The Paraguayan Primera División restarted with its Clausura phase last week and for the first two Olimpia games, the closest we got to any Tim Payne action was the occasional close-up of his face on the bench…
After doing the NSW Cup and State Championship double last year, New Zealand Warriors have held steady with a winning record in the middle of the ladder with a far younger group of players.
New Zealand Warriors are 3-1 to start their NRLW season and two of their wins have been in Australia, leading into Magic Round where Warriors will take on Titans in Wagga Wagga.
New Zealand Warriors piled up Australian halves throughout their development system and while that is still at the centre of their Aussie intrigue, it's grown out to include others like Jye Linnane and Riley Price in other positions.
John Fineanganofo became the eighth Kiwi-NRL debutant for 2026 with 10 minutes off the bench for Dolphins in their loss vs Knights.
The 2026 NRLW season has already started with eight NRLWahine involved in the Knights win vs Raiders.
The NRLW season is about to begin and the hype around the New Zealand Warriors women's team will soon shock Aotearoa's sporting landscape.
The New Zealand Warriors development system is flourishing in 2026 with the NRL team perched near the top of the ladder with a hearty cluster of emerging talent settling into regular roles.
Last year Aotearoa Kiwis won the Pacific Championships with a strong squad full of top-tier talent.
The most important wrinkle in the Luke Metcalf saga is how New Zealand Warriors are acting from a position of strength.
Jensen Taumoepeau became the seventh Kiwi-NRL debutant of 2026 playing on the wing for Gold Coast Titans in their loss vs Sydney Roosters.
Alekolasimi Jones became the sixth Kiwi-NRL debut of 2026 when he came off the bench for Bulldogs in their loss vs Cowboys.
New Zealand Warriors have assembled an impressive group of elite talent for the 2026 NRLW season with a bunch of champions from Brisbane Broncos returning to Aotearoa and more players making the switch from rugby union to eat up the greater opportunities that NRLW provides.
New Zealand Warriors have the same 5-2 start to the NRL season as they did last year but they are scoring more points and have made significant improvements in a bunch of other hot pockets.
Antonio Verhoeven became the fourth Kiwi-NRL debutant of 2026 and added to Greymouth's illustrious rugby league history when he came off the extended bench to play on the left wing for Brisbane Broncos in their win vs Gold Coast Titans.
Te Hurinui Apanui Twidle became the fourth Kiwi-NRL debutant of the 2026 NRL season in a close loss for Parramatta Eels against Wests Tigers.
Francis Manuleleua is the third Kiwi-NRL debutant of 2026 after coming off the bench for Newcastle Knights in their loss vs New Zealand Warriors.
New Zealand Warriors showed their versatility and depth in a bumper win vs Canberra Raiders at Mt Smart.
The first round of NRL footy in 2026 has delivered two Kiwi-NRL debuts with Setu Tu and Siale Faeamani on the wings for Dragons and Titans respectively.
New Zealand Warriors started the 2026 NRL season with an impressive win vs Sydney Roosters at Mt Smart and showed promising signs of growth under coach Andrew Webster.
New Zealand Warriors have lost both their NRL preseason games and as the Under 17 Harold Matthew Cup team and the Under 19 SG Ball Cup team both had two losses to start their seasons, the organisation has lost all four of their games played in 2026
The quality and quantity of Kiwi-NRL juniors in Australia system increases every year, with a far more regions around Aotearoa represented by the young men on the rise.
New Zealand Warriors are preparing for their fourth season of the two Andys era with Andrew Webster chasing another finals campaign as coach and Andrew McFadden's mahi in the development system continuing to impress.
New Zealand Warriors have announced their Under 17 Harold Matthews Cup and Under 19 SG Ball Cup squads for the 2026 New South Wales Rugby League junior representative season.
As part of tremendous depth at New Zealand Warriors, there is an exciting selection of players available who are on the rise through the Mt Smarts system.
The best thing Australian NRL media does is share the train and trial contract lists for each team, which the Niche Cache then puts under the Kiwi-NRL microscope
New Zealand Warriors will enter the 2026 NRL season with hearty depth in their top-tier and like all NRL teams, they have at least another 20 players who have been loitering around the NRL squad this summer.
New Zealand Warriors did the NSW Cup and State Championship double this year, which was their third consecutive year finishing in the NSW Cup top-four during the two Andys era.
As each New Zealand Kiwi Ferns squad looks stronger than the last, women's rugby league in Aotearoa is put in the spotlight as well as a growing hunger for wins against Australia.
The New Zealand Kiwis squad for the 2025 Pacific Championships only has one debutant in Xavier Willison and eight players who have played 10+ Tests for Aotearoa, offering the most experienced group during the Pacific Championships era.
The Paraguayan Primera División restarted with its Clausura phase last week and for the first two Olimpia games, the closest we got to any Tim Payne action was the occasional close-up of his face on the bench…
They’ve done it, Birkenhead United are champions of the Northern League with four games to spare – the first trophy winner to be confirmed across the top men’s and women’s footy leagues this year
Still got another few weeks of preseason for most European clubs but they don’t wait around in Denmark. The Superliga is already underway for the 2026-27 campaign and for as long as Callum McCowatt remains a Silkeborg player he is going to be starting games for them
That East Coast Bays vs Auckland City meeting was the only men’s league game to take place this week on account of the main event that was the Chatham Cup quarter-finals. Eight teams remained, only four would still be standing at the end of it.
Nobody was expecting Elijah Just to remain a Motherwell player beyond this transfer window. Not after the twelve months he’s just had, shortlisted for the Scottish Premiership Player of the Year and then scoring three goals at the World Cup where he was New Zealand’s best performer.
Friday night under lights at Ferrymead Park was the scene for a second versus third scrap-out between Ferrymead Bays and Coastal Spirit... although the scrapping only went in one direction…
You never quite know what the situation is when a player is released by a club. After Hannah Blake was let go by Durham last week, that could have been the English club saying ka kite after two years…
Might as well start with a heavy win on this side too because Wellington Olympic 9-0 FC Western was a completely anticipated result but the margin was something else, considering how Western had been going alright of late
The All Whites turned up to the 2026 FIFA World Cup with two stated intentions: to win a game and to progress to the knockout stages. They did neither of those things.
Sixteen teams remained, eight of them have now been eliminated after the fourth round of the Chatham Cup took place over the weekend. Still regional match-ups to this stage but a surprising number of non-top tier teams made it this far up north to keep things interesting
You won’t be seeing Emma Pijnenburg in a Wellington Phoenix jersey next season because she’s heading back to the Netherlands. She already spent a couple years with Feyenoord before joining the Nix…
The top of the Central League table has taken another reshuffle after Napier City Rovers won 3-2 against Wellington Olympic in a fantastic game of footy. Luke Stoupe put Olympic ahead after 23 mins…
For a while there, we had room to dream. The All Whites made it to their third game still in with a chance of making the knockout rounds, all it would have needed was the greatest result in the history of football in Aotearoa.
The saying goes “No Payne, No Gain” therefore by logical extension Much Payne must equal Much Gain. Two years of contracted Tim Payne is a lot of Payne so when the biggest club in Paraguay, Club Olimpia, agreed a transfer for Tim Payne after the World Cup…
It was all going swell at half-time. Finn Surman’s towering (unmarked) header and another intense, energetic performance from the All Whites, full of clever interplay and sturdy defence, had the lads leading 1-0 at the break against Mo Salah and his Pharaohs
This was the week that the Oceania Pro League players returned. Four weeks after Auckland FC lifted that championship (overshadowed by another one they lifted that same weekend), we have begun to see the various kiwi players involved in that competition dispersed back around the league
In 1982, the objective was simply to get to a first World Cup amidst an absolute odyssey in qualifying. In 2010, it was time to show that New Zealand belonged at that level by grinding out some results. In 2026, it’s not only about getting back to the World Cup, it’s not only about getting results…
It was another cup weekend this time around with the Chatham Cup and Kate Sheppard Cup both reaching their fourth rounds. That’s last 32 teams for the Chats, last 16 teams for the KSC
A few spare days after Haiti whupped the All Whites 4-0 (admittedly in an unserious warm-up game), their women’s team completed the set with a 2-1 win over the Football Ferns. Neither team had ever played against Haiti before... not sure we’ll ever want to play them again after how that all went.
A-League Premiership in year one. A-League Championship in year two. Even a cheeky Oceania Pro League title in there for good measure. It hasn’t taken long for Auckland FC to pack that trophy cabinet full
The loss against Haiti was rubbish from the All Whites but at least it was misleading rubbish. Most of the damage was done after Darren Bazeley began making wholesale changes, sharing the minutes around to get his whole squad moving.
The funky thing about this round is that the top four, separated by just two points, all played each other... and nothing’s any clearer now than it was a week ago. That included a wonderful game between Western Suburbs and Napier City Rovers which…
This All Whites team has been trying to turn potential into results throughout these last few years and they haven’t really done it yet. We’re long since past the stage where good performances carry much weight, these days the task is to score goals and win games.
It’s Ligue 2’s St-Étienne and it will remain Ligue 2’s St-Étienne after Les Verts were beaten 4-1 in the away leg of their promotion playoff against Nice. This following the 0-0 draw at home on Wednesday.
Here’s a rare weekend of footy that began on a Thursday. There were Chatham and Kate Sheppard Cup games across the country and since it was a long weekend the Northern League folks managed to squeeze in a full league round as well.
After guiding the Wellington Phoenix to the grand final with an extra-time second-leg win against Brisbane Roar at a sold out Jerry Collins Stadium in Porirua, Bev Priestman did a post-game interview where she was asked…
The last time we saw the Football Ferns was in World Cup qualifying a few weeks ago when they booked their ticket to Brazil 2027 with a 1-0 win over Papua New Guinea in the final with a performance that…
Darren Bazeley claimed a few weeks ago that Minnesota United were being careful with Michael Boxall’s adductor injury and that he’d have been playing a lot earlier if it were playoffs or whatever.
Well what do ya know, we’ve had another twist in the tale of the Men’s Central League after Reilly Marlow-Jones scored for Western Suburbs in a 1-0 win over Miramar Rangers.
Finn Surman thinks that blocking shots is nice? Never was a truer word spoken at a time when his 29 blocks this MLS season aren’t far off doubling the second-most prolific blocker in the division.
Unprecedented things keep happening in the basketball realms of New Zealand and we’ve just had the men’s and women’s FIBA U17 World Cups so you’d better believe the list is now a little longer.
Charlisse Leger-Walker was already the best and most successful NCAA basketballer that New Zealand has ever produced based entirely on her Washington State career. She led that school to three straight National Tournament appearances after they’d gone 30 years without an invitation…
The task was thus: World Cup Qualification. The Tall Ferns were placed in a group hosted by Puerto Rico, having progressed this far thanks to their fifth place finish at the Asia Cup last year
In an ideal world, the Breakers would have followed their (long overdue) ownership change by barging their way into the finals. Bit much to ask for a championship straight up... but imagine how vindicating it would have been?
The past offseason ushered in a new era for the NZ Breakers with fresh ownership and a promised return to their Aotearoa identity. That switch came as a blessed relief after several years of mediocrity packaged as global ambition
It’s a relief to see the New Zealand Breakers, now that they’re back under local ownership and doing things very differently, sneak their way through preseason as an underrated force, waiting to let their actions on the court supply the hype.
Kiwi basketball has been on a roll lately. On top of another classic NBL season, on top of the Breakers returning to local ownership (and local values), on top of whatever Steven Adams is getting up to at any given moment…
The Tall Ferns recently got back from an Asia Cup jaunt in which they were pretty impressive on the way to a fifth-placed finish. Now it’s the turn of the Tall Blacks to do the same thing.
The Tall Ferns travelled to China for the latest Asia Cup with one major objective: don’t come last... or second to last. As long as they avoided those fates then, no matter what else happened, they’d progress in World Cup qualification.
A little over a year ago, the only basketball team from Aotearoa to ever make the semi-finals of a FIBA World Cup event at any age grade, men or women, were the Tall Blacks of 2002. Now it’s happened twice in twelve months.
While most of the kiwi basketball focus is rightfully on the FIBA Men’s U19 World Cup, not to mention the latter stages of the NBL season, it just so happens that we’re only the start of a busy spell of international hoops which also includes both men’s and women’s Asia Cups.
These are heady times for basketball in Aotearoa. You only have to tune into any random NBL game to witness the calibre of our emerging young talent and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Steven Adams has signed an extension with the Houston Rockets. The Rockets were desperate to get this deal done with both general manager Raphael Stone and also head coach Ime Udoka having made it very clear that this was an offseason priority.
It’s pretty wild to think where we are now, compared to 15 months ago when the Memphis Grizzlies traded Steven Adams to Houston. Back then there were fears that Adams might be damaged goods with that ongoing knee injury.
It’s been a difficult experience trying to track Steven Adams this season, hasn’t it? A real lesson in the art of patience. At first he was in and out of the side, stuck on a minutes restriction and sitting out of every few games entirely.
The shadows have lifted, the dark clouds have cleared, and the New Zealand Breakers have been sold. News came through on 20 March that a local ownership group had bought out Matt Walsh and mates.
Let us talk about the New Zealand Breakers, who recently wrapped up their latest NBL campaign. It was a season that began with scepticism based on a roster full of project players and the rookie foreign head coach hired to whip them into shape.
It has been a mission of patience tracking the revival of Steven Adams and his NBA career. Finally recovered from his long term knee injury and looking resplendent in red for the Houston Rockets... progress has been slow
There were plenty of reasons to discount the New Zealand Breakers heading into NBL25. Yet they were 2-0 when they flew to the USA and then they returned and they kept winning.
The moment is near. Steven Adams is on the verge of making his NBA return after 21 long and boring months without his basketballing presence.
It may have snuck under the radar but the Tall Ferns were in Mexico last week playing some games. They had a Pre-Qualifying Tournament for the next FIBA World Cup. Very similar to the format they went through with Olympic Qualifiers earlier in the year...
Last season the Breakers gave fewer minutes to NZers than ever before (a record that they’re going to crush again in NBL25) and yet it was still the most prosperous season we’ve ever witnessed for kiwi players in that league.
These are glorious times for basketball in Aotearoa. Already established as the fastest growing sport in the country, we recently saw the New Zealand team finish fourth at the FIBA Men’s U17 World Championships, with Oscar Goodman crowned as part of the tournament’s All Star Five…
A record was broken last Thursday afternoon when, at the 2024 NBA Draft, the Washington Wizards selected Alexandre Sarr with the second overall pick. Sarr just so happened to have spent the past season with the Perth Wildcats as part of the Australian NBL’s Next Star programme
As we traversed what was already shaping up to be a concerning offseason, the feeling was that the Breakers would be alright as long as Head Coach Mody Maor was around. But now he’s leaving.
A few months ago, the Tall Ferns set out to qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympics. They did not make it. So can the Tall Blacks end the drought instead?
Gotta love a bit of Aotearoa’s National Basketball League. It’s a rapidly growing competition that regularly attracts most of the country’s best players whilst also attracting a decent level of import and still finding room to boost up the next generation
In a topsy-turvy, up-and-down season... the Breakers finished about where they should have: right in the middle. They made the play-ins but not the playoffs, winning one knockout game but losing the other
The Tall Ferns will not be going to the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. A narrow defeat against Puerto Rico in their qualifying tournament made sure of that, as a very inexperienced and injury-ravaged Aotearoa side fell agonisingly short of their goal
The news came through at 12:41pm on Friday in the same way that all NBA news comes through: via a tweet from Adrian Wojnarowski.
New Zealand have used nine different spinners across the formats halfway through 2026 and while other pockets of Blackcaps depth have been noted around the world, spin bowling has crept under the radar.
New Zealand won their ODI series vs West Indies with Jayden Lennox continuing his excellent year and coach Rob Walter winning in all three formats for his first year in charge as Blackcaps coach.
New Zealand is up 2-1 in their ODI series vs West Indies as Jayden Lennox continues to excel in his first year of Blackcaps cricket.
New Zealand's Blackcaps move into ODI mode to start their tour of the West Indies where they will add to their 21 players used across six ODIs this year.
New Zealand had another Test series win overseas and have quietly had a fabulous first half of 2026 with an ODI series win in India followed by making the final of the T20 World Cup.
The strange 2026 T20 World Cup came to an end for New Zealand's White Ferns as they were hammered by England in their last group stage game.
There won't be any drastic changes to the New Zealand Test cricket team's batting line up any time soon but there is a cluster of emerging batters working towards Test debuts.
New Zealand bounced back to win the second Test against England and with the third Test starting on Thursday evening Aotearoa time, we have five hot pockets to ponder.
New Zealand's loss to England in the first Test featured a dodgy pitch and the continuation of some grand trends for the Blackcaps.
New Zealand handled their business in the Test vs Ireland in another flex of Aotearoa's cricketing depth and are now boosted by the return of Mitchell Santner for the Test series vs England.
There are some clear holes in the White Ferns T20I team ahead of the T20 World Cup and they decided to embrace all of them for the series decider against England, which they lost.
The White Ferns continue their impressive start to the Melie Kerr era with a 1-1 ODI series draw against England falling into their 6-2 record this year.
New Zealand have named their Test squads to tour Ireland and England with 19 players selected across both series, which is aligned with the 21 players who have played Test cricket for Aotearoa since the start of 2025.
White Ferns continue to build out their development pipeline with another New Zealand A tour and after the tour of England last year, the NZ-A women's team will get some much needed experience in Asian conditions with a tour of Sri Lanka.
New Zealand's tour of Bangladesh didn't produce ODI or T20I series wins but the Blackcaps won a game in both series and there were a bunch of notable performances within the almost 20 players used on tour.
New Zealand's White Ferns start their tour of England next week with one-dayer to warm up and then three ODIs.
New Zealand A didn't win a game in Sri Lanka and a loss in the second First-Class game saw their undefeated streak in the long format come to an end.
After winning the first ODI in Bangladesh, New Zealand couldn't seal an upset series win with two losses in the next two games.
Blackcaps continue to churn through new emerging talent in all three formats and the incredible depth in New Zealand cricket is once again on show in the 10 Best Young Cricketers deep dive, as well as those who aren't on the list.
White Ferns have been refreshed by emerging cricketers in the last two summers and there are plenty more on the rise in a domestic scene that continues to blossom.
The opening stanza of the Melie Kerr era for White Ferns continues to dazzle with New Zealand adding an ODI series win vs South Africa to their 4-1 T20I series win.
The Blackcaps will once again flex their depth for the upcoming tour of Bangladesh where they will play three ODIs and three T20Is.
The New Zealand 'A' cricket squad is back to tour Sri Lanka with the one-dayers starting on Sunday followed by two four-dayers.
Otago had a fabulous win vs Northern Districts in Dunedin that bumped them up to second on the Plunket Shield ladder, while Canterbury had a home win vs Central Districts and Auckland's win in Wellington means Wellington still haven't won a game.
Brett Randell and Thomas O'Connor both took 7 wickets in an innings to help Central Districts and Otago to wins, while Canterbury's win over Wellington puts them at the top of the table.
The Blackcaps T20I series vs South Africa features a refreshed group after the T20 World Cup and again highlights New Zealand's impressive depth across the various roles.
New Zealand's summer of cricket rolls into autumn with White Ferns hosting South Africa for five T20Is and three ODIs.
Plunket Shield rolls along and along with all the basic information covered after each round, here are five hot pockets of funk as we near the end of the season.
FIH Pro League is especially intriguing for Aotearoa's Black Sticks at the moment with frequent internationals offering a barometer for kiwi hockey.
While Aotearoa hockey is in the midst of a low patch, Black Sticks blokes have a sneaky opportunity for progress with the World Cup in India.
City Kickboxing is back to take over another UFC event, this time at UFC 281 in New York where Israel Adesanya, Dan Hooker, Brad Riddell and Carlos Ulberg will all be in action.
Lydia Ko grabbed her second LPGA Tour win of the year in front of her Korean whanau and now sits first in Race to CME Globe Season, plus Rolex Player of the Year.
Lydia Ko was embedded in excellence for the last mixtape in July and with six top-10 finishes in her last seven tournaments, Ko is now grooving in excellence.
Aotearoa's Black Sticks hockey teams haven't strolled through pool play at the Commonwealth Games, however the blokes and wahine are on the cusp of qualifying for semi-finals.
Kai Kara-France may be one of Aotearoa's most underrated athletes and his interim flyweight championship bout against Brandon Moreno at UFC 277 can't slip under your radar.
Mike Mathetha otherwise known as Blood Diamond has had a tricky start to his UFC career and that journey continues deep on the UFC 277 undercard against Orion Cosce.
Aotearoa hockey will hit an intriguing checkpoint at the Commonwealth Games as the blokes and wahine tournaments deliver a solid assessment of kiwi hockey.
Prior to a wee break from LPGA Tour golf, Lydia Ko was enjoying the spoils of gritty mahi.
Aotearoa's Black Sticks wahine have finished 1st in Pool B at the Hockey World Cup, setting up a quarter-final against either Germany or South Africa on Wednesday morning.
Israel Adesanya defends his UFC middleweight championship at UFC 276 this weekend in a refreshing contest against a rather likeable opponent in Jared Cannonier.
Brad Riddell has been simmering away as City Kickboxing's best undercover UFC fighter and his bout against Jalin Turner at UFC 276 is a crucial juncture in Riddell's lightweight journey.
The leading wahine of City Kickboxing Genah Fabian fights Larissa Pacheco in the Professional Fighters League on Saturday (NZT) and despite an impressive win in her last fight, Fabian sits 0-1 with negative points in the PFL season.
Carlos Ulberg continues his UFC mahi this weekend with Aotearoa's light heavyweight lining up against Tafon Nchukwi on Sunday afternoon's UFC Fight Night.
As the last mixtape was titled 'Autumn Plateau' we have a continuation of that vibe and it takes the mixtape into grind mode as Lydia Ko is sustaining a level of play not seen in her last few LPGA campaigns.
This time last year Lydia Ko was cruising to four top-10 finishes in her first five tournaments.
Dan Hooker is back doing Dan Hooker things as he has ventured across the planet to fight England's Arnold Allen in London this weekend.
Another hefty UFC event and another middleweight championship defence from Aotearoa's Israel Adesanya at UFC 271, while Carlos Ulberg bounced back with a win and Blood Diamond fell victim to the weird dark arts. T
Israel Adesanya vs Robert Whittaker headlines UFC 271 and hours before Adesanya steps into the octagon, Aotearoa's Carlos Ulberg and Mike 'Blood Diamond' Mathetha have fights on the early-prelims section of the card.
Aotearoa's 2022 UFC journey starts with a Israel Adesanya vs Robert Whittaker rematch headlining UFC 271, Carlos Ulberg making his second UFC appearance and Mike 'Blood Diamond' Mathetha making his UFC debut this weekend.
Lydia Ko's win at the Gainsbridge LPGA event was her 17th win on tour and any LPGA win for Ko comes with steady flow of records, stats and notes of her greatness. The story of Ko is a story of Aotearoa mana though, the tale of cruising through adversity while embracing a smile and positive outlook.
Back to back weekends of Kiwi-UFC action didn't start too great with Brad Riddell losing in the third round of his bout vs Rafael Fiziev, now Kai Kara-France comes up against Cody Garbrandt in a flyweight contender match up.
It's Team City Kickboxing season and the summer vibes will be boosted by a Sunday afternoon featuring Brad Riddell vs Rafael Fiziev.
Lydia Ko enjoyed a glorious win at the Ladies International in Saudi Arabia last weekend and while there is a hefty gap between wins for Ko, her consistency is key.
Sundays in Aotearoa with a Dan Hooker UFC scrap on the telly can be extremely fun and kinda stink at the same time.
Fresh off all sorts of Aotearoa bullkaka and not to mention two losses, Dan Hooker bounced back in tremendous fashion to defeat Nasrat Haqparast.
Dan Hooker fights on Sunday. He's probably in the process of leaving Aotearoa and arriving in Las Vegas as I write this on Friday morning.
City Kickboxing haven't had any UFC fights during Aotearoa's winter months, beneath the radar though there are two major Kiwi-MMA angles out of Team CKB with Mike 'Blood Diamond' Mathetha grabbing a UFC contract and wahine toa Genah Fabian storming through the PFL Lightweight Women's Tournament.
Fresh off of becoming the only human to win two Olympic golf medals, Lydia Ko stormed home with a final round of 63 to finish tied-2nd at the Women's Scottish Open.
Back at it with the album reccos after a bit of a hiatus, let it be known that there are bangers galore
Back with the albums, catching up on the last few months of 2024 releases and yeah mate we’ve got some goodies singled out for your eardrums to gorge upon
Double banger tunes covering the last two weeks of releases and the sounds are immaculate
Missed the tunes last week so here's a double-banger's worth of audio goodness, let the headphones/speakers run wild
Once a month we dip into the magnificent musical offerings from Aotearoa and beyond and serve up a few album recommendations that we've been jamming to, so here's the latest crop
Every month we’re here with the album recommendations so that you’ve always got something good to listen to. From Aotearoa to the big wide world beyond. The tunes never cease.
A year and a half ago I wrote a thing recommending a bunch of movies I’d watched and enjoyed during the OG national lockdown and lately I’ve been burning through a movie most nights. So I figured, damn, might as well make like the movie industry itself and dish up a sequel.
Dune. Written by Frank Herbert, published in 1965. A landmark of science fiction set on a distant desert planet in a distant future, a planet which is the only known source of a consciousness-altering spice which is propping up the imperial economy.
Comedy movies tend to get a bad rap compared to other genres. You don’t see comedies scooping up Best Picture Oscars very often, don’t see their lead actors and actresses getting nominated.
Righto, so you polished off The Last Dance. Every single episode. Perhaps you even watched it twice, three times, poring over the little details and tumbling down your own various rabbit holes chasing ideas inspired from the Michael Jordan story.
These are just ten books that I love, ten favourites in no particular order, ten books that have influenced me greatly in one way or another. Books that I hope you can get something out of as well.
It’s been a year since the Game of Thrones finale. Twelve months of simmering after that blockbuster final episode which was instantly savaged by fans and critics alike.
These last few weeks have provided a unique opportunity to absolutely binge on the wonders of cinema, to watch a bunch of those movies you always wanted to but never quite got around to before. Here are a few of the gems that El Wildcardo’s indulged in during levels three and four.
Films can be scary without being horrors. Films can be horrors without being scary. Genre’s tend not to fit like gloves at the best of times and the only reason to learn their rules is so you’re able to break them.
Welcome to the lockdown, dear friends. No need to panic, we’ll get through this, just gotta play by the rules for a while. Hey and think of it this way: you’ve finally got time to watch all those classic films that you never had time to before because of pesky old work.
Oscar Winner Taika Waititi. Get used to hearing that sentence all over the place whenever he does anything ever again. He might as well change his name to ‘Oscar Winner Taika Waititi’ and we can call him Oscar for short.
It took a while to get a grasp on that one. The Rise of Skywalker wasn’t as terrible as some folks have immediately decided, though it’s a lot further from being a masterpiece... it’s just that it’s completely baffling and then kinda forgettable.
It didn’t take long for Joker to take on a life far beyond the big screen. After opening to rapturous praise at the Venice International Film Festival, where it won the top prize, it pretty soon became a bit of an internet punching bag.
In the end it turns out the clue was in the title all along. This was a fairytale. A story that was destined to have a happy ending, a tidy ending, even at the expense of our expectations.
Are you aware of the demon child Bart Harley Jarvis? Have you stumbled upon the meme of that old fella dabbing in a boardroom? Has anyone tried to sell you fifty Stanzo branded fedoras lately?
Realistically there was never gonna be an ending that satisfied everyone, the show was simply too big and too popular for that. And the same online bandwagon effect that rose this show to international phenomenon status kinda turned on it at the end there.
Everybody has a choice to make, Varys left us with that wisdom last week and he died for it this week. Varys made his choice. He made his choice definitively and he stuck with that choice, accepting the risks that it took. And in the end he was proved right but he didn’t live long enough to see it thanks to a pair of his closest allies who each refused to make their choices.
Game of Thrones has always been about the politics and the avoidable drama. That machinery of power, where snappy decisions have huge ramifications and any mistakes are fatal.
Arya’s hide and seek game in the library, Melisandre lighting the trench torches, the Dothraki charge witnessed from above, and the utter silent tension in the crypts... until it wasn’t silent no more. Drama that was loud and drama that was quiet, contributing to an almost overwhelming experience across 80 minutes.
The big moments are the ones that get people talking about this show. Ned Stark’s execution. The Red Wedding. The Battle of Hardhome. But it’s the little moments that make it so special, those moments when it’s just a couple characters in a room talking with subtext deluxe and every line means a hundred different things.
Ah Dany, I’ve missed that impossibly arranged blonde hair and those slightly snotty looks down the nose. Ah Jonny Boy, I’ve missed that big black coat and the permanent sulk. Ah Arya, I’ve missed that sly badass nature and the tricky knife moves. Tyrion and his clever quips. Sansa and her steely poise. You get the picture. Eighteen months was a long time between drinks.
Game of Thrones is almost back. Game of Thrones is almost done. Just six more episodes left and they’re all movie length features, with the first one premiering on 14 April in the USA. That means, as per usual, sometime in the early afternoon of Monday 13 April in the great nation of Aotearoa.
Bohemian Rhapsody is not a particularly good film. It’s a fun and enjoyable film in its own way but as a work of artistic merit it is, gotta admit it, extremely flawed. I mean, poor old Deackie!
Deep in the depths of the kiwi summer, we got another reminder that winter is coming in its most brutal form as Game of Thrones dropped an 'Official Tease' last week.
Of course Black Mirror would end up on Netflix, aye. Because who else could come up with anything as high concept as Bandersnatch other than Charlie Booker and the folks from Black Mirror and who the absolute hell else would possibly endorse broadcasting such a thing as Netflix?
Don't know about youz around Aotearoa, but 2018 and 2019 is best summed up via Game of Thrones or lack of GoT. Personally, there wasn't much progress through 2018 and it was more a case of slow movement, sussing a few things out and a whole lot of meditation.
Look, I get it. The holidays are coming up. Lots of time off work/study and heaps of time spent hanging out with the people you love. That’s great… it’s also overwhelming. You need some time to yourself, chilling and unwinding, absorbing something other than real life for an hour or so.
These surely are some strange times. Not unique times by any means, nor are these the end-times that some would have you believe. Just strange times, is all.
It’s now the distant future, the year 2018, and the Conchords are back. They’ve got an hour-and-a-half-long live special airing on HBO, which premiered on the weekend so you’ll be able to find it one way or another by now, recorded in London in July and featuring several new songs.
Matt Groening is back, did you realise? Old mate from The Simpsons and Futurama has a new show on Netflix called Disenchantment and it’s pretty decent. Some of the early reviews weren’t fantastic but that’s what you get when you try judge an entire show on the basis of a handful of episodes.