The Single Object – Bed of Lies – New Zealand Pub Crawl
...and other recs this week!
Kia ora, welcome to this week’s newsletter.
The first time I ever heard of Auckland’s Maungakiekie / One Tree Hill, it came from the mouth of Richard Long. A man had gone up there and tried to chop the tree down with a chainsaw the night before, and now it was the lead story on One Network News.
Growing up in the single-screen era, it wasn’t unusual for a child to watch the news every night. Most stories went in one ear and out the other – I had better things to do than try and understand what “the winebox inquiry” was – but chopping down the tree on One Tree Hill was one that really captured the imagination.
Decades later, that chainsaw and the man who took it up Maungakiekie feature in the first episode of a new video series called The Single Object. And it turns out there was quite a bit more to the story than my primary school-aged brain absorbed at the time. It’s a really interesting watch, and it’ll be available on The Spinoff next week. In the meantime, have a watch of the trailer for the series, made in partnership with Objectspace, here:
–Cal
Pods pods pods
This week on When the Facts Change [Apple | Spotify], Bernard Hickey and guests are talking about the good, the bad and the challenges of the working from home economy. On The Fold [Apple | Spotify], Duncan Greive speaks to Vodafone CEO Jason Paris about the Magic Talk saga and ethical advertising. On Business is Boring [Apple | Spotify], Fix & Fogg CEO Roman Jewell told Simon Pound about taking their nut butters to the world. On Remember When… [Apple | Spotify] we’re going back to the blog era with Emily Writes and The Bulletin’s Alex Braae. The Dietary Requirements [Apple | Spotify] crew taste some real wasabi and unleash a controversial take on hot cross buns. And The Real Pod [Apple | Spotify] has a new episode documenting a week of spectacular Bryce moments on MAFS AU coming tonight. Subscribe and listen to them all now!
Bed of Lies
Jane says: “The Telegraph's Bed of Lies podcast tells the stories of a group of British women whose perfect relationships all came to an abrupt halt when each of their partners vanished without a trace. The connected disappearances took place over several decades and as the women’s lives unraveled so did the lies they were told. The result was an expose that shook the nation. Bed of Lies is a mind-blowing series detailing near-incomprehensible levels of deception and devastation – set aside some time because you're going to want to binge this one.”
Clive Davis: The Soundtrack of our Lives
Mark says: I watched the documentary Clive Davis: The Soundtrack of Our Lives with my extended family on Netflix over Easter weekend and it was amazing how much we all connected with this absolute music mogul. Davis played a major role in bringing us some of the most influential records and artists over the past five decades. He kind of just found himself in the industry by chance and discovered a special talent along the way: an incredible knack for discovering artists and creating musical partnerships between writers and performers. Whitney Houston will probably go down as his biggest signing, but he's also played a significant hand in the success of Janis Joplin, Bruce Springsteen, Santana, Simon & Garfunkel, Patti Smith, Aretha Franklin, Alicia Keys, Maroon 5, Sean Combs & Notorious B.I.G and Kelly Clarkson to name just a handful. If you have any interest in music, this is a must-watch.”
Remembering the stuck ship
Remember the ship that got stuck in the Suez Canal? That was only last week! What a time to be alive. Jose Barbosa, who once found himself in a similar predicament after accidentally getting his car stuck in a communal driveway, made this video in tribute to the Ever Given and what it taught us about ourselves.
Patricia Lockwood
Leonie says: “I would like to recommend Patricia Lockwood – as a person, but also specifically her book No One is Talking About This. Lockwood is probably the funniest writer alive today, and the first half of No One… is galling if you are someone who is, like her, Extremely Online. It’s an empathy that feels a bit like shame, like being caught masturbating by someone who’s just accidentally shit themselves, but she’s so achingly funny you quickly forgive yourself for understanding every oblique reference to every meme. It delivers a few swift punches to heart too. An easy (and satisfying) one-day read, perfect for a lazy weekend.”
The Haka Party Incident
Sam says: “The latest show from the Auckland Theatre Company, The Haka Party Incident is running at the ASB Waterfront Theatre until Saturday. It’s the best thing that our country’s biggest theatre company has done in almost a decade – an essential education on a shameful moment in our history, using the actual real-life words of the people involved back in 1979, where Auckland University engineering students rehearsing a mock haka were confronted by activist group He Taua. Go and see it if you can!”
New Zealand Pub Crawl
Alice says: “I recommend the 1984 book New Zealand Pub Crawl, which I found in an Ultimate Hikes lodge on the Routeburn Track in Fiordland. I didn’t really look at the words because I was on holiday and for me, words = work, but the photos of absolute bloody hard-case Kiwi characters at pubs around the motu replenished my wairua almost as much as all that nature and hiking and stuff did. PS If you have a copy of this book I would like to buy it off you – email aliceneville@thespinoff.co.nz!”
A sports documentary triple-header
Justin says: “If anyone has an inordinate amount of time up their sleeves, watch HBO’s Tiger (Neon) and ESPN ‘s 30 for 30 docos on Dennis Rodman (TVNZ On Demand) and Lance Armstrong (Disney Plus) (all the 30 for 30s are also on Sky Sport Now) in one sitting. All highly successful men who seemed to have never developed a healthy sense of morality or restraint due to having some pretty traumatic childhood experiences. Great insight into three very flawed sporting geniuses of the 90s/ 2000s.”
Checking your tyre pressure
Alice WL says: “I drove over a tent peg this weekend and thought I popped my tyre but turns out it was just really low anyway and I had never looked. It takes two mins to check/pump up your tyres at a petrol station, which saves gas and therefore money and also makes your car much safer. Better living everyone!”
Zoom zoom zoom
We don’t talk enough about this jingle. Huge tune!
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 👋