Last week five women accused comedian Louis CK of sexual harassment, charges he admits are true. Sam Brooks writes about why Louis CK has always been a problematic comedian – and not just for this. These are the facts. Louis CK sexually harassed a bunch of women. The women came forward to the New York … Read more
Bring you the best weekly reading from your friendly local website. Alex Casey: Turns out Andrew from MAFSNZ was an absolute pig on Tinder “Andrew Jury, a participant on Married at First Sight NZ, sent abusive messages to a woman on Tinder, calling her a “whore” after she refused his request to “satisfy my Asian fetish.” Jury … Read more
Bringing you the best weekly reading from your friendly local website. The Spinoff: MAXCLUSIVE! Max Key* destroys Eminem career in diss track The National Party lost a lot this year. An election, a fiscal hole, a Winston Peters, and now a healthy sum of $600,000 to Eight Mile Style for using a sound-alike of Eminem’s … Read more
Following the success of Thor: Ragnarok, Toby Morris looks at other Hollywood franchises that Taika Waititi could improve. It’s Taika’s world, we’re just living in it. So where does he go next? Wherever he bloody wants. After the success of Thor: Ragnarok, every major studio and blockbuster franchise in Hollywood will be lining up to … Read more
Bringing you the best weekly reading from your friendly local website. Emmaline Matagi: How to dress your Pākehā child up as Maui or Moana without appropriating Pasifika culture Disney’s Moana has been a smash hit in New Zealand. Children everywhere want to dress up as characters from the movie. So how do you let your child … Read more
She’s perhaps New Zealand’s most prominent actress of this moment, but when she gets a big part, she’s still reluctant to share the news for fears of being cut down. She’s a sudden film star, a theatre legend, and a chill-as-shit lady. Sam Brooks sits down in a park for a few beers with Rachel House. Photography by Joel Thomas. There’s the … Read more
The surprise Twitter hit of this election season has been NZ Art Parallels, the account which reveals the previously hidden connections between world art history and New Zealand politics and media. And now NZ Art Parallels is joining The Spinoff for a new monthly column. The Spinoff Parallel of the Month Here is Bill English … Read more
We’re hugely excited to announce that artist and writer Toby Morris is the latest addition to team Spinoff. Below, the Pencilsword creator (and one half of op-ed duo Toby & Toby, along with Spinoff veteran Toby Manhire) introduces his new project. But first, editor Duncan Greive welcomes him aboard. Ever since The Spinoff started, I’ve … Read more
Another gold medal for the green-and-gold in the contest for the worst media opinions on New Zealand’s electoral outcome. Toby Manhire reads them so you don’t have to. The latest addition to the pantheon of Bad Takes In The International Media On The New Zealand Election comes from USA Today. In a post explaining how … Read more
There are plenty of reasons why the Wallabies scored an upset, none of them involving random sexist slurs, writes Jamie Wall. This morning, for some reason, the New Zealand Herald decided to float the idea that the new, still to be sworn in prime minister Jacinda Ardern “cursed” the All Blacks, leading to their defeat … Read more
Bringing you the best weekly reading from your friendly local website. Simon Wilson: 10 things Auckland desperately needs from the new government Is Auckland in crisis over transport, housing, schools, you name it, or are we heading in the right direction? The answer, says Simon Wilson, is yes. Here’s what the city really needs from … Read more
On the evening of the 19th of October 2017 a new government was anointed. Change might have been in the air, but a whole lot of men were still talking over women.
Broadcaster and sometime TOP communications director Sean Plunket is back in the news thanks to a searingly bad Tweet on the Harvey Weinstein scandal, which he later claimed was a ‘social experiment’. But it’s far from his first offence. The Spinoff’s editor Duncan Greive details his history with Plunket and asks if he’s the right … Read more
Yesterday AM Show host Duncan Garner wrote a column for Stuff which started in the queue at K-Mart and ended asking about your grandchildren. Joe Nunweek dissects this strange creation. Duncan Garner is a man who knows what he wants. A 3-pack of workwear cotton rich socks for $12. A seven-day rotation of fitted trunks. A five-pack … Read more
Compiling the best reading from your friendly local website. Alex Casey: Review: Married at First Sight NZ will melt your stone cold heart “As social psychology expert Pani Farvid says, nodding emphatically, more New Zealanders are single in 2017 than ever before. Haydn is done with the small talk. Angel is sick of ‘sticking in … Read more
Compiling the best reading from your friendly local website. Hayden Donnell: All the people I’m extremely mad at after the election There’s been a lot of sober, informative analysis following Saturday’s election. Spinoff public transport tsar Simon Wilson explained the things we learned from the vote, and the delicate dance of democracy both major parties are … Read more
He’s made songs that are etched into the memories of generations of New Zealanders, but still fears the possibility of failure every time he sits down with a guitar or at his piano to write. Henry Oliver sits down for a few beers with New Zealand music icon, the ubiquitous yet mysterious Dave Dobbyn. Photography by Joel Thomas. For … Read more
Friends of the Earth Australia and Julie Fogarty’s complaint against The Spinoff about three articles related to baby formula nanoparticles has not been upheld. The Press Council has declined to uphold the complaint filed by Friends of the Earth Australia and Julie Fogarty in relation to three articles published by The Spinoff in July 2017. … Read more
Moata Tamaira grills The Changeover co-director Stuart McKenzie about bringing her favourite book to life. When I heard that someone was making a movie out of my favourite ever book, The Changeover, it put me in a fragile and rather ambivalent state of mind. On the one hand, it’s about time that someone got around to … Read more
As we brace ourselves for more hyperbolic post-radio survey self-congratulations, Henry Oliver talks to MediaWorks’ Leon Wratt, who argues it’s time for the radio networks to end the arms race and start reporting on the results even-handedly – for the good of all radio. It’s almost that time of the year again – or, now, … Read more
Compiling the best reading from your friendly local website. Jane Yee: I was there when The Block NZ shat itself “As the season recap and Block Party footage played I started to get excited about the auction. I’d watched 54 hours of the show over the last three months and was giddy with the thought of liberty. … Read more
As the clock strikes 7pm Saturday, here’s the coverage we’ll be doing on this, The Spinoff website. ROAMING Our Auckland editor and notorious party liaison Simon ‘Van Wilder’ Wilson will be getting in the thick of the mirth and misery at the official election night parties of National, Labour and The Greens. That’s a lot … Read more
The Advertising Standards Authority and Broadcasting Standards Authority have both dismissed a complaint against National’s ‘Let’s Tax This’ ad. Lawyer Steven Price, who advised on the complaint, explains why he thinks they got it seriously wrong. When I first saw the National Party’s blatantly misleading ‘Let’s Tax This’ ad, I thought: the Advertising Standards Authority would … Read more
In 2011 and 2014, the National Party leader was pictured considerably more frequently and prominently in newspapers. This year, Claire Robinson, professor of communication design at Massey University, is repeating her study and brings an interim report. At great risk to my own sense of worth I have studied visual image bias in the New … Read more
Compiling the best reading from your friendly local website. Chris McDowall: A visual history of the New Zealand parliament “For months I’ve followed news about New Zealand’s upcoming general election. Revelations! Resignations! Leadership changes! Bold policy promises! Shock poll results! In this heightened political moment, I found myself wondering about the past. How does this … Read more
Critic Te Arohi, the official magazine of the Otago University Student Association, has found itself a hit with Critic Booze Reviews, featuring reviews of the cheapest alcohol available. Sam Brooks interviews the prolific and heroic reviewer ‘Swilliams Shakesbeer’. “Shitty alcohol, shitty reviews.” The first is undoubtedly true. The second, less so. The reviews, written under the … Read more
With It smashing box office records and filling pants everywhere, a bunch of Spinoff clowns went to the flicks to put the horror film to the test. This is their story. Huge horror fan Madeleine Chapman was not scared at all even in the slightest I don’t watch horror movies because I’m scared of them … Read more
In an interview on RNZ, foreign policy expert Van Jackson used a coarse term to describe US president. But it was neither a gaffe, nor emotionally motivated, he explains If you do enough media interviews, you’re bound to gaffe. We sometimes say things when we’re on the spot that we later regret, or that we … Read more
After viewing the latest season of Top of the Lake in a cinema, Aaron Yap looks at the increasingly blurred lines between films, TV shows, and everything in between. “It’s so magical – I don’t know why – to go into a theatre and have the lights go down. It’s very quiet, and then the curtain starts … Read more