Song of the summer
Things we're enjoying this week
Kia ora, welcome to this week’s newsletter.
I first discovered the comedian Joe Pera in the lockdown era, when I watched approximately 18 hours of YouTube a day. One of the videos the algorithm suggested for me was the 22-minute long Relaxing Old Footage with Joe Pera, which as the title suggests is 22 minutes of relaxing old footage narrated by a man called Joe Pera.
At first I wasn’t sure I understood it. Who was this young man pretending to be an old man, and why was he talking like that? But eventually I realised that was just his thing, and that I loved it, so I watched every other Joe Pera clip on YouTube too.
Then I tried to find his TV series Joe Pera Talks With You, but hit a wall on account of my limited grasp of VPNs, torrenting and other digital dark arts. So imagine my happy surprise this week when I found every episode is now available to stream on TVNZ On Demand! It’s part of their new content partnership with Adult Swim, along with heaps of other stuff – your Tim and Erics, Rick and Morties, Robot Chickens and whatnot – and I recommend it wholeheartedly.
–Cal
Janaye Henry – Scan In
One day there’ll be an exhibit in Te Papa all about Covid-19. Next to the mannequin decked out in surplus deadstock PPE, there’ll be a screen with a pair of ratty old headphones dangling below it. We’ll pop them on and hear this song, and be instantly transported back to January 2021, when Janaye Henry wrote the song of the summer.
The Real Pod
In the immortal words of Staind, it’s been awhile since Jane, Alex and Duncan donned the headphones and a new episode of The Real Pod graced our feeds. But the wait is over, just in time to talk about the new season of The Bachelorette NZ. All the old segments of yesteryear are back too, like Real News, Community Noticeboard, Colin’s Cranny and more.
Jensen McRae – Immune
Mad says: “I recommend the only good reactive pandemic content, Jensen McRae's single Immune. On January 15, McRae tweeted: "in 2023 Phoebe Bridgers is gonna drop her third album & the opening track will be about hooking up in the car while waiting in line to get vaccinated at dodger stadium and it’s gonna make me cry". She then followed up with her prediction for what the song would sound like. The 52-second semi-genuine parody was so accurate that fans of Phoebe Bridgers begged McRae to release it as a full song. Two weeks later she did, combining her ironic Bridgers verses with her own sound in the chorus and creating a pandemic anthem that makes me laugh and then want to cry whenever I listen to it. McRae's debut album will be released this year and she promises "if Lorde & Phoebe don’t drop I will fill the void but if they DO my album can be the appetizer at the sadgirl feast". Very much subscribed.”
Gone By Lunchtime
The summer’s politics podcast drought has finally been broken this week with the return of Gone By Lunchtime. Toby Manhire, Annabelle Lee Mather and Ben Thomas returned to the studio yesterday to pontificate on the political year ahead, including National’s plans to avoid taking the bait, Māori seats and wards, Waitangi Day, the Climate Change Commission report and Ben’s bold plan to abolish all councils. We’re back to business as usual, in other words.
It’s A Sin
Sam says: “Now streaming on TVNZ on Demand, It’s a Sin is a strong early contender for the best drama of 2021. It follows ten years of the AIDS pandemic in London, so it’s not light viewing, but creator Russell T. Davies (Years and Years, Doctor Who) captures a completely different side of AIDS. It’s intimate, chilling, and horrific, but ultimately, it’s about men who lived, not men who died. Essential stuff.”
Lockdown Parenting Hell
Tara says: “I recommend English comedians Rob Beckett and Josh Widdicombe’s funny podcast Lockdown Parenting Hell, which takes a lighthearted look at the realities of raising kids during a global pandemic. It's an exasperated diary of their lives as they go through another lockdown with young children, and a welcome reminder that many of us are winging this parenting lark as we go along. I also recommend being able to send your kids back to school."
Cake It Forward
Emily says: “Cake It Forward is a cake shop in Petone that also donates birthday cakes to children whose parents are in prison and other great causes. They were so good at making my kid's weirdly specific request: ‘Pink on the sides, white on top, ‘music’, one lollipop, chocolate inside but with white’.”
Business is Boring
Apart from being an app that makes everybody over the age of 30 feel suddenly, hopelessly ancient, TikTok is also an increasingly big business. And one of the people helping drive the growth of that business is New Zealander Hongi Luo. As a brand director, she’s across the app’s musical and cultural activations. To explain what that means and talk about her journey from art school to one of the world’s biggest apps, she joined Business is Boring via Zoom from London last week.
MTV 80s
Jane says: “For anyone who still loves the olden days both musically and in the channel surfing sense (ie. still has a Sky box), I highly recommend MTV 80s (channel 123). It’s a glorious mix of all the songs you know, the ones you don’t and best of all, the ones you don’t think you do until the chorus kicks in. Then there’s the whole visual element – the 80s was truly a Wild West era for music video directors, who seemingly all subscribed to the same brief of bringing their weirdest dreams to life. What a decade.”
That’s all for this week! If you’ve got a rec to share or anything else to discuss please reply to get in touch. Share if you want, too! See you next Wednesday 👋