Michael Brown

“Content” is generic, reductive, transactional. It devalues the writers, artists, journalists, historians or scientists who’ve created the work. It suggests art, research and journalism are just filler for whatever the “context container” may be—devaluing books, newspapers and libraries themselves.

YouTube video by Aldous Harding Aldous Harding - One Stop (Official Video)

No need to wonder what it's 'about'. Only 'Is it awesome?" I say yes. www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyKa...

Kaleidoscope | Series | Television | NZ On Screen Kaleidoscope - Kaleidoscope was a magazine-style arts series which ran from 30 July 1976 until 1989. Running for many years in a 90 minute format, the show tried varied approaches over its run, from a...

'Kaleidoscope' (1976-89) was perhaps NZ's greatest TV series about the arts. It was added to the UNESCO NZ Memory of the World register in 2017

Contrary to retro stereotypes about cultural elitism, it covered a wide range of topics. 30 full eps can be streamed 👇

www.nzonscreen.com/title/kaleid...

'I want to sounds smart and inspirational': How ministers use AI Most ministers say they don't use AI – but those who do use it for speechwriting, research, drafting questions to officials and generating images. Marc Daalder reports.

Over summer, I OIA'd every minister for their AI chat logs.

Here's what I found:
newsroom.co.nz/2026/03/06/h...

Rare sighting of Eyeliner "BUY NOW" floppy disk

Tech legend Stewart Brand on Musk, Bezos and his extraordinary life: ‘We don’t need to passively accept our fate’ He was at the heart of 1960s counterculture, then paved the way for the libertarian mindset of Silicon Valley. At 87, Brand is still keen to ensure the world is maintained properly – not just today, b...

Stewart Brand, creator of "The Whole Earth Catalog" and tech philosopher, on the importance of maintenence.

www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Music I by Philip Trusttum. From Te Papa collection: https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/object/37840?page=1&rtp=1&ros=1&asr=1&assoc=all&mb=c

Here's another, Trusttum's "Music 1" (1976), which was used for the cover of JM Thomson's 1991 "Oxford History of NZ Music".

Ironically, this painting was actually inspired by German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen’s "Gruppen" (1955–57).

One of the late artist Phillip Trusttum's contributions to NZ music, this funky cover art for the local edition of Malcolm McNeill's 1986 LP "Songdance".

YouTube video by ACMI – Your museum of screen culture Sofia Widmann | The Nervous Age – Future of Arts, Culture & Technology Symposium 2026

Do you work in the GLAM sector in these nervous times?

Take a "psychotherapy session" with Sofia Widmann (Museum Booster). Video from #FACT2026 at @acmimuseum.bsky.social

youtu.be/q8poDkogM_8?...

Gislebertus, "Dream of the Magi," Autun Cathedral, Burgundy, France, carved ca.1120-1145.

Pyramid Club - Article | AudioCulture E N T at Pyramid Club, November 2017 x Chris Wratt at Pyramid Club, December 2017 - Photo by Evan Dubisky We shuffle into the room and sit down in rows of white plastic chairs, close enough that I’m a...

Musician Sonya Waters takes us on a tour of a very special place: Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington's Pyramid Club, an inner-city space dedicated to experimental music.
"While the work may sound serious, there is also humour, joy, and playfulness..."
www.audioculture.co.nz/articles/pyr...

YouTube video by BBC Archive 1986: Can Computers Revolutionise School Music? | Micro Live | BBC Archive

Computer music arrives in UK classrooms, 1986, specifically via the Yamaha CX5M (MSX).

m.youtube.com/watch?v=eve-...

YouTube video by ACMI – Your museum of screen culture Ruby Justice Thelot | Is AI Making Us Cyborgs? – Future of Arts, Culture & Technology Symposium 2026

Ruby Justice Thelot | Is AI Making Us Cyborgs? – from the Future of Arts, Culture & Technology Symposium 2026, Melbourne @acmimuseum.bsky.social

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

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-...