The miserable archive
UPDATE: Henry Cooke has been on it (and, unlike me, got a response from ADHB) and both ADHB and Waitemata DHB (which is the one that actually handles detox services) insist they didn't tell Housing NZ. In which case, what…
Recent Posts
Music: The Noisy Library turns five
On this day five years ago, Audioculture, the "noisy library of New Zealand music", launched to the public. It really doesn't seem that long. ¶ At the time, I was on the board of the NZ On Screen Trust, which was…
Of value in and of itself
‘Special Needs Kids’. I’ve always hated those words. ¶ Yet many parents of children who have needs that would not otherwise be provided for by any of our government-run systems have become accustomed to using this language and see it as…
A Word About Safety
I don’t often get to be a journalist’s go-to comment these days, but it appears that when the call is “Quick, someone find me a feminist submissive,” that’s still just me. ¶ Be aware that this column, and pretty much every…
We are, at last, navigating out of the "meth contamination" debacle
"Testing for low levels of methamphetamine in residential properties in New Zealand has come at a very high cost," reads the report of the Prime Minister's Chief Science Advisor Sir Peter Gluckman into the national panic over the alleged meth…
World of Food 6: Angola – Funge
This post is more about eating disorders than Angola, or Angola’s less-than-appetising national dish. ¶ Which largely explains why it’s taken me more than a year to actually cook, and write about it. ¶ Remember when you were a kid and refused…
Protecting privilege in Epsom
One of the Act Party's founding conceits was that its ideas represented a better way for everyone. Yes, its financial support might come from the very rich, but classical liberalism meant opportunity for all. Roger Douglas came not to uphold…
Budget 2018: The broadcasting shambles
During last year's election campaign, Labour leader Jacinda Ardern pledged an additional $38 million – annually, it appeared – for a public broadcasting sector whose budget had been frozen for nine years of a National-led government. It was welcome news and in…
Budget 2018: The final tick
When Grant Robertson stands up to deliver his first Budget today, he will already have won a battle that's gone largely unremarked: the battle for his image as a credible Minister of Finance. ¶ That might seem a low bar to…
Loops and Diamonds
So I wrote a guide to buying an e-bike (and a look at how the market is evolving) for The Spinoff and it was more than 2000 words and even then I left some things out. For instance, that the…
Auckland Festival of Photography 2018
The 2018 Auckland Festival of Photography is on between May 31 and June 22. Below we present images and links from a few of the events and exhibitions that have captured our attention. ¶ More information on the 2018 Auckland Festival…
Friday Music: Recalling the Rascals
It would be wrong to say The Androidss were part of my childhood, but I wasn't all that long out of short pants when I entered the ambit of that bunch of rascals back in the day in Christchurch. ¶ We'd…
Friday Music: There's a lot on for Music Month
It's New Zealand Music Month – which, as noted here in the past, these days means a month of loosely-coordinated events, rather than any compulsory patriotic exercise. Do it right and it'll be fun, promise. ¶ Many of the details can be…
A handful of deeply precious days: a select committee submission
I travelled to Wellington yesterday to give my oral submission on the Misuse of Drugs (Medicinal Cannabis) Amendment Bill. It was an encouraging experience. ¶ The Health select committee had split in two to accommodate the volume of submissions and our…
The Real Victims, Here
The other day, I was talking to a friend about the awful petition against Debbie Hockley. He was really amused that it only had 400 signatures, and not so long ago I would have agreed with him. These poor pathetic…
The remarkable rise of Michael Avenatti
The roiling, leaking, chaotic, corrupt White House of the current US presidency has delivered a succession of remarkable figures into the public eye. Nearly all of them are fools, grotesques or both. ¶ But one new face is clearly neither: Michael…
The shared-use path that no one will use
One of the things that gives me pause before setting off on my bike from Point Chevalier to anywhere in the direction of the city is the prospect of navigating the many traffic hazards in the area either side of…
Friday Music: The Shopping News
Tomorrow, Saturday, is international Record Store Day – you can tell by the appearance of solemn thinkpieces about how Record Store Day is ruining everything. This year, it's the Chicago-based reissue label Numero Group, which which published a blast about how…
Paying for the storms to come
When I wrote last week about the aftermath of the storm that struck Auckland, it was already clear that the storm's major impact was the widespread interruption of electricity supply. I noted that while we had our power back, my…
Friday Music: In troubled times, the people sing and play
As every domestic political debate seems to be escalating towards hyperbole and madness, a couple of new media-political tunes have come across my desk. I feel it is important to the nation that I share these. ¶ The first is a…
Big Night Outage
Our electricity supply returned about 2.30pm yesterday, ending an outage that began around 9pm during Tuesday night's storm in Auckland. I was grateful: our official resolution time was 6pm and I was prepared to be disappointed given the huge number…
We should stop being surprised about racism
Fourteen years ago last month, Bic Runga flew into a storm. Down near the bottom of a glowing profile headed Is this the next Norah Jones? in Northern Ireland's Belfast Telegraph, these lines appeared: ¶ She says her childhood was tough…
Friday Music: A Turning Point for Tono
I took the northwestern cycleway to the first of Anthonie Tonnon's season of shows with a full band last night. It marks something of a turning point: nine of the dozen songs played were new – including one, a synth instrumental…
The crisis is all around us, and so are the solutions
Three years after first publishing this essay in Don't Dream It's Over: Reimagining Journalism in Aotearoa New Zealand, the problems with news media are just as worrying. ¶ The gap between media and journalism widens. But there is some very good…
Hawking radiation and the simplest things
Stephen Hawking radiated cool. He made nerdy physics cool. At the same time, he made disability cool, and synthetic speech sexy. He was the outstanding physicist of his time. And because of, rather than despite, his communication impairment, he was…