Music: Jensen McRae, Jenny Hval and Car Seat Headrest reviewed
Growing up black and Jewish in Los Angeles, singer-songwriter Jensen McRae looked to mature writers (Joni Mitchell, Carole King, Alicia Keys) as role models as she sought to sidestep expectations she'd be just another R'n'B artist.
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NZ Herald
3 hours ago
- NZ Herald
War and wonder: The best new YA and intermediate fiction
Photos / Supplied The Year We Escaped by Suzanne Leal (HarperCollines, $19.99) Another war story, for slightly younger readers, from the Australian author of the highly acclaimed Running with Ivan. Jewish kids Lucien and Paul from Paris, and Klara and Rachel from Germany, are removed to a little-known French detention camp near the
NZ Herald
20-05-2025
- NZ Herald
Berlin's rich museum scene - strolling through 200 years of history
The Bode Museum's round Baroque facade, standing against the Spree, is probably one of the most recognised images of Berlin. Inside, the museum has everything from 3rd-century Byzantine art to 16th-century Renaissance art, with a slant towards Christian religious sculpture. There are numerous pieces in marble, wood and bronze, by sculptors like Donatello (Pazzi Madonna), Bernini (Satyr with Panther) and Pisano (Man of Sorrows), along with vibrant mosaics from medieval churches in Constantinople and Ravenna. German Spy Museum Before Ethan Hunt started globetrotting for impossible missions, Berlin was the capital of spies. The Deutsches Spionagemuseum has hundreds of artefacts from World War II and the Cold War, from lipstick cameras to wearable radio interceptors to cipher machines, and lets you play spy as well, decrypting coded messages and finding hidden bugs. A highlight is the Laser Maze, where you can live out your Ocean's 12 dreams and jump and twist your way out of a maze of laser beams. Museum of Communication Alexander Graham Bell may get all the credit for inventing the telephone, but 16 years prior, German inventor Philip Reis revealed his 'telephone', which transmitted voice via electronic signals and can still be found in the Museum for Communication alongside the Enigma cipher machine. The museum has a couple of friendly robots in the atrium, and many themed collections on communication objects, from postcards to mail coaches to televisions and even a pneumatic tube system. Naturkunde Museum With 30 million specimens covering botany, zoology, minerals and fossils, Berlin's Natural History Museum is among the most comprehensive in Europe. The Dinosaur Hall in the central atrium has a brachiosaurus, Europe's only original T-rex skeleton and the world's best preserved archaeopteryx fossil. The mineral collection includes 5000 impact crater rocks, the only collection in Europe, while the wet collection – floor to ceiling shelves of thousands of specimen jars kept for research – inspires awe. Kunstgewerbemuseum For more than 150 years, the Museum of Decorative Arts has been collecting European arts and crafts, from 12th-century tapestries to Balenciaga gowns from the 1960s. It has a particularly impressive collection of Renaissance and Baroque-era furniture and crockery, such as gilded cabinets, Delft faiences and Emile Gallé's glasswork, and its temporary exhibitions cover diverse topics from regenerative design principles to historical Parisian fashion. Jewish Museum Berlin's first Jewish Museum was founded to showcase the community's art collection, six days before the Nazis came to power. The modern museum that opened in 2001 reflects on all that happened after. Installations like Fallen Leaves, a corridor strewn with iron plates with open-mouthed faces carved into them, and Catastrophe, a roomful of banners detailing every Nazi decree against the Jewish population, stay with you long after you leave. Neue Nationalgalerie With a Modernist building that was the last work of German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Neue Nationalgalerie is dedicated to showcasing art from the 20th century onwards. Picassos, Matisses and Rothkos abound, exploring topics such as art's response to post-war societal upheavals. Temporary exhibitions feature work of modern artists like Nan Goldin and Yoko Ono. Designpanoptikum In an unassuming grey building near Museuminsel sits Berlin's museum for bizarre objects, housing artist Vlad Korneev's collection of unusual industrial objects arranged in surreal ways. Old movie cameras and film projectors sit beside odd-looking inventions like fire beaters (a steel broom to put out small fires) and an iron lung (a ventilation chamber for polio patients); among the weirder creative arrangements is a trumpet that appears to sprout from the nose of a first aid prop mannequin. There is no explanatory signage, but the owner offers tours to explain his vision behind the collection. Computerspielemuseum Stepping into the Computer Games Museum is a Back to the Future experience. Some 300 exhibits cover the history of gaming, from early East German games like Piko Dat to a paper set of Dungeons and Dragons to early consoles like Nimrod and Gameboy. The playable arcade games are a highlight, from Computer Space, the first arcade game, to classics like Donkey Kong and Space Invaders, to PainStation, a Pong-like game for adults, where missing a ball results in physical penalties like heat and mild electric shocks.
NZ Herald
19-05-2025
- NZ Herald
Gary Lineker to quit BBC after anti-Semitism row
He will now announce that next Sunday's Match of the Day will be his last after 26 years fronting the show. 'He offered to step down at the end of the season, and did not want the BBC – an organisation he still holds in the highest of esteem – dragged into any further controversy,' The Sun 's source added. 'He remains absolutely devastated by the recent turn of events and is deeply regretful about how his post was interpreted.' Danny Cohen, the former director of BBC Television, has immediately welcomed Lineker's departure. 'Given the anti-Semitic nature of the content Mr Lineker shared it is right that he is leaving the BBC,' Cohen told The Telegraph. 'But Mr Lineker's sharing of the post is a symptom of the problem, not the problem itself. For far too long the BBC has failed to put a stop to Jew-hate and blatant breaches of impartiality on its services. 'All of this has been causing great pain to Britain's Jewish community and consistently undermining the BBC's reputation. Weak leadership by BBC executives has allowed racism against Jews to fester in the organisation for too long. The time for truly effective change is now, starting with unequivocal zero tolerance for antisemitism in any form.' Lineker issued an unprecedented 'unreserved' apology for sharing the rat image, stressing he had done so unknowingly, but his contrition failed to quell mounting anger compounded by his comments to The Telegraph. The 64-year-old made no mention of the furore as he fronted coverage of the FA Cup final on Saturday, despite calls for him to be dropped for the game at Wembley. Lineker had been contracted to front the BBC's FA Cup coverage next season, as well as the World Cup. An early exit denies him the opportunity to bow out at next summer's tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico. The seriousness of Lineker's 'anti-Semitic' rat post was reflected in his unprecedented apology on Wednesday, which was not enough to quell anger from BBC colleagues demanding he be sacked. Lineker had never previously shown contrition for expressing his views on the Israel-Palestine conflict. He also did not say sorry in 2023 for comparing the then Government's rhetoric over its immigration policy to that of Nazi Germany, despite it triggering a BBC suspension that was lifted when colleagues walked out in support of the presenter. The former England captain said in a statement on Wednesday: 'On Instagram I reposted material which I have since learnt contained offensive references. I very much regret these references. I would never knowingly share anything anti-Semitic. It goes against everything I believe in. 'The post was removed as soon as I became aware of the issue. Whilst I strongly believe in the importance of speaking out on humanitarian issues, including the tragedy unfolding in Gaza, I also know that how we do so matters. 'I take full responsibility for this mistake. That image does not reflect my views. It was an error on my part for which I apologise unreservedly.' Lineker, who earned £1.35 million ($3.04m) in BBC pay last year, is lauded as an accomplished broadcaster, but has become an increasingly divisive figure among viewers. His denial that he spotted the cartoon rat, used by the Nazis as a slur against Jewish people, had failed to calm anger among critics. The image had accompanied a video in which Canadian-Palestinian lawyer Diana Buttu attacked Israel's war in Gaza.
