Premier League Pass kindly loans us NBC’s excellent football pundits Men in Blazers, to bring us up to speed with all the Premier League talking points ahead of this weekend’s games. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRsOsIFUZ0o Watch all this weekend’s Premier League action live and on demand at Premier League Pass.
Today Women’s Refuge announced that MediaWorks has accepted their invitation to undergo domestic violence awareness training. This comes after one in a series of damaging instances of sexism on their radio stations, the latest of which occurred last week, when George FM’s Thane Kirby and Kara Rickard were suspended for naming and slut-shaming New Zealand women … Read more
It’s been a year of massive change at the New Zealand Herald: Editor-in-Chief Tim Murphy stepped down, and a raft of columnists have departed, including the likes of Peter Calder, Paul Casserly, Dita De Boni and James Griffin. Today the NBR broke the news that time has been called on a number of staff members as … Read more
It’s been a busy old week in Premier League twitter with the first round of Champions League football to play in or watch on telly, but there’s still been time for the important things – celebrity haircuts, European basketball mania, and a competition to find Stoke’s best baker. Premier League Pun of the Week A … Read more
The third 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 they discuss Justin Bieber’s cool guy … Read more
Amongst the Rugby World Cup fever, Don Rowe finds a gem of New Zealand sporting culture which risks going unnoticed. At the time of writing, we’re 19 hours from the opening of the Rugby World Cup and already a growing sentiment of rugby-fatigue is finding sympathetic ears across the internet (parts of twitter and r/newzealand, … Read more
This Rugby World Cup has offered plenty of entertainment already – a daft Englishman mocking the haka in an attempt to huck shite clothes, a former All Black hating on the English, current All Blacks using their bus as a changing room for maximum sponsorship exposure, and Tonga winning ‘Blazer of the Tournament’. Alas, no … Read more
After watching CNN’s three hour, 11 candidate Republican debate yesterday, Duncan Greive assesses the general vibe of each candidate, with help from Alex Casey on speech bubbles Rand Paul: Guy who woke up in his car – again. Mike Huckabee: Crew member in charge of laughing at leader’s jokes / Will dance for VP selection Marco … Read more
Here at The Spinoff there’s no Scout feature we anticipate more than ‘Mile High Diaries’ – the definitely true tales of animal lust conducted at 40,000 feet. We were pleasantly surprised to receive an anonymous submission to the series of our own this week… I buckled in safely just as the plane was about to take … Read more
Joseph Moore has been trapped inside The Wellington Phoenix for his entire adult life. Here he presents a five point argument in an attempt to get others to join him. (NB: one of the points is ‘Friendship’). Pre-season is hell. It’s been a few months since the mighty Wellington Phoenix last kicked a ball in … Read more
Bringing together the TV moments on the week, including 3 News’ SCOUT leader, Mr Robot’s arrival and TVNZ’s new season launch. Contributions by Alex Casey and Calum Henderson. Mr Robot Hacks Into New Zealand Mr Robot is one of the buzzed-about shows of 2015, a cinematic cyber thriller that grips the viewer right in the codes … Read more
José Barbosa tracks down the man who once ran the internet in New Zealand, and asks him to assess Mr Robot, Lightbox’s acclaimed new hacking thriller. Listen below as a podcast, or read on for a text transcript of the package. So there’s this scene in a movie called Panic Room. It’s directed by David Fincher, stars Jodie … Read more
It all began with an execrable rendition of The Star Spangled Banner and went downhill from there. On and on it went, did CNN’s “three-hour debate from hell”, like some weird Ancient Greek endurance event, conducted before the mad backdrop of an old Air Force One airliner that the saintly Ronald Reagan used to get … Read more
An occasional series in which we feature an insight or proverb from In the Arena (Penguin Random House, $40), the new book by entrepreneur Diane Foreman and her ghost writer Jenni McManus. On what makes an entrepreneur: If I’m having a facial, I’m thinking, “What if I bought this clinic?” In the Arena, by Diane Foreman … Read more
Already I’ve banged on (and on) enough about Red Peak, so I’ll be very brief. There is broad parliamentary consensus that popular enthusiasm for the Aaron Dustin designed flag means it warrants a place on the shortlist. Labour agree, the Greens agree, so does the Maori Party and ACT. And National, too. John Key said … Read more
Everyone is churning out snackable video content these days, from SCOUT in 60 Seconds leading 3 News every night, to TVNZ announcing that short entertainment videos will be available on demand by the end of the year. Feels like we could be at snack saturation point – something which may have been confirmed with the launch of … Read more
The press release read like the front page of a newspaper in wartime. DUNCAN GARNER CONVINCES VIOLENT OFFENDER TO RETURN TO POLICE CUSTODY. Of course we were going to tune in. I imagined a bus rigged with explosives. The passengers trapped inside, subject to the whims of a criminal with nothing to lose. Then Duncan Garner … Read more
Who are the most powerful figures in New Zealand literature? The most respected, the most admired, the most sucked-up-to? A panel of experts sat down and bitched and argued until they agreed on a ranking to end all rankings. Their methodology was precise. Much of it was based on the level of fear they would … Read more
With the BMW Championship teeing off on Friday morning NZ time, we are only two tournaments away from finding the PGA Tour Champion for 2015. That person wins the FedEx Cup. The what? Calum Henderson finds out. What is the FedEx Cup? The FedEx Cup is the PGA Tour’s Championship trophy. It will be awarded … Read more
Last year the TVNZ new season launch was one of the most stunning onstage extravaganzas that I have seen in my piddly little life – and I’ve seen The Lion King. There were glowing lanyards a la Coldplay, there was flowing champagne a la rappers, there was Sam Wallace dancing in a pea costume a la … Read more
There’s a lot you can learn about hacking from Mr Robot, some of which might not be as complex as you think. Alex Casey lists some life hacks from the pilot episode. I watched the first episode of Mr Robot last night, the much-buzzed about cyber thriller that has hacked through the dark web all the … Read more
Guy Wilson first met Lydia Ko when she was just five years old. She walked into the pro shop of the Pupuke club on Auckland’s North Shore, accompanied by her father, and asked for a lesson. For the next decade the pair were inseparable. She was the perfect pupil, calm, diligent, preternaturally gifted. He was … Read more
The halfway point in the ITM Cup came and went over the weekend with Canterbury playing with all the precision of the Hyundai assembly line, the Turbos getting a first win, and Tasman making it 5-0 to start the year with a second half feast against the Lions. With the Makos taking on their bogey … Read more
Australian food television connoisseur and disappointment addict Eleanor Robertson journeys through cyber space and time to watch and recap TV3’s competitive cooking show, Masterchef New Zealand each week. Unlike most weeks where each episode receives equal attention from me, this time I’m going to mostly ignore the first episode because it was so goddamn boring. It was a … Read more
Levi Stadium, Santa Clara. The first Monday Night Football game at the most advanced stadium in the United States. The 49ers, in black, against the Minnesota Vikings. There were plenty of storylines here: would the Vikings defence live up to their solid rep? Would Adrian Peterson be a force again? Would Colin Kaepernick? Was Teddy … Read more
Today, SCOUTS New Zealand used their social media channels to actively distance themselves from Rachel Glucina’s new gossip website SCOUT. “The website scout.co.nz is not connected, associated nor authorised in any way with our positive youth empowerment organisation. We wish to distance ourselves and our strong, established brand from that site.” Well, colour me confused. … Read more
Steve Braunias talks to Wellington writer Anna Smaill on the eve of the announcement of the shortlist for the 2015 Man Booker Award. Her debut novel The Chimes (Sceptre, $30) has been longlisted; will it make the final six? I remember two literary couples coming to the Listener offices when I worked at the magazine … Read more
The last time I saw Donald Trump on television, he was on The Celebrity Apprentice and administering the tall task of painting New Era baseball caps to the eager celebrities. It was a challenge that would bring about the longest and loudest Meatloaf vs. Gary Busey screaming match that reality television has ever seen. That … Read more
