Last night David Farrier took himself to see one of his non-musical heroes, X-Files star David Duchovny, play music. Here’s what happened. There was a moment towards the end of David Duchovny’s concert – his first gig in New Zealand, and his first time in New Zealand – that beautifully summed up the whole night. It … Read more
Ahead of Jeremy Wells’ return to television tonight, David Farrier looks back at some of his favourite moments from the deadpan broadcaster. I feel passionately about Jeremy Wells. When I heard the official announcement from TVNZ that he would be joining Hilary Barry (another excellent broadcaster) on Seven Sharp, I felt a pang of joy I … Read more
Fazerdaze, the current incarnation of 24-year-old Amelia Murray, released her debut album Morningside back in May. Since we wrote about the build-up to that record, Murray has had a whirlwind year, finally catching her breath back in New Zealand for Christmas. “I do it for selfish reasons,” laughs Amelia. I’ve asked her why she insists on … Read more
Originally conceived to notify you of important breaking news, news alerts in New Zealand have morphed into something altogether stranger. David Farrier reports. I’ve been in America a lot this year and it’s felt like I’ve slowly been descending into madness. I’ve found myself in a dark place where each day I’m reminded that the … Read more
A Sunday night in Ponsonby revives the Bashford Antiques saga, with revelations it’s still unlicensed and still clamping – now for a scarcely believable amount. David Farrier investigates. I was reminded of the Bashford Antiques Saga™ (you can find that here and here) when I was driving past Bashford Antiques at around 10pm on Sunday night. I … Read more
Following Shortland Street’s 25th anniversary week, we’re reissuing David Farrier’s phenomenal 2014 ‘Real Talk’ interview series with two of the soaps’s biggest stars and thinkers – Ben Mitchell and Cam Jones. In the final episode, we present… the outtakes. “If you love someone, get amongst it” Click here to watch all of the episodes of … Read more
For the Shortland Street 25th anniversary week, we’re reissuing David Farrier’s phenomenal 2014 ‘Real Talk’ interview series with two of the soaps’ biggest stars and thinkers – Ben Mitchell and Cam Jones. Today, the trio discuss the objectification of men. “Know your niche. It’s a market. It’s a business. You give the market what they … Read more
For the Shortland Street 25th anniversary week, we’re reissuing David Farrier’s phenomenal 2014 ‘Real Talk’ interview series with two of the soaps’ biggest stars and thinkers – Ben Mitchell and Cam Jones. Today, the trio discuss cyclists. “Get on the side, mate. You’re a bike.” Click here to watch the entire Real Talk series This … Read more
For the Shortland Street 25th anniversary week, we’re reissuing David Farrier’s phenomenal 2014 ‘Real Talk’ interview series with two of the soaps’ biggest stars and thinkers – Ben Mitchell and Cam Jones. Today, the trio discuss their favourite conspiracy theories. “It sounds a bit hippy and I don’t like hippies. They annoy me.” Click here … Read more
For the Shortland Street 25th anniversary week, we’re reissuing David Farrier’s phenomenal 2014 ‘Real Talk’ interview series with two of the soaps’s biggest stars and thinkers – Ben Mitchell and Cam Jones. Today, the trio discuss the culture of outrage. “I’m showing them a dichotomy. Keep it real man, we’re all fallible humans” Click here … Read more
For the Shortland Street 25th anniversary week, we’re reissuing David Farrier’s phenomenal 2014 ‘Real Talk’ interview series with two of the soaps’s biggest stars and thinkers – Ben Mitchell and Cam Jones. Today, the trio discuss the internet. “If there’s an important email, someone will tell me there’s an email” Click here for episode one: … Read more
For the Shortland Street 25th anniversary week, we’re reissuing David Farrier’s phenomenal 2014 ‘Real Talk’ interview series with two of the soaps’s biggest stars and thinkers – Ben Mitchell and Cam Jones. Today, the trio discuss women and gender. “The feminist movement…sometimes it takes a bit of that feminine radiance of out them” Click here … Read more
For the Shortland Street 25th anniversary week, we’re reissuing David Farrier’s phenomenal 2014 ‘Real Talk’ interview series with two of the soaps’s biggest stars – Ben Mitchell and Cam Jones. Today, the trio discuss the origins of life. “The pyramids: how the f- did they get there? Who put them there?” This content, like all … Read more
Chris Cornell died this week. David Farrier writes about what Cornell’s music meant to him, and the day he met his hero. I hadn’t had wifi or cell reception because I was deep inside a weird forest in Japan, but when I switched my phone back on, it was to a flood of messages about … Read more
On YouTube, every conceivable interest is catered to, including the brutal power of top quality, highly engineered swords. David Farrier talks to Lynn Thompson, founder of sword, knife and viral video makers Cold Steel. “The pig is the closest thing to a human, in terms of flesh consistency, arrangement of organs.” Welcome to the violent, … Read more
The international music community is beginning to take notice of Amelia Murray, who has been releasing music as Fazerdaze since 2014. After seeing her play in April last year, David Farrier followed Amelia Murray over the following year as she completed her album, Morningside, and prepared her band to take on the world. “Who is Fazerdaze?” … Read more
David Farrier was sucked into a tickling vortex back in 2014, and spent the next few years immersed in the world of Competitive Endurance Tickling. Throughout 2016 he took the resulting film, Tickled, to festivals around the world and followed it up with The Tickle King on HBO last month. After three years he was … Read more
Tickled director David Farrier talks to Reggie Yates, the TV host turned documentary extraordinaire behind TVNZ documentaries Life and Death in Chicago and Extreme Russia, over breakfast in LA. Reggie Yates wants to meet for breakfast at a trendy boutique hotel called The Palihouse. He’s staying somewhere quite close, doing LA things like taking meetings … Read more
Hayden Donnell went to the jaw-dropping opening of the New Zealand Church of Scientology on Saturday – you can read his account here. At the event Scientologist-in-chief David Miscavige spoke directly to the crowd. Here, top NZ Scientologist David Farrier attempts to explain what Miscavige is on about in extracts from his address. Dave M: … Read more
A Rihanna logo inspired by death metal bands featured prominently at the VMAs this year. David Farrier followed some rabbit holes to locate the designer behind the whole thing. Originally posted September 7, 2016′ One of the best things that happened at this year’s VMAs was this: Rihanna has always been pretty amazing, but seeing her … Read more
David Farrier, director of docu-thriller Tickled, stumbles into another deeply disturbing instance of vulnerable people being exploited online – this time children, on YouTube. Editor’s note: While we have endeavoured to protect the identities of the children involved, we recognise that by publishing this story their privacy may be compromised. It is our opinion that privacy … Read more
New Zealand’s biggest drum n’ bass band tell fellow metalhead David Farrier about their favourite Slayer and Pantera albums, and how playing with Tool inspired their heavier new direction. The release of their new album Stars seemed like a good time to talk to Shapeshifter about their love of drum ‘n’ bass, maybe touching on … Read more
A Rihanna logo inspired by death metal bands featured prominently at the VMAs this year. David Farrier followed some rabbit holes to locate the designer behind the whole thing. One of the best things that happened at this year’s VMAs was this: Rihanna has always been pretty amazing, but seeing her name in the style of … Read more
David Farrier recently spoke to Rhys Darby about appearing on his favourite show The X-Files. He follows up by chatting to perhaps an even bigger fan, and fellow X-Files guest star, Kumail Nanjiani. Kumail Nanjiani hosts one of my favourite podcasts, The X-Files Files. I think I love it because it’s done with so much passion and love. For … Read more
The owners of Bashford Antiques are in the news for aggressively clamping cars outside their Ponsonby store. But this story is much, much stranger than a simple parking dispute. David Farrier reports. Click here for part two of this weird saga. The only tweet I’ve ever been “forced” to delete was about Bashford Antiques. It happened about three years ago, when I was … Read more
After bonding over their shared love of The X-Files and cryptids, David Farrier speaks to pal Rhys Darby about how he annoyingly ended up on Farrier’s favourite show. I met Rhys Darby years ago when I interviewed him for TV3’s Nightline about his starring role in HBO’s new show, Flight of the Conchords. We filmed our talk in … Read more
Mark Jennings led 3 News for over a quarter of a century. Today it was announced he is stepping down. David Farrier, one of countless journalists to have worked and learned under him, pays tribute to a New Zealand journalism legend. Oh God, it was just awful. I was sitting in Mark Jennings’ office. It … Read more
The X Files is known for both its brilliance and dreadful inconsistency, but did the latest episode drop the ball completely? David Farrier laments what has happened to his favourite show. According to my hazy memory of the Bible, at some point God got annoyed at the great teamwork humans were demonstrating as they came … Read more
Tickled documentary maker David Farrier pieces together his dreamlike memories of a week at one of the world’s most intense (and high-altitude) film festivals. They say that as you climb Everest, your body is dying. Humans are simply not meant to exist at that height. The severe lack of oxygen and freezing temperatures are actively … Read more