Michael Brown

Surfboards at Paekakariki, 1957

Photo: Evening Post; api.digitalnz.org/records/2284...

Original letter from Mary Shelley (author of 'Frankenstein') to paleontologist Gideon Mantell, 1847, held in the Turnbull Library @nationallibrarynz.bsky.social Ref: natlib.govt.nz/records/2234...

There's a tradie rush hour around 7-8am on my route, passing by many timber yards and suppliers. Private motorists maneuvering those big utes can be hair raising too.

That sounds right. My comment mainly related to the L Hutt-Wgtn route and there's a lot of tradie action around Kaiwharawhara.

Duo biking around the world say NZ drivers are the most aggro During their 17 day stretch in New Zealand, the pair copped abuse daily, including getting the finger from drivers and an aggressive approach they'd seen no where else.

For a 34km per day bike commuter, this story doesn't surprise.

As far as Homo automotus var. Wellingtonia is concerned, tradies seem the most random drivers, truckies the least (perhaps because they're pros at it).

www.rnz.co.nz/life/people/...

Wow - great book. Congratulations to @craigrobertson.bsky.social for this immersive, thoughtful, scholarly biography of a NZ musical force of nature.

Gen Z postirony at work here

Barometer has plunged in the last hour or two

YouTube video by Tall Dwarfs - Topic We Bleed Love

"We Bleed Love" (1991), Tall Dwarfs

Like a secret musical waystation between The Beatles and Elliott Smith

m.youtube.com/watch?v=so7X...

Great i/v & 🙏 thanks for the discussion about the @nationallibrarynz.bsky.social archiving project!

Amelia Berry - AudioCulture Over the last 17 years, Berry has applied her skills as an instrumentalist, songwriter and producer to a range of bands and solo projects, including Nice Birds, Polyester (formerly Kip McGrath), Fimo,...

Even if you know of Amelia Berry, maybe best known as Amamelia, you probably don't know quite how many musical projects she's helmed, or been involved with. The award-winning electronic musician, producer... www.audioculture.co.nz/profile/amel...

Can AI appraise Te Papa’s public records? | Te Papa’s Blog Could Artificial Intelligence really appraise Te Papa’s public records? Collections Data Manager Gareth Watkins and Archivist Jennifer Twist tested it on thousands of records and got results that w…

An experiment in AI processing at Te Papa: the results, limits encountered, and why curatorial context still matters

blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2026/02/03/c...

Eyeliner - Keep Calm - SOFT RIOT Being an incognito listener of the genre known as "vaporwave" for quite a while, this nostalgia mood piece by New Zealand artist Eyeliner gets a look.

TRACK OF THE DAY

Eyeliner "Keep Calm"

Being an incognito listener of the genre known as vaporwave for quite a while, this nostalgia mood piece by New Zealand artist Eyeliner and the aforementioned genre in general gets a looking into.

#vaporwave

Burning musical instruments is like trying to kill the heart and spirit of a nation, AND a big chunk of its culture.

There was a time when every emotional scene in my epic fantasy was directly inspired by music. And Afghans make bloody good music. I vow to listen to it more often!

L: Douglas Lilburn’s Sonata for Piano published by Wai-te-ata Music Press. Lilburn has inscribed it, ‘For Margaret, with her understanding and exhilarating restoration of the piece. Douglas’. Ref: fMS-Papers-13030-1. R: Piano piece composed by David Farquhar using letters from Margaret’s name as a theme. Ref: fMS-Papers-13030-4. Alexander Turnbull Library.

Includes the personal collection of esteemed NZ mezzo soprano Dame Heather Begg (1932-2009); and the music scores of pianist Margaret Nielsen (1933-2023), including many original manuscripts by NZ composers

A selection of works by Janet Paul (clockwise from bottom left): Hone Tuwhare and Mary [ca 1960s-1980s], graphite on paper; Portrait of unidentified subject [ca 1960s-1980s], graphite drawing; Denis Glover at Sarawia Street (1969) ink on paper. Ref: ATL-Group-01055. Alexander Turnbull Library.

Read about some collections newly added to the Alexander Turnbull Library

natlib.govt.nz/blog/posts/c...

Les Wilson and Jean Calder - AudioCulture Dubbed the Otago Rambler, Wilson had already settled in Gisborne when he was signed by His Master’s Voice (NZ) at the end of the 1940s. In 1950, his ‘Old Faithful and I’ b/w ‘Shadows On the Trail’ was...

It's no stretch to count Les Wilson alongside Tex Morton and The Tumbleweeds as one of the originators of NZ country music. He was a teenage sensation in Dunedin in the 1930s, released records in the 1950s – many with his wife Jean Calder – that were big...
www.audioculture.co.nz/profile/les-...

Coming up in 15m -

Christchurch Harmonica Band, with some mouth organ variations not often seen nowadays

Photo: Standish and Preece; api.digitalnz.org/records/4570...

View of train derailment near Christchurch, 1905

Photo: NZ Graphic; kura.aucklandlibraries.govt.nz/digital/coll...

💯 & there's the nod to vpwv cassette culture too

'NOBODY HERE' | C-USB EDITION from My Pet Flamingo 'NOBODY HERE' | C-USB EDITION from My Pet Flamingo

Hard to decide which format to get for this upcoming #vaporwave doco from @mypetflamingo.bsky.social. Theres VHS (PAL or NTSC), DVD, or download... but cassette with fold-out USB seems the most suitably fanciful!

mypetflamingo.bandcamp.com/merch/nobody...

Lost opportunity!

The story of how Fender guitars first arrived in Christchurch, New Zealand, in the early 1960s.

www.rockhappenz.com/fenders.html

Early examples of air guitar

Detail of photo of workers in the boiler room of Edendale Dairy Factory, NZ: api.digitalnz.org/records/4808...

NZ vaporwave-adjacent alert

The libraries journalists lost when newspapers digitised: https://billbennett.micro.blog/2026/02/23/the-libraries-journalists-lost-when.html

Electrostatic detarrer and ammonia washer at Dunedin Gasworks, 1964.

Photo: Dunedin Gasworks Museum; digitalnz.org/records/6057...

The Complete Monterey Pop Festival (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray Fishpond New Zealand, The Complete Monterey Pop Festival (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]Buy . Music online: The Complete Monterey Pop Festival (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray], 2017, Fishpond...

I've been watching the "Complete Monterey Pop Festival," which also has the Hendrix and Otis Redding films, and the outtakes, borrowed though the library.

Pretty much the DVD version of this one: www.fishpond.co.nz/Music/Comple...