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Jane Campion’s The Piano seated in esteemed company in The A List: The National Society of Film Critics’ 1 Essential Films, edited by Jay Carr.

Two Christchurch based websites are in the running for Webbies – the internet version of the Oscars. They are University of Canterbury Philosophy of Art Professor Denis Dutton’s brain-tickling…

The Australian Review headline: “Kiwis upstage hosts at fashion week”. WORLD’s youthful postmodern colour blast made the cover of the all the major papers. And Zambesi’s bomber jackets coupled…

“New Zealand newcomer Whiri Mako Black’s haunting and silken soulfulness” joins Robbie Williams, Horace Andy, Michael Stipe, Michael Franti, Nenah Cherry and Grant Lee Buffalo in a celebration of…

New Zealand won the World Rugby Sevens series title for the third consecutive year, wrapping up the series with a convincing 29-5 victory over South Africa in the Malaysia Sevens final….

“A detached study of sleepy domestic torpor seizing up into tragic desperation, Christine Jeffs’s debut feature, Rain, bears resemblance to The Virgin Suicides and Ratcatcher Jeffs’s compositions are…

Opera diva Kiri Te Kanawa will sing at Buckingham Palace June 1 as Queen Elizabeth celebrates her Golden Jubilee party. Taking the stage alongside Kiri will be Russian cellist…

dotmusic revs up Kiwi rockers The Datsuns. “four stick-thin, long-haired, fresh-faced, sinful-souled boys from Cambridge, New Zealand, and the latest genius rock’n’roll band to swarm on London”. Accompanied by…

Time reviews Skin Deep, a history of Western tattooing currently on show at London’s National Maritime Museum. The exhibit traces the practice back to its Polynesian roots, beginning its official documentation…

NZ Reserve Bank governor Don Brash, has stepped down after 14 years in the top job as central banker to make a new career for himself as a politician. Widely regarded…

Biographer David Gilmour finds chronicler of British imperialism Rudyard Kipling has an affinity for the edges, “his favourite landscapes were in adverse angles of the Pacific (New Zealand and British Columbia) and…

Roger James in the The Guardian ponders the centenary of the birth of one of the C20th most original (and controversial) thinkers, philosopher Karl Popper. In an affirmation of…

“This New Zealand coming-of-age movie isn’t really about anything. When it’s this rich and luscious, who cares?” Direction and acting applauded in Christine Jeff’s debut feature adaptation of Kirsty…

CNN reports on revivified NZ and Australian interest in the memorial of ANZAC Day and it’s importance to trans-Tasman relations: “Tens of thousands of Australian and New Zealanders arose before dawn…

BBC adaptation of Arthur Conan-Doyle’s dinosaur romp The Lost World: shot “against the glorious backdrop of New Zealand’s South Island … New Zealand offered diverse landscapes in relatively easy…

All Black legend, winger John Kirwan, to take over as coach of the Italian national team from NZer Brad Johnstone – this includes touring Italy through his homeland where playing…

New Zealand is ranked the fourth best place to do business in Asia, according to prominent think tank – the Economist Intelligence Unit. The rankings took into account 70 factors,…

“New Zealand is fast becoming one of the world’s biggest centres for superyacht construction, with its low-cost high-tech designs.” Alloy Yachts is the world’s 2nd largest manufacturer of superyachts: advantages that…
Edge Message #52 from Brian Sweeney, producer NZEDGE.COM
TO NZEDGE GLOBAL COMMUNITY
Greetings,
The NZEdge site has had a spring clean (or autumn if you’re here) – check out the pohutukawa-clad cliff…

Front-running nanotechnology expert, NZ-born Michael Kelly, (technology professor, University of Surrey), recently visited Wellington’s MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology. Kelly is optimistic of edge innovation in the field, “There are a…

A laid back Tim Finn ponders his career, fatherhood, his NZ-homecoming, getting picked up by Iggy Pop, and more on the eve of an Aussie tour and muses…

A governmental mission to Australia led by PM Helen Clark aims to repair the damage done to already slack perception of NZ business (“yokels”) across the ditch by events such as…

LA Times special focuses on Katherine Mansfield’s Wellington. “Considered one of the 20th century’s finest short story writers” – and the only one to make Virginia Woolf…

“The literary traffic across the Tasman isn’t as brisk as it should be. Much good writing has to come from Auckland or Wellington to Australia by way of publication…

The Guardian spends the day with actor/winemaker Sam Neill, who is back home in NZ for 6 months working his three Central Otago vineyards. “I love coming here. I think…

The SMH finds Tem Morrison carrying the antipodean banner in the new Star Wars blockbuster, Episode II: Attack of the Clones – the latest installment of George…

New Zealand rates as the cheapest study destination, in terms of living costs and tuition fees, from an IDP Education Australia survey of 168 universities in the “Big 5” major education…

An alternative to working at the end of the dining table or in the back of the car and holding business meetings in cafes, Totem on the Viaduct is Auckland’s newest…

Canterbury-based Escorial Company, in conjunction with CSIRO (Australia’s Government science organisation), has produced the world’s finest bale of wool, registering a fibre diameter of 12.7 microns. “The finest bale up to now…

New Zealand-born baritone Bryan Drake has died in London aged 76. A “fine musician with an equable temperament and warm personality”, Drake will be particularly remembered for his long association…

A veteran of New Zealand dairy industry projects, Steve Satherley, will be at the controls when Britain’s single biggest milk manufacturing plant starts pumping its first milk in England next month. Mr Satherley…

NZ singing prodigy Hayley Westenra accompanies Russell “The Voice” Watson to a sold-out Wembley Stadium and provides some sonar respite in a Telegraph review of Russell’s talents. “At…

Irish club side Munster’s shut-out 12-0 defeat of the 1978 All Blacks proclaimed by Observer Sport Monthly as the tenth greatest shock in sport’s history. Munster playwright James Breen (Alone It Stands…

NZ-bred wonder mare Sunline is set to race on in the spring, poised to continue a record breaking run of victories. Presently Sunline is one race short of the record for…

The Guardian’s ‘Superplonk’ column discovers the flavour of New Zealand in a six-week wine tasting trip. Highlights include the “superb, tannic tenacity and layered fruit” of Delegat’s Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 1999, and…

BBC1 uses the haka amongst a series of segments featuring multicultural imagery used to re-brand the British TV Channel, attracting reaction in NZ. Maui Solomon: “The Western culture, having all their own…

Former Kiwi rugby player centre Tony Marsh is “a major force” in French rugby’s resurgence in this years Six Nations tournament as the French take the Grand Slam for the first…

The release of NZ company Deep Video Imaging’s new ActualDepth 3-D monitor is being likened to the dawn of colour television in the 1950s, with Deep Video aiming to be to…

New Zealand beat England for the first time at home in 18 years as the series finishes 1-1. “New Zealand are a very resilient side and they are very hard to…

The Scotman reports on New Zealand’s “white gold rush” – the scramble by milk producers to find new dairying land as world prices continue to rise, and further impetus…

NZ’s Improv Bandits are NZ’s latest world champions having won the Super Cage Match Championship at the Chicago Improv Festival in the USA. Beating off “Whose Line Is…

“The most profound story Discovery Channel has ever presented.” In Real Eve the Discovery Channel traces the tale of human evolution through fossilised evidence and breakthrough genetic evidence towards the theory…

The No.8 gene gets Wired for the 21st Century: “With about 45 million sheep and only 5 million people, New Zealanders hear their fair share of sheep jokes. When it comes…

Following in the tradition of cine-tourism success prompted by such films as A Passage to India, Out of Africa, and Crocodile Dundee, New Zealand is enjoying its busiest ever summer…

Featured in the April edition of Fortune magazine’s ‘boondoggle’ section: Wall Street billionaire Julian Robertson has built Kauri Cliffs, a “remote, lush getaway on more than 5,000 acres at the northern tip…

Marlborough, “Lively with a distinct lemon/lime character, this sauvignon blanc is snappy but substantial and will take on the cacophony of flavors in the calamari salad with ease.”