News of New Zealanders via Global Media

Oceania Merge the Edges With Log Drums and Electro Beats

Oceania Merge the Edges With Log Drums and Electro Beats

Former leader of Killing Joke Jaz Coleman joins Maori singer Hinewehi Mohi in a high-tech fusion on their eponymous debut. “This isn’t a fashion record for me, or a passing flirtation with another culture,” says Coleman, recently…

Kiwi Professor of Pop Crafts Summer Sounds from Nashville

Kiwi Professor of Pop Crafts Summer Sounds from Nashville

“If there were advanced academic degrees for pop music, songwriter Tim Finn would have achieved professor emeritus status long ago. This Split Enz and Crowded House alum is a craftsman of the first order….

Bonding Bungee Brings Together Father and Son Film-makers

Bonding Bungee Brings Together Father and Son Film-makers

Award-winning doco “Pop & Me” charts father/son relationships around the world as the father/son makers work out their own. The film’s defining moment comes when Chris persuades his Dad join him in a tandem…

Sir David Low: “the greatest political cartoonist of the century”

Sir David Low: “the greatest political cartoonist of the century”

London’s Evening Standard previews an exhibition by the Kiwi cartoonist Churchill called “a green-eyed young Antipodean radical.” His work was banned in Nazi Germany and fascist Italy due to “the savagerealism” of his pen….

“All You Sweet Girls With Your Sweet Talk”

“All You Sweet Girls With Your Sweet Talk”

Known for her willingness to thematically peer over the edge ‘to the centre in her head’, Maclean is attracting attention for Jesus’ Son (starring Billy Cudrup and Samantha Morton). The film, about alienation, ennui…

Masters class

Masters class

Jazz legend Ian Chaplin was joined in concert by the Gerard Masters Trio. Young NZ pianist Masters was hailed as an “imaginative deconstructionist” and his trio “a highly individualistic unit.” The Trio released their…

Tim Finn Inspires Repeat of History in Boston

Tim Finn Inspires Repeat of History in Boston

Finn’s Boston show prompts memories at Boston gig-guide Go!. Years ago, ” was introduced to an outstanding New Zealand pop outfit called the Split Enz. A friend’s older sister was showing off a sweat…

Serendipity the Secret to Cyber-Success

Serendipity the Secret to Cyber-Success

“Human beings, by and large don’t know what they’re interested in,’ says Denis Dutton, a professor in New Zealand who started and edits the highly accliamed Arts and Letters Daily, perhaps the most eclectic,…

Kiwi Art Criticism: vol. #1

Kiwi Art Criticism: vol. #1

“The buttock of a dead cow washed up on the beach” was how Barbara Hepworth’s sculpture Torso II was described when it arrived in New Zealand in 1963.

Gandalf: Lord of the Seas

Gandalf: Lord of the Seas

Sir Ian McKellen takes a break on Auckland Harbour from playing the wise wizard Gandalf in the 16 month long shoot of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings.  He is immersing himself in the…

Alison Maclean gives

Alison Maclean gives

The story of a grunged out herion addict ‘FH’ (Billy Cudrup), based on the stories of Dennis Johnson and inspired by the Lou Reed lyric, also stars Oscar nominated Samantha Morton, Holly Hunter and…

Buller’s birds’ blues at Sydney biennale 2000

Buller’s birds’ blues at Sydney biennale 2000

Artist Bill Hammond (alongside fellow Kiwi Lisa Reihana)  has been selected to show alongside some of the hottest names in contemporary art, including Chris Ofili, Tracey Moffat and Vanessa Beecroft. The selection panel included…

Courtney Love: Nelson Girls old-girl takes on Napster

Courtney Love: Nelson Girls old-girl takes on Napster

As a user Courtney loves Napster, but it carries some risks and the Hole lead singer is wary of corporate relationships in general, “If you want some little obedient slave content provider, then fine….

Art Bin editor itches to be scratched

Art Bin editor itches to be scratched

Auckland based Elam School of Fine Arts lecturer Phil Dadson’s innovative percussion group ‘From Scratch’ makes Art Bin editor’s “favourite things” list.

Heavenly Creatures: In New York not all angels are innocent

Heavenly Creatures: In New York not all angels are innocent

From New York Daily News TV preview: “Lynskey and future “Titanic” star Winslet are phenomenal as two alienated teens in 1950s New Zealand who construct their own, ultimately lethal fantasy world in Peter Jackson’s…

New Zealand: Hottest destination of movie makers

New Zealand: Hottest destination of movie makers

It’s official: Bollywood star Hritihik Roshan has been made a singing-dancing- fighting icon in the Bollywood smash hit Kaho Naa … Pyar Hai (Say you Love me), a romantic musical thriller shot in the…

Dance arc

Dance arc

Dance film Arc features “virtuosic performances by the brilliant Douglas Wright”.

This is our music

This is our music

“It pays my way and it corrodes my soul … oh give us the money” sings Kiwi indie star Dean Wareham, ex-lead singer of Galaxie 500 has joined the list of college radio icons…

Kiwi designed green house for the good life 2000

Kiwi designed green house for the good life 2000

Brenda and Robert Vale, from Auckland University, have designed what has become known as the Autonomous House. Producing its own electricity and suppling its own water, it is the realisation of their design manifesto…

Basic Instinct gives Alpha Male brilliant bittersweet edge

Basic Instinct gives Alpha Male brilliant bittersweet edge

The Times gives William Brandt’s collection of short stories, Alpha Male, lavish praise: “Surreal and sometimes downright weird, every tale is strong in its own right – a rare thing in any book of…

Glamorous ballet dancer wooed to the edges of the world by inspirational Kiwi

Glamorous ballet dancer wooed to the edges of the world by inspirational Kiwi

Ballet dancer Polly Benge went from a life of hip restaurants and competitive yoga to a hazardous cycling trip around India with Kiwi chef Tim Molena, 5 years her junior. She has no regrets…

“Where do anarchists go to die?”

“Where do anarchists go to die?”

New Zealand, apparently. In Richard Vetere’s new play The Atheist in all of Us, about legendary atheist and founder of American Atheists Inc. Madylyn O’Hair, the dying protagonist escapes persecution from religious zealots by…

Niccol turns into Hollywood gold

Niccol turns into Hollywood gold

Kiwi Andrew Niccol is to write and direct ‘the Hollywood project’, rumoured to star Al Pacino as a down and out movie producer. Niccol was Oscar nominated for the screenplay to The Truman Show and…

Russell Crowe maximises his earnings

Russell Crowe maximises his earnings

“What we do in life echoes in eternity,” Russell Crowe as General Maximus says while admonishing his battle-ready troops in Gladiator. And what we do at the box office echoes in our paychecks”.

Wall Street Gets Emotional Rescue from the Edge

Wall Street Gets Emotional Rescue from the Edge

Kevin Roberts says there is a challenge for the ‘anti-social medium’ of the web, traditional advertising and product design in general. That is, to get emotional and to create mystery and sensuality in order to re-connect…

Roman in gloamin’ ?

Roman in gloamin’ ?

Russell Crowe is being hailed here as the best-looking guy in a skirt since Mel Gibson. The showbiz press have gone crazy over the New Zealander’s performance in Gladiator, just like Mel’s in Braveheart. …

G’Day Caesar

G’Day Caesar

Crowe’s accent crosses the expanses of the globe and the distance of time in the Gladiator – Owen Duggan corrects the notion that it’s Bondi-based, and Christine Kenneally muses on the sound of things ancient…

Looking Down: Fleur Adcock reaps poetic insight from the fringe

Looking Down: Fleur Adcock reaps poetic insight from the fringe

“Strangers are good for us, they help us see ourselves in unfamiliar ways. They take slightly different routes across our wearisomely footslogged home turf.”  poetry is acute, intelligent, fastidious, sceptical, often disturbingly funny….

Rome with a View

Rome with a View

Ridley Scott’s exhilarating and ferocious Gladiator brings the epic back to life.  The movie is dominated by Russell Crowe’s towering Maximus, a man of intelligence, probity and Roman virtue.  He’s the most virile presence…

Happy Days Inspires Maori Playwright Briar Grace-Smith to Tell New Zealand Stories

Happy Days Inspires Maori Playwright Briar Grace-Smith to Tell New Zealand Stories

“New Zealanders are becoming bolder and prouder about who we are. We’re no longer looking overseas for our theatre. We’re telling our own stories and feeling good about it. And not just Maori”

Deep Forest Blends With Massive Attack in Oceanic Swirl

Deep Forest Blends With Massive Attack in Oceanic Swirl

Oceania, with the release of its self-titled debut album and led by ex-Killing Joke frontman Jaz Coleman, makes a spirited and successful atempt to bring Maori music from New Zealand to a global stage. The result is…

Barbara Anderson’s

Barbara Anderson’s

“Any fan of sharp, poised social comedy, driven by immaculately droll prose, should investigate the New Zealand writer Barbara Anderson”.

Going to work on a memoir

Going to work on a memoir

NZ-edged Fay Weldon has signed a reputed £250,000 deal with publishers Harper Collins to write her memoirs, The Word, the Flesh and the She-Devil, a frank account of life, love, religion, psychoanalysis and the…

Anthony McCarten’s Four Cities a global hit in Hong Kong

Anthony McCarten’s Four Cities a global hit in Hong Kong

“Four Cities, written by New Zealand’s Anthony McCarten is a good chance to sample some contemporary Kiwi writing. The quality of the acting and the breezy joy of the one-liners made this a highly…

The Hobbit; Or, There and Back Again…Already?

The Hobbit; Or, There and Back Again…Already?

Currently being filmed in New Zealand on a mammoth 18 month shoot, the first film won’t even be released until Christmas 2001. Despite this the film’s official site is up and running. “Preview” footage…

Emotional rescue:

Emotional rescue:

Kevin Roberts demonstrates the sharpness of his edge at Conference in San Francisco “Shielded all in black, wielding his New Zealand accent as a sword, the Saatchi & Saatchi CEO launched a tirade on…

Star Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott: an irresistible pairing

Star Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott: an irresistible pairing

“Scott, the big name auteur, and Crowe, the acting wunderkind, in the same room.  The director, with his well-bred English manners, and the thespian, with his New Zealander ease and laconic wit, are a…

Russell Crowe: A Gladiator Even a Woman Could Love

Russell Crowe: A Gladiator Even a Woman Could Love

“Why would a woman want to see Gladiator: 1. It’s a love story. Really. 2. An intelligent female character.  3. Russell Crowe … Born in New Zealand and raised in Australia, Crowe’s got that take-no-mess…

Alt-rock poster boys Luna lose a little sheen

Alt-rock poster boys Luna lose a little sheen

Founding bassist Justin Harwood has resigned his position behind the bass, and after eight years in the band, will return to his native New Zealand to raise his newborn baby girl.

Tragic death of activist remembered in Punitive Damage.

Tragic death of activist remembered in Punitive Damage.

The Kiwi-made documentary traces the life and tragic death of Kamal Badmadhaj, slaughtered in the 1991 Dili Cemetery Massacre by the Indonesian military.  The film won the Audience Award at the 1999 Sydney International Film Festival…

Female Guru

Female Guru

Fay Weldon and why we love those wise big women Maddening, sexy, inconsistent, irascible, solipsistic, profound, perplexing and provocative … and we love her. New Zealand-raised Fay Weldon joins the female-guru big-time along with…

Fresh Crowe Conquers in Revival of Old-genre

Fresh Crowe Conquers in Revival of Old-genre

“I just thought he was fresh, a new generation, he’s a man who’s on his way up,” says Ridley Scott, of Russell Crowe, the Gladiator’s 36-year-old New Zealand star.

Talk the walk: From a Maori grave in Crete to dithering dons at Oxford

Talk the walk: From a Maori grave in Crete to dithering dons at Oxford

Times review: “CK Stead’s eigth novel Talking about O’Dwyer is an inticate interrogation of the past … The sweep of Stead’s narrative pays dividends: there’s almost a wistful nostalgia, a sense that hanging onto…

Even Better than the Real Thing:

Even Better than the Real Thing:

When Ridley Scott wanted to recreate the Colosseum he stayed well clear of Rome, preferring to leave the real Colosseum to the tourists. Instead he used computer imaging and sets in Malta and Surrey….

Down-Under achievers: Which actor wasn’t born in Australia quiz? Answer: Russell Crowe is originally from New Zealand.

Down-Under achievers: Which actor wasn’t born in Australia quiz? Answer: Russell Crowe is originally from New Zealand.

Answer: Russell Crowe is originally from New Zealand. (4 May 2000)

Edge living: Roman style

Edge living: Roman style

From whistle-blower to tiger-slayer, countless billboards are proclaiming a new hero. But despite the many high-tech advances made since the earlier cinematic days of the wide-screen Roman Empire, at least one fact remains the same:…

When Love Comes to Boston

When Love Comes to Boston

New Zealand film When Love Comes about a “group of free spirits and sexual stripes” chosen to show at Boston gay and lesbian film and video Festival at Boston Museum of Fine Arts. The…

Mr. Electric and the Superdudes body-rock at New Orleans Jazz Fest

Mr. Electric and the Superdudes body-rock at New Orleans Jazz Fest

Up and down South Peters Street, a group of fun-loving folk calling themselves the “Superdudes” led by Mr. Electric (a 30-year-old former model from New Zealand) danced, enlisting as many people as possible to…

Russell reasserts his edge roots

Russell reasserts his edge roots

“Hollywood is carving a bust for Crowe in the action-hero pantheon, but Crowe is keeping his distance. “I’d move to Los Angeles if Australia and New Zealand were swallowed up by a huge tidal…

Kiwi Dennis Dutton’s Arts and Letters Daily makes Brill’s Content ‘Best of the Web’

Kiwi Dennis Dutton’s Arts and Letters Daily makes Brill’s Content ‘Best of the Web’

“Arts & Letters Daily” combines a Renaissance thirst for intriguing writing with the online imperative of speed – a sensibility evident in the site’s duelling mottoes: “Bookmark This Page” and “Veritas odit moras,” Seneca’s…

Magnetic Maximus unleashes Hell to please the masses in

Magnetic Maximus unleashes Hell to please the masses in

Apart from its spectacular visuals the film’s other strength is its acting, “… but everyone else can step aside for Crowe. “Gladiator” should make the Oscar-nominated actor an international star. When he’s in a…

Veni, Vidi, Vici

Veni, Vidi, Vici

Russell Crowe’s star-making turn reviewed in People, “Gladiator’s pull is potent, thanks to the razzle-dazzle fight scenes (the opening battle rivals that in Saving Private Ryan) and a magnetic performance by Crowe (The Insider),…

“In New Zealand if you asked for a coffee, it was a teaspoon of Nescafe.”

“In New Zealand if you asked for a coffee, it was a teaspoon of Nescafe.”

Kings Cross, 1986, newly arrived struggling actor waiting tables: an American customer orders a decaf coffee. “Suddenly I’m faced with long black, short black, cappuccino, and cafe latte – plus decaffeinated. So I take her…

“I wanna be Marlon Brando”…

“I wanna be Marlon Brando”…

sang Russell Crowe years ago when he was an aspiring rock star in New Zealand – the idea no longer seems absurd as Crowe brings an intensity and commitment to his craft that sometimes…

One of these days I’m gonna get myself maximised

One of these days I’m gonna get myself maximised

Here is man who would not take it anymore … Crowe makes the cover of Empire (the magazine – not the Civilisation). “The man exudes the physicality of a wild animal. Shifting testosterone…

“To Die or Not to Die – Very Good Question”

“To Die or Not to Die – Very Good Question”

Gladiator features breathtaking photography, sets and computer generated images. But the real glory of the show is Russell Crowe who is simply magnificent … Like James Mason, he is one of those actors who…