Daily News Channel
Lana Del Rey says sleeping with men in the music industry didn’t land her any record deals.
The 29-year-old Ultraviolence singer has sold over seven million albums internationally since her debut digital album was released in 2010.
Del Rey
The reckoning for New Zealand’s finest literature is approaching, and it would be surprising if Eleanor Catton’s The Luminaries didn’t triumph.
Catton’s magnum opus is one of 16 books short-listed for the annual New Zealand Post Book Awards.
The country’s pre-eminent publishing accolade received 150 entries from New Zealand authors this year.
Other finalists include Lloyd Jones’ A History of Silence, Charlotte Randall’s The Bright Side of My Condition and Rebecca Macfie’s Tragedy at Pike River Mine.
The finalists were spread across four categories: fiction, general non-fiction, illustrated non-fiction and poetry.
The winner of each category will receive $10,000. One of these will be named the overall Book of the Year and receive an additional $15,000.
The finalists were selected by a panel chaired by TVNZ presenter Miriama Kamo. It included artist Dick Frizzell, Radio New Zealand broadcaster Kim Hill, poet Elizabeth Smither and literary critic Peter Simpson.
No formal criteria guided the selection process, rather, the group applied their collective experience, Kamo said.
The judges said the short-listed books “captured the essence of the country’s psyche – not just in place and people, but by capturing what makes us tick as New Zealanders”.
The judges have already decided on the winners, who will be announced at a ceremony at Wellington’s Te Papa Museum on August 23.
“I have absolutely no doubt that we have chosen the best books,” Kamo said.
Did the other books ever stand a chance against The Luminaries
“That book came with such high expectations, which in some ways might have served it well and in other ways might not have, it’s hard to say,” Kamo said.
“Obviously, it’s a very deserving finalist.”
New Zealand authors may stand a better chance in the People’s Choice or Nielsen Bookseller’s Choice awards. The public and booksellers can vote for their favourite Kiwi-authored books in the awards.
The People’s Choice winner will receive $5000, while the Bookseller’s Choice winner will receive $2500.
Unsurprisingly, Catton is also a finalist for the latter.
The finalists for the New Zealand Post Book Awards 2014, by category, are:
The 16 finalists for the New Zealand Post Book Awards were selected from 150 entries by New Zealand authors vying for the country’s pre-eminent publishing accolade.
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Fiction
– The Bright Side of my Condition by Charlotte Randall, Penguin Books
– The Last Days of the National Costume by Anne Kennedy, Allen & Unwin
– The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton, Victoria University Press
– Max Gate by Damien Wilkins, Victoria University Press
Poetry
– Gathering Evidence by Caoilinn Hughes, Victoria University Press
– Heartland by Michele Leggott, Auckland University Press
– Horse with Hat by Marty Smith, Victoria University Press
– Us, then by Vincent O’Sullivan, Victoria University Press
Illustrated Non-fiction
– Coast: A New Zealand journey by Bruce Ansley & Jane Ussher, Random House NZ (Godwit)
– Greer Twiss: Sculptor by Greer Twiss, Dr Robin Woodward & Haru Sameshima, Ron Sang Publications
– New Zealand and the First World War 1914-1919 by Damien Fenton, Penguin Books in association with the Ministry for Culture and Heritage
– Promoting Prosperity: The art of early New Zealand advertising by Peter Alsop and Gary Stewart, Craig Potton Publishing
Hayden Tee grew up in a Northland town populated by only about 800 people.
Revivals of two much-loved musicals are vying for your entertainment dollar in Melbourne this winter. James Croot compares an eastern monarchy with French misery.
THE KING AND I
Inspiration: 1944 novel Anna and the King of Siam by Margaret Landon, which is in turn derived from the memoirs of Anna Leonowens, governess to the children of King Mongkut of Siam in the early 1860s.
Location: Princess Theatre (until August 31)
Ticket Prices: From A$80 (thekingandimusical.com.au)
Target Demographic: Despite some risqu
Scarlett Johansson will reportedly marry next month.
The 29-year-old actress got engaged to Frenchman Romain Dauriac, who manages a creative agency, last year and they are currently expecting their first child together.
The pair are notoriously private, but it’s been claimed Johansson has been overheard discussing their wedding plans.
According to New York Post, the star was at a dinner thrown by American businesswoman Martha Stewart at her East Hamtpon estate. She was reportedly heard chatting about her impending nuptials, telling people she and Romain will exchange vows in four weeks.
While nothing is confirmed, it’s expected that the couple will tie the knot in Paris. They are known to love the French capital as it affords them more privacy than other places due to strict paparazzi laws.
However, if the couple opt to say their I do’s in Johansson’s native country, it’s thought they will go for a simple ceremony in the Hamptons, New York, as they’ve spent a lot of time together there recently.
Stewart’s party was in honour of the launch of Dom P
Attention pop stars: If “Weird Al” Yankovic shows up at your concert or has tracked down your personal email address, you’re likely his next parody conquest.
Such was the case for artists like Pharrell and Iggy Azalea, who are covered by Yankovic in his latest album, Mandatory Fun.
For his 14th studio effort, released last week, Yankovic had his heart set on Williams’ No. 1 smash Happy. When he didn’t hear back from Pharrell’s camp, he decided to go straight to the source.
“I somehow got Pharrell’s home email address – I won’t say how – and I emailed him and asked if I could do the parody,” recalled the 54-year-old comedian. “He couldn’t have been nicer and he said he was honored to have me do the parody.”
Sometimes a face-to-face plea was necessary. Yankovic flew to Denver and waited backstage at Azalea’s concert to get permission to use her summer hit Fancy.
“I talked to her as she was literally walking offstage. I introduced myself, ‘Hi. I’m “Weird Al” Yankovic and I would love to do a parody of Fancy,’ he said. “The next morning I was in the studio recording.”
Yankovic’s efforts paid off: Billboard reported that Mandatory Fun will debut at No. 1 – his first – this week with more than 80,000 units sold. That’s almost double the amount his last album, Alpocalypse, sold in its debut week in 2011.
In a recent interview, Yankovic discussed the surprise success of his new album – which also features covers of Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines and Lorde’s Royals – and the accompanying music video-turned-viral hits.
AP: Can you believe the album’s initial success
Yankovic: This has been an amazing week. I can’t even tell you. I have been doing roughly the same thing for many, many years, and this is the best week of my life in terms of like the response from people. It’s just insane and it’s extremely gratifying. It’s hard for me to wrap my head around (it).
AP: You released eight music videos in eight days. Were you inspired by Beyonce, who dropped 17 videos with her surprise album last year
Yankovic: It irks me this much when people say, ‘Oh you’re doing a Beyonce’ because, you know, three years ago, when my last album came out, I did a video for every single song on the album, released it all at once, and nobody was saying to Beyonce, ‘Oh you’re doing a little “Weird Al” there are you’ So, you know, I’m sure I wasn’t the first one to do that, but I did it before Beyonce. I just want to set the record straight.
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AP: Unlike other parodies, you’ve never gone the mean-spirited route.
Yankovic: I’m a fan like everybody else. When I do my parodies it’s not meant to mock these people. It’s not meant to belittle them or make them look bad. It’s an homage. … I don’t think you need to be hurtful to be funny.
AP: Not everyone is as good-natured as you are, especially on social media. How do you deal with negative feedback
Yankovic: There’s always going to be trolls and people being negative and, you know, it’s hurtful. I wish I could say that it bounces right off of me, but part of it sticks. But thankfully I’ve got so many other people on Twitter that are extremely positive that it more than balances it out.
AP: Will this be your last album
Yankovic: I hate to draw lines in the sand and say this is absolutely the last album, but it sure looks that way. It’s the end of my record deal. I’ve been under contract since 1982 and I just kind of feel like especially with the kind of music that I do, the album format isn’t the best way to deliver that music. … I’m going to try to jump on new hits and new trends as soon as I can (with singles) and try to be a little bit more competitive with everybody else in the world on YouTube.
AP: Who’s next on your parody wish list
Yankovic: Even if I knew I couldn’t tell you. But after I’ve mastered an album and it’s done and in the can I really shut my brain off. I don’t think about parodies for a while.
AP: What about Beyonce You have yet to cover her music.
Yankovic: She’s on the list. I’ll get there eventually because then they will say, ‘Oh you did a Beyonce.’
– AP
How do you wind up making a film about one of Britpop’s biggest bands Just flick them off an email inviting them to the movies.
New Zealand film-maker Florian Habicht was set to premiere his critically acclaimed Love Story at the London International Film Festival when he thought it might be cool if Jarvis Cocker came to see it.
“I sent him an email inviting him to Love Story in London because Pulp are one of my favourite bands and I thought they would like this film,” Habicht says.
“As I wrote the email I kind of thought, ‘Oh, it would be so interesting to collaborate with Jarvis Cocker’.
“I planted the seed in the email, that I thought we could come up with something.”
Cocker not only came to the film, he was also keen to work with Habicht on a documentary about the Brit rockers and where they’d come from.
Pulp: A Film about Life, Death and Supermarkets premieres in the New Zealand International Film Festival at the Civic Theatre in Auckland on Thursday, before heading to the rest of the country.
It tells the story of the band who brought us Common People and This is Hardcore from the perspective of people in their home town, Sheffield, in the fly-on-the-wall style Habicht has bought to previous films Kaikohe Demolition and Love Story.
“The crazy thing was when Jarvis told me his idea for the film, it had the exact same ingredients as what I wanted to do, or what I had up my sleeve,” Habicht says.
“Basically it was that it’s a film about people. It’s a portrait of Sheffield, not just a band, and it’s not a standard rockumentary where the band are like rock gods – they’re more on an even playing field.”
The only hiccup was that Cocker wanted the centrepiece of the film to be a gig – billed as the band’s last – that they would play in Sheffield only six weeks away.
It seemed impossible, but Habicht was determined to make it happen.
“I had to drop everything else, I dropped my other film projects and my life and went to Sheffield.
“I guess that’s where my kind of Kiwi ingenuity or being an independent film-maker came in … I’m used to starting projects quite fast.”
BURNING THE MIDNIGHT OIL
Habicht had one meeting with Cocker before he left London. The songwriter went through his book, Mother, Brother, Lover, underlining placenames and scribbling notes in the margins.
One of these was “Castle markets – worth a visit”.
This was the first place Habicht and producer Alex Boden went, and where he found a newspaper seller who appears in the film.
“Like lots of my docos it was spontaneous, it wasn’t like researching beforehand and finding people – it was more meeting them on the street or in the pub, that kind of thing. I had this vague map of Jarvis’, or Pulp’s Sheffield, and we pretty much just had the camera with us.
“In real life I’m a real scaredy cat. Like crossing the road I always cross on green, but when it comes to film-making I can make a film without having a script, I’m happy to go on that ride.”
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Habicht’s 2011 film Love Story was filmed on the streets of Manhattan. In it he approaches New Yorkers and asks them to dictate the scenes of a love story starring him and Russian actress Masha Yakovenko.
In Pulp, he speaks to kids, football teams, old-age pensioner choirs, and anyone who has an opinion about the band on the street.
Was it difficult to approach people
“I always love talking to strangers, it’s one of my favourite things. I can be really shy too but by having a camera in your hand it’s a bit like having a few drinks, it’s easier to talk.
“I definitely don’t have any problems approaching people and I think people like it, you can have these kind of special human connections with people you wouldn’t usually meet.”
He connected with the English rockers instantly, describing Jarvis as “incredibly prolific”, and driven with dozens of projects on the go, but also a lot of fun.
It was weird working with a band that he had always admired, he says. One minute he’d be annoyed at one of them because they didn’t reply to an email straightaway, and the next he’d be hit by the gravity of it.
“There were definitely moments, as a Pulp fan … there’s a song called Live Bed Show and Jarvis performed the song on the actual bed that the song is about. It was just him playing me the song and I was filming at his house and we were getting great footage and then I thought ‘Oh this is pretty special, getting a solo concert’.
“I saw Pulp play in New York two years before that, and if someone had told me ‘You’re going to be making a film about them’ I would have just been like ‘No way’.”
THE HARD ROAD TO PULP
Habicht was born in Berlin and raised in New Zealand, attending Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland.
He won best digital feature at the New Zealand Screen Awards in 2004 for Kaikohe Demolition, his heartwarming portrayal of Kaikohe’s demolition derby.
Winning the Harriet Friedlander New York Artist Residency took him to New York in 2009.
While there, he was gutted to be turned down for funding by both Creative New Zealand and
The Film Commission for Love Story and a sequel to Kaikohe Demolition.
“It was like, ‘Oh my God, I’ve been making films for like eight years, working my arse off, and now both my projects have been turned down. I was a bit heartbroken and then I just thought, ‘Oh, I have to do something while I’m in New York’ so I just started shooting Love Story.
“It’s just a reminder of how hard it is. It gave me a sort of a fighting spirit to make it really good, and that’s how Love Story came about which as a film I’m really proud of.”
He’s back in New Zealand for his latest film’s opening and has just been granted Film Commission script development funding with director Peter Donaghue for a project he describes as a “musical of sorts set in Japan and New Zealand”.
Pulp will also take him back overseas, for screenings at festivals in Europe and at New York’s Lincoln Center.
While film-making doesn’t get any easier, he feels like some of his hard work is starting to pay off. And if he has any advice to give to young film-makers, it’s to hold on to an ethos that Jarvis Cocker and Pulp also work by.
“Work with people that you love, rather than people with flash credits. Pulp really stick to their guns and they’re a really honest band and they don’t compromise and they don’t believe in b……..
“You’ve just got to stick to your instincts and your guns. And don’t always believe the experts, because the experts aren’t always right.”
Pulp: A Film about Life, Death and Supermarkets opens at the Auckland NZIFF on Thursday. For all other locations, dates and times, go to
Fresh from winning a theatre award in China, New Zealand children’s theatre company Little Dog Barking is to present its puppet play about death at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival next month.
Little Dog Barking Theatre, established in 2010, is the brainchild of local Pauatahanui artist Peter Wilson.
The stage adaptation of Duck, Death and the Tulip, a book by German illustrator Wolf Erlbruch, has captivated audiences, with its inventive and entertaining way of addressing one of life’s more difficult topics.
“Death is an inevitable part of life,” Wilson said.
“However, people tend to approach it with caution in everyday conversation, particularly with children.”
Duck, Death and the Tulip is a story about a duck and a representation of death.
In bringing it to the stage for young audiences, Wilson has drawn on personal experience.
“When I was a young boy and my brother died, no-one was around to explain death to me. It would have been wonderful to have had a book like this.
“I’m excited at the opportunity to perform it alongside artists from around the world who attend the Edinburgh Festival. It’s a time when producers and presenters gather to see what’s new, what’s innovative, what’s unique and what they might buy.”
It is directed by Nina Nawalowalo and the music is composed by New Zealander Gareth Farr.
The play is performed by Wilson and Shona McNeil, using puppets crafted to replicate the book illustrations.
The story follows a duck as he befriends an individual representing death. As their bond grows, death clarifies to duck about the wonders of life and the reality of death.
Wilson’s life work creating theatre for children and families has taken him to many corners of the globe, most recently Nanchong, China, where he was chosen to work alongside Asian puppet companies in the First Asian Pacific Puppet Festival. Little Dog Barking won Best International Drama for another of his shows, Paper Shaper.
Before founding Little Dog Barking, Wilson was founding artistic director of Capital E National Theatre for Children in Wellington.
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– Kapi-Mana News
Reading a Kanye West interview is like a reading a Kanye West interview. There is simply nothing quite like it. At times, you’ll feel like you’ve been let into a secret chamber where only West and his ego live, where he speaks a magical dialect that is as wondrous as it is puzzling.
Still, if you’re lucky enough to be let into the 37-year-old rapper’s mind, as
Do yu like Paul Verlaine/Is it gonna rain today/ Shall we have our photo taken/We’ll look like. . . Death and the Maiden, sang Graeme Downes of The Verlaines on one of the Dunedin band’s best-known songs Death and the Maiden, released in 1983.
Bloodstains, ball gowns, trashin’ the hotel room/We don’t care, we’re driving Cadillacs in our dreams . . . And we’ll never be royals, sang Lorde 30 years later on Royals.
Downes, who now juggles being a professor of music at Otago University while continuing with The Verlaines, isn’t lumping himself with one of the most successful Kiwi songwriters in living memory. But Lorde’s ability to write a hit pop song – one that Downes says is more complex and adventurous than your average pop ditty – is now being used as an example to his students of good songwriting. They also have to aim higher, he says.
“The elephant in the room is Lorde, which has been fun for me in terms of teaching. [On] the first day back for all levels I said ‘you’ve just had your arse kicked by a 17-year- old. What are you going to do about it”‘
Downes, part of pioneering label Flying Nun’s first roster of artists, will discuss more on how he’s used Lorde to shake up his students when he talks in Wellington on Thursday as part of the lecture and performance series Literary Notes. His talk – and performance – No Read, No Write – Tribulations of a Composer/Poet/ Educator, will also cover his own journey as a songwriter, including how he’s composed several songs for what will become The Verlaines’ 10th album.
Downes, who wrote his PhD dissertation on tonal structures in the works of Gustav Mahler, says Lorde and Royals came about via a student request. His first-year students towards the end of the year can ask him to look at a particular song.
“One of them said, ‘Can we look at Royals’ and I transcribed the melody and talked through it and said, ‘This is a really clever piece of melodic writing. This is not going gangbusters for no reason. This is a really competent composer at work here.’ It’s melodically a lot more complex than a lot of stuff that’s usually at No 1. Across the whole [Lorde] album it’s a very sophisticated piece of work. It’s really consistent across the 10 songs.”
Downes says he had to reach back to British trip-hop band Massive Attack in the 90s or back further to Burt Bacharach for a comparable example of similarly constructed songs.
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Downes’ examination of Lorde meant that when Royals hit No 1 in the United States he found himself being called by newspapers wanting to know what her economic value would likely be for New Zealand.
“Even the National Business Review wanted to talk to me about it. I didn’t have any idea, never having had a No 1 song in the United States.”
Downes says his talk will also be a way to road test a few of the songs that are likely to be part of The Verlaines album. And the album itself is ambitious – his template will be the old-school vinyl double albums, so five songs a side, 20 songs in total. He has already commissioned the artwork for the album and knowing that a vinyl option is likely to appeal to many who have embraced the vinyl revival.
Downes says he believes the renewed enthusiasm for releasing music on vinyl has acted as a filter.
“The world is full of music and you have all the virtual sites where every Tom, Dick and Harry that makes something approaching a song in their bedroom puts it up.
“But to do vinyl you’ve got to have money behind you, which means no one is going to go to the effort of doing vinyl unless they are pretty keen on the product.
“The world’s also waking up from the hangover of random play, an entire diet of compilation albums on iTunes.
“With a [vinyl] record you don’t want to wreck it. You put the needle on the first song, you let it play, you turn it over very carefully and you play side two. That brings into play a whole different artistic experience. I liken it to classical music – being immersed in someone’s thought stream for 40 minutes, which historically we’ve always liked to do.”
Downes says his own approach to writing songs has changed. Until seven years ago he wrote by “basically fiddling around with chord structures and then trying to work a lyric on to it after that”. But it was pretty “hit and miss”, he says.
Since then he begins with a text or lyrics then marries it with music.
“It’s essentially the way all classical composers write songs, they went and found a text and if it was good they set it to music. I’ve been writing texts as poems and just scraping and revising them all year.
“Then I set them [to music] in January when I’m on holiday, which is scarily congruent with how Mahler used to work.”
In terms of teaching others how to write songs, Downes has some sage advice. One comes from an American country songwriter who gave a presentation to Downes’ students last year. He said: “you only have to make one mistake to ruin a song”. The other comes from Downes’ analysis of Lorde – and that she is well read for her age.
“Songwriting is really hard work. You need to learn to read twice. The path to [lyrics] can be poetry or literature or anything else.
“Where do you get actual ideas from From your own life and experience – sure. But what else do you read to get ideas”
And other factors can help a songwriter. It can be about support and Lorde is again a good example.
“She is very well handled by [record label] Universal. They virtually signed her up very young and let her work with people and no pressure to produce anything.
“Just keep writing and developing and when you’ve got some songs that you’re happy with, we’ll record them’ – which is really cool. It’s actually very Flying Nun.”
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