We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today, Henry Oliver drinks a Crate Day’s worth of LaCroix, millennials’ favourite sparkling water, which has just arrived in New Zealand. Napkins are dead: to begin with. And crowdfunding is dead. McWraps are dead. Golf, holidays, the wine cork, they … Read more
Google sister company and darling of the smart home industry Nest has finally arrived in New Zealand. Jihee Junn tries out its range of safety and security products, concluding that while Nest might not be for everyone, stalking people on camera sure is a hell of a lot of fun. Before companies like Google and … Read more
There’s a bevy of great new television shows that we can’t stream in New Zealand without breaking the law, and Aaron Yap has had it up to HERE. If there is one downside to this golden age of television on demand – where we’re all losing our minds over no fewer than ten amazing shows … Read more
Today The Spinoff assesses the state of the professional critic in New Zealand with four pieces – two new, two older – which reflect on the challenges the form faces. Here theatre critic Sam Brooks assesses the state of his art. “To be a critic in New Zealand is to be a kind of weed. It’s … Read more
For Monitor this week, Aaron Yap tackles Underground, a escape drama that seeks to combine modern times with history. When Quentin Tarantino released his blaxploitation-cum-spaghetti western opus Django Unchained in 2012, he had a justification for his typically incendiary, controversy-baiting approach to one of the most awful and shameful periods in American history. “When slave narratives are done … Read more
Guy Somerset reviews Goodnight and Good Riddance: How 35 Years of John Peel Helped Shape Modern Britain by David Cavanagh When I was a boy, culture was delivered on a Thursday by Mr Pavitt. Or was it Pavett? Perhaps even Pavit or Pavet? If you had a name like Pavitt/Pavett/Pavit/Pavet, you’d be used to people … Read more
Fiona Kidman reviews the essay collection Everywhere I Look by Helen Garner Everywhere I Look is Australian writer Helen Garner’s latest collection of essays and, like much of her former work, it’s not lacking in controversial aspects. Her early writing was like entering a soothing bath of recognition, a woman who understood the suburban condition and … 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