Review: No Holds Bard

The actor playing Hamlet is suffering a crisis of confidence.  Is the play as he remembers? Macbeth drops in to chivvy him along. Then Othello and King Lear give it a go as well. This solo show sees Michael Hurst display his skill at delivering Shakespeare along with hilariously physical stage combat moves. (Some of […]

New at the Movies: Kon-Tiki, Snitch and Broken

Speaking as someone whose taste for adventure doesn’t stretch much further than going to the dairy in the rain, the reckless self-endangerment represented by Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg’s Kon-Tiki was a genuine eye-opener. The bones of the story are well-known enough to anyone who built balsa models of Heyerdahl’s raft at primary school in […]

Old halls come alive with new music

You know the drill. You go to the same bar every week and pay tons for booze, and have to deal with a loud crowd who are just there to be seen and who talk through the music you’ve paid to see, and you just think “ugh! I hate this, it’s all the same and […]

New at the Movies: Star Trek Into Darkness, Song for Marion, Gambit, Spring Breakers and Maori Boy Genius

The 2009 Star Trek reboot went into production on the eve of the writers’ strike and therefore had no right to be as entertaining – or to make as much sense – as it did. In fact, it was so successful that it has become the gold standard of dormant franchise resuscitation and I’m hoping […]

Domestic violence isn’t funny. Hopefully these comedians are

Last week, we gave away a pass t0 Raybon Kan’s comedy show as a favour to a friend. On hearing about what his show contained, I am so very sorry we did. Jokes about Chris Brown beating his girlfriend? Not okay.  Here are some handy New Zealand statistics from Women’s Refuge One in three women […]

New at the Movies: The Company You Keep, Rebelle (War Witch), Haute Cuisine, Antiviral and Jurassic Park 3D

It’s easy to laugh at ageing movie stars. Crumbs, when they make films like The Expendables they actively encourage us to make jokes about creaking joints and dicky hips. But let us pause for a moment and salute the longevity of one of the greatest movie stars there ever was, someone who was headlining box […]

warm, fuzzy and very cuddly

warm, fuzzy and very cuddly

Every month the Underground Market has a larger Theme Market with more specialty stalls. This Saturday it’s about wool, things made from wool, and things to do with wool. So quite surprisingly they call this speciality event the Wonders of Wool. It runs from 10am till 4pm this Saturday May the 4th. Some of the […]

Win tickets to Raybon Without a Cause

[pullquote]Why did Kingston kill Bernie? Because he tried to mount Victoria [/pullquote] Everyone likes jokes, right? And everyone likes something for free. So would you like to win a double pass to the opening of Raybon Kan‘s comedy show on May 7? Fresh from recording his first live stand-up DVD, Raybon Kan returns to the […]

What a Feeling!

Do you ever wonder what happens at the end of the day to the freshly made bread that Wellington bakeries can’t sell? Do you ever wonder what happens to the fresh fruit and vegetables at the markets that are still edible but not good enough to sell? I can tell you. For the last few […]

New at the Movies: Iron Man 3, First Position and Identity Thief

Whatever they are paying Robert Downey Jr. to play Iron Man, it is is worth every penny. Iron Man 3, the third instalment in his own branch of the Marvel Universe series that also features Captain America, The Mighty Thor and The Hulk is hurtling towards a billion dollars of box office revenues and might […]