Archive

Day Walks of New Zealand – Canterbury and Kaikoura

Posted 4:34am Monday 4th April 2011 by Stefan Fairweather

Author: Mark Pickering. Publisher: Penguin (3/5) Most New Zealanders take it as a given, if not a birthright, the access we have in this country to a plethora of walks (aka tramps for the newbie foreign students reading this). But it would be interesting to ask somebody, say in Read more...

Master of Reality

Posted 4:31am Monday 4th April 2011 by Johnny Panadol

Author: John Darnielle. (4/5) Master of Reality is part of the long-running 33 1/3 series, in which each new entry is written by a different author about classic album of their choosing. John Darnielle has written his tribute to the Black Sabbath album in the form of a diary kept by a sixteen-year Read more...

Art and Fashion

Posted 4:23am Monday 4th April 2011 by Hana Aoake

Historically speaking, art and fashion vastly overlap and often seamlessly influence each other. What initially comes to mind is Manet’s portraits of fashionable Parisian life in the late nineteenth century, Salvador Dali’s extensive collaborations with fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli, Andy Read more...

Hullapolloi

Posted 2:49am Tuesday 29th March 2011 by Jen Aitken

Footnote Dance Company (Wellington), 5/5. This beautiful and unsettling collaboration between Footnote Dance Company, Jo Randerson and Kate McIntosh dissected the child-like and self-conscious dynamics of a group. The figures, covered from head-to-toe in different coloured lycra bodysuits, Read more...

Once Was

Posted 2:45am Tuesday 29th March 2011 by Lauren Enright

The Theatre As Is (Dunedin). By Jimmy Currin and Dell McLeod assisted by Richard Huber, 3.5/5. Once Was is presented in a cosy upstairs space, with chairs or couches as seating options. The stage space has the lighting exposed and is bare except for one chair and two layers of mesh that is hung to Read more...

Mates and Lovers

Posted 2:43am Tuesday 29th March 2011 by Jen Aitken

Fabulous Arts Aotearoa (Wellington). Directed and written by Ronald Trifero, 4/5. Mates and Lovers (inspired by the book Mates and Lovers: A History of Gay New Zealand by Chris Brickell, a lecturer in Gender Studies at the University of Otago), invites us to ponder how the past speaks to the Read more...

Love You Approximately

Posted 2:42am Tuesday 29th March 2011 by Maya Turei

The Clinic (Christchurch), 3/5. Love You Approximately (with the really cute tagline “a virtual love story”) was all about long distance relationships. The play consisted of two characters using Skype, Facebook and phone calls to grow and nurture their budding relationship. Pere Read more...

The Upbeats Live with Jess Chambers

Posted 1:35am Tuesday 29th March 2011 by Callum Valentine

March 19th 2011, Urban Factory Within the annals of drum and bass, the Upbeats have carved out their own niche. A curious mix of everything from neurofunk to dubstep, the pair often defy expectations. From their initial success in 2004 with their self-titled debut recording, they have progressed Read more...

Idiot Prayer

Posted 1:33am Tuesday 29th March 2011 by Sam Valentine

After only a short year of existence, Dunedin trio Idiot Prayer are set to add their considerable sonic weight to the cities musical landscape. Comprising effortlessly punishing drummer Sam Brookland, bassman David ‘Local’ Ager and vocalist/frontman Tim ‘Tiddy’ Smith, the group’s boundary pushing, Read more...

Atom Zombie Smasher

Posted 1:28am Tuesday 29th March 2011 by Toby Hills

Platforms: PC, OSX, LINUX. (4/5). You can't help it; the gut reaction to guts being forcibly removed by a stumbling horde of on-screen undead will always be “what would I do in this situation?” Atom Zombie Smasher lets you answer that question, not as an individual deciding between Read more...

Potluck Desserts

Posted 1:25am Tuesday 29th March 2011 by Niki Lomax

Potlucks are invariably a good time. Booze, banter and fuckloads of food. Sometimes, however, figuring out what to contribute can be a tricky business - what will impress and be delicious, yet also be quick and not extravagant? In an attempt to solve this dilemma, here are a couple of suggestions Read more...

Unknown

Posted 5:10am Monday 28th March 2011 by Matt Chapman

Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra. (4/5). Jaume Collet-Serra's action-thriller Unknown is similar in feel to Pierre Morel's 2008 film, Taken, except with a great deal more mystery thrown in. Liam Neeson stars as Martin Harris, who, after being involved in a freak accident, wakes up from a coma to Read more...

Tamara Drewe

Posted 5:08am Monday 28th March 2011 by Maya Turei

Directed by Stephen Frears. (3/5). Tamara Drewe is pretty sweet. The story seems predictable, but then leads you on until you think it's all sussed before surprising you with something totally unpredictable. It is wonderfully silly and heart-warmingly sickening in the best possible way. Read more...

Never Let Me Go

Posted 5:06am Monday 28th March 2011 by Lauren Hayes

Directed by Mark Romanek. (5/5). It may look like an ordinary British romance, but don't let this fool you; Never Let Me Go is a film about clones. Based on the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go unfolds in a world that seems familiar but isn't quite our own. The human race is living Read more...

Blue Valentine

Posted 5:03am Monday 28th March 2011 by Sarah Baillie

Directed by Derek Cianfrance. (5/5). Blue Valentine documents the heart-breaking story of every married couple’s worst fear: falling out of love. Dean (Ryan Gosling) and Cindy (Michelle Williams) meet when they are young and carefree. Six years on, their marriage is falling apart and they Read more...

Mommie Dearest (1981)

Posted 4:58am Monday 28th March 2011 by Ben Blakely

Directed by Frank Perry. Starring: Faye Dunaway, Mara Hobel, Diana Scarwid. Based on the book of the same name by Christina Crawford, Mommie Dearest depicts the bizarre life of Joan Crawford as her daughter saw it. The film begins with a typical morning for Joan Crawford. After a 4am wake-up Read more...

The Human Mind

Posted 4:11am Monday 28th March 2011 by Sarah Maessen

Author: Robert Winston. Publisher: Bantam Books (4/5) The Human Mind captivates the reader with the characteristically informative, entertaining and fascinating style Robert Winston has become renowned for. The moustachioed presenter of the TV series “The Human Body” this time focuses Read more...

One Day

Posted 4:08am Monday 28th March 2011 by Eve Hermansson

Author: David Nicholls. Publisher: Hodder & Staughton (3/5) The relationship between Dexter Mayhew and Emma Morley begins the way many do in the fine institution we call university: an attempted hook-up following a drunken party. It’s the Eighties, the two have just graduated and the future Read more...

Desi Liversage, Bloodlines and Bloodstains

Posted 4:05am Monday 28th March 2011 by Hana Aoake

Dunedin School of Art. (It’s super close to campus. Another reason to procrastinate!) Desi Liversage uses the medium of textiles to express and expose the darker colonial heritage of South Africa during the second Boer war. This installation was inspired by Liversage’s grandmother’s Read more...

Colleen Altagracia

Posted 4:02am Monday 28th March 2011 by Hana Aoake

The emptiness of full pockets, The Blue Oyster, Tuesday, March 22, 2011. The sombre white walls of the Blue Oyster further added to Altagracia’s performance of The emptiness of full pockets last Tuesday. Performers stood completely still as persons dressed in contamination suits filled their Read more...