Film & TV | Los Angeles Times | USA Today
26 February 2009
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 stars as charismatic spiritual leader…
Education | Age (The)
26 February 2009
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 study, led by the University’s…
Z-Files | Telegraph (The)
26 February 2009
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 by Wellington’s Weta Workshop. Vessey…
Film & TV | Animation Magazine
25 February 2009
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 — has been bought by…
Music | Orange County Weekly
25 February 2009
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 Brit-pop of Cut Off Your…
Nature | ABC News
24 February 2009
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 to spread as an increasingly…
General | Washington Post
23 February 2009
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 to New Zealand for the…
Film & TV | Los Angeles Times
22 February 2009
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 of New Zealand and Australian…
Golf | Golf | Washington Post
22 February 2009
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 win a professional European Tour…
Film & TV | Perth Now
21 February 2009
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 in English comedy The Boat…
New Zealand | Sydney Morning Herald (The)
21 February 2009
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 Francisco an engaging characteristic: it’s…
Visual Arts | The Escapist
21 February 2009
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 February in Wellington’s Civic Square….
Te Ao Maori | Times (The)
18 February 2009
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 Haka Championships in Tauranga. Thirty-six…
Business | New York Times (The)
17 February 2009
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 Sawyer handing out paintbrushes” approach….
Politics and Economics | Guardian (The)
16 February 2009
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 political protest against the law…
Motorsports | Times (The)
15 February 2009
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 with the power to rival…
Design | Dexigner
15 February 2009
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 AEtna. Yan, who is also…
Writers | Guardian (The)
14 February 2009
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 the notional premise behind the…
Fashion | Style.com
14 February 2009
“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, had beginnings in the designer’s…
War & Peace | Passchendale
13 February 2009
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 Memories at Wellington’s National War…
War & Peace | International Herald Tribune
12 February 2009
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 is the story of the…
General | BBC News
11 February 2009
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. George fought off the dogs…
General | NZEdge
11 February 2009
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 of Maori heritage and culture….
Visual Arts | E-Flux
11 February 2009
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’ Antonin church and Upritchard’s ‘Save…
Dance | Age (The)
11 February 2009
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 and “has a luminous quality…
Te Ao Maori | Earth Times
10 February 2009
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 use by the All Blacks,…
New Zealand | Environmental Graffiti
10 February 2009
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 surreal tranquility and furious geothermal…
News | Jakarta Post
10 February 2009
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 New Zealand, sponsored by the…
America’s Cup | International Herald Tribune
9 February 2009
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, journalist Christopher Clarey onboard taking…
Film & TV | firstshowing.net
9 February 2009
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 that we are thrilled to…
Spirituality | Express India
8 February 2009
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”, especially during times of unrest….
Politics and Economics | Bloomberg
8 February 2009
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 becomes available in August when…
New Zealand | Sail World
7 February 2009
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 pine for,” with twenty three…
Film & TV | Reuters
7 February 2009
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 three years in detention. The…
Medicine/Health | IQ | Telegraph (The)
7 February 2009
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 skills have changed over a…
America’s Cup | International Herald Tribune
6 February 2009
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 face Dean Barker’s Emirates Team…
Media | BBC News | Radio New Zealand
6 February 2009
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 Christchurch and started his career…
General | Seattle Times
6 February 2009
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 ‘Moosey’ has created an easy-to-follow…
Z-Files | The People's Media Company
6 February 2009
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 “in gold” online prize for…
New Zealand | Jakarta Globe (The)
4 February 2009
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 gift from Hundertwasser, who was…
Taste | Sydney Morning Herald (The)
4 February 2009
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 brewers and deer antler chocolate…
Science/Tech | Thanh Nien
3 February 2009
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 5 million ounces according to…
Nature | Earth Times
3 February 2009
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 month to discuss the proposal….
Te Ao Maori | Vancouver Sun (The)
3 February 2009
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 heritage and promoting their culture…
Film & TV | Screen Daily
2 February 2009
Wellington director Taika Waititi’s film The Volcano, a follow-up to his 2007 feature Eagle vs Shark, will be distributed by Australian company Transmission Films. The Volcano is inspired by Waititi’s Oscar-nominated short film…
New Zealand | Star (The)
31 January 2009
Abel Tasman Park on the northern coast of the South Island is a veritable kayaking nirvana, offering up pristine coastlines of granite headlands, tiny coves of golden sand, and voluptuous hills cloaked in emerald…
Wine | Conde Nast Traveler
31 January 2009
“Beyond the wild, raw landscapes, another New Zealand beckons: one of sophisticated restaurants, silvery olive groves, and the most lush, grape-heavy vineyards this side of Bordeaux” writes Condé Nast writer Chang-rae Lee, who spent…
Music | CMJ Showcase
31 January 2009
The Phase Five Program, led by NZ On Air’s Mike McClung and Brendan Smyth, is exposing international audiences to up and coming New Zealand bands. The Program pairs a Phase Five…
Fashion | Nylon Magazine
31 January 2009
Auckland-based designers Stolen Girlfriend’s Club — a pop culture label co-founded by Marc Moore, Luke Harwood and Dan Gosling — are represented on the cover of Nylon Japan’s latest issue, with Japanese singer and…
Nature | National Geographic
30 January 2009
Fossils of an 18 million year old ancestor to the tuatara have been found outside of Saint Bathans, Otago, filling a huge void in the fossil record, and casting doubt on a widely held…
Writers | New York Times (The)
29 January 2009
29 January 2009 – University of Canterbury professor of philosophy Denis Dutton’s latest book The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure, and Human Evolution – which supposes that art appreciation stems first from evolutionary adaptions made during…
Medicine/Health | Tyee (The)
29 January 2009
New Zealand’s health sector is giving a few lessons to its British Columbia counterpart, which sent delegates out in November 2008 to learn about the country’s co-payment system, drug policy and its emphasis on…
Music | Galway Advertiser
29 January 2009
Cambridge rockers The Datsuns will play Galway, Ireland on February 5 promoting their latest album Head Stunts, which was recently recorded in Sweden. Formed in 1997 under the name Trinket, The Datsuns have drawn…
Adrenalin | Street (The)
29 January 2009
Queenstown is a land made for thrill seekers and adrenaline junkies, with canyon swings, bungee jumping from bridges, G-force acrobatic flights, and paragliding, just for starters. Say you’re an average mountain biker and you’ll…
Film & TV | Australian (The)
28 January 2009
Wellington’s Weta Digital will develop the effects for upcoming 3D motion-capture trilogy, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, the sequel of which Peter Jackson will direct in New Zealand. Recently announced is…
Film & TV | CNN News | OK! Magazine
28 January 2009
Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie of the Flight of the Conchords discuss silly songs, the sweet tooth of success and why Australians are always in the cross hairs, with CNN reporter Shanon Cook. Asked…