Michael Brown
@jingajik
Music Curator at Alexander Turnbull Library | JD Stout Fellow 2023, Victoria University of Wellington | Author of "Eyeliner's BUY NOW" (33 1/3 Oceania) | Personal account
From Sam Neill's days in the Amamus Theatre Group, 1970s, possibly in a production of Beckett's "Waiting for Godot". Photo: Paul Maunder Collection, Turnbull Library. Photographer and other actor unidentified. natlib.govt.nz/records/2233...
Runs of fourteen new NZ titles have just been added to Papers Past. These include the periodicals Broadsheet (1972-97), NZ Motor & Cycle Journal (1905-15), and The War Cry (1883-1900)... paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/about/past-r...
The Odyssey of The Clean Great NZ music bio, revealing that the lives were lived how the music was made: with flair, industry, and courage.
The Friends of the Turnbull Library offers an annual research grant of up to $20,000 available to scholars whose research involves use of the collections of the Alexander Turnbull Library. The closing date for 2027 applications is Friday 2 October 2026. turnbullfriends.org.nz/research-gra...
A favourite image from this show, taken by Ans Westra at the 1978 Fido Dog Show, Wellington, in which these dog fanciers come over like the Canine Sopranos.
Les Mills (1934-2026), athlete, entrepreneur and politician, at Hutt Recreation Ground in 1958. Photo: Evening Post; natlib.govt.nz/records/2289...
Norman Meehan tells of his musical history and what has brought him to research Rattle Records for the 2027 Lilburn Fellowship. From yesterday’s Post: www.thepost.co.nz/culture/3610...
Check out the overview of the Turnbull Library's music archives in the latest issue of @lianza.bsky.social's "Te Rau Ora Library Life". 🔗👇👇 issuu.com/terauoralibr...
In my experience, this type of research already involves switching between web archives to find where information might be preserved. Closest to home is the NZ Web Archive. Protected by legislation, it does not run the same risks as the WM. 2/ natlib.govt.nz/collections/...
The Hallelujah Shed Project Callout for New Zealand Christian music albums by Steve Braunias in last week's NZ Listener
The AI computer scientist character 'Stephen Falken' in WarGames (1983) was partly based on Stephen Hawking - and was originally slated for John Lennon to play, before he was shot. As it turned out, John Wood gave an appropriately creepy performance ("witchy" as Pauline Kael describes).
US novelist Robert Stone (“Dog Soldiers”) at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, NZ, 1986. Stone was also one of Ken Kesey’s ‘merry pranksters’ in the 1960s. From an article in The Press: paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/C...
Gareth is giving a talk about his book at the Library next month; also live via Zoom. natlib.govt.nz/events/songs...
Songs From the Shaky Isles by @garethshute.bsky.social on sale at the NZ National Library gift shop.
Music writer Norman Meehan has been awarded the Lilburn Research Fellowship for 2027. "Dr Meehan will use the Fellowship to research and write a book about the music label Rattle Records (est. 1991), renowned for its taonga puoro, jazz, and classical recordings." natlib.govt.nz/about-us/med...
Three very different end-of-the-world novels, including the first: Mary Shelley's "The Last Man", published in 1826.
Sea monster float, for Victoria University capping parade 1957. Photo: Evening Post; api.digitalnz.org/records/2277...
"A collection of photographs capturing the spirit of protest in New Zealand in the 1970s" 1970sprotestphotos.nz
Lee Ranaldo on recording Sonic Youth's "Goo". Rip It Up, August 1990; paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/...
"We laughed our way to the summit through thin glutinous mud, set two rappels through a waterfall, and returned, slimy and giggling" Rock climbing in Fiordland, New Zealand, as chronicled by Galen A. Rowell, American Alpine Journal, 1978; publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/121...
r/vaporwave 2026 has just selected thirty all-time #vaporwave classics, including BUY NOW by @disasteradio.bsky.social www.reddit.com/r/Vaporwave/...