Following the All Blacks’ tense victory over the Springboks early on Sunday morning, the New Zealand prime minister did what he does, and, let’s be honest, what many of us would do were we the New Zealand prime minister: he sauntered into the team’s dressing room and chewed on a beer with The Boys. Photographer … Read more
Tara Ward brings you this week’s Shortland Street Power Rankings, highlighted by Ferndale’s own Rawshark, Dayna finding love in a hardware store and a diagnostic demon in ED. 1. Damo is Dick of the Week™ Damo was batshit crazy this week and Shortland Street was all the better for it. Jealous of Chris’ superior wealth, … Read more
The All Blacks kicked themselves to the Rugby World Cup Final with a masterclass of tactics and the effectiveness of the clever kick. In the end, it was a matter of control – but in the middle this was less a test match than an organised and carelessly sanctioned game of chicken in which the combatants, blinded by … Read more
For the past few years, Israel Adesanya has been on an unstoppable tear through combat sports, racking up titles across Australasia and the stadiums of China. Don Rowe sits down for breakfast with the Stylebender ahead of his third King in the Ring elimination tournament next weekend. With more than 40 professional kickboxing wins, two King in … Read more
Death called by (I.M. Glenn Jowitt) Death called by the other day – no one was home at the time. A note, ‘Sorry I missed you’, stuck under the front door mat. I’m sorry I missed him too. I would have asked him on in, told him to kick off his boots … Read more
The All Blacks quarterfinal victory over the French was the most dominant in Rugby World Cup finals history, a 62-13 hammering that left the world in awe. All it took, says Scotty Stevenson, was a re-imagining of rugby’s geometric boundaries. The Springboks need only to watch the opening ninety seconds of the All Blacks in their quarterfinal against … Read more
Say what you like about Judith Collins but she lacks nothing for confidence. Given the ranking of “politician” and “car salesman” in the lists of least loved professions, it takes some chutzpah for an MP to accept the role of brand ambassador for a car yard. What next? Moonlighting as a journalist? (Actually come to … Read more
A happy week on Premier League Twitter, thanks to everyone doing reasonably well in Europe for once, with Arsenal’s 2-0 triumph over Bayern Munich a definite highlight. Looking ahead to the weekend’s round of games, which features a tantalising Manchester derby and struggling Chelsea vs high-riding West Ham, let’s first check what’s been happening on the … Read more
Wild Roads: A New Zealand Journey by Bruce Ansley We live in a mad landscape linked to each other by mad roads. Ask any tourist upside-down in a drainage ditch. For us, though, those roads are simply local wonders, and that’s just what Bruce Ansley suggests pretty much all the way through his excellent new … Read more
HDPA gets fired up over firearm rules It started with a hidden camera sting exposing a dodgy real estate practice, a fearsome Heather Du Plessis-Allan doorknock and Duncan Garner cutting off a home detention bracelet. TV3’s Story returned to its early roots on Wednesday with its boldest bit of proactive stunt journalism yet, when Heather … Read more
The Alternative Commentary Collective return for an unprecedented fifth week of Champagne Rugby, previewing the weekend’s big semi with what could be the most dangerous prediction mechanism yet. A member of the public finally agrees to climb inside the social media testicle, and poses one of the best questions ever posed to the collective: who … Read more
How would you survive in your favorite game? Peter Haynes’ new webseries AFK attempts to answer that very question. He speaks to Don Rowe ahead of the show’s launch. Like many of us, Peter Haynes has at one time been completely addicted to World of Warcraft. Haynes has known the sweet seduction of journeying across … Read more
There may be a spot in a Rugby World Cup final at stake, but if you thought you were going to get anything other than mutual respect out of All Blacks coach Steve Hansen and Springboks coach Heyneke Meyer, you must be incredibly disappointed with the build up to this weekend’s semifinal. We’re not disappointed. We … Read more
The villas are being fitted with expensive and unnecessary fireplaces and Dinner Wars hangs precariously in the balance – Calum Henderson ranks the Block NZ teams going into the break in living room week. 1. (Last Week: 2) – Brooke & Mitch – House 4 A low cloud of inevitability rolled over the Sandringham / … Read more
Sam Brooks journeys deep into the heart of Lipstick Jungle, the lesser-known Candace Bushnell TV adaptation which followed Sex and the City. If you mention Lipstick Jungle to somebody, you’ll probably get one of two answers: 1. Is that the one with Lucy Liu? 2. What is Lipstick Jungle? To answer both questions: 1. No! … Read more
The Outsider: My Life in Intrigue, by Frederick Forsyth Frederick Forsyth, alliterative rather than literary genius, father of the jet-age airport novel, has influenced a couple of generations of dreamers. One who immediately springs to mind is former ACT MP David Garrett, who was so intrigued by Forsyth’s description of identity theft in The Day … Read more
Funny Girls began life as a talent development plot hatched between New Zealand on Air and TV3. On Friday it debuts as one of the most hotly anticipated comedies in recent memory. Duncan Greive watched its creation. It’s late afternoon on a Wednesday in early October. Outside commuter traffic crawls along Khyber Pass; one side … Read more
The eighth iteration of Christchurch’s public art biennial SCAPE opened earlier this month, clustered around the CBD. Subtitled New Intimacies, it aims to bring people back into the centre of the rebuilding city with works from local and international artists. Is there a better way to analyse a complex collection of artworks than the Spinoff’s … Read more
The Spinoff has the rare and singular pleasure of bringing you a full scene from TV3’s eagerly anticipated sketch comedy ‘Funny Girls’, debuting on TV3 this Friday at 10pm. For the past few weeks I’ve been traipsing across Auckland to bars, breweries and bars, watching a brand new New Zealand comedy being made. It’s a … Read more
Purity, by Jonathan Franzen ‘All happy families are alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.’ Given how routinely Jonathan Franzen is now compared to Tolstoy it’s easy to imagine the iconic opening line of Anna Karenina speaking to a younger Franzen as a kind of career modus operandi. True, his first … Read more
Alex Casey delivers her power rankings for week two of MKRNZ, including Laurence’s new character ‘Stace’ and the worst restaurant theme television has ever seen. We’re in week two and I’m just so glad that we are all becoming friends. The contestants are letting their guards down, warming up to each other and repeatedly touching … Read more
Xena: Warrior Princess showed 90’s kids that girls could kick ass just like boys. An alternative reading implies they could do much more than that besides. If you were to design a feminist superhero, you could do a lot worse than just copying Xena. Righteous, strong and ready to kick a pervert right in his Ancient … Read more
Duncan Greive hosts Joseph Harper, Don Rowe and Bigpipe’s Josh Drummond to discuss the first slate of Spinoff Gaming content. First up, Don talks about the psychedelic implications of the Oculus Rift, which he’s been trialling lately. Joseph Harper discusses the first ever Spinoff Gaming content, his reality TV experiments from May, while Josh Drummond … Read more
Calum Henderson watches Newsworthy every day for a week, to see how TV3’s late night current affairs show manages to balance both the credible, the incredible, and Gene Simmons. MONDAY Walking home from the bus stop, a long-haired orange cat followed me all the way to the front door. He wandered around the flat for a … Read more
Hearthstone is what happens when World of Warcraft meets Magic: The Gathering. It’s like Yu-Gi-Oh cards for the smartphone generation, except this year at Armageddon the stakes are higher than just your mate’s holographic Blue-Eyes White Dragon (it’s fake, by the way; he picked it up at the Frankton Markets in Hamilton for like three bucks). The Heroes of … Read more
Tara Ward ranks her favourite moments from the past week of Ferndale hijinks. This week: TK gets gruesome, Bella gives birth and a random man makes waves. 1) Bella gives birth to a fully formed human being As if childbirth wasn’t painful enough, Bella just found out that Lucy’s handmade soap features heavily in this week’s … Read more
“Bullrush,” says Josh Kronfeld, “is rugby without the ball.” David Slack pays tribute to the sport without a point in his warm and wonderfully entertaining book Bullrush!: A Celebration of the Great New Zealand Game. The finest game of Bullrush you will ever see is three and half minutes long and you will find it … Read more
Jess McAllen says that the #stepforward campaign to end mental health discrimination, while well-intentioned, doesn’t seem likely to actually achieve anything. It’s hard to knock an attempt to open up conversation around destigmatising mental illness. But, as a long-term user of mental health services, #stepforwardnz has been bothering me since it launched in June. I have a lot of … Read more
Thinking of applying for the new season of The Bachelor NZ? Last year’s winner Matilda Rice shares her secrets for success, including sweating profusely and eating a lot. Today the casting call was opened for second season of The Bachelor NZ, calling for “females aged between 21 and 35 who are genuinely looking for love.” … Read more