Other Voices, Other Rooms
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GUEST WRITER STEVE GARDEN considers the fine art of the piano tuner
Steve Garden | 30 Mar 2012 | 4 min read
You would be forgiven for thinking that a film about piano tuning would be enough to test the stamina of even the most hardened cinephile, but despite the rarefied world in which Pianomania is set, the film is far from minimalist. Robert Cibis and Lilian Franck’s fine documentary about master piano technician Stefan Knupfer is one of the most lucid and engaging of documentaries,... > Read more
Le Rossingnol; Andante Notturno
GUEST WRITER CHRIS CREE BROWN settles in for an afternoon of unfamiliar piano pieces
26 Mar 2012 | 5 min read
Sunday afternoon. And the prospect of reviewing four new CDs comprising of piano music by Saint-Saens and three other less familiar composers. An exciting prospect, but tempered by the thought that sometimes there's a reason why certain composers are less familiar, and that some pianists have been known to dredge out obscure music in order to have a point of difference and be noticed.... > Read more
Susi (version for solo piano)
GUEST WRITER SARAH JANE ROWLAND sees Sinatra at his meanest and best
23 Mar 2012 | 4 min read
Suddenly is a Californian town where everybody knows everyone, it has been a “quiet day for the last 50 years” and words like shucks, swell and heck punctuate conversations. This setting for the 1954 B-grade thriller (directed by Lewis Allen) has, in retrospect, a corny naivety similar to Lumberton, David Lynch’s parody of small town Americana in Blue Velvet.... > Read more
GUEST WRITER SARAH JANE ROWLAND on a classic British crime movie
12 Mar 2012 | 4 min read
Get Carter (1971) is a British crime thriller, about gangsters, corruption and family loyalty, set against the grime of a declining Northern town. The film marked the directorial debut for Mike Hodges and stars Michael Caine as Jack Carter, a London gangster, who returns to his hometown Newcastle, to violently avenge the death of his brother Frank. Poking around in the criminal... > Read more
Carter Takes a Train
GUEST WRITER JEFFREY PAPAROA HOLMAN goes bird watching
Jeffrey Paparoa Holman | 5 Mar 2012 | 3 min read
Everybody knows about the gannet colony at Cape Kidnappers: it’s famous for sure, but far from most urban centres and off the beaten tourist track. Not so, the less well-known colony at Muriwai Beach close to Auckland: it’s only 40 kms and 35 minutes from Queen Street. We discovered it at the tailfeather end of Northland round trip in December: from Devonport to Te... > Read more
GUEST WRITER NICK SMITH concludes communism is good for something . . .
27 Feb 2012 | 2 min read
Some of the best pop music ever written sprang from the need to sing about the forbidden, particularly by dipping into that well-spring of denied human desire. In western culture, forbidden desire yielded pop classics such as Cyndi Lauper’s She Bop and Turning Japanese by the Vapours, songs that topped the pops despite their implied rude lyrical content. Behind the Iron... > Read more