With a premiere date set for The Real Housewives of Auckland on Bravo, we have a special announcement of our own… Guys! The Real Housewives of Auckland is arriving to our screens on August 22nd, which also signals the much-anticipated* return of our most reliable reality TV podcasting troupe. Jane Yee, Alex Casey and Duncan Greive will … Read more
The Spinoff presents a beautiful way to see what the new rulebook provides for your street, neighbourhood, and the city as a whole The Spinoff’s War for Auckland bunker is shaking with excitement today as we publish a bold and beautiful bunch of accessible, zoomable maps to illustrate the Unitary Plan. Using data sets provided … Read more
Compiling the best reading of the week from your friendly local website. Michele A’Court: Stop saying dumb shit, and other top tips for all the Kevins of the world “I reckon I might be able to throw a bit of light on this. I actually think you do get it – you come close to … Read more
Just in case you’ve been missing the next big thing in music reviews, we’ve compiled the best Pop on The Couch episodes for your convenience. Featuring Alex Casey, Joseph Harper, the occasional courier, and [COMING SOON] Troye Sivan. The Taylor Swift special Alex and Joseph don some sweet unofficial merch as they rate Taylor Swift’s … Read more
Thousands of ordinary homeowners in Auckland’s affluent suburbs are about to be torn from their historic homes, which will be forcibly demolished. That’s the impression you’d get from a string of stories published under a particular byline, at least. Take, for example, this morning’s scaremongering codswallop … In some of the wealthy suburbs of New … Read more
After being elected unopposed at the last election, councillors Dick Quax and Sharon Stewart finally have some opposition in Howick. Councillor Dick Quax and his ally Sharon Stewart were elected unopposed in the Howick ward last election. That’s a shame, because Quax is what would happen if you put skin and a moustache on an … Read more
A group of young Wellingtonians have scored millions of online views for their idiosyncratic Shakespearean revamps. With the launch of their third series, Bright Summer Night, we asked them to explain themselves, and they sent us a video. The first two web series by the Candle Wasters put a girdle around the earth in hardly … Read more
A group calling itself ‘The Coalition for More Homes’ emerged this morning, bringing yet more pressure on the Auckland Council to pass the Unitary Plan. This morning The Spinoff received an email from a group calling itself ‘The Coalition for More Homes’, demanding, essentially, more homes. What’s interesting and significant about the group is its … Read more
Compiling the best reading of the week from your friendly local website. Duncan Greive: Announcing the War for Auckland So for the first time we’re opening up the opportunity to contribute to The Spinoff financially via our PledgeMe campaign. We’re asking for money for this specific project, from both businesses and individuals, to chip in … Read more
Enter the draw and win some very cool literary things! Ten years ago today one of New Zealand’s most elegant and brilliant men of letters, novelist and essayist Nigel Cox, died. He was 55. He was special. He wrote very cool books, none cooler than his remarkable novel Tarzan Presley, in 2004, an antic and … Read more
Boners of the Heart is a new podcast hosted by Alice Snedden and Rose Matafeo, where the pair dissect their weird, often disturbing, celebrity crushes. By way of introduction, we got each of them to detail their favourite heart-boner-maker. Rose Matafeo I met Alice a couple of years ago, but I think we both agree we were … Read more
A weekly feature at the Spinoff Review of Books: The best-selling books at the Wellington and Auckland stores of Unity Books. THE BEST–SELLER CHART FOR THE WEEK JUST ENDED: July 22 AUCKLAND STORE 1 Hera Lindsay Bird (Victoria University Press, $25) by Hera Lindsay Bird Number one in Auckland, number one in Wellington! “I love attention,” … Read more
A weekly feature at the Spinoff Review of Books: The best-selling books at the Wellington and Auckland stores of Unity Books. THE BEST–SELLER CHART FOR THE WEEK JUST ENDED: July 15 UNITY WELLINGTON 1. Hera Lindsay Bird (Victoria University Press, $25) by Hera Lindsay Bird Her, here. 2. Salt River Songs (Potton & Burton, $25) by … Read more
Compiling the best reading of the week from your friendly local website. Arthur Grimes: How to fix a broken Auckland? Add 150,000 homes to crash prices by 40% “The question then is how can Auckland grow and at the same time have house prices that become affordable for more people. Logically, the only answer to … Read more
Independence Day. 4th of July. ‘MERICA. To celebrate the most patriotic of days, here are the best, like totally, American shows currently available on Lightbox. USA! USA! USA! The Americans “The best show on TV, period” – Aaron Yap, The Spinoff The name hits the nail squarely on the head. The Americans is all about … Read more
Compiling the best reading of the week from your friendly local website. Geoffrey Palmer: The political elites foisted a new system on ordinary Brits. Little wonder they’re grabbing it back “So when the people have an opportunity to decide they reject it. Their fear about jobs and their sense of insecurity about immigration are entirely understandable. They … Read more
Economist Shamubeel Eaqub, Auckland mayoral candidate Vic Crone, Alan Johnson of the Salvation Army Policy Unit, and Leonie Freeman from Goodman Property Trust discuss the crisis of homelessness and affordable house prices with Guyon Espiner. The latest Ika Table Talk, titled “Can’t We Fix This Housing Thing?” sold out within hours of being announced. On Tuesday … Read more
A weekly feature at the Spinoff Review of Books: The best-selling books at the Wellington and Auckland stores of Unity Books. THE BEST–SELLER CHART FOR THE WEEK JUST ENDED: July 1 UNITY BOOKS AUCKLAND 1 In Love with These Times: My Life with Flying Nun Records (HarperCollins, $37) by Roger Shepherd The Nun man’s memoir is … Read more
By Jove, it’s only the hotly anticipated return of Gone By Lunchtime, the Spinoff’s epoch-defining politics pod with Annabelle Lee, Ben Thomas and Toby Manhire The Gone By Lunchtime podcast team has been roused from its slumber to fearlessly tackle the big political topics of the day/week/month/etc. Equipped with nothing but Lemsip, ginger beer, some … Read more
Compiling the best reading of the week from your friendly local website. Josh Drummond: New Zealand’s absurd gardening ban once again makes us the laughing stock of the Internet “Our prisons are bursting with middle-aged white people, who make up a disproportionate number of victims of our punitive and ageist anti-gardening legislation. Only recently a Kaikohe … Read more
A weekly feature at the Spinoff Review of Books: The best-selling books at the Wellington and Auckland stores of Unity Books. THE BEST–SELLER CHART FOR THE WEEK JUST ENDED: June 24 UNITY BOOKS AUCKLAND 1 In Love with These Times: My Life with Flying Nun Records (HarperCollins, $37) by Roger Shepherd Number one for the third week … Read more
Compiling the best reading of the week from your friendly local website. Alex Casey and Hayden Donnell: This article about terrible millennials is quite sexist and dumb “The article – written by the usually great feature writer Mike White – is mostly a collection of rheumy-eyed reminiscings for an imaginary bygone age, where men were men, … Read more
Crime reporter Kelly Dennett is the winner of the inaugural Surrey Hotel Steve Braunias Memorial Writers Residency in Association with The Spinoff Award. There are two runners-up, both who have also won residencies at the Surrey Hotel in Auckland – in second place, Antony Millen of Taumaranui, who writes novels for young adults, with third place … Read more
A weekly feature at the Spinoff Review of Books: The best-selling books at the Wellington and Auckland stores of Unity Books. THE BEST–SELLER CHART FOR THE WEEK JUST ENDED: June 17 UNITY BOOKS WELLINGTON 1. In Love with These Times: The Flying Nun Story (HarperCollins, $37) by Roger Shepherd You’ve bought the book (or should), now read … Read more
The winners of our “exciting” new writers residency award will be announced live on air this Friday by Jesse Mulligan. Famous broadcaster Jesse Mulligan will announce the winners of the inaugural Surrey Hotel Steve Braunias Memorial Writers Residency in Association with The Spinoff Award on his Radio New Zealand show on Friday . The new … Read more
In which we name the ten finalists of our amazing new writers residency award – and also announce a second and third-place prize of free accommodation with pizza. Ten finalists have been chosen in the inaugural Surrey Hotel Steve Braunias Memorial Writers Residency in Association with The Spinoff Award. Applications for the new and extremely groovesome … Read more
Compiling the best reading of the week from your friendly local website. Madeleine Holden: ‘This is how you raise a rapist’: on the culture which created Brock Turner “Mr Turner held attitudes about women, consent and entitlement that fed through to his son and helped to inform his behaviour. This became evident throughout the trial and … Read more
A weekly feature at the Spinoff Review of Books: The best-selling books at the Wellington and Auckland stores of Unity Books. THE BEST–SELLER CHART FOR THE WEEK JUST ENDED: June 10 UNITY BOOKS WELLINGTON 1. In Love with These Times: The Flying Nun Story (HarperCollins, $37) by Roger Shepherd Number one with a bullet! The eagerly anticipated … Read more
A rare and exciting opportunity to work at this wonderful website. The Spinoff is seeking a social media manager to run social for our plucky media startup. It’s a full-time role working within The Spinoff team to assist in planning, buying, monitoring and reporting of social activity for The Spinoff, and will involve work for … Read more