Grant Smithies's profile photo

Grant Smithies

Nelson

Writer at Stuff.co.nz

Eater, breather, writer. Loves old vinyl records like a fat kid loves cake...

Featured in: Favicon stuff.co.nz Favicon thespinoff.co.nz Favicon thepost.co.nz

Articles

  • Lisbon by tuk-tuk

    Dec 10, 2023 | thepost.co.nz | Grant Smithies

    The cityscape of Lisbon, Portugal. ISTOCKWhen you hit the cobblestones at the bottom of the hill, it feels like the fillings might shake loose from your teeth. There’s a thud, a bounce, a sideways slide, then we lurch forward as our three fat tyres finally find some traction on a road surface designed in the 8th century for horses and donkey carts. A warm wind whips in through the sides of our comical wee chariot.

  • Walking through history in Granada

    Nov 5, 2023 | thepost.co.nz | Grant Smithies

    The Alhambra of Granada in Spain. 123rfThere’s a ritual here every night around sundown. A crowd gathers in the plaza outside San Nicolas church to watch the setting sun blaze pink across the palaces of the Alhambra on the other side of the valley. Hippies pound on drums, thrash away at guitars, sing sentimental Spanish ballads and old Roma dance tunes.

  • 'Busy, noisy, with a lot of unwritten rules': The famous dining culture of Madrid

    Oct 14, 2023 | stuff.co.nz | Grant Smithies

    It comes out bubbling furiously, too hot to touch. The steam, rising from the surface seems to be nearly 100% garlic vapour with slight salty side-notes of the sea. It’s a sight both gorgeous and alarming: those pink wiggly forms bobbing in a pool of pale green, a glazed clay hot tub of simmering shrimp in a liquor of pure olive oil, parsley, garlic and chilli. More bread? Si, por favor. Another vermouth? Gracias, amigo, si. Madrid, I love you.

  • How to WOW Sir Richard Taylor at the World of Wearable Arts

    Aug 25, 2023 | thepost.co.nz | Grant Smithies

    Sir Richard Taylor is a guest judge for the 2023 World of WearableArt Show: BEYOND, starting September 20. SuppliedI last spoke with Wētā Workshop creative director Sir Richard Taylor 15 years ago in his Wellington boardroom, flanked by the five Oscars his team won for The Lord of The Rings and King Kong.

  • Actor Sarah Peirse on the places, people and performances that inspire her

    Aug 19, 2023 | thepost.co.nz | Grant Smithies

    Sarah Peirse plays Patricia Highsmith in Auckland Theatre Company’s production, Switzerland, from September 19. Tony DraytonUnlikable, prickly, difficult, needy. Embittered, manipulative, paranoid. Also, fabulously funny and casually rude. This is how actor Sarah Peirse describes American writer Patricia Highsmith, best known for the Tom Ripley series, though Highsmith wrote 22 novels in all and many short stories. What a character, then, for such a fine actor as Peirse to inhabit.

Contact details

Emails

[email protected]

Socials & Sites

Try JournoFinder For Free

Search and contact over 1M+ journalist profiles, browse 100M+ articles, and unlock powerful PR tools.

Start Your 7-Day Free Trial →

Coverage map

X (formerly Twitter)

Followers
1K
Tweets
6K
DMs Open
No
Grant Smithies
Grant Smithies @SmithiesGrant
9 Apr 25

RT @domesticanimal: Red Tape and Orange Cones. Despite the fact that workers are twice as likely to die in Aotearoa NZ than in Australia, B…

Grant Smithies
Grant Smithies @SmithiesGrant
8 Apr 25

Oh, fuck yes! Get thee to your local independent record store this coming Saturday and buy this Record Store Day gem. https://t.co/W3jZNKdWVJ

Grant Smithies
Grant Smithies @SmithiesGrant
4 Apr 25

The Tubs, Jay Clarkson and some gospel funk singers who sound like a law firm: streamable version of my RNZ music session from earlier today is right here ... https://t.co/TbpzrWk4c7