thousands of dollars. An education may cost $32,000 but when you consider that over your lifetime you'll earn significantly more than that as a result, it actually pays for itself.
Not being eligible for HECS is actually a good thing because it saves you getting into debt which constantly rises each year at the rate of inflation.
The only thing that doesn't make sense about university fees in Australia is that those who take out a HECS loan get a discount but those who pay upfront don't: Shouldn't it actually be the other way around because the person who pays upfront is not a drain on the Australian taxpayer? You would think that you're doing the government a favour by not taking out a HECS loan.
All the talk from foreigners whinging about the cost of tertiary education jumps up and down as if there is a massive difference between domestic and international fees but $200 per unit (in most cases) is pretty insignificant when you consider the opportunities available as a result of that education.
The bottom line is that as long as you work full time, studying as a foreigner in Australia is extremely affordable. Anyone who says otherwise is just expecting handouts from the government. If you don't study the most you can expect to earn in a city like Sydney is about $50,000 whereas if you do study that amount is actually limitless.
In TV land, a cliffhanger is defined as an episode that leaves you on the edge of your seat, grasping to know what will happen in the next episode. It's an episode where the stories haven't been resolved and there isn't closure. And unlike relationships that end where there is closure, there was no closure from tonight's episode of Shortland Street, which was a celebration of the program's reign over the last 25 years.
Once the program had ended, the viewer was only left with more unanswered questions that are likely to be as gripping as the question mark over Lionel Skeggins' disappearance in 1999. The generation of questions means that as the writers, cast and crew expected, it was in fact the most successful Shortland Street episode of all time.
The event
Prior to tonight's episode of the program, there had been some hints that the show would feature a "cataclysmic event that would leave the lives of the residents of Ferndale up in the air", and let me tell you that's exactly what happened.
If you've been watching the program for the last few weeks then you would know that there have been a few earthquakes and that might have been predictable, so the Shortland Street writers decided to create a script where Mount Ferndale (played by Mount Eden) would erupt. Any long term fan of the show would have seen that coming, but despite the predictability, it was massive, like nothing ever done by the writers of Shortland Street ever before.
While the hospital staff were racing to save the lives of patients, there were conflicts, reunions and of course Chris Warner's 50th birthday party.
The characters
Writing Chris Warner's 50th birthday into Shortland Street paved the way for old characters to return to the show. The characters amongst that list included: Marjorie Brasch, Nick Harrison, Waverley Harrison, Stuart Neilson and Lionel Skeggins (but more about his return later). As you'd expect though, there's no way that the residents of Ferndale can ever have a party without something going wrong. When you look back on previous years you'd realise that something bad often happens to the characters who are trying to celebrate.
In 1994, when Gina and Leonard held their going away party, there was a fatal car accident where nurse Steve Mills and Sam's wife TP tragically died. Initially Steve survived the crash but he went back to save TP and then the car blew up. Nurse Carmen Roberts died on Christmas Day after a truck smashed into the clinic and another momentus occasion was in 1999 when Lionel Skeggins married Mackenzie Choat before disappearing without a trace.
Tonight's 25th birthday episode was no different, with Mount Ferndale (which appears to be based on Mount Eden) erupting during Dr Chris Warner's birthday, and Marjorie Brasch (the original clinic receptionist) dying of a cardiac arrest.
It's not yet known, but Lucy Rickman-Karim might have died in the program after bleeding to death following the bith of her and Ali's baby girl.
The villian
Shortland Street has had its fair share of villians since the show began in 1992, with Ferndale Mayor Mason Coutts playing that part now.Although we've known he was a murderer for a while, tonight was only the second time we'd seen him kill. Earlier in the week he killed one of his foreman, George, and tonight he killed one of his accomplices, Lizzie. It was suspected during the program that he had killed triplet Frank Connelly, but fortunately he managed to survive. Mason suffered a stab wound and he is still alive as well. It is not yet known what will happen to him given that his wife, Sass stabbed him when she thought he'd killed her triplet brother Frank. It's possible that he will end up in prison, or that he will die from the toxic fumes caused by the volcanic eruption and the stab wound.
The humour
Whenever you have a serious episode, you need to have some humour thrown into the mix as well. Nick and Waverley provided that, with them arguing with eachother every five seconds, and then Waverley uttering a phrase she'd used in 1994, "I'm pregnant as anything", when she thought she had been pregnant to Nick or Stuart (she wasn't though. She is this time).
Until the end of the episode when Marj quietly died in recpetion, she had been very humerous with her interactions with Chris, receptionist Leanne, and other cast members Harper and her on screen son, Stuart Neilson.
The relationship between Boyd and Eve has been somewhat up and down the last few months, with it progressing somewhat tonight. Eve had gone up to the mountain and managed to get a rock (which if you recall, she and Boyd had discussed when they first met before she had a job at the clinic), but now they seem to be making progress though we'll know more about that next week.
Leanne and Damo are such opposites that their relationship works. Leanne is very dry whereas Damo is a joker. Tonight saw the pair get back together.
The tragedy
No soap opera fan likes when a character dies unless it's a villian. It's different for someone like Mason Coutts to get injured and attacked because he's evil and you want him to get what's coming to him. When it's someone like Lucy however (though it's up in the air if she lives or dies), even though she's annoying and boring, people do care about the character. It's the same when someone like Lizzie gets killed. Even though she's working for the bad guy it's not all her fault. Sass had thought that her triplet brother Frank had been killed, and that's what prompted her to stab Mason, however he wasn't dead. He is still alive.
It's even worse when an original cast member dies without warning. That's exactly what happened tonight with Marj. She had been in hospital becaus she had a fall, but she ended up stuck in a lift and then suffering a cardiac arrest in reception. She had a DNR order so she couldn't be revived without her son Stuart's approval, which he did not give.
The romance
The New Zealand Herald hinted that returning character Stuart Neilson would find romance in the corridors of Shortland Street and that's exactly what he did. He found it with Harper, although that was swiftly ended and she returned to her fiance Drew who she had a falling out with last week over her neice, Ashley. Hawks and Sass finally reuinted after they'd had a fling last year and Mason had tried to stand in his way, knowing that there was true chemistry between the characters.
The unanswered questions
It's unknown if Lucy has survived her blood loss, however, given she and Ali were moving up north, it's likely that she has been killed off the show. We won't know until it returns on Monday.
The next question left unanswered following the episode is, will Marj's funeral be on screen or off screen, and if it's on screen, why isn't Jenny Harrison returning for it given they are best friends?
These are just minor questions compared to the true cliffhanger question, that after 18 years, we still don't have an answer to, is, in the words of Dr Chris Warner, "Lionel, is that you?"
Copyright is owned by South Pacific Pictures. I do not own the copyright to this screenshot from Shortland Street, May 25th 2017.
It looks like Lionel to me, however after 18 years of not being on the program and fans (like me) suspecting he was still alive, we now have our answer. Lionel is alive. He's been alive this whole time, but we don't know the following:
1 - What happened after he was swept off the rock?
2 - Was he even swept off or did he swim out to get away from Mackenzie?
3 - Did he end up going to Makara to live? If you recall, he went to Karori Normal School (here's a fun fact, so did I).
4 - Does he have amnesia like Harold Bishop from Neighbours did when he disappeared for a few years?
5 - What's he been doing the last 18 years?
6 - Does he still bake muffins and run a coffee shop?
7 - Is it possible he knows that he's Lionel but after 21 years he doesn't recognise Chris Warner due to time lapse?
8 - Did he ever meet up with Kirsty in Wellington if that's where he was?
9 - Who rescued him if he was swept out to sea?
10 - If he knows who he is, and he's pretending he's not Lionel then why?
11 - Did he end up finding Caroline Buxton and ending up happy with her?
12 - If he was living outside of Ferndale for the last 18 years then what brought him back to Ferndale?
13 - Or, did he fake his own death? And if so, why?
14 - Why didn't Waverley recognise him?
15 - Does Lionel have any other kids we don't know about other than Luke?
16 - If Lionel answers to the name Lionel why is he pretending he doesn't know Chris Warner?
This is the only thing that was wrong with the episode, the moment when Lionel returned for a split second. It's opened up so many more questions. Please campaign the writers to bring him back to tell this story. This story needs a conclusion as there are just too many questions, and in soap opera land, if there's no body, as there wasn't for 18 years, the character is still alive (I always knew he was still alive).
We now have evidence that Lionel is alive, and that story needs to be told. We need answers and closure.
All in all though, I give the program a 4.9 for tonight's episode. It loses minor points for killing off Marj, and opening a raft of new questions about Lionel's disappearance.
