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Archive >> February 2009
Gray’s marvellous mutants
New Zealand comic book writer and editor of the Marvel Collectors’ Edition line of magazines Scott Gray is interviewed by Comic Book Resources about “his take on the second…
Spare Time For Fine Wine
“I imagined this is how it was in Napa in the thirties – an intimate winemaking community that the world hadn’t yet discovered,” writes Chang-Rae Lee as he tours…
Sights on California
Actress Keisha Castle-Hughes, 19, and her family are in Los Angeles, considering a move to California, but right now “bunking down at a modest hotel in West Hollywood between…
Promoting Touch
New Zealander Miles Darby, 46, IT project manager at Credit Suisse Singapore, is also president of the city’s amateur Monsoon Touch Football Club. Darby has been playing the sport…
A New Deal
Phillip Alder of the New York Times describes “a tied world record,” charting out an exceedingly rare occurrence at last year’s national bridge congress in Hamilton, 60 miles south…
Not Quite the End
When Tim Finn and Split Enz supported Skyhooks and AC/DC at Sydney’s Festival Hall in 1975, they were booed at by teenager Magda Szubanski. “Years later, Magda admitted that…
Alongside the Big Guns
Rotorua-born actor Cliff Curtis, 40, has been in Los Angeles promoting his latest film, immigration drama, Crossing Over and re-shooting Eddie Murphy’s comedy A Thousand Words, in which Curtis…
Broadened Horizons
Twenty-four per cent of New Zealanders with tertiary education live abroad, the highest rate in the OECD, according to research conducted by the University of Waikato management school. The…
Dreamy Transformation
26 February 2009 – Aucklander Nadya Vessey, who lost both legs to a childhood illness, now swims as a mermaid might with a custom made wetsuit created for her…
Bruce Mclaren on Mosport
Bruce Mclaren explains Mosport.
Alveridge Animated
The rights to Queenstown artist Ivan Clarke’s Lonely Dog picture book — “a series of paintings featuring a lonesome-looking pooch” and his friends in the mythical world of Alveridge…
Hands Play San-Fran
Auckland-formed indie band Cut Off Your Hands are touring the United States promoting their 2008 debut album You and I. “Pause a minute while taking in the dreamy, vigorous…
Redback Revival
Redback spider numbers are rising rapidly on the South Island as the New Zealand climate becomes warmer and drier. Scientists expect the trend to continue, and for the redback…
Relocation for longevity
New Zealand is becoming a popular destination for Americans concerned about the effects of global warming in their own country. The Fier family of Montgomery County decided to move…
Birdies for a win
Rotorua golfing sensation Danny Lee, 18, the world’s No 1 amateur, has won the Johnnie Walker Classic in Perth finishing 17-under-par with a one-stroke victory, the youngest player to…
Gold-plated Memories
Directors Jane Campion and Peter Jackson, as well as actor Russell Crowe — who also hails from Wellington — feature in a Los Angeles Times Oscar winners photo gallery…
Shortening the long vowels
New Zealand comic Rhys Darby is currently in Australia touring his live show, having recently made his Hollywood debut as Norman in Jim Carrey’s Yes Man and next appearing…
Built to Sway
21 February 2009 – “Wellington, full of steep and newly formed hills held together by grass, gorse bushes and stunted ngaio trees … shares with its better-known counterpart San…
Dodgy and Deadly
Over three weeks, Wellington artists Christian Pearce and Greg Broadmore created exhibition ’99DS’ with digital images created entirely on Nintendo’s DS handheld game console, which were on display through…
Trailer: The Piano
Claiming the Treasure
Auckland Maori performing arts group Te Waka Huia has claimed the national title and the Donald McIntyre Trophy for the fourth time at the biennial Te Matatini National Kapa…
Ernest Rutherford’s Famous Experiments
Two of Ernest Rutherford’s famous experiments are explained.
Bald and branded
Air New Zealand’s recent “billboard cranium” marketing stunt has been applauded by American Peter Shankman, author of Can We Do That?! Outrageous PR Stunts That Work for their “Tom…
No with Black
A protest against Section 92a, an amendment to New Zealand’s copyright law due to come into force from February 28*, has resulted in an “internet blackout”, part of a…
Changing Face
New Zealand-based foundry JY&A Fonts, established by Jack Yan in 1987, has announced a new, classically inspired typeface family, JY Alia created to complement previous his 1994-5 release, JY…
Faster than Lightning
New Zealander Jock Freemantle’s $1 million Hulme CanAm supercar, named after racing driver and 1967 Formula One world champion Denis “Denny” Hulme, is, writes Britain’s Times Online, “a machine…
Karen Walker Cracks
“We love the beauty that comes out of catastrophe, and the brittle nature of things,” said designer Karen Walker of her new show. “Cracked,” as the show was themed,…
Writings of here and there
Author Kapka Kassabova moved to New Zealand from Bulgaria in 1992 at the age of 17 “having suffered the full experience of ‘Socialism with a Human Face’ that was…
Unbroken Ties
An exhibition — called Passchendaele: the Belgians Have Not Forgotten — commemorating New Zealand lives lost on Flanders soil opens in Wellington on March 6 in the Hall of…
An Ace in the Air
Michael Korda’s new book, With Wings Like Eagles, speaks of a time when a precious few prevailed over all odds, deprived Hitler of victory, and saved the world. It…
Pacific bikies do good
11 February 2009 – Auckland Harley Davidson bikers, the Aotearoa Riding Pirates, are currently motoring around Tonga donating supplies to local primary schools, as well as sharing the experience…
A Hero Honoured
A Jack Russell Terrier from Manaia has been honored with the PDSA gold medal for sacrificing his life while protecting a group of children from two pit bull terriers….
Rooms with views
New Zealand artists Judy Millar and Francis Upritchard have both secured venues at the 2009 La Biennale di Venezia, with Millar’s large-scale installation ‘Giraffe-Bottle-Gun’ to be exhibited in Sant’…
A Vision in Ribbons
Auckland ballerina 16-year-old Hannah O’Neill — who recently won first prize at the Prix de Lausanne in Switzerland — is in her second year at the Australian Ballet School…
Whiti te ra
The ‘Ka Mate’ haka has been officially designated the intellectual property of Ngati Toa in a compensation agreement signed in Wellington. Ngati Toa was compensated for its decades of…
The Greatest Crater
Lake Taupo, is “arguably the most famous crater lake on the planet”. Formed by a volcanic eruption 27,000 years ago, Taupo offers up the strange bedfellows of an almost…
Setting Things Straight
New Zealand ambassador to Indonesia Phillip Gibson recently addressed the Jakarta public at ‘New Zealand Week’, which included a series of events aimed at increasing Indonesian public awareness about…
Graham Kerr’s Beet Salad
Take a look Graham Kerr’s video on how to make a beet salad with a hippy flavour.
Brain Dead Dolls
Wellington’s Weta Workshop will create practical and creature effects for American director Kristoffer Aaron Morgan’s independent horror film, The Home. “The Home is going to be an amazing film…
All Aboard with Coutts
BMW Oracle’s Wellington-born helmsman Russell Coutts is “matching wits and tacks with Luna Rossa helmsman Peter Holmberg” in the 10-team Pacific Series on the Waitemata Harbour, with 18th man,…
Onward and Upward
Former Prime Minister and Labour Party leader Helen Clark is a candidate for the position of administrator of the UN Development Program, three below the UN secretary-general. The role…
East Mends West
Victoria University professor of philosophy Kolkata-born Jayshankar Lal Shaw says philosophy helps individuals with a “global perspective and a clear notion on how to alleviate pain from the world”,…
Distractions of Youth
Otago University intelligence researcher professor James Flynn is the author of a study published online by the journal Economics and Human Biology which looks at how British teenagers’ cognitive…
Anchors Aweigh
The new Marsden Cove Marina is a luxurious full service port of entry, and a welcome addition to New Zealand’s Whangarei Harbour. “The area is a cruising ground to…
Demanding justice
Wellington actress Kerry Fox plays a prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal in thriller Storm, a film set in Bosnia with a suspected Serb war criminal on trial after…
Roy’s New World
New Zealand journalist Andrew Roy has been named as the new head of news at BBC World, the global television channel with 76 million viewers. Roy, who hails from…
We’re Still Sailing
6 February 2009 – Auckland’s Louis Vuitton Pacific Cup is underway with two preliminary round robins leading up to a challenger final in which one team will advance to…
On a virtual garden stroll
West Melton gardener Mary, “aka ‘Moosey'”, is mentioned in The Seattle Times in an article recommending her virtual garden tour. The publication writes: “A woman whose children call her…
Shaking off the Shackles
Waitangi Day is also World Nude Day, a day which originated in New Zealand and which this year promoted itself with the slogan “Nude not Lewd” and a US$10,000…
Privy to Beauty
The Northland town of Kawakawa is home to the remarkable public toilet created by Viennese-born artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser, who is profiled in the Jakarta Globe. The work is a…
Tomcat Temptations
Auckland chocolatier Hanna Frederick, a former food scientist, has injected a male aphrodisiac into her chocolate treats for Valentine’s Day. Frederick, who made headlines by feeding beer-flavoured chocolate to…
Trailer: The Untouchable Girls
The trailer for the Topp Twins movie, The Untouchable Girls.
High-Country Star-Gazing
Plans for a Starlight Reserve and UNESCO world heritage recognition in the skies above Tekapo continue with former cabinet minister Margaret Austin meeting a UNESCO committee in Paris this…
Southeast Asian discoveries
Auckland-based gold exploration company Zedex Minerals Ltd. looks set to begin a drilling programme in Vietnam at the end of February with a potential find of as much as…
Gains from history
A Maori welcome onto a marae for visitors, a walking tour with Footprints Waipoua and the All Black performance of the haka are all examples of Maori reclaiming their…
John Rowles: If I Only Had Time
The music video for John Rowles’ much loved song, If I Only Had Time.
