Creative Edge Export

A sharp demonstration of the New Zealand Edge: Financial Time’s article ‘Time is on their side’ trumpets the on-island advantage and new world export success of Christchurch creative agency…

Girls, Gadgets, Action

Bond director Lee Tamahori qualifies his license to thrill: “A Bond movie has conventions: girls, gadgets, action. It’s not that you must stick with them, but if you don’t,…

Magic: It’s academic

Prominent University of Melboune based NZ-born theorist Simon During’s Modern Enchantments reviewed in Guardian. During’s “thorough and compelling” study challenges commonly held beliefs about the role of performed magic…

First to Drive Everest

The latest US advertising campaign for the Toyota 4Runner sport utility centres on scaling the rugged heights of Mt Everest. The Saatchi & Saatchi production uses NZ icon Sir…

Rebel with an Emmy

Ex-Wellingtonian Rob Pearson received a Creative Arts Emmy for his contribution to TNT’s James Dean biopic. The award was for outstanding art direction on a movie, mini-series or…

“Taking it to the People”

The Datsuns can do no wrong as they stage dive into the wan and pale introspection of Brit-pop. The Kiwi band recently passed the “real test” of rock’n’rollers – shedding…

Lord of the Travel Agents

It is official: NZ is the most popular long-haul destination for Britons. From January to June, a record 228,000 British travelers visited – 8.9% more than in 2001. The…

“A Passionate Love Affair Between Two Great Minds”

NZ filmmaker Christine Jeffs (Rain) is to direct a British production about the turbulent marriage of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes. Starring Gwyneth Paltrow and British actor Daniel Craig,…

Whale Rider: People’s Choice at Toronto

Whale Rider swerves past Bend it Like Beckham to win the prestigious AGF People’s Choice award at the Toronto Film Festival – an award previously won…

xXx

NZ actor Martin Csokas’ sexy (Salon) villian praised in Vin Diesel action blockbuster xXx: Csokas is “the baddest of the baddies,” “a splendid villain whose brooding and commanding…

Reforging public perceptions

James Belich’s history of C20th NZ, Paradise Reforged, applauded in lengthy TLS article. Reviewer Jane Samson: “It is refreshing to have a personal vision of the country’s history…

Carving a place in history

For two years Polynesian “master carver” Shane Eagleton has been teaching disadvantaged Californian teens the ancient art of mallet and chisel. Employed by the One Voice arts program, the NZ-born artist/ecologist…

Deconstructing faculty

Respected Dean of Columbia School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Bernard Tschumi’s tenure reviewed on notice of his retirement. His transformative guidance made the faculty a model of architectural…

Bic is back

“She sings the kind of beautiful, haunting songs that work their way into your subconscious and emerge when it’s raining and you can’t sleep.” Bic Runga’s new album Beautiful…

LOTR

The Fellowship of the Ring won the Hugo Award for best dramatic presentation at the World Science Fiction Convention in San Jose, California. In attendance for the ceremony were Sean Astin…

A Believer in the Green Light

“Without a doubt one of the most brilliant journalists and columnists of his generation.” Neal Travis, the “brash, swashbuckling New Zealand import”, legendary editor of The New York Post’s in/famous Page Six…

Edge People of Middle Earth

“, for all its knockout grandeur, is but the trailer, the preview of the country. NZ doesn’t need to be digitally enhanced. It has an orchestra replete with special effects all…

Sporting success: air guitar and Scrabble

Hastings meatworker Toby Peneha took out second place at the 7th annual World Air Guitar Championship in Oulu, Finland. Narrowly beaten by two-time British winner Zac Munro, Toby “the…

Children subject of Her Majesty

The Edinburgh International Film Festival screens the “quirky New Zealand film” Her Majesty. Mark J Gordon’s feature (from a Sundance award-winning script) tells the story of an…

A toast to Elvis

Not content with gracing the billboards of Wellington, NZ toast artist Maurice Bennet is going global. Bennet’s Elvis tribute was noted in Ananova’s quest for the world’s…

Steady Hand

A thematic juggling act handled with skill: C.K Stead’s The Secret History of Modernism intersperses a tale of young love with one family’s experience of the Holocaust. Washington Post…

The blink and you’ll miss him sex symbol

“Lord of the extras: Elfin charmer nets fans.” A pout like that and musical and comedic talent! Wellington musician Bret McKenzie (The Black Seeds, Flight of the Conchords)…

I am international

“He is the first important painter in that part of the world.” The Netherlands’ Stedelijk Museum is to hold the Western hemisphere’s first major retrospective of Colin McCahon’s…

Giant Spiders Terrorise Public

Campy, 50s sci-fi inspired Eight Legged Freaks achieves what it set out to do: “scare the pants off the viewer.” Written and directed by NZer Ellory Elkayem, Freaks…

Pacific terrific

NZ artists Lisa Reihana, Ralph Hotere, and the “Pasifika Divas” will be exhibiting at the Asia Pacific Triennial at the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art. The exhibition brings…

Psathas & Kiri

NZ composer John Psathas and Dame Kiri Te Kanawa provided some of the high points at Manchester’s eclectic “Pulse Festival.” The concert was the climax to a six month…

Critic goes ga ga for Noble

Reviewed: Justin Paton’s, Anne Noble: States of Grace, the accompaniment to Noble’s epoynmous recent exhibition. The book, “is the type of publication that makes people pat books in…

Alone it Stands

Irish playwright John Breen’s tale of Munster’s famous victory over the 1978 grand-slam All Blacks recieves winning reviews and box office at the Sydney Opera House on its way…

Third time’s a charm

NZ tenor Benjamin Makisi won the prestigious McDonald’s Operatic Aria in Sydney after making the finals three years running. He intends to put his NZ$41,110 prize money towards enrolment…

Heavenly pop hits

Aotearoa musical ambassador Neil Finn’s One Nil launched in the US as One All, and draws in at No.2 on Salon’s audio charts. New songs and collaborations with…

The Commonwealth cool club

Emily Perkins muses on OE, clinging to Mummy Britannia’s apron strings, and what being in the Commonwealth meant for her as a young New Zealander: “Being a member of…

Finn No Warbler

Chicago Tribune’s Kevin McKeough wonders “what kind of birds are fluttering around he sings melodies that are just plain gorgeous.” Finn’s performance before a…

Politically correct

“The Capitol is our castle, our shrine”, says author and historian David McCullough, “and Waddell has snapped it to life.” Smithsonian Magazine. Kiwi Peter Waddell has boldly gone…

Alan Brunton: Mystic Gold From the Edge

NZ performance artist Alan Brunton (57) died while touring Europe with his Red Mole theatre troupe, ” NZ letters of its one truly iconic radical figure.” Coming to prominence…

Reforging Paradise

“No one likes snapshots of one  sitting on Mother’s knee being shown at one’s 21st birthday, especially if the snaps were taken at age 19.” Novelist Emily Perkins reviews…

Dancing from the ceiling

“Start off by swinging from the chandeliers.” Mark Baldwin has been appointed artistic director of the prestigious Rambert Dance Company. The Fijian-born Baldwin, who danced with Limbs Dance Company…

For those about to rock

“The greatest rock’n’roll band since the Rolling Stones.” Rave reviews like this have earned The Datsuns an unprecedented 200,000 pound one album deal with Britain’s V2 Records plus…

Critique of Pure Fay

Fay Weldon’s autobiography (up to year 32) continues to entertain. The Guardian is seduced by the lure of biography: “her fiction suddenly seems a whole lot less peculiar…

Club Edge

Saatchi & Saatchi’s London office went on a Euro junket to win Agency of the Year at the industry’s top awards at Cannes. Their infamous inuendo-laden and intricately art-directed…

Earthworks

Ceramic work by New Zealand artist Edith Slee was on show at the Balance House in Glenavy. The “Dwelling” exhibition featured 150 pieces made of earth from her native…

Substance Wins

And this web award actually means something: the Webby’s are the internet Oscars. All the more glory to Christchurch-based Arts and Letters Daily which was awarded the…

Making myths

Lower-Hutt author Lloyd Jones gives the Aussies something heavier than Pavlova to think about: “Now and then someone will write a book in the smaller country that demands the…

From strength to strength

Boston Globe finds the UV rays result in intense expression in Lower Hutt writer Catherine Chidgey’s latest novel, Strength of the Sun: “a meticulously constructed novel of true imagination.”

Xenites Unite!

7th Xena Fest held at the University of Hawaii-Manoa June 9. Activities included martial arts demonstrations, auctions, and battle-cry contests. See the NZEDGE hot story on Lucy…

Wild West Coast designs production

Sam Neill films in NZ for the first time since The Piano on South Island’s rugged West Coast. Perfect Strangers, directed and produced by noted NZ documentary maker Gaylene…

Maximus vs. Hannibal

NZ-born Russell Crowe has beaten Hollywood heavyweights including Anthony Hopkins, Paul Newman, Tom Hanks, and Robert DeNiro to be voted favourite Best Actor Oscar winner of all time, according…

Scarfies in Shanghai

Five recent NZ films – Once Were Warriors, Scarfies, The Price of Milk, Magik & Rose, and Jubilee – hit Chinese screens June 8 – 22 in China’s first…

Ludic love

Harry Sinclair film Toy Love applauded in Indiewire: “I love how deftly it hides surprisingly dark themes beneath its very sexy and funny depiction of love and lust. It’s…

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…

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…

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….

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…

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…