Techweek’17 is almost here. Don Rowe previews the event and curates a few selections for the discerning event-goer. After a hugely successful debut in 2016, Techweek is back – and now it’s gone national! Last year’s event, TechweekAKL, saw more than 10,000 people – including investors, business leaders, entrepreneurs and even Joe Public – gawking at … Read more
A new initiative to teach yoga and mindfulness to troubled youth is effecting remarkable change. Don Rowe visits with Atawhai, a new initiative from Kristina Cavit and The Kindness Institute, ahead of their inaugural end-of-programme event this Sunday. In a small room off the Point Chevalier Community Centre in Auckland, miracles are taking place. One … Read more
Around this time every year, the howls of agony echo around the country – from south to north, people who enjoy a drink in moderation have just realised that religious traditions have imposed on their freedoms. But forewarned is forearmed. Bars, super markets and bottle shops will be forced to stop selling bevvys at midnight on … Read more
Don Rowe speaks to Steve Williams, a Palmerston North man who has curated the most incredible collection of packaging materials in New Zealand – and possibly the world. See Steve Williams’ 10 favourite Kiwi food labels here. There once was a time when sliced cheese came in a Ninja Turtle box. A time when chewing … Read more
Last week we invited you to lob your questions regarding autonomous cars at AUT professor Reinhard Klette, New Zealand’s foremost expert on the subject. Today he responds to a selection of the many questions he received, and explains why driverless cars might not be as close as you think. Professor Reinhard Klette, former professor at … Read more
Don Rowe speaks to Dr Neil deGrasse Tyson, the leading science communicator of our age, about climate change, celebratory ignorance and the rise (or not) of artificial intelligence. Stoners worship him, nerds want to be him, the average person wishes they had just a tenth of his IQ – Neil deGrasse Tyson is the … Read more
As more and more young and vulnerable people are locked out of the market, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment has declared war on bad landlords, releasing their tenancy compliance team into the wild. Don Rowe talks to their leader. Some time during Rent Week, it might have been around the time a doctor … Read more
Summer is over now and with the impending cold comes the roar, when deer go on heat and the stags fight for a mate. Time is ticking away, and only the keenest of hunters will take down an animal. With that in mind, veteran hunter Don Rowe demonstrates how to bag a stag this season. … Read more
As summer drops away with the leaves a family in West Auckland prepares to endure another winter in substandard government housing, in a place that feels far from a home. Don Rowe visits and hears their story. “We drove past where our old house was the other day and they’ve built a new one. My … Read more
Having analysed the spate of uplifting stories about millennial strugglers buying homes, Don Rowe reveals how you, too, can lift your foot above your head and on to the lowest rung of the property ladder. It’s not impossible, it just takes a few little tricks – like not paying rent. Sometimes it can feel like … Read more
A new game ten years in the making attempts to adapt naturist Henry David Thoreau’s classic Walden. But far from the rich and luscious text of Thoreau’s hippie bible, Walden, a game is closer to a bowl of plastic fruit, writes Don Rowe. Few games start with an advertisement for endowments in the arts and humanities. But … Read more
As NASA announces the discovery of seven ‘Earth-like’ planets in deep outer space, Don Rowe chats to certified super genius Dr Brian Greene about space, the multiverse and the frontiers of theoretical physics. It took seven and a half minutes before the conversation turned to wizards. Professor Brian Greene, co-founder of the World Science Festival, specialises … Read more
As visitor arrivals reach unprecedented levels and our environment and infrastructure buckle beneath the pressure, Don Rowe argues that it’s time tourists paid their fair share. New Zealand has the highest rate of threatened species in the world. Birds, dolphins, bats – you name a family, we’ve got a species on the precipice of extinction. Our rivers … Read more
A police takedown of a drunk and belligerent biker in the Auckland suburb of Kingsland went viral this week. Pro fighter Shane Young breaks down the action ahead of his own fight this evening in Auckland. Though its logo might look like the sticker on a New Era snapback, the Portland Public House is a … Read more
Cormac McCarthy’s The Road set the standard for our current film fetish for post-apocalyptic desolation. Ashen, the first game from Wellington-based Aurora44, looks to do the same thing with games. Don Rowe speaks to CEO Derek Bradley and Animation Director Simon Dasan about the maturation of game design. You might expect that a game developed in Avalon Studios, … Read more
Independent for almost 20 years, Fat Freddy’s Drop have racked up close to a thousand shows across Europe, returning home as prodigal sons each summer to play for the people of New Zealand. Superfan Don Rowe talks to trumpeter Toby Laing, aka Tony Chang, ahead of the group’s third appearance at Splore. First published 8 February … Read more
The arguments for compulsory Māori language classes in schools are compelling, yet some insist it means the sky is falling, writes Don Rowe. Less than eight months out from the first post-Teflon-John election, the Green Party has placed te reo Māori at the centre of their campaign, calling for compulsory inclusion in schools. The plan, which would … Read more
Ahead of Splore, one of the final stops on the summer festival calendar, Don Rowe chats to tabla drummer Prabhash Maharaj, the youngest musician in a lineage more than 500 years old. For four thousand years the holy city of Varanasi has been the spiritual centre of India. A lodestone for music, religion, philosophy and … Read more
Don Rowe speaks to band leader and sousaphone player Bennie Pete of New Orleans’ Hot 8 brass band on the power of music to put back the pieces when it all falls apart. Since 1995, three members of the Hot 8 Brass Band have been lost, victims of gun violence. One, Joe ‘Shotgun Joe’ Williams, was … Read more
Volume: Making Music in Aotearoa is currently on at Auckland Museum. Don Rowe visits, is astounded, and comes away considering a Southern Cross tattoo out of love for this country. Deep within the bowels of the Auckland Museum lurks the nucleus of music in New Zealand. Like some forbidden experiment, it’s sequestered behind sliding opaque … Read more
The sudden appearance of two Banksy-style artworks on the walls of Tauranga buildings earlier this month ignited rumours that the mysterious graffiti artist could be in town. Don Rowe set off to uncover the truth. The first Banksy I ever saw was printed on a 100 baht t-shirt on Khao Sahn Road in Bangkok. I … Read more
As the country counts down to the Joseph Parker vs Andy Ruiz WBO world heavyweight championship fight, The Spinoff presents FIGHT WEEK, an inside look at the life and career of Joseph Parker. Today we’re republishing ‘Inside Team Parker’, the 1972 magazine cover story on the boxer’s rise and rise. Lupesoliai La’auli Joseph Parker is … Read more
As the country counts down to the Joseph Parker vs Andy Ruiz WBO world heavyweight championship fight, The Spinoff presents FIGHT WEEK, an inside look at the life and career of Joseph Parker, culminating in the Barkers 1972 magazine cover story Inside Team Parker on Friday. Today, Don Rowe follows Team Parker as they prepare … Read more
As the country counts down to the Joseph Parker vs Andy Ruiz WBO world heavyweight championship fight, The Spinoff presents FIGHT WEEK, an inside look at the life and career of Joseph Parker, culminating in the Barkers 1972 magazine cover story Inside Team Parker on Friday. First, a chronicle of Parker’s amateur experience and transition to … Read more
After nine years in development hell, The Last Guardian has finally been released. Don Rowe enters a mysterious and melancholy world and finds the masterpiece of director Fumito Ueda’s career. The first time I calmed Trico the bird-dragon with a gentle pat I felt certain he was going to die. Nothing in the plot would … Read more
After two and a half years of part-time development, Auckland indie dev Steven Wu has released his first game, Ink Wars, on the app store. Don Rowe speaks to Wu, by day a project manager at Spark, about the challenges and triumphs of building a mobile game while holding down a job, and why Kiwi devs … Read more
There’s a revolution underway. Deep within the Auckland Viaduct lurks the beginnings of our own tiny Silicon Valley. At GridAKL, more than 50 startups, in industries as diverse as medicine, robotics and augmented reality, are running the entrepreneurial gauntlet looking to build a high-growth business – or at least get a second funding round. In … Read more
There’s a revolution underway. Deep within the Auckland Viaduct lurks the beginnings of our own tiny Silicon Valley. At GridAKL, more than 50 startups, in industries as diverse as medicine, robotics and augmented reality, are running the entrepreneurial gauntlet looking to build a high-growth business – or at least get a second funding round. In … Read more
Resident weed correspondent Don Rowe sits down with fellow weed journalist Krishna Andavolu to talk fruit bongs, pseudoscience and the silver lining of a Trump election. The lobby of the Hilton on Auckland’s waterfront is a strange and garish place to talk about weed. More so when grey battleships loom in the port outside, and … Read more