Alex Casey

Senior Writer at The Spinoff

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Articles

My weekend snooping around Ōtautahi’s most famous buildings

5 days ago | thespinoff.co.nz | Alex Casey

Alex Casey goes on an odyssey through some of the most important buildings in Christchurch. Moving to Ōtautahi in the 2020s is a bit like starting a prestige TV show about five seasons in. The budget is massive, the production values slick and shiny, and the reviews are positive, but you still can’t escape the fact that you’ve missed out on pivotal early character building and some truly enormous plot points.
Why doesn’t the South Island get the comedy festival?

1 week ago | thespinoff.co.nz | Alex Casey

Our national comedy festival barely crosses the Cook Strait. Alex Casey tries to find out why. I’ve lived in Ōtautahi for two and a half years now, and I can tell you one thing for free: this city bloody loves a laugh. For example, I once saw a man in a curly blue clown wig driving a Suzuki Swift around and around the roundabout in St Martins. I’ve seen, on multiple occasions, a parody bumper sticker of Jim’s Mowing that simply reads Jim’s Pubic Trims.
‘Lacking in logic’: The NZ screen industry reacts to Trump’s 100% tariff on non-US films

1 week ago | thespinoff.co.nz | Alex Casey

Following the US president’s announcement of a 100% tariff on all films made ‘in foreign lands’, the local screen industry has been left concerned – if not slightly confused. Only 3.2% of The Spinoff’s readership supports us financially. We need to grow that to 4% this year to keep creating the work you love. Please sign up to be a member today. Yesterday Donald Trump announced that a 100% tariff will be put in place on all films made outside of the United States of America.
Tonight, a Shortland Street cameo three decades in the making

1 week ago | thespinoff.co.nz | Alex Casey

Shortland Street is known for its celebrity cameos, but this one is something special. Last year, we published a Godfather-style trilogy of stories about the hunt for The Shortland Street baby.
Review: Marlon Williams finds home in Ngā Ao E Rua – Two Worlds

2 weeks ago | thespinoff.co.nz | Alex Casey

Alex Casey reviews a new local music documentary four years in the making. One of the many crack-up conversations in Marlon Williams: Ngā Ao E Rua – Two Worlds happens when the musician visits his mum in Lake Kaniere. They are heading out on a walk in the infamous wild West Coast weather, and Williams has forgotten his raincoat. “Hopeless,” his mum jibes from the driver’s seat. “You haven’t got enough clothes on, no wonder you always get sick.” Williams stays silent. “So,” Mum moves on.
How this playground became ‘the jewel in the crown’ of Ōtautahi

2 weeks ago | thespinoff.co.nz | Alex Casey

Alex Casey tells the origin story of Tākaro ā Poi, the Margaret Mahy Family Playground. It’s a crisp Tuesday morning in central Ōtautahi and about 100 people of all ages are crawling all over Tākaro ā Poi, the Margaret Mahy Family Playground. A little boy in a “Team Spidey” T-shirt channels his hero as he clings to lobster-shaped climbing holds for dear life.
When terrestrial television feels like a holiday

2 weeks ago | thespinoff.co.nz | Alex Casey

With the double-header long weekend comes a welcome chance to escape streaming slop, writes Alex Casey. Over Easter I texted my husband Joe a sentence that perhaps nobody in human history has ever texted: “hurry up geostorm is starting”. No punctuation, no capitalisation, not because I was trying to be ee cummings or Gen Z with it, but because I was becoming irate in our Hokitika cottage that he was going to miss the start of the Saturday night blockbuster on Three.
How Letterboxd’s ‘Four Favourites’ took over the internet

3 weeks ago | thespinoff.co.nz | Alex Casey

Alex Casey talks to Aaron Yap, the New Zealander behind the viral interview format adored by movie fans worldwide. For the last few years, the showbiz publicity circuit has become dominated by novelty interview formats. Celebrities now answer questions while eating increasingly spicy chicken wings, or playing with puppies, or in the middle of a lie detector test. They are emptying out their handbags, finishing Google autocomplete questions, going on chicken shop dates.
Why is everyone suddenly obsessed with The Artist’s Way?

3 weeks ago | thespinoff.co.nz | Alex Casey

Alex Casey delves into the enduring success of The Artist’s Way, a self-help book beloved by everyone from retirees to famous rappers. On the video call, my mum is gesticulating so wildly while recounting all her recent creative endeavours that she knocks her cup of tea over a work-in-progress jigsaw puzzle. She’s been painting gnomes, baking macarons, writing children’s books and collaging.
The tiniest rebuild in Ōtautahi is finally complete

4 weeks ago | thespinoff.co.nz | Alex Casey

For the last four years, one artist has been rebuilding the lost icons of the city in miniature form. It’s a Friday morning and Mike Beer, aka Ghostcat, is flitting about Pūmanawa Gallery in Ōtautahi making last-minute adjustments. “These are actually from the Canterbury sale yards,” he says, gesturing to some graffiti’d concrete blocks sitting on a window sill. He tilts his head. “Does it look too much up there?