Ridiculously Handsome Nomads
The biggest thing to happen to New Zealand since Peter Jackson’s makeover is Auckland band The Naked and Famous according to Aidin Vaziri writing for the San Francisco Chronicle. “ a…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Heirlooms Of Past For Future
‘Maori — Their Treasures Have a Soul,’ an exhibition of Maori art and artifacts at the Quai Branly Museum in Paris on through 22 January, juxtaposes ancestral heirlooms with contemporary art, architecture, photography, film…
Whimsical Fashion Wanderings
Twenty-two-year-old Christchurch woman Jo and photographer partner Barnaby have begun a fashion blog in which the couple show off vintage finds against “picturesque” New Zealand landscapes. In late 2011 the blog partnered with local…
Foo Fighters Make Earth Move
Auckland GeoNet scientists have said that the recent Foo Fighters concert at Western Springs caused geological vibrations on par with “volcanic tremors”. The vibrations emitted “a strong low signal,” geologists at GeoNet reported. “The…
Big Crowds In The Bay
“At the close of 2010, members of Auckland rock combo The Naked and Famous were innocents abroad, wide-eyed New Zealanders who — thanks to sudden international interest in their debut Passive Me, Aggressive You — finally…
Funny Man Loves It Live
New Zealand-born comedian Rhys Darby, 37, who played manager Murray in the in Flight of the Conchords series, recently performed five shows at Cobb’s Comedy Club in San Francisco. Darby says live comedy remains his passion…
Grass-Roots Campaigning
Bret McKenzie is in Utah, where he’s “picked up some sort of Mormon cold” while filming a scene with a foal for Austenland: he delivers a foal. “We shot it in England this summer, and…
Where Fear And Awe Collide
Greymouth-born filmmaker and painter Vincent Ward’s exhibition Breath, which is on at New Plymouth’s Govett-Brewster Gallery through 26 February 2012, is the first survey of Ward’s work within an art museum context and rests,…
Moving On From Terrible
Naked and Famous guitarist and vocalist Thom Powers admits to have been part of several “terrible, terrible bands” in his time. “Everything that was terrible about ‘90s rock music — I did that,” the…
Weta Leads The Charge
“Wellington: once you come, you stay,” Crave Online’s Grae Drake is told on a visit to Weta Digital. “This is both a threat and a promise, uttered by the geniuses employed at Weta. The…
Florentine Light And Dark
New Zealand artist Pete Wheeler, 33, presents his first Italian solo exhibition, ‘Paths of the Destroyer’, at the Poggiali e Forconi Gallery in Florence. Berlin-based Wheeler says that the ‘Paths of the Destroyer’ are…
Album Upbeat She Swears
Ladyhawke has announced the release of her second album, Anxiety, which will be out on 19 March 2012. It has been recorded over the past year at producer Pascal Gabriel’s house in the south of…
New Zealand Facebook First
“New Zealand already has lush rainforests and sandy beaches, bungee jumping and scuba diving, gourmet restaurants and lively night life, even a thriving tech community that has drawn investment from the likes of Peter…
Documenting Recovery
While an exchange student in New Zealand, American Peter Hoffman, 27, discovered his passion for photography, and for the country. This year, Hoffman plans to return to Christchurch, where in February this year an…
Muppets Made Malevolent
Peter Jackson’s Meet the Feebles is “a hilariously offensive film,” the Muppet’s exact reverse,” writes New York Times’ blogger Lia Miller. “As I began researching this article,” Miller writes, “I was reminded of the most fantastically warped Muppet-style…
Kudos Across The Tasman
Hamilton-born singer Kimbra has taken the title of Best Female Artist at the Australian 2011 ARIA Awards, following in the footsteps of fellow New Zealander Jenny Morris who won the title twice in 1987…
Cranking Out A Conchords Film
Bret McKenzie has said he has hopes for a film version of his and Jemaine Clement’s hit television show Flight of the Conchords. “We’re going to try and do a movie,” McKenzie said at The Muppets premiere…
Crooning Retro Sass
Wellington-born 21-year-old Willy Moon is “dressed up to the nines in a black wool coat, white suit, pale blue shirt and tie, hair greased and parted with precision — the spitting image of a…
Woodland Harmony
A 1960s Boston house designed by Hamilton-born Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor and architect Maurice Smith is advertised as for sale in the Boston Herald. “This Weston contemporary is built to harmonize with its…
Unique Island Perspective
New Zealand’s first-ever entry in the foreign-language Oscar race, Samoan-born director Tusi Tamasese’s debut feature The Orator is being hailed as a brave new voice in world cinema. Orator is pioneering in more ways than that:…
Jackson’s Effect
New Zealand filmmaking is at an all-time high thanks to Lord of the Rings’ director Peter Jackson who, 12 years ago, boosted the country’s Hollywood stock The Hollywood Reporter’s Pip Bulbeck writes. Jackson — who also appeared on…
Inspired By Ancestral Loss
New Zealand actor Charles Chan writes about his role as Wang in the play The Bone Feeder — which was on at Auckland’s TAPAC in November — for a story in The Malaysian Star. The Bone…
On The Road In Western Australia
Hamilton-based eight-piece reggae group Katchafire play at the Prince of Wales Hotel in Bunbury on 25 November as part of the band’s Australian tour promoting their new album, On the Road Again. Vocalist Logan Bell,…
Composing For Kermit
Wellingtonian Bret McKenzie has applied “his rare talents to a sacred” and “daunting” “Muppets-related endeavour” writing three songs for the forthcoming movie The Muppets. The New York Times’ cultural editor Adam Sternbergh writes for the publication’s magazine:…
Study In The Elusiveness Of Home
Best known for her many novels, including The Room of Lost Things, New Zealand-raised writer Stella Duffy has most recently been spending her time scribbling lists on the walls of London’s Ovalhouse Theatre devising a…
Expert Slams Shakespeare Film
Otago University expert on the works of English playwright William Shakespeare Professor Evelyn Tribble has criticised the film Anonymous — which questions the bard’s authorship of his attributed plays — calling it Hollywood “libel.” Tribble said…
Reflective Energy Efficiency
Auckland’s “sleek” New Zealand Insurance Centre is “one of the city’s most eye-catching and sustainable buildings utilizing energy efficient technology” according to CNN. “Situated on a busy junction, the diagonal glazing that wraps the…
Antipodean McCartneys
Message to My Girl is a “latter-day classic from Split Enz” and “the missing link between I Got You and Crowded House’s Don’t Dream It’s Over according to the Guardian’s Russell Cunningham writing for…
True Technie Tonic
“Geeks will love the stereoscopic cameras and 3D methods” on Peter Jackson’s fourth video blog and “most people wouldn’t care if it was shot on a hand-held,” according to Guardian film blogger Ben Child….
Campion Directs Madmen Star
Wellington-born film director Jane Campion has written and will direct a Sundance Channel seven-part miniseries starring Madmen actress Elisabeth Moss, called Top of the Lake. Campion wrote the script with Gerard Lee of Sweetie…
From a Different Perspective
Former Split Enz frontman Tim Finn, 59, plays the Tanks Arts Centre in Cairns on 26 November, which is to coincide with the release of his latest album, The View Is Worth The Climb….
Marriage Made in LA
New Zealand-born actor Nico Evers-Swindell’s marriage to American actor Megan Ferguson, 28, featured in The New York Times’ ‘Weddings/ Celebrations’ column in October. The pair were married in Los Angeles. Evers-Swindell, 32, played Prince…
Ladyhawke Takes London
Ladyhawke is returning to the London stage in November playing an “intimate gig” at the 100 Club, according to XFM. “The New Zealand-born musician, aka Pip Brown, will play the legendary venue on 15…
Capital Hobbit Premiere
Wellington will be the site of the world premiere for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in November 2012. “I think Warner Bros. in particular were blown away by Return…
Investigation for a Pardon
Movie director Peter Jackson has told media that he was working with high-profile former American death row inmate Damien Echols in hopes of getting the man a complete pardon. Echols was part of a…
Good Kids Making Bad Choices
A New Zealand Transport Authority advertisement, created by Clemenger BBDO Wellington, is using humour to get the drink-driving message across to its young audience. Rather than rely on the shock tactics and graphic images…
Zen-like in the Name of Warhol
New Zealand artist Max Gimblett’s exhibition “The Sound of One Hand” brings to focus the world of Zen Buddhism and is on through 27 November as part of Pittsburgh’s Andy Warhol Museum’s…
On a Whizz-Bang Thrill Ride
The Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg motion-capture animation The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn opens in Europe on 22 October before hitting American cinemas ahead of Christmas. “Clearly rejuvenated by his…
Snapping Up Stereotypes
Auckland comedian Andre King, who recently took to the stage in Bangkok and Phuket as part of an international comedy festival in Thailand, spoke to the Bangkok Post about his act, New Zealand humour…
Making Music with Muppets
Former Flight of the Conchord Bret McKenzie, 35, has written four original songs for the soundtrack of the new Disney film The Muppets, which will be released on 21 November. McKenzie is also the…
Nothing of the Golden Girl
A pre-True Blood Anna Paquin stars in the recently-released Margaret as 17-year-old Lisa Cohen, a senior at an upper West Side private school. The New Yorker’s movie editor Richard Brody writes that Paquin “brings…
Mystical Oscar Entry
Samoan-language feature The Orator (O Le Tulafale) is New Zealand’s first-ever entry into the best foreign-language film category for the 84th Academy Awards. New Zealand Film Commission CEO Graeme Mason said: “The…
Squared to Power of Awesome
Neil Finn’s “Kraut-inspired” Pajama Club recently performed a special set on Later With Jools Holland enlisting Ladyhawke on drums. Pajama Club also features Sharon Finn, Sean Donnelly and Alana Skyring. The band…
Handsome Encore
Christchurch-born baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes (right) performs with Australian David Hobson at the Perth Concert Hall on 29 October as part of their “encore” national tour. During a lunch where the conversation ranged from…
Hawaiian Duet
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa performed “a range of songs from the Baroque to Rachmaninoff, accompanied by friend and accompanist, Professor Terence Dennis” in a benefit concert for the Hawaii Opera Theatre in late September….
Whimsical Wannabe Snat
“Behind the tomfoolery, the chap who appears to have stumbled off the set of Withnail and I is making some of this year’s boldest music,” Guardian reviewer Dave Simpson writes about Connan Mockasin’s Manchester…
Caro to Direct Callas
Wellington-born film-director Niki Caro will assume writing and directorial duties for Callas, a film about the life of legendary opera star Maria Callas based on Alfonso Signorini’s book Too Proud, Too Fragile, according to…
Eyeballing for Laughs
New Zealand award-winning comedian Sam Wills, 32, has drawn comparisons with Harpo Marx and Mr Bean, “though he is grungier and livelier than both” according to the Guardian’s Brian Logan who interviews Wills about…
Wondering About Kaitangata
Margaret Mahy’s Kaitangata Twitch is reviewed on the Guardian’s children’s book site, a site “by kids, for kids”. “The Kaitangata Twitch is an earthquake that happens regularly,” Bookworm 88 writes. “The island of Kaitangata…
Masterpiece Rereleased
Peter Jackson’s “masterpiece” Heavenly Creatures has been reissued on DVD and Blu-ray and is re-reviewed by the Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw who says watching Jackson’s “masterly, formally daring, and superbly acted drama” was again, a…
Rather Unsettling Logic
“Twentysomething” New Zealand musician Connan Mockasin is on tour in the United Kingdom playing gigs in Glasgow, Manchester, Sheffield, Bristol and Brighton. The Guardian includes London-based Mockasin in its website’s ‘This week in live…
Great Things Take Seasons
New Zealander Mark Burry is executive architect of the Basilica and Expiatory Church of the Holy Family in Barcelona and part of a project that needs no completion date according to the Guardian’s Jonathan…
On the Beach in Devonport
Auckland artist Kirsty Nixon is staging a solo exhibition of 15 iconic beach and coastal paintings at Devonport’s Art by the Sea Gallery from 8 October to 27 October. Nixon paints warm…
Notes For the Animals
Christchurch-born soprano Hayley Westenra, 24, talks to the Daily Mail’s Jon Wilde about hiring Victoria Beckham’s minder to deal with stalkers and reaching notes only animals can hear. “Certain animals will prick up their…
Time to Read the Tome
Hamilton Doctor Who fan and author of the ultimate guide to the time traveller’s adventures Jon Preddle began work on his two volume epic Timelink: The Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to the Continuity of…
Film on the Ground in LA
Film New Zealand and Wellington post production outfit Park Road are joining forces to open a Los Angeles-based office. From 2012, head of marketing at Park Road Post Production Vicki Jackways will represent the…
