A Snark at the Park
A guest post from Kenno…
Waitangi Park, yeah, sigh, it leaves me flat. Be warned, that will become the most overused description of the next few years. It’s an urban space surrounding the marvellous Te Papa and thereby it’s not simply a Wellington space but a space that should mightily reflect the national character.
Well, if the idea was to reflect bland conservative conformism and lock-step simple mindedness with all the individuality and self expression of a schoolgirl uniform, then it will succeed. I, for one, thought we might want to reflect other, perhaps more appealing aspects of the national character. Don’t get me wrong, this place would really wow them in Nelson or Timaru, but, this city is a little beyond that, a bit more mature, slightly more cosmopolitan and farther away from pig-dogs and paddocks. Right? God, I was really trying to understate the case.
(not-so) secret Wellingtonista handshake
Okay, here it is.
So, you start with your hand in the ‘W for Wellington’ shape. Connect with your partner following the Welly footpath rule of staying left (ie. your leftmost finger should be on the outside of their rightmost finger). The join should be made up to the middle knuckle. Then (the coup-de-grace!) curl the ends of your fingers over. You’re now making a symbolic representation of the hilly Wellington landscape. Slide the fingers apart (symbolic representation of a catastrophic earthquake, if you’re so inclined), and you’re done.
So cool.
An Email Conversation About Restaurants
Fellow Wellingtonistas, I am taking my in-laws out for dinner tonight. Any recommendations on a nice restaurant that isn’t The White House, Logan Brown, Il Casino, Boulot or Chow? Quiet ambience a definite plus.
Fellow Wellingtonistas, I am taking my in-laws out for dinner tonight. Any recommendations on a nice restaurant that isn’t The White House, Logan Brown, Il Casino, Boulot or Chow? Quiet ambience a definite plus.I’m a big fan of Maria Pia’s. Excellent food; the service is ok to good (provided by the family, so that you know what to expect)… but maybe not hugely quiet.
In the same geographic and gastronomic area as Maria Pia’s is Francois. Nice, small and French. Try the snails.
If you’re after something at the level of The White House, Logan Brown or Il Casino, then try Citron or Martin Bosley at the Yacht Club. Definitely some of the most amazing food in the city, and quiet too. Also, while I haven’t been to Bisque at the Bolton Hotel, I’ve heard consistently great things about it.
It’s not quite so quiet, but Zibibbo is always good. Adam Newell’s one of only two Michelin-starred chefs in NZ, and more importantly, they do pizza! If the in-laws are partial to a bit of cow flesh, then I’ve heard that Crazy Horse is the place to go.
And I can heartily second the recommendation of Maria Pia’s, but it might be rather short notice.
thanks all – the Yacht Club gets the nod. Although good to have those others in reserve for future occasions…
Don’t you just love the Hive Mind?
Young and Hungry 2006
The Young and Hungry 2006 season is about to get under way, with three plays produced and performed by ‘yoof’ starting their two week run down at Bats from this Friday night.
This year we’ve got How to Live in a World Full of Terrorists, Generator, and, winner of best title award, Butt Ugly, which also sounds like it has the most entertaining (if familiar) plot: “What happens when all the odd-ball freaks band together and set out for revenge?”
The Y&H plays are always good fun, and have spawned many a renowned thespian over the years – be sure to pop along and spot new theatre talent in the making. Book at Bats.
Wellington’s World Cup alter-ego
There’s been a bit of discussion up here at Wellingtonista Towers as to just who we should be supporting in the World Cup. We need a team with whom we Wellingtonians can identify with – soccer’s equivalent of the Hurricanes: a team that blows hot and cold; a team full of star names, but who inevitably fall at the final hurdle; a team that are a joy to watch, but typically lose to more dour, joyless sides.
To that extent, we came up with a short-list of four: Holland, Spain, Portugal and Mexico. All these teams have been frustrating their fans for years, making the latter stages on relatively regular occasions, only to lose to more methodical plodders like Germany or Italy, or falling to the perenially brilliant Brazilians.
At the moment, we’re veering towards Spain, partly because they’re sure to be a good source of sporting ups and downs, but mostly because they’re our Earth Sandwich partner, and if that doesn’t count for something, what does? Any votes from anyone else?
And, tell you what, there’s some ‘interesting’ hits for “World Cup” on Google image search. Keep your eyes on the ball, son!
Bleep!
Well, the flyer tells the story, really – if you want to participate in some fun electronic music-making, head along to the Wellington Arts Centre this Sunday (June 11).
Brought to you by our favourite Wellingtonian electronic music-making blogger: Frey.
blognapped!
So, there I was, idly trying to export the old Wellingtonista blogspot entries across to our snappy new dot com address, and failing miserably.
I decided to call it a night, and switch the publishing target back to the wellingtonista blogspot address, as my co-contributors were doubtless champing at the bit to post their latest, insightful thoughts on our fair city onto the site.
But, upon toggling from the FTP publishing option back to the publish-to-blogspot option, something weird happened: “Sorry, this blog address is not available.”
Yes indeed, in the couple of hours I’d had the blogspot address offline, someone had come in and blognapped it, replacing our lovingly crafted site with a spamblog.
Arseholes.
Anyway, this has but accelerated our site shifting plans, so, farewell blogspot, and hello wellingtonista.com.
Those of you with RSS links shouldn’t have to change anything, but if you’ve got a link to us on your website, we’d appreciate it if you could update to the new dot com version of the address.
Wellingtonian Wally of the Year: nomination #1
Might we nominate the two adults who thought that taking eight pre-schoolers for a walk through the Terrace Tunnel as ‘Wellington Wally of the Year’? Yes, we might. [photo courtesy of taniwha]
Coupled
It’s been a bit quiet up here at Wellingtonista Towers over the last few days, mostly because our two most recent and prolific contributors – Haydn and Tom – have been working flat out on their entry for this year’s 48 Hour Film Challenge.
Their hard work has has resulted in ‘Coupled’ – co-written by Hadyn and starring Tom, and which will screen at 5.45pm tonight (Tusday 30 May) at the Regent Cinema.
No doubt the claims of ‘cinematic brilliance’ are well founded, so get along to enjoy this, and the other quality and not-so-quality pieces of film-making whipped up in your fair city over the weekend.
For a full list of screening times head over to the official 48 Hours website.
(And for more Wellington-based 48 hours blogging action, check out Talula and Che Tibby (the latter being another member of the Coupled team.))
Connan & the Mockasins @ Slowboat
The ‘next-big-thing’ out of Wellington (if you haven’t heard that before, then you heard it here first) Connan & the Mockasins have just released their debut EP ‘Uuu, It’s Teasy’, and are celebrating with a free instore concert down at Slowboat Records tomorrow (Thu 25th May) from 5pm. For those who have yet to witness […]