july clips

Kia ora, and welcome to clipboard, an occasional newsletter about good shit based in Tāmaki Makaurau, by me, Reilly Hodson. This edition is all about great stuff that crossed my desk this month.

Hello! Anyone else really feeling the seasonal affective disorder this month? Every IG story from Brat summer in Europe is driving me crazy, while I'm under a blanket watching House of the Dragon and wondering if I'll ever finish work not in the dark again. It doesn’t help that I also literally got Covid (remember Covid?). Plus, there's been so much news! Brighter days must surely be around the corner.

Now, clips!

🧷 This month has been one of many, many repeat wears of my favourite knit jumpers, from Thom Morison. It can become dreary wearing the same jumper in different colours over, and over, and over, no matter how high the quality. So, I've started to experiment with some accessorising through badges and pins. I got a great one for my birthday from Zoe Brand, and my wife also made a really cool one at a workshop she put on with Kathryn Tsui, both of which have been in rotation. Feels like a much better, less gross version of the badge that prefects wore on their jumpers at my high school.

🧑‍🎨 Another month, another beloved artist revealed to be a truly bad person in their home life. Claire Mabey at The Spinoff made great use of the "argument with myself" format to break down the age old question of how to separate the art from the artist. A really well considered piece about a challenging conversation with no easy answers - I found myself agreeing with both the bold and standard font arguments. As a bonus on this same topic, The New Yorker's 'Critics at Large' podcast also had a good episode about how to engage with work from bad people.

🪑 Dan Johnson's Kiosk has been one of the best stores in Auckland for a while, definitely since setting up shop in its Newmarket loft. However, these past few weeks Dan has been on a tear, going from strength to strength, expanding the shop's offering to include more non-vintage, consistent pieces in the selection. I love these retro headphones and these perforated tongs, but I also love the little touches like this key loop and National Candles that I've been looking for since Flotsam and Jetsam closed.

🥪 I popped into Williams Eatery last weekend for my first visit since they started their new menu. It's crazy, as someone who opened the first shift there, to see how busy they are consistently nowadays, even in a very challenging environment for hospo. I had the breakfast sando, which is the most delicious, fantastic thing I've eaten for breakfast in some time. Fried egg, bacon, nduja, and a hash brown, all on an English muffin. Could eat one every day tbh.

🎧 I have a troublingly limited understanding of New Zealand history, a function of my schooling leaning more on twentieth century US and ancient Roman histories. As a result, I really loved listening to Juggernaut, Toby Manhire's new podcast about the fourth Labour Government. A really fascinating insight into the government that in so many ways shaped New Zealand's modern conception of itself, for better and worse. It's filled with amazing archival and new audio that really gets into the minds of the decision makers at the time.

📰 This newsletter may not be on Substack anymore, but the platform is seeing a resurgence of great content. Jean Teng, formerly of Metro and currently of the Ate Ate Ate podcast, has reignited her publication Crunch Zine; Zayyar Win Thein of Wynn & Thayne has restarted his legendary publication (and inspiration for clipboard) Newspread; even bro fashion podcast Throwing Fits has made the switch. If you like my writing, I’d also recommend checking out clipboard bestie Mitchell Tan’s Rubbish Report later this morning….

🥾 I've long admired Coffee Outdoors, a shop focused on cool, practical gear for camping hiking, scroggin type stuff. I've still never been in person, but while hoping planning for some outdoor activity over summer I've been scrolling the site lusting over gorp-y shoes, water bottles and on the go coffee gear. Why are there no shops like this in Auckland? Anyway, the best thing about the store is the massive camping mug by Gerard Dombroski they have on the street.

That’s all for this issue of clipboard, thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this issue, forward it along to your friend who says “I’ve got it this time” when it’s time to pay. I’ll be back in your inbox presently, and if you want to get in touch in the meantime with feedback, offers of work or to set up a coffee catch up, then you can hit reply on this email, or reach out via Instagram.