Author: Alan

It’s Spring!

That’s what the cal­en­dar is telling us. As is the wind howl­ing through the trees, and shortly, a string of cold south-west­erly thun­der­storms and gales. Stay classy, Welly Weath­er God!

Leav­ing that aside, the our etern­al optim­ism finds expres­sion in the cel­eb­ra­tion of grow­ing things that is the Spring Fest­iv­al, to start at the week­end (through to 3 Octo­ber).

The first event is the annu­al Otari-Wilton’s Bush Open Day & Plant Sale, which any aspir­ing sub­urb­an­ite should be advised to attend early if they want to pick up the really good stuff. Early bird catches the hard-to-find horoeka vari­ant and all that. But even if you’re not a garden­er, the ‘Bush is a very nice place for a stroll, espe­cially on Open Days when after­wards you can reward your­self at the saus­age sizzle (and the last couple of years there’s been a cof­fee cart there too).

Joel Salom’s Gadgets

Bizarre uses for ping-pong balls, mega­lo­ma­ni­ac robot dogs, fire jug­gling, and a healthy dose of audi­ence par­ti­cip­a­tion are just some of the ingredi­ents in Joel Salom’s Gad­gets, which opened tonight at Down­stage as part of the Com­edy Fest­iv­al.

It’s a mix­ture of accom­plished phys­ic­al com­edy from Aus­trali­a’s Joel Salom, backed by Marko and Jim, a couple of very tal­en­ted musi­cian-per­formers who, from time to time, become part of the action.

Read on…

Predictive Bussing

We’ve long dreamed of being able to time our morn­ing corn­flakes to the actu­al arrival time of our bus, rather than hav­ing to wait 20 minutes out­side a jammed bus shel­ter dur­ing a howl­ing south­erly storm.

The dream goes a little like this. You’re hav­ing your cof­fee and your phone softly blips. You look down. A mes­sage says your bus is 3 minutes behind sched­ule and will be at your stop in exactly 8 minutes. You have time to fin­ish your cof­fee before you grab your coat and go. And you arrive at the bus stop at exactly the right time.

Luck­ily for us this is, in time, becom­ing a real­ity.

Read on to to find out why…

revolution (for dummies)

One of the nicest things about the Fest­iv­al of the Arts is that there are almost always sev­er­al events that leave the realm of over­priced towers of high-cul­ture and invade the every­day places. For example this year, we’ve loved the cir­cus events and the dan­cer with dig­ger in Wait­angi Park.

Right now, the fest­iv­al is get­ting a little more into the faces of the golden mile shop­pers and office lunch­time refugees with a series of shop win­dow install­a­tions along Lamb­ton Quay and nearby streets.

This is the Revolt of the Man­nequins, from French theatre com­pany Roy­al De Luxe. Every night, a new “epis­ode” in each install­a­tion is revealed; stor­ies are told against a wider nar­rat­ive of a revolu­tion of man­nequins against their oppress­ors. 

And while you’re busy check­ing out all ten offi­cial loc­a­tions (map here), put this track on high rotate, and let us know what and where you see the man­nequins next. For not all of the man­nequins are inside the shops (as the pass­ers by who caught sight of the sniper yes­ter­day found out). 

And who knows – it could be that those that are not for the revolu­tion, are against it. 

the 12 Pubs of Christmas

People say, some­times with even a hint of con­cern in their voices, that we at the Wel­ling­tonista are overly con­cerned with drink­ing.

And it’s true. We are very con­cerned. In fact we’re writ­ing now to warn you about an upcom­ing event that may well involve some drink­ing. What’s worse, it’s the the sort of thing atten­ded by the Boys Your Moth­er Warned You About and the Girls Your Fath­er Snuck Looks At When He Thought Your Moth­er Would­n’t See.

An Adagio Christmas

There’s a moment very early on in An Adagio Christ­mas when the whole theatre gasped in uni­son, and both our daugh­ters stood up in shock. The moment passed, the shock faded, but they nev­er quite settled back past the edges of their seats. Like the rest of us, from then on they were hooked.

An Adagio Christ­mas is a retuned-for-Christ­mas ver­sion of the earli­er Down­stage pro­duc­tion of the same name; a series of loosely linked vign­ettes whose per­form­ances encom­pass vari­ous cir­cus skills as well as music, singing, dan­cing, and com­edy.

T4WA nominees: Wellingtonian of the Year

Vot­ing in the Fourth Annu­al Wel­ling­tonista Awards is open from Decem­ber 1–15. Then come find out the res­ults at our Awards Night at Mighty Mighty on Decem­ber 17!

To vote, vis­it this page.

Our nom­in­a­tions for Wel­ling­to­ni­an of the Year are all people who make our city a bright­er, bet­ter place to live. Their con­tri­bu­tions are as var­ied as Wel­ling­ton itself, and we’re so proud of them all.