Chatterbox: Te Vaka te top

We've always known that West Auckland band Te Vaka are much-loved worldwide, but it's also been lamentable that their terrific pan-Polynesian music has not received the attention it deserves here at home in Aotearoa.

Well, it's time to catch up with the rest of the globe. Te Vaka have not only been nominated in the Asia/Pacific category of the BBC Radio 3 World Music Awards, they have also been chosen as one of the four finalists in the world in the "Audience Award" category. This is on a par with the audience awards Whale Rider has been receiving at various film festivals around the world, with the winner chosen by public vote.

The other finalists are London Jewish band Oi Va Voi, UK folkies Seize the Day and Slovenia's Terra Folk.

Says Te Vaka's business manager Julie Foa'i, whose husband Opetaia heads the band, "We are very excited. I have had truck loads of emails from fans wishing us the best and international phone calls - for example, a guy from Brazil so excited about our nomination he raved for a good 20 minutes."

So it's definitely way over time to support the home team: www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/world/awards2003/audienceaward.shtml, where you can vote and listen to five sample tracks from Te Vaka's latest album, Nukukehe, to which the Herald awarded five stars. Voting closes on February 13.

FREE YOUR MIND: If, like us, you can't wait for the next instalment of The Matrix - The Matrix Reloaded hits screens on May 15 - those lovely writer-director Wachowski brothers have produced a series of nine CG-animation short films to serve as teasers and offer some mind-warping "backgrounders". The Animatrix debuts with The Second Renaissance - Part 1, written by Larry and Andy Wachowski, detailing the history of The Matrix's war between man and machine. Four of the series can be seen online (www.theanimatrix.com) and The Final Flight of the Osiris will screen in cinemas as a prelude to the launch of the Stephen King supernatural thriller Dreamcatcher on April 24. Osiris is being pitched as "chapter 1.5" in the Matrix trilogy and depicts the rebel warriors aboard the hovercraft Osiris as they battle the Machine Army and try to send a message to Zion, "the last human city on Earth".

OCH HAI: Scottish comedian and erstwhile actor Billy Connolly arrives in New Zealand this month to start filming on the Cruise-Taranaki vehicle, The Last Samurai. Connolly plays Sgt Zebulah Grant, one of the few westerners in the cast aside from Cruise and the great English character actor Timothy Spall, who flies in at the same time.

HAVE A LITTLE FAITH: More plundering in the name of Team New Zealand: first it was Dave Dobbyn's Loyal. Now, Fiona McDonald and the Auckland Philharmonia have reworked John Hiatt's Have a Little Faith for the latest stage of TV One's promo strategy for the final race campaign. You can expect plenty of it as the channel readies itself (and us) for saturation coverage of the showdown. Wish they'd kept it a bit shorter though ... faith-building doesn't feed on tedium.

OFF THE WALL: How sweet to hear TVNZ newsreader Neil Waka explain in Tuesday's late-night bulletin that American music producer Phil Spector was best known for his "wall of music" sound. Nice try - but the phrase which has become embedded in the lexicon of the 20th century is: "wall of sound".

BACK FROM THE DEEP: Lesley Paris, a musician who ran the Flying Nun HQ in Auckland in the 1990s before returning to her beloved home town, Dunedin, is back in town this week with her new band Palace at 4am. Palace are playing at the Kings Arms on Saturday along with fellow southerners the Hiss Explosion and Brian Crook and Bible Black, Crook being the fellow from the Renderers. All three are signed to Dunedin's Arclife label, and the gig should be a tidy taster of all that is good in the deep south.

TOURING TROUBADOURS: Bob Dylan and Ani DiFranco will play a second Auckland show on Saturday, February 22. Tickets on sale now.