NZ writer and election tourist Jessy Edwards travelled to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, where she spent a day soaking up the highs and lows of a healthy democracy, smoking weed with Bernie Sanders supporters, walking in a Black Lives Matter march and pissing off a Fox News reporter – and left wondering if … Read more
Introducing The War For Auckland podcast, where we discuss the Unitary Plan, the local body elections, and other incredibly interesting topics. This week we are literally accompanied by the sounds of Auckland being constructed as the Spinoff’s senior pet correspondent Hayden Donnell and political editor Toby Manhire talk to former Housing New Zealand head of development Leonie Freeman and … Read more
Today we introduce a new series, ‘Shamubeel calls Bullshit’, in which prominent economist Shamubeel Eaqub swears at people who say moronic things about the Unitary Plan, the housing crisis, and the local body elections. Shamubeel Eaqub isn’t given to fits of rage. But even the most self-controlled economist can be driven mad by a bombardment of bad opinions, and the Unitary Plan debate … Read more
New verse by Wellington writer Nick Ascroft. This Poem Is Guaranteed to Awaken a Coma Victim Is someone you love in a coma? A family member perhaps. Perhaps a pet. Perhaps you yourself are in a coma. Perhaps someone is reading this to you in the hopes of awakening you. If … Read more
This week: psychotherapist Ms X on settling for second best, dating dry patches, and knowing when to kick him to the kerb. Hi Ms X, I’m feeling a bit stuck here and could do with some cold, hard advice and maybe a bit of a reality check. First up, I am the worst at dating. … 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: July 29 WELLINGTON STORE 1 Hera Lindsay Bird (Victoria University Press, $25) by Hera Lindsay Bird In its second week at number one in Wellington and Auckland – … Read more
This week Spinoff editor Alex Casey and Flicks.co.nz cohorts Steve Newall and Liam Maguren discuss week 3 of the NZIFF. The mind and body are hurting, but the film buff/reptile part of the brain is still kicking as the trio lay out what their top films of that week were and the best way to make … Read more
Attempts to have Māori Statutory Board members excluded from the vote on the Unitary Plan called for a proper Mayor in the Chair. So up stepped Len Brown. Tim Murphy watches a critical chapter of council squabbling Have we just witnessed Len’s Last Stand? One day after the Unitary Plan landed back in the Auckland … Read more
Jose Barbosa talks to Adam Boileau of Insomnia Security about hacking thriller Mr Robot, and New Zealand’s place in the info-war web. The much anticipated Mr Robot season two is on Lightbox. To get everyone’s head in the right place José Barbosa talks to Adam Boileau, a computer security specialist for Insomnia Security. He’s also the owner/operator … 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 text. Creativity is one of those words like innovation that gets thrown around a lot, and we’re … Read more
Peter Simpson writes exclusively for the Spinoff about his new, much talked-about book on the all-painting, all-chattering intelligentsia of Christchurch in the 1930s. In 1938 the musician Fred Page returned to Christchurch from studying at the Royal College of Music in London. On his first day back he ran into his friend the poet Allen … Read more
As time pours forward we as a species are going to have to come to terms to life without Pokémon GO. No matter, Joseph Harper has your back. Those coming down off the Pokémon Go megahigh are probably looking for something new to tap at on their phone while they walk to work/use the toilet. … Read more
The Donbox is a regular series where killing machine Don Rowe watches a movie based on, inspired by, or just damn ripped from a video game. This week Don revisits the first Pokémon movie and finds a film about about friendship, adventure, the thrill of battle … and the agony of existing in a meaningless … Read more
The Spinoff editor Duncan Greive writes about the response to our announcement of The War for Auckland. A version of this post was posted on PledgeMe at 6am. Because I’m a grownup with good work/life balance, I woke up at 4.30am and checked our PledgeMe balance on my phone. When I’d gone to bed we’d … Read more
Enter the draw and win some very cool literary things! Ten years ago today one of New Zealand’s most elegant and brilliant men of letters, novelist and essayist Nigel Cox, died. He was 55. He was special. He wrote very cool books, none cooler than his remarkable novel Tarzan Presley, in 2004, an antic and … Read more
A reissue of an earlier piece in honour and remembrance of Nigel Cox, who passed away ten years ago today. Alongside David Slack, who always has a cackle on his lips, I appeared as guest speaker at a session on satirical writing at the Auckland Writers and Readers Festival in May, and it’s possible that I came across … Read more
Calum Henderson asks why our taxpayer money continues to fund rose-tinted documentaries about the sexist hellhole known as Gloriavale. Our annual visit to Gloriavale is becoming a weird New Zealand television tradition. Every winter for the past three years we’ve been offered another rare glimpse inside the controversial West Coast Christian community, through a series of … Read more
Soon-to-be-former Radio Hauraki DJ Alex Behan explains why everyone has been pronouncing the station’s name wrong for years – and why it needs to stop. UPDATE: The station appears to have indicated it will soon change its pronunciation. The first question I asked when I was offered a job at Radio Hauraki was “Am I allowed to … Read more
New Zealand’s classiest economist, Shamubeel Eaqub, unleashes his first impressions on the Independent Hearings Panel review of the big rule-book for Auckland’s future. The War for Auckland is a Spinoff pop-up section devoted to the 2016 Unitary Plan and local elections. To support our journalism, click here.
The new and improved Unitary Plan is a slap in the face to our anti-density councillors and their ashen-faced supporters. We plucked out a handful of graphs that really tell the story. There was a lot of monotone droning at Auckland Council’s briefing on its new Recommended Unitary Plan. We were told about PAUPs, MHUs, and THAs. Feasible … Read more
Peter Wells expands on his recent, pathetically small Listener review of What Belongs to You by Garth Greenwell to say exactly why he thinks it’s a masterpiece. Once upon a time, and comparatively recently, gay fiction provided a window not only into how gay men lived, but also a portal into the eroticism and interior of our … Read more
The Auckland Council has long been blamed for the myriad of issues facing the country’s largest city, in particular the housing crisis. It’s about time central government took some responsibility, argues AUT Pro Vice Chancellor Ian Shirley It is difficult to take the Government’s housing policy seriously when a central plank of that policy is … Read more
Alex Casey explains how UnREAL, a black comedy set on a fictional reality set, chews on an array of complex issues like no other television show right now. Please note that the following is absolutely riddled with spoilers. I don’t even reckon Galileo himself could have predicted that The Bachelor, the same reality franchise responsible for … Read more
War?! We know, we know. But what else would you call the vastly differing visions for Auckland presented by Auckland 2040 and Generation Zero? We feel like the next few months will define this city’s future, and will thus cover the Unitary Plan and the subsequent election with a rare fury. Read on to hear our justification – … Read more
Following a military coup in 2014, high-level contacts between Wellington and Bangkok went into deep freeze. Why is that now beginning to thaw, asks David Capie Hot on the heels of the Hague Tribunal’s decision about the South China Sea, Foreign Minister Murray McCully is back in Asia. Meetings with ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian … Read more
He’s fresh from a shopping holiday in Japan and Dan Taipua has seen some awesome, awesome shit. In the 2nd and final part of this series he passes on all that he has learnt to any retro game tourists thinking of hitting the Japanese arcades. While walking through central Osaka I was stopped in the street by a … Read more
Five months after the infuriating marathon Auckland Council meeting on ‘upzoning’ comes a massive moment for the future of the city and its critical Unitary Plan. Between the two events, housing, and Auckland housing especially, has completely dominated the political agenda Five months and two days, so the adage goes, is a long time in … Read more
Todd Blackadder is leaving to coach Aviva Premiership side Bath after eight seasons in charge of the Crusaders. Will his tenure be remembered as a success? Scotty Stevenson looks back on the career of a Crusader Man. Langford’s Store is rusting away in the summer heat of Golden Bay. The remaining paint clings to the rough-sawn … Read more
NZ On Air announced this week that a second season of TV2 drama Filthy Rich has received funding to the tune of $6,896,419 – a baffling decision if you look at the first season’s ratings, writes Duncan Greive. On Monday, with little fanfare, NZ on Air announced the renewal of Filthy Rich, TV2’s soapy inheritance … Read more