Paloma Diamond is the best actress you've never heard of
Fans say the satirical act deserves an Oscar
Kia ora and welcome to The Weekend. As a former Wellingtonian who still holds a great deal of fondness for the city (I maintain it’s the best city for trail running in the country) I’ve been following our War for Wellington coverage avidly. Joel MacManus, Wellington editor, has been doing huge amounts of work to cover the recommendations of the independent group advising on densification in the city. Opposition to these recommendations has proven to be one of the few things that MPs from across the political spectrum can agree on. If you like the idea of housing becoming more affordable in the capital, then keep following our wellington coverage here.
-Shanti Mathias, staff writer
Paloma Diamond wins awards season
Across the internet, as Oscar nominations have been announced, there’s been a recurring joke: why, commenters plea, has Paloma Diamond not been nominated for the award? But wait — who is Paloma Diamond? “An actress who needs her damn Oscar is one answer. A teacher at a South Auckland school with a startlingly good American accent and a wig is another. A satire of the strangeness of awards season, perhaps the most publicised series of community prizegivings in the world is a third answer. All are correct,” Sam Brooks says, after interviewing Julian Sewell, the character’s creator and TikTok star. “But how creator Sewell has built his career, might be the most interesting part of the whole Paloma Diamond story.”
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The fast rise and faster fall of Auckland restaurant Cotto
When Auckland restaurant Cotto abruptly closed its doors at the end of last year, Stewart Sowman-Lund thought there might be more to the story. So he picked up the phone and spoke to a number of former employees of the popular pasta joint. He discovered that there were red flags in the company’s management from the very beginning, symbols of how precarious hospitality work is. “This was a major investigation that involved hours of research, writing and interviewing along with a few restless nights dwelling far too much on the world of hospitality. It’s probably the biggest single piece I’ve worked on at The Spinoff, so I hope people found it interesting,” Stewart says. It might not be the end of the saga, either — if you know more, get in touch.
Creative Waikato gave artists a living wage for a year. Here’s what happened next.
“When you first hear about it, Whiria te Tāngata sounds utopian. Ten artists, given a living wage for a year, and also given the resource to bring arts, culture and creativity to the many communities that make up the Waikato region,” writes Sam Brooks. After reviewing research that showed how engaging with the arts has positive effects on wellbeing, the organisation funded 10 artists to engage with the community for a year. “Whiria te Tāngata does a simple, but profound, thing. It puts resources in the hands of artists, artists who belong to various communities, to take their practice to those communities. While professional arts and culture is important, so too is grassroots art, and community access to it.” Read more about the artists’ experience here.
Rawiri Waititi isn’t the first leader to call for a Māori Parliament
At Waitangi this week, Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi called for the establishment of a Māori parliament. Tommy de Silva explains that there’s a long history to the idea of a non Pākehā space for governing to happen. “The phrase ‘Māori parliament’ is predominantly associated with the 1892-1902 pan-tribal ‘Kotahitanga’ movement, which aimed to promote Māori interests, like stopping land theft. Although some Pākehā politicians attended its sessions, Wellington never officially recognised the legitimacy of this movement,” Tommy writes. “As the historical examples of Māori parliaments prove, tangata whenua don’t wait for Pākehā permission to create these sorts of bodies.”
Read more of our Waitangi coverage here, including some great outfits
Competition crawls and skitters for Bug of the Year
It’s time to end my façade of journalistic neutrality: I am supporting the scree cicada for Bug of the Year (although “flies in general” are a close second). How could I resist this description? “Scree cicadas are easy to identify because they’re the only New Zealand cicadas to exclusively wear Patagonia and North Face. Their ideal first date would be summiting Everest, watching Free Solo or showing you their carabiner collection. If you love adventure, go hard, but prepare to be cardiovascularly challenged.” Marcia Welch profiles seven other invertebrates — there are 20 in the competition as a whole — so perhaps you’ll find your perfect match!
Everything else
How Asian New Zealanders are celebrating Lunar New Year – welcome to the year of the dragon!
Every trapper I know (three of them) are very into RNZ’s Deer Wars podcast about pest control in Aotearoa
Men I haven’t seen for years keep crawling out of the woodwork: Help Me Hera!
Which Wellington cocktail bar is a good place for writing a Masters thesis and a bad place to ditch a bad date?
How a 27-year-old codebreaker proved that Bitcoin wasn’t anonymous
Fresh leads emerge in Shortland Street’s search for a mystery baby
Maggie Tweedie’s reading rituals: “An age-old form of self care”
Author Rebecca K Reilly wonders if it’s worth assimilating with the Americanism-inflected language of the publishing world
Gone by Lunchtime talks Waitangi spiders and Winston scriptures
Group chats are one of the best parts about the internet
At the beach with the poo detectives
The lab-grown diamond revolution may have reached its limits
What happens at a Kevin McCloud live show?
A history of (not) smoking in New Zealand
