Got a surprise very nice hand-written letter and package full of zines today from a cartoonist I’ve long admired, and it was like a ray of nostalgic sunshine from the before times when our lives didn’t feel subservient to faceless algorithms.

New on the website: Why Star Trek: The Next Generation remains peak TV comfort food for me after all these years - nikdirga.com/2025/11/14/s...

Hey, groovy people! My sprawling memoir of my journalism life and times from America to New Zealand, “Clippings," is now on sale for the holidays for a mere US$12.99 for the paperback (ebook $2.99)! If you’ve been putting it off, wait no more! Get it right here: www.amazon.com/dp/B0DW4D9KRR

Stood at the end of the world, or at least the end of the south part of this one today (not pictured: Antarctica, at right)

I’m a big fan of glorious old school magazines and they’re pretty endangered these days. NZ Geographic is one of the best and if you want to stop doomscrolling and start, um, magscrolling…They’re well worth supporting: www.nzgeo.com/newsletter/t...

New on the website today: I still miss the American Halloweens I grew up with - nikdirga.com/2025/10/31/i...

Good to see Australian politicians are just as capable of being idiots as Americans these days www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

It's fireworks season again and time for angry social media posts about it - but will New Zealand ever ban them? My latest at RNZ: www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

Just hanging out with Elijah Wood and Andy Serkis as you do on Labour Weekend.

New on my blog: The cinematic crack cocaine of Spike Lee's double dolly shots. nikdirga.com/2025/10/25/t...

Holy shit! That motherfucker TORE DOWN THE WHITE HOUSE!

New on my website today - A look back at the Swamp Thing movies, the forgotten comic book movie franchise! nikdirga.com/2025/10/17/s...

Clearly I should’ve just been writing about gloriously weird birds all along

The greatest bird in the universe has finally won Australia's bird of the year. ALL HAIL THE TAWNY FROGMOUTH! www.theguardian.com/environment/...

New over on my website today: Diane Keaton was always my first movie love. nikdirga.com/2025/10/13/d...

Diane Keaton forever and ever 💔

My latest explainer at RNZ: Meet the New Zealand doctors trying to sell you weight loss products on Facebook. One problem - They don't actually exist. www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

New on the website today - Five years, that's all we got - Jacinda Ardern and the costs of being Prime Minister: nikdirga.com/2025/10/05/f...

If you’re looking for a bit of good news today, read this yarn about a meme dude who’s turned out to be a really good dude and raised $300,000 for multiple sclerosis research. www.sfgate.com/sf-culture/a...

Want to see a movie? Figure 1, the run-down foreign-owned downtown corporate cinema chain ticket price; Figure 2, the locally owned independent cinema ticket price for roughly the same time. Nearly DOUBLE the price for the pleasure of enjoying the decaying ambience of Sky World/Metro Centre.

New by me today: What Trump's calls for a '100 percent tariff on foreign movies' might mean for New Zealand - and if it's ever actually going to happen -- www.rnz.co.nz/news/busines...

Even better second time around.

Perhaps the real Rapture was the hot takes we made along the way

Is Tylenol safe? What New Zealand says about Trump's latest claims on vaccines, autism and paracetamol

New by me over at RNZ today - why are some top New Zealand musicians leaving Spotify? www.rnz.co.nz/life/music/w...

New on my website: How did the Evil Dead’s Ash go from the guy in the backseat of the car to a horror movie icon by the third film? nikdirga.com/2025/09/14/t...

Sure, I could be watching sports … or I could be watching a marathon of 4+ hours of Evil Dead movies starring Bruce Campbell at the legendary Hollywood Avondale. #joinus #swallowyoursoul

The perfect headline to describe life in 2025 doesn’t exi—

I've lived in Auckland long enough now (nearly 20 years!) to remember when there were multiple book and record stores along Queen Street. At least there's plenty of vape stores and cheap Temu-style tat shops to keep us culturally satisfied. :( www.rnz.co.nz/news/busines...

An extraordinarily good deep dive into the algorithms running our digital lives by Kate Newton today over at RNZ: www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/i...

My latest explainer over at RNZ looks at what the US means by saying it will do "continuous vetting" of foreign visa holders - read here: www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

It's been six months since I put out "Clippings," a big old 350-page collection of the best of my journalism over the years. It's been really fab to see the great response from friends, family and even total strangers. Get it here! www.amazon.com/dp/B0DW4D9KR...

Journalists: The AI phone call is coming from inside the house. 🤬

This was a fun one to put together for RNZ about the massive repair works all around my neighbourhood following Cyclone Gabrielle - featuring excellent video and my soothing deadpan voice making an appearance on Morning Report! www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

The Hit and The Limey are two of my all time favourite existential crime movies. Toss in his unforgettable Zod, and you have a legend. R.I.P. Terence Stamp.

Slightly diminish a band: R-meh-M Blandie Pearl Jelly The Socks Pistols Rick Cave and the Seeds

Lots of different versions of this started doing the rounds on Facebook and instagram yesterday. I’m sure you know not to click on those links .. it’s a financial scam. Am worried though that some might fall for it. (Not to mention pissed off.)

New on my website: A look at The Creature Walks Among Us, the very last of the Universal classic monster movies and a movie that's ALMOST a good end to the Gill Man franchise: nikdirga.com/2025/08/11/u...

I know Facebook is pretty useless now but the fact that on August 10 it’s showing me someone’s old post from June 21 at the top of my “news” feed is just dire. #algorithmssuck

New on the blog: Why the over-the-top satire Eddington is the movie America deserves in 2025: nikdirga.com/2025/08/04/w...

Remembering my father-in-law Sir Peter Siddell (1935-2011), who would have turned 90 years old today. A great artist and a great man.

Here's my latest explainer for RNZ on what the Electoral Amendment Bill proposes for voting enrolment changes and more: www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

Wahoo! The latest issue of my insanely long-running small press comic Amoeba Adventures is available for a FREE PDF download. I've been doodling the adventures of Prometheus for literal decades now and this one's a fun one! nikdirga.com/2025/07/28/l...

My latest explainer over at RNZ: A deep dive into how and why artificial intelligence is being used to process your submissions to politicians — www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

My very first exposure to Ozzy Osbourne was when someone smuggled this album into my church youth group and the cover scared the living hell out of me. I like to think that freaking out the naive Presbyterian youth is how Ozzy would like to be remembered. #ozzyosbourne 🦇

There are so many less problematic ways this headline could have gone. 😳

Doing the meme thing - Ten writers of whom I’ve read five-plus books: Paul Auster George Orwell Harlan Ellison John Updike Percival Everett China Miéville Kurt Vonnegut Patricia Highsmith Charles Bukowski Stephen King …just for starters 😳

Here’s my Superman review over at RNZ! The superpower of a little sincerity - www.rnz.co.nz/life/screens...

My latest factcheck for the Australian Associated Press delves deep into the increasingly surreal world of AI slop served up on Facebook. The repeated "conjoined twins" celebrity yarn spewed up multiple times is the one that finally broke my brain for good. www.aap.com.au/factcheck/ju...

I got to write about Superman for my job, which basically is all that 13-year-old comic book fanboy Nik ever wanted out of life. 😏 www.rnz.co.nz/life/screens...