In-house counsellor Ms X shares some tips on how to flat with your grown-up kids – without killing each other. Dear Ms X, Do children ever leave home anymore? Ever? Seriously. I have a 22 year old and a 19 year old and neither of them look like budging from the family home. I understand … Read more
Has our obsession with keeping kids safe destroyed something beautiful and valuable in their lives – and in ours? Lily Richards considers some new research that suggests unattended children are often in far less danger than many parents think. Sometimes my partner and I leave our children alone at home while we walk down to … Read more
On a bus in Colombo Street five years ago, I experienced first-hand the hazards of sacrificing safety in the cause of an urgent return to normal service in the city, writes Ann Brower On February 22 2011, everyone around me died when a red-stickered building collapsed on to a bus I was riding. I was … Read more
Every Friday, ‘The Album Cycle’ reviews a handful of new releases. ALBUM OF THE WEEK Bic Runga – Close Your Eyes Last night, Bic Runga was honored with the ‘Legacy Award’ at the New Zealand Music Awards. Today, she released her fifth album, Close Your Eyes, and, as shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone, it’s … Read more
This weekend, Spark presents Seamless, an all ages show at Auckland’s Tuning Fork. Henry Oliver gathered two of the bands and the promoter in The Spinoff’s boardroom to ask if the kids are alright. On Saturday night, Auckland venue The Tuning Fork will host Seamless, an all-ages show featuring four young New Zealand bands that … Read more
Madeleine Chapman taks a tour through the so-called bishop’s mind via his ridiculous Twitter page. This story was first published in November 2016. This week, Bishop Brian Tamaki of Destiny Church claimed in a sermon that earthquakes and other natural disasters are caused by sexual deviance, for example, homosexuality. Tamaki, a self-anointed prophet who often … Read more
GeoNet have published their latest future scenarios and aftershock forecasts following the M7.8 quake that struck early on Monday morning. Their advice follows … To help understand the earthquakes and what to do about them, many people what to know what will happen next? While we can’t predict earthquakes we can provide some forecasts of … 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. Perhaps the most important thing in a company’s success is hiring the … Read more
Arms traders have gathered this week in Auckland for a weapons expo. Kiwis should be standing up to the global arms trade, not embracing it, writes Thomas Gregory. This week Auckland is playing host to the New Zealand Defence Industry Association Forum at the ANZ Viaduct Centre, bringing together arms dealers from around the world … Read more
Yesterday, Henry Oliver embarrassed his future-self with predictions for last night’s New Zealand Music Awards. Today he updates that post with the actual results and the requisite quippy commentary. Yesterday: The biggest night of the musical year – the New Zealand Music Awards, brought to you by some communications services company – is tonight! was last night! And … Read more
The weekly best-seller chart at Unity stores in Auckland and Wellington, for the week just ended: November 18 AUCKLAND STORE 1 The Shops (Luncheon Sausage Books, $40) by Steve Braunias and Peter Black It’s not really about shops at all, it’s actually an evocation of the profound melancholy and unexpected beauty of ordinary New Zealand … Read more
A call for submissions on a new NZ on Air television funding strategy closes today. Duncan Greive looks at the familiar biases hidden in the new strategy – most notably a continuing bias towards television, a medium which ratings numbers sourced by The Spinoff show is plummeting in popularity for younger audiences. A few months ago NZ … Read more
We wanted to better understand the changing New Zealand economy, and who better to explain it than superstar economist Shamubeel Eaqub. Below, the third of six short videos featuring Shamubeel giving it to us straight while sitting comfortably in a classic Kiwi chair. This time he’s explaining the changing way New Zealanders work while perched … Read more
New verse by writer and singer, Dominic Hoey. Toast I’d like to make a toast to the sound man for making me louder than my detractors to the bar tenders, those unsung heroes of hospo, serving up sweet amnesia to the hecklers, the physical manifestation of the voices in my head, shut -the fuck- … Read more
With the events of last week bringing out the best in New Zealanders as we help, and are helped by, our neighbours, here’s a quiz on who exactly makes up our great country. Having trouble viewing the quiz? Take it here.
Aaradhna explains why she declined the Urban/Hiphop Album award at the New Zealand Music Awards. It’s something I’ve always thought – this is unfair, I’m a singer and we’re being put against hiphop. I’ve always felt – why am I in this category? I’m a singer. My music is a blend – it’s R&B, it’s soul, … Read more
Last night we saw Aaradhna step on stage at the New Zealand Music Awards and electrify the night with a speech which spoke about her feelings on being in the ‘brown people category’. Here we re-post an interview with her from July of this year which talks about where that speech came from, and why she … Read more
The Kaikoura earthquake lifted long strips of coast out of the sea on Monday morning, in parts as high as two metres. Ursula Cochran and Kate Clark of GNS Science and Sharyn Goldstein of the University of Canterbury explain what’s going on. Much of the northeastern coast of the South Island was uplifted during the … Read more
Aaradhna just stopped the New Zealand Music Awards in its tracks with an incredible speech in which she declined to accept the Best Urban/Hip-Hop Album prize. This is what she said. Update, 21 June 2017. The Vodafone NZ Music Awards today announced a number of changes to the categories for this year’s awards, including splitting … Read more
The Green Party recently announced a new immigration policy with a net migration target of 1 percent of the population, including returning New Zealanders. In an essay published earlier this week, writer Thomas Coughlan criticised the policy, drawing a line between it and the rise of anti-immigrant rhetoric in the USA, UK and Europe. Here, … Read more
Today marks the publication of the third issue of Bauer Media’s new Auckland commuter-focused free magazine, Paperboy. Catherine McGregor sat down with the magazine’s editor Jeremy Hansen to discuss urbanism, optimism and why he’s glad to be a cheerleader for the new Auckland. The Spinoff: Free commuter magazines are a completely new model for Bauer, … Read more
Before Jono and Ben, before Taika Waititi, before Paul Ego fell off the stage… there was Stu Dennison wearing overalls in Avalon Studios. Alex Casey recaps the 1978 NZ Music Awards, just in time for the 2016 VNZMA’s tonight. With the VNZMA’s arriving faster than a free bag of bagel chips hitting the open gullet … Read more
For the past two years, director and weird news guy David Farrier has been living a bizarre cheese dream, following homophobic hate mail down a pink, fluffy rabbit hole and chasing it all the way to an Oscar nomination. With the resultant lawsuits still working their way through the court system, Farrier hit the tank … Read more
Two solo dads chat about the joys and challenges of parenting and how life changed forever when their daughters were born. One is Vodafone NZ Music Awards Breakthrough Artist of the Year nominee KINGS, the man responsible for the smash hit ‘Don’t Worry ‘Bout It’. The other is Ben Tafau, author of the popular blog … Read more
Why is everyone hating on the Council’s latest attempt to sell Auckland to the world? Actually, is it everyone, asks Simon Wilson – or just the Herald and the other usual cynics? No subject is more guaranteed to provoke ridicule than a city slogan. No ridicule is more likely to be attended by outrage than … Read more
Brian Turner wades through the hyperbole in Brendon McCullum’s biography, and recalls the old saying: “Self-praise is no recommendation.” On the front flap of the cover of Declared, the blurbist trumpets Brendon McCullum “could reduce the world’s bowling elite to quivering wrecks”, and “As a captain… his influence has been so profound it will likely change the way … Read more
Henry Oliver embarrasses his future-self with probably-inaccurate-and-on-the-internet-forever predictions for tonight’s New Zealand Music Awards. The biggest night of the musical year – the New Zealand Music Awards, brought to you by some communications services company – is tonight! And just in case there’s still a market for predictive data-driven (okay, not really) journalism after a … 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
Pete Douglas seeks to find some light in the dark as we near the end of a horrific year, lining up some incredible TV women who have risen above The Worst Men Ever. 2016 has been a rough year, especially so for women. Between the subhuman treatment of a young woman by the Chiefs rugby … Read more