With the coffin lid closing on the first season of The Casketeers, Alex Casey looks back at some of the greatest comedy moments from the TVNZ reality show. You haven’t truly lived until you’ve seen a makeup tutorial for a corpse. Francis Tipene is hunched over a casket, Thin Lizzy brush in hand and tongue … Read more
NZME and Stuff are working together wherever they can, regardless of what the watchdog and high court have to say about it. Update 21 February: Stuff announced further closures and redundancies below – this story has been updated to incorporate this news. A week before Christmas the High Court stepped in to save journalism from itself. … Read more
Gareth Shute crunches the numbers on who is the most streamed here and abroad – and asks why the two don’t always match. Until recently, it was difficult to track the progress of New Zealand bands once they left our shores. But now Spotify’s publicly available streaming data gives us a window into how well … Read more
Parenting when you’re struggling can be bloody hard – and finding fuel in your own tank to fuel your kids’ can be even harder. Lee-Anne Duncan meets a Lower Hutt mum who’s thankful for Bellyful. It’s five o’clock – better known to all parents as “the witching hour”, among other epithets. Thinking about cooking something … Read more
The latest addition to the Metal Gear series, the non-canon zombie game Metal Gear Survive, is out tomorrow. The series has been around for an incredible 31 years – and oh boy, the things we’ve seen. The Metal Gear series is one of the most famous video game series for a reason. Mainly that the games are really … Read more
A resurgent New Zealand pro wrestling scene is seeking another shot at TV stardom. Jamie Wall heads to Mt Roskill to watch the return of the Bushwhackers, and the generation they’ve inspired. There’s a girl, aged about 10, sitting a few feet away from me. She’s living and dying on every single thing happening in … Read more
Opinion: Some would have you believe that charter schools are the only ones transforming education for Māori and Pasifika children. That’s just not true, argues Laures Park. Success for all tamariki is the aim of education. It’s what their parents, their whānau, their teachers and their communities all want. But claims that charter schools are … Read more
A dramatic excerpt from a new memoir by Dave Greenberg from the Westpac rescue helicopter service. Includes kicker. I was off flying duty but at work catching up on paperwork when around lunchtime the helicopter was called out for an urgent transfer of a patient. About 35 minutes later, ambulance control called asking if our backup … Read more
Police and council are trying to throttle the life out of Dunedin’s student culture. We sent a reporter down to experience its exhilarating chaos before it gets too boring. This story first appeared in the winter 2015 edition of 1972 Magazine by Barkers. When a party is really cranking, you can hear it long before … Read more
The National MP’s leadership bid has put his broad Kiwi accent back in the spotlight. Henderson-Massey local board chair and ‘proud Westie’ Shane Henderson thinks we should all lay off the jokes. I can empathise a little with Simon Bridges. Not with his politics, but with his accent. Last week Bridges announced his intention to … Read more
Trans academic Lexie Matheson on her community’s complex relationship with the police. It seems cop cars seem have always played a part in my life, and, since my coming out, even more so. As a young, middle class, white male professional, I seemed to be treated quite well – even though I was a criminal. … Read more
As the contest unfolds, expect deals, departures and a determination to keep ructions away from public sight, writes former National government adviser Zach Castles. National’s leadership race has seen an endless stream of topline biographies on three heavy-hitting National MPs who want to lead the National Party and ultimately our country – Amy Adams, Simon … Read more
Bringing you the best weekly reading from your friendly local website. Rebecca Stevenson: The rise and fall of CricHQ, the star-backed ‘Facebook for cricket’ With Stephen Fleming and Brendon McCullum among its founders, CricHQ capitalised on global interest in both cricket and cloud-based internet startups. It attracted a star-studded lineup of investors and seemed hugely successful, … Read more
Undercover Assholes wreck your self-esteem in some way, shape or form. But they’re also hard to spot, so how do you uncover one? Lauren Meredith gives her tips on how to look past their masterful disguise. You know how it goes. You meet someone. They seem awesome. They’re funny, nice and sweet. Maybe you want … Read more
Rock revivalists The D4 have reformed for a final hurrah at Auckland City Limits and the closing of the Kings Arms. To help prepare you for ACL, The Spinoff retraces their career in 106 seconds. It wasn’t until the “New Rock Revolution” of the early-2000s – spearheaded by music magazines like NME and Rolling Stone – … Read more
What does it mean to be a social enterprise today? Is it about profit, purpose, or both? Steven Moe takes us through the various definitions. One of the comments I’ve heard about the social enterprise sector is that it’s unclear what the criteria is to be one. Ultimately, aren’t all businesses social enterprises? If nothing … Read more
Imagine you didn’t get paid for a month or two for your work. Big businesses have used this tactic to keep cash in the bank – but how long do our corporates take to pay? Rebecca Stevenson investigates. In New Zealand, they account for 97% of businesses. In Australia, 97%. In the UK, 96%. Small … Read more
David Seymour and Gilda Kirkpatrick are confirmed. Now the Spinoff’s Dancing With the Stars pundit attempts to predict the remainder of this year’s celebrity line-up. Watching Australian celebrities debase themselves for cash every night on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! it’s tempting to wish for a New Zealand version. Which Kiwi celebs … Read more
New verse by Australian writer Eloise Grills. Independent woman I am an independent woman I pay for all my groceries Even for the nuts which I could Theoretically put through as Less expensive nuts At the self-checkout I pay the prescribed price I do not Need a man It’s easy like when … Read more
In the third story in a series celebrating the amazing things young New Zealanders do every day, a young girl’s love of soap – and owls – has become a business success story. Angela Cuming spoke to Ava Heath-Williams about her soap start-up. At the tender age of eight, Ava Heath-Williams can already add businesswoman … Read more
Welcome to the Cheat Sheet, a clickable, shareable, bite-sized FAQ on the news of the moment. Today, we explain why swimming at some of Auckland’s best beaches might just be a terrible idea. So why can’t I swim at the beach? It’s contaminated. By what? Poop. Excrement. Fecal matter. And a few other nasty rogue … Read more
In February, Marlon Williams released the first great New Zealand album of 2018. He talked to Henry Oliver about the heartbreak and honesty that went into making it. “It’s not, but it is,” Marlon Williams said, introducing his song ‘Love is a Terrible Thing’ at a showcase for his new album, Make Way For Love, … Read more
The week’s best-selling titles at Unity Books in Auckland and Wellington. AUCKLAND UNITY 1 Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House by Michael Wolff (Little Brown, $38) “Here it is, the encyclopedia of Trump the Idiot all in one compendium”: Forbes. 2 Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan (Hachette, $22) Sci-fi. 400 years from now mankind … Read more
Literally tens of people lined the streets of Vermont to watch the opening ceremony of The Bachelor Winter Games, which debuted in the US on Valentine’s Day. And then New Zealand appeared. It’s not news that as a nation we’re particularly fascinated by how the rest of the world sees us. I’ve died inside more … Read more
Throw the man a dolphin and buy his $1.9m Point Chevalier house. When we think of ‘public service journalism’ we usually think of holding the government to account and filing lots of OIAs. But public service comes in many forms, and one of the greatest public service television programmes of the 21st century is the … Read more
Season four of classical music comedy Mozart in the Jungle drops tomorrow on Lightbox. Longtime fan of the show Sam Brooks decided to read the book it’s based on and compare the two. Contrary to its title, Mozart in the Jungle is not a television show about the world’s best composer (according to people who know anything about classical … Read more
What are Amy Adams, Simon Bridges and Judith Collins trying to tell us? Manhire and Morris condense the National Party rivals’ messages In a fortnight, the New Zealand National Party will have a new leader, following Bill English’s very sensible decision not to get up again, again. The task for his successor, in combating a … Read more
Samsara is a kicky, inventive platformer from Auckland game studio Marker Games that harks back to the not-so-long-ago likes of Limbo and Braid. Adam Goodall reviews. On the top of the screen is a tropical beach. There’s a crab hiding in one corner and on the horizon a city skyline catches the last of the … Read more
Opinion: New Zealand’s LGBTIQ community deserves more than rainbow cars and empty gestures, write Aaliyah Zionov and Emilie Rākete. Last week, the New Zealand Police unveiled the latest in a long series of publicity stunts aimed at courting the LGBTIQ community. To prepare us for their fourth year in a row marching in the Pride … Read more