Issue No45 — Playing in the Ruins

This week, we talk to Geneva Alexander-Marsters. Geneva grew up in Central Auckland, traversing the city and moving between worlds as she navigated her bilingual life, having been part of the first wave of the Kohanga Reo generation who learned Te Reo Māori within urban mainstream schools. She currently releases music under solo project Geneva AM, whose debut album PIKIPIKI recently won the Taite Music Prize – Best Independent Debut Award. 

CRINGE: Kia ora, Geneva. You recently played at the Auckland Town Hall with the Auckland Phil. Is there a venue in Tāmaki Makaurau that you’d love to play in, big or small?

GENEVA AM: My mum’s house (my childhood home) is currently being acquisitioned by Auckland Transport, who want to invest billions of taxpayers money into widening our motorways for bus lanes all the way from the North Shore to Central Auckland. It’s a huge land grab. I grew up listening to the speedway (RIP) in Western Springs and I could hear the lions roar late at night from the zoo. I thought it would be cool to play the stadium there one day and have an afterparty at my mum’s house on Ivanhoe Rd. I always thought it would be there, but just like most venues and third spaces in Auckland, they’d rather tear down buildings of sentimental value, bank the land or build something that does nothing for culture in this city. In saying that, I’ve seen that they want to resurrect the St James, and I’d love to play that – even if it’s just the ruins.

Auckland as a city has featured in your songs – most notably in 2025’s ‘Urban Planning’. Are there any buzzy or unexpected ways that you think growing up here has influenced your music?

Everything in Auckland is a contradiction. It’s a diverse place of belonging built on stolen land. The city centre is totally artificial and our natural landmarks point to South Auckland as being the actual geographical centre. (Maybe that’s why all the best artists come from the South side?) I’ve grown up having to mentally edit the Eurocentric view that has been constantly prioritised in everything, to the point that some people are unable to recognise their own conditioning in conversation. As someone who is both Bilingual and Indigenous, I have to toe the line so that I can present myself to people who already have their minds made up about me. I have to convince them through the beauty of art that, actually, we’d be a lot better off if we prioritised “Aroha”. ‘Urban Planning’ is about artificial ownership and rewriting our lost history in order to control the narrative which has done its very best to convince a large group of people that the past couple of millenia didn’t happen. So now it’s the job of people like myself from the kohanga reo generation to redirect, reconnect and reclaim our lost histories to what has always been the truth.

Amidst multiple local festivals and venues like Flying Out closing down, is there something you think Auckland should hold onto tight?

We should be prioritising the luxury of following one's dreams. We need to defund the military and the police. We need to invest in education, healthcare and the arts. We need electricity companies, landlords and supermarkets to lower their prices so that people have a lower cost of living, higher disposable income, time to have families, warm places to live and time for hobbies. We need people to vote for a government who are willing to regulate these things. Please enrol to vote before it’s too late. This government decided to fund Linkin Park over Splore; they are hell bent on sending our money overseas and pocketing the profit. I know where Christopher Luxon’s bach is on Waiheke; it’s mad gauche. I’ve learnt that the rich take and the poor give, but I think that natural resources should be free and Prime Ministers shouldn’t be given any entitlements. Aucklanders need to wake up and take back what they are giving away.

You can peek further into the world of Geneva AM’s debut album PIKIPIKI on LUME MUSIC, which is a new digital format that allows fans to go deeper with the albums they love. 80% of net revenue goes to the artists and their partners. Geneva’s Lume includes: behind-the-scenes photography, unreleased demos and B-Sides, a breakdown of the meaning behind songs, plus more!

By Jean

NEW OPENINGS

There is a new Korean charcoal barbeque restaurant in Newmarket called GUI –  it looks like there’s all the usual suspects, plus starters like popcorn shrimp and courgette fries, oh, and a chilli chicken… paella?

The Honey Bones space in Grey Lynn has been reimagined as BRIA, spearheaded by Reginaldo Richard (of The Butcher Baker in Hellensville, and a previous head chef at Honey Bones). 

Bare Wine has moved its wine bar to its LA BUVETTE space on Richmond Rd – open this week, I believe! The above-ground vibes might not be quite the same as the basement down the driveway but I’m sure the food will still be tasty and the wine still boozy and delicious.

Maggie Bakery, known mostly for its Asian sponge cakes, is moving their was-always-going-to-be-hard Hobson St store to HIGH ST.

Also, just a follow-up that two places we’ve mentioned before in the newsletter as “coming soon” are now open – STEADS, a coffee bar in Takapuna and MATCHBOX, a new cocktail/late-night dining spot in the old Deadshot.

EVENTS

Britomart has restarted their WINTER TREATS snack and coffee giveaways. The next one up is on Tuesday 28th from 8am, where they’ll be handing out 500 free almond croissants from Amano at Atrium on Takutai. Expect a line.

If you haven’t had the chance to try out Pho Yen in its Dominion Rd digs yet, you can GRAB ONE from Java Lab in the central city next Tuesday 28th from 11am. Only 100 bowls so probably go early.

Alongside a line-up of events, Heart of the City’s Restaurant Month have also released its typical menu deals, browseable online and somewhat incomprehensibly in this one UNHANDY PDF. I thought I’d go through and pick out a few but this PDF is so unreadable, your best bet is just to turn up at the restaurants you like the most and hope the menu is good, imo.

By Mike

Here are two things everyone agrees on: Auckland is the fastest growing region in the country, adding nearly 18,000 people last year, and these new residents need affordable places to live. From there, the consensus quickly breaks down. After five years of fractious back-and-forth between national and local government over where exactly more homes ought to be built and at what scale, councillors at long last voted 17-5 this week to accept a watered-down version of the twice watered-down Plan Change 120 proposal, mercifully agreeing to allow apartments of up to 15 stories adjacent to our new, extremely expensive transport hubs, and up to six stories within walking distance. As part of the compromise, more than two dozen local centres that aren’t on major transport lines will not be upzoned. The plan meets Housing Minister Chris Bishop’s bottom line of ensuring that 1.4M more homes could be built in the coming decades, 200,000 more than currently allowed for. Of course, despite the scaremongering they won’t all be built, in much the same way as no one orders everything on a restaurant menu – rather, the point is to provide the market with choice.

A small victory then for politics as the art of the possible, which can be contrasted with Resource Management Act Reform Minister Chris Bishop’s political craft of letting vested interests get away with one. Bishop's fast-track approvals system, intended to allow streamlined consent for infrastructure and development projects that provide significant economic benefits, GREEN-LIT THIS WEEK A DEVELOPMENT OF MORE THAN 1,200 HOMES NEAR ŌREWA THAT HAS ONE NIGGLING ISSUE: Watercare has no intention of providing services to the area within the next 25 years or so. The residents’ association will therefore be required to manage the operation of a private, on-site water treatment plant (!) to process their collective waste so that it can then be trucked 1½ hours to Whangārei for disposal. This sort of marooned urban sprawl, euphemistically known as “out-of-sequence growth”, is the antithesis of how Tāmaki should be growing. Its fast-tracking results in the developers, Vineway, paying only about a third of the contributions to Council than they would otherwise, conveniently letting them off the hook for tens of millions. It might well be faster, but it's definitely a shit deal.

Choice items from the liquidation sales of Auckland’s two-speed recovery.
By Simon

SCHNITZEL FLATTENER MACHINE
Current bid $10, Closes tonight
If you like nothing better than a massive kitchen appliance that totally dominates your bench, cupboard or in this case, floor space and that you only use a few times a year due to its extremely specific and narrow usage - this could well be just the thing for you.

CASH REGISTER, TILL, SCANNER, PRICE GUNS
Current bid $65, Closes tonight
If you’re thinking of opening a shop, you’ll need this boring stuff and you’re unlikely to pick it up in one easy hit for anything less that what it’s probably going to go for here.

VINYL AND VIDEO GAMES
Current bids from $0, Closes Monday
Presumably getting to the end of this JB HiFi insurance claim stuff now - lots here still, all now without reserve. Enjoy!

CITRA SPRITZ RTDS
Current bids from $0, Closes Tuesday
They’ve been slowly dumping the stock for this RTD company all over the place for a while but here’s the last run of it, and if you like the sound of a zesty orange and bitters vodka cocktail, there are thousands of them here in lots of 96 cans and currently priced at $0. The only bad news is the BB is 26/08/26 so it’s going to be a busy and potentially regrettable month getting through it all.

By Simon

THURSDAY 23RD

ANAHERA-JADE
Grace, Free
New solo show of airbrush paintings, Island Love Never Give Up, curated by Jingcheng Zhao. Runs til August 15.

R18 COMEDY HYPNOSIS SHOW
Papatoetoe Cosmopolitan Club, $40
For some reason there are two different comedy hypnosis shows touring the city’s suburbs this week with multiple shows each. Only this one is R18 (but the other is $10 cheaper) but in both counts, if you are going I would urge you to think twice before volunteering to go onstage - hypnotists do not care about your dignity and they have proven it time and time again.

REGIONAL DISCREPANCIES
Whammy/Audio Foundation, $20 for one night/$65 weekend pass
Looks like six different shows over the weekend with artists and groups from all over (including overseas!). Hard to say what links them all together apart from all being in town at the same time and varying degrees of experimentalism. The Sunday show at AF looks particularly good with THIS GUY and Shane Carter!

FRIDAY 24TH

RICHARD HAWKINS
Treadler, Free
Big name get for Treadler! Works in the show (which is called, deep breath, The Lust for Evil Sequence, The Bocklin and Bardella Sequence, The George and Goliath Sequence) are here courtesy of Galerie Buchholz, runs till August 22.

UP ALL NIGHT: 1D 16TH ANNIVERSARY PARTY
Tuning Fork, $30
Celebrating 16 years since the formation of the world’s 4th best boyband ever (according to google). Superficial x Call Me Maybe DJs are playing and there WILL be flashing lights - stay away, photosensitive people.

SATURDAY 25TH

VERA ALLEN
The Hollywood, $40
The Auckland leg of the album release tour for the AMA/Taite Prize double winner Vera Allen’s Heaven Knows What Time.

LIVING PERFECTION
Geihinkan, $20
Release party for an EP called Ovo Je Za Tebe which seems to be a synthy italo-disco situation. Support from Locals, Green Grove and The EE Machine and it says that there is Tiramisu included in the cover charge but then goes on to say there may not be tiramisu after all so be prepared for either eventuality.

DOUGFEST: OOPS ALL HEADLINERS
Double Whammy, $25
Big show with Crooked Royals, Static, The First Child, (Hamilton rappers and hosts) Thief n Zard, Barracks and Cootie Cuties

JOUSEY
Mothership, $20
Philippines-born, Christchurch-dwelling Jousey is up to play some UK Bass/Garage. Support from Kazi Flip, Sara, Who Really Cares and Bokie.

SUNDAY 26TH

BALCONY GARDEN SOCIAL CLUB
Central Library, Free
Nice little get together on the last Sunday of every month for apartment dwellers to compare notes on how they are going trying to keep the pot plants on their balconies alive.

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR v AUCKLAND FC
Eden Park, From $59
It seems unlikely either team will be playing their best squads but if you somehow haven’t had enough football of late, here’s some more. 

WEDNESDAY 29TH

LATE AT THE MUSEUM: 1986 HOMOSEXUAL LAW REFORM
Auckland Museum, $59
It’s the 40th anniversary of homosexual law reform and the Museum has Louisa Wall hosting guests Fran Wilde, Edward Cowley (Buckwheat), Bruce Kilmister, Ngāhuia Te Awekōtuku and Welby Ings talking about the movement towards de-legislation. There’ll also be museum curators sharing related artefacts from the archive.

RODNEY FISHER AND FABLES
Whammy, $16
A cosy night of songwriting singers. NOTE: Early show, music starts at 8.