The Spinoff Weekend: All of the week's essential stories in one handy package
For Saturday, November 27...
Kia ora and welcome to the debut edition of The Spinoff Weekend, a curated newsletter designed to allow you to dip your toes in across your weekend. It’s been a massive week of news, from all of the Covid-19 alert level changes to the National Party’s Thursday implosion, so, if you missed anything, it’s all covered, in-depth, here.
But there’s plenty more as well, a leisurely scroll through our best big reads and biggest deep dives, with additional notes and commentary, plus links to other fancy bits and pieces. Grab yourself a cup of Coffee Supreme — because what goes better with a weekend read than a fresh pot? — dive in and have an excellent weekend.
—Chris Schulz, features editor
Behind the scene’s of Scribe’s bruising doco…
A new documentary streaming on TVNZ OnDemand takes viewers behind Scribe's troubled life. Return of the Crusader is a hell of a watch, painting a portrait of a complicated individual who turned to drugs to mask his pain, much of it stemming from a violent childhood. Scribe's been clean for a year now, and the doco follows the award-winning rapper as he mounts a comeback. I wanted to know what it was like making a TV series about a subject who could fall off the wagon at any moment. It was one of the biggest stresses the show's director, Chris Graham, had. “We knew that potentially it could be an incomplete or unfinished story arc and that the end of the story might well be, ‘Scribe's vanished again,’ or, ‘He's relapsed,’” he told me. Honestly, it’s a great series, well worth a weekend binge. You can read my full interview here.
Covid ch-ch-ch-changes are on their way…
In a week when alert level announcements and restriction changes came thick and fast, it was easy to get lost in the Covid fog. Thankfully, several members of The Spinoff team are far smarter than I am and helped clear up the confusion. If you’re wondering how the traffic light system kicking off next week works (that’s me) you can find Alice Neville’s excellent explainer right here. From December 15, Tāmaki Makaurau residents are allowed to leave the city. But should you? That decision is analysed by Leonie Hayden here. And if you’re wondering how the rest of the country feels about the incoming deluge of Aucklanders, that can be summed up by the quote: “The worry is being completely overwhelmed”. You can read Toby Manhire’s piece here.
A week in politics like no other…
One News called it the “National Party nightmare before Christmas”. The AM Show dubbed it, “Coup o’clock”. Tova O’Brien, the outgoing Newshub reporter who has never seemed happier, calmly described it as “pure unbridled political mayhem”. Politics addicts were glued to their screens as the National Party came apart at the seams across Wednesday night and throughout Thursday. The Spinoff’s resident expert Toby Manhire was as glued to the action as anyone, yet managed to recap National’s worst moments, analyse Judith Collins and Simon Bridges’ spiteful history and cover Collins’ caucus downfall in all its glory.
I asked Toby how he coped with what must have been a chaotic Thursday and this was his reply: “When the press release arrived at 9.30pm on Wednesday it was immediately obvious it would have extremely serious consequences — but not yet for whom. For tragics like me the next 18 hours were a flurry of messages seeking insights from people who might know what was going on, a marathon group chat with my GBL friends Annabelle and Ben, and a deranged attempt to try to listen to several radio and TV interviews at once.” One thing’s for sure: there will never be another day in politics like it.
Stuck in the internet’s underbelly…
For the past three months, Madeleine Holden has been leading The Spinoff’s IRL team, a crack squad investigating the murkier depths of the internet. Just this week, they’ve covered a New Zealander who found herself going viral as “Abortion Girl” thanks to her appearance in a far-right viral video, analysed why extremists have adopted Telegram as their platform of choice, and delivered this delightful ode to voice notes (totally agree — they rule). I asked Madeleine how her project’s been going, and she replied with this: “We've covered everything from self-diagnosis of conditions like ADHD and PTSD online to escaping the anti-vax rabbit hole, and the best thing is that, as our readers become more familiar with the IRL project, they've been sending in their own fascinating, scary and sometimes heartbreaking stories.” If you’ve got your own online mayhem yarn to tell, you can get in touch with the IRL team at irl@thespinoff.co.nz.
A message from The Spinoff’s new editor Madeleine Chapman:
Like any good door-to-door salesperson, I’m about to cheerily introduce myself and then, in the very next breath, ask you for money. Hi! I’m Madeleine (or Mad) Chapman, previously an intern at The Spinoff, then a staff writer, senior writer and now editor. It certainly wasn’t the plan to step into this role in the middle of a delta outbreak, nor did I think my first weeks on the job would unfold alongside New Zealand’s largest city slowly coming out of stagnation. But despite the strange and unfortunate circumstances, The Spinoff team has stepped up once again, working tirelessly (and mostly from our bedrooms) to bring you the most important news when you need it, and the lighter moments when things are looking a little bleak. We’ve been able to continue this work because of the ongoing contributions from our members and I can’t thank you enough.
But can I boldly ask that you consider becoming a member if you aren’t one already? If you’ve read something on our site recently that you enjoyed or appreciated, consider it a koha for that alone, because every dollar donated through The Spinoff Members is used to create more of the work you see every day. With Christmas around the corner (which I’m finding genuinely hard to believe), there’s no such thing as shipping delays on a membership of The Spinoff bought for whānau and friends.
A lockdown life lived alone…
Did you read Sam Brooks’ beautiful piece a few weeks ago about spending lockdown alone? In my mind, no one’s summed up Aotearoa’s lockdown vibes better than Sam, The Spinoff’s feature writer who moved into a new flat in Tāmaki Makaurau’s central city on his own during lockdown. This week he went one better, listing all of the things he did — and didn’t — achieve over the past three months. I can totally relate to much of it, although I cannot confirm if I showered every day. I honestly just can’t remember. You can read Sam’s list here.
A new look for The Spinoff…
You may have noticed we’ve had a bit of a spruce-up. The Spinoff unveiled an all-new look this week, a big, bold redesign that’s been in the works for two-and-a-half years. Many hands were involved in the process, most notably the website’s designers Tina Tiller and Toby Morris, who helpfully explained everything you need to know about our relaunch. I’ve been involved in a bunch of news website reboots in my time and can honestly say none of them have been as smooth, and as highly praised, as the one that happened at The Spinoff this week. I asked Toby and Tina if there was one piece of feedback that summed up the response to their gargantuan efforts, and they pointed to this tweet from Kris Sowersby, who designed The Spinoff’s new type face. It read: “Bloody good work there!” Agreed.
Everything else I read this week…
NZ Herald reporter Tom Dillane has delivered the most comprehensive story yet on the death of Olympic cyclist Olivia Podmore. Spread over four pages of The Weekend Herald (or paywalled online) it’s well worth your time…
As a father-of-two kids who are starting to discover social media, this New York Times feature on what the internet is doing to kids’ brains horrified me.
I absolutely loved this piece about the bitter break-up of indie-rock darlings The Wrens over the tortured creation of their still-unreleased fourth album.
I got lost (sorry) in this New Yorker profile on maze-maker Adrian Fisher.
I cracked up at Tara Ward’s interview with New Zealand Below Deck star Katie Flood and made a mental note to finally watch the reality show.
The LOLs kept coming with Calum Henderson’s opinion piece arguing that instead of heading to the hairdressers, more men should grow their hair out.
I relished this delightful profile on local telly star Jacquie Brown.
This piece on The Civic and the story behind its embroidered flamingo curtains is just mind-blowing.
I adored Esquire’s interview with Keanu Reeves, an actor who appears to never, ever stop working.
I’m sorry, but I agree with Alexis Petridis: Peter Jackson’s eight-hour doco on The Beatles’ Let It Be sessions sounds OTT. I won’t be watching it.
Finally, yes, you’d better believe I picked through all of these photos of Kanye West’s Wyoming ranch, which is up for sale for those who have a spare $US15 million lying around. Bargain!
