Standing Room Only for Sunday 21 August 2022

12:16  Roger Horrocks on the birth and growth of the arts in NZ

A country that's too small for most artists to make a living and one that has been both fickle and under-appreciative when it comes to arts...  That's how a critic, poet and filmmaker Roger Horrocks sees the eight decades of New Zealand art that he covers in his new book.

But Culture in a Small Country, The Arts in New Zealand also celebrates what our artists have, and continue to achieve, despite all the obstacles in their way.

Roger Horrocks is an Emeritus Professor of the University of Auckland.  He's also one of the founders of the Auckland International Film Festival, Script to Screen and NZ on Screen.

In the book, he expresses his frustration and scepticism when it comes to things like arts funding, the downgrading of arts education in our schools and the digital era.

Rogers tells Lynn Freeman that, while artists are producing world class work in Aotearoa, it's often despite rather than because they live here.

Culture in a Small Country: The Arts in New Zealand by Roger Horrocks is published by Atuanui Press.  Roger will be discussing the book this Tuesday at the Aotea Centre as part of the Auckland Writers Festival.

 

12:33  Lyn-Marie Harris is inspired by missing persons

Photographs of 140 fictional missing people, all with their own backstories, make up the latest exhibition by Auckland mixed-media artist and poet Lyn-Marie Harris.

Missing will go on show at the upcoming Auckland Fringe Festival where visitors will be invited to have their photographs taken and added to the wall of faces.

Lyn-Marie tells Lynn Freeman that people from around the world contributed their selfies to the show, then she created stories about their lives and their last known whereabouts.

While many are lighthearted, the show also highlights the fact that many people do go missing.  Missing opens at Beautiful Things Gallery on August 30.   And a percentage of the proceeds will be donated to Youthline New Zealand.

 

12:45  Indie film Northspur may be the start of something big

Right now there are dozens of major film shoots happening all over the country.   But the independent sector is doing well too - particularly one project from the top of the South Island.

Northspur was shot on a shoestring budget in the Marlborough and Nelson regions, privately funded.  And it's already made a breakthrough.  The rights for distribution have just been sold to a major US film studio.

One of the stars of Northspur is veteran trans-Tasman actor Marshall Napier (Bellbird) who sadly died a week ago, just before the premiere in Blenheim next month.  Marshall plays a curmudgeonly loner defending his isolated cabin in a violent, post-pandemic world.

Lynn Freeman talks to Northspur's screenwriter Justin Eade and director Aaron Falvey about the film, and the support from the local community for the growth of film industry in the Nelson-Marlborough region.

Northspur premieres in Blenheim on the 1st of September at the Event Cinema, before opening around the country. 
 

1:10 At The Movies

Simon Morris reviews Nope, Employee of the Month and Good luck to you Leo Grande.

 

1:31  A new novel remembers the plight of German internees during WW1 

The brutality endured by First World War internees on Wellington's Matiu/Somes Island is remembered by Dunedin author Paddy Richardson in her latest novel.

Many of the interns, who had German heritage, had already faced hostility from their neighbours even before they were impounded by New Zealand officials.

By the Green of the Spring also tells of the grief suffered by the interns' families and partners.  

In the novel, engaged couple Pansy and Otto live happily in Blackball on the South Island West Coast.  But when Otto is carted off by the wartime authorities, Pansy quickly marries their mutual friend Clem rather than have Otto's child out of wedlock.

Lynn Freeman first talks to the author about the dark history of Somes Island.

By the Green of the Spring by Paddy Richardson is published by Quentin Wilson. It's the sequel to her novel Through The Lonesome Dark.

 

1:45  Alan Knowles' photos go where others fear to snap! 

Photographing the glue residue that remains when signs or notices are removed became the unlikely obsession of Wellington photographer Alan Knowles.

He's even come up with a name for them - "Glueglyphs" - and has launched a book of his images at the biennial PhotobookNZ Festival at Te Papa yesterday.

Alan's past photobooks include ones about biscuits, sports, and Wellington city with an emphasis on its wildflowers.

Alan Knowles talks with Lynn Freeman about Glueglyphs.

Glueglyphs is published by Wai-te-ata Press, Victoria University of Wellington.

 

2:06 The Laugh Track - Sowmya Hiremath and Trent H Baumann

 

Comedy's become a ridiculously broad church in this country - and today's two guests are a perfect example.   They're both on the bill of top-knotch live shows called Saturday Laughs - one in Westport, one in Kāpiti.  But they couldn't be more different - on paper at any rate.

Sowmya Hiremath prefers to fly under the radar - she claims she hasn't even told her Mum yet that she's a comedian!

Trent H Baumann on the other hand has a CV that includes Glastonbury, the Edinburgh Fringe, the New York Clown Festival and Pixar Animation!

Only one show would put Sowmya and Trent together - Lynn Freeman welcomes them to the Laugh Track.

Their picks include Reggie Watts, Wilson Dixon, Michele Wolf and Rosebud Baker.

 

2:25  Alistair Luke's new novel was inspired by a real-life murder 

Remembering the random murder of his friend in Wellington's CBD in 1980 was the starting point for  Alistair Luke's crime novel One Heart One Spade.

Although it still takes place in Te Whanganui a Tara, Alistair's set the story in the late 1970s, with all the racism, misogyny, and colonialism of the era.

A young woman from a privileged home is missing.  Wellington Detective Lucas Cole is in charge of an investigation that becomes more and more puzzling.   And he's also struggling in his personal life with his partner Tess.

One Heart One Spade by Alistair Luke, is self-published.

 

2:37   Tim Upperton's new poetry collection

An acerbic wit and and astute observations dominate the poems in A Riderless Horse, the latest collection by Palmerston North wordsmith, Tim Upperton.

Tim's two previous poetry collections were A House on Fire and The Night We Ate the Baby.   

He's a three-time winner of the Caselberg International Poetry Competition, and he's both a creative writing teacher and landscape gardener.

Most of the poems in A Riderless Horse have had an earlier life, having been seen in a range of publications.  

But Tim tells Lynn Freeman he's reworked most of them for this collection.

A Riderless Horse by Tim Upperton is published by Auckland University Press.

 

2:49  Dirty Deeds Down Under - crime on both sides of the Tasman

It's apparently the first ever compilation of Australian and New Zealand crime short stories, but already several more anthologies are being planned to follow.

Dark Deeds Down Under (Volume 1) is edited by Craig Sisterson, an expat champion of Australasian crime writing.

Craig has already written a reader's guide to the crime fiction - in books, film, and TV - of New Zealand and Australia. He also founded the Ngaio Marsh Awards and Rotorua's Noir festival of crime writing.

Lynn Freeman asked Craig how he approached editing a trans-Tasman crime anthology... 

Dark Deeds Down Under (Volume 1), edited by Craig Sisterson, is published by Clan Destine Press.

 

 

3:06 Drama at 3 - Naughty Bad Girls and One Door To Heaven

Today's Classic Drama slot features two plays.   First,  Mel Johnston's Naughty Bad Girls sees three Generation X women - Lucy, Rhonda and Nick - look back on their lives.   And Joe Ryan's "heist gone wrong" short story is called One Door To Heaven.

  

Music played in this show

Artist: Gracie Fields
Song: Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye
Composer: Parr-Davies-Park
Album: Sally and other favourites
Label: Hallmark
Played at: 12.12

Artist: Elvis Presley
Song:  Good luck charm
Composer:  Gold-Schroeder
Album: Commemorative Issue
Label: RCA
Played at: 12.30

Artist: Daft Punk
Song: Get lucky
Composer: Gm De Homem Christo
Album: Random Access Memories
Label:  Columbia
Played at: 12.58

Artist: Kylie Minogue
Song: I should be so lucky
Composer: Aitken-Stock-Waterman
Album: Greatest hits
Label: FMR
Played at:  1.07

Artist: Alison Krauss and Union Station
Song: The lucky one
Composer: Castleman
Album: Essential
Label:  Rounder
Played at: 1.42

Artist:  Garbage
Song:  A stroke of luck
Composer:  Garbage
Album: Garbage
Label:  White
Played at: 1.58

Artist: Warren Zevon
Song: Bad luck streak at dancing school
Composer: Zevon
Album: Bad luck streak in dancing school
Label: Asylum
Played at: 2.05

Artist: Emerson Lake & Palmer
Song: Lucky man
Composer:  Lake
Album: Best Of
Label: Rhino
Played at: 2.58

Artist:  Tom Petty
Song:  You got lucky
Composer: Campbell-Petty
Album:  Greatest hits
Label:  MCA
Played at: 3.05

Artist: Frank Sinatra & Chrissie Hynde
Song: Luck be a lady tonight
Composer: Loesser
Album: Duets
Label: Capitol
Played at: 3.56