The Beauty Spot is Zoe Scheltema’s weekly column that dissects the world of beauty and fashion. This week she brings together some of the weirdest trends from February including fake freckles and Gaga glitter. It’s a fast paced game, the beauty world, so to keep you up to speed here are the top crazy trends, … Read more
The latest episode of our bi-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 the ghost of The … Read more
Duncan Greive watches the ’70s style politics show The Nation, and finds a lot to love. TV3’s The Nation isn’t that old. It was founded in 2010, but despite the flash modern set and the lively twitter conversation which accompanies it, the show might be the most old-fashioned to air on New Zealand television. It returned to … Read more
This is On the Rag, a podcast hosted by Alex Casey which looks at, laughs at and questions the state of women in pop culture, news and the world. To dissect February’s issues in the muggy heat of The Spinoff boardroom, she is joined by comedian and author Michele A’Court and marketing guru and longtime good mate Zoe … Read more
Mark Jennings is stepping down as the news boss at MediaWorks after spending 27 years in the TV3 newsroom. He will be replaced by a man who has never worked in TV. Former NineMSN boss Hal Crawford’s appointment is more evidence of NewsHub’s increasingly lusty embrace of the digital age. It wants to move away … Read more
Mark Jennings led 3 News for over a quarter of a century. Today it was announced he is stepping down. David Farrier, one of countless journalists to have worked and learned under him, pays tribute to a New Zealand journalism legend. Oh God, it was just awful. I was sitting in Mark Jennings’ office. It … Read more
Approximately an hour ago The Spinoff published a story indicating that Julie Christie had resigned from the board of MediaWorks – and implied that she was currently employed in an executive role. We have since been informed that this is not the case – that she remains on the board, and has no intention of resigning. … Read more
Striking bus drivers have shut down most of Auckland’s bus network. Using the latest bus simulator technology, José Barbosa investigates what it means to sit behind the wheel and drive Auckland to work. This post, like all of our gaming content, has been brought to you by Bigpipe.
A podcast where comedians Tim Batt and Guy Montgomery watch the same shit movie every week for a year has won them fans all over the world and three million downloads. Now Batt is creating his own stable of podcasts called Little Empire Podcast Network. He talks to José Barbosa about the stupidest idea for … Read more
News site reports about social media backlash – social media backlash ensues. Ex-churnalist Jess McAllen says this cycle needs breaking. UPDATE: comment from RNZ’s Megan Whelan appended at close. Yesterday Stuff.co.nz published a story largely based on a Facebook post by Old Mout Cider on the 6th of February regarding its decision to pull an … Read more
The latest episode of our bi-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 are joined by … Read more
Zoe Scheltema spends a whole day of her life living like Kim Kardashian, recreating everything from her limited dietary options to her stringent selfie regimen. If you haven’t heard of Kim Kardashian, you are surely living under the largest and most immovable rock on planet Earth. Kim Kardashian is a powerhouse of fashion, beauty and … Read more
Instagram celebrity Max Key made his radio debut last night. Somewhere in suburban Auckland, Calum Henderson was listening and judging. Without ever really trying, I seem to have spent a lot of time in the past year looking at Max Key’s abs, staring into his gormless photo face, admiring his impossibly precise haircut. He is, … Read more
The venerable Mana magazine has undergone a rude second act lately, under the sharp eye of its newish editor Leonie Hayden. Duncan Greive had lunch with her, and asked how she did it. Leonie Hayden was appointed editor of Mana magazine in June of 2014, 21 years and 117 issues after its founding by broadcaster and entrepreneur … Read more
Tickled documentary maker David Farrier pieces together his dreamlike memories of a week at one of the world’s most intense (and high-altitude) film festivals. They say that as you climb Everest, your body is dying. Humans are simply not meant to exist at that height. The severe lack of oxygen and freezing temperatures are actively … Read more
Five shining examples that reveal the glories of a super-succinct media statement. In a world of bottomless coffee, endless online scrolling, and prose that goes on much longer than it needs to, winding circuitously around corners and over bridges, as if crying out desperately for an editor or a blowtorch, much like this sentence, thank … Read more
We write about MediaWorks’ new style guide in the style of the Herald. MediaWorks spent last year unpacking a Russian doll of disaster. The company dealt with public backlash over show cancellations, flagging ratings, and its gossip site Scout’s transformation into an internet version of an elephant graveyard. It should have been breathing a sigh … Read more
YouTube is packed to the gills with expert makeup vloggers telling you how to contour your features, fill out your lips and generally draw a better face on your own face. In her first weekly column looking at beauty issues, Zoe Scheltema picks her favourite 10. I sometimes wonder how people ever did anything before … Read more
The Beauty Book is a publication aimed at making aging women feel terrible about their faces, bodies, brains and insides to sell them expensive procedures and snake venom. Alex Casey gifted the book to her Mum and noted her reactions. My mother is fifty-something years old. It’s not because she’s ashamed of her age that … Read more
The second episode of On the Rag, a podcast hosted by Alex Casey which looks at, laughs at and questions the state of women in pop culture, news and the world. To dissect January’s issues in the searing heat of The Spinoff boardroom, she is joined by comedian and author Michele A’Court and marketing guru … Read more
Once Were Warriors, released in 1994, shocked the world with brutal scenes of domestic violence, suicide and rape. As director Lee Tamahori prepares for the release of his first New Zealand film since that break-out hit, Elizabeth Beattie looks back at the New Zealand it depicted and asks, how much has really changed? Trigger Warning: … Read more
Quentin Tarantino called Geoff Murphy’s 1983 film Utu “hands down the best New Zealand movie of all time” while in Auckland this week to promote The Hateful Eight. In this essay, republished with the kind permission of NZ On Screen, Paul Stanley Ward and Costa Botes look back on the landmark piece of New Zealand cinema. … Read more
MediaWorks’ new integrated news platform looks to Duncan Greive like one of the best decisions they’ve made in ages. 2015 was a horror show for Mediaworks, a year which began with it toned, trim and swaggering and ended with it gaunt and dead-eyed, reeling from the trauma of what it had lost. It’s easy to … Read more
Thomas Benny, Joe Nunweek and Richard Bol recount their scurrilous memories of New Zealand live music in the late ’90s and early ’00s. If you’re in the same demographic as many of The Spinoff’s writers, you came of age during a golden era for festivals and touring acts in New Zealand. A flush Australian economy riding … Read more
Alex Casey recounts the harrowing experience of waiting to interview Quentin Tarantino (scroll down for part one of the video interview at the end). “Oh, Aaalex!” he exclaimed. “You’re a girl! What a surprise!” I laughed louder than I’ve ever laughed in my entire life, and bellowed “AND THERE ARE MORE SURPRISES COMING,” at the approximate volume … Read more
José Barbosa watches Checkpoint’s flash new live stream while Duncan Greive listens to John Campbell’s return to RNZ on the good old AM radio. Even though reviewing the first edition of a show is like reviewing a book after reading its first page, they’re going to tell you what they thought anyway. José Barbosa “The Rhythm and Vines crowd … Read more
Public bodies are increasingly demanding dosh from media making Official Information Act requests. We want your money, too. OIA! That’s the anguished sound of journalists across the country receiving responses to requests under the Official Information Act that go something like “Dreadfully sorry, O Intrepid Seeker of the Truth but we can’t provide the information … Read more
The Spinoff editor Duncan Greive looks back over the site’s year in 2015, ahead of a break from new content over the Christmas / new year period. Dear Spinoff Reader This is just a brief(ish) letter to inform you that we’ve done our dash for this year, and will be off tanning and sleeping until … Read more
The first episode of On the Rag, a podcast hosted by Alex Casey which looks at, laughs at and questions the state of women in pop culture, news and the world. To look at back at the year of 2015, she is joined by comedian and author Michele A’Court and marketing guru and longtime good … Read more