I’ve been reading The Big Smoke recently, historian Ben Schrader‘s epic tome on the history of the urban scene in New Zealand – at least from 1840 till 1920. Hopefully, Schrader will now work on a sequel, from 1921 to 2021. Not that far away! It is an excellent book, well worth the purchase price, and apart from one chapter which got a little too graphical…
I was looking back at a box of old books the other day, when I came across my collection of Tintin and Asterix books. Graphic novels, if you were to ask me now, but just comic books back then. A valuable learning aid for puns (either subtle or brutal) and in my case, French, as our school library only held copies of Asterix in the original…
Sadly, very sadly, Rewi Thompson has passed away. An architect, a mentor, a professor at Auckland University, Rewi was of Ngati Porou and Ngati Raukawa lineage, but was also just an incredibly nice, friendly guy. I don’t think I ever heard him say a bad word about anyone. Having met him a few times, I was always impressed at the quiet way he conducted himself, and…
A week is a long time in politics. Celia is gone, Justin is in, Colin Craig is ancient history, and Goff’s off to head up the supercity. The last WCC crop of Councillors was, let’s be honest, a bag full of fruitcakes, with the frankly barmy Helene Ritchie, the reptilian repellent Mark Peck who, frankly, did nothing for the entire 3 years except pull a pay…