I'm wearing my listening shirt today. After 21 years the RNZ show on public holiday afternoons "of alleged music and dubious entertainment" finishes today. I've loved it (not everyone has) & I shall miss it. Thank you Phil, Simon, & Alec! www.rnz.co.nz/national/pro... #MatineeIdle #radio #kikorangi

"The art world is only comparable to two other types of market: the weapons-arms market and the drug market." Excellent documentary on the notorious Bruno Lohse, who helped populate the collections of major museums with looted art. www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets...

Had a Tintin discovery moment in the backyard today

RIP Jon Doe, who passed away from leukaemia a few days ago. Doe was a big reason that AK79 exists – he created Ripper Records with fellow broadcaster Bryan Staff, so they could make an album of tapes from the punk bands Bryan was playing on his 1ZM radio show. www.audioculture.co.nz/labels/hit-s...

Glorious at the Welington Village Green today

It's been fascinating watching this pathway take shape. What I wonder: did anybody document the project in photographs or videos? These big infrastructure projects involve all kinds of interesting techniques, crafts, occupational skills - plus what US folklorist Archie Green called "labour lore".

Corner dairy newspaper wall-of-fame, circa 1999

Business park poetry

The Hidden River that Shapes Central Wellington www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

Views from one of the highest and loneliest roads above Wellington Harbour. Can any locals guess which? A photo thread. 1/4

Locals arrive - including by horse and wagon - for the opening of McDonald's restaurant in Browns Bay, Auckland, in 1981. Photo: Martha Broomfield; digitalnz.org/records/4956...

Franchisees and dignitaries partake of McDonald's burgers and shakes on a future restaurant site in Papakura, Auckland, 1993. Photo: Papakura Courier; api.digitalnz.org/records/4171...

John Cale on Split Enz "What a great band. I just remember this one song called 'Charley'. That was a beautiful love song... I love the sloppy way that's recorded it sounds like the mike was yards away from the piano." 1983 RIU i/v with Russell Brown 🔗👇 paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/...

'Sweatshop', to my mind, is very much the Disasteradio companion piece to Eyeliner's BUY NOW... completing the musical analysis of the modern supply chain. And a reminder of where to find this wall-to-wall set of bangers: disasteradio.bandcamp.com/album/sweats...

Lindsay Shelton chronicles the ongoing saga of relocating the NZ School of Music in Wellington. The article 👇 has this going back to 2009, but as I recall, the proposals started in 2005... so 21 years and counting... wellington.scoop.co.nz?p=176748

Based on his excellent book "100 Essential New Zealand Albums", Nick Bollinger's podcast version is - if anything - even better. The 30m per LP format gives a chance to stretch out, include i/v's and music excerpts. Essential listening for NZ music fans. www.rnz.co.nz/podcast/esse...

The Frankie Valli Show featuring The Four Seasons, Australasian Tour 1977 poster. Auckland Library; digitalnz.org/records/5302...

Absoute standout episode of @lifeoftherecord.bsky.social recovers the many stories behind The Pogues' "Fairytale of New York" lifeoftherecord.com#/the-pogues/

The Underarm Ball

Were classical statues painted horribly - or have contemporary reconstructions been made intentionally ugly? Heritage conservation work as click bait. worksinprogress.co/issue/were-c...

A path not taken

Some sad news: on December 21st, Jimmy James Stephenson, aka David James Stephenson, aka Jimmy James, passed away. James was in Bygøne Era and The Beads, and joined The Chills from 1988-1991. He played sold out shows with them in Australia, North America... www.audioculture.co.nz/profile/the-...

Horizontals & verticals at Taitā Railway Station

TIP: if you go to the Dowse art museum in Te Awa Kairangi Ki Tai / Lower Hutt at the mo you can see my partner Chloe's jewellery in "Whakahokihoki" and my music in Bronwyn Holloway-Smith's incredible "Wheel of Avalon"

Homestead was my personal gateway to Flying Nun artists such as The Chills, Tall Dwarfs, and The Verlaines. As an American kid in the '80s there was no other way to (affordably) access this exotic jangly pop from NZ. The label will always hold a special place in my heart (and record collection).

love to see @wfmu.bsky.social's late great wm. berger cited repeatedly in this fascinating scholarly piece about the evolution of the term "lo-fi." rise william rise!

End of the [2026] Game... that's it, logged off and out the door with this Pat Metheny Group synthesizer sweet thing from 1984 m.youtube.com/watch?v=ynh9...

Vintage open-reel magnetic tape containers

Great to see my book out in the world - everywhere from Unity & Time Out through to Whitcoulls & Warehouse. Though it seems to get the best spots on display at the airport Relay stores. Perfect size to cover your face while you snooze on a plane?

"You cannot say ‘this song’s gonna to be timeless’ because you don’t know. With Fairytale of New York, I think we did make timeless art"—Life of the Record on the Pogues' holiday classic lifeoftherecord.com#/the-pogues/ @lifeoftherecord.bsky.social #drunktank

Brian Sutton-Smith (1924-2015) was born in Wellington, NZ. He studied children’s games, moving to the US to become a world expert in the field His name is now attached to the the library and archives of the Strong National Museum of Play, Rochester NY www.museumofplay.org/collections/...

Local legend! We have a whole page dedicated to Essie's life and writing career: my.christchurchcitylibraries.com/essie-summer... (born Ethel Snelson Summers in Linwood in 1912 she attended North Linwood Primary and later -- at age 12 -- Christchurch Technical College) ^MT

What was Lo-Fi? Latest from music writer-critic Adam Harper locates the term “Lo-fi” in the changing historical contexts of the 1950s-2020s. Open access 🔓from ‘Popular Music and Society’ www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Nice shoutout in The Post today for Essie Summers (1912-1998), whose NZ-set romance novels sold a combined 20 million copies

2025 Interview Recap! This marks four years of brilliant authors talking with me about their books for @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social. Music is a collective, and the authors I spoke with this year each had amazing things to say from their own place within it. Check out the thread for links.

"The Motores continued to bring forth an ever larger progeny... many of the citizens harboured the monsters, feeding them with the costly oils and essences which they required, and building houses for them in their gardens” (JRR Tolkien, 1960) lareviewofbooks.org/article/isen...

Cup of tea with two sugars and a bush

I want an oral history of the unchecked hubris of the Rhino Records CD box set department in the early 2000s.

#kikorangi Kia ora e te whānau, I'm tweaking the song profile assignment in my class next year to be themed around social activism. I've got a decent list (in the replies) of NZ pop songs that are written for or were appropriated to movements, but as always I want more, particular lesser known ones

Going down a Four Seasons rabbit-hole after the @500songspodcast.bsky.social episode on Led Zeppelin’s “Dazed & Confused” (interesting connection) and coming across gems like this one… m.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5I5...

New issue of the Journal of New Zealand Studies out today. Includes a hefty seven articles, reflections on the Stout Research Centre from Jock Phillips, and 10 book reviews. ojs.victoria.ac.nz/jnzs

Peter Gregg Arnett ONZM 1934 – 2025

Google AI still got a way to go, re. NZ music history

Tasman Pulp & Paper Co Ltd, Kawerau: 1983 No.3 turbine stack. On the nearest stack, riggers try to free a snagged demister. Photo: Fletcher Trust; collection.fletcherarchives.co.nz/objects/47902/

I stumbled from my bedroom to discover that I shared this tiny, squalid apartment with a person named Thad who claimed to be a part-time barista and a full-time experimental sound artist. Thad offered me a sip from his can of Red Bull and played some of his latest sound art for me.

Fireworks over Eastbourne, Lower Hutt, January 20, 1959 Photo: Evening Post; digitalnz.org/records/2326...

NEW SEASON OF THE POD BEGINS! S4 EP1: We ask if Vaporwave has already produced its last true classic album; reflect on a Summer of IRL shows; give the latest news on the Nobody Here documentary; and tackle the tricky/toxic subject of Vapor-bootlegs... open.spotify.com/episode/5j9k...

Christmas 1966 “Space”-themed window display, H. & J. Court Ltd., Hamilton. Photo: L Reynolds; api.digitalnz.org/records/4476...

This is a BIG anniversary. Thirty years ago this week, on December 15 1995, OMC's 'How Bizarre' was released in Aotearoa on CD single and cassette. Written and produced by Pauly Fuemana and Alan Jansson in a studio in Freeman's Bay... www.audioculture.co.nz/profile/omc

Annual blog by the Turnbull Library's arrangement & description team, who process archival collections Many highlights, incl the personal papers of Frank Holmes (1874-1947), a NZer known in the Middle East as "Abu Naft" (the Father of Oil). natlib.govt.nz/blog/posts/h...