Articles in ‘Arts & Culture’

He was one of the most respected writers and poets of the Beat generation alongside his friends, William Burroughs and Jack Kerouac. He was unconventional and championed for gay rights at a time when homosexuality acts were criminal in every state and embodied counter culture thinking too with his views on drugs, hostility to bureaucracy and economic materialism. Allen Ginsberg left his mark in the world with his unusual formatted poetry and…

Immensely talented local portrait artist Logan Moffat is undaunted by the postponement of his exhibition ‘The Mind is the Portrait’ due to the COVID-19 outbreak. He sees it merely as a reason to continue working on his portraits and to evolve what he knows as consciousness painting. A former student at ACG Strathallan, a graduate of Elam School of Fine Arts, with a BFA Honours, Moffat is also the youngest winner ever of the Adam Portraiture…

He was recognized for his method of spontaneous prose covering topics from catholic spirituality, drugs, poverty and travel and best known for his novel, On The Road, he was a pioneer of the Beat Generation movement alongside Allan Ginsberg and William Burroughs. A former football star turned literary iconoclast and poet, Jack Kerouac. Born Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac on March 12th, 1922 in Lowell, Massachusetts, the third child to French…

He was an American writer and visual artist of experimental novels and a primary figure in the Beat Generation movement. His influence affected literature and 1960s counter culture figures and he lived a wild ride of a life that included addiction and a fascination for guns. Forever cemented in history, his name remains synonymous to new, emerging writers hoping to make a literary career out of living dangerously. William Seward Burroughs the…

Considered a prolific underground writer who wrote short stories, novels and poems that reflected on the social, cultural and economic ambience of urban life in a downtrodden America Society came the German-American writer, Charles Bukowski. An outrageous anti -hero literary figure, Charles Bukowski was arguably one of the greatest American writers with detractors who charged him with being crude, vulgar and racist, while fans praised him for…

Considered to be another important modern and feminist writer of the twentieth century who often wrote in the style known as ‘stream of consciousness’ as a narrative device, was the distinguished British writer and novelist, Virginia Woolf. Born Adeline Virginia Stephen in London, 1882 into an upper class family, the seventh child in a blended family of eight. The family resided within the two parallel streets of number 22, Hyde Park Gate, one…

Speaking from the hot rodding background I know and love so well, I enjoy the history and the collectibles associated with it all. On that note and added to the fact I have written for various national and international publications – I really enjoy reading and collecting hot rod magazines. My collection is not museum excessive in size or age but I simply collect what I like. Over the years these magazines have served many purposes from…

Edgar swiftly moved to Boston with a manuscript verse, an unrealistic quest to become a great poet and to find adventure. Although he needed work, he spent his first few weeks making last minute revisions to his poetry in preparation for publication and within the following month he was able to achieve the former when he met a young printer, Calvin F. S. Thomas who was eager to expand his printing business. It was a big risk to publish a…

Widely regarded as an originator of horror and detective genres as well as a pioneer of the modern short story with reoccurring images of murder, madmen, vivisepulture and mysterious women who rise from the dead came an American writer, poet, editor and literary critic who led a fascinating life full of financial hardships and mystery, but remains one of America’s important figures in world literature. Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston,…

As one of New Zealand’s larger than life and undoubtedly most rock n roll poets, Sam Hunt is a rare commodity that has always remained somewhat unconventional, an essentialist and unashamedly honest in his plethora of work that spans more than forty decades. Born Samuel Percival Maitland Hunt, July 4th 1946 in Castor Bay, Auckland, he has one other sibling, an older brother, Jonathan Hunt and between them, an older step brother, Stephen (from…