H for hot

Welcome to Idealog Weekly, the free email newsletter for New Zealand commercial creatives, entrepreneurs and anyone rich with ideas.

H for hot

Welcome back to … well, just the Idealog Weekly, really. You’re probably properly ensconced in your swivel chair by now. Take heart though, at least the sun is still shining through your office window—not so much of that happening in London town right now, is there?

Still, some good has come out of Britain’s bleakness: Hforhome, also known as the t-shirts made by homesick Kiwis and worn by Kiwis who are homesick. Lucky for you, Sarah from H is home for the summer and in an equally sunny mood: “Get a guy and a girl to each pick a t-shirt on our website,” she told us. Well, go on then. Pick one … tell us which one you’ve picked … and we’ll tell you if we’ve picked you to keep it. Easy, eh?

Nappy green

The Environment New Zealand 2007 report came out last week, stating pressures on our clean green image and reality are increasing. Trevor Mallard then stepped in saying we need to do better to protect our reputation—and in turn, our economy. About this time we started to get that creepy sense of deja vu—isn’t this all pretty much what we said two months ago?

Come fly nowhere

Okay so we’ve already established that you’re probably back in the office—and would probably rather be off in a plane. How about a compromise? Next time you’re doing the stationery order, why not add a Boeing 747 Engine Cowling Reception Desk to the list? And, if you have a particularly lax finance department, slip this Stratofortress Ejector Seat Office Chair in there too. Both reclaimed from real decommissioned aircraft, you can just about do on the job training for your second airborne career, while still grounded and writing invoices in your first.

Double the present, half the size

My best Christmas ever involved a folding bike. I’d already unwrapped my Pretty in Pink Barbie, the most my seven-year-old heart could desire, when Dad seemed to remember something. “I think I bought a bike last night,” he said. A quick check in washhouse, then shed, revealed he did indeed buy a bike sometime during his Christmas Eve work drinks; a beautiful, silver, fold-in-half Eska that would soon see me folded on the curb on account of its monstrous size. This fold-up bike flabbergasted me, but its 2008 successor, the fold-up wheel, has left me merely mildly impressed. Hey, 24 years have passed; we should bloody well have fold-in-half bolts by now. Anyway, Duncan Fitzsimmons’ carbon-fiber hinged wheel is tipped to revolutionise the folding bike market, so the point is: remember to send your dad to work in a taxi next Christmas Eve. (Via Core 77.)

Watch these

If a collection of oil-on-potato-sack movie posters from the 80s doesn’t sound special enough, add the fact that they were all produced and displayed in Ghana by artists who often hadn’t seen the movies themselves. The results are bright, unique and bound to have caused disappointment in the actual movie. Currently on show, and for sale, at the appropriately-titled Bongout Gallery in Berlin.

Taming Bjork

Fake Steve Jobs has unearthed another secret gem from the 70s: ‘Hocus Pocus’ by Focus. Those familiar with the group will appreciate the fine mix of hard rock, thumping drum rolls, synth riffs and yodelling. Those unfamiliar aren’t anymore. You have been warned—or promised, depending which side of crazy your CD collection sits on.

The not-so-amazing pace

The Amazing Rally of Auckland is a bit like the Amazing Race, but without planes, Phil Keoghan or sobriety. Consisting of 12 legs, each with its own task, the only requirement is you finish with all the people you started with—which, depending which leg you drop sobriety off at, could be harder than it sounds. Register your interest for this March 29 event with mike at theshadowfactory.co.nz.

The Ruby Suns is a psych-pop Kiwi group that’s huge in Europe, and here at Idealog. You’ll have to buy our next issue (at your nearest bookshop on February 25) to read all about why we love them, but in the meantime trust our music tastes to be the way and the truth and the life and go see them at The King’s Arms if you’re in Auckland tonight. Oh, and if you’ve been in the Idealog office recently, it was purely coincidental that you heard Barry Manilow. Short phase. Over. See you at the Ruby Suns! (And thanks to Spare Room for this YouTube link of the Ruby Suns playing on the road in Paris.)

Quote of the week

“There were 15,000 people there, and every country representative I talked to had the same problems as us—whether it was water quality or transport or whatever. I went away thinking the business opportunities in innovation are enormous.”

—The UN World Urban Forum makes an impression on Rachel Brown

  Gena Tuffery
  Senior writer

More at Idealog online

Read more on our website: web exclusives, opinion, Idealog IP, the Idealog blogs and the Idealog podcast. See you at idealog.co.nz.

Idealog Weekly is sent to friends, subscribers and registered website users of Idealog magazine. Rather read your Idealog Weekly in  your inbox? Subscribe here