Everything is broken.

So here's my bold plan to do something about it :)

Sorry to begin this post on such a downer. Bear with me. It’s been a bleak few weeks, but I promise things will lighten up soon. Things always get better. Don’t they?

It started with this story about the shocking state of local music journalism. I was pissed. I got emotional. In the words of Mark Rebillet, I was bothered.

“[It] fucking sucks,” I wrote. “It hurts.” The response shows others are feeling the same way.

Then I spoke to 95bFM’s general manager Tom Tremewan about the Auckland radio station’s financial woes. He told me the situation was dire. Breaking even by December would be a dream result.

But that would only be the start of saving the b. “There’s this big hole that we’re in,” he said. “We operate on the faintest smell of an oil rag.”

More recently, I spoke to Rodney Fisher, a local music veteran who fronts the band Goodshirt.

He’d recently released a great solo album, and only one media organisation had been in touch to request an interview.

Several weeks on, he still didn’t have any feedback, because we have no full-time music critics left at any major publications in Aotearoa.

Sigh.

If there’s a common theme coming through my work here lately, it seems to be this: The things we have always had are quickly becoming things we are about to lose.

When I went through my archives, I found more examples: Sky World, the St James, Event Broadway, The Wine Cellar, my traffic-clogged former home suburb of Te Atatū, Auckland’s last free car parks, and good manners.

Ugh. It’s fucking heavy.

Auckland’s St James Theatre, as seen through a grubby Sky World window.

I get it. It’s been a tough old year. Everyone I know is having a rough time. Friends of mine have lost partners or parents. They’re recovering from illnesses and rebuilding after job losses. Some are going in circles, stuck negotiating with insurance companies after this year’s devastating floods.

There’s been an election to deal with. The cost of living crisis. Inflation. Escalating mortgage rates. Climate change.

Why is everything so fucking expensive?

I have my own version of this sorry situation, a triple-whammy of terrible times that’s unfolded over the past nine months. Some of that is too personal for publication. Some of it absolutely needs to be written about, and I’ll be doing so soon.

But covering broken things, while going through sad stuff myself, takes a toll.

Like many, I’ve struggled with my mental health this year. Some weeks, getting up and facing the day has felt overwhelming.

Therapy has helped. Hanging out with my kids has helped. Going for a walk has helped. Coffee has helped. Last week’s joyous Earl Sweatshirt concert has helped. Football has helped. Getting a dog has helped.

Right now, I’m OK. Things are OK. And I’m ready to try and do something about this.

It’s something small, but if we all pitch in, maybe we can make things a little bit better for each other.

Right here, right now.

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Welcome to Boiler Room’s Super Freaky Friday Love Fest

I know! The name sucks. I ran out of time and couldn’t think of anything better.

But you get the idea. Every Friday, no matter how bad the week’s been, this newsletter is going to become a negativity-free zone.

No frowny faces, so sad sacks, no complaints, no broken things.

Instead, we’re going to turn up and celebrate the good stuff.

It’s going to work like this: In the comments below, I want everyone to share something they’ve discovered this week that’s changed the vibe, a thing that’s helping you cope, getting you through or making you smile.

It might be a new TV show, a rewatch of a favourite film, a song or artist you’ve discovered and can’t take off repeat, a podcast that’s helping you de-stress on the bus ride home, or a tweet (these days, it’s probably not going to be a tweet). Hell, I’d even take a meme.

Perhaps it’s just a really good sandwich, a sunset, or a happy dog you saw sitting outside the dairy recently.

Whatever it is, I want to know about it. If we all do this, every Friday, then perhaps we can create something special, a space where we might uncover something we’ve never heard or seen before, and ignore what’s going on outside.

I’m going to get us started.

The Gold is gold…

I am ripping through The Gold, a six-part BBC TV show that’s equal parts The Wire and Line of Duty. Set in the 80s, it’s based around a riveting true story about the world’s biggest gold heist. It’s a ripper. Here’s the trailer…

The latest episode of Search Engine …

Like many, I’ve been searching high and low for an alternative to Twitter. I’ve tried Threads and Blue Sky, but it’s just not the same. Then I listened to this episode of PJ Vogt’s excellent Search Engine podcast, an interview with tech deep thinker Ezra Klein, and it made me think I’m looking for the wrong thing in the wrong place.

Apple TV+’s The Enfield Poltergeist…

You’ve got several options to find your thrills this Halloween, from the new Saw film to the Netflix shows Fall in the House of Usher and The Dead on Trial. I’m choosing The Enfield Poltergeist, a four-parter on Apple TV+ that gets actors to mime audio recorded during what is believed to be a real-life haunting in the late 1970s. Ergh.

The new Sampha record…

Oh Sampha. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. That voice. That voice! It’s been six long years since his last record, but Lahai is well worth the wait. (There’s a lovely interview with him on Sniffers.) Want the best news ever? He’s just been announced as a headliner for Splore next February. Count me in.

And finally, Erny Belle…

She’s just … magnificent.

OK, it’s over to you! Post your recs, your faves, the things that have put a smile on your dial, in the comments below. Hopefully, this will help us all kick off our weekend a little more brightly than it might otherwise have been…

(Seriously though. Please post so I don’t look like a loser.)

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