Navigation for Standing Room Only

 

12:16  Protecting our valuable libraries  

Libraries are under the gun in some parts of the country where councils aren't convinced by the value of investing ratepayers' money into them.

LIANZA - Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa - is now meeting key ministers to put their case for libraries to be more appreciated and supported.

LIANZA represents around 380 library and information service institutions and this week Executive Director, Ana Pickering and President Elect Paula Eskett met the Minister of Internal Affairs, the Honourable Tracy Martin.

Ana and Paula told Lynn Freeman that top of the agenda was the hope for a move towards public library legislation.

12:36  Straight to tape

 

 

Cuba Dupa's taken over Wellington's Cuba Street this weekend and two of the hardest working artists taking part, are busy transforming spaces with their medium of choice - rolls of tape.

Tape Artists Erica Duthie and Struan Ashby create entire murals from tape, working with passers-by on works which have a lot to say, but which are not designed to last beyond 24 hours.

Lynn Freeman talked with Erica and Struan just before they headed back to Cuba Street for another day taping:

12:46  Auckland University Music - a big change of direction?

Auckland School of Music

Auckland School of Music Photo: Patrick Reynolds

Outrage and concern have followed the release of a proposed radical restructure of Auckland University's Department of Music, with five key teaching positions held by respected musicians under threat.

The proposal talks about moving away from a "music conservatorium" approach to having much more emphasis on research and academic aspects of music.

It also makes the point that courses in a seminar/lecture format with class sizes smaller than 25 enrolments don't break even financially, and currently of the 89 courses offered at the School of Music, only 14 meet that threshold.

RNZ Concert's Eva Radich has been talking to a range of people about the move and what it means for music students. Lynn Freeman talks to Eva, as well as contributions from long-time staff member Eve de Castro Robinson.

1:10 At The Movies

This week Simon Morris looks at Tomb Raider and The Death Of Stalin, and talks to Australian director Garth Davis about his new film Mary Magdalene.

1:33 Stop-motion animator extraordinaire Antony Elworthy

Antony Elworthy

Antony Elworthy Photo: supplied

It's surprising that, in an age of computer-driven special effects, old-school stop-motion animation continues to fascinate and thrive.  It's got to be the most laborious art-form on Earth!  

Aardman - of Wallace and Gromit fame - is about to release a new feature Early Man.  Last year My Life As A Courgette was nominated for an Oscar, and this year Wes Anderson's Isle Of Dogs has been the big winner at the Berlin Film Festival.

The New Zealand connection with Isle Of Dogs is Christchurch animator Antony Elworthy.

Elworthy has also worked on My Life as a Courgette, Coraline and The Corpse Bride. 

He tells Simon Morris he's bringing his skills back to New Zealand for a new project in his home town.

1:47 Holly Best's toy camera offers something truly unique

Using a cheap toy film camera to photograph her young family at their home, has produced a whole exhibition of intriguing works - even if they might not be always technically perfect.

Christchurch photographer , and writer for Art New Zealand - Holly Best describes An imprecise organisation of forms as part family-photo album, and part something else entirely.

For several years after the Christchurch earthquakes, Holly roamed through the abandoned red zone areas, often photographing trees, weeds that grew like triffids, and once neatly trimmed hedges that went wild.

But the Red Zone has changed now and so has Holly's focus.  But, as she tells Lynn Freeman, one thing hasn't changed.  She's still not interested in ditching film for digital photography.

An imprecise organisation of forms by Holly Best opens at the Ilam Campus Gallery in Christchurch on Tuesday.

 

2:06 The Laugh Track - James Cain

James Cain

James Cain Photo: supplied

James Cain of the Red Scare Theatre Company is one of the hot new playwrights on the scene, and his interests are reflected in his plays.  M'Lady tackled sexual politics, and his new one, Movers, seems to take on everything else - age, race, class and standup comedy.

Movers has been shortlisted for Playmarket's Adam New Zealand Play Award - and among the cast is ex RNZ man Lloyd Scott.  On the Laugh Track, James Cain's picks include Rowan Atkinson and clips from TV series Black Books, Jane the Virgin, and The Good Place.

2:26  Ahuahu - hundreds of years of human habitation

Off the coast of the Coromandel Peninsula is an island that's gradually revealing information about how early Maori lived, including cultivation, and trading in one of the most valuable resources of the time - stone.

Archaeologists have been heading to Ahuahu/Great Mercury Island for decades, uncovering more than 20 pa sites and numerous gardens and kumara pits.

Several times a year the archaeologists and students head out to the island, which has been occupied for around a thousand years, to carry out excavations, hoping for new insights into how Māori lived in the past.

Auckland Museum and the University of Auckland are spearheading The Great Mercury Island Archaeological Project and will be talking about recent revelations as part of the upcoming Archaeology Week.

Lynn Freeman spoke to the co-directors of the project,  Rebecca Phillipps from Auckland University and Louise Furey  from Auckland Museum.

2:40 Tess Redgrave's new novel about the fight for the right to vote

Tess Redgrave

Tess Redgrave Photo: supplied

no caption

Photo: supplied

It's 125 years since New Zealand women won the right to vote. Now Auckland journalist Tess Redgrave takes us back to the origins of the suffrage movement in her debut novel, Gone to Pegasus.

The central characters are two women with very different personalities and back stories. Grace is the bored wife of a bullying husband, who believes she's entitled to vote and is prepared to fight for it.  Eva's banker husband has been admitted to the Seacliff Lunatic Asylum in Dunedin, so now she offers piano lessons and gives recitals.

When the two women meet, Eva finds herself drawn into the temperance and suffrage movements, which went hand in hand until the Women's Franchise League was formed in 1892.

Lynn Freeman talks to Tess Redgrave about Gone to Pegasus, published by Mākaro Press.

 

2:50 Speculative Fiction NZ anthology

Zombies attacking the InterIslander, a child accidentally eating baby mice, space travel, taniwha, demons and dragons - they all feature in a new collection of New Zealand speculative fiction.

Speculative Fiction New Zealand champions the work of this country's growing band of writers of "Spec Fiction". Now they've published an anthology,  which encompasses everything from science fiction to fantasy and out and out horror.  Spec Fiction also includes supernatural and apocalyptic fiction for good measure.

Lynn Freeman talks to co-editor of Te Korero Ahi Ka Lee Murray,and to one of the contributors Dan Rabarts. You can read their speculative fiction along with stories by other writers in Te Korero Ahi Ka, published by SpecFicNZ.

3:06 Drama at 3  - Sketch by Kate Morris

 

Music played in this show

Artist:Buffalo Daughter
Song: Chihuahua punk
Composer: Buffalo Daughter-SuGar
Album:   Pshychic
Label:  V2
Played at:  12.16

Artist: Ron Sexsmith
Song: Saint Bernard
Composer: Sexsmith
Album: Carousel One
Label: Cookingvinyl
Played at: 12.28

Artist: Modest Mouse
Song: Guilty cocker spaniels
Composer: Brock-Modest Mouse
Album: No-one's first and you're next
Label: Epic
Played at: 12.58

Artist: The Beatles
Song:  Martha my dear
Composer: Lennon-McCartney
Album: White Album
Label: Parlophone
Played at:  1.08

Artist: Bulldogs All-Star Goodtime Band
Song: Everyone knows
Composer: Luther-Findlater-Hooper
Album: Something old something new
Label: Sound value
Played at: 1.44

Artist: Miranda Lambert
Song: Greyhound bound for nowhere
Composer: Lambert-Lambert
Album: Kerosene
Label: Epic
Played at: 1.58

Artist: Domenico Modugno
Song: Ciao ciao bambina (Piove)
Composer: Modugno-Parish-Verde
Album: 40 Great Italian Hits 1060s 1970s
Label: Repertoire
Played at:  2.04

Artist: Emmylou Harris
Song: The boxer
Composer: Simon
Album: Roses in the snow
Label: Warner
Played at: 2.35

Artist: Sleaford Mods
Song: The corgi
Composer: Sleaford Mods
Album: Divide and exit
Label: Harbinger
Played at: 2.58

Artist: Smashing Pumpkins
Song: Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
Composer: Corgan
Album: Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
Label: Hut
Played at:  3.04

Artist: The Spaniels
Song:  Goodnight sweetheart goodnight
Composer: Carter-Hudson (?)
Album: 20 classic doo-wop hits
Label: Arc
Played at:  3.58