Simon Bridges on FIRST – Hāngī Pants – The White Lotus
...and other recs this week!
Kia ora, welcome to this week’s newsletter.
“I'm just going to give you... almost like subconscious self,” Simon Bridges said as he sat down for his interview in this week’s FIRST. “Let's see what's in there. Take me back to my childhood.”
What was in there included: getting in trouble at school (“I dobbed myself in”), childhood dreams of becoming an orchestra conductor (“probably slight megalomania”), Bata Bullets with the Velcro strap (“they were good“), his mum’s Toyota Starlet (“I thrashed the shit out of that car”), attending his first concert (U2 at Western Springs in 1989 – “great times”) and accidentally killing his pet axolotl.
Bloody hell. Good episode! Have a watch here:
This week’s new podcasts
The Real Pod [Apple | Spotify] has two new episodes out this week for The Apprentice Aotearoa – tune in to today’s one for all the big business from last night’s season finale.
On Business is Boring [Apple | Spotify], Simon Pound spoke to Rocket Lab’s Peter Beck about living his childhood dream of launching rockets into space.
Gone By Lunchtime [Apple | Spotify] welcomed special guest Mihingarangi Forbes for an episode covering debate (demand thereof), the farmers’ protest, meth, Seymour and more.
On When the Facts Change [Apple | Spotify], Bernard Hickey spoke to some experts about solar power and how it could turn our electricity market on its head.
On The Fold [Apple | Spotify], Duncan Greive caught up with musician, actor and reluctant Masked Singer Troy Kingi to chat about his 10 10 10 project and the state of the music industry.
Remember When… [Apple | Spotify] looked back on the many lives of downtown Auckland’s weird iMax building and the undeniable joy of new stationery.
Follow and listen wherever you get your pods!
Hāngī Pants
Leonie says: “Fans of The Spinoff’s politics podcast Gone By Lunchtime are in for a treat – the star of the podcast (let’s be honest) Annabelle Lee-Mather is also the star of a hilarious short film which premiered in last year’s Show Me Shorts festival. Based on an incident recalled by filmmaker Claire Varley’s mother at the local marae, Hāngī Pants follows a string of ex-lovers who show up to a tangi and proceed to try and outdo each other in their expressions of grief. The pūkana stand off had me absolutely crying with laughter. It’s $5 to download and watch, less than the cost of a Happy Meal to support wonderful local filmmaking and far more nutritious.”
The White Lotus
Sam says: “The White Lotus (Neon) is the latest from small screen genius Mike White (writer of Enlightened and School of Rock, contestant on Survivor and The Amazing Race), and revolves around a five-star Hawai’ian resort that caters to privileged, entitled, blissfully un self-aware white people. It’s one of the most excruciating things I’ve ever watched, and I loved every minute of it, but especially the minutes where Jennifer Coolidge is tearing up the screen as a woman who is a walking, waking nightmare.”
Patu!
Mad says: “This week marks 40 years since the 1981 Springbok Tour of New Zealand that saw nationwide protests against the rugby union and the government for inviting South Africa to tour in the middle of Apartheid. There’ll be a lot of Springbok Tour retrospectives floating around but none will come close to showing the events of the tour as starkly and truthfully as Patu!, Merata Mita’s documentary of the events leading up to and during the protests. Patu! is essential viewing for anyone who finds themselves forgetting how far we’ve come and how far we still have to go in this country. And luckily for us, one of the best documentaries by one of our greatest filmmakers is free to watch at NZ On Screen.
Extremely Online
What would you do if a video of you saying or doing something you never actually said or did went viral? This week’s episode of Extremely Online from Shit You Should Care About looks at deepfakes – what are they, how are they made and how do we spot one? Made with the support of NZ On Air.
Plant Projects
Josie says: “Plant Projects make coffee especially to go with plant-based milks, and I'm delighted to confirm soy milk does NOT curdle in it! This is a huge development in coffee science for those of us who thrive on phytoestrogens. Thank you, Plant Projects!”
Thai E-Sarn
Charlotte says: “When Food Alley closed for good last year, a month earlier than anticipated due to the countrywide lockdown, it took with it one of the most beloved Thai food spots in Auckland city. Thai E-Sarn was famous for their array of Isaan (northern Thai) dishes, and notably their extensive hand-written som tum menu. Last week, the eatery was resurrected with their own shop at the other end of Hobson Street (opposite Wah Lee), along with an updated menu. On Saturday I visited for a rainy day lunch and it was as excellent as ever – even if it's not quite the same without the $4.50 dry white wine from Alley Cats (Food Alley's bar) or the buzzing food court atmosphere. After a year and a half of wistful daydreaming, the meal (Som Tum with pickled crab – hot) was equally as emotional as it was delicious.”
Stay Another Day
Duncan says: “It's incredibly embarrassing to admit that until Friday I had never consciously heard East 17's 1994 hit ‘Stay Another Day’. All I knew of East 17 was that they were kind of like the boy band version of Oasis to Take That's Blur. But last week Daylight Creative boy band authority Sepi Sadeghi ridiculed me for not having heard this song while considering myself an armchair boy band fan – and she had a point. It’s an all-time crystalline synth pop masterpiece, a top-tier boy band ballad that calls to mind Berlin or Kate Bush. In an excellent use of public polling, YouGov surveyed the British public in 2017 about whether it was technically a Christmas song (it was a Christmas #1, and features chiming bells in the outro). Per Wikipedia, ‘just over one third, or 34% disagreed, while 29% agreed. This left a large proportion of 37% in the don't know category, which includes all of those who were unaware of the song.’ That last category was me until last week – don't let it be you.”
Screen time
Jane says: “It may be the school holidays talking, but I’d like to recommend we ease up on the screen time guilt – at least until school’s back in. I get it: we’re stunting their growth, they won’t develop the skills to have conversations with real humans, they’ll get scurvy and we can kiss any hope of them writing in cursive goodbye, but… is there really any point in fighting it? Computers, smartphones, tablets, televisions and all the other types of screen – I think maybe they’re here to stay. It makes little sense for us to demonise technology only to turn around and expect our kids to set up the modem and remember the family Netflix login the moment they hit 13. The way I see it, screen time for kids is future-proofing for all of us.”
ICYMI: Alice Snedden’s Bad News
Some good news from the latest round of NZ On Air funding: new seasons of both Alice Snedden’s Bad News and Scratched: Aotearoa’s Lost Sporting Legends are coming next year! If you missed Bad News when it came out last year, catch up now – it’s a great watch!
That’s all for this week! Please reply to get in touch and share with anyone else who might like to subscribe too. See you next Wednesday 👋
