Update: MyGalaxi will also be open on Sunday 26 September.
You know how we had a blue moon this New Year’s Eve, right? And how that is kind of a freak occurrence when you think about it, right?
Well, this Saturday is the blue moon of markets. There are two only once-a-monthers and one super-special, souped-up weekly market being held in our fair city. It won’t matter if the skies ain’t blue because they are all held indoors (very sensible).
First up, the Frank Kitts Underground Markets are holding a special Indie Fashion and Jewellery themed market in the Wilsons carparking building under Frank Kitts Park on the waterfront. This market has been putting in the hard yards over winter, hocking their wares weekly and building up a dedicated following. Their regular stallholders will be there plus a range of special guests. Check out their latest newsletter for details.
Next up is the fourth outing of Mygalaxi Art Markets based in the basement of 39 Dixon Street. These markets are keeping it arthouse under the firm leadership of Arlo Edwards (best Art Experience don’t you know) and the benevolent patronage of James Gilbert at Photospace who is the wind beneath a few creative wings. Long live the patron, we say!
This week in Wellington you could be geeking out, smelling the flowers or listening to some sweet, sweet music to celebrate the start of Spring. We have two girlie gigs to tempt you with this week featuring three sets of ladies that are definitely in bloom.
Claire Terry of Madame Fancy Pants fame is performing with City Oh Sigh at Mighty Mighty from 8.30pm this Wednesday. This lady has been steadily adding strings to her bow and treasures to her jewellery box, not to mention growing a young’ in with her spare time.
She will be there with her pipes, her guitar and her charms.
Always a pleasure.
City Oh Sigh features the lovely Kate (cello, vocals) Sarah (keys) and Catherine (trumpet, guitar, vocals) bringing the musicality and the sweet, sweet harmonies. These ladies are tight and truly committed to the musical arts. You can see them hot on Claire’s heels from 9.30pm.
Details on the invite here. ($5 on the door).
Lisa Tomlins is doing it for herself on Sunday, front and centre as part of the Soundstage season at Downstage with backing from Twinset. These Soundstage events are one-offs that allow you to go to the gig and focus on the music in a theatre environment, a real treat for the performer and the audience. Lisa is a generous artist who is coming into her divalicious own after lending her talents to others and putting in the hard yards learning her craft. Worth. Every. Damn. Cent.
It is reassuring to know that the salon did not die in 18th century France, gathering together in RL to converse, spar, eat, connect and display our intellectual charms has not gone out of style. Recently we have had Pecha Kucha, Ignite and more BarCamps than you could throw a pack of PostIt notes at. Today the open source inclined have been playing with their toys at Software Freedom Day and this week is full of occasions to be witty and pretty and geek (slash nerd).
This week brings Nerdnite#2, another Tuesday night dinner and Webstock will be bring us mini-marvels and the big unveil of the speakers for 2011.
All of these events are non-geek friendly (plenty of room for fraghags), all you need is an eclectic mental diet and a love of creativity and innovation, so don’t be shy. Nerdnite looks to be taking eclectic to a whole new level with geoengineering, stories, witchcraft, and food on the menu at Bettys Bar this Monday. It seems the case that people self-identify as geek but get twitchy when refered to as "nerds", well perhaps this word is going to be reclaimed as well if this Nerdnite thing catches on.
Besides, geek appears to be contested term, this week we have had @BR3NDA tooting about privilege and computers:
Tonight at the Burgundy Room at Bodega you can witness the third live outing of a new band fresh from recording their demo. Be there so you can brag to your friends that you were into them before they hit the big time. Simon Sweetman doesn’t hate them, so that is some kind of endorsement 😉
The Good Words is made up of:
These guys are all kinds of awesome, they kick off at 9.00pm with support from Old Time Enemies $10 on the door. All the dets are on the invite here.
Their bio says it as well as I can:
Take one soul-jazz template, elongate it, daub in bits of funk, traces of pop and the energy of a rock band to create 21st-century Diva blues. Proudly Kiwi, defiantly original and with enough quirk to keep them far from the labels of any particular ‘scene’, The Good Words live in the moments within songs, sidestepping the obvious comparisons by offering just enough spontaneity in the performance, enhancing the crafted tunes. Hooking the audience from start to finish.
[Disclaimer: The author lives with super talented Takumi Motokawa but it ain’t just her that thinks they are shit hot, the demo is getting plenty of play in the office.)
Te wiki o te Reo Maori is drawing to a close, with the finale being held at the markets on the waterfront this Sunday. This year’s theme is ‘te mahi kai’ (the language of food) and what better place to celebrate than the food markets on Wellington’s waterfront.
So go grab your fruit, vege and gourmet goodies from Harbourside and City Markets and live the language of food in te reo. There will be biligual signage, haka, waiata and the release of the a biligual CD of songs Tipi Haere Te Reo.
Formalities kick of 8.00am at Harbourside Market and there will be entertainment until midday.
Over at the City Market (inside the Chaffers apartment building) they will be doing what they do best: making us drool with treats from their kitchen.
Te Kihini Makete i tenei wiki: Kau tunuumu Greytown, hupa paukena Pinehaven penu ma te mina-auahi, he paku hirikaka me te kokonati,Wairarapa pai ika, pai kaimoana, Kawakawa parauni.
Market kitchen this week: Braised Greytown beef, manuka smoked mash Pinehaven pumpkin (paukena) soup, hint of chilli & coconut Wairarapa fish pie, dill mash. Kawakawa brownie.
Kaua e whakama ki te korero maori.
(Again apologies: macrons give our site indigestion)
You know how there is often cool free stuff happening at lunchtime if you have your ear to the ground (actually Twitter may well be the modern digital jungle drum or smoke signal if you know how to fossick and filter, you could just just follow us on Twitter). We have had complaints in the past about posting juicy tidbits a little too close to the time for ya’ll to cram into your busy diaries.
Well, suck it up people, you may have missed the free titi (muttonbird) tasters at Midland Park on Monday or the noodles today at Wagamama but at least you have time to make a packed lunch for a free lunchtime concert tomorrow for Te Wiki o te reo Maori in the Illot theatre, Town Hall. This concert will feature the spine-tingles of Ria Hall who bought the house down at the Seven Sisters concert at Te Papa last month. There will be a range of performances, including the Ngati Poneke maori club juniors and fresh back from the world expo in Shanghai Elena violinist, with her world-class kapa haka classical fusion and impressive mohawk.
So BYO kai and enjoy this celebration of the Maori language and culture. This is what living and working in central Wellington is about people: free access to cultural treasures, excitement and happenings everywhere, even on your lunch hour.
Where: Illot Theatre, Town Hall
When: 12.30 – 1.30 Wednesday 28 July
Cost: Free
Not that it needs any pimping by us, but thought you should know that Wagamama in the Meridian building on the Waterfront is giving away free noodles today from 12 – 2.00pm. We are talking don buri, udon and beef noodle salad here people, well worth waiting in line for if you have the time.
Behold the line at 11.30am last year….
King Kapisi was spotted around Welly town today with a laptop of new tracks. He is actually a Wellingtonian, who knew? Take that Auckland and Samoa, we will fight you for him if we have to.
Anyway here is a clip of Kapisi showing some local favour.
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fSHTFXhGJ8]
The Free Store has been open at 38 Ghuznee Street for 11 days now and word has certainly got out that there is such a thing as a free lunch. The Free Store is due to shut up shop on Saturday this week so if you want to take or give to the project you have 5 more days.
There are a lot of ideas packed into this shop. Part artwork, part social experiment the Free Store is part two of the Letting Space series that began with Popular Archeology: A Sound Archive. One of the stated intentions of the project is to:
highlight the underground ‘free economy’ that redistributes produce and food around Wellington, [Kim Paton] is currently making a call to sellers of fresh produce, as well as to to cafes and supermarkets for their excess stock.
The logos of some of the participating businesses grace the chalkboard.
Stock comes in at variable times, feast or famine if you will. But the observant and dare we say the needy, are discovering what time discarded cafe food is due to arrive and loitering ready to descend. This makes for a challenging project for those volunteers who are staffing the shop. I can imagine they are experiencing the business end of what must be a normal day for Downtown City Mission staff, although possibly with more hipsters.