Table of contents for March/April 2018 in Metro NZ

A library of Metro features and columns is available at www.noted.co.nz. Designed as a home for quality long reads and inspiring journalism, the website gives you current reviews, new food openings and guides to the city, plus all the best stories from the Listener and North & South. New at www.noted.co.nz 01-METRO TOP 50 BARS Back on the booze this month? We count down the best places to whet your whistle. 02-FAREWELLS ON AUCKLAND WHARVES Photographs from the late John Rykenberg of families, farewells and journeys from the late 1950s. 03-THE VANISHING Three women have disappeared from the Piha-Mercer Bay area in a little over a decade. Bob Harvey examines the darker side of the west coast. 04-FOOD: FIRST LOOKS & REVIEWS Our First…

01-When Kowhai Intermediate get all their kids off social media, can they tackle world peace and global warming? 02-Suggested a name to Jacinda and Clarke yet? 03- “Baby McBabyface”? 04-Or are you putting in a bid for the placenta burial? 05-Seriously, what teenaged girl wouldn’t chew off her right arm for the chance to Snapchat The Bish? 06-Isn’t there something a bit coalsto-Newcastle about opening a medical marijuana centre in West Auckland? 07-Priests fathering kids… and you thought they were all gay? 08-Will Jeremy ever be funny again? 09-Will Hilary ever be funny? 10- “We’ll shoot that Air New Zealand clip in Antarctica” — what could possibly go wrong? 11-Been stripped of your knighthood yet? 12-Did it rip the hairs out like a Band-Aid? 13-Does seeing the words “strip”…

Be quick — the Fringe Festival winds up on March 4. Take a musically catchy (and highly personal) tour of the ER at Zuleika Khan’s Triage! A Nursing Cabaret (February 27-March 3). She’s an actual nurse, and soul diva. Or, if you’re into song and looking for something a little more fabulous, prolific political impersonator Tom Sainsbury joins friend and actor Hamish Russell for a hilariously bitchy evening of drag, lip-sync and melodrama in Wigging Out (February 27-March 3). Relish the late-summer sun and join Melissa Laing aboard her hand-built shallow-draft rowboat, The Question Put, for Boat Date (February 21-25; February 28-March 4), on a tour on the Whau River. And there’s more learning to be had at Chef Masters (February 28-March 2), where you could get the opportunity to…

In the age of DNA home-testing kits, Ancestry.com  and weepy reunification TV shows, it seems we have all the tools we need to access the bald facts of our genetic heritage. But that we are — biologically speaking — who we are is just one tiny part of the picture. We’re cultural animals, and our connections with each other can’t be answered through science alone. For artist Peata Larkin, raised by her English father after her Māori mother left when she was young, it wasn’t until she became a mum herself that she began to explore her Māori roots. “I think that’s happened to a lot of Māori,” she says. “It sounds terrible, but in some ways I was ashamed of [my heritage], because I felt I was…

As well as a focus on accessibility — including performances for those with sensory and communication disorders, autism spectrum conditions and learning disabilities — this year’s festival has a whānau and family lineup for children and their parents. NANOGIRL VS THE ELEMENTS- Dr Michelle Dickinson, senior lecturer at the University of Auckland and part-time performer, is making science and engineering more accessible to all. Her visually spectacular show, Nanogirl vs The Elements, is a live, interactive science class and requires more than just a little audience participation (safety gear provided). The Civic, March 3. JUNK- A show for all ages from the young performers of Australia’s Flying Fruit Fly Circus, with tumbling, juggling, contortion and more. This unique piece of physical theatre imagines a world where kids can live and…

Inti is a big, high-ceilinged space in the bottom of Shortland Chambers at the top of O’Connell St. It was formerly the home of Meat Fish Wine, which opened with an expensive fit-out, a huge wine cellar, lots of PR — and mixed reviews. MFW didn’t last long, but the owners held on to the site and had the wisdom to give Javier Carmona — formerly of Mexico, Beirut and a very popular pop-up in Avondale — his own restaurant, named after the Incan sun god, Inti. The focus this time is on the food: most of the fit-out is left over from MFW, which isn’t a bad thing since they invested heavily in some beautiful wooden chairs and a striking bathroom that has one-way glass back out to the…

You’ve seen them around town, with their sturdy helmets and spinning spokes. Perhaps you’ve sat in a car, in traffic, as they skim past on a cycleway. Maybe you’ve even thought about joining those people… the commuter cyclists. Well, you aren’t alone. According to the New Zealand Transport Agency, there’s been a 43 per cent increase in Auckland’s morning peak cycling count since 2011. Numbers of commuter cyclists have grown as the city finally becomes more bike friendly. All those new cycleways and shared paths make cycling a more attractive method of transport - not just for an afternoon jaunt, but for getting to work and running everyday errands. More of us are realising what our overseas counterparts already know, in cities such as Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Montreal, Berlin and even…

Tinderbox Megan Dunn (Galley Beggar Press, $30) Tinderbox is a book about a book. More specifically, it’s a book about a rewrite about a film adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451, and if that sounds a bit meta, it is. But if it sounds academic or complicated, let me assure you it most definitely is not. It’s a funny and delightfully informed true story about the burning (no pun intended) desire to write a 50,000-word novel which is a feminist rewrite of Fahrenheit 451, a cult classic, in 30 days. Phew! While the timer is set to mark each day’s word count, the author surveys her past, gathering in material and involving the reader in the composition of her book. The story cuts across different time zones, ranging from…

KIMBRA PRIMAL HEART (Warner) Oh dear. I really wanted to report that the Hamilton-raised chanteuse had come through those difficult years of redefining herself in an American context and on her third album made a piece of pop-art for the ages — or at least a confection that nobody in their right mind could deny. I can’t help rooting for Kimbra Johnson, because, as everyone knows, she’s prodigiously talented, and if anyone can do it — you know, confirm that there’s more to New Zealand than Lorde and Lord of the Rings — then she can. Sadly, Primal Heart doesn’t expand on the promise of 2014’s The Golden Echo, with its clever Prince-influenced slick funk moves. Instead, it feels like she’s been sucked into the system of songs-by-committee, and the…

Back in September, when Metro revealed the funding pressure faced by the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, the news came as a shock to most. Few in the arts community or among the general public had realised the extent and impact of recent funding cuts. Since then, we have learned the cuts had been going on since 2011, when the gallery reopened with 50 per cent more exhibition space and increased public event space, to serve a rapidly expanding population. Now, as the introduction of entry charges for international visitors beds in, and Auckland Council moves towards budget decisions with its 10-year Long-term Plan, the subject has hit the headlines again — this time driven by a public campaign for the council to provide a…

Their first EP, Lunch with Bianca, was released in July 2016 with multiple #1 singles on George FM. The single, “No More” caught the ear of Diplo, who played it on his radio show. A single released in April 2017, “Shelter” (feat. Nika), was in the NZ Top 40 for 36 simultaneous weeks. In July 2017, SACHI featured on LA-based songwriter MOONZz’ track, “Home”. In October 2017, their single “Lowkey” premiered on George FM featuring Chicago rapper Mick Jenkins.…

In 2018, the festival is heading for the water, with a new precinct at Silo Park. The Festival Playground is the brainchild of new artistic director Jonathan Bielski and award-winning designer Angus Muir. Back from a long stint overseas, Bielski noticed a shift in the city’s energy from midtown to Silo Park and has responded by moving the heart of the festival downtown. “An event like this should always be surprising and confounding,” he says. “If it stays the same every year, it isn’t really a festival.” Opening on March 8 with a funk performance by returning collaborative act Eru Dangerspiel, Silo Park will be reimagined to cater to myriad installations and an exciting international music programme, with up to 1500 people expected through the gates every night. Bielski describes…

Stale old bro-centric views of sex are smashed to bits in Body Double , a play by Eleanor Bishop and Julia Croft, with Karin McCracken, performed by Croft and McCracken. It is, of course, a theme that has recently gained untold traction via the #MeToo movement. “It feels like the conversation is changing really quickly,” says Croft. “People are so much more conscious of conversations not only around consent but also around women having good sex.” A case in point is the story of a woman who went on a date with American comedian Aziz Ansari. She wasn’t assaulted but her experience was crappy and left her deeply upset. “We’re starting to have conversations that aren’t in the binary of good men and bad men, or consent…

When Canadian actor Yves Jacques started performing The Far Side of the Moon at the beginning of the millennium, he couldn’t have imagined that our current political landscape would gift fresh relevance to the play, which reflects on the 1960s space race between the Russians and Americans. “Now there’s no shuttle involved, but with Trump and Putin, it seems like we’re back in the good old days,” he says. In one of the most heavily toured works in Robert Lepage’s oeuvre, twins André and Philippe proffer their oppositional views on the mysteries of the universe with the aid of marionettes, mirrors and a shapeshifting ironing board, set against a stunning soundtrack by Laurie Anderson. Jacques’ fellow Québécois Lepage originally played the roles himself. “Robert is a…

‘‘Frances Hodgkins was the outstanding artist of her generation, with a professional life that spanned 56 years and earned her a secure place among the English avant-garde of the 1930s and 1940s: the first New Zealand-born artist to achieve such stature,” writes Linda Gill in Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand . “She was also one of the women artists who, by their example of single-minded dedication to career, challenged the category ‘lady artist’ with all its connotations of curtailed achievement. “In August 1940, she wrote to her brother: ‘My aspect of the family talent, or curse? has taken the form of a deep intellectual experience, a force which has given me no rest or peace but infinite joy & sometimes even rapture’.” Andy Boston was…

West Auckland’s LynnMall has a multiplex cinema and a dedicated upmarket dining lane, The Brickworks. The ideal place to stop for refreshments before or after a film or a shopping session, The Brickworks offers seven eateries in a buzzy central courtyard, with something open at all times of the day. Shaky Isles cafe offers coffee and pastries every morning while Hansan, Wagamama and Meso Japanese are popular for casual afternoon meals. The end of the day is the time to head to Cleaver and Co, for slow cooked BBQ meat or to Goode Brothers for fresh pasta, or Bodrum Kitchen for Greek-inspired share plates. From February 24, The Brickworks will host a series of summer music sessions on Saturday and Sundays, with live music from some of New Zealand’s most…

Most of what I have in my wardrobe is a product of the community I’m a part of. We create the spaces and great coffee but we get to coexist with this amazing ecosystem of creative producers. I moved to Auckland from Christchurch, where I had helped to start the Addington Coffee Co-op, a cool community social enterprise. It’s always been important to me to contribute and be a part of where my place is in the world at a particular time. I grew up in the church and that was like an intentional community, more along the liberal lines of Christianity — people who cared about neighbourhoods. That was a really cool time to learn, then I came to a point when I wanted to do my own thing.…

The county of Norfolk in England is bordered by Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire and Suffolk, and the North Sea. Londoners go there to convert barns. It’s also where Steve Coogan’s comic creation Alan Partridge resides — all ego, tastelessness and failure. “Turnip Toffs” (Badger, Rupert, Polly et cetera) live in and around villages, such as Great Snoring, and the occasional hill, such as Beeston Bump. Then there’s the acronym NFN (Normal for Norfolk), invented by doctors to describe patients on the slow side, or odd. Elly Griffiths incorporates some of the above as she conveys an acute sense of place in her series — part whodunnit, part police/forensic procedural, part psychodrama — set in modern-day Norfolk. This from The Ghost Fields (bullet-plugged World War II pilot discovered in Devil’s Hollow; posh, feeble-minded…

At least once or twice in any given year I find myself writing a piece about the death of repertory cinema in the age of video — the loss of the old local film palaces that used to put on classics, and the inconvenient fact that watching great films on your iPad or (god help us all) your phone just doesn’t replace seeing them on the big screens they were made for. Well, consider this: 30 films by directors like Asghar Farhadi, Howard Hawks, Jacques Tati, and Orson Welles. All on the big screen. One flat fee. Every Monday night at the Academy Cinema from March 12 onwards, the Auckland Film Society shows a significant film from the past or present. The selection draws from an eyes-wide-open mix of nationalities…

TARANAKI ARTS TRAIL 2018 9, 10 and 11 June – the Taranaki Arts Trail provides the public with a unique opportunity to meet with over 70 artists in their studios. Brochures available from March. View the artists information and their work on the Taranaki Arts Trail website and Facebook page. Register at www.taranakiartstrail.co.nz GOW LANGSFORD GALLERY Gow Langsford is one of the country’s most established dealer galleries, committed to fostering and promoting contemporary art from two inner-city Auckland locations. Celebrating its 30th anniversary last year, Gow Langsford’s success continues with directors John Gow and Gary Langsford being acknowledged in this year’s New Year Honours, named as Members of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to art. this year will see an exciting line-up of exhibitions showcasing the best…

Short List: Possible stand-ins for unavailable stars Lucy Lawless as Diana in Wonder Woman 2: Xena for Millennials. Deborah Hill Cone as feisty Samantha in Sex and the City 3. Kim Dotcom as Christian Grey, the twisted millionaire hero of Fifty Shades Still Free, Suckers. Winston Peters as PT Barnum in The Greatest Showman 2: One Born Every Minute. Taika Waititi as Han Solo’s ghost in Star Wars: The One with Taika in it. Hilarious pranks for April Fools’ Day Change the password on your partner’s phone, discover their cheating texts, divorce them and take the house. Swap the polenta for baked glue and see if they notice. Tell your partner you ordered a box of wine for the dinner party and then serve your guests Château Cardboard. Go for…

On a stinking hot Saturday in late January, Michael Parekōwhai makes coffee in the kitchen of his Henderson studio. He feeds three pods into the machine rapid fire, pop-pop-pop, puts the cup in front of me, then bangs a bowl of fridge-cold watermelon down on the table. He’s dressed for the humidity: black singlet, grey sweatshorts and Allbirds sneakers the colour of a spearmint milkshake, his thick black hair held back by tortoiseshell sunglasses. He turns 50 this year, but has a shapeshifting ability to look, if not ageless, disconcertingly unplaceable. “Making art is like smoking,” he says, as he joins me at the table. “It’s a bad hobby, it costs too much, and it’s bad for your health.” Parekōwhai loves a good one-liner. But despite being arguably New Zealand’s…

“It’s black on black on black. Epic scale, multiple levels, incredibly stylised.” Mīria George, Wellington-based director of Hone Kouka’s groundbreaking new play, Bless the Child , has been walking through the streets of her city to morning rehearsal while talking to me on the phone. It’s week one of a five-week rehearsal process and she’s describing the play’s opening moments. “Okay, I’m in the rehearsal room. I can look at the set model. So yeah, black on black on black. We’ve drawn inspiration from Ralph Hotere. And hanging within this black Hotere space, we have the realism of an apartment: this is Shardae’s place, the mother of the child. The show will open with her voice, the song of a mother in mourning, desperately clinging to life.”…

There was a time, not so long ago, when people laughed at the idea of a manifesto. With Facebook, iPhones, package holidays and all the cheap fashion-denim you could possibly hope for, who needed radical ideas? But maybe a bit more radicality then might have saved us from the diabolical mess we’re in now. “That’s my daily question too,” the Berlin-based artist Julian Rosefeldt says. “In what ways as an artist do I have to act? It’s very frightening what’s going on in the world. We’re also tamed by consumerism, and in our comfort zone.” Rosefeldt’s response is his immense video work Manifesto. Across 13 screens, a series of characters including a teacher, a homeless man and a news anchor quote from 20th-century artist manifestos, from Dada and the Futurists,…

Sparkling CHARLES DE CAZANOVE BRUT CHAMPAGNE (NON VINTAGE) $40 Top 10  When we think about topnotch bubbly, the big names of Champagne, the so-called “grandes marques”, often come to mind first. But this fresh, fine, concentrated Champagne from a very small producer is right up in that league. On the side of the fuller, red-fruit style (dominated with pinot noir and pinot meunier), but crisp and lively to boot. At this sharp price, Cazanove is now an occasional guilty pleasure in my household. VILARNAU CAVA BRUT RESERVA $27 Spanish Cava does not get much better than this, a classy, refined version that is fresh and citrusy, with a herbal, salty aftertaste. In comparison to Champagne, Cava is generally more linear and has a firmer finish, lighter, but seemingly…

Ampersand, tucked neatly into the back of the inexplicably named Orakei Bay Village (less village, more glorified mall), is a solo venture from ex-Bracu chef Mikey Newlands and his wife, sommelier Amanda Rogers. It shares the space with Espresso Workshop, who roast coffee on the premises during daylight hours but whose presence is slighter in the evening, when the lights are low and the place seems intimate in spite of being a cavernous, teal-blue warehouse with an enormous neon ‘&’ on the back wall. Whether eating at lunch or dinner, you still might leave feeling a little bit special. Rogers, who previously ran the floor at Sidart, has trained the young team of waitstaff working alongside her to reach her own exacting standards. So, while an initial greeting may be…

Going solar was associated with hippies who wanted to go off-grid. Well, those hippies were onto something, because solar is now mainstream. Here’s a fun fact to pull out at a party: around 430 quintillion joules of the Sun’s energy hits the Earth every hour (that’s 430,000,000,000,000,000,000 ‒ a lot of zeroes), that means more energy reaches us from the Sun than the entire world can consume in a year! So why not harness the sun’s fantastic energy to, say, charge your electric toothbrush. Or power a range of appliances in your home. The sun’s energy is a source of clean energy, ready to be put to use. At HRV, we’re ready to help Kiwis take advantage of it with HRV Solar, our range of the latest in-home solar technologies.…

It begins in 2012 with a quixotic aim — a pavilion representing New Zealand in Venice, sadly abandoned through lack of interest (and money). For years, it languishes in a virtual world as architectural renderings online — a project that might have been. It’s rediscovered via Instagram in 2016 and by serendipity attracts patrons and promoters. In 2017, it is built by student volunteers from Unitec as a gateway for Sculpture on the Gulf at Matiatia, Waiheke — washed up for three weeks like driftwood or a bleached whale skeleton. Dismantled, then relocated to private property at Park Point, Waiheke, it wins a national New Zealand Institute of Architects Small Project Award. Such is the elliptical journey of an architectural folly. Walking through its jangle of distorted gable frames is…