Back on board
Welcome to Idealog Weekly, the free email newsletter for New Zealand commercial creatives, entrepreneurs and anyone rich with ideas In this week’s issue: back on board, kegged it, digital doodles, timeless tales, more Misery, track thee back, Cuba beer video fest and the quote of the week. Back on boardIdealog #8 is done, dusted and delivered. Subscribers received their copies last week; they arrived on newsstands on Monday. I got to look at this issue with new eyes—because I hadn’t spent the last month slaving over it. In fact, while Idealog was being assembled by magic, unseen hands, I was spending my honeymoon travelling around Vietnam (highly recommended—honeymoons and Vietnam). But although I was a bit late seeing the finished product, once again it’s packed with ideas, inspiration and tales of Kiwi creativity. So what’s in it? We’ve got the inspiring story behind Black Sheep, the hot new Kiwi movie that’s cracking up festival audiences and giving them a decent fright too. Think of it as Babe meets Braindead. Jonathan King, the first-time director and writer behind Black Sheep, tells how he managed to get his movie made and marketed and how he got through the tough times. Weta Workshop supremo Richard Taylor loves the film; read his take in the latest issue. Rod Drury and Hamish Edwards have been on a journey too. They’ve spent five years on an ambitious plan to create a breakthrough software company and now they’re finally ready to unleash it. In a country where businesses are often content to remain small and local, Edwards and Drury are refreshingly honest about their international ambitions for their company, Xero. We have the exclusive story about why Xero is unique and how they plan to become the global leader. Read also about the amazing left-field campaign Auckland’s Exile Films has produced for MTV. The star? Rodney, a latex-clad air guitar champ who finds he has the power to heal the sick. We take a close look at Lower Hutt’s extraordinary Dowse Gallery, which is reinventing the art gallery as a hub of a city’s creative endeavour. David Walker ties together Crazy Frog, French cuisine and the British racing industry to identify where new ideas come from. And we have a story that’s certain to annoy a few people, too. If you’re infuriated by the frequent bouts of migrant bashing that populist politicians and media indulge in, you’ll love Simon Young’s hearty defence of immigration and immigrants. Our newest citizens bring with them new ideas, new ways of thinking and international experience that we sorely need. Our story might just change a few minds. There’s more—much more. Check out our contents page and if you’d rather not wait till the editor gets back from holiday to hear about new issues of Idealog, then take a quick trip to our subscriptions page. Twelve new subscribers will each get a stylish bonus, too: a cool business shirt from 3 Wise Men worth $120. Kegged it Congratulations to Rachel Stafford, the winner of our Heineken tennis-and-free-beer giveaway in the last Idealog Weekly. The tennis tickets and the Heineken keg went to the person with the most embarrassing Christmas party moment. I won’t share the sordid details—not without some bribery—but suffice it to say that Rachel won with a story about a stunning satin gown, a visit to strip club and an unexpected meeting with senior management. We hope the summertime Heineken made it worthwhile, Rachel. Thanks to all who entered. Digital doodles Like to doodle while you think? Do your doodling online and you could win an Amazon voucher. Andy Biggs, a Kiwi interactive designer currently strutting his stuff in London, has created Digital Doodles, a website that lets you scribble on your screen. He picks a theme and the best doodle each month gets the voucher. You can browse the existing doodles and—nice touch—the site even renders the doodles as each stroke was made. (Hat tip to For the Masses.) Timeless tales Sure, we have a shiny new Idealog on the stands—so now our previous issue has a new life on our website. Rather than dump all our stories online at once, we put them up progressively during the shelf life of each magazine. That means all the good stuff from Idealog #7 is now online, so if you want to share a link or two with friends and colleagues (or if you missed an issue) visit idealog.co.nz. Since the last Idealog Weekly we’ve posted plenty of articles including the ‘Agenda 2011’ cover story, a recipe for New Zealand by the time of the next Rugby World Cup which isn’t just about stadiums and arguments about who will pay, and the inspiring story of Josef Roberts, ‘The man who gave Red Bull wings’. Check out James Hurman’s essay on originality, ‘We are not here to do what has already been done’. And there’s a fascinating bunch of comments posted on Jake Pearce’s article on Brand Enzed, ‘New Zealand, meet the new you’. We welcome comments on our stories so if you have something to say then let’s hear it on our website. We’ll start putting up stories from the current issue next week. Track thee back Speaking of our website, this morning we rolled out a new feature just for bloggers: trackbacks. With trackbacks, you can write about an Idealog story on your blog and our story will include a link to your blog entry. Anybody reading our story can then see that you’ve blogged about it. It’s a simple process and most blogging software has built-in trackback support. The trackback link for each story is one the last page, just above comments. More Misery We’d recognise that style anywhere. Tanya Thompson, the über-talented artist and businesswoman better known as Misery who featured in Idealog #4, is one of the local artists behind a new series of ads for Primo, the local energy drink. Other illustrators include Mephisto Jones and Paul McNeil. Check them out on Adverbox. Cuba beer video fest Even Jim Hickey would agree that the places to be this weekend are a bit unexpected: Auckland and Wellington. The weekend kicks off in the capital this afternoon with the Cuba Street Carnival, “New Zealand’s largest street party”. The next day Aucklanders get in on the act at the New Zealand Beer Festival at Ellerslie Racecourse, where punters will have the tough task of choosing from 50 beers from 20 breweries. Back in Wellington at 7.30 on Saturday is a truly weird and quite possibly inspired event: Video Games Live, “an immersive concert event featuring music from the biggest video games of all time”—from Pong to Halo. The Vector Wellington Orchestra and the Chapman Tripp Opera Chorus will provide the live audio alongside video footage and solo performers on stage. Aucklanders waking up on Saturday with beer festival-induced hangovers and sunburn will be after some culture to make up for the excesses of the previous day. They’ll find it in Mt Roskill at the Auckland International Cultural Festival, with food, music, dance, arts, crafts, displays and more from over 30 nations. Check out these events and more at Idealog’s events guide, Agenda, online and in print. Anyone can add an event to Agenda—just fill out the form on our website. Quote of the week “Jonathan has taken the woolly jumpers of the pasture land of New Zealand and turned them into psychotic meat-muching carnivores … I doubt that many of us, having experienced the comic genius of Black Sheep, will ever be able to look at our fleecy friends in the same light again.” —Weta wizard Richard Taylor More at Idealog online Read more on our website: web exclusives, opinion, Idealog IP, the Idealog blogs and the Idealog podcast. Matt Cooney
Editor
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