Money | Issue 10 by Salient

Salient Issue Issue 3 10

Dreams Money

Vol. Vol. 79 79

Contents Features

Better the Uber you know than the Uber you don't

18 Merv's

How to Spend $100,000

AUSA keen to GTFO of NZUSA

VUWSA gives WCC oral submissions

Thane Kirby you're a dick

Government steps in now middle class NZ are at risk

There's a big ol' widdle behind the couch

News

Regular Content 12 MÄ ori Matters

One Ocean

36 Food 37 Visual Arts

VUWSA Exec

Single Sad Postgrad

Stressed, Depressed, Well-dressed

Breathing Space

44 Books

Queer Agenda

45 Theatre

Postgraduate Connection

46 Puzzles

33 "Sports!"

46 Notices

33 W.W.T.A.W.W.T.A.S

13 Gee-mail

38 Music

42 Games

40 Film

43 TV

Editors: Emma Hurley Jayne Mulligan

Editors’ Letter concerning is that some people watch the show genuinely echoing its sentiment of women being little more than sexual objects, as shown on George FM. The questions Naz received were inappropriate to say the least, the camera work even more so, and we will spare you the details, because it makes us feel yuck (mostly imagining Thane saying these things). It’s hard to imagine Jordan, or some male contestant, receiving the same questioning from Thane Kirby. It goes to show just how easy it is for people to accidentally buy into the cheap sexist basis the show works off; how easy it is to not question so many problematic representations of women that the show displays. Thane was, it turns out, the basic bitch. As the NZ media grieve the separation of Fleur and Jordan, they will also (hopefully) get over the story (we just read a Newshub story with screenshots in it ugh), and the TV show will cease to exist. Hopefully the show dies, along with Weldon’s career. We totally didn’t want to spend our whole editorial talking about The Bachelor, so we’ll also just finish with a few non-Bachelor related things. Michael Hill is real weird, and his wife’s shell rings look so uncomfortable to wear. Getting flown via helicopter before / after getting dumped would fucking suck. Ball gowns are shit. And so is Jordan.

New Zealand now has nothing to tweet about on Monday and Tuesday evenings. Whether you watch the show or not, whether you love or hate it, or literally give no fucks, it’s pretty hard to avoid hearing about The Bachelor NZ. Rumours are circulating, there are ‘shocking’ revelations, and there is awful media attention being given to some of the contestants. The winner turned out to be Fleur, although her ‘win’ was short-lived and it turns out they’ve already split up. And now everyone is wondering what she’s going to do with the expensive awkward-not-engagement ring she received. Some people will refuse to watch the show because they see it as a sexist piece of shit, that treats women like girls or sexual objects to be won, to compete for the prize of a lackluster man. “Putting such crap on TV that is degrading to women sends out a message to young people, to all people, that is backward and sexist and wrong,” Aimie Cronin wrote in the Herald. Yet maybe it’s not that simple, because the contestants are made up of some incredible women, who are well aware of the artificial, archaic construct of the show, and have their own reasons for being there—aside from the dude. Viewers of The Bachelor will include many people who ‘hate watch’ the show, and enjoy being able to critique the sexism we see everyday presented back to us on the screen. However productive this is is questionable, but maybe it’s just entertainment—the basic principle of the TV show appeals to our inherent voyeurism. More

Emma & Jayne xoxo

*Interview* with Naz Khanjani

Going Up •

RNZ, TVNZ and Nicky Hager collabing to give us some swoon-worthy investigative journalism.

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New James Blake album The Colour In Anything.

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Five Boroughs for greasy hangover brunch.

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London elected their first muslim Mayor Sadiq Khan.

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John Key getting kicked out of the house for being naughty.

Going Down What’s the best part of your job? Becoming a New Zealand pop culture icon.

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John Key not knowing what taxes are.

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Emails.

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Wind smashing windows.

What’s the worst thing about the bachelor? Needs more polyamory, and less gross heteronormativity tbh.

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When the university won’t fix your broken windows.

Kanye or Kendrick? Nicki Minaj, 'coz pigs flyin' and these bitches are tryin' me.

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Getting asked about your private sex life by douchebags who probably have no idea where the clit is.

What’s the worst part of your job? Shock jock fuck boys asking me about my breasts, the only breasts they should be asking me about are chicken breasts because I'm making gains, bitch.

Was it hard forcing yourself to laugh at Jordan’s jokes? Did he make jokes?

Keen to kōrero

Humdingers China has banned “erotic” eating of bananas in live streams in an effort to “rehabilitate” the country’s cyber ecology. There are now people monitoring such websites around the clock to insure no “inappropriate” fruit consumption is taking place.

Feijoas are being threatened by an Australian pest that snuck over the border 20 years ago. The guava moth makes a pinprick hole before digging into the fruit and emerging as a fully grown caterpillar. Ew. Crisis! 04

Engari mō tēna! Never mind that!

16.05.16

Why hasn’t he quit?

News

Emma Hurley

Kate Robertson

MASSIVE magazine editor Carwyn Walsh has dismissed an open letter he received from staff and students of Massey University, expressing concerns about the cover of the magazine’s second issue. The cover depicted a student in what many perceived to be a compromising and subjugated sexual position. The signatories of the letter wanted to make clear to the editor that “MASSIVE magazine does not speak for us.” The letter stated, “items that cause harm to anyone in our community do not reflect our view of the world nor the values we strive to uphold, ” adding that “it is widely understood that there is not a general climate of tacit acceptance of either gender violence or racial mockery on our campuses.” Walsh responded saying he did “not accept that we have published material that—tacitly or otherwise— accepts gender violence or racial mockery.” Tertiary Women New Zealand’s Rights Officer Izzy O’Neill said the response “reinforces many people’s perception that MASSIVE fosters harmful attitudes.” She added that the letter “signifies the mobilization of a campus community that is concerned about the trend of harmful content in their student magazine.” Following the publication of issue two, the New Zealand Press Council ruled in favour of MASSIVE, with none of the members seeing the cover as depicting sexual assault.

AUSA keen to GTFO of NZUSA

VUWSA gives WCC oral submissions VUWSA President Jonathan Gee and Welfare Vice President Rory Lenihan-Ikin recently made an oral submission to the Wellington City Council (WCC) to help shape their 2016/17 Annual Plan. The submission centred around making Wellington a more liveable, student-friendly city. Lenihan-Ikin spoke on housing and the Low Carbon Capital Plan. He told of students shivering so much that they “couldn’t sleep,” and one who had a room so damp there was mould growing on her dehumidifier. With students preparing to “sink into yet another winter of misery and sickness at the hands of substandard housing,” he hoped the WCC would choose to be proactive. VUWSA voiced support of the Low Carbon Capital Plan, but said it needed to be more ambitious if Wellington were to become a leading city in mitigating climate change. Gee rounded out the occasion speaking about something VUWSA have been campaigning for since time began—public transport. “We need a champion for tertiary bus fares and we ask that to be you,” Gee told the WCC. Their Long Term Plan sets aside $75,000 for tertiary bus fares. WCC will now consider the received feedback to decide what will go into the Annual Plan. 05

Kate Robertson

Auckland University Students’ Association (AUSA) has given notice of withdrawal from the New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations (NZUSA) which, due to a required one year notice period, would take effect in May 2017. AUSA’s executive want to withdraw due to frustration that issues that “have been raised time and time again” by AUSA are not being addressed. AUSA President Will Matthews said “we don’t feel the service is worth the substantial levy that we pay.” Matthews told Salient a big factor in the decision to withdraw is that NZUSA does not engage with or support the unique “Auckland-centric” concerns of AUSA. Instead NZUSA “are mostly engaged in initiatives that apply to students nationally.” Matthews credited NZUSA for its lobbying of Greens, NZ First, and Labour, and said “I doubt if Labour would have released a three years free policy if there was no NZUSA.” However he wanted NZUSA to “demonstrate that they are also working with our current right wing government to create change” to prove they are worth their membership fee. AUSA highlighted NZUSA’s inability to make student association members feel part of decision making, and calls for NZUSA to be “a more professional, organised and communicative organisation” and to focus on “listening to members and ensuring that their opinions and voice are reflected in decision making.” AUSA chose not to put a referendum to its students on the decision to withdraw, as VUWSA did in 2015. “There’s no one way for members to exit NZUSA,” Matthews said, and added that if students disagree with the decision they are welcome to call a Special General Meeting to discuss the issue. AUSA will review their decision to withdraw at the end of the year. If progress is made Matthews said AUSA can “withdraw our withdrawal” and “jump back into the fold.” If AUSA still want to withdraw, this will pass on to the 2017 executive who would have the option to “validate or reject the withdrawal before it comes into effect.” “AUSA raises valid concerns about NZUSA creating and communicating real wins for students,” said VUWSA President Jonathan Gee. “AUSA's intention by giving notice to withdraw is to start a conversation around how NZUSA can do better. We believe this conversation has already started and this has been a top priority for VUWSA since students voted to stay in NZUSA in last year's referendum.” Matthews added, “this is the beginning of the conversation, not the end,” in regard to the intricate and complex pull out method.

news@salient.org.nz

16.05.16

Olly Clifton

Thane Kirby, you’re a dick George FM's breakfast team struck again last week when they broadcast and posted online an inappropriate interview with The Bachelor NZ runner up Nazanin Khanjan. The interview saw Thane Kirby grill Naz about her intimate relations with Jordan Mauger, this season’s Bachelor. “Is he well hung?” he asked, to which viewers saw Naz shoot an awkward side glance to someone off camera, looking for help before stumbling through an awkward response. With Naz appearing uncomfortable, Kirby proceeded to lean back in his elevated chair and ask, “did you orgasm?” The camera operator also zoomed in on Naz’s breasts multiple times while she was answering questions. The top comment on the video read: “them camera skills though *okhandemojii* lol.” George FM responded with, “10 bucks if you guess who filmed it...” to which the original commenter replied, “Benny boy!” This latest fiasco is not the first for the station, with breakfast duo Thane and Kara having a history of misogyny and sexism on their show. Last year the pair ran a segment where they publicly shamed and bullied women with popular instagram accounts. According to their website, “George FM is the destination for trend-setting, forward-thinking 20-40 year old’s.” Eugh.

Time to think twice about becoming a teacher

Olly Clifton

Weldon leaves, no one cares Mark Weldon has resigned as CEO of MediaWorks. In an official statement Weldon cited the “personal cost” of the role as his reason for leaving. It is speculated his decision was due to an internal mutiny brought to its apex by Hillary Barry’s resignation a week earlier. This seems likely given shots of Barry and fellow rebel leader Mike McRoberts carrying alcohol into the Mediaworks headquarters the night of Weldon’s resignation. Weldon’s failures included ending everyone’s favourite (and NZ’s only legitimate) investigative news programme Campbell Live, culling 3D and Nightline, and the rebranding of 3News to Newshub. Weldon introduced gossip website Scout whose director Rachel Glucina seemed to be the only one sad about his exit, referring to him as a “visionary, and inspiring leader.” Prior to his resignation, Weldon announced channel FOUR would become Bravo, a reality TV station featuring six versions of The Real Housewives… aimed predominantly at “an older female audience.” Visionary indeed.

Siobhan O’Connor

A survey of recently graduated primary school teachers has exposed the debt and stress many are facing when trying to find and maintain a job in the industry. The survey, conducted by the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI), found that over 50% of recent graduates reported that having to reapply for their jobs had negative effects on their ability to teach. Of those surveyed, 311 students had taken out student loans to pay for their training, with 20% owing over $30,000. Teachers in the beginning stages of their careers added comments such as, “it feels like new teachers are being punished for being new by having a lot of uncertainty about the future” and “to be honest, if I had known how difficult it would be to get a permanent position in the area I live, I would have never trained as a teacher.” Spokesperson for the NZEI, Stephanie Lambourn expressed that there is a shortage of primary school jobs available, adding “it’s incredibly stressful to have that sort of job insecurity.” First year Victoria University student in the initial stages of her teaching studies, Crystal Walsh, said “it’s a scary concept thinking I might study here for three years to come out with a student loan to repay and no real job opportunities.” When asked whether or not the Faculty of Education should further limit enrolments to the degree, Associate Dean for the Faculty of Education Dr Robin Averill said “the university does not and cannot manage the numbers against national job availability.” She added that “a high number of Victoria graduates do go onto be employed in teaching positions.” To increase chances of graduate employment, Averill advised those currently studying to become a teacher to get experience working with children by way of sports coaching or helping with a school club. She also advised aiming for high grades and taking undergraduate subjects that are in demand such as Te reo Māori and statistics.

16.05.16

McKenzie Collins

In which country have tigers recently been declared “functionally” extinct?

What nationality is Fleur, the winner of season two of The Bachelor NZ?

How many studio albums has Beyoncé released as a solo artist?

What is the title given to a person trained to take blood for samples, donations, and transfusions?

If cats are feline and cows are bovine, what are sheep?

Which British prime minister was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature?

Mace is derived from the same tree as what spice?

Which country produces the largest quantity of fruit in the world?

True or False: George Orwell is the pseudonym of the author of Animal Farm?

10. What is the middle name of New Zealand PM, John Key?

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Jennie Kendrick

In a pre-budget announcement, Social Housing Minister Paula Bennett declared a plan to fund 3000 emergency housing places over the next four years. $41.1 million has been put aside to support the initiative. For centres such as the Wellington Night Shelter the announcement comes at a time of serious financial hardship. In March, the organisation disclosed a need for an additional $30,000 to accommodate demand for the provision of beds for those in need. “Right now, the night shelter is only barely surviving, with all our resources focused on keeping our doors open,” said Wellington Night Shelter Trust chairman John Kennedy-Good. Labour Housing spokesperson Phil Twyford said the increase of funding for emergency housing is a direct response to the National party’s failure to accommodate “an unprecedented rise in homelessness.” Twyford said the effect of the housing crisis has extended further than vulnerable New Zealanders, saying it’s now also becoming a problem with middle-class New Zealanders, and called it a “national shame [to] see poverty and squalor on our streets.” Community Housing Aotearoa director Scott Figenshow is worried that help will not come soon enough, and called for organisations to receive more funding from July to supply a sufficient amount of beds over winter. While residents of emergency housing are typically required to contribute up to 25 percent towards their bed, the hope for shelters such as the Wellington Night Shelter is to encourage an eventual state of self-sufficiency.

1) Cambodia. 2) Dutch. 3) Six. 4) Phlebotomist. 5) Ovine. 6) Winston Churchill. 7) Nutmeg. 8) China. 9) True, Eric Arthur Blair was his real name. 10) Phillip.

Government steps in now middle class NZ are at risk

Salient quiz

GC on tour

Building a brighter future

Victoria University Vice-Chancellor Professor Grant Guilford recently travelled to China to visit Wellington’s sister city of 30-years, Xiamen. While in the city, which has a population of three and a half million, Guilford visited the Presidents of Xiamen University and Xiamen University of Technology. Xiamen University President Zhu Chongshi told Guilford of his wish to “increase cooperation between the two universities, and see this develop into new areas of common interest and expertise.” Currently there are approximately 1000 students from China studying at Victoria, including many from the Xiamen region. Zhu Chongshi praised the success of Victoria University’s Confucius Institute, a partnership between Victoria and Xiamen University that promotes Chinese language teaching and cultural and intellectual exchange between China and New Zealand. While at Xiamen University of Technology, Professor Guilford signed an agreement for a joint training programme in electronic and computer systems, and an agreement for undergraduates to gain direct entry to Victoria’s Master of Professional Accounting. New “areas of joint activity” are being developed between Victoria’s Te Kōkī New Zealand School of Music, based at Victoria, and Xiamen’s College of Arts, and these discussions will continue when the Xiamen University President visits Wellington later this year. Professor Guilford said that Wellington and its institutions are held in high esteem in Xiamen, and “the relationship is going from strength to strength, and next year we will celebrate the sister city link’s thirtieth anniversary—something I’m sure all Wellingtonians can support.”

The Wellington Boys’ and Girls’ Institute (BGI), a youth development organisation founded in 1883, has officially opened their new building. Governor-General of New Zealand Sir Jerry Mateparae lead the ceremony. BGI work with young people and the community to provide mentoring, cultural exploration, and therapeutic adventure for at-risk youth. The building was designed by Richard Dodd of Jasmax Architects, whose architecture seeks to blend BGI’s long history of biculturalism with sleek modern design. The original building on MacDonald Crescent has been transformed into an earthquake-strengthened modern office and community space. In his speech Sir Jerry Mateparae spoke of the values of the BGI; the service which strives for excellency of rangatahi (young people) with the help of volunteers and an enterprising spirit. “We must support them to reach their potential,” said Sir Jerry Mateparae. Sir Richard Taylor, founder and Creative Director of Weta Workshops, also spoke at the opening ceremony and explained how he came to have a long relationship with the BGI, which began after using their original building for filming a TV commercial whilst studying at the former Wellington Polytechnic. The BGI building also houses a large community kitchen and versatile open plan office space for the organisation’s leaders. BGI works with over 1500 young people in Wellington, ranging from 9–25 in age, and aims to help young people reach their full potential by providing a “range of holistic youth and family development services.”

Jennie Kendrick

Emma Hurley

16.05.16

There’s a big ol’ widdle behind the couch: the Panama Papers scandal continues

tightening of the tax law loopholes in New Zealand in order to shut down the foreign trust industry. Labour and the Greens are calling for a secondary independent inquiry into the issue, stating that they do not see the primary inquiry under John Shewan, a former head accountant of PwC, as sufficiently distanced from the government. Key came under fire after falsely claiming that Green MP Mojo Mathers had a foreign trust in the United Kingdom. Mathers responded by stating that it was “dirty tactics” to conflate a foreign trust with a family trust established in the UK by Mathers’ relatives, which she has always declared herself as a beneficiary. Many opposition MPs defended Mathers, Labour MP Grant Robertson called the Prime Minister’s claim a “disgraceful slur from a desperate man,” and Green MP Julie-Anne Genter called the move “unbelievably low” and that Key was “full of shit.” Key also claimed that Greenpeace New Zealand, Amnesty International, and the Red Cross each had undisclosed foreign trusts. Greenpeace Executive Director Dr Russel Norman has refuted this claim, and has asked for an apology from the Prime Minister. Executive Director of Amnesty International NZ Grant Bayldon said that non-profit organisations were often used as covers for those trying to hide money in foreign trusts, and that any involvement from these NGOs are actually scam organisations. During the May 11 session of Question Time, James Shaw asked Key to apologise to Greenpeace, Amnesty, and MP Mojo Mathers for inflating their involvement with foreign trusts. During the heated discussion Key was ejected from Parliament, his first time while Prime Minister, after ignoring the Speaker of the House calling for order. John Key continues to deny that New Zealand is a tax haven, and has said that the IRD is beginning to follow up on the foreign trusts established under Mossack Fonseca NZ. Key stated on May 10 that the IRD had found only 200 foreign trusts in New Zealand that had links to Mossack Fonseca, and all had been declared. The Panama Papers database was released online by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists on May 10, and more revelations about this scandal are sure to come to light in the coming weeks.

Alex Feinson

The findings of an investigation carried out by Radio New Zealand, TVNZ, and investigative journalist Nicky Hager into the Panama Papers leaks were released last Monday, exposing New Zealand as a “prime destination” for the tax avoiding rich. It was revealed that Bentleys, an Auckland accountancy firm run by chartered accountant, lawyer, and former IRD employee Roger Thompson, is the registered office in New Zealand for Mossack Fonseca— the Panamanian law firm at the heart of the international scandal. The team found that the process to establish a trust went as follows: for a $4000 fee, Bentleys created anonymous and tax-free trust in New Zealand. Thompson and two other Mossack Fonseca directors would become the board members of the trust in New Zealand, in order for the trust to seem legitimate. Nicky Hager said it is not illegal in New Zealand to provide these services, meaning Bentleys are technically not breaking the law. Despite this, they are helping wealthy people from overseas break the law of their own countries by avoiding paying tax. By this definition, Hager said, New Zealand is “conclusively… functioning as a tax haven.” The investigation also revealed the kinds of trusts that have been established in New Zealand, many functioning as intermediary bank accounts to pass money through to accounts in other tax havens so the transactions became harder to trace. Four other accountancy and law firms mentioned in the Panama Papers have been linked to a lobby effort in 2014 to keep the current foreign trust system, including Auckland-based firm Cone Marshall, whom Prime Minister John Key’s advisor and lawyer Ken Whitney has ties with. This revelation contradicts Key’s statements made in late-April that Whitney was not linked to any foreign trusts or firms associated with Mossack Fonseca. Opposition parties have been highly critical of the government’s response to the Panama Papers. Greens co-leader James Shaw believes that it is clear “that New Zealand has become an integral part of the global tax avoidance network,” and that John Key needs “to stop defending the tax avoidance industry and broaden the review of foreign trusts into a full scale inquiry into tax avoidance.” Labour leader Andrew Little sees Key’s denial of the facts as damaging to New Zealand and is calling for a

CLOSED FOR UPGRADE 7 JUNE - 31 JULY The Wellington Cable Car will be closed from 7 June to 31 July 2016 inclusive for the replacement of the electric drive and control systems and for the refurbishment of the Cable Car carriages. A replacement bus service will operate during the shutdown between Lambton Quay and Kelburn via The Terrace and Victoria University's Kelburn Campus. Visit www.wellingtoncablecar.co.nz or call 04 472 2199 for more information. www.wellingtoncablecar.co.nz

Inhabiting

Space

Juliet Carpenter/ Evangeline Riddiford Graham Julian Dashper Mike Parr Campbell Patterson Fred Sandback Sriwhana Spong Curated by Stephen Cleland

14 May

–17 July FREE ENTRY Tuesday–Sunday, 11am–5pm The entrance to the gallery is beside the Student Union building. www.adamartgallery.org.nz

Image: Sriwhana Spong The Fourth Notebook (still), 2015 HD video, 3 min 36 sec Dancer: Benjamin Ord Courtesy of Michael Lett, Auckland

Maori Matters

One Ocean

Te Pō Hawaikirangi

Laura Toailoa

I’ve known people who’ve gotten through their degrees with last-minute all-nighters, not doing their readings, and attending the exact number of classes as is mandatory. But we cannot afford the time or the money to be fickle and half-assed about our time here. We don’t have families with the money that can bail us out of our university debt (well, some of us do... I think…). We do not have the luxury to study merely for the sake of our own passion, interests, and dreams. I asked a couple of international scholarship students about the nature of their scholarship and whether there were limitations about what they could study. They both said that although the course of study is not decided for them, there is a lot of discussion with the government and university about how to direct interests and abilities into a practical future occupation. The emphasis was finding a way to benefit both the individual, and the country. A lot of the students want to contribute to the development of their home country. Our domestic students don’t have quite as an exhaustive process of picking what to study. I'm frustrated with the rhetoric that our domestic students are sold about university; that attending university increase chances of a higher paycheck. I know I’m preaching to the choir, but I’ll say it anyway—it’s not that simple. If you don't know what to do with your degree, it's just a fancy expensive piece of paper. We aren't given extensive and honest information about the practicality about what fields to study. Students don’t know what they want for their future, and this uncertainty and indecision costs tens of thousands of dollars. University has blown and expanded my mind in ways I couldn't imagine. I see myself and the world around me with a more critical eye. But if I can’t use this to pay for rent in a non-damp house, contribute money to family, pay off debt, pay for flights to visit the homeland and my (especially elderly) family oversees, was it worth it?

He aha te whakatinanatanga o te pūtea ki a tātou ngā tauira māori? Ki tēnā, ki tēnā o tātou he tikanga rereke tā te putea. Ka hoki aku mahara ki taku tau tuatahi i te whare wananga o Wikitoria. Nā, i hunuku au ki te taone nui, ki te taone o te Whanganui-ā-tara. Koinei te wahi i herea taku waka ki ngā pou matauranga. E mohio kaha ana te hunga tauira ka uru mai te tangata ki te whare wananga ka pakaru katoa te pūkuro. Me tahuri atu au ki tēnei rerenga ' kua pakaru taku pūkoro'. He momo whakaahua e hangai atu ki te tangata rawa kore. E mōhiotia whānuitia ko te rā ka whiwhi pūtea mai i te kawanatanga ko te Wēnerei, aka te student loan. Tēnā ka kite te tauira i te uauatanga o te oranga i te whare wananga. He hatakirihi tēnei ahuatanga i te mea kāore e kore he pūtea mo te waipiro,a, ki te pati i te taone. I tērā wā ko tōku tirohanga mehemea ka pakaru aku pūkoro ināianei, ka hohonu rawa i te wā ka riro i taku tohu. Ae, he tika me aro te tangata ki ngā rā kei te heke mai nēi. Me hoko whare, me hoko waka, me poipoi te whānau, me haere ki tā wahi engari me titiro ki te pikitia nui. Koira ngā whakaawro o nehe. Ka taka te wā ka tere huri tēnei ahuatanga. Kaua ko taku pūkoro anake, ēngari ko te kete o te iwi whanui. I ahau e raranga ana i te mātauranga o te ao māori, ā, o te ao pākehā i kite te tatau ki taku whatumanawa. Ka tipu ake te whakaaro, nā ko tēnei: kare mo te hohonu o te pūkoro ēngari te hohonu o te kete. Ka tū whakahihi au i runga i toku maunga a Otatara rāua ko Taumata ka tiro whakararo ki tōku papa kāinga. Ko tōku hei kikii ngā kete matauranga o tōku iwi,ā, tōku hapū. Ko te tumanoko o aku whāinga ki te whakautu i te karanga o te whānau, tēnā hiki te hapū ki te kōmata o te rangi. Naku noa tēnei kōrero, mai ōku wheako, mai ōku whakaaro anake. Koinei tētahi whakatinanatanga o te pūtea ki te tauira māori. Ehara i te mea me whai tēnei huarahi e koe, ehara i te mea koinei te ara tika, ā, i te ara me tōna kotahi engari me kaha tirohia e te tangata he aha tēnei mea te pūtea. Nā reira e te hunga kaipanui he aha te whakatinanatanga o te pūtea i tō oranga? 12

Gee-mail

VUWSA Exec

Jonathan Gee VUWSA President

George Grainger Treasurer-Secretary

Hi friend! Here at VUWSA we’ve been hard at work over the last few weeks developing our vision for a studentfriendly Wellington. Last Tuesday we got to talk a bit about that vision to the Wellington City Council during their public hearings on their annual plan. From the conversations we’ve been having with you, we’ve found the main welfare challenges facing students are cold, mouldy flats, affordable transport, and growing negative student stereotypes due to the actions of a few around alcohol. These challenges form the basis of what we’ll be pushing for in the upcoming local body elections. We want candidates to commit to: • A 50% tertiary discount on buses. • A rental Warrant of Fitness, which includes a standard on insulation, heating, and ventilation. • A student-friendly Wellington, which values us.

Earning money is like breaking up with your highschool sweetheart: either you do it, or you end up destitute, miserable, and filled with regret. Until the revolution comes, and we can all live in a communist utopia, the capitalist free-market is a reality of life. With that sombre thought in mind, to survive with a better quality of life than that of the thatched-shack-ina-field, turnips-thrice-daily-serf-of-old, we must throw ourselves into it. Deep. We students just don’t have enough money to do everything we want. We have to pay the bills (and the rent if you’re into that sort of thing), buy clothes, food— so much food. It all needs the money. And many of us live on the pittance the government has been so kind to loan us, and which we will spend years paying back. (We’re going to pay it back John, but if we’re going to start our young lives yoked in crippling debt, at least let us borrow what we need). As VUWSA Treasurer (or like, Master of Coin, Baelish—makes me tingly) it’s clear to me that there are two ways to improve finances: spend less, earn more. It’s an easy trap to fall into spending every spare moment in a job to keep your head above water. But that costs your time, which is worth more than minimum wage. Instead do cheap things. Spend an hour sitting on one cup of coffee with someone you like. If the conversation’s good, you can make it last two. Dress up, go to a car dealership and test-drive a Corolla or something that they’ll believe you’ll buy, and then tell them you’re, “weighing up your options.” You can sell your time for currency, but you can’t buy it back.

These commitments are not new. VUWSA pushed for fairer fares and a rental WOF in the last local body elections. And there have been some wins: • June 2014: Greater Wellington Regional Council voted to introduce a 25% concession, provided the City Council and tertiary institutions helped pay for it. • 2015: Wellington City Council pledged $75,000 for a tertiary discount, and sent a letter requesting support from tertiary institutions. • Victoria University was the only respondent, pledging support in principle, but requested further detail on the dollar commitment. Despite all this, there have been some roadblocks. If we were truly a student-friendly city, fairer fares would be a reality today. But they’re not. It has simply not been a priority. Victoria University alone contributes over one billion to the local economy each year. We are a university of over 20,000 students. These numbers are not small. We are a big and important part of the Wellington community. VUWSA’s goal this year is to make sure students are heard in the upcoming elections, and that candidates share our vision for students.

Better the Uber you know than the Uber you don’t

Alexa Zelensky

Just a few years ago a standard Friday or Saturday night on the town would have ended one of two different ways: stumbling home drunk, precariously avoiding dodgy alleyways, and attempting to make the late-night cheeseburger last until the inevitable hazy descent into a drunken stupor; or by paying a cab from one of the many local taxi companies to drive back to some shoddy student accommodation, with a lingering, regretful reminder that this cab fare is most likely unaffordable. But in 2009 a Silicon Valley startup threw another option into the mix and changed how the world viewed, defined, and regulated private transportation forever. Uber, founded by Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp, spread from San Francisco to all corners of the globe, with the most recent location being Abuja, Nigeria. Its services have been introduced in 65 countries and 407 cities worldwide, but not without begging the question of what privatized transport’s future looks like to a global audience and the governments that rule them. Heralded as a magical solution to impersonal and expensive taxi rides, Uber has come with its own issues. One of the more prominent is the possibility of sexual harassment on the part of the Uber driver, with 175 reports being filed between December 2012 and August 2015. Five of them were rapes. This is an issue taxi drivers are not exempt from, but due to the unregulated and unresponsive nature of Uber’s company’s operation it’s a much harder issue for them to address and control. Recently the story of a 15 year old girl came to prominence in New Zealand media outlets, regarding her encounter with an inappropriate Uber driver. After reaching her destination the driver asked for her number and suggested that they hang out because he was finishing work soon. It escalated to the point where the driver refused to let her leave his vehicle if she did not give him her number. When the girl’s friend posted this on Facebook, four women replied saying they had also dealt with the same Uber driver and experienced his advances. Bex Fitzgerald was one of them and although her ride began on the standard terms, when they arrived at the destination, he wouldn’t let her get out of the car. He asked for her number and refused to let go of her hand after shaking it, and ignored her completely when she said she had a boyfriend in attempt to defend herself from his advances. Fitzgerald filed a formal complaint with Uber about the incident, and had no response until the aforementioned 15 year old’s story was publicized— suggesting that Uber reacts quickly once they have bad publicity. Ashleigh Schulze had a similar experience. During one car trip she had an Uber driver ask invasive questions about her sex life. When she reported the incident Uber responded saying they had received her complaint, however that was the last she heard of the matter and the driver in question is still affiliated with Uber and actively operating in Wellington. Schulze finds it disappointing that

Alexa Zelensky

The Sydney hostage situation at the end of 2014 saw Uber charging four times the usual rate. As people took to social media to let loose about the moral ambiguity of profiting off an emergency, Uber remained steadfast in its stance that the price increase simply serves to incentivise drivers to collect passengers.

there was no follow-up on her filed complaint, saying that this lack of response is part of “more and more flaws to the system.” While the apparent heightened risk of sexual harassment could be considered the worst aspect of Uber, other issues have been brought to the fore by users. Their surcharged pricing is a concern for many. Surcharges are set automatically by an algorithm that measures high demand and low supply of cars, and adds a surcharge, often doubling or tripling the standard fare. The surcharge is displayed on the app for the passenger to agree to. Uber uses surcharges to keep their drivers at the ready, and says that without surcharges there would be fewer drivers. Ashleigh Schulze, occasional Uber user, said she used Uber during Sevens weekend to get from the Basin Reserve to Courtenay Place and because of the surcharge paid over $70 for a distance of less than a kilometre. Uber attracted media attention in Australia following extreme surcharge increases in the wake of a civil emergency. The Sydney hostage situation at the end of 2014 saw Uber charging four times the usual rate. As people took to social media to let loose about the moral ambiguity of profiting off an emergency, Uber remained steadfast in its stance that the price increase simply serves to incentivise drivers to collect passengers. That being said, there is a humorous light to some of the Uber technicalities. Claudia Jardine once had an Uber driver who seemed hell bent on converting her to Christianity. The driver spent the whole ride detailing the greatness of her church, going so far as to suggest that joining the church could help to “find her a nice young man.” While the ride itself was not uncomfortable, it could have been problematic for another person who was not used to explaining their religious beliefs, or lack thereof, to complete strangers. “She was really persistent. I thought she just took the job to push her agenda and use it as a way of recruiting.” In the end, Claudia rated her two stars, and said she couldn’t be bothered reporting her behaviour. While these problems have arisen within the unregulated platform of Uber, a more standardized, supervised system doesn’t necessarily avoid them. Wellington taxi companies are regulated under rules outlined by the New Zealand Transport Agency, but numerous companies have come under fire for the behaviour of their drivers and management. A Wellington man, Joe Nieddu, was recently told by a Capital Taxi driver that he “needed God’s help” because she overheard him talking on the phone to his male partner. She lectured him on gay being “wrong” and how God could help; and when he reported the incident to the company’s management, Nieddu was told that “the comments were not discriminatory” and the driver would not be penalized. Capital Taxis told Nieddu that if he had a problem he had to take action himself, making everyone wonder what Capital Taxis deemed as “taking action” if it was not reporting it.

Amber O’Sullivan, an English literature student at Victoria, when asked about her experiences regarding Uber said the majority of her experiences as a user were positive. She then indicated that she had more problems with Wellington taxi companies. She recalled a Wellington Combined driver harassing her. The driver commented on her looks and asked whether she had a boyfriend, making her feel uncomfortable, and treading into inappropriate territory for someone meant to get you from point A to point B. Lydia Shepherd’s remarks are similar. She’s experienced several inappropriate taxi drivers and chooses Uber because its location sharing feature means you can publicly share your location status on social media. Although it’s no dashboard video camera (something required in all taxis), it’s a way to use Uber and have a form of protection—a feeling of safety. Shepherd adds that she wishes there were more women drivers. If the feature to

Alexa Zelensky

problems with taxis throughout the country. Since the late 1980s South Africa has dealt with “taxi wars,” turf wars between different taxi associations based upon faulty taxi regulation laws passed in the 1930s. The problem has escalated so much that it is now comparable to the Italian Mafia, requesting hits on certain drivers and participating in gang warfare. The introduction of Uber, a company not built into this long-standing criminal taxi infrastructure, has given people a more secure transport option without being involved with turf warfare. With that being said, a partial ban exists in South Africa for Uber vehicles and drivers that don’t comply to standard taxi regulations. The government officials of South Korea don’t like the ambiguity of Uber. It’s not a service that is readily explainable or easily definable, so the government quickly labelled it an “illegal taxi service” and began to cleanse the streets of Uber activity. Their anger towards Uber was better understood when it was released that the South Korean government was planning on making their own GPS enabled taxi-like app when Uber launched in South Korea, causing conflict and competition in a niche market. Seoul officials have created a payment incentive for citizens to turn in operating Uber drivers, and Uber responded with a deal giving free rides on up to 30 trips totalling to under $27 to all Seoul residents. As of May 2016, the government-sponsored taxi service does much better than Uber and the ride-sharing company is struggling to hold onto its illegal Seoul market. It remains under a full ban and it is not expected to be overturned any time soon. Uber is currently involved with 173 legal cases in the US alone, and a court case against at least one country on each of the inhabited continents. Governments have difficulties tackling Uber because their business is conducted primarily over the internet. Customer safety and security is paramount to the people behind most legal action. In San Francisco and Los Angeles state prosecutors brought legal proceedings against Uber because of the company’s safety claims. The state of California had issue with the words used by Uber to inform customers of their safety procedures, saying that the phrasing was misleading. In its advertising Uber had insisted that they had better background check procedures in place than traditional taxi companies, however after it was investigated, it became clear that the regulation imposed by Uber on their drivers was more lenient than the state of California. Uber agreed to pay out $10 million in fines, publically acknowledging that this case was similar to a case brought against them in early 2016 by actual customers—in that circumstance, they had to pay out $28 million in fines. The result of this was a rephrasing in their advertisements. However no change to Uber’s policy and safety regulations have taken place.

request a certain driver was available, she would always pick a woman. Becoming an Uber driver is relatively easy. The aspiring driver just needs to sign up online, indicating to Uber that they’re interested and want to be part of the Uber community. Then they need to prove they have the necessary vehicle and license requirements (regulations vary depending on the city and country the person is applying in). It helps to own particular models such as a Toyota Prius, Honda Accord, or Nissan Maxima, but other vehicles also accepted as long as they comply with the Uber aesthetic of “discount chic.” The potential Uber driver then uploads their bank details to the website, downloads the Uber partner app, and they are officially ready for service. Uber has shown that background checks of the drivers is not a heavy concern in their process. In the US it’s been documented that 25 people with major criminal convictions were approved to work for the company. Because Uber has not been well received in many countries, bans have been created to address the problems the service. These differ depending on the location and what local governments deem best for their people. Three common bans include: a total ban, a partial ban, and indefinite suspension of operations. Uber is popular in spite of what select governments deem best, and governments don’t always get what they want. In some countries where Uber is banned, it operates anyway. Bans in their varying forms are widespread, and exist in the US, India, Australia, Spain, South Korea, Belgium, and South Africa. In India numerous sexual assault allegations have been placed against Uber drivers; this issue the primary problem in India with Uber. In October 2015 a particularly brutal case came to light: driver Shiv Kumar Yadav was found guilty of rape and life endangerment after picking up a woman in Gurgaon, India. He drove her to an isolated area and raped her, threatening to stick a rod into her if she did not comply. He is now waiting to be sentenced and faces a maximum penalty of life in prison. Responding to this incident Uber India has added an “SOS” option for their users, meant to be activated if anything goes wrong during an Uber ride. New Delhi’s Transport Department has banned Uber regardless of the—obviously small— changes made to the app, but because Uber operates over the internet it’s hard for the government to fully control it. This is a circumstance of “banned, but operating anyway.” In South Africa, police reported impounding 34 vehicles that were operating illegally by Uber. South Africa is a country that regulates Uber like it regulates taxis, and because these vehicles weren’t holding proper licenses for metered taxis they were collected. Besides this instance Uber has been well-received in South Africa, amongst

Alexa Zelensky

Types of Uber

Uber has been repeatedly sued by their own drivers as well. Drivers in the US are now suing the ride-sharing app for expenses incurred while driving for the company, including fees for vehicle maintenance and gas. Originally the lawsuit was based around lack of holiday pay, but it evolved as ever more drivers backed the legal case. This case is now setting the standard for how Uber is to be regulated, whether as a technology start-up or a taxi firm. It has yet to be settled, but the importance of the case is already solidified. If Uber loses their drivers will officially be marked as “employees” and not “free-lancers,” giving more power and authority to the driver. Uber had a promising start when it came to potential partnerships. At the beginning, Uber was seen as a modern beacon of hope to organizations like UN Women, the United Nation’s initiative for gender equality and empowerment of women, but its novel and seeminglyprogressive façade faded away quite quickly. UN Women’s budding partnership with Uber was well meaning. The goal was to create one million jobs for women by 2020, thus exposing women who otherwise wouldn’t have things like health insurance and other benefits to a stable job opportunity. But Uber couldn’t uphold its end of the deal, unable to promise the most basic of needs like minimum wage. UN Women decided that fostering a partnership with Uber would only exacerbate the already precarious job situation for women across the world. Uber jobs, UN Women stated, would “not contribute to women’s economic empowerment and represents exactly the type of structural inequality within the labor market that the women’s movement has been fighting for decades.” In its seven years, Uber has developed an intricate history. It emerged as a modern and hopeful take on the traditional taxi service, but with that came unanticipated consequences. Uber highlights the deficit that governing bodies have when it comes to modern innovations like online start-ups; as more technological advancements come, societies aren’t quite sure how to handle them. And with the promise it brings, it also brings a variety of problems that can be found both here in Wellington and internationally. That’s not to say that you should skip Uber entirely. I myself use it quite often, putting a weird emphasis on my personal rating and tracking whether or not they offer me mints. All things considered, Uber could be summed up as my “problematic fave” when it comes to transport options.

UberX:

marketed as “the low-cost option” but still impacted regularly by intense surcharge fares

UberPOOL:

Uber for those who want to save the planet and do it in someone else’s Toyota Prius with like minded people

UberBOAT:

Not actually a car service, just boat options for the rich and famous in select cities

Merv’s Merv’s Azean Food is a small restaurant in the heart of the sleepy suburb of Naenae, decorated with floral tablecloths and indoor plants. Photographer Lily Paris West visited the restaurant over summer, and wanted to use it as a location ever since. For the photo-shoot, the stylists wanted to take glamour to a quiet suburb; to set luxurious clothing against the backdrop of bungalows—the cornerstones of suburbia. The stylists, Aria and Moya, wanted to convey a faux-lux, high glamour vibe with their styling, and sought to pair unconventional textiles and play with ideas of tacky and glitzy. Lily’s photography is natural and candid. The clothing, supplied by Emporium, is second hand, this was important to the stylists as it works against the tide of fast fashion. They dressed the model Mila, who had caught Aria’s eye, in unconventional textiles, and turned tackyglitzy garments into really fresh outfits. Thank you to Merv for letting us use his restaurant as the backdrop to this photoshoot.

Photography: Lily Paris West, on a Canon Av-1, see more at westalbums.tumblr.com Styling: Aria McInnes and Moya Mclennan Make-Up: Lara Daly Model: Mila Reuelu-Buchanan Follow them on Instagram: @lilpariswest @ariamcinnes @moyarenee @lara.daly @milakaiariki

Amalia Louisson

Finnius Teppett

How to Spend $100,000 Last year a group of four young women—Claris Jacobs, Minnie Grace, and sisters Elsie and Sally Bollinger—submitted an application to NZ On Air (NZOA) with the hope of acquiring funding for a new project. The group, who banded together a few years ago as The Candle Wasters, already had two successful web-series under their belts, and they had designs on a third. Their previous projects, the YouTube Shakespeare adaptations Nothing Much To Do and Lovely Little Losers, racked up over four million episode views between them, and the group was eager to find out what their track record was worth. Their new pitch was for a web-series adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, to be called Bright Summer Night. (As clarified for me later: “Not Bright Summer Nights. Not Bright Summer’s Night. No possessives.”). The new series was an ambitious step for the group. Leaving behind the confessional video-diary style of their first two series, they planned a slicker, more professional shoot. They would hire an experienced director of photography, and would limit the series to ten tight episodes of five or six minutes each, a reduction from the seventy-odd instalments of both Nothing and Losers. They applied for the whole $100,000 available from NZOA’s Digital Media Fund (DMF), and expected to see maybe a part of it, enough to cover some of the costs of production. To their surprise, they were approved for the full amount. 26

Finnius Teppett

to her walkie-talkie. The answer came back from Jen, and Minnie relayed it. “Not right now. She’ll say when.” It was quiet downstairs. People were mostly absorbed in the details of their own jobs. On a film set there seems to be one of everyone, each with their own highly specific task. Somehow an amazing ecosystem emerges out of it all, like a big, elaborate trust fall. In the quiet I thought of that way that someone described war, as something like, “months of boredom punctuated by moments of extreme terror.” I knew that as the day went on, and the tight schedule was either abided or not, stress levels would inch up, but at the moment there was relative peace. The only panic was when Chloe from unit (responsible for the production’s food and drinks) announced they had run out of all but plant milk, though she soon found a runner to go down to the supermarket to get some normal milk and a crisis was averted. Eventually the crew finished their preparations, and the filming began. I went upstairs and took a seat in the corner of the room, with a view of the monitor. The action was happening in the next room over behind a mostly-closed door. Gathered around the screen, the production team watched the camera feed closely. Robbie scribbled constant notes in his folder and consulted his stopwatch, occasionally snapping a photo of the screen with his phone. The actors on the monitor were sitting on a couch, having a heart-to-heart. There was no sound from the monitor though, and all I could hear was what made it through from the other side of the door. One of the characters, played by Maddie Adams, seemed worried about something that had happened at the party and her friend, played by Kalisha Wasasala, was reassuring her. “He thinks you’re hot.” Maddie sighed. Sally was happy with the shot after a few takes, and the crew reset for a different angle. Someone in the room moved a prop speaker to fit the new frame, and Robbie winced. Jen saw him and smiled, yelling into the room, “you’re getting on continuity’s bad side!” After a few more shots, and some vigilant updates from Jen about exactly how many minutes were left in the schedule, the scene was finished on time. We got kicked out again as the crew began setting up for a new scene in the room we were in. I went back downstairs and stepped outside, and took a minute to readjust to the daylight from the faux nighttime indoors. Just outside the front door, on the path that leads down to the road, Chloe was setting up the unit table. There were big jugs for hot water and coffee, endless Nice biscuits and Oreos, and now, thankfully, proper milk. The beginnings of a spread for the lunch break—which today would be closer to dinner— were coming together. Burgers were on the menu, with heaps of trimmings and vegan alternatives. The presence of a unit on the production took me by surprise, but it shouldn’t have. The funding from NZOA didn’t just allow for the Candle Wasters to shoot for professionalism, it actually obliged them to. The guidelines for the DMF

I showed up to the set one afternoon in April, on a day most of the way through the three week shoot for Bright Summer Night. The call time was noon, a later start than most days, because there was an outdoor scene scheduled which required the crew to keep filming until late that night. All going well, the eleven or twelve hours on set for the cast and crew would yield about three or four minutes of footage in the final cut. The shoot had been months in the preparing, and the logistics were immense. After their approval for funding last year, the team split off into production roles and began putting together a shoot. They had brought on board an experienced producer, Bevin Linkhorn, to help produce and another frequent collaborator, Robbie Nicol, also joined them as an honorary Candle Waster. Dividing the job of writing scripts between them, the Wasters took charge of two episodes each. Then Elsie and Sally took on the role of directing the shoot, Claris became the production designer, and Minnie joined Bevin as a producer. Robbie was in charge of continuity (of all the jobs on set, this was probably the one I envied the least), and Jen Smith stepped into the notoriously fearsome role of first assistant director. Later, an open call for auditions received over two hundred responses. The series was being shot on location, at Robbie’s house in the green back blocks of Kelburn. The place had been emptied of occupants, and transformed into a film set version of a party-stricken flat. True to its title, the story of Bright Summer Night takes place over the course of a single night at a particularly dramatic student rager, so all the windows of the house had been blacked out, and fairy lights were strung up from anywhere that would hold them. As the shoot moved between all the different rooms of the house, the behind-the-scenes arrangements (dressing room, monitor suite) shuffled around to accommodate the cameras and lights. There wasn’t a space left in the two-storey house that hadn’t been co-opted for the production at some point. When I arrived I asked where I could plant myself without getting in the way, and was directed to a seat in the hallway, which was about the only free space there was anyway. The day’s shoot was taking place in the upstairs rooms, and while Sally and the lighting team were setting up for the first scene of the day, the other crew members were making sure they had everything in order for when they got the call. Robbie scrutinised some complicated-looking continuity forms, and Minnie was on a laptop, occasionally talking into a walkie-talkie microphone attached to an earpiece. Elsie, who wasn’t directing until later in the evening, had started to edit the previous day’s scenes. I asked how many people were in the crew and they looked between each other, unsure. Robbie offered: “Ten? Five? Twenty?” He shrugged. “I dunno. It’s not my job.” Elsie counted off the different roles, and arrived at about fifteen. I asked if I could go upstairs to check out the scene in preparation, and Minnie passed on the question

Finnius Teppett

People werenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t just playing along for the free refreshments and the chance at internet fame; they were there because they wanted to do their job. There was something kind of strange, and really cool, about seeing all these young people get to take themselves seriously, and be taken seriously, while doing what they loved doing. There were high school students working on set, alongside older, experienced professionals, and the earnestness of everyoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s commitment made a perfect leveller.

Finnius Teppett

submissions say that everyone involved in the webseries project should be contracted under industry approved contracts, which means that if you take the NZOA money, everyone you use has to get fed and paid. As huge an amount as it sounds, even $100,000 wasn’t enough to pay everyone their usual rates, but a dose of goodwill made up the shortfall. Personnel costs took up the biggest chunk of the budget, and the evidence of this was everywhere: the coffee-fetching, the patient waiting around, the respected hierarchies. People weren’t just playing along for the free refreshments and the chance at internet fame; they were there because they wanted to do their job. There was something kind of strange, and really cool, about seeing all these young people get to take themselves seriously, and be taken seriously, while doing what they loved doing. There were high school students working on set, alongside older, experienced professionals, and the earnestness of everyone’s commitment made a perfect leveller. I had been warned earlier in the day that if I hung around the set for too long, I would find myself cast as an extra. (Extras are the one exception to the “industry approved contracts” rule, and the production couldn’t get enough of them). But I didn’t take the warning seriously enough, and soon I was hustled away to the dressing room to get into costume. I was to play an anonymous partygoer, dressed in fairy wings and a floral headband to fit the theme of the fictional party, and my job was to stand around in the background and fill out the shot. Sitting in the makeup chair, I was asked which colour glitter—gold, purple, or white—I’d prefer on my face. After some initial concern from the dressing room chorus that white might look too much like sweat, Claris smeared a chapstick over my cheekbones and tastefully dabbed me with fine body glitter. Properly costumed, I went upstairs to await my direction. I was handed a plastic cup of green juice by the art director, Nic, and I chatted quietly with the other extras while Sally choreographed the actors and discussed framing with the director of photography. I put my cup down next to some others on a side table and ran downstairs to get my camera. I came back up and started taking photos, and when I realised I didn’t have my cup anymore it was too late. The little side table where I put it was now the centre of attention, with the two main actors of the scene sitting either side of it. The crew was lining up their shot, with my misplaced drink in the middle of it, and Jen called for silence. I found Robbie and whispered to him, “I left my cup on that table.” He laughed and shook his head, then walked through the scene like it was nothing and retrieved it for me. My heart rate slowed back down. With my cup safely back in hand, I went to other side of the room for a different angle to photograph. I put my cup on the piano while I undid my camera case, and Jen saw me and muttered in a low voice, “oh you are not putting your cup there.” I apologised and picked it up again, and awkwardly opened the camera case while holding my cup as well, trying not to spill anything.

A little later when my scene began, I was instructed to stand near the fireplace and pretend to be at a party. I remembered a lesson from drama class that the most convincing way to act drunk is actually to act sober, so I leaned against the mantelpiece in the background and swayed slightly. It was a brief shot. It had one character, played by Jack Buchanan, say goodbye to some friends and then introduce himself to Maddie’s character as she plonked herself down next to him. A few takes later the crew rearranged for a different angle, and a slightly earlier part of the scene. In this new part I had to join a throng of hectic dancers, which I dutifully did even though the thought of being documented on the internet trying to look rhythmically coordinated filled me with dread. When the scene was done and people started dispersing for their late lunch, I told Jen I was going to take off my fairy wings because my bit was done, and she said “when you think you can take your wings off, that’s when they tell you to put them back on.” Sure enough, I was soon bribed with free food to stay for the last of the day’s indoor scenes, which was being filmed after the break. Even though I wanted to go home because I thought I’d already scribbled down enough notes to eke out a decent article, I gave in to the bribes and stayed. When the final indoor scene began after lunch, stress mounted for the higher-ups when a shot took longer than expected to get. It was more complicated than the others, with a couple of character entrances and exits, and a double layer of action. Two main characters were arguing bitterly while a third in the background slowly pushed a glass full of milk off the edge of the bench. The deadline approached when the crew would have to start setting up outside to film, and it became clear that they weren’t going to fit in all the shots inside that were scheduled. While the cast and crew waited on their orders, there was a hushed discussion about what shots could be possibly filmed later or, if it came to it, dropped. Everyone dealt with the stress differently, and the team variously paced, or stayed meditatively still, or slumped into armchairs in resignation. Robbie joined Sally in solidarity and said, cheerfully, “yep this is the most stressful moment so far.” In consultation with the director of photography, the Wasters settled on a compromise. Sally walked back into the scene and corralled the crew and actors to hurry them through one last take. “Our lack of time is unfortunate,” she announced with a smile, then she launched into the newly hatched plan. Everyone listened patiently, and then they got down to work.

Single Sad Postgrad Sharon Lam

Boys (I Never Dated) But Am Definitely Over whenever she sees him around at architecture events. And she is definitely NOT in her fifth year of defending his choice of facial hair to some who call it “creepy” and “paedo-esque.” Hell no! If there’s one thing I’ve mastered, it’s CLOSURE!

To my friends who have been saying things like “Sharon you met him once” and “you don’t actually know him” and “you’re a huge creep,” congratulations, you’ve won. Your constant nagging has finally sunk in. I’m “moving on.” And to my real friends who egged me on through my many delusions, I could have never done it without you, and I’m sorry it never worked out. It was fun while it lasted. I’m sure you’ll miss my imaginary boyfriends just as much as I will. And so, here are the boys I never technically “dated,” but am definitely no longer thinking about: 1.

Any Boy I’ve Ever Written About In This Column You would think that the way to a man’s heart is through 500 words in a universally read publication. But I guess not. Maybe I’m not using a thesaurus enough. Maybe they just so happened to miss the week I wrote about them. Yeah it was probably that. But whatever! Coconut Chip Man, Ex-Penpal, and Perfect One Night Stand, I can barely even remember the catchy alias I gave any of you and am definitely not hoping you are reading this (but if you are, heyyy) what no I definitely didn’t write about you that would be super creepy that was my friend she is sooo weird omg haha what’s up?).

That Guy From The Supermarket Just Before It started out like any grocery trip—hungry and alone. Then I saw him, some guy who was picking out the same type of peanut butter as me. Be still, my beating heart. There he is—the man I’m going to marry, I thought. I skipped all the way home. And yet, it’s now been five hours since I’ve left the supermarket and still no marriage proposal! Oh well, easy come, easy go. Guess I’ll change my Facebook relationship status to it’s complicated.

Love is blind, and it’s truly hard to see clearly when you’re in so deep. But after however many weeks of not dating, it’s probably time to let your imaginary lover go. I know it’s difficult, especially when your fictitious relationships are so much better than anything that could actually exist, but let go you must. Time to stop searching all their acquaintances’ photos for untagged photos of them. Time to stop drunkenly Googling them and checking out their Couchsurfing profile. Time to move on. They may not have returned your obsessive love, but it’s okay. There are plenty more imaginary fish in the sea.

My First Year Tutor This Master’s student is so NOT still in love with a tutor from first year! God no, that would be so embarrassing! No she does NOT still freak out

Stressed, Depressed, Well-dressed

Breathing Space

What to write about when your boy toy doesn't dress like shit

Francesca Crutchley

Jess Scott

The money struggle at university is real. It’s hard enough being under-slept and over-worked, let alone wondering if you’ll have to have ice cubes for dinner until you get your next StudyLink fix! Breathing Space is here to help, with a few tips on how to make simple changes that can help you save a few pennies and stop you having to ration that last potato over four days. First of all, consider switching to water. Ditching daily soft drink or juice habits can save you upwards of $60 a month (and two kilos of sugar consumption), not to mention improve your brain function and physical health. Flavouring your own water is cost effective, colourful, and a good way to avoid unwanted chemicals found in other drinks. Apple and cinnamon, orange and vanilla bean, or blueberry, peach and mint are a few personal favourites but the combinations are endless. Additionally, if you and your keepcup can’t stay away from the coffee shop, try utilising places on campus that provide it for free, such as the Bubble or the Women’s Room (which has a hot water jug). Making a meal plan can drastically save on your weekly bill by reducing impulse food purchases and avoiding the heightened prices that you pay for convenience. For those days that you do slip up however, uni’s got your back. Hare Krishna offer $5 lunches in the Kirk courtyard, VUWSA offer free bread on Fridays, as well as offering food packages to students in need. Lastly, don’t miss the affordable fruit and vegetable market in the Tim Beaglehole courtyard each Wednesday. If you can’t bear the thought of sacrificing that double-shot soy Vic Books cappuccino, there are a number of innovative ways in which you can make money instead of cutting back. Trade Me welcomes all of your hand me downs, while some part time jobs such as becoming a mystery shopper or doing online surveys for money are flexible and require very little commitment. For more on campus money advice collect a “Do your dollars make sense” brochure from Mauri Ora or contact Victoria Student Financial Support and Advice. And remember, at 23 Walt Disney declared bankruptcy, Oprah had just been fired, and J.K. Rowling was broke. You got this!

In response to my prior column, “what to do when your boy toy dresses like shit” (inspired by a particularly heinous pair of white dad jeans owned by a former man friend), I decided to address the current state of writer's block I am suffering as a result of my current boyfriend. It isn't that I am creatively uninspired, or that he is disinteresting (he in fact has hilarious facial hair); it's more that there is little to complain about. He's so fucking NICE. As in “take you to high tea with your grandma,” or “offers to hold your hair whilst you're vomiting tequila into a salad bowl” level of nice. He is 6’3, witty, intelligent, quite beautiful, and a maker of phenomenal martinis. Overall not a terrible life decision. Despite fairly questionable hygiene standards (“what’s the point of washing it, it'll just get dirty again anyway?”), the exclusive use of a floordrobe, and the moustache of a 70s porn star, he even dresses well. He wears normal-coloured (not white) jeans that make his butt look cute, has excellent taste in footwear, can style a scarf, choose frames that suit the shape of his face, and rocks a trench coat without looking like a flasher or comedic detective. There is a LOT more Hallensteins than I am really comfortable with, but apparently the fact that you can buy absolutely everything, from a suit to shoe polish to a beer pong kit, all in the same store, is both irresistibly convenient and also far easier than actually doing laundry. To the extent that every day for about three weeks, instead of washing his socks and underwear (like any standard functioning adult human), he would instead purchase a new pair of each. But I really have nothing to throw shade upon. There are no novelty bow ties, hideous ‘statement’ cardigans, or dumb shirts with parks & rec jokes on them. Not a Nike slide, puffer jacket, or dad hat in sight. I am actually dating a male human being who can dress himself in a way that doesn’t look as though he was both intoxicated and blindfolded in the process. This is despite the irony that he is legally blind without glasses, and often wakes up drunk.

Postgraduate Connection

Queer Agenda

Lynette Johnson

What happens when you have an agenda, then someone bigger and more powerful than you offers to help, but actually they end up shutting you out of the causes and communities you love? As it becomes more and more acceptable to be queer in society, capitalist entities are moving to cash in on the ‘queer dollar’. As discrimination decreases, so rises the access that tolerably (read: unobtrusively or non-confrontationally) queer people have to traditionally heteronormative jobs, in turn increasing their purchasing power. Pinkwashing is a term used to describe the co-opting of queer rhetoric for marketing purposes—using ‘queerfriendliness’ as a tool, ostensibly to show acceptance, but with the actual goal of selling more product. The GAYTM’s that crop up for a few weeks every now and then are a prime example of pinkwashing in NZ. On a larger scale, we see pinkwashing when international companies happily flaunt their rainbow advertising and self-proclaimed inclusivity, but continue to discriminate against and exploit workers, sponsor homophobic events, and make their products in homophobic countries. They show off their pretty queer-friendly face, while simultaneously turning their back on the queer bodies they profit from. Pinkwashing is a common focus of queer political discourse, as its assimilationist* and homonormative** pretence undermines all that is often traditionally held as queer. By privileging the white, gay, upper/middle class, cis, male dollar, commodification of queer marginalises those who fall outside the desired normative consumptive practices of our capitalist society. This reinforcement of idealised queer is directly harmful to that portion of the queer population who refuse, or are unable, to embody it. Consumers do not create, and equating spending power with social acceptance is problematic for any and all stigmatized minority groups. If we preach egalitarianism***, not only do we need to start practicing it we need to engage that egalitarianism on all fronts. Civil rights are economic rights. <3 UniQ

As a postgraduate student, you’re probably thinking about the money that you DON’T have. Some of you have student loans and have no idea how you are going to pay them back. I’m not going to tell you to invest your money in stocks, bonds, and derivatives because to be honest… you’d probably lose it. So we will just skim the surface of personal finance. Budget Make a budget. Even if you don’t have an income, list your bills and go into your bank account and see how much you spend weekly for food, entertainment, and other expenses. You’ll be surprised at how much you spend on take-aways and coffee. (The Financial Support & Advice office can help you make a budget, e-mail them at student-hardship@vuw.ac.nz). Have a goal Saving to travel? Paying off debt? Want a new pair of shoes? Having a goal in mind will motivate you to budget. Plan and calculate how long it will take you to reach your goal and stick to it. Save It’s easier said than done, but try doing these things: Cook from scratch and buy in bulk, enquire about student discounts, buy second hand (check out Vic Deals for everything you’ll ever need). Your current situation is not your final destination. If you fall behind in your finances, or make a wrong decision, you can always get back on track! Upcoming event: Postgraduate Interactive Forum May 24 in LT4, Government buildings, Pipitea Campus. Hear about exciting research at Victoria, network with fellow postgraduates, and enjoy free pizza! There will be presentations by Rebecca Siu (PhD Linguistics & Applied Language Studies), Kirsten Reid (Senior Learning Advisor at Student Learning), Adinda Muchtar (PhD Development Studies), and Raewyn Eden (PhD Education).

* The notion that queer people should try to blend in or assimilate into ‘normal’ heterosexual society. ** The privileging of ‘normal’ queers—cis, white, gay or lesbian, monogamous, upper/middle class etc. *** Favouring equality of fundamental worth and social status for all people. 32

"Sports!"

What We Talk About When We Talk About Science

Joe Morris

James Churchill

A column on marginalised sports could well be a column on women in sports. Yet in writing this bi-weekly segment I’ve hardly mentioned women, apart from the tendency of professional—male—footballers to sleep with them. I feel like that time I told the woman in my social cricket team the opposition would go easy on her. She promptly told me to fuck off. (I’m a terrible feminist). Predictably, netball is the sport of the week. In Australia, more men play in mixed netball teams than they do rugby union. Presuming at least half the team is female, more women play netball just in mixed grades than the entire male rugby playing population. It is a surprising figure. Numbers for New Zealand are harder to come by. Still Netball, and women in sport generally (forgive the conflation), are only marginalised inasmuch as they exist in a culture that is still dismissive of women in sport. A culture where women—even as a majority—are pushed out of the market against large contracts of male (read: profitable) sports. In turn our perceptions on the sportsman are skewed and the cycle continues. It is a point made many times before, even within Salient’s pages. It is one worth driving home until it sticks. “How?!” You decry, “All they show on ESPN is beach volleyball!” As ever, I am the entrenched advocate of social sport. Join a mixed netball team, and don’t go easy on the woman marking you. Heck, go watch a game of the Women's Basketball Championship. Who knows, you might even enjoy it. To quote Blake Griffen from Broad City: “The WNBA… They are so good. I literally steal moves from them all the time … It’s just like the best version of basketball there is.” “That’s women for ya,” says Ilana. “Always making stuff better,” replies Blake.

One of New Zealand’s major problems with dealing with climate change is our emissions profile. Unlike most countries, New Zealand gets a large portion of its energy from renewable sources—predominately hydro and geothermal. The bulk of our emissions come from agriculture and transport which are particularly difficult to mitigate. However, as far as transport is concerned, technology is starting to allow for change. Tesla motors was founded by Elon Musk in 2003 in order to catalyse the shift towards electric vehicles. Tesla’s newest car, the Model Three, will retail for $35,000 USD before incentives and already has over 400,000 pre-orders. To satisfy this demand before 2020 Tesla needs to massively increase their production. At the heart of this is the so called “Gigafactory.” Once completed (expected to be in 2020) this factory will be the world’s largest building and will produce about as much battery power as was produced globally in 2014. The quality of batteries is measured by their “energy density,” or how much energy you can store per unit of volume. On the back of research from companies like Tesla, the energy density we are capable of storing in batteries has been increasing by 5–8% every year. This is what is allowing the revolution in electric vehicles. This private sector scientific progress is being bolstered by policy makers. In Norway large tax breaks have led to over one in five cars that are purchased being electric. Just last month the lower house of the Netherlands’ parliament voted through a motion banning sales of new petrol and diesel cars by 2025. Our government has recently announced a series of initiatives with the goal of increasing the number of electric cars on our roads from 1000 at the moment to 64,000 in 2021. These includes reduced road user charges and allowing electric cars in bus lanes. But, as Green MP James Shaw identified, these initiatives do not offer the financial incentives required to realise this increased uptake. Electric vehicles provide a nice example of the way that science, commerce, and law can all work together to help mitigate massive global problems like climate change.

Win a $100 Gordon Harris voucher

380mm x 270mm + 5mm bleed Portrait or Landscape, 300DPI

Salient wants to showcase work of creatives living in Wellington. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re looking for submissions of all types and mediums to display in the centrefold of Salient each week. The selected work will receive a $100 Gordon Harris Voucher. Email your work to: designer@salient.org.nz 34

The Arts Section 37

Visual Arts

Music

39 Music 40 Film 41 Film 42

Games

43 TV 44

Books

45 Theatre

The Arts Section is sponsored by:

Thanks to Vic Books for providing copies to review.

Thanks to Reading Cinemas Courtenay for providing two complimentary tickets this week.

Thanks to Gordon Harris for providing a $100 gift voucher for the centrefold submission.

Whipped herby feta

Food

Kate Morten

Many people operate under the impression that the addition of feta makes every meal better. That’s because it’s bloody true. That’s all I have to say about this, aside from please do yourself a solid and use this blessed creation under eggs/avocado/rocket/hot sauce, and atop bread/crackers/grains/ everything you have.

400g Greek feta ¼ cup olive oil 2 fresh red chillis, sliced (and deseeded if you don’t like spice as much as some) Handful mint, chopped roughly Handful flat leaf parsley, chopped roughly 1 lemon, zest and juice 2 tsp flaky sea salt 2 tsp cracked black pepper

First crumble the feta into a food processor and give it a cheeky blitz to break it up a little. Slowly add the oil while the processor is going, and beat until the feta looks silky smooth. Add the rest of the ingredients and pulse to combine. Serve (with your brunch, with your lunch, with your dinner, on a cheese platter, off a spoon straight into your guzzler) and enjoy!

Starting here, right in this room

Ruby Joy Eade

1 Fiona Conner, Felix Gonzales Torres at Venice, from How W.H. Auden spends the night at a friend’s house, Gambia Castle Press, 2007. 2 Polishing silver, gifting photographs, and an auction at Toi Pōneke, http:// wellington.govt.nz/your-council/news/2015/03/polishing-silver-giftingphotographs-and-an-auction-at-toi-poneke (April 25, 2015).

WHATS ON Dead Bug Live New work by Kate Lepper, at Toi Poneke, May 7–28. Turn Left at the End of the Drive, Jay Hutchinson, at Enjoy Public Art Gallery, May 12—June 4.

Visual Arts

art classes) by my brother aged around eight. Arguably a better portrait than the original. Hanging on the wall, a long fluffy pink chain, made from hundreds of florets cut from woollen blankets. This is a work from Lucy Wardle’s installation, Wandering Objects. Lucy gave this one to me, as this certain shade of pink didn’t really match the rest of the collection. It used to live on my bed, but it made me sneeze. Next to the bed is the first piece of art I ever bought, purchased at the tender age of ten, a small text based artwork called my diary, Jongsuk Yoon. Bought as part of the Muka Youth Prints programme at The Dowse. Original prints from contemporary artists, sold for around $65 to people age five to eighteen. No adults allowed, not even in the gallery. A black and white poster print of a silver vanity set, combs, brushes, and mirrors. The image is a reproduction of one of many photographs taken by the artist, Petra Steuben’s grandmother in Germany during WWII as documentation, to save their personal belongings from disappearance. In an interview about the work, the artist asks, “what things do we surround ourselves with? What do we see in these that make us want to keep them?”2

I have been eagerly awaiting winter. This is the time when you can appropriately hermit, hide away in small warm places amongst the objects and people you choose to populate your private everyday with. I love my room, and my things, and being in my room with my things. The objects I surround myself with are touchstones for experiences and representatives of people I love. So, in this issue I am not going write about art in the white cube, I’m focussing on the cosy, the familiar, the opshop art, gifts, ephemera, photocopies, and found things that fill the creamy golden cuboid of my bedroom. Above my desk is taped an A3 photocopy.1 The black and white image shows two Felix Gonzales-Torres posters, laying wet and abandoned on the sidewalk, after his show at the American Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. It is the perfect representation of the fragility and ephemerality of his work, I am sure he would love this photograph. On the shelf above my desk, a scrunched handful of remnants from a letter writing and shredding workshop, run at In Good Company by Jessica Francis. I wrote (and shredded) several letters, one an angry rant to an ex, the other an apology. Again, taped to the wall, a poem, “You Reading This, Be Ready”. Photocopied by Dad, once for my brother and once for me. The final stanza—“What can anyone give you greater than now, starting here, right in this room, when you turn around?”—always makes me feel cheesily #mindful. A bright blue rubber glove attached high on the wall using a bandaid. This is a component of the installation Leave of Absence (2015) by Callum Devlin. All the elements in the work were purchased from Countdown Newtown. The latex in the glove is beginning to perish, the bright blue fading in the sun. Sometimes I wonder if I should just go buy a new glove. Two reproductions of The Gleaners by Jean-Francois Millet with handwritten yellow price stickers stuck to the front. Reproduction one is a print ($15), reproduction two has been painstakingly completed in cross-stitch ($10). Both purchased from the Greytown Vinnies. Right next to this, Madame Matisse, as painted (during after school

Death Grips: Bottomless Pit 4/5

Music

Review by Dion Rogers Watch as Death Grips fans emerge from the void to post about how insane the new record is and how “noided” they are. Then Death Grips go and break up again. Being a fan is an infinite self reciprocating cycle of antagonism. We’re talking Game of Thrones Ramsay and Theon Greyjoy style torture here. Except it has a sweet soundtrack. Death Grips have eight albums (that I can confirm). Each one wilder that the last. Exmilitary, the one with all the samples and Guillotine (Y U H). The Money Store, the commonly referenced “true patrician” album with several ten out of ten ratings. No Love Deep Web, the one with the… well the dick on the front. Government Plates, the semi instrumental one with the sick aesthetics. Fashion Week, the actual instrumental album. The Powers That B, the supposed “last album.” Then “Interview” comes out with more instrumentals, and now Bottomless Pit. Their discography is getting so complicated it reads like some Shelly-sold-sea-shells tongue twister than a list of recorded works. So what should you expect on Bottomless Pit? Blast beats, slow tribal beats, frantic and skittish electronic drums from Zach Hill. MC Ride is shouting at you; he has that type of insane chant-esque voice that makes you want join a fight club. Flatlander once again brings the weirdest synth hits and bass that makes Skrillex and Diplo look like kindergarteners. Basically if you are reading this you either know about them or morbid curiosity got the best of you. For the fellow Death Grips fans, it’s LIT. Then again you are probably already listening with every spare second you have. Godspeed and stay legend y’all. To the inquisitive, if you want a sonic kick in the teeth, give this record a listen! Come join us in our circle of noided friends.

First we were praying for the death of “Jenny,” and now we are worshipping a pit. It’s hard being a fan of Death Grips man. It’s almost comical, the amount of shenanigans that accompany a Death Grips release. In fact, the lack of shenanigans surrounding this new record is so uncharacteristic of Death Grips it’s being classified as shenanigans. So why listen to them? I’ve heard Death Grips classified as everything from “meme rap” to “true patrician music.” It’s a mess, an Anthony Fantano assisted mess, simultaneously endorsed and denounced by / mu/. They have records with vulgar covers, vulgar lyrics, vulgar beats, and it’s fucking fantastic. Their popularity is attributed in no small way to their eccentricity and their complete lack of apparent common sense. A master class in the unconventional. Got a new record? Leak it online. Just released an album? Sweet, now break up! Enjoying the hiatus guys? Awesome, now announce a new album in two weeks’ time. To say they are testing my patience would be an understatement. It’s the musical equivalent of Jackass. However, they always release a record that fans lose their collective minds over. They fall into the realm of “you either get it or you don’t.” You have an MC who shouts depraved lyrics like he’s at a protest, and comes up with a few of the catchiest hooks I have ever heard. A producer and music engineer who comes up with the most bizarre beats I have ever witnessed, and finally a drummer so talented I have to sit back and just take it in a beat at a time. They don’t even have a damn genre. We tried calling them “industrial hip hop” then they started including guitars and sounding more like an insane punk band. I’m three coffees in and I am struggling to think of a way to properly describe them. It’s almost tribal at this point. 38

Drake (noun) definition: a business, man. 2/5 Review by Jack Woodbury

Music

him—and he was right. Even with the knowledge it wasn’t his full effort, every one of the album’s 17 songs charted, running with your woes became a meme, and the mixtape went double platinum. Redefining what it meant to be an album, his late-2015 mixtape, What A Time To Be Alive, mirrored this. Accentuated by sharing the release with Future (the biggest name in 2015 street rap), Drake reinvented his image in light of this newfound masculinity—the boy had become a man. Even with little marketing, no singles, and the explicit definition of ‘mixtape’, every song charted and Drake scored his second platinum release in less than a year. It was an entrée to his magnus opus. Still, no VIEWS. Of course, we’re forgetting what happened in between. Meek Mill talked shit and Drake responded in full force. Tweets and memes were posted, diss tracks released (again, sold as premium content), Twitter weighed in, and Drake walked away the victor—two charting diss-tracks and a Grammy nomination in hand. But it was another song released during this period of loosies that made the biggest impact, a little dancehall track named “Hotline Bling.” Aided by a hilarious video, Drake’s remix of “CHA CHA” by D.R.A.M. (again, sold as premium content) went quintuple platinum, hit #2 on the Billboard charts, and defined the meme in 2015. Capitalising on viral culture, Drake made the most of his not-too-serious image and memed himself—skillfully balancing his image as a hardened trap rapper with that of the playful pop singer. Still, no VIEWS. Across all 36 pre-VIEWS tracks, the album is only name-dropped once (in the final line of “Back to Back”). Yet it seemed as though everyone with an internet connection knew it was coming. Last week, it didn’t matter whether or not the music was good. It didn’t matter what the critics thought. It didn’t matter that the single with Jay Z and Kanye really sucked. All that mattered was that Drake was big, we knew it was coming, and we wanted to hear it—bad.

Drake’s VIEWS came out on April 29. Old news—you already knew that. Plastered all over Apple Music, its cover art memed before any of us even heard it, and no doubt the cause of many a text to an ex—everyone and their goldfish has an opinion about Drake’s fourth album. Some feel it was overhyped, others cite VIEWS as Drake’s fullest realisation of his multitudinous sound, and further listeners (prone to binary album commentary) have declared it “fire.” Still, it sold approximately 600,000 overnight, lead single ‘One Dance’ jumped to #1, and is already setting streaming records. How did this happen? Back in 2013 when Nothing Was The Same (NWTS, Drake’s third album) was released, Drake was still considered rap’s whiny little brother. Something “for the girls,” the singing rapper who everyone listened to, but no one wanted to admit to loving. It was a simpler time: YOLO (“The Motto”) and “Started From The Bottom” were trendy-ish, early signals of Drizzy’s power over pop culture. He was huge, but nothing compared to the Drake of 2016. The period between NWTS and VIEWS—full of twists, turns, and surprises—represents a masterclass in marketing, image management, and salesmanship. Drake is indeed a business, man. In July 2014, nearly two years before VIEWS was released, the build up began. Following an announcement that his new album would be titled Views From The 6, Drake released “0 to 100 / The Catch Up” one of the best songs of his career, including lyrics implying an autumn (NZ) 2015 release. Yet, in the middle of February 2015, If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late appeared—with no previous announcement, bar a short film released just hours earlier. It wasn’t VIEWS, but it was damn good. He was sure to let us know that we were spending our pretty pennies on a mixtape, not an album. This was not to be held to the same standards, it was merely the trailer to his feature film. Still, no VIEWS. And thus the commercial mixtape was born. Essentially the musician’s version of premium content, Drake gambled on fan’s willingness to pay to experience

Captain America: Civil War (2016)

London Has Fallen (2016) Directed by Babak Najafi 1.5/5

Directed by Anthony Russo & Joe Russo 4/5

Review by Livné Ore

Film

Review by Benjamin Lister London Has Fallen, the sequel to the 2013 blockbuster Olympus Has Fallen, does not necessitate prior knowledge of the recurring characters, nor does it require an appreciation for good cinema. You do need a strong stomach for violence and a predictable plotline. The film follows the exploits of Mike Banning (Gerard Butler), the Secret Service agent in charge of protecting the US President Benjamin Asher (Aaron Eckhart), as a terrorist plot unfolds in London. The funeral of the British prime minister creates the perfect opportunity for Pakistani arms dealer and terrorist financier Aamir Barkawi (Alon Aboutboul) to avenge the murder of his family, and he masterminds the assassination of the attending world leaders. Frankly, I found the film shallow and heavy on the clichés. Banning is a standard action figure with a wonderful and supportive wife and a weakness for patriotism. The death of his colleague, Secret Service agent Lynn Jacobs’ (Angela Basset), is expected. The presence and identity of the mole is anticipated well in advance, and we all know what the finale is going to be— no way the President dies, right? Full of un-spectacular action sequences, nothing positive stood out in this film. The depiction of the terrorists was very limited and their motivations (aside from those of Aamir and his son Kamran) are not explained at all. There is a very clear divide between the Pakistanis (pigeonholed as evil terrorists) and everyone else (the Western world, thus the good guys), with the exception of the mole. As a piece of media London Has Fallen has the responsibility of portraying a balanced interpretation of every culture, or at least offering an alternative viewpoint, instead of supplementing already fertile tropes. However, that doesn’t happen.

While not as impressive or gripping as Captain America: Winter Soldier, the Russo brothers deliver a satisfying and fun followup to their first film. Filled with amazing action, mostly impressive characters, and thought provoking ideas, the brothers have made a film that balances out a plethora of superheroes—something that Zack Snyder and Joss Whedon could only imagine. The story of Civil War is centered around the differing ideologies of Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) and Captain America (Chris Evans) and their ultimate confrontation, yet it is Cap’s relationship with Bucky (Sebastian Stan) that is most important. This relationship helps bring emotional depth to the film and also helps raise the stakes in regard to the other characters relationships. The cast is impressive in the roles that most of them have become comfortable with. Vision (Paul Bettany) is endlessly entertaining, and his relationship to Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), who thankfully dials back the Russian accent, is an interesting storyline I hope is explored further in the future. The newcomers hold their own against the Marvel veterans. Chadwick Boseman shines in his regal role as Black Panther, with amazing action scenes and a very cool costume. I can’t wait to see Black Panther’s solo film, but his thunder is somewhat stolen by another newcomer, Spider-Man (Tom Holland). By and far the most interesting part of the film, Holland as the ‘web-slinger’ is nothing short of superb. Though he is for the most part expendable to the story, Holland is the best, kindest, and most accurate SpiderMan ever seen on screen. During the visually stunning and fun airport sequence, he steals the show with some great lines and cool moves. I can’t imagine how depressing the film might have been without him, or Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), to bring the funny. All in all, the Russo brothers have delivered another top-tier story in Marvel’s ever-growing cinematic universe. Now, onwards to Infinity War.

Film

The Witch (2015) Directed by Robert Eggers 3.5/5 Review by Isaac Brodie

Eggers presents a realistic version of a familiar story, through the use of dialogue, costuming, and low-key lighting. In this way he effectively presents the film’s physical and temporal setting. He also manages to create a prolonged sense of expectation that lasts throughout the film, through the use of drawn out takes and minimal editing techniques. And that is exactly the problem. From the quiet hype surrounding the film, and the construction of the film itself, it’s easy to find yourself sitting there in the theatre waiting to be blown away. But that’s just not something that this film will do. Although creepy, this film never quite manages to be scary. Although it is mostly well constructed, there isn’t anything particularly special about its construction. This film is, overall, a pretty good one. Just as long as you don’t ruin it for yourself by expecting it to be great.

As it made its way around the International Film Festival circuit, The Witch began to gather a reputation as contender for horror flick of the year. An article published on Indiewire claimed that the film had been officially recognized by the Satanist church as a true satanic film. Please, don’t buy the hype. This film introduces itself as a composite of different folk-tales and urban legends; it adopts the ‘based on a true story’ misnomer, only with less conviction. Set in the early 1600s, it follows a family who are seemingly forced out of their Protestant community for being too righteous, and consequently settle on a meadow on the edge of the woods in the hope of starting a farm of their own. Without giving away too much of the plot, as we know from Hansel and Gretel: where there are woods, there is a witch. There aren’t any particular flaws that stand out here and in fact the film does a lot of things very well. Robert

A Tale of Two Betas Games

Review by Cameron Gray

rounds further away, and this Doom did not let me do that. Besides the gunplay was nowhere near satisfying enough, nothing like the original Doom’s gunplay where every shot had meaningful impact. It’s a dud, new Doom can piss off. And then, from the heavens above, a shooter so glorious, so mesmerising, so brain-meltingly awesome that it could only have been crafted by absolute masters of their craft. Oh Overwatch, you give me hope, you are the beacon that will guide us into a new era of shooters that are actually fun! Blizzard Entertainment’s first shooter is possibly the most enjoyable time I’ve had since my days playing Unreal Tournament as a twelve-year old, and to be perfectly honest I wasn’t sure if they could pull it off. I’ve only really known them for their franchises (Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo) which are vastly different kettles of fish since they require such a large time investment. With Overwatch I’ve found myself able to just pick it up, play a few rounds, convince myself that one more round will be enough, then go at it for another two hours. Since my typical shooter playstyle is “run around like an absolute madman and hope not to die cheaply,” I’ve been drawn to Tracer as my main, but since there are twenty-one heroes to choose from you definitely will find something to like. It is pretty to look at as well, combining the cartoony zaniness of Team Fortress 2 with the polish you expect from a Blizzard title. I think I’m in love with a video game, for the first time in a long while… Goddamn it, just buy Overwatch when it comes out. I cannot stress this enough, it’s fun! I’m not a shill, I swear…

When it comes to online multiplayer games, the most important period pre-launch is the open beta testing. For a few precious days your game will be free to the world and in the hands of the harshest critic of them all—the general public. Generating hype to get people buying your game is all dependent on whether the beta is a success, not just in terms of behind-the-scenes multiplayer tech, but if people had fun playing it. Passing that test will lead to higher chances of a successful launch. Screw it up, and your game will be dead on arrival. I enjoy open beta periods not just because I get to play games I probably can’t afford for free, but because I want the games to leave a good first impression so I can buy when I do have the cash. It is a period of discovery, an opportunity to explore a game’s potential, and that moment when you suddenly realise you’re actually having fun is incredibly satisfying. It’s the same when the game is a pile of shit, because then you can set the controller down and affirm that you just avoided wasting your money. Two recent betas managed to give me these moments of realisation after a few hours with each. First up was the Doom beta, which I’d been kind of looking forward to. I’m a fan of the arena shooters of the early 2000s and I hoped Doom would provide something similar. Geez, there were health and armour pickups, it had to be good! Then I had to pick a loadout. Pro-tip, if you want to make an authentic arena shooter, don’t use loadouts. Like, at all. I want to blow up a guy with a shotgun then pick up his rifle and blast a few

Five TV Shows That Were Cancelled Too Soon Review by Katie Meadows

Party Down (2009–2010) Party Down was a really decent sitcom about a catering company made up of struggling actors; it was a sort of darker, slower, Parks and Recreation. Unlike Parks and Rec, it never really got the chance to find it’s footing, in part because the latter show stole lead actor Adam Scott. Very bleak and offbeat but also very sweet and funny, if a little hit and miss, it lasted two seasons and had a great cast including Means Girls’ Lizzie Caplan and Freaks and Geeks’ Martin Starr. Starr’s character is such an unredeemable asshole but I like to think he would have softened if the show had made it to season three, like how Leslie Knope used to be a real bitch then they made her a perfect angel and hoped you would just forget about it.

handed science teacher Bobbi Glass and future serial killer Mary Cherry. With more butterfly clips, blue eyeshadow, and glitter lipgloss than your nostalgic millennial self could ever dream of, Popular is a super fun and crazy ride that was understandably (but so sadly) cancelled after two seasons.

Firefly (2002–2003) You would think space cowboys and secret government experiments would be enough for a show to stick around, but cult favourite Firefly was cancelled before it even finished airing its first season. Stylistically very much in the same vein as creator Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the show’s large and passionate fan base led to the film follow up Serenity in 2005. I was going to write about Buffy for this, which was also cancelled, but I feel like seven seasons was a good place to end. Actually every single TV show Joss Whedon has ever made has been cancelled, but now he’s got all that Marvel money so who’s laughing now? Not me because I don’t like those movies and I feel betrayed.

All of Those VH1 Dating Shows Flavor of Love, Rock of Love, I Love New York, Charm School… all incredible shows that kept giving and giving were brought to you by trash titans VH1. However they were all cancelled when former Rock of Love spin-off Megan Wants a Millionaire contestant Ryan Jenkins brutally murdered his then-wife while the show was still airing. Jenkins had placed third on the show and between marrying his wife shortly after filming and murdering her, he had been cast in and won another VH1 spin-off show I Love Money. With Megan Wants a Millionaire immediately pulled off the air and I Love Money pulled from the schedule, the whole franchise lost momentum and ceased to exist. There was an SVU episode about it and everything.

Popular (1999–2001) Like Joss Whedon, Ryan Murphy is another brilliant but messy showrunner who just can’t keep things together. Popular is an amazing, underrated Y2K-era cult classic that took every teen show’s after school special ever and threw it in a blender—think an extremely meta proto-Glee without all the singing and the morals. Set at a time when Gwyneth Paltrow actually meant something, the show featured such iconic characters as the deranged hook-

Freaks and Geeks (1999–2000) The ultimate source of cancellation rage, Freaks and Geeks was cut short after one season for no good reason other than to make people sad. Created by the now huge Judd Apatow and Paul Feig, it also launched the careers of many future stars like Seth Rogen, Jason Segel, and James Franco. No show better portrayed the brutal reality of high school social hierarchies better, when being branded a loser was the worst thing that could possibly happen because you thought high school was the be-all and end-all of your existence. There were so many places Freaks and Geeks had to go that we will never get to see and it’s genuinely gutting. And James Franco was at his absolute prettyboy peak.

The Vegetarian

Sport 44: New Zealand New Writing 2016

Han Kang (translated by Deborah Smith) Publisher: Portobello Books

Editors: Fergus Barrowman, with Kirsten McDougall & Ashleigh Young Publisher: Victoria University Press

5/5 Review by Cassie Richards

5/5

Books

Review by Cassie Richards

Sinister, surreal, beguiling—that’s how I would describe this fantastic novel from South Korean author Han Kang. First published in South Korea in 2007, the novel was translated to English by Deborah Smith in 2015. The Vegetarian is currently on the shortlist for the Man Booker International Prize (2016), an award given for foreign fiction. What I thought would be an interesting look at a woman changing her diet turned out to be so much more, consisting of multiple layers of dreams and twisted reality. Yeong-hye lives with her husband, Mr Cheong, in an apartment in Seoul. Prompted by bizarre and bloody dreams Yeong-hye gives up eating or cooking meat, much to her jerk husband’s annoyance. It turns out that vegetarianism isn’t very common in South Korea, especially not for any moral standpoint, and Yeong-hye is treated by those around her with bemused fascination and concern. But this isn’t just a simple case of not wanting to eat meat—Yeong-hye’s mental state seems to be spiralling downward, culminating in a disastrous family visit. From there the story only gets stranger, and more compelling. The novel is split into three parts, told from the perspectives of Yeong-hye’s husband, her sister’s husband, and finally her sister. We are given little insight into Yeonghye’s mind, just a few snatches of the dreams which haunt her, and the brief conversations which her family are able to coax out of her as she retreats further and further from the ordinary world. Her sister’s husband, a wayward artist, finds himself drawn to her with disastrous and unsettling consequences. The novel deals with childhood abuse, sexual abuse, and eating disorders—so be warned if these are topics that you’re sensitive to. Ultimately this is a story of mental illness, with supernatural overtones, which held me firmly in its grip from start to finish.

Sport is an institution of New Zealand publishing and has shared short fiction, poetry, and nonfiction with a wide audience since 1988. Published annually, it’s a fantastic way for both new and established writers to showcase work, and serves as a roll call of our most highly-regarded voices. The 44th issue of the magazine features cover art from Elyjana Roach, and is packed to the brim with exciting work. Poetry stalwarts Bill Manhire, Jenny Bornholdt, and Gregory O’Brien are here, as well as a bevy of newer voices: Lynley Eameades, Nina Powles, Alexandra Hollis, and many more. In the fiction category, Kirsten McDougall brings Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector back from the dead to cook eggs in a world without internet; Kate Duignan writes affectingly of the complexities of motherhood in a story of two women meeting on a beach; Damien Wilkins shares an excerpt from an intriguing new work. In nonfiction, Helena Wiśniewska Brow tells of the pitfalls of memoir writing: “But I’d wronged him. In my book, his truth was hollowed out, unrecognisable.” Chris Tse writes of photographs, memory, and travel; Nick Bollinger recalls nights spent at the Union Hall, immersing himself in local music. In an emotional piece, Emma Gilkison shares the story of her unborn son, who suffered from ectopia cordis, a condition where the heart grows outside of the body. While Sport publishes work from all over New Zealand, Wellington has a strong presence and lurks amongst its pages. Aro Valley, Ngaio Gorge, Miramar Peninsula—even the Mount Street cemetery, still a favourite haunt for students and cigarette breaks—jump out to meet you. There’s something special about reading what you know, the thrill of I know that place! The selections in Sport 44 took me to the other side the world, before whisking me safely home. 44

An interview with Gary Henderson Review by Ophelia Wass and Ruby Hansen

How did you get involved in writing plays? It all started when I was a schoolteacher at Parkway Intermediate in Wainuiomata, Hutt Valley. The first major production they did was in my first year of teaching. I thought it was… not very good. The next year I put my money where my mouth was and wrote something for them. It was one of those big sprawling intermediate plays that had hundreds of people in it, so every kid could do something. Then I left teaching, went back to Victoria University where I studied theatre and film. I started putting on children’s theatre for the age group that I’d been previously teaching. In the 80s that middle teenage group weren’t really catered for in theatre. I moved onto other things in the early 90s. I’ve just kept going since then!

A major New Zealand playwright, Gary's plays include An Unseasonable Fall Of Snow, Peninsula, Home Land, Mo & Jess Kill Susie, Stealing Games and the internationally successful Skin Tight. Gary received the Playmarket Award in 2013. CREW 353: Writing for Theatre When: Trimester Two, Fridays, 10.00am–1.00pm Where: International Institute of Modern Letters (IIML) Application Deadline: June 21 More Information: email modernletters@vuw.ac.nz, or ph: 463 6854

Why do you set your plays in New Zealand? It’s just a natural tendency. Quite a few things I write about are drawn from things I’ve witnessed or things I’ve seen around. All of my plays are set somewhere very specific, that you could actually go and visit, and go “there is the place!” That is partly a personal foible I guess, because it’s easy to get my head around somewhere that’s real. Once we start realising that our stories are valuable to our country-men, our neighbours, why not tell them? Why not set them here?

Much Ado About Nothing Victoria University’s THEA302 & THEA308 have decided to hit Shakespeare where it hurts. Is he past it for the millennial generation? Can we turn Much Ado About Nothing, a full length Shakespeare, into something for people with attention spans conditioned to Snapchat, Vines, and 140 Twitter characters?

Tell us about the CREW 325: Writing for Theatre course. What can people expect to learn from it? There will be lots of games in class and sharing out loud— it’s fun to hear each other’s work and it often elicits great responses! The bee in my bonnet at the moment is that theatre is always going through fashions, and my current fashion is trying to make writers aware that they are doing much more than simply writing down what the actor’s should say. A writer should understand how all the components of a play work, so that they can write in a way that provokes responses to their words. A lighting designer

When: May 17–21 Where: Studio 77, Fairlie Terrace, Victoria University Book online: http://www.eventfinda.co.nz/2016/much-adoabout-nothing/wellington

Theatre

should be able to imagine how the lights will look simply because of the language of the script. My teaching process will start with where to find stories. You don’t make up stories, you find them. You get down a story as fast as you can write—as clunky and as artless as it might be—and then you dig into it and see what’s really there. It’s trusting the instinct of your thoughts. And then of course, we talk about the technical stuff such as how conflict works, how relationships between characters change, and how little you can get away with saying (and not overwriting!). The course is mostly just about the joy of creating a story and characters that didn’t exist last week. I never get tired of that, there is always a thrill in inventing.

It’s a Friday afternoon. We sit down with Gary vis-à-vis skype, and in twenty-five minutes he shares with us his journey as one of New Zealand’s most celebrated playwrights. In Trimester Two he will be coordinating CREW 325: Writing for Theatre, right here at Victoria.

Puzzles

Target goals

Made by Puck

Good: 38 words Great: 43 words

'Category Five'

Impressive: 49 words

Each of the words or phrases listed below contains a hidden member of a category, missing a letter. Identify the members of the category (each of which is four or more letters long), and figure out what letter is missing from each. The missing letters, in order, spell out the name of the category. As a hint, one word in the list has a star next to it - the hidden word in it is missing its last letter. PROMISSORILY ALAKAZAM BREAST EXAM COMMON ANACONDA GOLDMINE RIVER MONSTERS * GORGONZOLA TAKANASHI CLAN Week 10's 'Category Five' solution: BODY PARTS - (b)reast, m(o)uth, ten(d)on, e(y)elid, (p) elvis, (a)nkle, th(r)oat, (t)humb, wai(s)t. Hard

If you stick a needle in your arm, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re a bloody legend! Victoria University is the highest supplier of mobile blood in the country. The Science Society liaises with the NZ Blood to bring their donation set-up to Victoria and encourage all its brilliant students to help save lives. On the 13th and 14th of April we had our first blood drive, and the results ensured that this record would continue for at least another couple of months. NZ Blood had set us ambitious targets of 130 donations collected over the two days, and we are stoked to say that overall 172 donations were collected, including from 44 new donors. On average, one donation directly contributes to the saving of three lives, so Victoria students helped save 516 lives. At the Science Society we are so pleased to be able to bring this service to Victoria and have all of you respond in such a fabulous way. Our next blood drive is happening this week in the Memorial Theatre Foyer, on the 18th and 19th of May. You can make appointments by going to www.nzblood.co.nz, calling 0800 448 325, or just turn up on the day! Thanks everybody! The Science Society

Notices Victoria Abroad â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Attend an Exchange Information Session! Why not study overseas as part of your degree?! Study in English, Earn Vic credit, Get Studylink & grants, explore the world! Information Sessions: Every Wednesday at 12:50pm, Level 2, Easterfield Building. Drop-in hours: Mon-Wed 1-3pm, Thurs & Fri 10:30-12pm Website: http://victoria.ac.nz/exchange

Vic SSDP speaker night Vic Students for Sensible Drug Policy is hosting a speaker night, featuring Kevin Hague (Green Party MP), Gerard Hoffman (Manager, Student Counselling), and Wendy Allison (drug checking advocate) at the Law School Common Room at 6pm on Wednesday 18 May. Come along to see drug checking kits in action, and learn about the new uni drug policy. Food and drink provided. Let's get sensible!

Luna - semi-anonymous photo sharing for iOS. Check it out at www.lunaapp.co.nz 46

Contributors

About Us Salient is published by, but remains editorially independent from, the Victoria University of Wellington Students’ Association (VUWSA). Salient is a member of the Aotearoa Student Press Association (ASPA). Salient is funded in part by Victoria University of Wellington students through the Student Services Levy. The views expressed in Salient do not necessarily reflect those of the Editor, VUWSA, or the University. Salient is printed on environmentally sustainable paper, and with vegetable ink, and is completely FSC approved. Complaints People with a complaint against the magazine should complain in writing to the Editor at editor@salient.org.nz and then, if not satisfied with the response, to VUWSA.

Editors Emma Hurley and Jayne Mulligan editor@salient.org.nz Design and Illustration Ella Bates-Hermans designer@salient.org.nz Cover Image Lily Paris West News Editor Kate Robertson news@salient.org.nz Chief Sub Editor Tim Manktelow Distributor Ella and Jayne News Reporters Olly Clifton Jennie Kendrick McKenzie Collins Siobhan O’Connor

Feature Writers Finnius Teppett Alexa Zelensky Aria McInnes, Lily Paris West, Moya Mclennan, Lara Daly & Mila Reuelu-Buchanan

Contributor of the week Roby Joy Eade - because your room sounds dreamy and we all wish we could have a sleepover.

Section Editors Cassie Richards (Books) Dana Williams and Isaac Brodie (Film) Harri Robinson (Music) Ophelia Wass (Theatre) Ruby Joy Eade, Lucy Wardle, Louise Rutledge, Robbie Whyte (Visual Arts) Cameron Gray (Games) Katie Meadows (TV)

Contact Level 2 Student Union Building Victoria University PO Box 600, Wellington 04 463 6766

Other contributors Laura Toailoa, Te Pō Hawaikirangi, Jonathan Gee, George Grainger, Sharon Lam, Jess Scott, James Churchill, Uni Q, Lynette Johnson, Francesca Crutchley, Joe Morris, Kate Morten, Ruby Hansen, Jack Woodbury, Dion Rogers, Benjamin Lister, Livné Ore

Read Salient online at salient.org.nz

Printed by SMP, Wellington. Advertising Jason Sutton jason.sutton@vuwsa.org.nz 04 463 6982 Social Media fb.com/salientmagazine T: @salientmagazine I: @salientgram S: salientmag

HORROR AT THE BASIN

Fri/Sat/Sun Nights, June 3rd to 5th, 6pm to Midnight Basin Reserve Come and experience the Murder Maze at the Basin Three session times 6pm till 8pm for R14 and 8.30pm to 12.30pm for R18 Tickets Are On Sale Through www.iticket.co.nz

No Door Sales