Saddlebacks: back in the saddle
You could say it’s just a tree stump; or you could say that it’s a hallowed place, a spot where something truly special occurred. For in this stump, on a […]
Truth and Big Lies
If my calculations are correct, the New Zealand International Comedy Festival should be going on as you read these very words. The comedy festival is, like so many events on the […]
Back to the big screen in May
I suppose every month of cinema releases can boast being ‘something for everyone’, but this month it really does appear to be justified. First up, on Sunday 3 May, is […]
Empty tables, closed doors, Open Looks
The first quarter of 2015 was a mixed bag for local readers and booksellers. Quilters’ Dewey-defying treasure-tables displayed at last their naked surfaces, while the thrumming hive of ephemera […]
The return of the Roots
Trinity Roots Citizen (Self-released) When beloved Wellington group Trinity Roots rallied themselves for a series of reunion concerts in 2010, it became clear that the public weren’t that keen to let […]
Come on Doll Face
Collage seems a useful metaphor for contemporary life in the digital age. A collage disrupts accepted meanings by taking found images clipped from their original context, then mixing them up and […]
Fanfare for the Commons man
Jeremy Commons used to put on drawing-room operas. He doesn’t now, but for 14 years he ensured that these intimate dramas were regularly re-enacted, for a small audience of the […]
The more things change
Ever since I took over this column in early 2012, I feel like everything I have written has come with the subtext of coming change. Much as we love it, […]
To end all wars
Vera Brittain’s memoir Testament of Youth is a heart-rending lesson about the First World War and its effects. As you read, gobsmacked by the forces that swoop in and pluck […]
Other countries, other stories
The past, we’re often reminded, is another country. It’s still inaccessible to even the worldliest of 21st-century travellers; good luck working out the status of forces agreement necessary to traverse […]
