Other Voices, Other Rooms
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GUEST MUSICIAN MATT LANGLEY on the genesis of his new album Virginia Avenue
29 Apr 2013 | 1 min read
Whaka oho rahi…Broad Bay. A place of plenty. I’ve certainly spent plenty of time here over the last few years in various cribs and little houses watching the harbour, trying to track her moods, walking to Portobello, writing, hitching into town, meeting locals, tourists, travellers. There’s nothing here at first glance…buses and tourist traffic wind their way... > Read more
Never
GUEST WRITER ROB SOUTHERN recalls getting happily stuck with Traffic
15 Apr 2013 | 4 min read
Leaving school in the summer of 1966, I started and finished more than 25 different jobs before the end of 1970. I tried selling ice-creams at London’s Victoria Coach Station, stacking bath crystals in a London warehouse, working in an office for a building firm, machinist in a furniture factory, gutting fish at a fishmongers, digging roads for the council, driving an ice-cream... > Read more
Don't Be Sad
GUEST PHOTOGRAPHER BUCK NELSON captures the passion of the blues
1 Apr 2013 | 1 min read
Buck Nelson is an American blues lover whose motto is "Have Canon Will Travel". He also takes wildlife photos, has a passion for motorcycles and captures images of people on the street. You can check out his work here. But for this photo essay, Elsewhere had him present a series of shots which capture the facial expresions of blues players -- of all ages as you may see... > Read more
GUEST PHOTOGRAPHER JONATHAN GANLEY consider the work and relevance of Ansel Adams
Jonathan Ganley | 28 Mar 2013 | 4 min read
“I have often thought that if photography were difficult in the true sense of the term – meaning that the creation of a simple photograph would entail as much time and effort as the production of a good watercolour or etching – there would be a vast improvement in total output. The sheer ease with which we can produce a superficial image often leads to creative disaster... > Read more
GUEST WRITER SARAH JANE ROWLAND explores a Hollywood treatment of mental illness
25 Feb 2013 | 2 min read
Much of the hoopla surrounding Anatole Litvak’s 1948 drama The Snake Pit focused on the treatment of its subject matter. It was one of Hollywood’s first attempts to tackle mental illness sympathetically, backed by extensive background research and a sincere performance from lead actress Olivia de Havilland as a young woman institutionalized after a nervous breakdown.... > Read more
GUEST WRITER SOMSAK LANTANA offers poems of elegant and honest simplicity
18 Feb 2013 | 3 min read
My friend Somsak (James) Lantana from Thailand is not just an excellent chef, but also a very generous one. He has previously shared recipes with me and we posted one for Thai chicken (superb!) which appeared here. His fish dish (here) is unbeatable and also equally easy to make. But there is more to James than those skills. He has increasingly indulged in his passion for photography,... > Read more
GUEST WRITER STEVE GARDEN considers the spiritual complexities of Terrence Malick's controversial film The Tree of Life
Steve Garden | 11 Feb 2013 | 9 min read | 1
Note: there is no synopsis of The Tree of Life in the following article. It has been written with the assumption that those reading it have seen the film. Opening quote: “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the Earth?” (Job 38:4, 7) Image one: a formless warm light in a dark void. Voiceover: “Brother. Mother. It was they who led me to your... > Read more
GUEST WRITER OWEN WOOD consider the strangeness of the South
21 Jan 2013 | 2 min read
Traveling around America's South off the highways and interstates is, as many will tell you, a sometimes frightening experience. Not because of the bad characters -- although there are plenty of those -- but more because of something unspecified. In his documentary Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus the singer-songwriter Jim White encapsulates this feeling in words which rang with truth... > Read more
The Wound That Never Heals
GUEST WRITER MATTHEW BARNETT considers the art of putting science to song
14 Jan 2013 | 5 min read | 1
One of my favourite TV shows is The Big Bang Theory. Admittedly this could be a case of damning with faint praise. Rising above the veritable array of “reality” TV shows that seems to make up the majority of prime-time viewing (involving food, alleged talent, or extreme inability to control a motor vehicle) requires very little effort. However, I believe Big Bang is... > Read more
GUEST MUSICIAN PAUL McLANEY on pinning down the elusive musical dream
9 Nov 2012 | 3 min read
In the majority of recording situations I have been in, either by accident or design, the initial idea or inspiration for a piece of music is necessarily altered by the filter of musicians and collaborators through which it passes. That is not to say the original thought is diluted; in many instances it is magnified. But nonetheless it is altered via the thoughts, deeds, abilities and... > Read more
Lose Sight of Love (extract only)
GUEST WRITER OWEN WOOD sees the writing on the walls
23 Oct 2012 | 6 min read | 2
At some time in the mid Nineties when I was working in Parnell, there was an open air carpark just off the main road. The back wall was perhaps two storeys high and painted white. One day, right at the very top in letters at least a metre high, this sentence appeared: "SHORT PEOPLE GIVE ME THE SHITS". It was clever, funny and looked impossible to accomplish without a ladder.... > Read more
Graffiti Crimes
GUEST MUSICIAN DANIEL BOOBYER on being old school and making a vinyl record
19 Oct 2012 | 3 min read
My new release Time Killed The Clock was sort of an unplanned birth. It mysteriously crept into existence with the first track of the same title being recorded on my trusty Pioneer cassette deck that was pulled from a skip several years ago - yes, I did say cassette. At the time I already had another album in the works to follow up my first release Dripping With (2010). This... > Read more
Shake Your Dirty Chain
GUEST WRITER SARAH JANE ROWLAND goes back to Berlin of the Cold War
8 Oct 2012 | 3 min read | 2
Nunnally Johnson’s Cold War drama Night People (1954) opens with the words "Berlin Today" superimposed over a shot of the four flags of the city’s occupying forces. The French, British and American flags of the capitalist west stand together; the Soviet hammer and sickle stands alone smaller, less prominent, giving the bad guys of this film an unequal billing.... > Read more
GUEST ARTIST ANGELA KEOGHAN opens her portfolio of the quirky and cute
5 Oct 2012 | 2 min read
When New Zealand artist/photographer Angela Keoghan this week won the 2012 award for best album cover for her work on Bannerman's Dearly Departed (right), you looked again at it and realised how subtle and engaging it is. And of course she had previously done the artwork for his Dusty Dream Hole album the previous year, which had been a finalist in the same category. Keoghan's... > Read more
GUEST WRITER OWEN WOOD looks at when genius gets the blues
24 Sep 2012 | 3 min read
The flawed and ultimately doomed genius Truman Capote once wrote, "When God hands you a gift, he also hands you a whip; and the whip is intended solely for self-flagellation". When we consider the nature of genius, it often seems to beat itself up up. Jack Kerouac, Jackson Pollock, Jim Morrison and others did it through belligerent alcoholism; Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain, Amy... > Read more
Joliet Bound
GUEST WRITER JAMES BLICK considers the art, craft and pitfalls of travel writing
23 Sep 2012 | 4 min read
“White sand? Tick. Turquoise sea? Tick. Sunset cocktails? Yep.” That was the opening line of a travel newsletter that dropped into my inbox the other day. I wouldn’t have given it a second thought, except that I was part way through home & away, a new collection of award-winning Kiwi travel writing (New Holland $35). As a young travel writer still... > Read more
GUEST WRITER DON McGLASHAN on the power of songwriters in a cold climate
17 Sep 2012 | 4 min read | 6
What follows is Don McGlashan's speech at the Apra Silver Scroll Award in Auckland on September 13, 2012. We print it here with Don's permission and it's our privilege to do so, as much for its inspirational quality as its political truth. Welcome to another Silver Scrolls - the special night in the year where we celebrate music and the people who write it. I want to talk about... > Read more
GUEST WRITER GREG HAMMERDOWN survives a 24-hour hard rock road trip in Central America
27 Aug 2012 | 9 min read | 3
We’re two hours into what turns out to be a 24 hour road-trip, and already I’ve had beer, white rum, lemonade, orange juice and ice, either spilt or splashed over me, as refreshments get passed overhead to the five Metallers who have taken up occupancy of the rear seat. The bus loudly changes gear, momentarily drowning out the distorted sound of Slayer’s Reign In... > Read more
Luz del Norte
GUEST WRITER ANGELA SOUTER returns to Malaysia for a different experience again
24 Aug 2012 | 7 min read
How often do we go back to countries we have visited previously? Sometimes life is too short and money too tight, but my husband and I decided to go back to Malaysia recently and sample more variety after a visit to Kuala Lumpur a year ago. He had visited Langkawi and found it a pleasant laid back environment somewhat reminiscent of peaceful visits to Greek islands, with incredibly... > Read more
GUEST WRITER JEFFREY PAPAROA HOLMAN on the bard of the public bar
Jeffrey Paparoa Holman | 13 Aug 2012 | 4 min read
“The stage is good . . . it’s part of my page”. Somewhere, in one of the many clips of Sam Hunt coming off stage that flicker through the DVD The Purple Balloon And Other Stories, a documentary about the man who must be New Zealand’s best-known poetic identity, the artist in focus comes out with this defining statement, implying to my ears at least that the... > Read more