Compiling the best reading of the week from your friendly local website. Delaney Mes: A point-by-point rebuttal of Tony Veitch’s terrible column “It is appalling. It is appalling to many of us who don’t think he should have a prominent platform from which to share his opinion. He should be embarrassed. And yet, it’s so clearly … Read more
‘Business is Boring’ is a new weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound will speak with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand, with the interview available as both audio and text. This week: a Techweek special. Although Business is Boring is definitely not all … Read more
With the NBA playoffs well underway, our very own Steven Adams is taking the world by storm with a potent mixture of talent and loveliness and, writes Katie Parker, he’s not the only one. Things are going so very well for Steven Adams. In just this past week he was deemed the third best player … Read more
The most exciting new poet in New Zealand letters takes on her most complex subject yet – Monica Geller, from Friends. Monica Monica Monica Monica Monica Monica Geller off popular sitcom F.R.I.E.N.D.S Is one of the worst characters in the history of television She makes me want to wash my hands with hand … Read more
Student magazines like Massey University’s MASSIVE have lurched from scandal to scandal lately. Why do they keep doing terrible things? A former student paper feature writer explains. A cover by Massey University’s MASSIVE recently joined the ever-expanding mushroom cloud of student magazine controversy. It featured a drawing of an almost-naked young student crouched over, wincing at her hair … Read more
News of a proposed merger between NZME and Fairfax has met with a predictably fearful response from news creators and consumers. But Duncan Greive thinks it might finally properly differentiate the main online brands and give consumers a real choice. This week’s major media news was the announcement that NZME and Fairfax were in talks … Read more
Everyone’s hailing Leicester City’s amazing Premier League victory as a one-in-a-million sporting tale, but James McOnie argues it was plagarised from the Highlanders’ 2015 season. While everyone thinks Leicester City’s fairytale Premier League victory will be turned into a movie, let’s just remember this rags-to-riches tale involves some players* who earn more in a fortnight than many All Blacks do … Read more
Absent the big budgets and bigger meltdowns of its major network cousins, Matthew McAuley reckons Aotearoa’s most low-key cooking competition might just be its best. For most people across most periods of human history, the rituals of preparing, eating and sharing food have meant more than the simple sustenance provided. Cooking allows us to communicate … Read more
Leah Light is the nail queen of New Zealand, and for good reason. Zoe Scheltema got the scoop on what’s worth inviting to your nail bed. I remember the first time I had my nails done. I went in seemingly unaware of how much my life was about to change, yet I walked out of … Read more
The corruption allegations levelled at French club Racing 92 could be a sign of things to come in world rugby, says professional player-turned-journalist John Daniell. In 2012 I was tipped off about a story at Racing Metro, a French rugby club I used to play for, now renamed Racing 92 and home to half a … Read more
Kiran Dass interviews Dutch novelist Herman Koch, a guest at the Auckland Writers Festival. Dutch author Herman Koch writes cracking good thrilling page-turners filled with repellent and flawed characters who despise each other, are driven by sex and power and who will make you wince and laugh. In The Dinner, he examines how far two … Read more
For its entire run The Bachelor NZ was a bore. Then Naz, ‘The Women Tell All’ and Story helped it explode into the best entertainment of the year, says Duncan Greive. After 10 weeks and 20 episodes of some of the most interminable and vacuous television New Zealand has ever seen, season two of the The Bachelor … Read more
While most rugby pundits talk up the return of Waisake Naholo, the true catalyst for the Highlanders’ Super Rugby resurgence flies under the radar, writes Scotty Stevenson. In most people’s eyes there was only one star of the show for the Highlanders last weekend in Hamilton, a large Fijian-born winger called Waisake Naholo who returned … Read more
For Monitor this week, Aaron Yap tackles Underground, a escape drama that seeks to combine modern times with history. When Quentin Tarantino released his blaxploitation-cum-spaghetti western opus Django Unchained in 2012, he had a justification for his typically incendiary, controversy-baiting approach to one of the most awful and shameful periods in American history. “When slave narratives are done … Read more
Joseph Harper reviews the three new starter Pokémon characters, using cutting-edge scientific methods to determine which one is the cutest. Great news for children, and fully grown Nintendo tragics: while Pokémon Sun and Moon are still a wee way off, we’ve just been gifted the first offering of real game footage – including names and pictures … Read more
BREAKING: a very short New Zealand relationship is over – we convene an emergency podcast to talk about it. The dream is already over! Host Jane Yee is joined in The Fantasy Suite by Alex Casey and Duncan Greive to discuss the shock news of Fleur and Jordan’s breakup. We also talk about Naz’s incredible … Read more
Opinion: The marriage of Fairfax NZ and NZME may make sense in commercial terms, but it’s bad for depth, diversity and democracy, writes Paul Brislen If you want to know about a burning platform that’s forcing change, talk to a journalist. “Do 10% more with 10% less” has become the new strategy. And that’s in … Read more
Dan Carter’s Racing 92 is battling Saracens for the European Champions Cup this weekend. But would either side make the playoffs in Super Rugby? And what does this have to do with dog racing? In the 1980s, dog racing would often, unbelievably, be the first sport covered on the BBC’s flagship midweek sports show, Sportsnight (best theme … Read more
Before there was Flying Nun, there was the NZ punk scene. To celebrate NZ Music Month, Gareth Shute looks back at a 1978 snapshot of the birth of our local indie scene. It was June 1978 when promoter Derek King made a plan for half-a-dozen bands from Auckland to drive south for a Punk Spectacular … Read more
Brilliant bachelorette Naz went on her media rounds today – a mostly horrifying exercise in objectification. But no one stooped lower than George FM’s serial offender Thane Kirby, says Alex Casey. Last night on The Women Tell All, Naz was a fucking firecracker. She stood up, pointed and yelled at an audience member for calling her … Read more
The Spinoff has been accused of being anti-Mark Weldon and his work from time to time, so we thought we’d get one of his defenders to make the case for him as a misunderstood visionary. Here is ZenithOptimedia’s Stuart Rutherford, arguing Weldon reshaped MediaWorks for commercial success at a time of great upheaval in the sector. Seven hundred … Read more
Poet Chris Tse won two awards at last night’s Ockham NZ Book Awards – best first book of poetry, and best dressed male. He tells the truth about those swans on his shoulders. Something I wasn’t prepared for heading into the Ockhams ceremony was the number of people who would want to touch me. I … Read more
Comedian Melanie Bracewell goes into the trenches for The Women Tell All, the Bachelor NZ live event, and almost gets kicked out in the process. “Oh us? Yeah we supplied the roses for all the rose ceremonies,” said one of the two elegantly dressed women standing next to me. She then pressed the button for … Read more
Kiwi basketball legend Sean Marks has taken charge of a terrible NBA team with virtually no assets, and somehow has to find a way to avoid getting fired. Mate Vella delivers a few suggestions. The Brooklyn Nets are going through a sour patch, and their outlook is only looking worse. Over the past few years, … Read more
In January, TV3 newsreader Carolyn Robinson read her last bulletin, her job yet another casualty of Mediaworks CEO Mark Weldon’s cuts. She looks back at the “wondrous” newsroom he gutted. I wore white that last time. When it was done I pushed back from the desk. I took off my jacket – my favourite one … Read more
Forget Craig Marriner! We have a new strangest-ever winner of a New Zealand book award. Woah! The award for best dressed female went to Stella Chrysostomou, manager of Page and Blackmore bookstore in Nelson, and the best dressed male prize went to poet Chris Tse, who wore like these feathery swan things on his shoulders, sort of like … Read more
This afternoon, Cameron Slater’s name suppression was lifted in a case regarding his conspiring to hack The Standard website. To mark the occasion, here are some of the fearless Whaleoil blogger’s previous posts about name suppression. It’s like 10,000 Whales when all you need is a knife. However Alanis would have styled it, today is a … Read more
What are foreign trusts and where do they come from? Is New Zealand really a tax haven? And how can we fix things? Tax expert Deborah Russell explains all No one ever set out to create a tax haven in New Zealand. Our tax system is largely robust, transparent and fair. There’s just this one … Read more
The final of The Bachelor NZ last night hardly contained the hidden gems of a Michael Hill ring, but that didn’t stop Alex Casey coming back for one last ranking. It’s all over and I don’t really want to talk about it. Hopped up on mini Milky Bars, sausage rolls and Lindauer, I was so … Read more