Steve Braunias reports live from the children’s book awards held tonight at Circa Theatre in Wellington. All the winners! All the drunks! A who’s who of New Zealand children’s literature – Stacy Gregg! Patricia Grace! Jane Bloomfield! Wassisname! – gathered tonight at Circa Theatre, that old shack beside a dismal pond on Wellington’s waterfront, for … Read more
For years gamers everywhere have been waiting to load up No Man’s Sky and blast off into the heavens. The game is finally launching this week on PS4 and PC and there will be many who have taken a day off work or come down with the lurge on release day. However, for the poor … Read more
Lions coach Johan Ackermann watched his gamble of resting his best players for their final round trip to Buenos Aires blow up in his face on Saturday night. The fact he took that gamble in the first place highlights some major problems with the expanded Super Rugby schedule, writes Scotty Stevenson. Split Enz famously sang … Read more
Alex Casey and Leah Damm recap the hellish events for women in New Zealand last week, including the Kuggeleijn case, The Chiefs’ behaviour and the curious case of Kevin Roberts. Last week sent an incredibly scary sexist snowball through the country, trampling all of the women in New Zealand in its mighty wake. In less … Read more
We have rarely seen such a sustained, and successful, attempt to hide abuses from the outside world as the Australian government is perpetuating right now in its ‘offshore detention’ policy, writes Amnesty International’s Grant Bayldon There is a basic principle of human rights work: when lawyers, families, journalists, doctors and official monitors are prevented from … Read more
In the second scorching installment of the Spinoff’s War For Auckland podcast, we discuss the political responses to the revised Unitary Plan and take bets on whether the Auckland Council will vote it through The adorable old labrador we call the Unitary Plan moves closer to maturity on Wednesday this week as it arrives before … Read more
Tara Ward brings you her rankings for Shortland Street last week, including Leanne’s new vitamin business, a spoiled roux, and a pillow made of kiwi feathers. 1) Cam is the Chad Johnson of Ferndale Cam’s been in Ferndale for five minutes and has already fallen in love with Kylie. How nauseating. Thankfully, Kylie rebuked Cam’s creepy advances by insulting his … Read more
A tribute to the great illustrator Peter Gossage by whanau member and author Paula Morris. Peter Gossage died last weekend. He was not quite 70 years old, but he’d been ill for a long time. I last saw him in late May, at my cousin Tilly’s tangi up at Omaha marae; he was frail, wrapped in … Read more
Compiling the best reading of the week from your friendly local website. Michele A’Court: Stop saying dumb shit, and other top tips for all the Kevins of the world “I reckon I might be able to throw a bit of light on this. I actually think you do get it – you come close to … Read more
A mindset from the world of business may have spread out into culture and political life, steamrolling ideas of objective truth along the way, argues Campbell Jones There has been widespread discussion over the past month about the disappearance of truth in New Zealand politics. In an important opinion piece, TVNZ reporter Andrea Vance argued … Read more
Duncan Greive watches Māori Television’s new dating show Finding Aroha, and finds a surprisingly authentic reality quest for love. As a highly-paid television columnist, I am in possession of piercing insights which will rock you back in your seat. Buckle up, there’s a whopper coming. You ready? You sure? Here goes: The Bachelor NZ is not … Read more
The events of this week have cast a shadow across rugby, with the despicable behaviour of one of its most beloved teams shocking the nation. But, Steve Hansen aside, its most prominent voices have stayed silent. Why? In US sports they have this nickname, “America’s Team”. Initially bestowed upon the dominant Dallas Cowboys team of … Read more
The Rio Olympics are about to officially get underway and what better way to celebrate than with a drinking game during the opening ceremony. The opening ceremony for the Rio Olympics begins on Saturday at 10:50am. It’s going to be a long affair, probably even longer than Batman vs Superman, and no doubt far more entertaining. With … Read more
Our own thumb jockey Joseph Harper has a good old whack on a major tribute to old RGPs. He’s bloody into it. Last week the ‘indie smash’, Hyper Light Drifter was released on PS4 and Xbox One, so I decided to revisit it. This almost goes without saying, but it’s an amazingly cool looking game. … Read more
New verse by Australian writer Catherine Vidler. the ghost held special significance for the ghost at St. Bathans the ghost held me down the ghost held me in position the ghost held up a glowing torch the ghost held its ground the ghost held a darker picture the ghost held … Read more
Alex Casey snacks on this year’s Loading Docs selection, ten locally-made documentaries under 3 minutes in length. Love documentaries but hate all the sitting, watching and listening? Destined to take 100 pee breaks and snack stops during the average 90 minute runtime? Fear not my fellow cinema pests, Loading Docs is the perfect solution if your … 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 5 AUCKLAND STORE 1 Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Little Brown, $50) by JK Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany Plot summary, courtesy of … Read more
This week, a special reader’s response on dealing with dating bullshit, and Ms X annotates a genuine Tinder conversation that quickly goes south. Hello Callers, Last week we ran a poignant letter from ‘Yoko Boleyn’ who has been having issues with a young man who seems unable to GTFU (Grow the Fuck Up – itʼs … Read more
Our resident Blockaholic Jane Yee recaps the highs and lows from week 10 of The Block NZ, and gets an exclusive tour of 95 St Johns Road from none other than Niki and Tiff. And just like that we’re down to the last few days on The Block for 2016. This season has flown by … Read more
With a bit of luck, the response to Saatchi guru Kevin Roberts’ brain-fart suggests off-the-cuff bullshit about women in business won’t be tolerated so easily any more, writes Michele A’Court On Saturday, Business Insider (Australia) published an interview with Kevin Roberts, Saatchi & Saatchi’s Executive Chairman and Head Coach at the advertising agency’s parent company, … Read more
Sportswomen are consistently marginalised in today’s media but the Olympics are a beacon of hope for equal, quality coverage, writes Toni Bruce. For the next few weeks, I’ll be glued to the television and Internet enjoying the quadrennial Festival of Sporting Women. Even though it has another name you might know better – the Olympic … Read more
Just two weeks ago world champion New Zealand freediver William Trubridge became the first man to dive to 102 metres unassisted on a single breath, breaking his own previous world record of 101m. In the second installment of Tank Talk, a partnership with Float Culture, resident Spinoff float master Don Rowe goes floating with Trubridge, and subsequently gets his mind … Read more
Amazing political news: a grand coalition was brokered on the Unitary Plan. You just might have missed it because it was signed off in the witching hour on Prime TV. August 3, 2016: the day peace broke out in New Zealand politics. After decades of bickering, sniping, and releasing lists of questions no-one will answer, our … 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. One of the coolest things to happen to business has been the new democratic … Read more
Alex Casey reminds Andrew Flexman that a woman who takes her clothes off professionally is still a human. Yesterday, a stripper named Scarlette spoke out about her experience at a Chiefs end-of-season function, where she was subjected to inappropriate licking and touching without her consent. Flexman, the Chief Executive of the Chiefs, responded to the … Read more
The Kettering Incident is drawing rave reviews for its ‘Tasmanian Noir’ – a small town with terrifying secrets lurking within and without. What’s the story? Two young women head into the woods in a remote Tasmanian logging town. Only one comes out. Anna Macy is found, hours later, bloody and traumatised, having met with a mysterious … Read more
The Intel Game Chamber was held in Sydney on Wednesday to showcase gaming and VR all run by Intel’s latest processors. Madeleine Chapman, a bad, almost-non-existent gamer, went along and tried not to get pwned. Grasping my brush tightly, I eased into a stroke, watching as bright orange paint was left in its wake, a beautiful exhaust … Read more
Holly Walker reviews The Natural Way of Things, the award-winning novel by Australian writer Charlotte Wood There’s something inevitable, natural even, about the way victims of sexual abuse can end up being blamed for what’s happened to them. Sometimes it’s so overt and egregious that we’ll all be outraged – like the Canadian judge who … Read more
Just in case you’ve been missing the next big thing in music reviews, we’ve compiled the best Pop on The Couch episodes for your convenience. Featuring Alex Casey, Joseph Harper, the occasional courier, and [COMING SOON] Troye Sivan. The Taylor Swift special Alex and Joseph don some sweet unofficial merch as they rate Taylor Swift’s … Read more