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 … much of the work…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
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 countless offers to tour. “If…
Sheedy Chic
Karen Walker’s latest collection – “Dust” – profiled in Oyster. The look is inspired by Ally Sheedy’s character in The Breakfast Club : “the indoor girl who hides behind her fringe and bites her…
Where Are the Kingswoods?
The PMs of NZ, Australia and Canada, all of whom look to the Queen as head of state, were (apparently) extended “the minimum of courtesy” at her mother’s funeral. Seating plans, travel arrangements, and entry times…
And God Created … the Chainsaw
Tiny farming/forestry town of Tapawera holds church service in honour of chainsaws. Churchgoers “brought their chainsaws with them, placed them on the altar, and afterwards performed an impromptu ‘chainsaw orchestra,’ complete with Mexican wave…
From Here to Eternity
“Tinkling ivories, crashing waves, visit volcanoes, rainforests and surf-pounded beaches where you can re-enact scenes from The Piano.” The Independent’s “one hour from …” series spreads its compass around Auckland and as well as soulful beachscapes in…
Summer Time and the Living’s Cheap
Taupo makes the list of top-10 alternate destinations for US students traveling abroad for their summer. Up there with Cappadocia, Kuala Lumpur, and Krakow, Taupo is recommended for its extreme outdoor sports and value for the dollar.
iEdge
The SMH tries to find the code behind the icon-making, convention busting, award winning (but secretive) Apple design team after, for the fourth year running, Apple takes out the British Design and Art Direction Association’s top award…
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 Otago and clay from the…
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 campaign for Club 18-30 won…
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 People’s Voice award for best…
Rogernomics Resurfaces
He engineered some of the most radical and controversial reforms in New Zealand history, where efficiency clashed with social affect, and Roger Douglas is still a believer, giving his tuppence worth on the English health system in…
Design for Life
Please be seated: Wellington’s Formway Design won a ‘best of show’ gold award at the important NeoCon trade fair in Chicago for its NZ-designed “Life chair.” The office chairs will be made and distributed…
Dial M for Mambo
Crossing aesthetic borders NZ-born designer Marcelle Lunam leads “a new breed of artists cum designers redefining Australian streetwear”. Lunam is designer for Mambo’s “reverse diffusion” range ‘M’ – merging street and pop culture and…
Poi Eh?
New to New York: Village Voice features an “industral performing arts collective” remixing Dante’s Inferno using flaming poi. “Poi are a Maori tradition, and backpackers often try spinning on the beaches of Australia, New Zealand, and Thailand….
Wool-rest Edge Inspired
Montreal-born designer Brent Cordner uses NZ wool felt in his debut furniture collection for Keilhauer. The chair and ottoman set is made from entirely natural and biodegradable materials. Cordner’s chairs smoothly reference Frank Gehry’s ‘edge’ chairs from…
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 bigger country sit up and…
Fish Out of Water
“In my native NZ, a rain-free day is a small miracle, so my sodden soul soars when I feel that dry heat and behold those azure skies.” Desert-worshipping Kiwi Amanda Jones chronicles her Chilean adventure…
Georgie Girl
“Quintessentially NZ story” highlight of Sydney Film Fest. Annie Goldson’s “Georgie Girl” follows the edgy life of Georgina Beyer – the world’s first transsexual MP – from her days as a sex-worker and drug user,…
Do You Remember?
Why are our early years a blur? Otago University’s Gabrielle Simcock and Harlene Hayne have found a clue. According to their research, so-called “childhood amnesia” is ultimately informed by language development. After conducting controlled memory experiments, 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.”
Louder Than Words?
Michael C. Corballis, Auckland University psychologist, is “the latest proponent of a controversial idea known among language experts as ‘gestural theory.'” His most provocative idea: the inception of speech was a “cultural invention, like writing” rather than…
God Defend Your Freeland
“This is your country and you have the power to change it and uphold all that is good and right. I am saddened to know that many do not vote and still complain about America…” Although…
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 Lawless for the person behind…
Salted venison
Sydney’s premier restaurant Salt brings NZ venison to Aussie palates via their latest menu.
Kaiwhekea Katiki-saurus
A new species of dinosaur has been discovered on a North Otago beach. The 70 million year old fossil is believed to be a type of plesiosaur – a giant, swimming reptile resembling “a…
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 Preston (Bread and Roses), also…
Sirs and Dames or Sheilas and Cobbers?
Four NZers received our country’s highest award via the Queen’s jubilee year honours list. Those admitted to the Order of New Zealand were; ex-Governor General Dame Catherine Tizard, Auckland anthropologist and Maori leader Sir Hugh Kawharu, former…
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 to a poll by US…
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 NZ film festival.
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 a screwball comedy that’s quite…
Compelling Texture. Big Finish.
If you can’t afford The Ivy’s 60 quid for Sam Neill’s pinot noir, alternatives are Malcolm Gluck’s affordable favourites: Church Road and Villa Maria, while across the Atlantic, Leslie Sirocco’s vote goes to the Lawson’s Dry Hills “palate-perking” pinot…
Advance New Zealand Unfair
Lead paragraph to Australian Yachting editorial: “What is it with New Zealanders? Not only do they bash us at rugby (both literally and metaphorically) and regularly make off with the Melbourne Cup, they also have the hide,…
Chop Till You Drop
NZ axemen Jason Wynyard and David Bolstad came out ahead in the points race at the 8th Annual Ducks Unlimited Great Outdoors Festival in Memphis, Tennessee. Over 72,000 people attended the Festival, with the Stihl Timbersports stage…
No Dodo
New Scientist features the Kakapo’s claw-back from the brink of extinction: “What’s green, nocturnal, looks like an owl, smells sweet and fruity, and makes strange noises from growls and “skrarks” to metallic “chings” and deep resonant…
Black and White or Rainbow Nation?
Kathy Marks visits Waitangi and gives an outside perspective on the state of the nation 162 years after the treaty: “New Zealand is truly a bicultural nation, and the sense of two races living…
Counted the Neighbours Yet?
Statistics New Zealand is making census data available online free of charge. Formerly $3,300 to $25,000 for special software, now users can simply transfer data and use their own software. The US, UK and…
Cheers, Digger
A Kiwi beer has won at the Australian beer awards. Founders Brewery from Nelson won the accolade of Champion Small Brewery for its organic range including Tall Blonde, Red Head and Long Black.
Windies Wiped Out
Confirming their 3rd place ranking in the ICC World Test Cricket Championship the Black Caps achieved a remarkable milestone with their first ever test series victory against the West Indies on…
Aotearoa Adornment
Auckland artist George Nuku’s mother-of-pearl pendants draw inspiration from his Maori cultural heritage and feature on the cover of June’s American Vogue. “Pile on multiple pendants for a modern, urban edge”, Elle’s ‘make it your…
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. Kiwi Mark de Clive Lowe…
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 New Zealand is Russell Crowe…
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 New Zealand writer, but I’m…
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 Zealand, Australia and South Africa,…
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 not surprising coming from someone…
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 the earth’s Australian and Pacific…
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 and achieving mainstream success reinforces her…
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 the International Rugby Board’s season-long tournament…
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 to be all the things…
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 the bus and visited at…
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 tends to be an interesting…
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 “Ernest Hemingway’s shadow,” so perhaps…
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 the rhythm of a summer…
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 wider place in the world….
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 later this year. New Zealand’s…
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 calendars, gift-cards, books and baby-wear,…
