This even­ing the town hall will play host to three hours of indi­gen­ous noise mak­ing as Pao Pao Pao takes centre stage. This lucky Wel­ling­tonista is on a mis­sion; I have gained access as an embed­ded civil­ian pho­to­graph­er to report on the pro­ceed­ings and soak up the atmo­sphere. My com­pat­ri­ot will be report­ing for Taiohi. She is tasked with extract­ing some sound bites from the ranga­tahi and I will be run­ning around with a cam­era in place of the deli­cious Mys‑T.

Wel­ling­ton is a small place, as I have been dis­cov­er­ing since I moved here. Unless you are a com­plete her­mit you will find your­self being inex­or­ably drawn into vari­ous net­works and their attend­ant sticky webs of gos­sip. Of course this is the same where ever you go, I think any­one who has felt slighty queasy look­ing at those Face­book friend wheels will know what I am talk­ing about. On the oth­er hand, some­times the people you meet make you feel like the uni­verse is con­spir­ing in your favour. I am happy to be a drone for the hive mind here at Wel­ling­tonista and will do my best to bring the honey, so in that spir­it here is a link to my girl Shaarne clad in Black­beri. Some of our read­ers may remem­ber a shop called Stand Up Appar­el on Plim­mer Steps that was fea­tured on Wel­ling­tonista way back when. Black­beri is still alive and kick­ing via Trademe and Bebo, so check it out if you like what you see.

Shaarne and I will be join­ing the hordes at the Wel­ling­ton Town Hall from 7pm. The cost is $30 which is very reas­on­able for such a wide range of per­formers. I am look­ing for­ward to my first taste of the ancient art of taonga puoro and a chance to check out 4 Corners. Come along and get down with the tangata when­ua.