Category: Arts & Culture

NZ Opera’s production of La Traviata opened in Auckland on 19 June to enthusiastic acclaim from a full house at the Aotea Centre. Verdi’s tale of a fragile society girl in Paris who reluctantly accepts love only to be forced to give him up, is possibly the most performed opera in the world and a […]

The 2012 film “Any Day Now” is to get a limited theatrical release in Aotearoa. Set in the 1970’s the story revolves around Marco (Isaac Leyva), a fifteen year old Down-Syndrome boy who is abandoned by his druggie mother, and Drag Queen Rudy (Allan Cumming) and his lover Paul (Garret Dillahunt), who want to keep […]

A Chinese born Canadian author, Kim Fu now lives in Seattle. Her writing is very personal in that it tells of the tremendous efforts immigrants put into passing as natives of their adopted country. In her novel For Today I Am A Boy, the father strives to be Canadian. No Chinese food for his family. […]

Andrew Rumbles unearths a self-published kiwi talent. Author Miriam Saphira’s story is one that inspires. Having worked in prisons she fought for child abuse to be recognised and obliterated from young lives. Her own earliest memory is of abuse of her mother and herself. Her father’s war legacy is a pile of love letters with […]

David Levithan is a young American writer. By day he works for Scholastic in New York publishing other peoples books. For recreation he writes his own. He has written mostly for the youth audience with LGBTI themes.  His books are very readable and adults enjoy them too. He has said he enjoys editing and working […]

Lisa Traill shares her rainbow wrist band experience. ‘What are they all about?’ my colleague asked, nodding at the colourful rainbow of bands around my wrist. 100% written on one side and Tino Pai at the other. “Its part of the ‘I’m an Ally’ campaign that’s about to launch, for straight people to show their support […]

Andrew Rumbles Immerses himself in fantasy. Different genres are enjoyed by different people at different times. Each has its own audience. I personally enjoy fantasy writing, more science fiction than historical, but there is some crossover. What I read while busy can differ markedly from when I have time on my hands.   I also appreciate […]

For every Beyonce, there are eight or nine Solanges. Who? They were acts touted to reach the farthest recesses of pop’s stratosphere, but sadly failed to orbit. When someone appropriates a work that was appropriated beforehand, it rings warnings bells. A+’s first single Enjoy Yourself was a successful slice of dance floor-friendly hip-pop that samples […]