We made it to the end of Survivor NZ! As always in real life, a Christchurch librarian emerges victorious. Luke Harries recaps. It’s been one hell of a journey, and it has all boiled down to this week’s live finale, where Christchurch-based librarian and Survivor superfan Lisa Stanger was named the winner and sole survivor of … Read more
The sixth installment from our team film critics swarming the cinemas of Auckland and Wellington for the 2018 NZ International Film Festival. See also: Birds of Passage, First Reformed, Disobedience, 3 Faces In the Aisles, The Image Book, Apostasy, Brimstone and Glory You Were Never Really Here, Kusama – Infinity, Transit, Yellow is Forbidden, Piercing, Terrified, … Read more
You can download your friendly local website’s mobile application for zero dollars – now with variable text size and search functionality. Update December 2019: The Spinoff app now comes with search functionality and the option to increase text size. Find the text-size option at the top of each post, and the search bar by scrolling … Read more
In this edited extract from the new book by Steven Adams, he tells how as a rookie he got NBA veterans ejected, and it wasn’t that hard. The moment I was drafted someone tweeted WELP STEVEN ADAMS TO OKC and Kevin Durant apparently replied “smh”. He deleted the tweet and replaced it with “Welcome Steven Adams”. … Read more
The hugely popular British show about people watching telly is finally getting a New Zealand version. And Calum Henderson, for one, can’t wait. Good news: TV’s not dead. There are still people out there who regularly sit down, in their living rooms, and just… watch it, sometimes for hours at a time. Now, some of … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: National party tries to both change and stay the same at conference, meth-scare Housing NZ properties reopened, and could The Opportunities Party be saved? The National Party have had their weekend in the spotlight, holding their first conference in opposition in a decade. But who, or what, … Read more
Trusting machines to predict citizens’ need for targeted resources can be damaging and increase bias. New Zealand has no choice but to get onboard. When you think about it, a lot of the services the state provides are ones that you might not wish to be party to: criminal prosecution, incarceration, tax investigation, deportation, and … Read more
The fifth installment from our team film critics swarming the cinemas of Auckland and Wellington for the 2018 NZ International Film Festival. See also: Birds of Passage, First Reformed, Disobedience, 3 Faces In the Aisles, The Image Book, Apostasy, Brimstone and Glory You Were Never Really Here, Kusama – Infinity, Transit, Yellow is Forbidden, Piercing, Terrified, … Read more
In presenting himself with a new, softer image, the National leader’s conference speech sought to move beyond relitigating the fights of the past, writes Ben Thomas Simon Bridges is keen to avoid the mistakes of the past. The video warming up his speech to the National Party conference today showed a montage of his life, … Read more
Sex is a struggle for most people, but it can be doubly difficult for those living with a disability, writes Caroline Moratti for the Otago University student magazine Critic. Is sex a basic human right? Not for your parents hopefully, don’t picture that. To access sex remains a struggle that plagues most of our lives. … Read more
Featuring hints of marshmallow, Prince Charles, booze-soaked shoes and being bullied by a large Scottish man named Paul. This story originally ran in Barker’s 1972 magazine. It was 11am and I was drunk. Whisky was dribbling over the top of my glass and a large Scottish man was standing over me yelling, “Is that enough?” He … Read more
Bringing you the best weekly reading from your friendly local website. Amy Parsons-King: Silent lambs: Child sexual abuse and the Jehovah’s Witnesses Best known for their door-to-door evangelising, Jehovah’s Witnesses are on a quest to save the ‘wicked’ from damnation. For victims of sexual abuse within the organisation, however, that quest has seen perpetrators shielded from … Read more
These days, when people wave their hands at a gig, more often then not there’s a phone in them. RNZ Music’s Melody Thomas lays down the rules for using your phone at a concert. Imagine you’re in a packed stadium, watching one of your favourite musicians tearing it up on stage. All around you fans … Read more
When struggling families are being forced to take out loans to survive, they shouldn’t also be pressured to give money to their church, writes Aaron Hendry. Last week Manukau Ward Councillor Efeso Collins horrified us with stories of impoverished families who were being forced to take out loans in order to make ends meet, as … Read more
The fourth installment from our team film critics swarming the cinemas of Auckland and Wellington for the 2018 NZ International Film Festival. See also: Birds of Passage, First Reformed, Disobedience, 3 Faces In the Aisles, The Image Book, Apostasy, Brimstone and Glory You Were Never Really Here, Kusama – Infinity, Transit, Yellow is Forbidden, Piercing, Terrified, … Read more
Welcome back to Waterdeep Mountain High, a Dungeons & Dragons podcast set in a below average school in the mystical land of Faerun. “Make a check to see if you have the charisma to call a school assembly.” Due to people leaving the country, Waterdeep Mountain High will be recorded without an audience for a … Read more
From the outside, parliamentary Question Time looks like a juvenile farce. But it matters far more than many give it credit, writes long-serving aide to the late Jim Anderton, Tony Simpson. The many filmgoers who have seen Saving Private Ryan may recall a vignette near the beginning in which General George Marshall reads out a … Read more
SWIDT, the self-proclaimed “most electrifying rap group in entertainment”, extend their impeccable run with new EP, The Most Electrifying. Jogai Bhatt reviews. Award-winning hip-hop group SWIDT are back with a highly-anticipated six-track EP entitled The Most Electrifying, their second cohesive body of work following last year’s breakthrough album Stoneyhunga. Spycc, INF, Smokey, JAMAL, AZA and … Read more
Being a tenant in New Zealand is often a difficult and disempowering experience. Hayden Donnell looks into what’s broken in our rental housing market. The bad news is many of you will probably never own a home. Average property prices are 10 times the median household income of $92,843 in Auckland, while in New Zealand … Read more
Global consumer campaign One Big Switch has arrived on Kiwi shores, hoping to harness the power of the collective to unlock special group discounted energy offers and drive competition in New Zealand’s electricity industry. Jihee Junn talks to the man spearheading its arrival, Saveawatt CEO Tim Rudkin. Turns out, ovens and stoves aren’t just for … Read more
In the third part of the new podcast series Venus Envy, Zoë Lawton and Hayden Wilson discuss how the culture and corporate structure of law firms created a fertile environment for sexual assault. While #MeToo was born out of the Hollywood film industry in the US, the legal profession has been at the centre of … Read more
New verse by the winner of the 2018 Ockham New Zealand national book award prize for poetry, Elizabeth Smither. Night time words to Ruby I hold you in my arms and say beautiful girl, beautiful girl. You do not want to go to bed: instead you say you’re instructed to lie between … Read more
The week’s bigget selling books at the Unity stores in Willis St, Wellington and High St, Auckland. WELLINGTON UNITY 1 The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck by Mark Manson (Macmillan, $35) Wellington succumbs to the lure of Manson’s liberating advice. We blame John Summers. 2 Warlight by Michael Ondaatje (Jonathan Cape, $35) “For … Read more
She’s a producer, promoter, artist, musician, māmā and more. It might seem like a pick’n’mix career but Huia Hamon wouldn’t have it any other way. Today, a decade on from her first solo album, she dons her musician pōtae to release Āio, a te reo Māori EP about peace, knowledge and self-reflection. When Huia Hamon … Read more
The National Party this week sprung a surprise by putting forward a rival bill on medicinal marijuana. Here leader of the opposition Simon Bridges explains their thinking New Zealanders deserve greater access to high quality medicinal cannabis products to ease their pain and suffering, but we must have the right regulatory and legislative controls in … Read more
Gone By Lunchtime is not dead, it’s just been sleeping. Toby Manhire, Annabelle Lee and Ben Thomas reunite in an emotional podcast. From The Spinoff’s flash new studio, the Gone By Lunchtime posse reacquaint themselves with one another and the surprisingly challenging task of saying things about politics. Toby Manhire from the Spinoff, Annabelle Lee … Read more
The third installment from our team film critics swarming the cinemas of Auckland and Wellington for the 2018 NZ International Film Festival. See also: Birds of Passage, First Reformed, Disobedience, 3 Faces In the Aisles, The Image Book, Apostasy, Brimstone and Glory You Were Never Really Here Not everybody likes Lynne Ramsay’s brand of cinematic … Read more
Every week on The Primer we ask a local business or product to introduce themselves in eight simple takes. This week we talk to Mark Stolten, the inventor of flexible, Lego-like brick toy Flexo. ONE: How did Flexo start and what was the inspiration behind it? While I waiting for a physio appointment for a torn … Read more
Young New Zealand actor Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie is surging to stardom on the back of acclaimed survivalist drama Leave No Trace and Taika Waititi’s upcoming Jojo Rabbit. Gemma Gracewood runs down what you need to know about her. Not to get too excited about it, but Wellington teen Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie is having a bloody … Read more