#116: Wild South

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Edge Message #116 from Brian Sweeney, producer NZEDGE.COM

Pictured above: Jemaine Clement, surfers at Piha Beach, Neil Finn, The Black Ferns, and Chad Taylor

New Zealand headlines in this week’s sampling of global media appearing in Rolling Stone, National Geographic, Times Online, Bust, Globe and Mail, Dexinger, ABC News, The Weekly Times, The Argus, Brisbane Times, BBC News, Phnom Penh Post, Fox News, The New York Times, The Toronto Star, Guardian, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald include:

• Jemaine Clement, Conchord, Bust’s favourite cleft-chinned comedian
• West Auckland’s Piha beach secures 2010 Quiksilver World Junior Surfing champs
• Neil Finn, collaborates with Wilco, Radiohead on The Sun Came Out for Oxfam – Rolling Stone
• Black Ferns, to play November double-header with All Blacks, Twickenham – Brisbane Times
• Chad Taylor, writer, pens The Church of John Coltrane, sequel to 1994’s Heaven
• Christopher Banks’ 13min Teddy first NZ film to make Iris Festival shortlist
• Rob Hamill, Olympic rower, confronts brother’s murderer at Khmer Rouge trial, Phnom Penh
• New Zealanders vote an emphatic ‘No’ in smacking referendum; “law is working“, Key – Fox News
• New Zealand and Australia have “substantially different national identities”, union not the answer
• Badtown, West Auckland punks, sell possessions for Brighton tour – The Argus
• Coronet Peak, perfect piste for international Winter Olympic training – Ski Channel
• Jeremy Clarke, NJ-based chopper pilot dies, 32, “skilled, professional” – The New York Times
• Lloyd Watkin’s Roxborough Farm in Tirau a “peaceful middle of nowhere” – Toronto Star
• Fat Freddy’s Drop, Dr Boondigga & The Big BW, “infectious loping grooves” – Guardian
• New Zealand to Australia flights soon as cheap as domestic; no customs – The Age
• Omar Slaimankhel, Afghan, now Warrior, signs 2-year NRL contract – The Sydney Morning Herald
• New Zealand type design exhibit tells stories in “our own local accents” – Dexinger
• Short-tailed bat, endangered walker, descended from Australian relatives – National Geographic
• Andrew Adamson, Shrek director, to take helm on adaptation of Lloyd Jones’ Mister Pip
• New Zealand earthquakes triggered by deep water beneath plates – ABC News
• Napier’s Art Deco Weekend, the city’s “expression of pride, identity” – Times Online
• Sidhe Interactive, Wellington gamesters, launch Playstation classic Shatter – Examiner.com
• Michael King, Toronto impresario, renowned for restless resume, charm, accent – Globe and Mail
• Rhys Darby, comedian, takes Park Ranger, obsessive UFOlogist to Edinburgh
• Sam Neill, actor, plays ruthless Canadian railroad baron in mini-series Iron Road – Toronto Star
• David Short, Fielding farmer, invents portable shearing handpiece – The Weekly Times
• Harold the Giraffe, Life Education Trust mascot, first NZer and giraffe to go to space

TALES FROM THE SOUTH
If New Zealand is at the edge of the world, then there is no place geographically ‘edgier’ than the province of Southland (Murihiku). Radio and television broadcaster Marcus Lush presents a very personal offering on the grit, charm, and heart that makes up the fabric of the Southern region, in a new seven-part series South, screening 7pm Sundays on TV One. The jaw-dropping scenery is the obvious star of the show but its inhabitants also play a lead role. Characters such as pioneering aviator Herbet Pither, and Peanut, the finder of this country’s largest piece of space junk. The series may be a thank you note from Lush (who fell in love with the region before moving to Bluff six years ago) but it could also be a nod from the rest of the country to an area that delivers more than its fair share of epic geography, pioneering spirit and good old-fashioned heart.