The Spinoff Weekend: How’s that traffic light system working out for you?
Every story we loved reading this week, both here and abroad...
Mōrena and welcome to The Spinoff Weekend. Today, we’ve got updates on our biggest stories, from the National Party leadership to the new Covid-19 traffic light system, our phone dependency and Anna Rawhiti-Connell’s revealing essay that reckoned with her reliance on alcohol over lockdown. There’s also a selection of our favourite big reads and deep dives from the past seven days. So, kick back, find someone to make you a cup of Coffee Supreme — because what goes better with a weekend read than a fresh brew? — and catch up on all the news. Relax. You made it. You’re here. Welcome to your weekend…
—Chris Schulz, features editor
How’s that traffic light system working out for you?
If you woke up on Friday a little confused, you’re not alone. New Zealand’s new traffic light system kicked off yesterday and heads are spinning with all of the new freedoms on offer. What can you do? Where can you go? And how do you do it safely? Great questions. First of all, you’ll need to sort out your vaccine pass (make sure you have the right name on it and avoid the black market). Want to know the rules around hugs, travel and Christmas parties? Siouxsie Wiles helps answer all of those queries for you. Meanwhile, Naomii Seah attended a midnight screening of the Auckland’s first film, and Stewart Sowman-Lund crunched the quite staggering numbers on Tāmaki Makaurau’s nearly four-month lockdown. It’s been quite the collective experience for Aucklanders.
Amidst all of this, hospitality workers have begun the mammoth task of reopening Auckland’s bars, cafes and restaurants after 15 weeks of lockdown. Resident foodie Charlotte Muru-Lanning has some advice for diners heading out this weekend: “Largely, those working in local restaurants and cafes seem pretty chuffed to be shifting into the traffic light system. At the same time there are certainly justified concerns around the risk of Covid-19 transmission with the easing of some restrictions. With scores of new rules and systems to get used to for those in the industry, if you’re braving dining out this weekend, it's a good reminder to be even more polite than usual to those looking after you.” You can read Charlotte’s piece here.
Collins is out, Luxon is in
On Tuesday, the National Party crowned its new leader, Chris Luxon, after the contentious ousting of Judith Collins. Here’s The Spinoff’s political addict Toby Manhire on how he thought Luxon handled his first few days as leader: “After the Collins tornado, Chris Luxon's first days played out more or less as predicted. With the exception of his struggle to explain why he owned seven houses, he navigated a slew of media interviews (I think I must have read, watched and listened to at least a dozen) adeptly, and with Nicola Willis and Simon Bridges installed, there's a strong and stable crew in the cockpit (all aeronautical metaphors will cease soon, promise). There will be a few sterner tests of Luxon in the weeks to come, but after that he can look forward to kicking back and enjoying the key components of a New Zealand summer: sea, sand and a few hours of daily media training.” You can read Toby’s full analysis here, and listen to his latest Gone by Lunchtime podcast episode Luxonmania here.
Making headlines this weekend…
Martin Van Beynen details the late night confession of fraudster Kelly Tonkin for Stuff.co.nz. Jared Savage has the enthralling hunt for Comancheros gang boss Duax Ngakuru for NZ Herald (paywalled). While you’re there, Steve Braunias details the cultural appropriation saga surrounding a Sargeson Prize-winning short story set in South Africa. RNZ has the latest on the Black Caps’ second test against India. For The Spinoff, Sam Brooks celebrates the 75th anniversary of The Brotherhood of Auckland Magicians, and Tara Ward meets a New Zealander who failed her audition on The Chase. Finally, Rolling Stone has revealed its top 50 albums of the year, placing Olivia Rodrigo’s teenage rager Sour at No. 1, above Adele’s stinging divorce record 30.
We’re all addicted to our phones
Everyone, that is, except Madeleine Holden. This week, she ranked all of the ways in which she’s tried to rid herself of her toxic phone dependency. Clearly, it struck a chord: Madeleine found herself invited to talk about it on primetime TV: “Two people got in touch to tell me they find smartwatches a useful screentime-reducing technique — the idea of notifications coming straight to your wrist sounds even more awful to me, but they both swear by it — and I appeared on Three's The Project to chat further about my experiment. How much screentime is too much screentime? Honestly, it's such a subjective assessment and will depend how much trouble your devices are causing in your life, but optimally, I'd like to be checking social media for no more than 20 minutes total, every second or third day, with just a brief glance at the news in the mornings. (I am NOT there yet.) If I find myself messaging someone for more than 10 minutes, I try to just call now, too — I'm trying to ditch the marathon texting sessions of my early 20s in favour of the yarns on the blower that characterised my early teens.” Check out Madeleine’s piece here.
Is our booze culture about to change?
As someone who has stopped drinking for large chunks of time, it’s been fascinating to watch New Zealand’s booze culture go under the microscope. First came Guyon Espiner’s excellent documentary, and that’s been followed up by Anna Rawhiti-Connell’s analysis of her own lockdown drinking habits. I asked Anna what kind of feedback she’d had to her piece, and she replied: “Writing about yourself is always a bit nerve-wracking. But if you’re going to ask others to interrogate something, I am generally driven to first expose myself. The advantage? It tends to prompt a lot more honesty in the feedback you get. Feedback was overwhelmingly positive - there does seem to be a real desire to change the booze culture in this country and people shared the ways they were making a start on that themselves - Hot Vax and Vermouth and Soda summer coming up. I don’t usually look at the comments on Facebook but was pleasantly surprised. A mindful and moderate cheers to that.” You can read Anna’s piece here.
The best way to read The Spinoff
As you will have noticed, The Spinoff has had a glow up — a full redesign and incredibly fast new platform across mobile and desktop (read Toby Morris explaining it here). What’s even better is our two amazing new apps, one for iPhone, the other Android. They’re probably the best way to stay across everything we’re doing — and if you turn on push notifications you’ll get the Covid-19 numbers as soon as they come out, plus our best story of the day, every day. And they’re totally free.
Everything else we read and loved this week…
Following the death of Jake Millar, Duncan Greive busts the myths surrounding tech founders wide open in a measured, considered piece from someone who knows a thing or two about the ups and downs of launching a startup. It’s a must-read.
The Theranos court case going down in San Jose right now is deeply compelling. Elizabeth Holmes took the stand this week, and you should be following the New York Times’ (paywalled) coverage, along with multiple podcasts (Bad Blood, The Drop Out) to deep dive into the gory details.
This week’s best crazed cult story comes from Rolling Stone and it’s a doozy, about the fringe sect Love Has Won and its late founder, Amy Carlson. Set aside some time, and deep breaths, for this one. A Netflix doco, and a multi-season podcast, is surely on the way.
Did you stub your toe multiple times when you were stuck at home during lockdown? Alice Neville found out how we’ve been injuring ourselves here.
This week saw the final episode stream of Sweet Bobby, a podcast investigation into a sordid UK catfishing saga that lasted 10 years. If you haven’t heard it already, get bingeing. This might go down amongst the year’s best podcasts.
Are our country’s traffic lights orange or yellow? Toby Manhire will pull you into his sick, twisted (and hilarious) search for the truth.
You have to read Madeleine Chapman’s open letter to John Bishop about his sausage roll disaster . Cafes, take note: there’s about to be a weekend run on saussie rolls.
Check out this fascinating big read on the 20-year anniversary of Ngā Pae o Te Māramatanga, New Zealand’s first Māori centre of research excellence and what it’s achieved over that time. Roll on another 20.
How to With John Wilson, a madcap HBO TV show made out of home movies, was one of the best of 2020. While we wait for season two to land in Aotearoa, this feature from The Ringer’s Alan Siegel is a wonderful way to pass the time.
Finally, a solid thank you to Sam Brooks. We put our Christmas tree up this week and, before the kids could fight over the stereo, I used his advice to make the perfect Christmas playlist — with not a single Mariah Carey tune to be found. Meri Kirihimete!
