By Paula Green
AUP, $25 | Reviewed by Amy Brown

THIS COLLECTION is evidence that illness can sharpen the senses. While bedridden, Paula Green decided to write a poetic autobiography ‘in the light of art’. Due to having a painter partner and artist relatives, it makes sense for Green’s aesthetic memories to be as vivid and valid as those which are ordinarily seen as more “real”. For instance, the poem, ‘The Hills of Toss Woollaston are in my Family Tree’, demonstrates clearly how a painting can become entwined with family events; whether these family events are Green’s or Frances Hodgkins’ is sometimes (deliberately) ambiguous. By weaving her own autobiography with snippets of Hodgkins’, Green finds (familiar, but still interesting) parallels between poetry and painting, and poets and artists: a foundation on which she skillfully builds a strong collection.

On his impending visit to our shores TIM G discusses Andrew Bird’s latest recorded offering, Armchair Apocrypha, and talks to the artist about his song writing process and what to expect from his upcoming live shows.

By Johanna Aitchison
VUP, $25 | Reviewed by Joan Fleming

THE FIRST poem in Johanna Aitchison’s new collection, A Long Girl Ago, is, aptly enough, a homecoming. The poet lands us in her world with sweetly baffled wordplay and an eye for the unexpected. The book’s first and third sections are kiwi bread-and-butter, sandwiching a heart of ‘Japanese poems in English’, inspired by three years spent living in a remote Japanese fishing village.

By Susan Pearce
VUP, NZ$30 | Reviewed by Jennifer Van Beyen

THE COVER of Acts of Love – a peach-coloured blur of an entwined couple walking into golden light – could easily lead some readers to believe that this is a puffy romance story. Do not be misled: Acts of Love, although exploring love in many forms, is hardly a clichéd love story.

ELIZABETH SMITHER’s most recent collection of poems, The Year of Adverbs was published this year by AUP. A new collection of stories, The Girl who Proposed will be published by Cape Catley in March 2008.

BARRY SOUTHAM lives in Christchurch and is the author of four books of poetry/short stories, the most recent being Footprints on a Gravel Road. He is also an occasional television actor and playwright, whose work has been produced both locally and overseas.

Stadium Southland, Invercargill
Dec-1-8 | Reviewed by Renee Liang

WHAT DOES one do when visiting our southernmost metropolis? Go to the Theatre, of course. I may be the last person in New Zealand to wake up to this fact, but Invercargill these days is changing from the rather grungy, pub-ridden city that was my memory from when I last visited (fleetingly, it must be confessed) ten years ago. Not that those parts of town don’t still exist, but these days, with the rejuvenation of the city centre and the installation of large public art works and even larger public facilities, Southlanders are starting to feel mighty cultured.

BRANNAVAN GNANALINGAM previews the summer’s best festivals and musical gatherings ahead: Mercury Rising, Rhythm and Vines, Peregrine, Big Day Out, Camp a Low Hum, A Bush Party, WOMAD.

Circa Theatre
Nov 24-Dec 22 | Reviewed by Helen Sims

“HOT. SEXY. Cruel. Tender. Savage. Raw.” This was how the Almost a Bird Theatre Collective production of Tennessee William’s classic play was billed. They seemed to have set themselves an ambitious challenge, mining the primal out of sublimely rich material. This was well achieved, from the impassioned performances, to the primary colours in the set and costume design and music that broke down into discordant notes. Youthful energy and enthusiasm abounded and once the play warmed up it was an intense ride all the way to its famous ending.

Disasteradio, aka Luke Rowell, discusses the particulars of his new synth album Visions with Hutt Valley compatriot from way back, BRANNAVAN GNANALINGAM.

Gryphon Theatre
Nov 28-Dec 7 | Reviewed by Kate Blackhurst

THIS PERFORMANCE by Wellington Repertory Theatre is a veritable revue in the true sense of the word. Six women and two men present a musical variety show consisting of skits, dance routines, and songs that affectionately mock the bard. Their mixture of accents serves to highlight the global popularity of Shakespeare despite the fact that, as they point out in an early number, so little is known about him that many people just make stuff up.

BRANNAVAN GNANALINGAM and TIM G preview the Big Day Out’s final announcement of acts for 2008.

TIM G: The final announcement for the Big Day Out rounds off an already eclectic contigent. As usual the third announcement is unlikely to persuade or convince punters that they must to go to the Big Day Out but it’s a nice completion of the band list and provides a few ‘bonus bands’ to an already massive line up. It’s also great to see the already strong local contingent being boosted in this line up.

San Francisco Bathhouse
December 8 | Reviewed by Tim G

The Gossip’s recent rise as Indie darlings has created a haze of publicity, rumors and ironically gossip surrounding this band and in particular singer Beth Ditto. The phenomenon that is The Gossip is too often associated with this cloud of periphery hype. Yet tonight Ditto, Brace Paine and Hannah Billie created a spectacle that leaves any such publicity null and irrelevant. Tonight was to be the night that something special would permeate into the minds of those there and the walls of the San Francisco Bathhouse would witness something extraordinary.

Mark Roberts from The Enright House trades intellectual asides with BRANNAVAN GNANALINGAM on classical music, post-rock, and the album A Maze and Amazement LP.

Music Editor BRANNAVAN GNANALINGAM forecasts a long, hot summer of brilliant, must-see live gigs ahead.

THE NEXT FEW months are shaping up as amazing if you’re a music fan. Not only are we seeing a wild mix of great festivals, from the Big Day Out to WOMAD to Camp a Low Hum. We’re also experiencing a glut of one-off gigs, a series of which is going to make some music fans desperately poor, but also which should pique the interests of people who have some sort of fascination with music. Below is a quick profile of some of the upcoming gigs, the type of which if you haven’t heard of them before, will no doubt be on your way to becoming soon-to-be favourites. I would wholeheartedly recommend anyone of these bands to check out. There are other rumours I’m hearing too (cough, Animal Collective, CocoRosie, Sea and Cake cough) but I can’t be held liable if they don’t come through.

BATS Theatre
Nov 30-Dec 15 | Reviewed by Gemma Freeman

WRITTEN in 1983, Revenge of the Amazons is Wellington playwright Jean Betts’s feminist re-working of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. A perennial favourite of school and university theatre groups, this is surprisingly the play’s only professional outing since its début.

Halletau Restaurant/Bar, Riverhead
November 27 | Reviewed by Jacob Powell

THE ROOM is well lit, the crowd small. Kirsten Morell steps uncertainly up to the microphone and invites those at the bar in the room across the way to join us for the start of the show. The now middling crowd stands slightly awkwardly, drinks held close like a security blanket, with a barely perceptible air of anticipation. Without further ado, amps humming to life, Goldenhorse begin to share with us their latest innermost creative thoughts; Reporter is going live...

BATS Theatre
November 29 | Reviewed by Helen Sims

The Wind Speaks to Wellington was the product of several months’ hard work devising a show based in humour and physical performance with a serious social message. What looks like an abysmal piece of devised physical theatre is disrupted by BATS’ Dan Greer, ostensibly possessed by the Wind God, who strikes the performers (Hannah Clarke and Scott Ransom) dumb and takes over, promising more entertaining fare.

CHARLOTTE SIMMONDS is a Wellington-based playwright. Her book The World’s Fastest Flower, is due for publication by Victoria University Press in 2008.

SIOBHAN HARVEY is a poet whose work has been published in numerous international magazines and anthologies, including Kaupapa: New Zealand Writers, World Issues, Landfall, Poetry New Zealand (featured poet, issues 33), Poetry Salzburg (Austria) and Snorkel. She also works as a freelance literary journalist for The Listener, Landfall and The Dominion Post.

Downstage Theatre
17 Nov 17-Dec 22 | Reviewed by Melody Nixon

A GAUDY, vibrant and somewhat cynical script gave the Downstage cast and crew of Urinetown plenty to play with opening night. A show that could tentatively be labeled as shabby postmodern, Urinetown is a pastiche of hit Broadway musicals, from A Christmas Carol and West Side Story to Fiddler on the Roof.

BRANNAVAN GNANALINGAM trawls the music calendar to bring us the month’s best gigs. This December: The Gossip, The Black Lips, Architectures in Helsinki w/ The Ruby Suns, The Mint Chicks.

BRANNAVAN GNANALINGAM previews the Big Day Out’s latest announcement of acts + his Top Ten for 2008.

I’D HEARD rumours of Spoon coming around these parts in December sometime wee while ago, but instead the great indie rockers from Austin, Texas have hitched themselves to the Big Day Out. They’ve been around since ’94, and have basically released six damn good albums in a row. They could be one of the performances to check out.

Gryphon Theatre
November 7-17 | Reviewed by Melody Nixon

REGRETTABLY this review is post-humus, but Stagecraft’s latest show on offer was anything but dead and done when I viewed it opening night. A convincing, well-melded team lead by Iona Anderson brought Michael Palin’s work to quirky life, and granted Palin’s feisty characters the depth they deserved.

Writers want as many readers as possible. And readers want to find something new and brilliant that they can claim as their own discovery. Online creative writing pages provide an opportunity for writers to, in Walt Whitman’s words, “sound [their] barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world” to readers in other cities and countries. The Lumière Reader hopes to provide its readers with a selection of stimulating and provocative short-fiction and poetry, which will be replenished fortnightly (-ish), and its writers with a wide, respectful readership for their work.