ALEXANDER BISLEY and AMY BROWN don’t have the hubris to suggest they read anywhere near enough of the contenders for best books of 2008 released in New Zealand. They can happily recommend ten crackers though.
For The Lumière Reader, Music Editor BRANNAVAN GNANALINGAM, and contributors GEOFF STAHL, JAMES ROBINSON and ALEXANDER BISLEY review the year in albums, singles, and memorable gigs.
Dispatched from Australia, STUART LYNCH reports on Melbourne’s live music scene.FIRSTLY, apologies to Washington for completely missing the opening set. I can unfortunately offer no plausible excuses, but will of course endeavour to get to a show in the not too distant future.
And so we were left with the somewhat nautical double bill of The Boat People and Seabellies, on the Melbourne leg of their East Coast ‘Home Sweet Home’ tour, after playing a bunch of gigs… you guessed it, overseas. Ahem.
Musician Warwick Blair discusses the Indian traditions behind his latest electronic work, Stars, with BRANNAVAN GNANALINGAM.
Tokushima City, Japan December 18 | Reviewed by Renee Liang
THIS IS ONE musical which needs no introduction to those of us from a certain age group. Even if you haven’t been lucky enough to see a live production, it’s a fair bet that anyone will be able to hum snatches of Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber’s score, or at the very least knows the storyline.
JOAN FLEMING studied poetry in Wellington and now lives in Golden Bay. Her poems have appeared in Sport, Hue & Cry, Turbine, Moving Worlds and Takahe. She says, “‘Theory of Light’ is sort of a farewell poem. It’s about the light we give out being reflected back to us; it’s about the things we carry, and what we let go.”
San Francisco BathhouseDecember 18 | Reviewed by Brannavan Gnanalingam
I SAW a jet-lagged John Darnielle and Peter Hughes play in 2005 to twenty people in Bodega. He seemed genuinely surprised that that many people even came back then, he asked in his laconic, self-deprecating style, “does anyone in the crowd own any of my albums?” One person put up his hand and said he owned two. Another said he had borrowed his album from library. Three years later it was the complete opposite, as the nearly full San Fran Bathhouse crowd pleaded for songs off him, giving him the rapturous applauses reserved for idols, as a relaxed Darnielle joked and threw himself around for his final performance of the year. But he played much harder than he did that time, a quite remarkable performance from a remarkable performer. He admitted that 2008 was a tough year, and when he closed his main set with ‘This Year’ and belted “I am going to make it through this year if it kills me”, it was as cathartic for Darnielle as it was celebratory for the audience.
San Francisco BathhouseDecember 15 | Reviewed by Brannavan Gnanalingam
IT’S NOT that often that a band gets sworn at by the crowd at full voice, unless they were about to be lynched. The crowd’s demands for “fuck fuck fuck” wasn’t a misguided attempt at seduction, it was pleading for the Toronto four-piece to re-live their crazed electronic-cum-indie music. Of course, they’re mainly known for their infamous name, and renowned for being made scapegoats by the Conservative Canadian government, but it’s their musical prowess that was the most vivid detail after their Wellington show. Their control of improvisation made a mockery of their professed lack of rehearsal, as the four cavorted with textures and rhythms. The drummer astonished with his metronomic drumming, punctuated by fills that were as loud as a petulant kid trying to get attention. And the music was delivered with a fury that made you want to dance while stand dumbfounded at their control.
In 2008, CRAIG CLIFF attempted to write one million words... *awkward silence* His poetry has most recently appeared in Trout, Turbine and Blackmail Press, and his fiction in Best New Zealand Fiction Volume 5.
Dispatched from Australia, STUART LYNCH reports on Melbourne’s live music scene.THE EMPRESS HOTEL in North Fitzroy has a fierce reputation for its support of the local scene, and is famous as one of the original promoters of live music in the area. Such standing predictably attracted all manner of trendies and musos to this showcase of three underground acts with steadily growing acclaim of their own.
“Toronto’s evil super group”, Holy Fuck, prey on Auckland and Wellington this December. The band’s founding member, Graham Walsh, chats with BRANNAVAN GNANALINGAM.
Gryphon TheatreDecember 9-12 | Reviewed by Kate Blackhurst
THE FIVE playlets that comprise Summer Shorts all rely heavily on the power of dialogue and the ‘reveal’ (the aha moment). It is hard to pull this off in a short space of time, as there are limited foundations to be laid, and some of the plays work better than others. Due to some slick scene changes however, the pieces fit together well and the momentum is maintained.
Downstage TheatreDecember 8-18 | Reviewed by Kate Blackhurst
JENNIFER Ward-Lealand is practically New Zealand singing royalty. From her stunning entrance in a sparkling black dress with plunging neckline, she rules the stage. She remarks that ‘At the touch of love, everyone becomes a poet’ and she goes on to sing a selection of songs that tell stories. The songwriters include George Harrison, Irving Berlin, Rodgers and Hart, Stephen Sondheim, John Lennon, Jacques Brel, and Burt Bacharach. She picks sultry numbers that suit her alto voice, which reverberates around the auditorium almost without her moving her lips.
BATS TheatreSTAB Season | Reviewed by Helen Sims
Heat is a play rooted in friction, passion and conflict, set in a cold and eerie climate. Yet it is also beautiful and lyrical, as well as intensely physical. This play of contrasts gripped me for its entire length.
Edited by Rebecca Priestley;Simon Nathan and Mary Varnham
Awa Press, $48/$25 | Reviewed by Andy Palmer
REBECCA PRIESTLEY’s recent publication Atoms, Dinosaurs & DNA was a history of New Zealand science and scientists ostensibly for the younger reader. The Awa Book of New Zealand Science came out about the same time and is a companion piece ostensibly for the older reader. Although it’s fair to say that both would be enjoyed by anyone with an interest in science, regardless of age.
Luke Buda’s second solo album, Vesuvius, finds the Phoenix Foundation member in high, idiosyncratic form. He talks about his sophomore effort to BRANNAVAN GNANALINGAM.
By Amy BrownVUP, NZ$25 | Reviewed by Tom Fitzsimons
FULL DISCLOSURE: Amy Brown took Victoria University’s MA in Creative Writing the same year that I did. She is also a past Lumière books editor and the website’s current creative writing editor.
Regardless of all of that, here she comes with an altogether impressive and distinctive debut collection of poems. Always supremely polished whenever I’ve heard them aloud, Brown’s poems seem even more measured and certain now they’re gathered together on the page.
ALEXANDRA FRASER lives in Grey Lynn. After some years teaching science she now has a part-time job in a doctor’s office, which leaves her time to write. She is fortunate this year in being accepted into the NZSA mentor programme.
BRANNAVAN GNANALINGAM trawls the local music calendar to bring us the month’s best gigs. This December: The Ruby Suns w/ The Conjurors and Street Beat, The Bats, Collapsing Cities w/ Naked & Famous and Body Corporate, 24 Hour Movie Marathon, Holy Fuck!, The Mountain Goats, Peter and the Test Tube Babies, Rhythm and Vines.
St. James TheatreNovember 27 | Reviewed by Brannavan Gnanalingam
ONE OF THE big debates in music video analysis is whether the visuals or the music are the most important for a viewer. Handle the Jandle pretends the music doesn’t exist. Outside the obvious criterion that the video is made for a song, this is a contest for the directors and the visual artists. It’s a great forum, it rewards directors and musicians who come up with a good visual idea and bring it to fruition off their own steam. The rules mean that the videos are to be of a DIY nature – the music has to be New Zealand made and the videos self-funded. One hundred and twenty-two entries were received for this year’s Handle the Jandal, and fifteen finalists were chosen from around the country. In the end, the brilliant Hot Grits’ video ‘Headlights’ (the first video banned by TVNZ since 1987, which would matter if TVNZ played music videos these days) won the top prizes from the judges and the audience.
Dispatched from Australia, STUART LYNCH reports on Melbourne’s live music scene.DELVING into the murky world of Alternative Country is never a predictable experience, the vast range of potential influences making it difficult to know exactly what to expect. So it was with tentative steps that we entered the feral-chic cavern of the Old Bar for this Alt Country double bill. The subtle lighting and abundance of checked shirts lent the venue a suitable ambience, looking like something between a Midwestern honky-tonk bar and a back-alley lumberjack convention. The late cancellation of the promised barbecue did little to dampen spirits, with the easy going crowd much more interested in the $10 jugs on offer than any other form of sustenance.
By Roger Donaldson and Hamish KeithRandom House, $49.95 | Reviewed by Andy Palmer
IN HIS foreword Hamish Keith says: “We live in a cloud of pragmatic photographic images. The practical uses of the medium tend to limit our view of its possibilities – if our experience of painting was mediated by signwriting, we might see it as predominantly only for the making of visual messages. Clear way the noisy swarm of our daily encounters with photographs and photography becomes art again.”
By Tim JonesRandom House, $27.95 | Reviewed by Jennifer van Beynen
SHORT STORIES are tough. Tough to write and, at times, tough to read. And in a collection of short stories, how should they fall together into one book? Should there be links, an overriding theme? The short story can be seen as a small universe unto itself – a good short story should bring the reader straight into this universe and keep them there, absorbed, until the end. It seems that a collection of these universes should then make a whole. In Transported, Tim Jones tackles climate change, fantasy, science fiction (I assume if one story has orcs and another aliens, both bases are covered), some small pieces involving Borges, Gorbachev, and of course human relationships. This means a lot of angles in one short story collection, and at times the material doesn’t sit together all that well.
Circa TheatreNov 15-Dec 21 | Reviewed by Kate Blackhurst
PANTOMINE is recipe theatre; if you put in all the correct ingredients it comes out exactly as advertised, with no surprises, unpleasant or otherwise.
Take one old tale/legend/nursery rhyme and give it a new twist. Here we have Red Riding Hood – note, it is not Little Red Riding Hood, as she is no longer a little girl but a young lady with a hooded tracksuit and headphones who jogs through the forest, brightly played by Danielle Mason with grin wattage turned up high. She wants to study zoology which she knows ‘may not earn a great living but it will be an interesting life’.
Te Papa, Soundings TheatreNovember 15 | Reviewed by Brannavan Gnanalingam
INTEREST for this show put on by the Japanese Embassy was so intense that its free tickets were snapped up within half an hour. The big queue at Te Papa before the performance suggested that many were hoping to sneak in too, that some foolish souls who had reserved tickets would decide not to show up. Those who weren’t able to obtain a ticket, or relinquished theirs, missed out on a pretty incredible performance by the Yoshida Brothers, two shamisen players from Noboribetsu, Hokkaido. The brothers, Ryoichiro and Kenichi Yoshida demolished the audience’s expectations with their music, their playing breathtaking in its execution and its virtuosity. And their sound was so playful and joyful, that it was easy to forget how impressive their control of rhythm, melody and harmony really was.
Geneviève Castrée, aka WOELV, arrives in New Zealand late November for two shows. BRANNAVAN GNANALINGAM finds out, via email, about risk-taking, the English language, and being a musical provocateur.
BRANNAVAN GNANALINGAM chats to LA-based Jeremy Jay, set to dreamweave his indie pop to audiences in Auckland and Wellington this week.
JEFFREY S. CORREA is an undergraduate and lives in New Jersey. He is forever indebted to Zbigniew Herbert.
Dispatched from Australia, STUART LYNCH reports on Melbourne’s live music scene.THE TOTE HOTEL in Collingwood has earned an iconic reputation over the years for its support of local bands and continual promotion of the underground live music scene. The eclectic line-up assembled here epitomised the establishment’s ‘anything goes’ attitude, and provided a perfect platform for the launch of Major Major’s EP Great Leagues.
By J J JosephExisle Publishing, $35 | Reviewed by Christine Linnell
AT THE beginning of Fighting for My Life: The Confession of a Violent Offender, J J Joseph writes, “I hope my story takes you out of your world and into mine for a day or so”. This insight is the main strength of a Waikato man’s memoir about domestic abuse.
