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Archive >> May 2002
Scene stealing
The LA Times surveys an “invasion of American films by directors and stars from Down Under. The biggest star now working in American films who began in his native…
Where is New Zealand again?
Doing the Billie’s Kiss PR, Elizabeth Knox pauses and reflects on the exotic settings for her books with a wry comment on her cultural identity: “I know I’m a…
Pacific mix
Jazz has been described as the “original dance music” and one of the genre’s legendary labels, Verve, has dipped into its vaults and commissioned new mixes for contemporary dancefloors….
Peter Jackson
How on (middle?) earth did one of the Twentieth Century’s most mythic and popular works of literature, JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, end up being translated into…
OE to Go UN
Kiwis will have plenty of fellow travellers when they travel to the UK for the two year woring holiday scheme. In the past, 96% of applicants came from New…
We’re All Royalists Here?
Miss representation? Put that portrait of the Queen back on the lounge wall: “All New Zealanders are royalists, not like the Aussies,” proclaims the Dame (Kiri te Kanawa). Perhaps this is…
#53 Praise for Rain
Edge Message #53 from Brian Sweeney, producer NZEDGE.COM
TO NEW ZEALAND EDGE GLOBAL COMMUNITY:
1350 words so please stick with it. Today: 1. Newzedge: 120 global online media ref to nz achievement
The Native Post
Connected to Congo at 56000 bps, former NZ TV reporter Moana Sinclair has been hired by the UN to coordinate the newly-formed Indigenous Media Network, largely linked via the web. Her experience overcoming obstacles…
Some Like It Hot
Volcano enthusiasts were recently treated to a bonanza 500 kilometres north east of New Zealand. They discovered three new hydrothermal fields along the Ring of Fire which marks the boundary between…
Domination
“It is apparently not enough that New Zealand have just waltzed away with their third successive World Sevens Series title. So complete was their domination of the Emirates-sponsored London leg of…
Postcard-spotting?
Lynn Barber leaves the trains at home and follows the postcard route through godzone, finds it to be “truly paradise” but also close to 100% boring. “To appreciate NZ you need…
Best Haul
Ironically for Lynn, NZ was once again voted “Best Long Haul Country” over Australia, Cuba, Japan, Thailand et al by Guardian and Observer readers – they must have got off…
Young Man and the River
Fly-fishing enthusiast Andy Pietrasik raved about his recent trip to the rivers of the South Island. Following his guide up the river in search of fish made him feel like…
The novel is dead, long live the novel
Keri Hulme joins a list of postcolonial booker people ratttling the bones of the form: “The years the Booker Prize doesn’t go to an English novel the winning book…
Rain
Christine Jeff’s “sexually potent yet understated” feature debut Rain continues to make splashes as it opens across North America. The Boston Herald reports that Jeffs “easily captures…
Give Me Your Skilled, Your Entrepreneurial
Immigration issues are foremost in a feature interview with Helen Clark in The Bulletin. Clark contributes to the discussion about immigrants’ contribution to growth, or lack thereof, and muses on NZ’s…
Mount Taranakiyama
Taranaki’s eponymous mountain is a suitable double for Mount Fuji, or so thinks Edward Zwick (Glory, Legends of the Fall) who will direct Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai…
Photographer and philanthropist
Internationally renowned baby photographer, nz-edged Anne Geddes, was honoured at the 38th Annual Childhelp USA Humanitarian Awards in May. As well as marketing a highly successful line of…
On the Edge of Your … Chair
Following in the Popstars tradition of grand contributions to global pop culture NZ’s gift to the gameshow format has former tennis star John McEnroe signed on with the BBC…
Canterbury Crusaders Find Rugby Holy-land
“New Zealand’s Crusaders put up a persuasive case as world rugby’s champion provincial team with their unbeaten sweep through the Super 12 series” … sealing the tournament with a dominant 31-13 win…
Bus-class High Flyer
Kiwi Ray Webster is Chief Executive of pioneering no-frills airline Easy Jet. Touching down in the market in a big way Webster works by the mantra that, “Airlines are about people,…
Bug Movie 2002:
“What do you get when you cross toxic waste with a bunch of exotic spiders? Eaten.” The Washington Post gives the skinny on Eight Legged Freaks – the…
IT – NZ Untapped
Columnist for leading US IT Industry zine InfoWorld raves after visiting NZ, “New Zealand is a marvelous country populated with some of the most talented people in computing. Part of the…
Possum Fur-y Unfashionable
”I should break your other bloody arm.” At a Prada party Daily Telegraph fashion editor, Hilary Alexander, famously incurs the wrath of a PETA activist Dan Matthews for wearing…
Model Animal Behaviour
An economic model developed by Massey University-based resource economist Dr Robert Alexander and postgraduate researcher Chris Fleming, could improve our understanding of how to help endangered species. By determining how much money…
Zespri Patriotism
In a fascinating 2-part feature the LATimes slices open the Kiwifruit and looks at the history of NZ’s No.1 horticultural product, from poor crop protection: “Even without a patent, the trademark “kiwifruit,”…
Life and Loves …
NZEdged author Fay Weldon traverses a contradictory, but never dull life, in her autobiography Auto de Fay and finds her muse in the edge: “Always! Yes, always! I wanted…
David Low – Century’s Best Cartoonist – On Show
David Low, the New Zealand master satirist “with an outsider’s perspective” and acclaimed as the Twentieth Century’s greatest cartoonist has his work revisited (including his most famous caricature Colonel…
Maori.nz?
A decision is close to being made by InternetNZ on the outcome of an application from the New Zealand Maori Internet Society to consider a new Net neighborhood for Maori-related Web…
Windbreakers
NZ’s belching animals: Kiwi scientists have worked out how to reduce greenhouse emissions from cow emissions. “Lowering New Zealand’s methane emissions is necessary if the antipodean country is to meet its…
New Zealand: Closer to the Edge
Independent editor at large Janet Street Porter finds she can’t get close enough: “No wonder I’ve been back to New Zealand three times in three years. Sod the 20-something hours in…
Real-life Charlotte Gray
“The exploits of Nancy Wake, who fought with the French Resistance, make the plot of the film Charlotte Gray look tame.” A new biography of NZ-born Wake by Peter Fitzsimons…
For the People
Don’t cry for me Argentina. The BBC looks at the progress of KiwiBank: ” New Zealand, more often famed for its sheep population than its financial sector, is attempting to shake-up…
Off the Sheep’s Back?
The BBC looks at the changing iconic status and importance of the sheep to the New Zealand economy. Sheep numbers have fallen from 70 million to 40 million in the last…
The Piano Makes All Time A-List
Jane Campion’s The Piano seated in esteemed company in The A List: The National Society of Film Critics’ 100 Essential Films, edited by Jay Carr.
Utopia: Wild at Heart
“The grandeur of this place is so extreme it makes you want to dive right into the heart of it”, Aotearoa-NZ is May cover country of one of the world’s most…
Sir Peter Blake Honoured at World Sport Awards
Sir Peter has been posthumously given both the Laureus Lifetime Achievement Award and the Laureus Sport for Good Award at the 2002 World Sports Awards in Monte-Carlo. Sir Peter, was a…
Ed from the Edge: “World’s Greatest Living Explorer”
“Humble beekeeper turned world’s greatest living explorer” – Legend Sir Edmund Hillary leads the pack of the ‘ten greatest living explorers’ in an extensive Vanity Fair photo essay. “‘Those…
