Edge Message #66 from Brian Sweeney, producer NZEDGE.COM
TO NEW ZEALAND EDGE GLOBAL COMMUNITY
“Back yourself, Give it a go, Anticipate, Draw, Back Up, Re-invent, Challenge, Change.” Lloyd Jones, The Book of Fame.
This dictum might apply to the theory of the New Zealand Edge as much as it does to the 1905 All Blacks Jones gives collective voice to here. The phrasing has the tone and urge of a coach’s pre-match changing room rap, but it might just as easily sit as mantra on the laboratory wall of a Rutherford, Sheppard, Britten or Lye. Time magazine (18 Aug) magnificently features a New Zealand special exploring our edge in a 50 page rave. The cover copy is compelling affirmation: “Cool Kiwis: why it’s suddenly hot on the edge of the world” Check out this and other stories of z-mentions in the international media in newzedge below.
Along with newzedge we bring you two features on edge thinking manifest: the Aquada and the All Blacks.
The Aquada – like the Hamilton Jet, McLaren F1 racer, Britten superbike, even Pearse’s gorse-bush bound prototype aeroplane – continues the edge tradition of engineering and design solutions geared to speed. A development of inventor Terry Roycroft’s thinking outside the square by entrepreneur Alan Gibbs, the revolutionary James Bond-style sports vehicle with the amphibian edge can reach up to 100mph on land, and on the water retracts its wheels and uses a jet to plane along the surface at speeds of over 30mph. Gibbs: “This is new in the way that helicopters were new or Harrier jump jets were new.” Launched on London’s Thames to international media attention we bring you its story here:
https://www.nzedge.com/hot/ar-aquada.html
And we republish nzedge co-founder Kevin Robert’s commentary on the All Blacks progress through 2003 in his monthly column for NZ Rugby Monthly magazine. The All Blacks tradition is a legacy of thinking inside the rectangle – a creative space 100x50m in parameter. Within these confines generations of players wearing the black jersey embossed with the silver fern have played with pride and worked out innovations, (from the willie-away to 1905 classics like the fullback wearing a sun-hat and running outside the wing), to form one of the most impressive records in international sport. Kevin follows the efforts of the 2003 edition to create the legacy in the modern era.
https://www.nzedge.com/hot/rugby/index.html
Newzedge:
/category/newzedge/
- Time comes to the edge: “Cool Kiwis: Why it’s suddenly hot on the edge of the world.”
- Evers-Swindell twins win back-to-back double sculls titles at World Rowing Champs in Milan
- Alan Gibbs’ revolutionary Aquada launched on The Thames, London
- Flight of the Conchords lead nz-battalion to Edinburgh Fringe Fest
- Nobel Laureate Alan MacDiarmid made Royal Society fellow and U.Texas Distinguished Chair
- Blockbuster with brains: NY Times on P Jackson and The Rings
- Zambesi fashions ‘quirky, cerebral and dark’ into an international brand’ in FinReview
- ABs celebrate test centenary with Bledisloe and Tri-Nations wins
- Dr Matthew During trials gene therapy Parkinson’s cure
- The Australian surveys the Pacific with focus on NZ
- Geoff Sewell’s Amici Forever signs 6m pound opera/rock recording deal
- Hayley Westenra is prodigal and Pure on debut international release
- Legendary Lance O’Sullivan hangs up his saddle
- NZer John Austin to head World Bank
- Professor Malcolm Grant to head University College London
- Music: Good-shirt equals good music in Rolling Stone; Keith Urban is the new face of country; D4 lure young and hip to baseball; Carla Werner the “female Jeff Buckley”; Datsuns put the brakes on; Clean Anthology essential guide to Flying Nun front-runners; and Pacifier rediscover their live edge
- Peter Lynd claims space-time Einstein philosophical breakthrough
- Scoop new-media guardian of fifth estate during Iraq War
- Wallpaper and Lomu retreat to Waiheke’s Delamore Lodge
- Art: Pound’s persona praised in Sydney; Billy Apple notable name; Michael Stevenson treks it to Venice
- Wine: Cloudy Bay’s legacy celebrated in Yomiuri and CNN; Lawson’s Dry Hills top mile high drop; Sam Neill’s Two Paddocks keeps it real
- Aotearoa destination du jour in Sun-Herald 2003 travel top-10s
- PM Helen Clark keynote speaker in Korean War 50th Anniversary
- Nuclear-free remembered on 30th Anniversary of Norman Kirk protest
- Fisher & Paykel clean up as export exemplar with US whiteware alliance
- Wellington writers Wilkins and Knox mix fine yield of international review, nomination and publication
- Virionyx extends NZ biotech edge with drugs to find antibody and antiviral treatments for SARS et al.
- AJ Hackett dragon dances atop China’s Macao Tower
- Billy Bowdon’s expressive umpiring style is the “next generation” according to BBC
- NZ traffic solution: eco-buses ease Tokyo congestion; Hardings’ responsive cats-eyes make roads safer
- Anna Paquin interviewed in Independent; Keisha Knight-Hughes Whale Rider acclaim continues
- Te Papa exhib on Japanese influence on western fashion Vogue-reviewed
- Business/economy: NZ rich-list out; Telecom profits up; Air NZ goes express; unemployment at OECD low
- Research: unemployment = depression and malnourishment = fat
- And more: Hokey Pokey pondered; kiwifruit juice good as green export; John Clarke’s latest book serves it up; Sarah Kate-Lynch kitch(en)- lit a hit; Tony Martin directs a Bad Egg; same-sex Civil Union Bill proposed;
- Geraldine Brophy keeps up the laughs with the Viagra Monologues; NZ scientists promote inter-polar understanding, Steve Richards and Scott Dixon race across the globe. . .
As the Time feature, the Aquada, and All Black winger Joe Rokocoko swiftly demonstrate: “New forms of life emerge on the margins, away
from the deadening effects of the centre. The excitement is on the wing, not in the scrum.”
Get it wide.
Brian Sweeney
Publisher, Producer
THE NEW ZEALAND EDGE
http://www.nzedge.com
brian@nzedge.com
POSTSCRIPTS:
The New Zealand flag seems destined to die another day. And that’s not soon enough for the latest alternative design to be posted to our forum on visual culture. Designed by Melbourne-based Mike Lloyd, his view is simply that every day under the old red white and blue increases the gap between where our identity is now and where we could have been.
https://www.nzedge.com/hot/nz_visual_language_responses2.html
Get the Jive: the 20th anniversary gig of Rick Bryant and the Jive Bombers is at the Kings Arms, 59 France St Newton Auckland Sun 21 Sept. Glory days of the Gluepot and the Cricketers Arms revisited with the big band R&B/soul sound led by the Godfather of New Zealand music.
Stand Up and Shout! Alastair Fergusson has interviewed 15 nzers who have achieved fulfilment in their lives. Common themes: developing a passion and believing in yourself; not being afraid to stand out in a crowd nor being afraid of making changes in your life; accepting failure as a means to learning and progress and cultivating positive, constructive thoughts.
http://www.standupandshout.biz
Pacific photography – the first two galleries of global contributions to the nzedge – sponsored Tranmsit image galleries are up. Help frame the edge from where you’re looking and win a Lomo camera; winner of the first Lomo is Helen Varley-Jamieson from NZ.
http://www.transmit.co.nz/glogallery.php
AND check out http://www.whopperchopper.org.nz for the international pirates convention – a unique south seas’ summertime seaside event.
