With the Primetime Emmy Awards coming up, here are the many, many Lightbox shows that have earned themselves nominations, along with our winning predictions. Spoiler alert: Maggie Smith always wins. Transparent What’s it about? First of all, the name is a pun. It’s important that you know this. Here’s what we made of Transparent way back … Read more
This week we revisit the Mervyn Thompson Affair – the strange, powerful and polarising 1984 incident in which six unknown women abducted an Auckland University lecturer, chained him to a tree in Western Springs, burnt his flesh with cigarettes, threatened to castrate him, and labelled him a rapist. Today, Steve Braunias introduces an extract from Thompson’s memoirs. Trigger … Read more
Is New Zealand a petrolhead nation? A glance at vehicle ownership, and how it’s changing. Inspired by the incredibly weird tale behind the Bashford Antiques clamping story, our friends at Figure.NZ have provided three graphic snapshots of motor vehicle ownership in New Zealand. Starting with the frankly absurd reality that most Auckland households own two … Read more
Compiling the best reading of the week from your friendly local website. Alex Casey: Good news: The Chiefs scandal didn’t really even happen!!! “As has been observed on Twitter, The Chiefs are hugely embarrassed and disappointed about all the nothing that happened. They hope to rebuild from all the nothing to make a… something… but … Read more
For this week’s quickfire examination: how much do you know about New Zealand and migration? Immigration and, to a lesser extent, emigration are hot political potatoes. Can New Zealand perform a near miracle and have a grown-up debate about it? You never know. In the meantime, facts are good. Test your own familiarity with the … Read more
The best-seller chart at Unity Books for the week just ended: September 9 AUCKLAND STORE 1 Three Cities: Seeking Hope in the Anthropocene (Bridget Williams Books, $15) by Rod Oram “With economies stagnating, politics polarising, societies shattering and ecosystems suffering, I felt an urgent need to go walkabout last September….” Ace business journo Rod Oram … Read more
In July The Spinoff published a story about a segment on RadioSport which we thought was homophobic. Miles Davis was cited within the story as an example of the broader homophobia within sport. Mr Davis complained to the Press Council about the matter, and the complaint was upheld. Today we publish in full the Press Council’s decision. … Read more
In association with our mates Bigpipe we’re livestreaming a different video game every Wednesday at 7pm. Join José Barbosa and a cast of roped in innocents for a journey into utter mayhem. For the inaugural stream colleagues Don Rowe and José Barbosa give the blimmin’ Battlefield 1 open beta a crack. Involves death, horses, gas, … Read more
Yesterday, NZ Rugby held a press conference in relation to the Chiefs scandal, wherein they barely said anything at all. Today, the Human Rights Commission invites you to add your name to a letter calling for a change New Zealand rugby culture. The NZ Human Rights Commission has this afternoon published an open letter to … Read more
Last week’s best letters, comments and complaints. The Spinoff has turned off comments. If you want to have your say on a story, please head to our Facebook or Twitter – or send a letter to the editor to info@thespinoff.co.nz. Letters may be edited for length. @TheSpinoffTV when you turn off public commenting coz the … Read more
Three Figure.NZ charts offer a snapshot of the people who work in New Zealand restaurants and bars – and where. New Zealand’s growing hospitality sector has been in headlines recently both in relation to immigration policy and the rapidly changing face of the industry itself. But who is cooking and pouring and serving, and where?
Trains! Expressways! Parking! The Greens’ transport spokesperson Julie Anne Genter and Transport Blog super-genius Matt Lowrie join us in the pod. Plus: we get David Farrier on the phone to apologise for last week’s debacle Unless they stay in their new-build medium density housing and never venture out, the rapidly growing Auckland population is going … Read more
Compiling the best reading of the week from your friendly local website. Disclaimer: This week The Spinoff celebrated ‘Hosking Week’, in appreciation of the great Mike Hosking. As much as we would love it, not all weeks will be this Hosk-heavy. Liam Fernandez: Hosking Week: A comprehensive look at Toni Street trying to speak on Seven … Read more
In the lead-up to Show Me Shorts 2016, we pick one local film from their illustrious back catalogue, courtesy of our TV sponsors at Lightbox. Dump, from the 2012 Shorts catalogue, dares to look at what happens when kids are forced to spend the day with Dad. Eleven year old Utah is dropped at the dump by his … Read more
Were you a baby once? If so, you’re perfectly equipped to tackle the second quiz from Figure.NZ for the Spinoff, all about babies and parenting in New Zealand. [qzzr quiz=’258055′ width=’100%’ height=’auto’ redirect=’true’ offset=’0′]
The best-seller chart at Unity Books for the week just ended: September 2 WELLINGTON STORE 1 The Sympathizer (Corsair, $28) by Viet Thanh Nguyen This powerful novel, which won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, has been in the top 10 for months, and now climbs to number one in both of Unity’s stores. Word … Read more
Inside the Lightbox is a sponsored feature where we hand pick shows from the Lightbox catalogue that you might like to watch. Here are the best additions coming in September. Transparent (Season 3 arrives Sep 24) Maura’s back for a third season in perhaps the most talked about show in recent years. As well as riding … Read more
Just before Christmas, 2012, hiker Alistair Levy disappeared forever in the Kahurangi National Park. In the latest issue of New Zealand Geographic, Naomi Arnold retraces his steps, and speaks with the last people to have seen Levy alive. Here she talks about writing, getting lost, and how to justify a story that is guaranteed to … Read more
Introducing a new Spinoff feature highlighting the week’s best reader comment. The Spinoff has turned off comments. If you want to have your say on a story, please head to our Facebook or Twitter – or send a letter to the editor to info@thespinoff.co.nz. ‘This is really not a major change. People get sick, people … Read more
In the second post from our new collaboration with Figure.NZ, a glance at the proportion of women bosses in New Zealand, plus how the numbers look in higher education. Last week Alex Casey spoke to Tara Moss, “activist, author, journalist and very cool legend” about her book Speaking Out, and why women have been so … Read more
Compiling the best reading of the week from your friendly local website. Duncan Greive: Real Housewives of Auckland is brilliant and utterly appalling “How you respond to the show will depend entirely on whether you can ignore the grotesquerie it represents for long enough to revel in the very real pleasures it provides. My gut … Read more
In the lead-up to Show Me Shorts 2016, we pick one local film from their illustrious back catalogue, courtesy of our TV sponsors at Lightbox. Eleven, directed by Abigail Greenwood, was part of the Show Me Shorts festival in 2014 and raked in accolades for its script and editing. Set in the sleepy grey afternoons … Read more
Polling expertise from David Farrar and insightful chats on the mayoral race, the council budget and tensions between the government and Super City. All that and more on the latest War for Auckland podcast. Joining marine commandos Toby Manhire and Hayden Donnell in the fourth War for Auckland podcast are the Auckland Central MP and … Read more
The best-seller chart at Unity Books for the week just ended: August 26 AUCKLAND STORE 1 White Sands: Experiences from the Outside World (Text, $37) Geoff Dyer Reliably unreliable narratives. 2 Things That Matter: Stories of Life & Death from an Intensive Care Specialist (Allen & Unwin, $37) by Dr David Galler Op lit. 3 The Girls (Chatto & … Read more
Test yourself on our new weekly quiz immediately, so you can say you were there before it was cool. Earlier in the week, we launched the first Spinoff-Figure.NZ feature, in the form of the Chart of the Week. Today, the chart’s evil twin: the quiz. And in a week that the government announced plans to … Read more
To launch the new Figure.NZ feature on the Spinoff, here’s how New Zealand’s biggest city has increased in population, and how it is projected to increase further. To completely disabuse readers of any impression that the Spinoff is Auckland-centric and fixated on the city’s growth, we’ve chosen for the inaugural installment of our new collaboration … Read more
Compiling the best reading of the week from your friendly local website. Duncan Greive: Stuff Circuit and the weird dance we do around publicly funding journalism “There are dozens of reporters capable of this kind of important work. But there aren’t hundreds. And there are fewer working with each passing year. And while I seem … Read more
Hallelujah! The Auckland Council has signed off the Unitary Plan, the crucial rulebook for the city’s future. But there remains plenty to fight for, write Hayden Donnell and Toby Manhire The biggest battle of the War for Auckland has been won with barely a teaspoon of blood spilled. In a stunning, gravity defying moment the … Read more
Compiling the best reading of the week from your friendly local website. Alex Casey & Leah Damm: Looking back on a total shitter of a week for women in New Zealand “Perhaps the deepest burn of all came from Margaret Comer, not only a certified woman but also a standing member of the Waikato Women’s … Read more