It’s Gone To His Head
Bret McKenzie celebrated his Oscar nomination for best song with some Vegemite and toast. McKenzie, who wrote the meta-power ballad ‘Man or Muppet’ for The Muppets, is up against ‘Real in Rio’ from Rio: The Movie,…
Tag Archives: New York Times (The)
With A Cryptic Brusqueness
New Zealand actor Sam Neill, 64, stars in Lost creator J. J. Abrams’ drama series Alcatraz, which premiered on American channel Fox this month. “The premise: The orderly closing of the prison on Alcatraz in 1963 was…
Secret Poi Swinging In NY
New York fire poi dancers are flouting fire restrictions and meeting stealthily on top of city rooftops to attend secret classes, where students are careful to remove any traces of their activity afterward….
Pecking Good At Math
Dr Damian Scarf, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Otago, and two colleagues have discovered that pigeons can learn abstract rules about numbers, an ability that until now had been demonstrated only in…
Heirlooms Of Past For Future
‘Maori — Their Treasures Have a Soul,’ an exhibition of Maori art and artifacts at the Quai Branly Museum in Paris on through 22 January, juxtaposes ancestral heirlooms with contemporary art, architecture, photography, film…
Grass-Roots Campaigning
Bret McKenzie is in Utah, where he’s “picked up some sort of Mormon cold” while filming a scene with a foal for Austenland: he delivers a foal. “We shot it in England this summer, and…
Give Them Authority
Former New Zealand cabinet minister and member of parliament, Maurice McTigue, who is currently vice president of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University in Virginia, comments on changes at the United States Postal…
Documenting Recovery
While an exchange student in New Zealand, American Peter Hoffman, 27, discovered his passion for photography, and for the country. This year, Hoffman plans to return to Christchurch, where in February this year an…
Muppets Made Malevolent
Peter Jackson’s Meet the Feebles is “a hilariously offensive film,” the Muppet’s exact reverse,” writes New York Times’ blogger Lia Miller. “As I began researching this article,” Miller writes, “I was reminded of the most fantastically warped Muppet-style…
Composing For Kermit
Wellingtonian Bret McKenzie has applied “his rare talents to a sacred” and “daunting” “Muppets-related endeavour” writing three songs for the forthcoming movie The Muppets. The New York Times’ cultural editor Adam Sternbergh writes for the publication’s magazine:…
Marriage Made in LA
New Zealand-born actor Nico Evers-Swindell’s marriage to American actor Megan Ferguson, 28, featured in The New York Times’ ‘Weddings/ Celebrations’ column in October. The pair were married in Los Angeles. Evers-Swindell, 32, played Prince…
All Hands on the Webb Ellis
“Twenty-four years of Rugby World Cup pain and misery melted away for New Zealand” on 23 October with the All Blacks beating the French 8-7 in a nail-biting final at Eden Park. “It was…
Seriously Shaken
“By the standards of global hipness, New Zealand – where local food is a way of life and you’re as likely to see a beard on a farmer as on a barista – has…
Wellington Makes a Point
“Once a flyover city for tourists as they jetted between the thermal regions of the north and the cloud-scraping mountains of the south, or at best a pass-through destination for those taking the ferry…
Rugby Jersey Ruckus
When the All Blacks revealed late July the shirts the team would wear for the Rugby World Cup, which begins in September, it was a proud moment for Adidas, the designer of the uniform…
American Underdogs Join In
“With the zest notable to rugby players on and off the field, the Americans are delighted to be heading to the home of the All Blacks, with their Maori in-your-face war dance, the Haka,”…
Ace Pilot and Farmer
Former Sergeant-Pilot Geoffrey Bryson Fisken, the British Commonwealth’s No. 1 fighter pilot in the Pacific during WW2, has died at age 96 in Rotorua. He had spent much of his postwar years as a…
Petunia Precedent
A few years back, several New Zealand scientists began tinkering with petunia pigment genes developing biotech varieties with lush dark leaves. The scientists wondered if they could sell their flowers. They wrote to regulators…
Welcome to Limboland
“The once bustling central business district resembles a wasteland,” Jonathan Hutchison reports for The New York Times. “Office furniture can be seen sitting inside partially collapsed buildings. Piles of bricks and steel lie along…
On a Whole Other Level
“Getting to rub shoulders with world-class rugby stars like Richie McCaw and Dan Carter is just one of the many benefits young players from around the world are experiencing at the Canterbury and Crusaders…
Ahead of Season Four
As anticipation builds for the June 26 season premiere of True Blood, New Zealander Anna Paquin, spoke with The New York Times about her maturation on the show as Sookie Stackhouse, an…
Pioneer Territory Emerges
The sumptuous depiction of New Zealand in the 195s and ‘6s trumps the weepy story at the heart of one of the most expensive Dutch films ever made writes New York Times…
Master of Sports
Sonny Bill Williams is a jack-of-all-trades when it comes to sports. “SBW,” who has played in both Australia and France, turned down big money offers from other teams to join the New…
Making Her Own Rules
New York Times best-selling author of the Psy–Changeling paranormal romance series New Zealander Nalini Singh has just finished her latest novel, Kiss of Snow, the tenth installment of the series….
McCaw and Carter’s Pledge
“For once, the phrase ‘Four more years’ will be music to the ears of New Zealand rugby fans,” Emma Stoney writes for The New York Times. “Those three little words brought relief and…
Diving Without Boundaries
“Shouts of ‘Breathe! Breathe! Breathe!’ pierced the tropical air and echoed off the limestone precipice around Dean’s Blue Hole, a vertical cavern plunging 66 feet, a cobalt blue pool of seawater surrounded by crystal-clear…
Don’t Mention Reconditioning
“Mention the words rest, reconditioning and Rugby World Cup in the same sentence to New Zealanders, and they are likely to break out in a cold sweat,” New York Times reporter Emma Stoney writes….
Taking Priscilla to Broadway
New Zealand-born Simon Phillips is the director of the new Broadway version of Priscilla Queen of the Desert which opens in New York on March 2. Phillips said that his North American producers —…
Hobbit Cast Front-up
The cast of Peter Jackson’s two-film adaptation of The Hobbit were this month introduced to the news media at a press conference in Wellington at the Park Road Post production facility. The event featured…
Frontier Travel
“Driven by an adventurous national spirit and blessed with an extraordinarily rugged landscape that calls to adrenaline addicts like a jungle gym calls to children, New Zealanders and visiting foreigners have pioneered an impressive…
A Renaissance Man
“Denis Dutton, a distinguished philosopher, writer and digital-media guru who founded Arts & Letters Daily, one of the first Web sites to exploit the Internet as a vehicle for meaningful intellectual exchange, has died…
Displaced in New York
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa was amongst those present at the annual Christmas night dinner in the baronial Lincoln Center duplex of Sissy and Max Strauss in New York. Each holiday, more than a hundred…
Man of many matches
The International Rugby Board’s player of the year Richie McCaw, 3, “is a hero to many… establish himself as one of rugby’s great players,” The New York Times’ Emma Stoney writes. “As a fresh-faced…
Lifestyle for sale
A Waimauku three-bedroom cedar home on five acres is advertised for sale in a recent New York Times. Priced between $1.2 and 1.4 million, the main house has a steeply sloped asymmetrical roof and…
General Ovations for Liddell
General Motors CEO Dan Ackerson and Vice-Chairman and CFO Chris Liddell (center, at the New York Stock Exchange listing) received standing ovations from the trading floors of JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley to cap…
Native Methuselah
“The animal that may well be New Zealand’s most bizarrely instructive species at first glance looks surprisingly humdrum,” writes The New York Times’ Natalie Angier. “The tuatara — whose name comes from the Maori…
Postulating intrigues
“A private sale under way ‘outside New Zealand,’ according to the sale’s official Web site (and which we first read about on Jalopnik) has the enthusiast community scratching its collective head and postulating…
Dangerous embrace
Auckland musician Zowie (born Zoe Fleury) made the best fashion statement of the day when performing at the opening of New York’s CMJ Music Marathon in October, proclaimed New York Times blogger Jon Pareles….
Future Focus
The “All Blacks looking good, and that’s a problem” headlines a New York Times story profiling the team ahead of the 211 Rugby World Cup. Despite all the team’s previous upsets, New Zealand…
Carbon trading issues
Three years ago, in anticipation of substantial growth in the voluntary and compliance carbon markets, governments and business groups around the Asia-Pacific region were jockeying to establish a regional hub for carbon trading, including…
In the footsteps of Frodo
The inevitable spate of Rings-related travel articles continues, with major features in the Scotsman and New York Times. The Scotsman writer – who walked the Tongariro Crossing and Routeburn Track, and sailed Milford …
Snowy Did it All
“So remarkable was the sporting life of Eric Tindill, who has died in Wellington at 99 years and 226 days, that being the longest lived of all the 2600 men who have played test…
Following Frodo
Fiordland’s Routeburn track may attract significantly fewer visitors to it than the Milford Sounds, but the “majestic, snowcapped peaks in every direction, along with waterfalls and hidden tarns” are well worth the hike says…
Gritty becomes hip
Sleepy port suburb Ahuriri features in a New York Times slideshow, with six images of its wharf, the organic grocer Picada, beachfront restaurant Milk & Honey, the classic Ahuriri Café, and a hair salon…
Gender Surprises
Dr David Rowlands, a senior lecturer with the Institute of Food, Nutrition and Human Health at Massey University, has found after exercise women, unlike men, showed no clear benefit from protein during recovery. Several…
Saving the Hobbits
Sir Peter Jackson will take up the role of director for the film adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit if it meant he was able to protect Warner Bros’ investment, he has…
Celebrating the man
“Stay obscure long enough, and people might just cry when they finally hear you play”. This was one lesson learnt from the recent benefit concert at New York’s Le Poisson Rouge, for “the beloved,…
Flat white factions
Contentious as the origin of the pavlova, the flat white “is the most recognisable coffee contribution to come from Australia, a country known for its obsessive and highly skilled baristas” according to The New…
Rakaia Salmon Dance
Canterbury’s Rakaia River will be the setting for an intriguing Native American Indian ceremonial dance, which is to centre on an apology, to be relayed to the river’s salmon asking them to return to…
Seeking an Identity
New Zealand pinot noir has come a long way over the past 10 years, continuing to improve each year, but because the grape is a newcomer to this country, a group of New York-based…
Graceful turns with clouds
Contemporary dance company Black Grace is touring the US making their debut at Princeton University’s McCarter Theatre in late February, performing their signature work “Minoi” and their latest work “Gathering Clouds”. One…
Brown Trout Capital
Mataura River, just outside of Gore, is “the world capital of brown trout” and a “world-class fly-fishing destination”. The Mataura extends for an impressive 140 miles of trout water in the heart…
Fast friends
Rose McIver arrives at New York’s Griffith Observatory “fashionably on time” to meet fellow Lovely Bones actress Saoirse Ronan for a tour …
Y2K a Decade On
University of Canterbury professor of philosophy, Arts & Letter Daily founder and author of The Art Instinct Denis Dutton writes a New York Times op-ed about the turn of the century at the turn…
Christmas and Cows
New Plymouth physical education teacher Tracey Dravitzki explained New Zealand Christmas celebrations to a York News-Times journalist while stopping off in the American country town to participate in a local primary school’s classes with…
Quality Not Quantity
New Zealand’s wineries are “fighting to preserve their reputation as premium wine producers, even as bumper harvests and thrifty drinkers pull them in the opposite direction,” writes Alexandra Harney for The New York Times….
