News of New Zealanders via Global Media

Kiwis to illuminate the dark corners of history at Berlin’s Jewish Museum

Kiwis to illuminate the dark corners of history at Berlin’s Jewish Museum

After gaining worldwide reputations for their work at Te Papa Ken Gorbey and Nigel Cox have been appointed to positions at Berlin’s Jewish Museum, As Project Director, Gorbey will co-ordinate and manage the preparations…

Six degrees of connection for Mark de Clive-Lowe

Six degrees of connection for Mark de Clive-Lowe

London’s music press has connected with Clive-Lowe’s  album Six Degrees.  Already played on the main dance-floor at the Ministry of Sound and touted as a new step in “futurejazz” for its blending of jazz…

Sounds of Oceania find home in Amazon

Sounds of Oceania find home in Amazon

For much of last month Kiwi release Oceania was featured on the home page of AmazonMusic.com. “Exotic and mutable, the music of Oceania grounds itself in ancient culture while fully engaging in a modern…

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…

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),…

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…

“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…

Wind Wand Blows Over Hurricanes as Talk of the Town in New Plymouth

Wind Wand Blows Over Hurricanes as Talk of the Town in New Plymouth

In the rural New Zealand town of New Plymouth rugby-loving citizens are normally attuned to talking about the local rugby team, the Hurricanes, but a 45 metre tall wand erected for the millennium has…

Muse behind Watership Down

Muse behind Watership Down

Ronald Lockley, internationally renowned naturalist, died in New Zealand on April 12, aged 96. The Economist obituary dryly notes that “New Zealanders liked Ronald Lockley, admired his reputation as a protector of nature, and…

New Zealand Scholar Suggests Sceptical Slant on Sikh Story

New Zealand Scholar Suggests Sceptical Slant on Sikh Story

Kiwi scholar Hew Mcleod puts claims made in Patwant Singh’s The Sikhs to the test of historical veracity – a task that has made him persona non grata with many members of the world’s…

Improvisation Indian style – NZ expert introduces playback theatre basics to India

Improvisation Indian style – NZ expert introduces playback theatre basics to India

Bangalore’s Summer Project on Theatre (Spot) has this year enlisted the help of New Zealander Mary Good and Australian Bev Hopkins to throw light on the concept of playback theatre.

Phantom Menace Humbled by Diminutive Hobbit

Phantom Menace Humbled by Diminutive Hobbit

The record number of downloads set by the trailer for Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, has been dwarfed by the the Internet preview of of Peter Jackson’s epic movie trilogy The Lord…

Crowe does the hard yards to re-visit grandeur of Rome

Crowe does the hard yards to re-visit grandeur of Rome

“I broke a bone in my foot, I fractured a hip-bone, I had both bicep tendons pop out of their shoulder sockets – fortunately for me at different times so I could still use…

Malaysian crooner returns to charts with New Zealand edge

Malaysian crooner returns to charts with New Zealand edge

Malaysian singing star Kathy Ibrahim (who swayed hearts in the late 70’s with such classic as Oh Malaysia) returns to Malaysia to record after an eight year spell in New Zealand studying interior design…

Renegade Artist Richard Killeen Bucks Convention at Sydney Landscape Exhibition.

Renegade Artist Richard Killeen Bucks Convention at Sydney Landscape Exhibition.

“They could be a landscape of the mind, a self-portrait of Killeen the scavenger, the visual encyclopaedia, and sophisticated game player. It’s a strident welcome to what is on offer”.

“When all at once I saw a crowd”

“When all at once I saw a crowd”

Fleur Adcock gives  poetic tribute to bard of the Lakes On the 150th Anniversary of William Wordsworth’s death, New Zealand-born poet Fleur Adcock has been chosen to unveil a plaque amongst the Easter daffodils…

Stay on Your Toes: Improv

Stay on Your Toes: Improv

Bandits plan for laughs, but who knows what will happen. New Zealand comedy troupe Improv Bandits have been selected among 24 ensembles for the 3rd annual Chicago Improv Festival.

Get it right mate – Theroux undone by Stead detective work

Get it right mate – Theroux undone by Stead detective work

“This week the London Review of Books prints a long investigation by the poet CK Stead into a lunch party at Naipaul’s house attended by Theroux and a New Zealand couple Stead happens to…

Kiwi Editor of Chicago-Sun Times Leaves to Pursue ‘Private Goals’

Kiwi Editor of Chicago-Sun Times Leaves to Pursue ‘Private Goals’

New Zealand born Nigel Wade, 54, former foreign correspondent with the Daily Telegraph in London, said that he was taking a “new direction” in his life after 37 years in journalism.  He has been…

Long Hot Summer puts the heat on readers

Long Hot Summer puts the heat on readers

Kiwi Barbara Anderson’s latest novel gets praise in Times review, “a fine and sharp intelligence infuses Anderson’s characters and dialogue … Long Hot Summer demands attention from the reader, but it is worth it”.

The truth about bed: Fleur Adcock: Poems 1960-2000

The truth about bed: Fleur Adcock: Poems 1960-2000

“This very welcome collection of her verse confirms her status as arguably the most distinctive writer to have come out of New Zealand since Katherine Mansfield.”

Film Fatale: Chris Kraus

Film Fatale: Chris Kraus

“Yet by affirming the “weakness” of her under- appreciated spiritual heroes, Kraus may have found an idiot-proof formula for this book to work whether it works or not.” Village Voice book review of Kraus’s…

“Hi-ho hi-ho, it’s Off to Work We Go …” Fay Weldon and the New Ergonarchy

“Hi-ho hi-ho, it’s Off to Work We Go …” Fay Weldon and the New Ergonarchy

New Zealand raised Fay Weldon takes time-out to ponder the future, “We could have the leisure society if we wanted it. But Samuel Smiles won; our lives are ruled by a work ethic and…

Call me Mr Comedy

Call me Mr Comedy

New Zealand-born Four Weddings and a Funeral/Blackadder creator, Comic Relief co-founder and top scriptwriter Richard Curtis discusses his career on BBC Radio4. Register and search to view Archives

Russell Crowe gets inside his character’s head

Russell Crowe gets inside his character’s head

Jeffrey Wigland, real-life whistleblower says Crowe, 22 years junior and a native of New Zealand “did a remarkable job .. he did things that made it feel very surreal for me, emotionally retching and…

A sting in the tale

A sting in the tale

“When the New York Times says of your second novel that it “constructs a sturdy web of silken prose”, you might reasonably conclude that, as a novelist, you have arrived. When into the bargain,…

Forget About the Brass Ring

Forget About the Brass Ring

Some 1.7 million fans hit the movie’s new website in its first 21 hours up, compared with only 1 million downloads the first day the Star Wars: The Phantom Menace site was open for…

Legend Kiri Te Kanawa Opens on Stage in Montreal

Legend Kiri Te Kanawa Opens on Stage in Montreal

Kiri Te Kanawa enjoys almost unique prestige in the public eye. She attracted a VIP crowd (including Prime Minister Jean Cretien) to the Centre Pierre Peladeau.

Kiwi blows her bassoon as single-sex barriers make the news

Kiwi blows her bassoon as single-sex barriers make the news

New Zealand woman Rosamund Allison became the first woman to be recruited to the previously all-male Scots Guards Band.

New Zealand Wilderness a Hit with Big-budget Filmmakers

New Zealand Wilderness a Hit with Big-budget Filmmakers

Ever since Jane Campion brought the surging savage West Coast of Auckland’s Karekare beach and the rain-soaked bush to the world in her award winning film The Piano nearly a decade ago, more and…

Tolkien Teaser Runs

Tolkien Teaser Runs

“Attention fantasy fans: New Line Cinema is about to lift the veil of secrecy — just a little bit — that has shrouded Peter Jackson’s massive adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the…

Theo Ray – Kiwi Indie singer hits LA

Theo Ray – Kiwi Indie singer hits LA

From Indie chart success in New Zealand and Australia, to a #2 single ‘Smell’ in Europe, to the darker side of Asia and beyond, Theo Ray is now based in Los Angeles, playing with…

Countless billboards proclaim there’s a new hero: Russell Crowe, bigger than Ben Hur.

Countless billboards proclaim there’s a new hero: Russell Crowe, bigger than Ben Hur.

From Auckland Grammar to singing on 80’s pop show Shazam. From Oscar nominations to the violent centre of a decadent ancient Rome. He’s one-sixteenth Maori and registered on the Maori voting poll, but he lives…

Kiwi editor of Oscar winning documentary paints LA pink

Kiwi editor of Oscar winning documentary paints LA pink

Director of the acclaimed “One Day in September” Kevin McDonald recounts his poolside adventures at the Oscars: “At 2pm, Justine Wright, the brilliant editor who cut our film arrives to get changed with us….

Pompidou lyes down to get kinetic

Pompidou lyes down to get kinetic

Renowned New Zealand film-maker, kinetic sculptor and animator Len Lye is honoured with a show at the Pompidou Centre, Paris, France.

When in Rome … Russell Crowe fights on in

When in Rome … Russell Crowe fights on in

“Fresh Talent” Chad Taylor sends sophisticated shivers in Shirker

“Fresh Talent” Chad Taylor sends sophisticated shivers in Shirker

“With a tight and observant style, Taylor has weaved an engaging tale reminiscent of Paul Auster’s New York Trilogy and with peripheral detail as obsessive as Easton Ellis’s American Psycho. He may touch upon…

Now, if we could just send some of those country singers to New Zealand

Now, if we could just send some of those country singers to New Zealand

Tim Finn, Say It Is So (review). (1–16 March 2)  

Spider pic hatched – New Zealander to direct

Spider pic hatched – New Zealander to direct

Hollywood: the duo behind Independence Day and Godzilla are producing “Arch Attack”, an f/x driven comedic thriller about a toxic waste spill that causes giant spiders to go on a rampage.  Will shoot in…

Russell Crowe: Heroic gladiator rises from the burger-pits of

Russell Crowe: Heroic gladiator rises from the burger-pits of

“The people who brought you World War II now think that you are ready for really ancient history: the Roman Empire. And, even though they’re leaving out the orgies, they may be onto something”.

One for the connoisseurs: Kiwi crime writer weaves a seductive web of existential anomie

One for the connoisseurs: Kiwi crime writer weaves a seductive web of existential anomie

New Zealand crime-fiction writer Chad Taylor makes a big impact on Guardian reviewer Maxim Jakubowski, “Shirker: a fascinating and obsessive novel from New Zealand with shades of Paul Auster’s New York Trilogy…” …

Xena: motherhood becomes her

Xena: motherhood becomes her

Lucy Lawless’ pregnancy not only changed scripts on Xena: Warrior Princess, but the costume department had to ‘expand’ with the times too. New to the show: Spandex.

Looks Wonderful

Looks Wonderful

“It’s not always easy to flow the tortuous intrigues, passions and deceits, but it looks wonderful, with photography by the gifted New Zealand cinematographer and director Chris Doyle”. BBC2 film preview of Temptress Moon…

Nabokov’s Pale Fire Still Smoulders

Nabokov’s Pale Fire Still Smoulders

38 years later, the mystery continues to intrigue… Auckland University’s Professor Brian Boyd attempts to solve the enigma.

Bugger

Bugger

A Cultural phenomenon has reached Asia, and it has bugger-all to do with Bulgarians or heretics, but something to do with a car advertisement, a racehorse and climbing Mt. Everest.

Justine Wright Nominated For Oscar

Justine Wright Nominated For Oscar

New Zealander Justine Wright has been nominated for this year’s Oscar Awards for her editing of a dramatic documentary One Day in September, an account of the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972…

Piping up a storm down under

Piping up a storm down under

Cultural history was made as the massed bands of the Edinburgh Military Tattoo played in front of a sell-out crowd in New Zealand, the first time in its 50-year history that the event has…

Jane Campion is a model profile of a working artist

Jane Campion is a model profile of a working artist

Anthropologist, artist, and award winner, internationally acclaimed New Zealand director exercises an organic approach to her craft …

Child Superstar Anna Paquin’s Vampish Turn

Child Superstar Anna Paquin’s Vampish Turn

Anna Paquin has got something tucked away in her closet: an Oscar … becoming the second-youngest Academy Award winner is a tough act to follow.

“I Love Dick”

“I Love Dick”

Interview with Kiwi writer and avant-garde filmmaker Chris Kraus, author of I Love Dick (the spare-no-prisoners tell-all that scandalised the Soho Intelligentsia) talks about anorexia, romance, and faking it.

Russell Crowe: Inside Story

Russell Crowe: Inside Story

Playing a 52-year-old tobacco company executive in The Insider is all in a day’s work for 35-year-old Russell Crowe; giving up the smokes is not.

When Substance Puts Style in its Place

When Substance Puts Style in its Place

There’s more to the web than pornography, semi-literate navel-gazing and slick shopping sites, but finding quality information can be difficult … a site that makes it easy.

New Zealand writer nominated for Commonwealth Writer’s Prize

New Zealand writer nominated for Commonwealth Writer’s Prize

Kapka Kassabova, regional winner for best first book in Commonwealth Writer’s Prize to be decided in April.