Michael Brown

Belittled Magazine | Bruce Robbins Thirty years after the Sokal affair, whither the little magazine?

Thirty years after the so-called 'Sokal affair', one of the editors of "Social Text" looks back...

thebaffler.com/salvos/belit...

Apparently they were 90 years old

Good point, but I don't recall that from the credits.

It's worth reading his evocative "Memories of Early Years", about growing up on Drysdale in the 1910s-20s

Not sure it’s quite the best fit, but this organisation may be willing to take this on and/or collaborate with Papers Past. The site was recently reviewed in NZ Journal of History.

www.ourhealthmuseum.org.nz

Country Calendar visits the Rangitīkei sheep station, Drysdale, where composer Douglas Lilburn grew up. It’s still in the Lilburn family, now run by Lilburn’s great grand-nephew. (To view, requires TVNZ app and login)

www.tvnz.co.nz/shows/countr...

Drug dependency and drug abuse in New Zealand : second report : New Zealand. Committee on Drug Dependency and Drug Abuse in New Zealand : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive 246 pages ; 24 cm

One is here at @archive.org

archive.org/details/b322...

This was such an important thing for me to write, both personally and as a story that needed to be told. One of the great record men/women whose work changed pop music around the world.

Project to preserve 400,000 audio-visual files nears completion "It's the first step in unlocking this kind of material so that future generations of New Zealanders have access to it," National Library Chief Librarian Jess Moran said.

Big news in the NZ audiovisual preservation world

www.1news.co.nz/2025/10/18/p...

Internet Archive website just after the launch of Wayback Machine in October 2001.

Internet Archive website just after the launch of Wayback Machine in October 2001. https://cybercultural.com/p/wayback-machine-launch-2001/

2" multitrack tapes of music by H.D.U., Headless Chickens, Chris Knox and Loves Ugly Children.

Next week, keep an eye out for Part 1 of a blog about the type of recordings in the image below. These are multitrack tapes from the Flying Nun archive at @nationallibrarynz.bsky.social.

Part 2 goes up a week later and features multitrack audio from one of FNR's most enigmatic groups...

One of the original 150

Some nice design synergies btwn inlay and shell

Sammy and Dino Episode 1: The Hustle — You Must Remember This Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify . This season, we look at the movies, music and lives of Sammy Davis Jr and Dean Martin. Singers, actors, TV stars and nightclub performers,...

Showbiz

Catching up with this superb @rememberthispod.bsky.social series about Sammy Davis Jr & Dino Crocetti (aka Dean Martin), which covers some compelling lives and themes of post-WWII America.

www.youmustrememberthispodcast.com/episodes/202...

‎ Ｄｒｏｗｎｉｎｇ 🫳 🌊

classic vapor collage by @jmjarrels (on Insta)!

Wellyfest: the Wellington Folk Festival at 60 - Article | AudioCulture Every Labour Weekend out Wainuiomata way, 40 minutes from the hustle and bustle of Te Whanganui-a-Tara, among the 260 hectares of native bush and parkland known as the Brookfield Outdoor Education Cen...

Every Labour Weekend out Wainuiomata way, the Wellington Folk Festival does what it’s been doing since 1965: gathering around the light of folk music, and passing its warmth among the people. By Bee Trudgeon www.audioculture.co.nz/articles/wel...

What a fantastic resource. 😍

Cover artwork by John Holmes

Beckett on Picador

The National Library of NZ's Flying Nun Research Guide has had a bit of a refresh.

natlib.govt.nz/researchers/...

The Spooky House by SPOOKYSOFT A spooky adventure game set in a grand manor. Can you escape?

Our retro-styled browser game 'The Spooky House' gets a traffic spike each October as hoards of gamers seek out spooky seasonal content. I hope they all get out alive. spookysoft.itch.io/the-spooky-h...

Nico in a striped outfit, posing in front of a large New York neon sign

Remembering Nico on her birthday 🎂
📷 Steve Schapiro, 1965

"I’ve been on the top, I’ve been on the bottom. Both places are empty."

This year’s Lilburn Lecture at the National Library of New Zealand will be given by esteemed singer, songwriter, and musician Don McGlashan. He will discuss the influence of rivers, lakes, inlets, and oceans on his artistic method, inspiration, and purpose.

natlib.govt.nz/events/lilbu...

First enjoyed this classic of American surrealism as a teenager; rereading decades later I now get the references to Hemingway, Thoreau, Whitman, Hammett...

Also left wondering if Brautigan was an influence on David Lynch

Almost half of Te Papa's management roles could be axed in 'significant' restructure Last week the national museum announced plans for a two-stage process in an effort to cut costs.

Details emerge

www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

Landfall Tauraka celebrates 250 issues Landfall Tauraka is celebrating its 250th edition with a new name, a literary symposium, a special exhibition and a bumper issue.

Aotearoa's longest-running arts and literary journal, Landfall Tauraka, is celebrating its 250th edition in style, with a symposium, a Library exhibition, and a bumper issue marking the occasion 📝✨

Find out more about the celebrations 🎉⬇️

The landline at my old family home still has the last 4 digits it had in the 1970s - like a telco fossil!

Locals stunned by world-famous white whale sighting off NZ coast Locals near Kaikōura captured rare footage of a white humpback whale.

Distant cousin of Mocha Dick sighted off Kaikōura

www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/rare-whit...

Synthpathy for the Devil The Altamont Moog and the AI Apocalypse

Synthpathy for the Devil

About, among other things, how the Moog played at Altamont in 1969 ended up in the DNA of EDM

georgedhenderson.substack.com/p/synthpathy...

The things you find. This is the first profile of a wee indie label I set up once upon a time. They were such unique and new things in NZ that the writer had to explain how they worked—45 years ago (gulp)...

Not seen this for decades.

@audioculturenz.bsky.social

Bank collapse in Waikanae

🌞Total land required to replace coal fired energy
🌞Example assumes all solar:120,000 hectares
🌞 That’s less than 0.016 percent of Australia’s total land currently used for agriculture
🌞 Australian agriculture currently accounts for 58% of our land use
🌞And agrisolar = panels + grass/sheep etc