Alex Casey talks to Shortland Street producer Simon Bennett about the jaw-dropping Christmas cliffhanger (contains many, many spoilers). My first question is: were you making a concerted effort to make the whole of New Zealand feel physically sick? The aim wasn’t to make people feel sick, but to make people think ‘I can’t believe they just … Read more
Jess McAllen writes about a recent story on mental health issues in the teaching profession – troubling, but not for the reasons its author thought. When I applied for a job at Fairfax in 2014 I was faced with the question that all people with mental health conditions dread. “Journalism can be a stressful environment,” … Read more
Cool TV freaks Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim, creators of batshit cult sketch show Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! are playing Auckland’s Sky City Theatre this Friday. Joseph Harper called them for a chat. Those who are already fans need no introduction to the work of Tim & Eric, and the uninitiated should … Read more
Auckland writer Charlotte Grimshaw’s 2015: Tokyo, Tel Aviv, her novel Starlight Peninsula, ‘solemn and conscientious reviews’ for the Listener, ‘internal chaos’. In a narrow street of tiny houses, in a district near the Yanaka Cemetery where the last Shogun is buried, a row of shoes was laid out along the pavement. Policemen stationed beside their bikes wielded … Read more
Tara Ward brings you this week’s Shortland Street Power Rankings, including Virginia’s car crash, Gareth’s window shopping and the saddest Christmas tree yet. 1) Boyd said bye bye to bachelorhood with a hangover from hell Boyd knows how to party like an S-Club party. He spent his last days as a single man in a … Read more
Guardian journalist Nick Davies’s 2015: a massacre in a platinum mine in South Africa, questions in a mud hut, ‘strange experiences’, identity theft kind of thing, ‘so help me God’, six continents, tears, human goodness. There was one single day in March which pulled together the big theme of my whole year. I was in … Read more
The Spinoff is proud to present the exceptional music video for ‘Hold Your Hand in Mine Harry Warner’, the debut pop single from Shorty Street Scandal‘s James Mustapic. More from The Spinoff on Shortland Street: – An interview with James Mustapic about creating this Shortland Street-themed musical magic – Interviewing Shortland Street producer Simon Bennett about tonight’s … Read more
Naomi Arnold, editor and publisher of the brilliant Featured website, selects the 10 best non-fiction news features of 2015. Since Featured began nearly two years ago, we’ve been collecting the best New Zealand non-fiction writing, creating an online library where you’ll always find something good to read. Here’s a selection of some stories we’ve enjoyed … Read more
With the much-anticipated Shortland Street finale airing on Monday night, Alex Casey sat down with producer Simon Bennett to talk cliffhangers… on a cliff. The Shortland Street cliffhanger airs Monday on TV2 at 7pm, click here to get up to speed on TVNZ Ondemand This content, like all television coverage we do at The Spinoff, is brought … Read more
Sick of having his hand held by games made for toddlers, Don Rowe gets masochistic in FromSoftware’s Bloodborne. One need only switch on their headset while playing online to realise that a significant portion of the gaming community are shrill, prepubescent children. Accordingly, game designers have gravitated in recent times to more simplistic, user-friendly games. … Read more
Good Morning has sung its last song, danced its last dance, and broadcast its last advertorial. Calum Henderson watched the lights go down on a New Zealand TV icon. “I don’t want this day to end…” These plaintive words from host Jeanette Thomas perhaps best summed up today’s final episode of Good Morning – a … 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: men’s quotes, Crusher coverage and the real reason women should be grumpy. MONDAY Ah, a new week. The great thing about December is that you start to see end of year wrap ups, and get … Read more
Helldivers By Arrowhead Game Studios, on PS4, PS3, PS Vita & PC It’s a top-down shooter that isn’t so much a homage to Starship Troopers as it is Starship Troopers. Which is awesome. You and some friends from a hilariously fascist far-future Super-Earth (or just the United States under Trump several years from now) are shot into space to … Read more
A strange, wonderful, violent round of upsets in the Premier League – and at the end of it all Arsene Wenger was able to sit back and enjoy his reggae in peace. In a weekend in which you could have reasonably expected wins for Manchester City, Liverpool, Manchester United and even Chelsea – over Stoke … Read more
Join Rog and Davo in the panic room as they try and assess what on earth the Premier League script writers are doing this season. https://youtu.be/USieB0SeHsk/?utm_source=thespinoff&utm_medium=partnership&utm_campaign=partnership Sign up to Premier League Pass now to watch the rest of the EPL season live and on demand for 1/2 Price.
Alex Casey plates up her unconventional power rankings for week eight of My Kitchen Rules NZ, including a stonking good name and some pampered pork. I am very very late this week, and I sincerely apologise. This truth is, I’m exhausted. I’ve been up all hours scribbling equations on whiteboards, rifling through old books and … Read more
We asked a dozen All Blacks who their athletes of the year were, then commissioned essays on those they chose. In equal second place: rowers Hamish Bond and Eric Murray, profiled by James McOnie. They’re like a cute old couple. One of them is sensible, methodical and disciplined. The other is bold, mischievous and charismatic. Both … Read more
Sarah Forster chooses the year’s best books for kids. PICTURE BOOKS Yak and Gnu by Juliette MacIver and Sarah Davis Juliette MacIver and her flawless rhyming verse have become one of the perennials of the NZ book world. Her latest picture book is her twelfth in five years, and is illustrated by the equally flawless … Read more
A pantheon of New Zealand politics watchers were asked to cast their minds over 2015, select their champs and their flops, their ups and their downs, and the issue or story to look out for in 2016. Today, Part Four: The Big Issue for 2016. We asked our glittering academy to gaze into their crystal … Read more
The twelfth episode of our weekly pop music chat for umusic, shot and edited by The Spinoff’s own José Barbosa. It involves two pop rookies – The Spinoff’s Alex Casey and bFM’s Joseph Harper – listening to state-of-the-art pop music and having a chat about it. Simple. This week the two talk about recent artists … Read more
‘Good Night to Good Morning’ is a three part series farewelling the iconic TVNZ variety show. In part two, former employee Robyn Gallagher recalls how Good Morning once enthralled a nation. For three years in the late 2000s, I worked on Good Morning. It was easily one of the most enjoyable – but dramatic – … Read more
Alex Casey chats to Keith Powell about his role as Toofer on Lightbox’s 30 Rock, and how one humble network sitcom changed the face of comedy over its seven joyous years. Tina Fey’s 30 Rock is, without a shadow of a doubt, one of my favourite television shows of all time. I remember buying season one … Read more
An appreciation of Tessa Duder’s 1987 classic novel Alex by former Green MP Holly Walker, first published on her abandoned blog the she-book reader, in May this year. I had seen it on the shelf in the Waterloo School library many times. I was drawn to the cover, which shows a striking, androgynous swimmer emerging … Read more
Calum Henderson watches Adele return to the stage, with help from Graham Norton, and gets a little misty. The first time I heard ‘Hello’, the lead single from Adele’s third studio album 25, I was sitting in Hollywood Bakery on my lunch break eating a tandoori chicken wrap. I knew straight away what song it was … Read more
In the 1970s, nothing was more important to a young Jeff Evans than Liverpool FC. Then, gradually, his passion for the club began to wither. Could brilliant new manager Jürgen Klopp resurrect his love? It’s not often I’ll start a conversation with a confession, at least a conversation that doesn’t involve my wife, but today I’m … Read more
Alex Casey talks to Shorty Street Scandal‘s James Mustapic, ahead of the much-anticipated release of his debut Shortland Street-themed single ‘Hold Your Hand in Mine Harry Warner’. James Mustapic is a local legend who has been dissecting the absurd happenings in Ferndale on his amazing Youtube channel for well over a year. Through all the … Read more
Once a New Zealand youth rugby star, Paul Lasike always harboured ambitions to play in the NFL. He is now closer than ever, running plays with the Chicago Bears practice squad. Ben Stanley looks at the kiwi kid who feels the door is open, and who wants desperately to walk right through it. Paul Lasike remembers the night he decided to give up … Read more
An interview with the amazing Fleur Beale, whose latest YA novel Being Magdalene continues her series of books set in the Children of the Faith religious cult. I read Fleur Beale’s most recent YA book, Being Magdalene, while caught up in the swirl of the Ted Dawe book-banning controversy. I helped to write Booksellers NZ’s … Read more
Earlier this week Massey University released their list of the quotes of the year. They were all by men. Alex Casey finds that a little odd. This week Massey University has released their list of contenders for 2015’s Quote of the Year, with competition organiser Dr Heather Kavan pointing out that 2015 has shown a … Read more