The year is 2001 and the music business is under existential threat from the latest teen craze: CD bootlegging. Its response involved draconian fines, an embarrassing txt-speak slogan and Dave Dobbyn made up to look like a burns victim. Robyn Gallagher explains. Cast your mind back 15 years ago, before the age of streaming and … Read more
Inside the Lightbox is a sponsored feature where we go through Lightbox’s extensive online catalogue for shows you might like to watch. This week, Alex Casey and Madeleine Chapman peruse the new content dropping in December. NCIS (S10) Helicopter crashes, cyber-terrorists and car accidents come thick and fast in the tenth season of NCIS, one … Read more
The Standing Rock protest against the proposed Dakota Access Pipeline officially opened on April 1st this year. It has grown into the world’s biggest pipeline protest, and the largest gathering of Native Americans in 130 years. As winter sets in and a violent December 5th eviction looms, Kristina Hard talks to Auckland woman Paula Friis … Read more
‘Business is Boring’ is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand, with the interview available as both audio and a transcribed excerpt. The Lovely Little Food Company is a lovely, not so little, local … Read more
“I need to be extraordinary,” said English writer Angela Carter, and her biography attests that she got her wish. Marion McLeod reviews the life story of a woman who described her anorexia as “attempted suicide by narcissism”. AS Byatt recalls first meeting Angela Carter in 1969. “A very disagreeable woman stomped up to me, and said, … Read more
There’s no getting around it – blood tests suck, especially for confused and scared children (and their upset parents). Paediatric blood test veteran Kiki Van Newtown shares some advice for getting through the procedure with the minimum of tears. The wonderful Kiki Van Newtown is back writing for us again! If you didn’t read her … Read more
There’s a revolution underway. Deep within the Auckland Viaduct lurks the beginnings of our own tiny Silicon Valley. At GridAKL, more than 50 startups, in industries as diverse as medicine, robotics and augmented reality, are running the entrepreneurial gauntlet looking to build a high-growth business – or at least get a second funding round. In … Read more
When The Spinoff’s José Barbosa made a video last week assembling TV’s finest moustaches, he made one crucial error regarding the authenticity of Westside actor Will Hall’s moustache. South Pacific Pictures responds. The moustache has long been a celebrated adornment of masculine prowess so it’s not surprising, in the spirit of Movember, The Spinoff released … Read more
As New Zealand’s prison population passes 10,000 for the first time, the abysmal failure of NZ’s imprisonment culture must be confronted. Ahead of a hui in Wellington tonight, Di White argues for a new approach Imagine this: it’s 2016 and the government has announced a $1 billion package to build a new cancer treatment facility … Read more
Diehard fanboy Matthew Codd has his jaded eyes scrubbed clean by the latest in an infinite number of Final Fantasy titles. I had a lot of skepticism going into Final Fantasy XV. Like many other lifelong Final Fantasy junkies, I was disappointed with the direction that Final Fantasy XIII took the series; prior to release, … Read more
New Zealand literature! What is it, who reads it, and why does it exist? Some or none or all of these questions are about to be answered in the first annual Spinoff Review of Books literary awards!!! Some say 2016 will go down in history as the year between 2015 and 2017, but it’s too early … Read more
Murray Cammick – co-founder of Rip It Up and founder of Southside Records and Wildside Records – remembers Ray Columbus, the New Zealand mod icon who died yesterday. Last time I saw Ray Columbus on stage was at the Wild Things Spectacular at the Monte Cristo Room in Auckland, 2007. The Breakaways, The Pleazers and … Read more
Haunted by visions of dystopian jungles, angry walls and terrifying hair, Paul Brislen joins the dots between The Hunger Games and the Trumpocalyptic future. I’ve often wondered about the wider world portrayed in The Hunger Games. I don’t know why – it’s not as if anywhere outside North America (Panem) is even referenced in the … Read more
Sure, you could read every submission to the Commerce Commission on the proposed merger of NZME and Fairfax, but time is money and your social media-addled attention span is short. Henry Oliver understands, and is here to help. Yesterday, the Commerce Commission published the public versions of the submissions received in response to its draft … Read more
Being a parent means a never-ending series of problems, big and small, and often it can feel like a struggle just to make it through the day without collapsing in an exhausted heap. Until one day, it doesn’t. Holly Walker writes about the small joys, and the days that make it all worthwhile. On the … Read more
Katie Parker chats to the brains behind thedownlowconcept, the Kiwi battler production company that are now in development with US heavyweight network FX. Since Nigel McCulloch, Ryan Hutchings and Jarrod Holt met as fresh-faced undergrads and formed production company thedownlowconcept, their ascent to wunderkind New Zealand TV royalty has been swift. From their radio show … Read more
The reverberations of media misreading of the US election are being felt in New Zealand, where media need to look in the mirror, says Patrick Gower, the Newshub political editor. Freshly returned from witnessing the mind-warping American election of 2016, which saw a man by the name of Donald Trump win the presidency, Patrick Gower … Read more
Chelsea Winter! Force of nature, success story, brand. But can she, you know, cook? Food writer Delaney Mes does her best to persevere with the recipes and the puns in the new cookbook Scrumptious. It’s been four years since Chelsea Winter tearily made her way into New Zealand cooking show history when she was crowned the winner of the late, … Read more
We all agree about Māoritanga’s vital place at the heart of New Zealand culture, so why, asks Luke Tipoki, are we so relaxed about letting incorrect Māori pronunciation slide? Kai Kora, Kai Kura, even Kia Kora (as I heard one person say on the six o’clock news the other night). Following the devastating earthquakes last week we’ve … Read more
Songwriting has been accepted as a Level 3 NCEA subject from 2017. Play It Strange CEO Mike Chunn got the scoop and asked some of New Zealand’s best songwriters what they thought about it. This is a watershed moment. Songwriting is now an NCEA subject. Specifically – Level 3 with the Achievement Standard number of … Read more
Talk of a resurgent Mana Party, unshackled from Dotcom and buoyed by a Māori Party pact, has prompted suggestions of a new order in Māori politics. Morgan Godfery explains why he’s just not buying it Ika Table Talk: From 7.30pm on Wednesday November 29, Ika Seafood Bar and Grill and the Spinoff present a discussion … Read more
What’s your parenting style? Are you an attachment parent? A helicopter parent? A free-range parent? An authoritative parent? An evolutionary parent? A paleo parent? A tiger parent? Having a parenting style is a great way to find your people and/or feel smug at the kindy gate – and luckily, there are new ones popping up … Read more
The HP 48Hours short film competition held its grand finals and awards ceremony on Friday. Madeleine Chapman went along for the first time and came away with some lasting impressions, both good and bad. I’ve never entered the 48Hours film competition, though I’ve been tempted. It seems like something fun and excruciating to do with … Read more
‘Best Songs Ever’ features various contributors to The Spinoff Music assessing recent songs and singles. SONG OF THE WEEK Nadia Reid – ‘The Arrow & The Aim’ The first single from her forthcoming sophomore album, Nadia Reid’s ‘The Arrow & The Aim’ sounds exactly like a sophomore record should: assured, confident, taking the best of … Read more
The Treasury has made it clear that current superannuation policies will turn our country into a debt-ridden basket case, and yet media remain largely silent and politicians in denial. Young people need to get voting in a hurry, writes David Seymour. Back when Prime Minister Rob “leave the country no worse than I found it” … Read more
The return of Catherine Chidgey has been greeted as a literary event, but her fruity, humourless prose fails to impress Jane Westaway. From time to time a reviewer strikes a novel whose external circumstances threaten to disrupt the intimate relationship between the reader and the fiction. The Wish Child – Catherine Chidgey’s first novel in … Read more
Tara Ward brings you her rankings for Shortland Street, including #warnerproblems, more fruit mince pies and a bunch of bad Santas. 1) So much Santa drama it felt like an early Christmas cliffhanger Nothing upsets the fragile testosterone balance in a hospital like three Alpha Santas on a pastry bender. It was an inevitable as … Read more
“Who the hell does Brendon McCullum think he is?” asked our recent mildly inflammatory headline to a review of the former Black Caps captain’s new autobiography. As we enter our first summer of cricket in 14 years without him, Dan Luoni asks: who the hell do we think Brendon McCullum is? That Brendon McCullum has … Read more
Fixing the housing crisis in Auckland is simple, according to Leonie Freeman. She knows how to do it. But, asks Simon Wilson, will anyone let her? Leonie Freeman wears a Fitbit on one wrist and a watch on the other and she talks in the same way as Helen Clark – not the deep voice … Read more