Chatterbox: MPs swot up on NZ music

Here we go quietly nuts in May, as they say.

As we know, this is New Zealand Music Month, and of course we here thoroughly approve of any attempt to raise the profile of our local musicians. But it also hasn't gone unnoticed in Parliament.

Without seeming too cynical, it's always interesting when politicos get suddenly sweaty armpits about pop culture. This week Judith Tizard, associate minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage (among other things), sent out a 20-question quiz to her colleagues about local music.

Sample: "How many of his five sisters has John Rowles written songs for?"

At the time of writing, only a few MPs - or their researchers - had returned the questionnaire but the results have been quite ... umm ... interesting.

The last album Trevor Mallard bought was Neil Finn's One Nil, while Donna Awatere Huata's last purchase was Zed's release.

Jim Anderton scored an impressive 18 out of 20, although Ms Tizard's press secretary, Gemma Gracewood - formerly of 95bFM - said the marking was a little lenient. Ever-aware of the world view, Anderton stumbled when it came to the name of the Kiwi band of whom Q magazine said, "If they were American, they would be massive." Watching his back he wrote, "Jihad."

Georgina Te Heuheu may have only got one answer right(ish): she named two of John Rowles' sisters. (There were four he sang about. You name them, and feel sorry for Caroline who is still waiting for hers.)

Ms Tizard says she is challenging her colleagues to buy a local album, catch a live gig and study up on their New Zealand music trivia - presumably because what's she learned in the House tells her that trivia is helpful in running a country.

EXPERT OPINION: English feelgood football flick There's Only One Jimmy Grimble is quite fun and when director John Hay was in town on promo duties, it gave him the chance to start an argument - what are the best football movies of all time? Are there actually any (other) good ones?

"Well, for quirky there's The Arsenal Stadium mystery, a very strange 40s film which is all about a dog who finds all these mysterious clues in the middle of Arsenal Stadium. A personal favourite.

"Then you've got to look at Fever Pitch, which I don't like, I'm afraid, because you expect to see loads of football but there's only a tiny bit on television and loads of shots of Colin Firth and everyone in the stands and they didn't have the rights to film Arsenal.

"Escape to Victory which is just total camp. Like, Sylvester Stallone as the goalie ... "Even things like When Saturday Comes, it's not so much a question of naming a top five, it's trying to think of five football movies.

"I tell you what I like - that Tibetan movie The Cup, which I would have to say is my best football flick. At least you get some of the passion for the sport. It's great."

THE 90 REVIVAL: More good news for fans of those 60s "supermarionation" shows by Gerry Anderson. Having recently started screening Stingray re-runs, Prime Television is now reviving Joe 90 starting Thursday, May 17. The show wasn't the best of Anderson's creations, though it did feature a flying car and, like good sci-fi, it was prescient - here was a show about a 9-year-old who could be brainwashed by a machine into thinking he was a crackshot, a pilot or whatever else proved useful to the World Intelligence Network.

On the show they called the machine - the big spinning thing that Joe sat inside - the Brain Impulse Galvanscope Record and Transfer or BIG RAT.

These days, of course, 9-year-old boys have a similar device: It's called a PlayStation.