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Archive >> July 2003
An edge rediscovered
Pacifier – the NZ band formerly known as Shihad – interviewed in the Age about their tour of wartime America. Says singer, Jon Toogood; “In hindsight, watching it all…
Goodshirt. Good music.
“Since blowing in from their native New Zealand last year with three hits (“Sophie”, “Blowing Dirt” and “Place to Be”), Goodshirt has emerged as one of our Antipodean cousins…
Pure class
Promoting her international debut release on Decca, (the world’s largest classical label) prodigious Christchurch singing talent 16-yr old Hayley Westenra continues to charm. The album mixes Westenra’s sonorous voice…
Cleaning up their act
The Las Vegas Sun applauds the arrival of Anthology – the collected works of Flying Nun legends, The Clean. “Two decades later the music still brims with the raw,…
The Name Game
NZ pop-art exponent, Billy Apple (nee Barry George Bates,) listed alongside Odd Nerdrum, Hercules Fisherman, and Seymour Likely as one of the “unbeatable names in the art world.”
East-side story
Te Papa’s ‘Japonism’ exhibition reviewed in August’s Australian Vogue. A joint collaboration with the Kyoto Costume Institute, the show explores the influence of Japan on Western fashion from 1860…
#65: This Sporting Life
Edge Message #65 from Brian Sweeney, producer NZEDGE.COM
TO NEW ZEALAND EDGE GLOBAL COMMUNITY
Our placing of sporting heroes on a pedestal above all others has traditionally been something of…
International Bright Young Thing
Anna Paquin talks dogs, dorm-living, Degas and “living long distance” with the Independent. Currently studying art history – between films – at Columbia University, Paquin will next be seen…
Unemployed at Risk
Research into suicide conducted by the Wellington School of Medicine has been published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health and reported on around the world. The findings – based on…
Weta Digital Uncovered
The Wellington-based animation team behind the Lord of the Rings‘ award-winning visual effects were one of the main attractions at the annual Siggraph exhibition in San Diego, California. Established…
Promoting Inter-polar Understanding
NZ Antarctic scientists are joining Bulgarian and American researchers at the Canadian high Arctic this year in a bid to exchange information about their respective poles. By pooling their findings, the scientists…
For him (and her)
First we were treated to the infinite variety of feminine experience in The Vagina Monologues; now actress and playwright Geraldine Brophy has penned the masculine equivalent. She describes The…
Kiwi snaps up award
NZer Antony Rieck was named Photographer of the Year at the annual Florida Association of the American Institute of Architects design awards held on August 2. Rieck, who has…
Clark, Kissinger and South Korea
PM Helen Clark was the keynote speaker at the 50th anniversary celebrations of the end of the Korean War held in South Korea in July. At a luncheon held in…
The everyman of pop
NZ-born pop star, Daniel Bedingfeld, shares his thoughts on friends, family, and musical inspiration in an interview with the Guardian. An artist of chameleon-like musical abilities, Bedingfeld has been…
Charting the Edge
Sydney’s Morning Herald publishes its 2003 top-10 lists for global rovers with Aotearoa again destination du jour. The chart toppers – Wine: Marlborough (“with its combination of bush, mountains and coastline…
You Won’t Need a Blanket
Australia’s Sunday Telegraph stays at a hi-end bach: “Welcome to Blanket Bay, a spectacular lakeshore lodge hideaway 40 minutes’ drive north from Queenstown. It’s the paradise dream retreat of Tom Tusher,…
The Bomb Stays Banned
July marked the 30th anniversary of “what was probably the first state-sponsored Ban the Bomb protest” – NZ PM Norman Kirk’s diplomatic and symbolic attack on the French government. In outrage at…
NZer to Head World Bank
Banker John Austin has been appointed to the helm of the Washington-based World Bank (one of the world’s largest sources of financial assistance for developing countries). Austin has resigned from his…
Sydney set in stone
Wellington-born Sydney Goodsir Smith is to join the ranks of Scottish poets immortalised in stone outside Edinburgh’s Writer’s Museum. The Makars’ Court attraction is the Scottish equivalent of Westminster…
Silver Ferns Strike Gold
The New Zealand Silver Ferns netball team emphatically shrugged off a decade of being netball’s bridesmaids to beat arch rivals Australia 49 – 47 and win the World Champion title in…
Fast and Furious Springbok Safari
The All Blacks thrashed South Africa 52 – 16 in the Tri-Nations opener in the high velt fortress of Loftus Versfeld. It was South Africa’s worst home defeat with the ABs…
Cloudy Bay’s Silver Lining
Japan’s Daily Yomiuri tracks the stellar career of NZ’s best known vineyard – Cloudy Bay – in a feature on summery Sauvignons. “NZ zapped into the spotlight in 1985 with Cloudy…
An Eye for Beauty
NZer David Lennie is behind a recent renaissance of works by late Australian fabric designer, Florence Broadhurst. As a director of Signature Prints, Lennie discovered an extraordinary collection of…
Once Were Panelbeaters
NZ’s 2003 “Rich List” is headed by billionaire businessman Graeme Hart, who last year accomplished a daring takeover of Australian food giant, Goodman Fielder. Hart was the subject of the Australian headline;…
Ted Man Walking
Kiwi baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes is the Weekend Australian’s cover-boy for his lead role in opera Dead Man Walking, which opens shortly at Adelaide’s Festival Theatre. The opera is…
Third Culturist Boyd nets Nabokov
Brian Boyd-edited Nabokov’s Butterflies, an exploration of Nabokov’s obsession with butterflies that posits Nabokov’s scientific pursuit of lepidoptry as a way of understanding the author more completely, hailed…
A View from Down Under
A forum for ex-pat NZ, Australian, and South African amateur filmmakers living in London – the UpOverDownUnder film festival – is now in its third year. Over…
Sarah-Kate Lynch’s Sure-to-rise Kitchen
Ex-NZ Women’s Weekly editor, Sarah-Kate Lynch, interviewed in Canada’s National Post about her first novel – Blessed are the Cheesemakers. The tale of a cheese-making couple and their musical…
Soul Sister
NZ-born Carla Werner’s debut album – Departure – proves a moving experience for New York Daily News reviewer, Jim Farber. ” have a compellingly confessional quality … Werner…
Land of the long black shadow
The Stedelijk Museum curated Colin McCahon retrospective – ‘A Question of Faith’ – reviewed in the Weekend Australian, prior to its opening at the Ian Potter Centre in Melbourne’s…
Legalised Lovin’
A new law has been proposed to grant NZ gay and lesbian partners the same rights as those enjoyed by married heterosexual couples. The Civil Union Bill – which is to…
Datsuns apply the brakes
The Datsuns made their debut appearance at Ozzfest in July – looking, in their words, like a group of “Nancy-boys” amidst a sea of metal. Rolling Stone had a…
The Poetry of Exile
Displaced artists and writers from around the world gathered at Auckland University in July for a 3-day conference examining the link between exile and creativity. Organised by Professor Mike…
Words into Mouths – Fingering the Leap to Language
An NYT feature explores the impetus that gave man the edge to evolve from animal to language (the only characteristic that differentiates us from animals). A debate taking in Chomsky and…
Coca-Cola University
LATimes reviews The University in a Corporate Culture by NZer and Denver University professor Eric Gould. Pondering the commercialisation of higher education it explores how goals of education and the path to…
Central Park Sounds From the Edge
A diverse showcase of NZ music was held at New York’s Central Park Summerstage on July 13. ‘New Zealand Sounds’ brought together the “catchy and hummable” tunes of Greg…
Will You Still Need Me, Will You Still Feed Me, When I’m … 35?!
Canterbury University psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa lumps men of scientific brilliance and criminals in the same psychological boat, claiming that both dwindle in the creative stakes post-35 – typically sapped by marriage! Kanazawa…
Third Way Talking Points
PM Helen Clark discusses republicanism, Iraq, same-sex marriages, prostitution reform, and The Lord of the Rings in a forum with BBC News Online’s Talking Point. Clark was in London attending Tony Blair’s…
Return of the Native?
As Whale Rider premieres in the UK, the Guardian ponders its impact as NZ and Maori cinema, and the cultural factors at play. “longside the celebration in New Zealand’s…
Something to Sing About
Singing star Jonathan Lemalu gave a recital at London’s St Lawrence Jewry church as part of the City of London’s New Generations series. Financial Times: “In the English-language repertoire…
Kiwi Battlers
NZ-born rugby player, Tony Marsh, has won his battle against testicular cancer and a place in France’s World Cup squad. Marsh cites American Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong – who was…
Designs for Edge Living
A group of NZ artists are currently on display at the Gallery of Functional Art in Santa Monica, Los Angeles. The show, ‘Straight from New Zealand,’ includes sculpted sheep…
Edge Polish
Saatchi & Saatchi global CEO Kevin Roberts interviewed in Poland on the future of advertising and how Saatchis has triumphed through the recession (Advertising Age named it Global Agency…
Land of the Free
The 2003 Index of Economic Freedom has named NZ the world’s third freest economy, behind Hong Kong and Singapore. The Index, compiled by the US-based Heritage Foundation, ranks economies according to factors…
Weta’s Secrets Revealed
Te Papa’s record-breaking Lord of the Rings exhibition opens at London’s Science Museum in September – it’s only European showing before travelling to Singapore, Sydney, and Boston. The exhibition…
Wild West Coast food in Hokitika
Hokitika’s Wildfoods Festival rates a mention in a New York Daily News feature on icky eating. “More than 20,000 adventurous eaters gather to sample such delights as bulls’ penises…
A Life Lived by the Sea
NZ-born WW2 hero, Sir William Crawford, has died in England aged 95. Crawford was gunnery officer and lieutenant-commander aboard the Rodney during the sinking of Germany’s great battleship, the Bismarck. His distinguished…
Land of the Free: Part 2
NZ is the third most un-corrupt country in the world, according to the latest global corruption perception index released by Transparency International. Finland and Denmark head the list, which draws from sources…
The first, second, and third Noel
The trio behind Kiwi comedy act The Four Noels – James Pratt, John Forman, and Jesse Griffin – interviewed in SMH. The group formed in 1996, without any strictly…
Tried and true formula with a new direction
An impassioned performance by The Datsuns at London’s Shepherds Bush Empire earns them (another) rave review in the Guardian. “Amid the hand-clapping, singing, and Dolf’s stage diving, Christian balances…
The Magus and His Protégés
“Do creative writing courses work? Judge for yourselves.” The Guardian’s literary gossip column reports on the findings of a recent NZ Listener poll naming the country’s top 10 authors…
Two Good
Four NZ whites won double gold medals at the San Francisco International Wine Competition – widely regarded as America’s premiere wine judging event. Babich Wines 2002 Sauvignon Blanc, Kim Crawford 2002 Sauvignon…
#64: Matariki
Edge Message #64 from Brian Sweeney, producer NZEDGE.COM
TO NEW ZEALAND EDGE GLOBAL COMMUNITY AOTEAROA WHANAU WHANUI KI TE AONUI
“I have always been caught by a sense of being part…
A Bridge Over Troubled Water
Judith Piepe – social activist and cultural icon – has died in Levin aged 83. Famous for her mysterious origins and friendships with the likes of Cat Stevens and Paul Simon (she…
Narnia to Aotearoa
The multi-million dollar production of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is now likely to be shot substantially in NZ, following the government’s decision to allow a tax-exemption…
