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CAPITAL

Made in Wellington O

nce again it is September and we present our She issue, with another array of interesting women doing interesting things.

SUBSCRIPTION

Sasha Tilly, Queen of the Fringe, outlines the new structure of the organisation and talks to Sarah Lang about the fringe festival as it approaches its 30th year.

Subscription rates $89 (inc postage and packaging) 10 issues New Zealand only To subscribe, please email accounts@capitalmag.co.nz

Carolyn Mark and Jen Calvert have pooled their real estate budgets and the advantages, ranging from views to community activities, are visible in their skyline house.

C O N TA C T U S

Equal pay for women in sport is an issue gaining momentum, and journalist Zoë George argues the case forcefully in this issue.

Phone +64 4 385 1426 Email editor@capitalmag.co.nz Website www.capitalmag.co.nz Facebook facebook.com/CapitalMagazineWellington Twitter @CapitalMagWelly Instagram @capitalmag Post Box 9202, Marion Square, Wellington 6141 Deliveries 31–41 Pirie St, Mt Victoria, Wellington, 6011 ISSN 2324-4836 Produced by Capital Publishing Ltd

Lest you think we are too earnest, our fashion shoot with art director Shalee Fitzimmons is playfully pink, and John Bishop, an unlikely pilgrim, provides some glitz with an update on the tourist beacon that is Graceland, home of musical icon Elvis Presley, and evergreen attraction. And of course, all our regular features and much much more.

PRINTED IN WELLINGTON

See you in October, when the local body elections are our chance to influence the character of our city.

Alison Franks Editor

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The opinions expressed in this magazine do not necessarily reflect those of the publisher. Although all material is checked for accuracy, no liability is assumed by the publisher for any losses due to the use of material in this magazine. Copyright ©. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form without the prior written permission of Capital Publishing Ltd.

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CONTRIBUTORS

Staff Managing editor Alison Franks

FEATURED CONTRIBUTORS

editor@capitalmag.co.nz

Campaign coordinators Haleigh Trower haleigh@capitalmag.co.nz Lauren Andersen lauren@capitalmag.co.nz Emily Wakeling emily@capitalmag.co.nz Factotum John Bristed

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Art director Shalee Fitzsimmons shalee@capitalmag.co.nz Designer Luke Browne

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Writer Francesca Emms

journalism@capitalmag.co.nz

Editorial assistant Benn Jeffries

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Accounts Tod Harfield

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Contributors

JAYS O N S OM A D e si g n i ntern

SARAH LANG Journ a li st

Jayson, a Lyall Bay local, was born and raised in the capital. He's currently in his last year at Massey University studying visual design and marketing. On the cusp of graduating, Jayson is eager to travel and share his creativity.

Sarah Lang, Capital's books and culture writer, lives in Mt Cook with coffee-geek husband Michael and five year old Theo. She works from Toi Poneke Arts Centre, but often pops into Capital HQ with baking. She also runs the Wellington Classic Literature Meetup group.

CAROLINE CARPENTER Sty li st

DAV I D JA M E S Ph oto g r aph er

Stockists Pick up your Capital in New World, Countdown and Pak‘n’Save supermarkets, Moore Wilson's, Unity Books, Commonsense Organics, Magnetix, City Cards & Mags, Take Note, Whitcoulls, Wellington Airport, Interislander and other discerning region-wide outlets. Ask for Capital magazine by name. Distribution: john@capitalmag.co.nz.

Submissions We welcome freelance art, photo and story submissions. However we cannot reply personally to unsuccessful pitches.

Caroline Carpenter trained as a personal stylist at the London University of Arts: College of Fashion and locally here with New Zealand stylist Stacey Beatson. Caroline’s 12 year fashion career spans London and New Zealand with knowledge across production, fabrics, sales and design. carolinecarpenter.co.nz

David James aka Marlborough Lights is a photographer from Marlborough though he calls Wellington his spiritual home. Emotional images come first for David, who prefers a fun, energetic and low-fuss aesthetic.

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CONTENTS

12 LETTERS 14 CHATTER 16 NEWS BRIEFS 19 BY THE NUMBERS 20 NEW PRODUCTS 22 TALES OF THE CITY 24 CULTURE

W O R T H E V E RY DOLLAR Sports podcaster Zoë George says it’s time to give women equal pay for equal play

FLASH GORDON

PINK FIT

Ange Gordon, director of Service Depot, is at your service

All our pretty-in-pink fashion dreams come true

SHEARERS’ TA B L E Vanilla cupcakes with rhubarb and custard buttercream

RUYI ROOM A N E W E V E N T S PA C E B Y T H E T E A M A T M R G O’S L E V E L 1, DI XO N S T R E E T, T E A R O V ISI T U S A T M R G O S.C O.N Z A N D C O N T A C T U S T O B O O K Y O U R N E X T C H R IS T M A S PA R T Y H E A T H E R @ M R G O S.C O.N Z

CONTENTS

W H AT I S B U S I N E S S C A S UA L ?

SKYLINE STYLE

Personal stylist Caroline Carpenter sorts it out

Besties Carolyn Mark and Jen Calvert live it up in Kelburn

59 BUG ME 60 EDIBLES 62 GOOD SPORT 65 BY THE BOOK 67 RE-VERSE

John Bishop explores the thriving Elvis industry at Graceland

SUGAR C OATED

T YING THE KNOT

The Fringe’s new operation director, Sasha Tilly, dishes the goss on the next fest

Melody Thomas looks at the expectations we place on ourselves and our partners

ALL SHO OK UP

85 WELLY ANGEL 86 CALENDAR

88 UPSKILL Kowtow’s head designer, Marilou Dadat, gives us some tips

LETTERS

SP E E D DEMONS I’ve been enjoying your opinion columns on public transport, they’ve given me much to think about. I’d be interested to read your experts’ opinions on the rise of electric scooters and whether they are for or against. I thought they were rather fun until I was knocked over by one. My injuries were minor so I didn’t report it, but it made me wonder how many incidents/ collisions might be happening. I’ve seen calls for riders to have to wear helmets. I’m not for this, people should be able to gauge and respond to risk themselves. But it doesn’t seem safe that they’re allowed to be on the footpath putting others at risk. They go very fast and I can only imagine how dangerous they are to younger children, old people, and anyone differently-abled. Jen, Thorndon G L O OM Y O U T L O O K F O R L I B R A RY U SE R S I am a voracious reader and since the closing of Wellington Central Library have had to branch out in finding reading material. Sadly E-books or at least an E-reader has never come my way. I ran out of good reading material in my local area and buying books has to be a rare treat. Unity is especially good for atmosphere if not price. I have taken to visiting the Manners Street satellite library for my reading. Though the staff are unfailingly pleasant and the machines quick (when they work), the Manners Street popup is so small it barely accommodates 50 people, let alone providing any library quiet. The stock of books is tiny and as far as I can tell they are bought new rather than retrieved from WCC library. Please could we soon have Wellington Central fixed up and open? Considering how there seems to be considerable cost overruns on everything else in the city my hopes are not high. Doubting Tom (name and address supplied) THINKING T R A N SP O RT

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We’ll soon experience the grinding of the electoral system, as aspirant and incumbent council and regional council representatives tout their wares to either save their jobs, or, provide them with new ones. Capital has presented thoughtprovoking opinions on the airport extension, the Basin flyover and, of course, the transport system. I’m disappointed you’ll not have an opportunity to include an opinion on the changing waterfront, especially with the removal of free public space with the planned Chinese garden. I hope voters’ memories are long when they pick up the pen and make their tick. Bridget Schroder Hataitai In Cap#63, page 57, the photo of the Katipo spider was taken by Andrew Simpson. The error is regretted.

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RD E R S E C TCI H OA N THT EE A

INK INC.

One

M ov i e m oves A Courtenay Place icon, the Paramount Theatre, will soon be reoccupied. Strengthening and refurbishment work has been on the go for almost a year now. One of the smaller theatres has been retained, a mezzanine floor built, and the front lounge with bar also remains. Software company Optimal

Workshop will be moving in at the end of the month. The company has been slumming it in temporary digs at the corporate end of town. Marketing manager Alannah Novah tells us they're looking forward to heading back to the relaxed side of the city and having their office dog back again.

IZ A THOMSON Favourite tattoo and why? The girl on my arm which is loosely based on the Picasso painting Girl on Ball. I got it during my gap year, my first year out of a super-restrictive high school. I had felt so alive and independent. It just evokes that feeling of vibrancy and liberation. Family – for it or against? Both of my parents are against tattoos, but I’ve always been pretty independent, so their opinions don’t matter too much to me. My dad was worried having tattoos would make getting jobs harder – I think the nudity was probably a bit much for him. Any regrets? No regrets, although maybe I would have gotten it in a slightly easier place to hide. It’s been a bit awkward travelling to more conservative (and hot) countries. It probably makes some people, even in New Zealand, uncomfortable.

Four S l ee p ea sy A new sustainability partnership between Zealandia eco-sanctuary and James Cook Hotel Grand Chancellor will see $2 of every Wellington room night Tw o booked via grandchancellorhoS t u f fe d tels.com donated to conservation efforts in the sanctuary. Is itvisitors art, is itwill science, is it this area, from the positive to ‘Our be supporting sacrilege? Zealandia hosts the reluctant. If you are keen conservation even while they a panel discussion about the to learn the craft, sign up for sleep,’ says Steve Martin, taxidermy on manager. 20 September. a workshop with taxidermist, hotel’s general Panel members will include artist, and vet nurse Antoinette people with differing views in Ratcliffe on 21 September.

S E C TCIH OANT H ADER TER

F i ve

Urban sprawl Two little blue penguins have repeatedly been seen gallivanting through Wellington’s CBD, venturing from their coastal habitat for a spot of sightseeing and stopping for lunch at Sushi Bi before being picked up by police. The rogue pair have been spotted for a fourth time, and Department of Conservation rangers suspect the pugnacious penguins may be repeat offenders, as they are both banded. DOC warns that a booming population may mean urban-dwelling penguins could become the new normal.

Three

Birthday building September 6 marks exactly 100 years since Sarjeant Gallery Te Whare o Rehua Whanganu first opened its doors. They’re celebrating with a ceremony, performances, and the opening of a major new exhibition called Turn Of A Century: New Perspectives On 100 Years Of Collecting And Exhibiting. A special birthday cake will be cut by three directors of the Sarjeant Gallery, Gordon Brown (1974–1977), Bill Milbank (1978–2006), and Greg Anderson (from 2007).

Six

We l l y w o r d s A B I T F I SH Y The Wellington Airport staff who keep us safe by making sure the runways are free of rubbish and debris reported an unusual find in their weekly staff email roundup. A very large fish was found on the runway. Mysteriously, there was no indication of how the fish got there. Was it dropped by an exhausted bird? Washed up in a very large storm? Thrown from someone’s overweight carry-on luggage? Any leads, please let us know!

Four

Out, damned spot! The 46 students chosen to be part of the National Shakespeare Schools production week gather in Wellington on 27 September to take part in workshops, rehearsals and to perform in scenes from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Henry V and Macbeth at venues ranging from Pipitea Marae to Parliament.

F LU F F Y P R OW L E R If you haven’t heard about Mittens the Cat, you’re missing out. A local celebrity, Mittens travels up to two kilometres a day around the CBD, with Cuba Street being his favourite haunt. He has his own Facebook group (The Wonderous Adventures of Mittens) and page (Mittens the Cat of Wellington), where locals share sightings of the intrepid feline.

The students are selected from the 24 Sheila Winn Shakespeare festivals around the country and perform just five days after being cast in their roles. The Shakespeare Globe Centre’s New Zealand schools week is an intensive course, studying aspects of Shakespeare under the direction of experienced directors.

IT'S COOL TO KORERO Kia kanikani tātou

Come dance with us

NEWS BRIEFS

CASH F O R C OA S T Trail running event XTERRA Wellington, Māoriland Film Festival, Kāpiti Food Fair, horticultural showcase FFFLAIR, and the Ōtaki Kite Festival (pictured) will each receive support from the 2019 Kāpiti Major Events Fund. The Kāpiti Coast District Council has awarded them a joint $175,000 to deliver their events in the next year, saying they offer a ‘distinctly Kāpiti flavour,’ and provide a return on investment for the local economy.

LESS IS MORE

TA L E N T P O O L

DRINK UP

Kāpiti Coast District Council received an Excellence in Climate Action Award at the 2019 Enviro-Mark Solutions Awards last month. Sean Mallon, Group Manager Infrastructure Services, says the award recognises their perseverance in reducing emissions – by 76% over the last 10 years. ‘As a coastal district, climate change is a particularly significant challenge for our communities and for us. This means committing to tangible actions now that contribute to the safety and wellbeing of current and future generations.’

Artists Chevron Hassett (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Rongomaiwahine, Ngāti Kahungunu), Ruth Robertson-Taylor, Sheyne Tuffery, and Tina Rae Carter are creating a series of murals along the front of the Naenae Pool building. The pool is closed because of earthquake concerns. The four artists will each produce work on the theme of ‘Past, present and future Naenae’.

South Wairarapa District Council doesn’t know why Martinborough’s drinking water supply was contaminated with E. Coli on two occasions earlier this year, despite investigations carried out by the council and their contractors. The same council is also discussing with their community how to deal with waste and storm water.

NEWS BRIEFS

S O C IA L DEVELOPERS Property developer Ian Cassels (pictured) is pledging to donate $10,000 to Wellington City Mission from the profit of every house and apartment he sells for over $800,000. Mark Dunajtcshik, also a property developer, has begun to build a new Wellington Regional Children’s hospital to be donated to Capital & Coast DHB. ‘This is a perfect example of business giving back to the city and its people,’ says Wellington Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive John Milford. He says Wellington is extremely lucky to have people with a social conscience, who show ‘it doesn’t have to be all about making money.’

B IG G E R A N D B E T T E R

W E AT H E R W I T H YOU

G E T A SHA K E O N

The Expressions Whirinaki Trust has been granted up to $1.3 million, from the Regional Culture and Heritage Fund. The grant will be used to extend the Expressions Whirinaki Arts and Entertainment Centre, after nearly three years of fundraising for the project. The extension will add two new galleries, a dedicated collection storage facility, a community creative workshop, and a commercial kitchen.

MetService, one of the most popular Kiwi websites with more than a million page visits each day, is getting a makeover. MetService is New Zealand’s official provider of severe weather warnings and is a key channel for alerting the public to safety-critical information. CEO Peter Lennox says the organisation understands how crucial the weather is to people’s safety, and their day. ‘This upgrade provides us with a more flexible web platform.’

Professor Ken Elwood of the University of Auckland, research director of QuakeCoRE: NZ Centre for Earthquake Resilience, will select a team of construction and engineering experts to plan the remediation of Wellington Central Library. The team will work with Wellington City Council to find a way of preserving and rebuilding the library, a process that may take up to three months.

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SB EYC TT H IO E NN H UM E AB D EE RR S

Famous Wellington Shes

number of Oscars Jane Campion has won

number of novels Patricia Grace has written

number of NZ Music Awards Brooke Fraser has won for her songs

number of New Zealand Athletics titles Melissa Moon has won

million, price in Francs the Gestapo offered for the capture of Nancy Wake during WWII

Best Screenplay for The Piano, 1994

Plus two World Mountain Running Championships

the highest price on their list

Famous Shes in Women’s rights

1890 the year Millicent Fawcett was elected President of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies

75 – 100

speeches Susan B Anthony gave per year to rally support for American suffrage

the age Eva Peron died – ‘Evita’ campaigned for Argentinean women’s rights throughout her stint as first lady from 1946 to 1952

number of times American Margaret Sanger was arrested for challenging the law on contraception

Britain’s largest group campaigning for Women’s rights

Our most famous She

1848

30,000

1991

1893

the year New Zealand’s most famous suffragette was born (in Liverpool)

the number of reasons women should vote that Kate Sheppard listed on brochures distributed in the early 1890s

signatures presented to parliament asking for voting law to change

the year her image replaced the Queen’s on the NZ $10 note

the year NZ women won the right to vote – the first country in the world

Compiled by Craig Beardsworth

NEW PRODUCTS

1. 2.

5. 6.

13. 12. 10. 9. 11.

What day is Fa t h e r ’s day?

1. Muscle recovery balm 60ml, $22, Wellington Apothecary 2. Blunt classic umbrella, $119, Museums Wellington 3. Camerich Simon armchair, $1250, McKenzie Willis 4. Izola US combs, $59, Tea Pea 5. Natio for Men firming face moisturiser, $18, Unichem Pharmacy Johnsonville 6. Baggu dopp kit, kelp, $55, Mooma 7. Decaf coffee capsules 10 pack, $9, L'affare 8. Chesterfield lambswool beanie, $45, Barkers, Queensgate 9. Sleeping fox ring in bronze, $110, by Nick Rule at The Makers Jewellery 10. Angle ring in bronze, $90, by Buster Collins at The Makers Jewellery 11. Negroni dress boot, $499, Merchant 1948, Queensgate 12. Emerson’s Big Rig APA 330ml 6 pk, $23, Emerson’s Brewery 13. Leather backpack, $249, Trade Aid

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TA L E S O F T H E C I T Y

On the rocks W R I T T E N BY F R A N C E S CA E M M S P H OTO G R A P H E D BY JAC K G O L LO P

FO OD

MUSIC

COVETS

COFFEE

FAV SPOT

Fisherman’s Plate

Macy Gray

An electric car

Peoples coffee

Wellington Botanic Garden

Stone carver and jeweller Grace Yu Piper lives life in the slow lane.

he first time Grace Yu Piper saw a stranger wearing her jewellery was a surreal moment. ‘Although they must have known my name, they didn’t know my face and we had no interaction. I liked seeing an object I had made go beyond my control and have someone else give it life and meaning.’ A contemporary jeweller, Grace is currently completing a Graduate Diploma in Applied Arts (Visual Art/Jewellery) at Te Auaha. She’ll be starting her Masters of Fine Art in Idar-Oberstein, Germany, in April. She’s terrified, excited, and learning German. ‘This is the first time I’ve been serious about learning another language, it’s fun but pretty challenging. My partner is also learning. It’s nice to practice together. Sometimes I find little notes around the house from him written in German. It’s very sweet, also quite funny because German is not what I’d call a romantic language.’ A first-generation New Zealander with Chinese and European heritage, Grace says that growing up she struggled with her identity. ‘The way I looked on the outside didn’t match how I felt on the inside. A lot of my formative work focused around cultural identities and hybridity.’ Her biggest influences are her parents. ‘Totally cheesy but they taught me how to work hard and have given me their full support right from the beginning. I’m also influenced by the rich history of contemporary stone carving in New Zealand.’ Stone is Grace’s material of choice. She tried it in her first year of study and was hooked. ‘Stone has a connection to nature and to place. It’s a slow material that counteracts the fast-paced and disposable world that we live in.’

Grace grew up in Kelburn and spent countless hours running around the Wellington Botanic Garden and ‘getting up to mischief ’ with her friends. ‘I know the paths there like the back of my hand. A walk through the gardens is guaranteed to bring back a flood of good memories.’ She also loves Red Rocks. ‘There’s something about this place. Looking out into the ocean, getting battered by the wind, it clears my head. I feel small, but in a good way, reminded that we are essentially nothing, at the mercy of nature.’ Grace now lives in Paekakariki. ‘I love the beach and we have an uninterrupted view of the sea from our lounge. You can see the South Island on a clear day. I feel like we won the lottery by finding this house. I was worried I’d miss the hustle and bustle of the city but I actually really like the slower pace of life and the proximity to the sea.’ Most days she’ll be found at her stone carving/jewellery workshop in Kenepuru. It happens to be quite close to Moore Wilsons’ Kenepuru store, ‘which is very useful but a bit dangerous for my bank account.’ A self-confessed workaholic, Grace does manage other activities. She’s just finished reading Novel About My Wife by Emily Perkins. ‘It was a captivating read, but I was left with so many questions at the end. I’m not sure how I feel about it, I need answers!’ She enjoys swimming, at either the beach or the pool. ‘I feel a sense of calm in water, I think it’s quite odd that I am an Aries – a fire sign.’ And collecting woollens. ‘Finding pure wool jerseys at the op shop is a secret talent of mine. I’ve actually had to stop myself from buying any more because my wardrobe is full.’

CULTURE

TIP TRIPS Wellington ‘funk/blues/rock’ group Blue River Baby play at Jack Hackett's (5 October) to wrap up their national tour launching their self-titled debut album. ‘CD cases can’t be recycled so they go to landfill,’ says vocalist Cam Crawford. ‘We went to the Tip Shop over a month to collect hundreds of CD cases. Many were as good as new, and some were cracked so we “Frankensteined” them together, then slipped the printed material inside the cases. We’re not trying to be cool – being environmentally friendly is how we roll.’

LISTEN UP

DEEP DIVE

BANDING TO GETHER

Many of us enjoy overhearing conversations on the bus, in cafes, or on the street. But multimedia exhibition Eavesdropping – a collaboration between an Australian sonic-art initiative and Melbourne Law School – is more concerned about deliberate eavesdropping by state and corporate interests, and ways to resist it. See it at City Gallery, until 7 November. The awesomely named Eavesdropping Residency sees several Australian artists interact with audiences in the gallery, at community hubs, and at Massey University, a partner in the residency.

Wellington actor/director Kathy McRae has made short film, Water Baby, documenting the water birth of the daughter of Japanese freediver Sachiko Fukumoto and Kiwi world freediving champion William Trubridge. Sachiko wanted to give birth underwater, perhaps swimming with sharks, but there were obvious logistical problems, so she settled for a pool (you’ll see the baby appear). With stunning underwater cinematography, Water Baby is one of the new short docos showing for free on online platforms through the Loading Docs initiative.

Flying Nun Records releases Mermaidens’ (Cap#12) new record Look Me in the Eye worldwide on 6 September. The band recorded it with audio engineer James Goldsmith on and off over a month at the central-city Blue Barn Recording Studio, before it closed in July after the building was sold. James has worked on three Mermaidens’ albums. ‘We’re very good friends.’

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Exhibition supporters image Congressmen listen to presidential tapes during the Watergate hearings, 1974.

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CULTURE

A DIFFERENT R U N WAY Fancy standing on Wellington Airport’s runway while the airport is, er, open? Longtime World of Wearable Arts model Sophie Petley joined three other genetically blessed women wearing WOW garments for an earlymorning promo photoshoot. ‘It was totally safe,’ Sophie says. ‘We got bussed in for the six minutes between flights.’ Sophie is wearing Eye See You Fluffy Kowhai, WOW’s 2018 NZ Design Award winner. A digital-content planner at a creative agency, Sophie has modelled at ‘mini-versions’ of WOW shows in Hong Kong, Beijing, San Francisco and Seattle. Envious, much?

NO CHARGE

KA PAI

SET TLE IT

Keen to see a foreign film free of charge? Run by the Goethe-Institut New Zealand, the German Film Festival screens six films from Austria, Switzerland, and Germany at Light House Cuba (4–8 September). Book by phone or online, or just try your luck (first in, first served). Meanwhile the Goethe-Institut has brought Mary Ocher (pictured) – a globally successful, Berlin-based experimental recording artist, performer, poet, director, and visual artist – to New Zealand. She sings at a concert (15 September) in Space Place’s Planetarium.

Originally a volunteer, Te Amo Roberts is now the longest-serving staff member at DCM (Downtown Community Ministry), currently working in the foodbank. He was once a taumai: one of the people that DCM supports to help them break the homelessness cycle. To mark DCM’s 50th birthday, Photospace hosts an exhibition (13–28 September) of 50 photographs of key DCM supporters, snapped by locals including Mary Hutchinson (Cap#34). Te Amo (pictured) is the only taumai photographed. DCM protects their privacy.

Sick of Scrabble? Bored by Monopoly? Calling all board-game fans to Wellington Museum’s After Hours: Boardgames in the Boardroom event. Caffeinated Dragon Games – a board-game shop where you can also play in-store for a fee – is bringing games including Settlers of Catan, in which players are settlers establishing colonies on the island of Catan. It’s koha, but book early. 19 September, 6pm.

with guest vocalists ANNA CODDINGTON, MARA TK & PRIYA SAMI SHED 6

17 OCTOBER BOOK AT TICKETMASTER.CO.NZ

CULTURE DIRECTORY

Blue River Baby NZ TOUR Not to be missed! Blue River Baby are playing a homecoming gig to end their NZ Tour. This organic rocking psychedelic soul/funk dub outfit will be showcasing their hot new album that debuted at #8 in ‘Official NZ Top 20’ Album charts & #1 on the IMNZ chart.

5th October Jack Hackett’s, 7–11 Dixon Street, Wellington. facebook.com/blueriverbaby

Turn of a Century at the Sarjeant

Shakespeare Stunners

Friday 6 September is the Sarjeant Gallery’s 100th birthday and Whanganui will acknowledge it that day with a formal public ceremony at 3pm. The next day Turn of a Century: New Perspectives on 100 Years of Collecting and Exhibiting will open at Sarjeant on the Quay and features newly commissioned works alongside collection works.

Witches, fairies and soldiers will fill the stages of the culminating performances on 5 and 6 October at Pipitea Marae and the Legislative Chamber at Parliament by the 48 young actors, student-directors, -costumier and -composer selected from throughout NZ to attend Shakespeare Globe Centre NZ National Shakespeare Schools Production week.

38 Taupō Quay, Whanganui. sarjeant.org.nz

5–6 Oct See website for details sgcnz.org.nz

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

{Suite}

Peggy Pickit comes to Circa

'The 1978 movie is a jewel of a sciencefiction thriller' - AroVideo. Gelatinous space aliens abandon their dying world and travel to Earth. Humans become replaced by perfect copies of alien duplicates, only devoid of human emotion. What happens to these uninvited guests on Earth?

New Zealand Arts Icon photographer Ans Westra is responsible for the most comprehensive documentation of New Zealand culture over the last 60 years. The {Suite} Westra Museum is a dedicated exhibition space for Ans' photographs. Prints are available for sale.

After six years apart, two couples, all doctors, meet up together for one extraordinary dinner party. A tasting menu of relationships on the precipice, Peggy Pickit satirises colonialist attitudes and challenges our own notions of a global world. Are we doing enough?

Sunday 29 September, 7pm Space Place, Carter Observatory, 40 Salamanca Rd, Kelburn. museumswellington.org.nz

Tues–Fri 11am–6pm, 11am–4pm Saturdays 241 Cuba St suite.co.nz

14 Sept – 12 Oct 1 Taranaki Street, Te Aro, Wellington. circa.co.nz

CULTURE DIRECTORY

Colloquy by Catherine Roberts

James Reid (The Feelers) solo

Astronomy on Tap

Local Wellington artist Catherine Roberts’ work is the result of an intuitive dialogue between artist & canvas, with no set intentions but with the purpose to captivate the viewer to carry on the conversation. An exploration of colour, texture and contrast to form harmonious rhythm.

James Reid brings his Songbook Tour to Wellington’s Meow for a rare solo show featuring songs from The Feelers and other favourites. Look forward to an intimate acoustic show of classics like Venus, Stand Up, Larger Than Life, Pressure Man & many more. Pre-sales at eventfinda.co.nz

A perfect way to spend a Tuesday night out. Get a taste of the stars with a date or mate. Enjoy a drink and nibble, and relax in the planetarium while enjoying in the stars above. A great night out to the Universe and beyond.

19 Sept – 20 Oct 23 Allen Street, Wellington. info@oragallery.co.nz

Friday 20 Sept Meow, 9 Edward St, Wellington. jamesreid.co.nz

3 September | 1 October Space Place, Carter Observatory, 40 Salamanca Rd, Kelburn. museumswellington.org.nz

Wellington Fri, 6 Sep, 6.30pm Michael Fowler Centre

Transfiguration NEW ZEALAND SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PODIUM SERIES

Asher Fisch Conductor Louis Lortie Piano Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 2 Richard Strauss Death and Transfiguration (Tod und Verklärung) Wagner Overture to Tannhäuser

Book at nzso.co.nz

CULTURE

Cannabis champion

Mizsion

By Sarah Lang

Confused by the various laws and arguments around cannabis use? Dr Shaun Holt (pictured), a fully-qualified medical doctor, adjunct professor at Victoria University, and health-care entrepreneur, says any confusion is understandable. Shaun has long championed the use of medicinal cannabis, particularly for pain. ‘It was infuriating to know its benefits and see it denied to people.’ He’s pleased new legislation allows a much broader use of medical cannabis. ‘But the processes aren’t yet set – for instance, will a doctor prescribe it, or will it be over-the-counter at pharmacies? The devil’s in the detail.’ Shaun’s book Medical Cannabis: A Brief Guide for New Zealanders (Potton & Burton, out 20 September ) sets out the latest research about medicinal cannabis’s benefits and risks. ‘I hope the book helps the public and health professionals who don’t know much about medical cannabis and/or are uncomfortable with it.’ He also hopes it helps people come to a view before the (non-binding) 2020 referendum on decriminalising cannabis for personal use. He agrees that, yes, stereotypes about teenage potheads play a part in people’s opinions. Shaun, who is advising a medical-cannabis company on its research, is Chief Science Officer/co-founder of HoneyLab, a research company developing honeybased medical products. ‘I’m all about natural health products, if they’re evidence-based.’

Miz Muller, a Wellington performance artist, was commissioned by Queensgate Shopping Centre to draw a mural on a 5x4-metre wall of gib-board in a new ‘chill-out’ zone with comfy seats and a mini-community library (take or donate a book). ‘I draw live and unplanned in public, and improvise, working with the environment,’ Miz says. ‘I honestly didn’t know what I was going to draw until I got there.’ She drew for eight to 12 hours a day for a week in late July and early August. The result, influenced by Lower Hutt’s architecture, is pictured. ‘People of different ages and ethnicities came up to ask questions and make suggestions. I draw live because we’re often attached to screens, so don’t usually stop and observe what’s around us. When you draw live, people can glimpse the artist’s hard work, tiredness, and sometimes frustration, so it’s raw and real.’ Miz, who has undertaken several public-art commissions, also works part-time as a healthcare assistant at Wellington Hospital, and is raising two sons. She grew up in Brazil, and moved to New Zealand at 19, getting degrees in interior design and media arts. ‘I see drawing as performance and ‘‘slow theatre’’.’

Experience the heart of Wellington hospitality in two of the most iconic and unique destinations.

Visit website to make a booking or check us out on instagram @arboristwellington @lulubarnz

F E AT U R E

Flash Gordon BY M E LO DY T H O M A S P H OTO G R A P H E D BY DAV I D JA M E S

To those without the entrepreneur gene, the naturally business-minded can be an enigma. It’s hard enough to come up with a new idea – and having done so, people often spend so much time second-guessing that the opportunity passes. But for a few, turning a concept into reality seems as natural as breathing. Ange Gordon is one of those people.

ordon is the creative director of the Service Depot, a curated, independent Wellington fashion boutique which has been showcasing local and up and coming designers for 10 years now. She began her first business, the Wakefield Street design store Artikel, in her early 20s, only shutting its doors so she could focus squarely on fashion. In an increasingly globalised environment where only the best in boutique retail survives, Gordon’s career continues to move from strength to strength. Not bad for someone who never went to fashion school, and who learnt about retail by helping out at her mother’s new-age shop. Ange was born in Tauranga, but even as a child felt the pull of bigger things in bigger places. Her parents were both teachers (Mum’s shop came later), and her Dad was a hobby potter. She was surrounded by creative people, and some of her favourite early childhood memories are of joining families from around the country who gathered at New Zealand potter Barry Brickell’s place in Coromandel. ‘I just felt like Tauranga was really uncultured and really uncool… quite beige. I was like ‘‘why are we here?!”’ she laughs. When she was seven, Ange’s family made ‘the best move they could have’ and upped sticks to Wellington. Ange loved the city, but still found herself surrounded by people she couldn’t relate to – at her primary school in Wadestown where the kids were ‘really proper’, and later at Wellington Girls’ College.

‘I just didn’t quite fit in with the mainstream,’ she says, ‘And so I didn’t go to school that much.’ Eventually, Ange wrangled a move to Wellington High School, a place she thought was less mainstream. Her attendance record didn’t improve, she says, admitting: ‘I recently went to a friend’s son’s drama performance there and I was like, “I don’t remember any of this!”’ – but she did find her tribe. Together they’d skip school, smoke cigarettes, and take photographs, in the grunge standard wear of the day with personal flourishes like a gold spray-painted leather jacket or an animal-print hat. After high school, Ange had made one last attempt at traditional schooling, signing up for Peter Decker’s internationally renowned jewellery course at Whitireia Polytechnic. She lasted a year (Decker would later tell her she wasn’t the best student, though she was cool to have around) and then moved to Auckland. There was a lot going on in Auckland in the early to mid-90s, and Ange threw herself headfirst into all of it. She moved into a flat on K Road and got a job working for a couple of mid-century furniture dealers whose idea of a work day was ‘have a gin and tonic and sit around talking about furniture.’ Meanwhile, big changes were happening in the local fashion scene. In 1992, a reduction in tariffs on imported clothing and the removal of import licencing meant that anyone could import clothing, placing great strain on designers and manufacturers here. Many would shut down in

F E AT U R E

subsequent decades, but those that survived would become the successful labels of today – the likes of Zambesi, NOM*d, Workshop and later WORLD, Karen Walker, Kate Sylvester and Trelise Cooper – showing in international fashion weeks for the first time towards the end of that decade and gaining New Zealand fashion an international reputation for being ‘edgy, dark and intellectual’. Ange was right in the thick of it, drawn more to the edgier, backstreet designers who were taking inspiration from the growing club scene and rave culture. ‘I was always really interested in fashion but suddenly the people doing it were people that I knew’, she says, explaining what drew her in. Ange had a bunch of business ideas, but without a fashion degree couldn’t see her ‘in’ to the industry just yet. She knew she wanted to open a store, but that doing so in Auckland would be difficult – the market was already well-established. Ange moved back to Wellington and opened Artikel in 1999. Money was short at first, and it’s a testament to Ange’s curatorial eye and business savvy that a store which was very much ‘rustled together’ never felt that way. As Ange describes it, the rustling together required a whole lot of hustle. ‘I met this guy who imported cool 70s pottery from New York and so I started getting stuff off of him to put it in the store and mix up with new things. Just so we had enough big things in the store to make it look like a store,’ she laughs. Artikel also gave Ange her first opportunity to dip her toes into fashion, and she began stocking small collections from young, independent designers whom she knew and liked – people like Lela Jacobs, Jimmy D, and Miss Crabb. At that stage Kristine Crabb could only make 10 pieces at a time. ‘So we’d get 10 pieces and they’d all sell and she’d be like “oh no! I can’t keep up!” It’d be six months before she could make some more,’ says Ange. Eventually, Ange’s network of contacts and suppliers caught up with her ambitions, and the designers she supported began to get their production lines nailed down. After ten good years with Artikel, Ange saw that the fashion component of the shop was beginning to outgrow the space. In 2009 she opened

the Service Depot, an independent fashion boutique showing solely New Zealand designers, operating from the old NZ Post building in Lombard Street. ‘It was a no-brainer: cheap rent, good for having parties. I could just see we could do so much in there,’ she says. The rest is history. After a couple of years of running between the two stores, Ange closed Artikel to focus on the Service Depot. These days, you can find the Service Depot on Ghuznee Street. The area has been transformed into a thriving retail hotspot – which Ange might call a coincidence but which those around her would attribute to her ability to spot something that’s about to take off right before it does, and also the way she seeks out and nurtures little pockets of community wherever she is. In the store, you can still find some of the same designers that Ange stocked in Artikel: people like Jimmy D and Lela Jacobs, for whom Ange’s support has been instrumental. A brand new label, By Appointment, represents Ange’s first foray into designing herself. The first piece from the brand is a hat. When I ask Ange to describe the aesthetic of the Service Depot she finds it difficult. Could it be, I suggest, that it’s rather like her group in high school – the close-knit outsiders, effortlessly cool and totally unaware of it, laughing at some inside joke, but now with more money to invest in fabric and fit. It is, she agrees, but more than any particular aesthetic, it’s about support. In an email to me, Lela Jacobs says, ‘Ange believing in me was everything. I had no other outlet and no way of the public accessing my work. She handed me my reason and everything else that has come my way has come from this moment.’ This is what the Service Depot has always been about – nurturing independent talent, and helping young designers enter an industry that can be tough. As Ange describes it: ‘Everyone who’s involved in the Service Depot has been really supportive of me, I’ve supported them, and it just bounces around continuously. We’re cautious and aware of each other, and we support each other to get by in business, because it’s not easy.’

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Made in Wellington 36

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OPINION

Wor th every dollar Zoë George is passionate about pay equity for women in sports and argues that female athletes should get equal pay for equal play.

‘

qual pay… equal pay!’ That was the chant that permeated Olympique Lyonnais Stadium in France after the US women’s team won the 2019 Football World Cup. It started as FIFA chief Gianni Infantino and French president Emmanuel Macron stepped out onto the pitch. The US team received 3.5 million euros, runners-up Netherlands got 2.3 million euros. The overall prize pool was 24 million euros, which will double for the next World Cup. The disparity is blinding. In 2018 the winner in the men’s Football World Cup received a 25-million-dollar bonus and the overall pool for that competition was 359 million euros. Sport, particularly at an elite level, is a job. Athletes are selected to represent their country, dedicating hours upon hours honing their craft and developing their careers. They dedicate their lives to representing us on the world stage. Many are not getting paid, or getting paid very little to do so. Full-time athletes should be considered ‘workers’ and receive the same benefits and protections as those in comparable sectors of the workforce. The Equal Pay Act, enacted in 1973, says that different pay rates for men and women doing the same work is illegal. The Human Rights Act 1993 applies to all aspects of employment, and expressly prohibits discrimination, including sex discrimination. But ‘employment’ in sport is still segregated, and discrimination on multiple levels still occurs. Currently the overall gender pay gap in New Zealand is about nine percent. That means that men are still being paid more for doing the same work as women. In the sporting world the differences are stark, and while there is movement towards equality in sport, it’s at a glacial pace. In August New Zealand Cricket announced a new agreement under which women at the highest level

will be paid a professional wage. This means they will no longer have to work another job to afford to live while they represent their country. But the gap between men and women is still vast. The highest paid White Fern, captain Amy Satterthwaite, will receive a retainer of about $80,000 per year. The highest paid man, Blackcaps captain Kane Williamson, earns more than $200,000 on retainer. Both are contracted by New Zealand Cricket to do the same job – lead a national cricket team on the world stage. New Zealand is the host of the Women’s 2021 Cricket World Cup. The prize money pool is yet to be announced, but it rose from $US200,000 in 2013 to $US2 million in 2017. The long-term ambition of the International Cricket Council is to move towards equity in the game. Will we see a $US10 million prize pool in 2021, to match the 2019 Men’s World Cup? A lot of that prize pool comes from big broadcasting rights and men’s teams are getting more airtime. It has been argued that the media don’t cover women’s sport because no one is watching; and no one is watching because the media isn’t covering it. Fortunately this is changing too. More than one billion people watched the 2019 Women’s Football World Cup. In the USA 15 million watched the final, compared with only 11 million for the Men’s World Cup. Research from the Tucker Centre – a leading research centre for Women in Sport in the US – found that tickets for any US Open game involving Serena Williams sell out three times as fast as any men’s game, and her 2015 quarter final against her sister Venus was ESPN’s second most watched telecast ever. In New Zealand we are seeing more women on our screens. There’s more netball, more cricket, more rugby, and more league involving women. As many as 1.2 million people watched the Silver Ferns at the most recent Netball World Cup. Broadcasters and

OPINION

sporting bodies are starting to see value in investing in the women’s game, because men’s sport has saturated the market. Any growth must come from the women’s game. Research conducted by Nielsen Sports in the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Australia and New Zealand in 2018 found more than 80 percent of sports fans, more than half of them men, are interested in women’s sport; fans find women’s sport more 'inspiring’, ‘progressive’, ‘family-orientated’, and ‘clean’. A more visible women’s game also leads to more participation by girls and women. In Australia Aussie Rules Football has started to invest in the women’s game. In its first season it drew more than 1.7 million viewers on free-to-air television; free tickets to the women’s games saw crowds rivalling those of the men’s. Last year there was also a 14 percent increase in participation in the game. Public and free-to-air broadcasting help increase coverage. Publicly funded media organsations like RNZ have a charter setting out their obligation to cover content that reflects our cultural identity. Sport is a part of that identity. Women’s sport is part of that identity. Do we need to start applying quotas to women’s sports coverage in return for public funding? Sport was traditionally created by men for men’s interests and bodies. For generations men’s sport has dominated the sports news and coverage. Sports newsrooms are still dominated by men, who are more likely to cover the sports they are interested in – those played by men. Men’s voices still dominate commentary. Women continue to be underrepresented in the commentary box and in the sports newsroom. At the recent ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup there were only three women in the 24-strong official ICC commentary pool. And when women do take to the commentary box they face a barrage of hate and misogyny. Just last year, New Zealand Cricket president and former international cricketer Debbie Hockley was threatened with violence and subjected to vicious namecalling. Her voice and ability as a commentator were questioned. Despite her test batting average of 52.04 and having captained the White Ferns at the World Cup finals, a petition sought to have her removed from the commentary box. Her employer, Sky Sport, made it very clear that this was unacceptable, but this is not an isolated case.

Sky Sport has traditionally been a male stronghold, but this is slowly changing. With the launch of a new Sports News Channel, several capable, knowledgeable female sports commentators, former athletes, and journalists have joined the roster and I hope we see more women’s sport covered. You can count the number of female sports journalists on two hands at present. Traditionally women weren’t encouraged to pursue a career in sports journalism. Only about 10 percent of sports media coverage in New Zealand is dedicated to women in sport. And even when women in sport are spoken about, their families, coaches, and beauty are likely to be mentioned ahead of their athletic ability. The growing proportion of women in sports media and sport can help change the conversation. Besides the on-field results there are wider conversations to be had. It’s not just about equal pay and prize money, but about the business of sport, how we make sport accessible for participants and fans alike. Engage. You can help influence change. Participate in sport and recreation. Volunteer for your local sporting board. Share a story about women in sport. Talk to your local MP about the Government’s Women and Girls In Sport Strategy and hold them to account. Buy a ticket and support your team. Here’s your chance to make a difference. Let’s change the conversation around sport from the grassroots to the top. From the left to the right. Because everyone deserves fair play and fair pay. We’re 100 percent worth it. Zoë is a music journalist and sports podcaster for RNZ. She’s co-host of Not Your Average Cricket Show and producer and presenter of Fair Play, a show covering issues related to women in sport, which is made in association with RNZ, LockerRoom, and WiSPSports – the latter is one of the largest global women in sport media networks in the world. Through Fair Play she’s been working hard to improve the access to toilets at the Basin Reserve. She’s also a member of the Wonderful Group, a group supporting women in the media and sport. Zoë has worked in international cricket as an international team manager and communications manager.

SECTION HEADER

Where community shapes the heart of your retirement A caring community is there for us in our times of need. That’s the community Bill and Leone found at their Ryman village.

Soon after moving into the village the couple experienced a deep loss. The support they received was one of genuine caring. “Well it was just the way we were taken in by the village,” Bill explains. “Yes, feeling our grief with us, but not intruding on that,” Leone adds. Since that time, they have given back to the community in abundance. Leone has brought her passion for singing to the village Glee Club, and Bill has discovered a new-found enjoyment of bowls whilst also becoming a regular at

Glee Club, “I make more noise than anybody,” he laughs.

‘come and join us’ attitude so that other residents can feel welcomed.

Seeing Bill thriving in the village community has been wonderful for Leone, “He’s done things here he would never have done before. I’m really quite proud of him,” she tells us.

For Bill and Leone, friendship and support are a big part of life. They’ve had some incredible times and some incredible laughs since moving to the village. They feel fortunate that they made the move at the right time for them and can enjoy the village community. Leone explains, “there are no strangers here, just friends we haven’t met. That’s exactly how it goes here.”

“There are no strangers here, just friends we haven’t met.” Since that caring support Bill and Leone received in their time of need, they are reaching out with that same

Ryman villages provide the setting where community spirit thrives.

For more information or for your free guide to living in one of our ﬁve villages across the Wellington region phone 0800 779 626 rymanhealthcare.co.nz

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Sightseeing tours | Chauffeur cars available | Parcel pick-up and delivery All major credit cards, TaxiCharge cards, Snapper cards and taxi chits accepted.

For Taxis: 0800 384 4444 | For Shuttles: 0800 387 8787 | E-mail us: wctplanner@taxis.co.nz (for all queries)

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FASH ION

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P H OTO G R A P H E D BY D E VA N GA WA N I GA S I N G H E AS S I ST E D BY B R I T T H A R R I S O N & K AT I E PATO N M O D E L L E D BY RO S I E CA R R U T H E RS F RO M K I RST Y B U N N Y M A N AG E M E N T M A K E - U P BY I S L AY PAY N E

Christie Nelli Coat in rio red, $530, Harry's Maison Scotch boyfriend fit shirt, $269, Goodness Ink 43405 red boots, $595, Shoezies

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S H E A R E R S ' TA B L E

Vanilla Cupca kes with rhubarb and custard butter cream BY N I K K I & J O R DA N S H E A R E R

veryone seems to have their favourite cupcake recipe but we have never quite found one that we thought was perfect. So we have been experimenting with ideas to produce a cupcake that is not too sweet, not dry, and most importantly, easy to make! The tartness of the rhubarb compote is the perfect foil for the sweetness of the frosting, and filling the centre with the compote makes the cake moist and gooey. The trick for the

buttercream is to make sure that everything is at room temperature, use a handheld electric mixer and don't over-whisk. If the mixture splits, just add some melted chocolate, stir through, and magically the fat content of the chocolate will resurrect the buttercream to a silky smooth consistency. Check out our Onespoon Instagram for the chocolate cupcake version – either flavour could become your new fave!

Makes 12–15

Rhubarb compote

Vanilla cupcakes

6–8 stalks of rhubarb, washed and cut into 2cm slices 3 Tbsp caster sugar 1 Tbsp golden syrup 1 vanilla pod, halved lengthways and seeds scraped 3 Tbsp water

100g unsalted butter, softened ¾ cup caster sugar 2 eggs 2 Tbsp golden syrup 1 tsp vanilla extract ½ cup buttermilk 1 ¼ cup flour 1 ½ tsp baking powder ½ tsp baking soda Pinch salt Paper cupcake cases 1. 2. 3.

4. 5.

Preheat oven to 180°C fan bake, and place cases in a muffin tin. In a mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add eggs one at a time and beat together with golden syrup and vanilla extract. Beat in buttermilk until all ingredients are combined. Sift in dry ingredients and gently fold through. Pour mixture into liners, filling to just under three-quarters full, and bake for about 25 minutes or until a skewer in the centre comes out clean. Cool.

Preheat oven to 180 °C. Mix together ingredients in an ovenproof dish, cover with tinfoil. Bake for 40– 50 minutes until rhubarb is soft. The liquid should have evaporated. Set aside and cool. When cool, remove vanilla pod and blitz to a smooth pulp. Place in piping bag.

Custard buttercream 2 cups milk 1 vanilla bean, halved lengthways and seeds scraped 2 egg yolks 1 Tbsp cornflour ½ cup caster sugar 225g unsalted butter at room temp ½ tsp vanilla extract Continued on p54

S H E A R E R S ' TA B L E

Method (steps 8–13) 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.

13.

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Add all of the vanilla bean to milk, heating until bubbles start to form around edges. Remove from heat and remove vanilla pod. In a mixer beat egg yolks, cornflour, and sugar until light and creamy. Pour heated milk slowly into egg mixture and whisk together. Clean saucepan and pour combined milk and egg mixture back into the pot. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until thickened. Don’t overheat as egg will scramble! Remove from heat and pour into bowl. Cover with cling film, pressing film onto surface of custard to prevent a skin forming. Set aside at room temperature. Using a hand mixer, beat butter and vanilla until light and fluffy. Gradually add custard two tablespoons at a time, slowly mixing to combine. This is where mixture could split, so don’t overbeat. Place in piping bag ready to decorate.

Assembling 14. Scoop out small centre of each cupcake and pipe in rhubarb compote. Pipe buttercream on the top of each cake. 15. Decorate with your own sass – we used edible flowers, freeze-dried berries, crumble, and drizzled melted chocolate.

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GUEST COLUMN

What is business casua l? The business casual dress code can often be confusing. Personal stylist Caroline Carpenter demystifies ‘business casual’, looking at formal, casual, and what lies in between. Business Formal business is the uniform for lawyers, accountants, cabinet ministers and the like. It’s very conservative. Colour is used sparingly and quality is the focus. For women, this code requires conservative, dark-coloured pants or skirt suits, plain-coloured shirt or blouse, stockings, and formal closed-toe shoes. For men, dark or neutral-coloured full suits, plain lightcoloured collared shirts with a tie, and formal dress shoes. Try: Harry’s, Zebrano, I Love Paris Casual Casual is the opposite. Think the tech scene or media companies, which focus on comfort and letting the creative juices flow. Of course you still need to look clean and tidy, not scruffy. Leave your sweat pants and crocs at home, thanks. For women, casual could be dark denim jeans, well-fitted dresses, or mid-length skirts with neat t-shirts, tops, or jumpers. Shoes

can be tidy casual sneakers, boots, or sandals. For men, dark denim, pants or tailored shorts with a neat t-shirt, casual shirt, or jumper, and tidy sneakers, boots, or loafers. Try: Kowtow, Gubbs Shoes, Lumen Clothing, Ruby Business casual Then we have the infamous business casual. According to the dictionary it ‘allows people to wear casual clothes that are professional in nature but not overly formal.’ So it’s a less formal business look, while still remaining ‘professional’. For women this could be a neat skirt or trousers in colour combinations or prints, brightly coloured or printed blouses, with a casual blazer or tidy cardigan. Smart closed or opentoed shoes and bolder accessories are acceptable. For men, chinos or suit trousers, patterned or plain-coloured shirts tucked into your pants or trousers, and a blazer, smart jacket or tidy cardigan with boots or brogues. Try: Kowtow, Goodness, Willow Shoes, Sills & Co, Ricochet

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– – Give in to hemp-tation with Electric Puha. ith a consistent focus on delivering customers W innovative and curious creations, BurgerFuel are now championing hemp on the menu, with a new, limited-edition burger.

100% vegan and 100% locally sourced, Electric Pūhā is a first for this Kiwi brand. It has a nutrient-rich line-up of hemp and broccoli bites, a pūhā and cabbage kraut and hemp seed oil aioli. Combined with fresh rocket, relish and avocado, the ingredients are balanced by a wholesome organic hemp sourdough bun. The finished product is a substantial serving that not only packs one hell of a punch in flavour but, is good for you too. Hemp seed is a versatile and sustainable super food with an extensive list of health benefits. A natural way to consume iron, protein, iodine, zinc and omegas, the burgers’ various components are comprised of hemp seed in three forms; whole seed, oil and powder. The pūhā and cabbage kraut, a zesty probiotic blend of super greens, rich in vitamin A and K, adds a distinctive taste and amplifies the nutritional value of Electric Pūhā. The mix is made up of fermented cabbage, spinach, kale, seaweed and the indigenous herb, pūhā, carefully selected for its properties, provenance and flavour profile.

BurgerFuel have made teaming up with local and innovative companies a focus. Working with Plant Culture, Kaitahi – the Superfood Company, Living Goodness and Bread & Butter Café to provide premium, quality ingredients to bring the concept to life. Electric Pūhā is designed to be enjoyed by everyone, from vegans to health-conscious consumers and those who are curious to try a meal that incorporates the popular culinary trend, hemp, in its ingredients. The moreish morsels of hemp and broccoli bites that feature in the burger are also available as a side, Hemp & Broc Bites. These golden balls are chock-full of flavour, coated with breadcrumbs, hemp seeds and roasted pumpkin seeds for a golden crunch and are paired with BurgerFuels batch brewed tomato relish.

Electric Pūhā and Hemp & Broc Bites are available nationwide for a limited time only from September 3rd or while stocks last, with more hemp-based specials in the pipeline this year.

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BUG ME

Pūriri moth Name: Pūriri moth

are covered over with a camouflaged web of silk. Abandoned burrows, which lack this camouflaged webbing, are much easier to spot. In the past, male pūriri moths would swarm lights in areas inhabited by people, but with forest clearing this has become less common.

Māori name: Pepe tuna Scientific name: Aenetus virescens Status: Endemic Description: This impressive moth is New Zealand’s largest, with the wing span of the female growing up to 15cm, and the male up to 10cm. Pūriri moths are usually bright green, but colour and wing pattern are both variable – yellow, red and even albino moths have been recorded.

Tell me a story: I didn’t know how rare a pūriri moth sighting was until I sat down to write this column – because memories of them permeate my childhood. Living in the country near patches of forest, my siblings and I would often find males on the window of the back porch at night, drawn as they were to the light that lesser moths flickered and bickered over. Aside from my brother, who still can’t be in the same room as a moth, we all adored them – probably because Dad did. Any time he found one he’d call us over to admire it, urging us to resist the temptation to stroke their soft, furry backs. One day as I climbed the big old eucalyptus tree in the back garden I found a female, the biggest moth I had ever seen. She was blue-green, perfectly still and so beautiful. Even better, she was all mine. I found a comfortable groove on the smooth, dappled bark of the gum tree, and rested there with her until I was called home to dinner.

Habitat: Pūriri moths are found only in the North Island, and spend most of their lives as caterpillars living inside a variety of host trees, most commonly the pūriri tree for which they are named, and putaputawētā. The caterpillars will live inside a host tree for anywhere between eight months and five years – as long as it takes to reach its full size of about 10cm long – after which it pupates. Once the moth has emerged from the tree it lives for just 48 hours – long enough to find a mate and begin the cycle all over again. Look/Listen: A trained eye can spot the opening of a pūriri moth burrow in a tree trunk but an amateur will find it difficult, as burrows

EDIBLES

U B E R E AT S H AU N T S C I T Y UberEats’ steep commission has resulted in the emergence of over 50 ‘ghost’ restaurants in New Zealand. They are neither Halloween-themed nor run by ghoulish creatures – ghost restaurants are faceless operations that exist solely to cater to online delivery, often with multiple eateries operating out of the same kitchen. Apparently there are a few in Wellington, but they are yet to be ghostbusted, despite some effort on our part to track them down.

ICY LANDING Ben & Jerry’s has flown into Wellington, but only got as far as the terminal. Wellington Airport is the home of the only B&J’s scoop shop in the capital and, in keeping with the airport’s environmentally friendly mission, there will be no disposable ice-cream cups, only cones. But what about the coeliacs and GFs? We’re guessing they’ll be allowed to use the compostable sundae cups instead.

WIN FOR JIM

OH SUSANNA

Jim Huy, who managed Clark’s Café in the Central Library building for 10 years, has won the tender to operate the new cafe at Waitohi – the multi-level community hub for Johnsonville that will join together a new library, Keith Spry pool, Whānau Manaaki kindergarten, and a café. Jim will offer breakfast and lunch and says he’s committed to its being ‘the best café in the northern suburbs.’ The as yet unnamed cafe will open this summer.

Porirua’s Mashal Butler has founded Raw Glory, a range of raw desserts and treats. One of seven sisters, she has named each dessert after her siblings, offering treats such as Susanna, Kyria, and Dinah. More flavours are in the works and will be named after her children and other family members. Husband Kurt has been honoured with Krunchy Kurt, a peanut-butterflavoured creation. Mashal’s food is made from raw, organic ingredients, with no dairy, no gluten, and no sugar – so basically health food.

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EDIBLES

H I P P O D E G U S TAT I O N Hippopotamus restaurant will be transformed into a vivid, multi-sensory garden for Art of the Wild, a six week Perrier-Jouët takeover, inspired by the anemone flowers on their champagne bottles. Perrier-Jouët ambassador Ophélie Neil will host a five-course degustation dinner to launch the celebration on 19 September, which just happens to be International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Pirates are always after jewels, right? So it’s fitting that everyone who participates in Art of the Wild goes in the draw to win a piece of Meadowlark jewellery.

NOT-SO ECO

EDIBLE GARDEN

SECOND BEST TO FRESH

Next time you’re sipping an almond latte from your reusable bamboo cup, you may be getting more than just a caffeine hit. A German study revealed when bamboo cups are repeatedly exposed to hot liquids, their surfaces start to decompose, releasing potentially dangerous chemicals. They’re sealed with a resin containing melamine and formaldehyde, pollutants which have been found to leach into the cups’ contents. Melamine ingestion can lead to kidney stones and reproductive damage. Consumer New Zealand will be investigating.

Now that the soil is heating up you can finally get your artichoke, carrot, cucumber, beetroot, lettuce, pea, and parsnip seeds into the ground. Strawberry seedlings can be transplanted in anticipation of summer evenings spent soaking up the sunshine with a pitcher of sangria. Runner beans, squash, and pumpkins will survive in coastal areas not at risk of a parting frost, but Hutt Valley and Wairarapa green thumbs should beware.

The contents of L’affare’s new specialty coffee capsules are roasted, ground, and packed fresh in New Zealand. While they’d rather have freshly plunged or espresso coffee, the Wellington roasters reckon the capsules are ‘the best second best’ to fresh coffee. The Nespresso compatible capsules are recyclable via TerraCycle and the cardboard packaging can go in your recycling bin.

H O L I S T I C T H E R A P I E S , O R G A N I C H E R B A L T E A , N AT U R A L S K I N C A R E , A R O M AT H E R A P Y, B E S P O K E B L E N D S & W O R K S H O P S O P E N 7 D AY S / ( 0 4 ) 8 0 1 8 7 7 7 / 1 1 0 A C U B A S T R E E T, T E A R O / S H O P O N L I N E AT W E L L I N G T O N A P O T H E C A R Y. C O . N Z

GOOD SPORT

WITH A ROAR

FROM LOVE TO LOVE

FIRED UP

The Wellington Lions will again compete in the Mitre 10 Cup Premiership. They made the semi-finals last year, but lost to the eventual champions Auckland. They’ll face Otago this month, playing on their home turf at the Westpac Stadium. It’s worth getting there early to catch Wellington Pride v Counties Manukau at 11.35am, before the Lions kick off at 2.05pm. Mitre 10 Cup 2019: Wellington v Otago, 15 September, gates open 11.15am

Love Tennis weekend takes place on 7–8 September this year. The Newlands-Paparangi Tennis club is hosting an open day from 1pm on the Sunday, offering games, drills, and sessions run by a qualified coach, a sausage sizzle, and giveaways. ‘Everyone is welcome, from all ages and abilities,’ says Club Member Gemma Pask, ‘we’re really excited to open up our courts to the local community, and get everyone along to give tennis a go.’

The Wellington Phoenix has just signed 24-year-old Matti Steinmann, a German central midfielder who began playing as a teenager, and has appeared for Hamburg’s first team 13 times. Coach Ufuk Talay says Steinmann will bring youth and experience to the team. He will be jostling with existing central midfielders, Alex Rufer (Cap#47) and Tim Payne for a spot. However Talay says Steinmann’s versatility means he will be able to play various positions.

GOOD SPORT

NEON NIGHTS

ON THE BEAT

HONESTLY

Raid your local dollar store for glow sticks, facepaint, and tutus for this year’s Neon Night Walk/Run, held 5 October. Accompanied by music and led by glow-worms and fairylights, participants can choose either an 8 or 16km run (or walk) up 712 steps and through Rangituhi Reserve, in Porirua. The event will raise money for six charities, including Wellington City Mission and the Mental Health Foundation.

Fitness disguised as dance is all the rage. Exodus Gym’s Natasha Simeonidis has celebrated the first birthday of her dance fit programme, which sneaks interval training into a one-hour dance party. There’s Shut Up & Dance, who teach routines inspired by films and music videos. And Dancetopia, the home of Spiritus Dance Company, Salsa Magic, and Leaping Lizards, which offers everything from tap and ballet to zumba and hiphop.

An accurately measured 5km and 10km fun run will take place on 22 September. The Honest 10 is a flat, out-andback course around the Wellington waterfront, starting from the Freyberg Pool in Oriental Bay. The event provides a fast, fun, friendly environment, and has pacers running 40min, 45min, 50min, 55min to help you break your own personal best. A free sports drink and banana is on offer at the finish.

It’s not without a

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BY THE BOOK

ON THE MAP How did Captain Cook piece together an incredibly accurate map during his circumnavigation of Aotearoa in 1779 –1780? He had only a compass, a sextant to measure latitude, a wooden log to measure miles, and a leadline (a lead weight on a thin rope) to measure depth. Award-winning author Tessa Duder has written First Map (Harper Collins) about this extraordinary achievement in map-making history, and about the voyage of HMS Endeavour. Aimed at adults and children, First Map is illustrated by David Elliot. Tessa speaks at Vic Books on 17 September.

JOURNAL-IST

FINDING JANE

THE BOOK BUG

Science writer and Victoria University associate professor Rebecca Priestley has visited Antarctica three times. Her essay collection Fifteen Million Years in Antarctica (VUP), out 12 September, recounts everything from camping out with paleo-climatologists to her anxiety about climate change. ‘I felt so bad about being caught up in my head when I should be focusing on this amazing place, so I wrote about my anxiety in my journals. It helped.’

Kelly Dennett, a Wellington reporter, is ‘thrilled’ to be shortlisted for Best Non-Fiction Book in the Ngaio Marsh (Crimewriting) Awards for The Short Life And Mysterious Death Of Jane Furlong (Awa). The 17-year-old disappeared in Auckland in 1993; her skull was found in 2012. Kelly talked to Jane’s family, her friends, police officers, and so on, hoping to spark new leads, but the case remains unsolved. Ngaio Marsh winners are announced on 14 September.

It seems Victoria University Press staff (including editor Ashleigh Young, Cap #61) get inspired to write themselves. VUP publicist Kirsten McDougall’s novel Tess was a finalist in two awards last year, and Kirsten recently returned from a Michael King Writers’ Centre Residency in Auckland, where she worked on her third novel. Meanwhile VUP’s new title The Boyfriend by debut novelist Laura Southgate (pictured) – about a young Wellington woman’s toxic relationship – is terrific.

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SEB CY T I TOHNE HBEOAODKE R

Re-verse I N T R O D U C E D BY F R E YA DA LY S A D G R O V E

About the poet and poem: Zarah is a poet from Auckland who now lives in Melbourne. She began writing Autobiography of a Marguerite, from which this excerpt is taken, during her MA in Creative Writing at Victoria University’s International Institute of Modern Letters in 2012. She won the Biggs Poetry Prize for her manuscript, and Autobiography of a Marguerite was published in 2014 by Wellington press Hue & Cry. The book is one long, fragmented poem that explores the narrator’s mysterious illness and its all-consuming, paralytic effects on her life and her family. Why I like it: Zarah’s writing is sharp and haunting and formally inventive, but what makes it exceptional to me is that it is all of those things as well as very funny. The humour is completely integral to her work – it’s her perfect tone and timing. Zarah does a faultless deadpan; it’s mesmerising to see her read her poems aloud, but it also comes across so well on the page – like in this steamroller of a sentence: 'But I was wrong, she didn’t go away, she was still there, but I couldn’t see her, she had gone into her garage momentarily.' A lot of writers notice small details, isolate them and inflate them for significance. For me, Zarah achieves the inverse of that. She notices small absences, or small clues to a big absence – the absence of that significance, maybe, that yearned-for profundity – and she exposes the absence by identifying each clue with precision. Reading her poems is like standing transfixed at the receiving end of the world’s slowest wink, and it feels amazing.

E XC E R P T F R O M AU TO B I O G R A P H Y O F A MARGUERITE Z A R A H B U TC H E R - M CG U N N I G L E

I cough onto the window. Outside the window the street is eating itself. I am eating a piece of bread, chewing as if I can’t decide whether to swallow. I need to go outside but my neighbour is out there. I’m waiting until she goes away. She goes away and I go outside. But I was wrong, she didn’t go away, she was still there, but I couldn’t see her, she had gone into her garage momentarily. My neighbour is wearing complementary colours which hurt my eyes. She is holding a pair of hedge clippers. She says hello. I say hello back, but not in the tone that one usually says hello, more like in the tone that one says sandwich. I don’t look her in the eye. She asks me where I am going. I am going to the hospital, I say. It’s the third time I’ve broken my arm this year. She bends down to cut the head off a dandelion. Is that so, she says. Well, did you know, once I went to three weddings in a month.

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F E AT U R E

Sugar coated P H OTO G R A P H E D BY SA K U R A S H I BATA

Sarah Lang talks to the New Zealand Fringe Festival’s new operations director Sasha Tilly about what’s next for the fest, and mainlining coffee when it’s on.

t’s no coincidence that the Fringe Festival’s Sasha Tilly has a fringe, as she explains over a cuppa at Fringe HQ on Taranaki Street. ‘As a promo gimmick for the fringe opening in 2015, some wonderful hairdressers did free fringe trims outside our box office. I decided to change up my look, so I got them to cut me a fringe. I’ve tried to grow it out several times, but I've gotten so used to how my face looks with a fringe that I’ve kept it.’ An extrovert with an eclectic dress sense and a lot of energy, Sasha epitomises the festival that most people simply call ‘the Fringe’. Its website describes her as ‘Fringe Lady-in-Waiting’. That’s because Sasha has climbed the festival’s ladder not very slowly but very surely: from box-office intern, then ticketing manager, Artists Services’ Manager, Logistics Manager and Festival Manager, becoming in July its Operations Manager. ‘There’s a running joke of me not getting business cards because we’d have to change them every year.’ The Fringe has had its own festival director since it began in 1990. Hannah Clarke, festival director for the past eight years, has left, and rather than replace her, the Creative Capital Arts Trust (which runs the Fringe Festival and CubaDupa) has opted to restructure the Fringe. Sasha, as Operations Director, along with a Creative Producer (applications have closed), will run the festival jointly. For Sasha, becoming Operations Manager is a promotion from last year’s gig as Festival Manager (and as Hannah’s 2IC). ‘I’m still responsible for the smooth running of the festival, but I’m now also responsible for its strategy and overall vision along with the Creative Producer.’

Why the new model? ‘It doesn’t necessarily make sense for us to have a festival director in the same way a programmed, curated festival does,’ Sasha says. She’s referring to the Fringe’s ‘open-access’ policy, meaning everyone who wants to gets to do a show. There are no nos. She probably can’t say no to this question, but does Sasha want to continue the open-access model? ‘Yeah, I think that’s essential to our kaupapa: the Fringe is for everyone in whatever arts capacity. Basically, if the show is legal, we won’t turn anyone away.’ Last year there were between 700 and 800 sessions of 150 events. It’s part of the Fringe’s DNA that everyone gets a go, and that audiences never know what they’ll get – from cringeworthy acts to the Flight of the Conchords (the most famous alumni). But does the open-access approach have a downside – as in the festival getting too big, meaning audiences can be paralysed by too much choice? Or that the Fringe ends up hosting a fair few acts that are, er, just not very good? ‘Well, Edinburgh isn’t that much bigger than Wellington and the Edinburgh Fringe has about 3,000 shows,’ says Sasha, who goes to Edinburgh every year she can. ‘And it's not up to us as the festival to dictate what does or doesn’t count as art, or what is or isn't ‘‘good’’ art. Not everyone will like everything, and that's a good thing. I want people to revel in having so much choice.’ She’s well aware that the Fringe is competing for attention not just with other events but also Netflix. She gets why, too. ‘I get home and curl up under my cosy blanket, so I can understand other people not wanting to go out.’ How do you make them want to? ‘I’m excited about trying to unpack that.

F E AT U R E

For instance, we’re doing a lot more multi-media and cross-genre stuff.’ She’d like the Fringe to be even more accessible – ‘to one day have a Fringe sign-language interpreter and a te reo version of our programme. Also, in Edinburgh, you’re hit in the face with the Fringe everywhere you go, and that’s ideally what I’d like for Wellington – with some kind of performance or weird clown stuff happening everywhere in town.’ Her Fringe job is part-time from April to September, then full-time during ‘peak season’ (October to March). Currently she’s getting the registration system ready for artists to start signing up in September, and forming relationships with the 30-odd sponsors. Usually nine more people come on board before the festival. ‘We survive pretty much on coffee from our sponsor Havana. Someone turns up with a 1kg brown bag of ground beans, and they’ll always draw some Fringe-related artwork on it – for instance an actual fringe. We’ve kept all the bags!’ Sasha has been a performer herself. ‘In the 2018 Fringe, I did a one-woman solo theatre show which was the scariest thing I’ve ever done, and I realised that performance isn’t what I want to do.’ Outside of the Fringe, Sasha is also an independent theatre producer for other people’s shows, taking care of all the logistics. She’s also keen on quizzes. Every Wednesday night, her quiz team meets at the Waitoa Social Club brew-bar in Hataitai. ‘They write the quiz themselves there. If you win one week, you can pick a theme for a round the next week. I’m a big general-knowledge nerd and I kick butt in the music round.’

Sasha loves her current work, but can imagine doing other things too. ‘I love the idea of being a window dresser for shops – or a wedding planner, which is actually similar to running a festival.’ Might she plan her own wedding one day? ‘Yeah, I’ve put together a wedding vision inspiration board.’ Really? ‘No! I’m joking!’ Does she want kids? ‘Probably not. I really just don’t see myself, at least at this point, carrying my own child. But I think if I had children, I’d love to adopt.’ Sasha grew up in Mount Victoria. ‘My dad had three kids from his first marriage but they’re a lot older, so I grew up as an only child.’ Her father, actor Grant Tilly, died nine years ago. He met her mum Ruth Jeffery while they were both on the Circa Theatre board. ‘My mum is an English teacher but she once worked for the NZ Film Commission and helped set up the NZ Film School. So, it was kind of inevitable that I’d end up in the arts.’ After Sasha finished high school, she travelled, first working as a teaching assistant in an English school and directing the students’ drama productions. Next she moved to London where she worked in a pub, then to Edinburgh. ‘Then I came home and decided to be a costume designer. My grandmother Margot Jeffery was a seamstress who ran a shop called Dressing Up with Margot on the corner of Woodward Street and The Terrace during the 80s and early 90s. So I started studying [costume] design at drama school and realised “this isn’t for me”. Then I went to Vic and studied theatre.’ Her parents never tried to either warn her off or push her toward the arts. ‘They very much let me do what I want and, because I grew up knowing there’s no money in the arts, I was aware what I was getting myself into. But I’m happy I’m here.’

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Skyline style W R I T T E N BY SA R A H CAT H E R A L L P H OTO G R A P H E D BY A N N A B R I G GS

A home overlooking Kelburn bush is a haven for two retirees who are housemates and best friends.

arolyn Mark and Jen Calvert are embracing retirement in their 1960s home nestled above Kelburn bush with sweeping views over Wellington. Describing themselves as best friends, they first pooled resources to buy a Kelburn villa about 12 years ago. However, as they moved towards retirement, they realised the house was too big. The access was difficult, up dozens of steps, and they wanted a home they could lock and leave to travel. Says Carolyn, known as Cadge: ‘We both do think that it is a great idea for older people, especially women, to throw their lot in with each other for financial and companionship reasons. It has certainly worked brilliantly for us.’ ‘By combining our incomes, we could afford to buy this house. We are able to combine our lives in a very amicable way,’ says Jen, who adds, ‘We have a lot of fun.’ The 1964 house they found is a treasure trove of art and objects acquired in their interesting lives and travels. At the top of Kelburn, it is on a private road dating from the 1960s, when most of the houses on the street were built. Cadge and Jen were drawn to the neighbourhood, the house’s easy access, and its sublime, sweeping views. It has a pitched roof, and sunlight streams in through the picture windows in the living room with sweeping views over the Kelburn bush, to Mount Victoria in the distance to the right, and to Matiu/Somes Island in the harbour. The big windows pull in the morning sun, heating the house all day. When Cadge and Jen are not travelling or enjoying their other hobbies, they love watching the views.

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‘We never get sick of it. We waste far too much time sitting here looking out the window,’ says Cadge, who worked in recruitment for VSA before she retired. ‘It’s a really nice house to live in. It's one of those houses where we live in every inch of it.’ Another favourite room is their den/library. Since retirement, Cadge has gone back to knitting, and a couple of her colourful knitted rugs sit on Danish leather chairs in the den. It is lined with bookshelves. They relish both fiction and non-fiction, and had to get rid of boxes of books when they downsized. Cadge says that Jen – who used to work in human resources – is the cook of the house, and collects recipe books. She makes their meals in a small, practical kitchen tucked behind the living area – a separate space, which is the way kitchens were designed in the 1960s. Cadge and Jen haven’t done much to the house since they bought it (they’ve spent more time

tackling the garden) apart from updating the rundown bathroom and laundry. ‘The bathroom was a bit of an old dunger before,’ says Jen. Describing themselves as collectors, they have amassed applied art, glass, and ceramic works over the years. Some pieces have been inherited, while others were acquired during their travels. Supporters of New Zealand artists, they have works by Fata Feu’u, Gavin Chilcott, Toss Woollaston, and Sarah Hillary on their walls. Jen inherited a William and Mary sideboard from her parents, which is now in the living room, holding their pottery pieces. Her mother, Julie Calvert, lived in Thailand in the 1960s, and many of the pieces she acquired are now in the Kelburn house. Cadge’s brother is an Auckland photographer, so some of his works are on the walls. Colourful glass pieces are on the sideboard. There isn’t a lot of beige or neutral in this house.

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Jen’s work at VSA in the 1980s involved extensive travel through Asia, Africa, and the Pacific. ‘When I left after 12 years, I worked out I had spent a total of four years travelling.’ She regularly returned home with pieces she had acquired. Travel is one of the hobbies they share today. On a recent trip to Spain, they met a Spanish artist and bought a couple of her pieces which are reminiscent of Picasso. Carpets from their travels in Morocco and China are scattered over the floorboards. ‘We thought we could be minimalists but we’ve abandoned that,’ laughs Jen. Their bedrooms reflect their personal tastes. Fortunately Cadge wanted the smaller, cosier bedroom, which has an Asian feel to its decor. The stylish septuagenarian is never seen without a colourful, chunky bracelet designed by her sister, Liz Mark, a jeweller and interior designer. On Cadge’s bedroom table, a bowl of bracelets adds a splash of colour. Sally Burton art works hang above her bed, flanked by red lacquered Chinese cabinets. Jen’s room is bigger, and its decor is more low-key. She bought an art work from a women’s collective in India, and a Ralph Hotere print not long after they moved in. ‘We said we would never

have room for more art, and guess what, we’ve bought more art,’ she laughs. Part of the delight of the house is its setting and section. Jen’s bedroom opens out on to a deck, at the top of a bank of pittosporums and other natives. After they moved in, they took a couple of years to slowly clear the sloping section, and replanted the lower garden with natives. They put in a path, which their next-door neighbour continued, so three households can now walk through the bottom of the garden to the street. Four houses now have blurred boundaries, laughs Jen, so much so that they don’t know where their sections actually end. It’s a sign of how close the neighbours are in this community. They know everyone on their street, getting together several times a year with others in the dozen or so houses. Before Christmas, they set up trestle tables and 34 residents had a long lunch on the street. Says Jen, ‘We continue each other’s planting, and planting over each other’s properties too. It's one of the things we love about living here. We keep an eye out for each other and feed each other’s cats. It’s a lovely feeling to be part of this community.’

ABROAD

All shook up W R I TT E N BY J O H N B I S H O P

lvis Presley, the enduring cultural icon of the 1950s through the 1970s, has now been dead just slightly longer than he was alive. Born on 8 January 1935, Elvis died aged 42 on 16 August 1977, a touch over 42 years ago. The Elvis industry thrives by carefully preserving his legacy, protecting his brand and holding regular events, such as Elvis Week, which commemorates his death annually. Stars pay tribute to his influence: John Lennon said that ‘before Elvis there was nothing’, and Keith Richards credited Elvis with changing the world ‘from black and white to vivid colour’. Another musical pioneer, Buddy Holly, declared that ‘without Elvis none of us would have made it.’ And modern country group the Pistol Annies have said, ‘no matter what kind of music we sing… gospel, rock, country, we all copy Elvis.’ The Graceland complex, incorporating Presley’s home, Graceland, is on Elvis Presley Boulevard. A short drive out of Memphis in Tennessee, it is the city and the state’s biggest attraction. Each year 600,000 visitors take up the invitation on the billboard at the entrance to ‘take a journey through his life and phenomenal career’. Visitors start at the entrance hall and ticket booth, to explore various exhibitions, displays, attractions, and gift shops, and his aeroplanes, which occupy 9,000 sq metres out of a total of 22,000 sq metres. Graceland, the house where Elvis and his family lived, is across the road and visitors are taken there in passenger vans to control access. Then they can

wander the house at leisure, with a commentary on an iPad taking them through the rooms. The house is a memorial to the life he lived: it’s a family home, but also where he hung out with the boys, rode horses, played pool, made music, and cooked southern food at bizarre hours. The decor is bad taste meets lots of money. In the pool room, 350 metres of multi-coloured fabric is draped like a cosmic nightmare. The Jungle Room was Elvis’s den, with its own indoor waterfall, stuffed animals and green shag pile carpet. Upstairs, the bedrooms are off limits. The basement was a place for mayhem, his daughter Lisa Marie recalls in the commentary. That’s where Elvis and his friends hung out. Outside there are the stables and the pool. The memorial garden where Elvis, his parents, and his brother are all buried has a gentile tranquillity. Visitors linger, weep, and remember. Today it is easy to forget what a cultural icon Elvis was, and the scale of his career. He starred in 34 films and two worldwide television specials (the first being the biggest ever live international hookup), and sold over a billion records. In the hallway you can admire the film posters and walls of gold and platinum records. Teenagers in the 1950s loved his style. They bought his records, saw his movies, and followed his every move. He set new standards for style and entertainment. Millions of people across the globe remember him, love him, and imitate him still. When I visited back in 2014, some parts of the Graceland product were looking a little tired.

ABROAD

Now a new-look Graceland gives a lot more space to the social and cultural impact of Elvis, in addition to details of his life. The house, which he bought in 1957 at the age of 22, is still the same, but millions of dollars have been spent on new exhibitions: Elvis in the army, Elvis the cultural icon, Elvis in new photographic displays, and more. The State of Tennessee provided a tax subsidy to help the reinvestment programme, such is the importance of Graceland to the local economy. Elvis’s father was Vernon Elvis Presley. A farmer and later a delivery driver, he married Gladys Smith at age 17 in 1933. Their son Elvis arrived on June 8 1935. His twin was stillborn and he was to be their only child. The family were poor and life was a struggle. Elvis promised his parents an easy comfortable life, and, at a remarkably early age, he delivered it. They lived with him in Graceland for the rest of their lives. His wife Priscilla said Elvis, as a young man from nowhere who made it to the top through talent and hard work, represented the American dream. The Elvis complex is quite an industry, with entry starting at NZ$102; it can cost up to $160 for everything including a skip-the-line premium. It’s US$35 to pose for a picture in front of the mansion, and there are also 13 options for posing with Elvis himself, some of them placing you in scenes from his movies, for US$36 to US$55. Elvis with his hand on your shoulder and Elvis shaking hands with you are the most popular, the photo operator told me.

And there’s no limit to what you could spend on T Shirts, posters, jackets and sweats, memorabilia, and ephemera. You can eat at themed cafes, even stay at a themed hotel on site. Elvis embodied the spirit of rock ‘n’ roll. For his young fans, it has been called ‘the sound of emotional freedom.’ His look was provocative and emphatically youthful. It did not reflect anything that the 50s teenagers’ parents had owned, liked, or respected. This music was their property, and they were the first generation ever to enjoy such a privilege. Pop music changed fundamentally, big-voiced singers fronting 40-piece orchestras giving way to kids with guitars singing about love, dates, cars, and clothes. Elvis recorded his first hit record, It’s alright Mama, at Sun Studios in Memphis in 1954. It was something he launched into during a break in a session that had not been going well. Sun’s owner Sam Phillips signed Elvis to a threeyear recording deal, but, deeply in debt, sold him on to RCA Records 18 months later to save the studio. The rest, they say, is history. At Graceland the story of the ultimate rock and roller of them all is well and faithfully told, in a controlled way without excessive emotion. There is no need. His story is enough; he was simply the King. John Bishop visited Graceland with the help of Memphis Tourism.

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Tying the knot BY M E LO DY T H O M A S

s anyone in a long-term, monogamous relationship will tell you, staying together can be tough. But despite the fact that heterosexual monogamy is still held up as the norm, there’s very little practical advice for navigating arguments, boredom, having children, sexless periods, libido mismatch, or any of the other myriad problems relationships face. I’m reading a book called Mating in Captivity by Esther Perel, a Belgian psychotherapist and podcaster, which explores whether sexual desire and domesticity can co-exist. In the very first chapter Perel says something that on some level I already knew, but which hadn’t clicked into place until that moment: the expectations we place on our relationships are a relatively new thing. Sorry to ruin any romantic ideas you had about marriage, but tying the knot actually started as a way to lock women in, so that the paternity of a couple’s children would be assured and men’s possessions wouldn’t be inherited by bastards. Marrying for love is a very recent phenomenon – back in the day they were pre-arranged as alliances between families and for economic benefit. When eventually love did enter the picture, an expectation of the union being sexually fulfilling was unlikely – you either lay back and thought of England or looked for sexual excitement elsewhere. Today, we think of a successful long-term commitment as requiring both emotional and sexual fulfilment. It’s up to both partners to provide compassion, reassurance, sexual excitement, and financial partnership, to be both lover and best friend, for decade upon decade – and if they can’t do that then the relationship is insufficient. Meanwhile Instagram and Facebook present a

constant stream of other people’s seeminglyhappier relationships (not true) and Tinder waits in the wings full of potential suitors who might better offer us what we need (often not true). Many people are finding answers in ‘ethical non-monogamy’ – be it swinging, polyamory, or some other kind of consenting open relationship. But if that’s not an option for you, what can you do? There are a whole lot of great books and TED talks, though in heterosexual relationships women are more likely to be the ones investing time in those solutions and I’m loath to suggest yet more emotional labour that won’t be shared equally. Experts will point to prioritising quality time together and getting away for the odd weekend alone, both incredibly hard to do when children are in the mix. In Mating in Capitivity, Perel says that sexual chemistry is what happens when two people reach towards each other across a gap – it’s a connection, and for two people to connect there needs to be space. Sometimes in modern relationships we become fused together and we lose that space – perhaps in reclaiming it you might gain some benefits for your relationship? What are some things you loved to do when you were single or before kids came along? What might happen if you carved out a little time to do some of those things again? Another thing I’ve been thinking about is this: If our relationships are struggling under too many expectations, perhaps they could breathe a little more if that weight were shared? By investing more time in regular, genuine connection with friends, family and community, we might free our partners from the expectation of being all things to us all the time. We might just free ourselves in the process.