Not meaning to come across too poetically pretentious, but I have always felt that music (in all its forms) is a mirror and road map with two contrasting faces: chaos and calm, shadow and light. Good music, if we let it, can cradle a broken heart; be rooted yet restless, […]
In late January of this year, billboards around America changed, almost simultaneously, to a countdown clock ticking down the day, hour, minute and seconds to a mysterious event. Possible mayhem, perhaps? Maybe to apocalypse? As time ticked on by, the aesthetics of the countdown changed too. What was going on? […]
In the two decades since she debuted her acting chops on PBS’ Barney & Friends, the amazing, brave and versatile Selena Gomez has actually tried to let go of every kind of disguise and be the same person in public and private. Even after Bloomsberg recently announced her as a […]
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Sydney Sweeney is certainly a lot of things. A phenomenal actor, for starters. Charismatic, caring and kind—her gentle character shines through in any interview she’s in. Naturally beautiful. A fashion icon. A calming aura about her. Warm, highly-driven and a bundle of high-energy, like a battery. Whenever you see her […]
It is a right for all New Zealanders—especially wahine and their tamariki—to feel safe in their homes. Unfortunately sometimes this isn’t the case. To feel safe and secure is a right that everyone should hold. According to a report published by The Guardian last year, in New Zealand, police attend […]
The crowd bursts into fits of laughter. Ali Wong has just told a rip-roaringly funny joke in her 2016 critically-acclaimed Netflix comedy special, Ali Wong: Baby Cobra. Something about Fancy Asians versus Jungle Asians. It’s Ali Wong’s signature dry, self-deprecating humour, and her audience is lapping it up. Several months […]
As the lights dimmed on the 69,000-strong gathering of Swifties at the State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona on March 17th of this year, the excitement from the crowd was unreal. The cheers and whoops must’ve broken through to 9.9 on the Richter scale, for sure. Several spotlights swirled across […]
Homegrown, DIY, up-and-coming music just does something to the soul. It energises it, almost. From DIY bedroom musician to one of the rising stars in Aotearoa’s music scene, hanbee is one of those artists that you can’t stop listening to. Having recently been nominated at the 2023 Rolling Stone Aotearoa […]
Born in 2001, Raquel Abolins-Reid grew up with music in her bones, for sure. A Churton Park-native, her early life was spent dancing and signing herself up for talent shows in the local mall. Her family (all music lovers with an eclectic mix of tastes) had massively influenced her—also Beyonce, […]
Whether it’s walking the red carpet to her next premiere, receiving numerous awards for her work, or talking to the press with that beautiful grin on her face, eyes wide and sparkling, Margaret Qualley has this unique ability to stay grounded, poised and ready to tackle just about anything. She’s […]
Nestled within the commune of Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, between Monaco and Menton, in the South-East Côte d’Azur region of France, a stunning villa sits on the cliff-side, almost teetered too close to the edge, as though one small breeze will push it over. If anything, it looks as though from a dream—its […]
Producing a film isn’t for the faint-hearted. It takes a lot of patience, hard-work and determination. Producers have the delicacy and perfectionism of the greatest love poet and the stamina and determination of a highly-skilled artisan. It was American director Robert Rodriguez (famous for the 1996 Tarantino flick, From Dusk […]
Music plays such a vital role in the creative landscape of Aotearoa. It encompasses what we are as a people, and offers a warmth and togetherness that is (not meaning to sound too biased) world-class. We use music as a way to bring whanau together, as though in a loving, […]
Born a hard-headed, tenacious and loyal Taurus, Melissa Viviane Jefferson came into this world shining—well, at least that’s what she sang years later in her hit tune Juice, anyway. A Detroit, Michigan native, Melissa was raised within quite a religious Pentacostal family, and regularly attended the Church of God in […]
Role models are such powerful figures in any female’s life. A strong mother, for example, who stands up for their children, uncompromisingly loyal. A global leader, making a difference around the world, using their voice to tackle change and real-world problems. An actor, appearing in blockbuster films, that uses their […]
Music, in every sense, allows a means to travel. To move from one place to the next, recover and reconcile, revisit past relationships and transport both physically and mentally through the narrow corridors of the mind. Music is an intensely powerful thing, to say the least. So if a listener […]
I don’t know about you, but I struggle to cast my mind back to a time when Rihanna didn’t exist in our collective lives. She’s always been there. My foot taps on the ground and my head starts to bob as I remember listening to her debut hit, ‘Pon de […]
A study conducted by Texas-based online journal, Neuroscience News.com proves that, after listening to a certain piece of music that truly touches the soul, our brains—the sections being the Heschl’s gyrus and the superior temporal gyrus, to be more specific—light up like a Christmas tree. What a beautiful thought, to […]
Tammy Faye sat, dressed in a flowing white gown, her memorably warm face with her iconic eyelashes beaming at the screen in front of her, and hosted the first-ever satellite interview on her own The PTL [Praise The Lord] Club network. ‘The PTL Club’, if you didn’t already know, was […]
The inescapable and iconic sound of New Zealand music courses the blood of any Kiwi. That laid-back chillness, or that hard-hitting richness that connects to the soul, as the words flow from the singer’s hearts into ours. Home grown Kiwi music—for New Zealanders, at least—have a whole different rank to […]
The sparkling Sala Grande, with a capacity of filling up to around 1,100 bums on seats, is the Venice Film Festival’s par excellence when it comes to showing off the biggest films of the year. Radically renovated from its original 1937 design, the cinema (with its numerous technological enhancements) is […]
The classic ‘who-done-it’ has forever been steeped in the literary landscape. Names like Agatha Christie, Patricia Highsmith, Wickie Collins and Vera Caspery are all writing greats that have stood the test of time to grip readers around the throats and take the air out their lungs. New Zealand-born writer, Vicki […]
There’s definitely something unique about home-grown music that has been created unapologetically from the heart. Songs that are nice and comforting, like a warm cup of tea on a rainy day, or a billion songbirds harmonising together. Songs that speak from the ‘outside-looking-in’, or narrate on global issues, and have […]
Striding along the Champion’s Walk at the Australian Open earlier this year, only mere moments before her final tennis showdown with American player Jennifer Brady, Naomi Osaka looked stoic as ever. Eyes fixed to the floor, head-phones sitting on her ears and her racket bag slapping at her back, the […]
Chloé Zhao has made cinematic history with her Best Director win at the 93rd Academy Awards. She is the first woman of colour and the second female ever to win the Oscar thanks to her work on Nomadland. We interviewed Chloe about her now Oscar-winning film recently. The core brilliance […]
Moving at a mere 30km/h, the silver Nissan shuffled painfully slowly through the wave of oppressive January heat. The year was 2018 and, as correctly anticipated by TVNZ weather reporter Dan Corbett the night before, the day was sweltering. If that prehistoric old car had gone any slower along Auckland’s […]
Walking out to the rapturous applause of a ‘filled’ Staples Centre, comedian and late-night talk show host, Jimmy Kimmel looked calm, cool, and collected. Dressed in a traditional black, tailored tuxedo with a hint of swagger in his walk, the popular comic started his opening monologue with his typical tongue-in-cheek […]
Ask a scientist to discover and they will experiment. They will spend years and years going through the same type of equations, playing with different figures and statistics to get to a concrete, final result. Ask a stonemason to build a cathedral and they’ll spend decades laying brick after brick. […]
As the soft, amber stage lights rose on the Radio Music Hall in New York, Stefani Germanotta’s voice rang out in a haunting yet delicate Soprano shrill. A fallen ghost-silver chandelier, teetering on its side behind her, had interrupted her introduction. The shot cuts to Stefani’s face, hidden behind a […]
Mulan is one of the most iconic figures of Ancient China. First introduced to the Northern Dynasties in the 6th century poem, Ballad of Mulan, and later as the titular character in a 1998 Disney animated film, the daughter-turned-honoured-warrior has stood the test of time. Spirited, determined and skilled on […]
In the words of the greatest poet and playwright in history, William Shakespeare, “One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.” The world is such a beautiful, marvellous place and we’re all so lucky to live within it. Started by the BBC Wildlife Magazine in 1965 with 361 different […]
Bathrooms by Elite, as their name would suggest, are kind of obsessed with bathrooms. And while the other rooms in your home will of course have their uses, your bathroom will be where you prepare yourself for an amazing day or maybe unwind from a tough day. Whatever the day, […]
Horse racing is one of the oldest known sports. Predominantly ‘posh’ in nature, but brutally rugged in practice, its earliest recordings date back into the sands of prehistoric time. If you want to feel that same age-old adrenaline, head along to the Auckland Cup Week, on the 29th of February […]
With the year coming to a close, soon the days will be turning tinseled and colourful with Christmas cheer. As you’d expect, Christmas wish-lists will be filled to the brim with roller skates, new socks and the latest iPhone’s or laptops for the beloved teenager in your life. There are, […]
It was the great Marilyn Monroe that once said “Hollywood’s a place where they’ll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss, and fifty cents for your soul”. The film industry is an ever changing landscape – exciting and scary, free and restricting – yet classic Hollywood cinema will always […]
To fully become a character, either on stage or on screen, is a wonderful gift for an artist to have. It’s a real process to prepare for such a role too. The years spent at Toi Whakaari may not prepare the aforementioned actor for the journey they would be made […]
When life gives you lemons, don’t make lemonade – make this cake. It’s gluten-free and mouth-wateringly good. Photography by Aimee Finlay-Magne Ingredients 2 lemons 2 cups ground raw almonds 2 cups coconut sugar (or use white sugar if you want the cake to look more of a pretty yellow […]
Sometimes we just need to take a moment out of our busy lives to have a little chortle. Laughter unites us. A woman who knows how to deal (and receive) laughter is New Zealand’s own Mel Bracewell. She’s a trailblazer in comedy and has been since starting in 2014, where […]
UK-based charity, Green Alliance, predict that up to 12.2 million tonnes of plastic waste enters the ocean each year. A massive portion of that waste is packaging for food and beauty products. Even though beauty is definitely in the eyes of the beholder, it also seems to cost a fair […]
There’s always something uniquely enriching and transformative about home building, but you often hear stories about the daunting steps involved that may give new property owners unwanted anxiety. They have the money saved up in the bank, they’ve got the empty plot of land, they have designs and colour-schemes in […]
