A week of it

Al Green. Photo / Supplied

Music

The old Reverend of gospel and soul Al Green may have been singing for 60-odd years but this is the first time he has made it Downunder. He will serenade his audience at The Civic tonight, and has promised to deliver everything from Let's Stay Together, I'm Still In Love With You and Amazing Grace to songs from last year's album Lay it Down. Our own honey-voiced Hayley Westenra is performing on Friday at the Black Barn vineyard in Havelock North. Or you can indulge your inner rasta at Raggamuffin in Rotorua. This is the festival's third year in the stadium and the names keep getting bigger, this year including Lauryn Hill, Sly and Robbie and Shaggy.

Movies

It's Complicated which opens across cinemas today pairs two of the most well-preserved actors on the strip - Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin - in a rom-com about middle-aged affairs. It's directed by Nancy Meyers, from Something's Gotta Give and What Women Want and by all accounts if you wept or giggled through those, then you will do the same in this one.

Struggling to keep school holiday boredom at bay? Animated feature Astro Boy, about a young robot boy with superpowers, also opens today.

Otherwise there's Noodle, now screening at Rialto, which is a touching Israeli comedy-drama about a twice-widowed, flight attendant called Miri whose life is changed by an abandoned Chinese boy. And the Academy is showing Florian Habicht's at once delicate and raw documentary The Land of the Long White Cloud which tracks participants in Ninety Mile Beach's annual fishing competition.

TV

Cancel your plans because after a dearth of exciting television, there is a flood of juicy new programmes premiering or returning this week - so many that TimeOut has included an extra page of TV highlights. Whether it's the spunky man with the goods in TV One's new risque comedy-drama Hung, our local hero Cliff Curtis saving lives as a paramedic in Trauma or an insight into the diversity of life today in Modern Family, there will be plenty of plots to discuss in the tearoom. Returning hits include TV One's The Zoo, Golden Globe nominee House and American Idol with a new twist: Ellen de Generes as a judge.

Or ...

Loiter around Piha any day this week to see the best young surfers in the world riding our West Coast waves. This is the first year NZ has hosted the World Junior Surfing Championships and there are more than 250 contestants from 25 countries taking part. What better way to while away a day than to watch Olympic-style surfing on one of the most breathtaking beaches in the world? The contest runs until next Thursday.