Jose Mourinho gets the sack, AFC Bournemouth continue their giant-killing run and Petr Cech’s wife bakes a wonderful cake in another week of wildly unpredictable Premier League action. Chelsea have finally sacked manager Jose Mourinho after a 2-1 loss to Leicester City on Tuesday morning left last season’s champions just one point clear of the … Read more
Bill Manhire’s 2015: a sandwich in Norwich, Utopia, ‘festivals of ideas’, poems in an eggbox, no sleep till Gore, The Stories of Bill Manhire, ‘a fine, chubby baby’. I spent the early months of the year as the UNESCO Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia , sandwiched between Margaret Atwood and Ian Rankin. The … Read more
Alex Casey is a human adult woman who reads the news. Every week she’ll report back on what she sees. This week, the last before she goes the hell away from our news-sites for a few weeks: tennis brides, the pro-heckling movement and endless ‘everything makes you fat and dead’ stories about food. Read previous editions of this uplifting … Read more
Duncan Greive talks about television’s past and future with Matt Heath and Jeremy Wells as they launch WatchMe – the most exciting birth in a year of TV deaths. Some time in September Matt Heath got in touch, asking if I wanted to have lunch with him and Jeremy Wells. Who wouldn’t? We went and … Read more
Only a few weeks ago, I was looking forward to playing Star Wars: Battlefront for the first time. The trailers showed something special: a game that looked and sounded exactly like Star Wars. Previews for the game were mostly positive, and couldn’t wait to play it. I wasn’t expecting that actually getting to play the game would become something of a … Read more
The fourth in our week-long series, counting down the greatest New Zealand television moments of the year. Click here to catch up on the first, second and third instalments. Contributions by Alex Casey, Calum Henderson and Duncan Greive. 20) Dadbod wins DWTS When he first strode out sheepishly onto the Dancing With the Stars dance floor Simon … Read more
This year some of the most powerful performances on television came from canines. James Beavis of Facebook’s Cool Dog Group picks his top 10. I used to find the “dogs > people” sentiment extremely corny and bad, but I’m a changed person. After nearly two years of helping run the Cool Dog Group on Facebook … Read more
Auckland writer Stacy Gregg’s 2015: St Petersburg, Moscow, being Eloise, research, ‘beets and pickles and perfect dark yellow quails eggs’, horse breeds, that sonofabitch Sergei. Everyone says St Petersburg is wonderful but I took an instant dislike to the place. It was like all the people and the colour had been vacuumed out and only … Read more
Kathy Cumming attended the Paris Climate talks as part of the New Zealand delegation, and as media ambassador for the Green party. She writes about witnessing the mundane and magical creation of history. Let me start at the end; now commonly referred to as “only the beginning”. A deal to prevent climatic catastrophe had been … Read more
Think this year’s Shortland Street cliffhanger was dramatic? The 1995 festive special was even more heartrending. Tara Ward remembers the Christmas episode that shocked a nation. Christmas Day television is notoriously bad. You can guarantee a Royal Variety Performance and a Vicar of Dibley special, and Jamie Oliver is bound to chuck a litre of olive … Read more
Wellington writer Anna Smaill’s 2015: Edinburgh, Hong Kong, good luck, tea and Hobnobs, ‘a steadying ale’, Amazon ratings, ‘the psychological hangover of writing my first novel’, book number two. 2015 has been a lucky year. I published my first novel, and had the good fortune to travel to London to meet the people who were instrumental … Read more
The third in our week-long series, counting down the greatest New Zealand television moments of the year. Click here to catch up on the first and second instalments. Contributions by Alex Casey and Calum Henderson. 30) Ben turns his back on Masterchef The biggest moment on Masterchef NZ this year was when Ben Sheehan dropped … Read more
Queenstown writer Jane Bloomfield’s 2015: her junior fiction novel Lily Max, swimming in Lake Wakatipu, watching Mad Max in Broome, doubt, anxiety, visiting her dad in his resthome, skiing, a reprint, the sage advice of publisher Steve Braunias. The summer of 2015 lay before me. We’re a family of five, but three members departed for American … Read more
Did you know the key to winning in politics is having enough votes in Parliament to form a government after the election? If not, Danyl Mclauchlan has found just the publication for you. It’s Christmas. The political year is over. Parliament has risen. The festive season has begun: work parties, family holidays, barbecues, long car … Read more
Alex Casey has watched and ranked every episode of My Kitchen Rules NZ this year, and for what? She shares some vital lessons learned from the show including what not to feed rugby players, and how to avoid being too much of a JAFA. We have come to the end of another exhausting MKRNZ journey, … Read more
Max Porter’s 2015: a new baby, political angst, ‘tips on not being an asshole’, his novel Grief Is The Thing With Feathers, ninjas, Paris, ‘the smell of books’. I’m so tired right now that I hardly know my arse from my elbow, but here are some things I remember happening this year, in no particular order, … Read more
We asked 12 Rugby World Cup winning All Blacks for their Kiwi sporting hero of 2015. Colin Slade selected Black Caps wunderkind Kane Williamson. James Milne looks back on his extraordinary year at the crease. In 2015, there have, incredibly, been more words written about Kane Williamson than runs scored by Kane Williamson – i.e. a heck of … Read more
From Caitlyn Jenner’s internet-breaking news, to Maura Pfefferman, the transitioning matriarch of Transparent, transgender issues were everywhere in 2015. But, asks transgender activist and academic Lexie Matheson, how much has really been achieved? It’s interesting that one of the Words of the Year for 2015 is ‘transgender’. Helen Newstead at Collins Dictionary told us “Collins … Read more
Duncan Greive interviews David Dallas about his furious new single ‘Don’t Rate That’. David Dallas might have the most consistent trajectory in New Zealand hip hop. He’d established an instantly familiar style, and spent his last couple of albums polishing it, crafting huge hooks and eyeing up the America. It worked out pretty well by him: he got … Read more
James Mustapic of Shorty St Scandal presents his annual awards to the good people of Ferndale in 2015. Gather round all ye doctors, nurses, patients and receptionists of Shortland Street, James Mustapic is here to shine a light on the best storylines, characters and moments from Ferndale this year. From Chris Warner’s “playa days” to Murray’s meatballs, … Read more
The second in our week-long series, counting down the greatest New Zealand television moments of the year. Click here for the first instalment. Contributions by Alex Casey, Calum Henderson and Duncan Greive 40) Burning Man? More Like Burping Man Dancing With the Stars NZ was rocked to the very core after one audience member in the … Read more
Spinoff legend Alex Casey’s 2015 as a first-time author: Jamie Curry, Jamie’s World, Napier, Sydney, ‘proper famous’, bacon and eggs and revenge. The first time I encountered Jamie Curry she was in a short Facebook clip, you know the kind that start out kind of normal and then you suddenly see a dog walking past … Read more
TV3 may have missed its chance at a 5.30pm answer to TV2’s Home and Away, but the original surf-and-sand teen soap is still going strong. Ellen Moorhead looks back at the year’s maddest storylines. It’s been a hard year in The Bay. 2015 has seen an endless stream of classic soap-tropes plague the good citizens … Read more
Neighbours turned 30 this year with the same soapy melodrama and sense of humour that have been the show’s hallmarks since 1985. Ethan Sills wouldn’t have it any other way. Anniversaries are a big deal for soap operas. When Coronation Street turned 50, a tram crashed into the street. When Shortland Street turned 20, a … Read more
Brian Turner’s 2015: life and bicycles in Oturehua, ‘lucky still to be alive’, his new book Boundaries: People and Places of Central Otago, a visit to London, Anton Oliver’s birthday party, ‘the neo-liberal pandemic’, Richie McCaw. A couple of days ago I met a bloke at the café by the Hayes Engineering Works about a kilometre … Read more
Tara Ward recalls the most memorable moments from last night’s bloody Shortland Street Christmas cliffhanger (CONTAINS SPOILERS). 10) Gareth locks Dave the security guard in the supply cupboard Have you seen Security Dave? The guy is a freaking giant compared to Gareth. I’m no scientist; in fact, I can barely spell the word. But I … Read more
We asked 12 Rugby World Cup winning All Blacks for their Kiwi sporting hero of 2015. Luke Romano picked world number one women’s golfer Lydia Ko. Greg Bruce reviews Ko’s incredible year – and wonders if she might have peaked too soon. Our Bloody Lydia. What a steady, inevitable progression it has been, from the time she first … Read more
Duncan Greive watches as Ferndale endures a hostage crisis on a Christmas cliff for the ages. They’ll never beat the truck. That’s the yardstick against which all of Shortland Street’s Christmas cliffhangers will be measured, and invariably come up short. It was the first time the show embraced the dramatic tension afforded by a break, … Read more
The first in our week-long series, counting down the greatest New Zealand television moments of the year. First up? Ali G, jizz smears and secret burps. Contributions by Alex Casey and Calum Henderson. 41) Takes two tractors to tango The triumphant TV One show This Town spent time chilling out with regular New Zealanders and … Read more