Laura Williamson
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The lions of Lawrence
THE ANIMAL ATTIC IN DUNEDIN’S OTAGO MUSEUM IS ONE OF THOSE PLACES THAT IS BOTH MAGICAL AND UNSETTLING AT THE SAME TIME. DATING FROM 1877, IT IS ORGANISED LIKE A VICTORIAN NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM OR THE PRIVATE COLLECTION OF A GENTLEMEN OF MEANS WHO HAD THE INCLINATION TO PURSUE THINGS SCIENTIFIC. IT IS AN ODE…
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Music Review: Change, For a Fiver
Barry G Barry G is an Irish singer, songwriter and impressive strummer of strings who is a familiar figure on the Southern Lakes music scene. His first album, Change, For a Fiver, showcases everything his audiences love in his live performances to great effect. There’s his voice, which has an endlessly listenable Passenger vibe, except…
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Book Review: Dirge Bucolic
By Jasmine Gallagher (Compound Press, 2022) Jasmine Gallagher’s debut collection is like a series of fractal prisms. She takes moments, spaces and stories, then breaks and turns them so we see them from all sides. As implied by the oxymoronic title, there’s a lot here. Dirge Bucolic delves into and through Jasmine’s personal experience of…
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Book review: Fossil Treasures of Foulden Maar – A window into Miocene Zealandia
By Daphne Lee, Uwe Kaulfuss and John Conran (Otago University Press, 2022) This generously illustrated book takes the reader through the story of, and significance of, the Foulden Maar site in Otago. Formed by a volcanic eruption 23 million years ago, the Maar’s undisturbed sedimentary layers are chocka with rare, well-preserved fossils. It’s an extraordinary…
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Waste not, want
IT ALL STARTED WITH A FIELD FULL OF RUBBISH. IT WAS NEW YEAR’S DAY 2020, AND RUBY URQUHART WAS HELPING WITH THE CLEAN-UP AFTER THE RHYTHM & ALPS MUSIC FESTIVAL, IN THE CARDRONA VALLEY. Scattered amongst the usual post-party detritus (beer cans, vape cartridges, flickering smart phones with shattered screens), there were a heck of…
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Those dam Italians
Are Te Anau and the “alternative media” caught in a bad Rome-ance? THERE ARE A LOT OF STRANGE THEORIES CIRCULATING THESE DAYS. STANDOUTS INCLUDE THE RUMOUR THAT NEW ZEALAND IS A NASA HOAX POPULATED BY PAID ACTORS; THAT KEITH RICHARDS IS, IN FACT, JFK; AND THAT REPTILES ARE SECRETLY RUNNING THE WORLD. THE LAST ONE…
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In the moment
Can the At the World’s Edge Festival get us hooked on classical? I’VE SEEN CHAMBER MUSIC DESCRIBED AS “A DELICATE, BUT INTENSE, WORLD IN MINIATURE.” I like that, because it not only sums up what this niche of classical music is, but what makes good art. Good art takes big stuff and serves it up…
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The collector
Bruce Mahalski has great bone structure. Bruce Mahalski makes art from bone. A sculptor and mural artist, Bruce is probably best known for running the incredible Dunedin Museum of Natural Mystery (highlights: the mummified housecat and legendary musician Chris Knox’s painting of the 1977 line-up of his legendary band The Enemy), and for being the…
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Where there’s smoke
In praise of the rural fire siren THIS STORY STARTED WITH ONE OF THOSE FACEBOOK COMMUNITY GROUPS. IN BETWEEN THE UN- MICROCHIPPED DOGS, UPCOMING PUB QUIZZES, CARDBOARD BOXES TO GIVE AWAY AND ISOS CASUAL CLEANERS FOR AIRBNBS, A DISCUSSION HAD IGNITED AROUND THE VOLUME OF THE TOWN FIRE SIREN, AND COMPLAINTS ABOUT THEREOF. THE HASHTAG…