Reporter's Diary

Press, 9 May 1980, Page 2

Reporter's Diary

Sneak preview

DELEGATES to the ..New Zealand Planning Institute’s annual conference at the Chateau Regency this week-end will be treated to a special sneak preview of excerpts from a new musical written by a Christchurch man. Mr John Densem. graphic designer for the Christchurch City Council, and known already for his three-dimensional map of inner Christchurch, wrote “The Man in the Street,” a comic light opera, in his spare time with the help of a Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council grant and at the commission of the New Zealand Federation of Operatic Societies. It tells of resistance by a group of people to a motorway which city planners say will run through their street, meaning that they will lose their homes and the city will lose the art gallery that is also in the street. The full musical will be presented by the Methven Choral Society in July, which will be the first full performance of the opera in New Zealand. Public relations? REPORTERS of both electronic and print news media who regularly cover meetings of the Lyttelton Harbour Board have long expressed the view that too many items of business are regularly taken in committee. It is, of course, the board’s right to dis® cuss in private those matters that it deems may be detrimental to any person, group of persons, or or-

ganisations. It was with little surprise, therefore, that reporters smilingly resigned themselves to having to leave the room when board members recently went into committee — to discuss the board’s public relations. Change of image? READERS of London’s “Daily Mirror” newspaper have recently missed their regular daily nude pin-up on page five or seven, which the paper has been using to fight a circulation battle with the “Sun.” The dropping of the pin-up was explained by the editor (Mr Michael Molloy) as a decision to “see whether there was something more interesting to go in the paper.” The nude could always reappear if the demand was there, he said. So far, the only response has been from a woman reader applauding the decision. What has replaced the pin-up? In one edition, page five was taken up by a true story about Miss Trout and Mr Cod finding a nice plaice for their honeymoon and page seven had’ pin-ups — of the Queen Mother.

A lot of cars PARKING lots on the perimeter of Los Angeles Airport, where cars are usually left for several days while their owners are out of town, will be put under the eyes of 45 security officers as well as a special surveillance tower. The perimeter lots are a tempting target for thieves, because the cars are left unattended for so