Later this month 17-year-old music promoter Elleana Dumper will put on her first all-ages show with help from Ignite, a training programme for young people with a passion for music and events. She asks why young music fans are missing out for the sake of New Zealand’s ‘drink till you drop’ culture. At 17, I … Read more
Tim Murphy wonders why New Zealand rugby fans can’t have a show that’s fun and and irreverent and, well, more like rugby league’s The Footy Show*. The problem with rugby in New Zealand is that it is only a game of two halves. Two world-class halves of on-field action. The third, critical part – the TV … Read more
New research from NZ On Air has confirmed that television audiences have moved aggressively toward online platforms. So why are we still waiting for the funding to catch up? “Where are the audiences?”, asked a new piece of research commissioned by NZ On Air and published late last month. It’s arguably the signal question of our … Read more
Joseph Harper plays Pokken Tournament, the definitive Pokémon title for gamers who prefer dog fights to collecting stamps. For me, the best part about a Pokemon game is always catching lots of gorgeous baby Pokemon, giving them funny names, and falling deeply in love with them. Apparently though there is a subset of Pokemon fans … Read more
Māori Television premiered The Stage – Haka Fusion last week. Madeleine Chapman went along to the auditions and saw the bones of a potential dance revolution. In the past 10 years New Zealand has embraced reality television talent quests. New Zealand Idol, X Factor: NZ, New Zealand’s Got Talent, So You Think You Can Dance? All these shows … Read more
2016 has been a breakthrough year for mental health reporting around the country. Yet a draft report leaked to Jess McAllen – herself a mental health reporter – shows that Mental Health Services are anything but welcoming of the scrutiny. An editor once told me mental health stories were “unsexy”. Silky, lacy numbers like car … Read more
A weekly feature at the Spinoff Review of Books: The best-selling books at the Wellington and Auckland stores of Unity Books. THE BEST–SELLER CHART FOR THE WEEK JUST ENDED: AUGUST 12 WELLINGTON STORE 1 Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts I and II (Little Brown, $50) by J K Rowling, Jack Thorne and John … Read more
Kanoa Lloyd’s job is to present the weather for us every night on TV3, so why do people care so much about her clothes? Anny Ma tells armchair fashion critics everywhere to sit down and shut up. I can safely say that my life is made more spectacular from seeing Kanoa Lloyd’s face light up … Read more
In this week’s advice column, psychotherapist Ms X counsels a woman struggling to adjust to life as her ex’s straight sidekick. Hi Ms. X, I’m a woman in my 20s and a few months ago my boyfriend, who I’ll call Oscar (after one of my all-time favorite homosexuals) broke up with me with this banger: … Read more
Hayden Donnell heads out to the leafy suburbs, to see how the new Unitary Plan is being received by those who were so furious about it earlier this year. He found them oddly becalmed. Well, most of them. Last time I saw the residents of Kohimarama, Mission Bay and Glendowie, they were yelling angrily at the … Read more
With The Block NZ all but wrapped up for another season, Jane Yee discovers that absence does indeed make the heart grow fonder. I thought this was going to be the best day of my life. I imagined feeling a huge weight lift off my shoulders, a sense of liberation like I’d never known. Eleven weeks … Read more
Canberra’s offshore detention camps can be seen as an example of ‘necro-politics’, argues Janet McAllister. This week, The Spinoff published Amnesty International’s piece calling for New Zealand to protest Australia’s offshore detention centres, and then The Guardian published mountains more evidence of abuse and atrocities on Nauru. It costs Australia billions of dollars every year to violate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights so spectacularly. But simply … Read more
After a mammoth gaming session streamed live on Facebook, José Barbosa tries to reel in his galactic reckons about No Man’s Sky. 24 hours ago we were chin deep in a 8-hour live stream of No Man’s Sky. We blew up asteroids in space, mined plutonium, destroyed weird creatures, gave aliens carbon so they’d like us, … Read more
Tim Upperton reviews a new collection of essays by Wellington writer Ashleigh Young. Some essayists shine a torch in the darkness, and propose a way forward. Another kind of essayist – the Ashleigh Young kind – whispers, “We are lost, we are lost. Let’s try this way,” and, taking us by the hand, leads us deeper … 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. To people in New Zealand Karen Walker is a household name as a designer and … Read more
With a premiere date set for The Real Housewives of Auckland on Bravo, we have a special announcement of our own… Guys! The Real Housewives of Auckland is arriving to our screens on August 22nd, which also signals the much-anticipated* return of our most reliable reality TV podcasting troupe. Jane Yee, Alex Casey and Duncan Greive will … Read more
The New Zealand men’s sevens Olympic campaign was given a raw deal by a rugby union which still sees the seven-a-side game as a poor relation to 15s, writes Scotty Stevenson in Rio de Janeiro. It was a salty old hot take-o-rama after the New Zealand Men’s sevens team was bundled out of the Olympic … Read more
Patrick Hunn fondly remembers shambolic local young adult series The Tribe. The things you read, watch, play or listen to when you’re a kid stick with you, because kids are dumb and have brains made of a pliable grey paste. These squawking, colourful things leave marks that are baked into your memory by the general, … Read more
The Unitary Plan debate is long and complex. Even the councillors sometimes look like they’re wishing for death. But it’s incredibly important. Thankfully, Niko Elsen of Generation Zero has put together a list of the reasons why the plan should pass, in GIF form. The final skirmish in the five-year Unitary Plan battle is underway … Read more
A shock hero has risen up at the Unitary Plan hearings. Hayden Donnell spent the day watching the drama unfold. Today’s Unitary Plan hearing was held in a parallel universe. Up was down. Right was left. A group of elderly people were wearing warpaint – though it turned out they were environmental campaigners, not furious Boomers defending their land. There are … Read more
Troye Sivan joins Alex and Joseph on the couch to share his wisdom and debut a bold new look. This week Alex and Joseph are joined by popstar and Youtube legend Troye Sivan to share their scars, talk about awkward dancing and sample a new look in facial hair. Oh, and the latest singles from Broods, … Read more
For his Monitor column this week, Aaron Yap looks at the spectrum of Psycho reboots from the terrible ’80s sequels to the unhinged prequel series Bates Motel. There’s a good chance Hitchcock might have balked if he heard what A&E had done to Norman Bates, the oedipally unhinged monster of his groundbreaking 1960 horror masterpiece Psycho. … Read more
An essay by Talia Marshall, taken from her readings of two books published by Bridget Williams – the award-winning Tangata Whenua, and the condensed version, The First Migration: Māori Origins 3000BC-AD1450. 800 years ago, give or take a century, Kupe chased the giant octopus Te Wheke o Muturangi across the vast Pacific ocean away from Hawaiki … Read more
The Spinoff presents a beautiful way to see what the new rulebook provides for your street, neighbourhood, and the city as a whole The Spinoff’s War for Auckland bunker is shaking with excitement today as we publish a bold and beautiful bunch of accessible, zoomable maps to illustrate the Unitary Plan. Using data sets provided … Read more
A thoroughly snackable summary of the late changes to Auckland’s doorstop rulebook being sought by the wonks at the Auckland Council The dizzying dramedy of the Unitary Plan has spun through one last plot twist before it lands in front of the ladies and gentlemen of the Auckland Council this morning. The council planning wonks have … Read more
Getting upset at terrible refereeing calls is a Kiwi tradition. So why aren’t people foaming at the mouth in fury over the terrible calls in this morning’s Women’s Sevens gold medal game? I remember watching the 2007 Rugby World Cup quarterfinal between New Zealand and France. I remember the controversial calls from referee Wayne Barnes. … Read more
With UnREAL season two coming to an end tonight, Alex Casey shares her favourite moments of producer manipulation, contestant craziness and pant-pooping in all of dating show history. The finale of UnREAL season two arrives to Lightbox tonight, further unraveling the vipers nest of manipulation, lies and corruption on which the twinkling lights of fictional dating show Everlasting … Read more
Who smashes their opponents with the biggest plan amendments? Who has the most insanely sensible policy platforms? Who has a sixth sense when it comes to acing urban planning? We dusted off the Spinoff’s loyal and 100% objective format to appraise the 20 councillors and mayor – elected by just 34% of eligible voters – … Read more
Steve Braunias marks the anniversary of Richard Nixon’s farewell from the White House. Trump, so hysterical and dangerous, can almost make that other, earlier Republican sonofabitch Nixon look good. Almost, but not quite. Today is another anniversary of that happy day on August 9, 1974, when Nixon left office, skipped town, rode out on Chopper … Read more