Tom Petty died today, aged 66. Jonny Potts remembers his 1993 Greatest Hits album, one of the best single-disc greatest hits compilations ever released. I still have my copy of Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers’ Greatest Hits on CD. It was one of the first CDs I bought after acquiring a shitty boombox from an older … Read more
Can families live in tiny houses without driving each other mad? Carole Payton talks to a mum who lives in a 15 square-metre home with her family of four to find out what it’s really like to live tiny. The popularity of ‘tiny houses’ keeps growing. All over social media teeny palaces of perfect proportions … Read more
What is art and what is it good for? Artweek, starting this weekend and running to the end of next, turns the central city into a showcase with a thousand answers: events, exhibitions, gallery tours, talks, open spectacles, hidden surprises and untold delights. I saw a video of a man dancing to Samuel Barber’s Adagio … Read more
When it comes to solar panels, the future is flexible. Vanessa Young discovers how a MacDiarmid project is unlocking the possibilities of a new generation of solar cell technology. When we imagine solar panels, we think of hard rectangle frames, sitting upright on roofs, or spread out across expanses of deserts. But imagine flexible, bendy … Read more
The much anticipated Cuphead has finally been released. It’s a tremendously hard and beautiful indie run-and-gun game and Sam Brooks, despite being notoriously bad at video games, gave it a brave hoon. I am very bad at video games. I feel like I need to preface this review, and any opinion I have on video games with … Read more
Leonie Hayden presents Kaupapa On The Couch, a six-part webseries looking at issues in te ao Māori that aren’t as well known as they should be. Episode two of Kaupapa On The Couch looks at the founding document you might not have heard of: He Whakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o Nu Tireni – New Zealand’s … Read more
Kate Robertson chats on the phone with Macklemore for exactly nine minutes and thirty seconds, just enough time to ask him about his new album GEMINI, why he ditched the other dude, and making music in Trump’s America. It’s hard not to bop along to Macklemore. Some rap purists will say they thought he was … Read more
Gemma Gracewood follows New Zealand essayist and poet Ashleigh Young as she appears at the Brooklyn Book Festival in New York. In February, Ashleigh Young received the phone call of a lifetime telling her she had won a massive cash prize for being a great writer. Now it’s September and she is in America to … Read more
Tara Ward counts down the top ten moments from ‘Of Lost Things’, the fourth episode of Outlander season three. Contains major spoilers, obviously. Spare a thought for Jamie Fraser, the man who cannot escape his own animal magnetism. This season, no matter where he travels or how bad his hair is, Jamie’s golden charms have proved irresistible … Read more
With more than a decade’s experience as an educator, Ngā Rangatahi Toa founder Sarah Longbottom argues that those in alternative education deserve the same standards of teachers and classrooms as their mainstream peers. This is the first of a series of columns following her experiences in the field. The the cool thing about an election … Read more
Alex Casey power ranks the first week of Married at First Sight NZ, including reindeer jumpers, house pigs and too many kisses. As I expressed in my sappy review of the premiere yesterday, I have fallen hard and fast for Married at First Sight NZ already. I have walked down the altar, said “I do” … Read more
A Johnny Depp lookalike, a Tourism Wanaka ambassador and ‘Paleo’ Pete Evans walk into a Great Gatsby-themed dining room in suburban Auckland. From Tash and Hera’s place in Rotorua we go to Auckland for the second of six instant restaurants: the curiously-named ‘Manhatten 667’. Manhatten seemingly a misspelling of the New York City borough Manhattan; 667 one digit higher … Read more
Eat My Lunch (EML) has changed the way New Zealanders think about where they buy their lunch and the power of their purchase. Rebecca Stevenson talks to founder Lisa King about the EML model, making a profit, and the company’s growth. When The Spinoff visited the Eat My Lunch kitchen early one Friday morning, … Read more
London Grammar played live in Auckland for the first time on Saturday. Madeleine Chapman was at Spark Arena to see it unfold. There were technical issues at the London Grammar concert. I know this because the wait between the opener James Vincent McMorrow and the main act was 45 minutes. I also know this because … Read more
Margaret Mahy’s young adult classic The Changeover was written in 1984, well before seventeen year-old student Bree Brown was even born. We asked Bree to review the new film adaptation. The Changeover is a new film based on the book of the same name by Margaret Mahy. It tells the journey of a young girl struggling … Read more
From a new anthology of bird writing in New Zealand, the great naturalist Herbert Guthrie-Smith describes the introduction of a bird known by all: the sparrow. This excerpt is from his classic 1921 book Tutira. In October of 1882, a month, that is, after our arrival at Tutira, a small flight of sparrows rested for a … Read more
No more ‘us’ and ‘them’, writes Ātea editor Leonie Hayden. The marae ātea is the open area in front of the wharenui where a ritual of encounter takes place between hosts and guests. It is the domain of Tūmatauenga, the god of war and people. To show respect for the mana of Tūmatauenga, whaikōrero between … Read more
The Financial Markets Authority wants Kiwis to learn some home truths about investment. For the first ever World Investor Week, FMA’s Paul Gregory shares some tips on being a smart investor. As New Zealand’s financial markets regulator, the FMA is both guard dog and guide dog. The guard dog is how we regulate and investigate … Read more
It finished over a week ago, yet we still all feel a bit gross. To while away time until Winston Peters decides who our next prime minister is, Madeleine Holden has compiled a handy list of the worst sexism of Election 2017. The 2017 general election is at a close, and as the main parties … Read more
Alex Casey watches the first episode of Married at First Sight NZ, and falls hook, line and sinker for a 58 year old man named Mr Fluffy. Of all the things to anticipate in her upcoming marriage to a complete stranger, Claire (51) is only looking forward to one thing: sex. It’s the raunchy hen’s … Read more
Former Green MP Nandor Tanczos writes that while it would be unconscionable to go with National now, the Greens need to prepare for a future where that’s on the table. This originally ran on his own blog, Monkeywrenching. There is a lot of talk in the media and in the public at the moment about the … Read more
With Married at First NZ beginning on Three tonight, Alex Casey recounts being in the room for the holy union of two complete strangers. The weirdest thing about being a guest a Married at First Sight wedding, aside from the obvious, is that there’s no music during the ceremony to tell you what to do. … Read more
As we bid farewell to the world’s only pub politics show, Back Benches host Wallace Chapman looks back at the series’ weird and wonderful nine years on air. Well, a big part of my life is over. I don’t want to hype the point, but that’s how it seems. We just had our last show … Read more
Compiling the best reading from your friendly local website. Hayden Donnell: All the people I’m extremely mad at after the election There’s been a lot of sober, informative analysis following Saturday’s election. Spinoff public transport tsar Simon Wilson explained the things we learned from the vote, and the delicate dance of democracy both major parties are … Read more
He’s made songs that are etched into the memories of generations of New Zealanders, but still fears the possibility of failure every time he sits down with a guitar or at his piano to write. Henry Oliver sits down for a few beers with New Zealand music icon, the ubiquitous yet mysterious Dave Dobbyn. Photography by Joel Thomas. For … Read more
As part of the The Spinoff’s social enterprise series, Madeleine Chapman attempted to use only the most woke businesses for a week’s worth of consumption. It wasn’t easy but she was left uplifted. A week of living entirely from the fruits of social enterprises would be fun, is what I said aloud at work … Read more
Are Winston Peters and the big party negotiators going to do a smart deal on the future of the Auckland port, or will they succumb to reckless nonsense? Simon Wilson explains the biggest issue for Auckland in the talks to form a government. When a ship leaves the harbour, port is left (geddit). Except if … Read more
Welcome to Top of the Pile, a gaming series in which two idiots are forced to play a game at the top of the ‘just released’ list. Once again Joseph and José dive deep into their own mediocrity as even the relative quality of this licensed fighting game with recognisable characters can’t stir within themselves … Read more
Novelist Danyl Mclauchlan describes his experiences and processes his thoughts after working on the Greens campaign in election 2017. I had a bit to do with the Green Party campaign this election, which was a hell of a thing to experience close-up. (And my views here are mine not those of the Greens, and possibly … Read more