may clips

Kia ora koutou, and welcome to clipboard, an occasional newsletter for cool people by me, Reilly Hodson. This time around, I'm highlighting my favourite things from the month of May 2024, the month after I got married.

Why hello there! I feel like I always say this, but it's been a while! I've had a hectic couple of months which peaked with my wedding (!!) in April, which was the best day of my life and consumed all of my thoughts for a long period - more on that to come. Since then I've been figuring out what to do with all this spare time that I'm not spending writing speeches, making table seating arrangements, or whatever.

One of the things I've been considering is writing this newsletter more regularly again. If you're new here, you might not remember, but back when I was an underemployed student this used to be a weekly dispatch with some thoughts and links out to cool stuff. I'm not sure I can commit to doing this weekly again, but I miss the discipline of writing creatively on a regular basis (even though, or perhaps because, I kind of write for a living). So perhaps expect to see more wide-ranging musings in your inbox coming soon! Or not, as the case may be.

Now, links!

🎾 Challengers, directed by Luca Guadagnino and starring the world's hottest movie stars, is the most fun I've had watching a movie in a long time. I also loved Dune Part Two, but honestly I think this is the movie event of the year. I don't think I breathed properly for the last half hour, and I've used the soundtrack as a tool to make me think I'm playing high-performance sport instead of re reading emails in the office.

📖 In the last four years, we've all been witness to the slow erosion of our social order as brainworms (both literal and internet-induced) infect a small but notable part of the population. Naomi Klein's book Doppelganger is the best writing I've come across about the way that people react to the very real social upheaval of the Covid era by falling into fake news and conspiracy theories. In particular, it highlights how even those of us who think we are above the fray are in fact complicit in the process of creating the “mirror world.” Klein just does not miss.

👕 For the past two years, my wife (!!) has bought me a jumper from Thom Morison's zero-waste merino knitwear range, and both pieces (plus another two that I bought myself) have been on absolute constant rotation. Thom has dropped the latest round of knitwear alongside his range for the cooler months, and there truly is no better investment in the menswear world. I'll be picking up another of these excellent crew necks, and the knit polos are in my opinion the most chic officewear option available for those of us in the non-suited-corporate world.

📰 In a sea of bad news for the media industry, it's easy to overlook instances of success, innovation or interesting developments - it's not all doom and gloom! One such instance is The Weekend from The Spinoff, a weekly newsletter that goes behind the scenes on The Spinoff's biggest stories, and acts as a sort of "front-of-book" to the virtual magazine. As an obsessive media reader, I'd like to see more interesting thoughts about how to present top-quality journalism and writing and less ads crammed in between cookie and newsletter pop ups. Also on The Spinoff, Anna Rawhiti-Connell's piece on how the media can build trust by showing its working is the best response to the industry's issues with public trust that I've read.

💇‍♂️ Since getting married, I've been itching to do something dramatic - I've sort-of joked about ear piercings, tattoos, and brightly coloured shoes among others. While I wait to do anything that permanent, I went and got a haircut, going from mid-length to a short back and sides. It'll grow back, of course, but it scratches the itch of shaking up a look in an enjoyable, non-permanent way. I'm enjoying it so much that my wife went to my hairdresser and cut hers off too.

🥙 If you're like me and often find yourself wandering around the Karangahape-Ponsonby Road-Upper Queen St quadrant of Tāmaki Makaurau, you probably also have the issue of where to get kai around about lunch time. Recently there have been a number of places popping up to solve this problem (Beau Delicatessen is one I'm yet to try), but the hands-down best spot if you can’t decide what you feel like is the Lebanese Grocer on Pitt St. Their wraps are the best $15-$20 you'll spend on lunch in the city.

🏆 And closing out this dispatch with a massive shout out to my now official sister in law, Ella Stewart, who took out the award for best up-and-coming journalist at the Voyager awards. Ella is a longform journalist at RNZ focusing on te ao Māori issues, and this recognition is well earned for the amazing mahi she does. Her most recent piece, unpacking the current status of the Waitangi Tribunal, is a super informative read that goes beyond the quick-hit daily journalism we're all used to, explaining the background to major issues without talking down to the audience. Ka rawe, Ella!

And that's all for this time, thanks for reading! If you enjoy clipboard, share it with your cool friends. I'll see you in the next one, and until then you can find me on Instagram, or just reply to this email to get in touch.