090909 UpStage Festival Preview from UpStage on Vimeo.
9 September (tomorrow) at 2pm get thee to a "real life" (RL) access node at the NewDowse (or a computer that doesn’t have all of the bells and whistles blocked) for the 3rd UpStage Festival, 090909. www.upstage.org.nz will play host to 13 live online performances, ‘cyberformances’ no less, that span 9 time zones.
How does it work?
Well……
UpStage is a web-based platform that enables people anywhere in the world to participate in live online performances, created in real-time by geographically dispersed performers. Audiences interact through a text chat tool. The players use images, audio, video and text to creat the performances, operating "avatars" – graphical characters that move and speak aloud. The performances are accessable to anyone with an internet browser.
Three members of the Wellingtonista are already gleefully planning our outfits for the opening of the Montana World of WearableArt Awards Show in on the 24th of September at TSB arena. The huge marketing push has begun with ads popping up near the airport and the details of the WOW wander are being hammered out as I type. The show is worth around 10 million dollars to the Wellington economy and we will no doubt see creative lunges for our attention on a par with ‘that iceberg‘ and ‘those reapers‘. Let’s hope they do Wellington proud with more creativity and less branded bumpf.
Last year the supreme award went to Wellingtonian Nadine Jaggi and this year sees Wellingtonians dominating the field again with 40 out of the 165 garments from locals. Last year Aunty Helen (or her COMMS people) did a mighty job of writing a speech on the fly but although I am sure the awards will be "World Class"™ I am not sure that we need John on stage with giant paua encrusted key for the occasion this year (but if he wants to give the paua dress another outing….)
Today delivered a bright and cheerful blue-dappled day in the city but there were dark forces abroad. Three grim reapers were seen around town this afternoon complete with scythes and flowing dark hooded robes. They were spotted at the beginning of their jaunt in the dank, dark alleys of Left Bank; then again at the library hitting the romance and murder mystery sections; later at New World doing a spot of shopping; and taking some air on the waterfront at dusk (photo credit Dominika Zielinska).
They were harvesting more squeals and smiles than souls and seemed to be a hit with the tourists.
To what do we owe this psychopomp?
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This Saturday is the main event for Wellington’s Japan Festival which kicked off 6 July with the Friend to Friend exhibition in the Fletcher Challenge Foyer. The organisers Asia New Zealand Foundation, Wellington City Council and the Embassy of Japan (along with the sponsors of course) are always bringing us beautiful free cultural events.
Thanks for that.
Our recent guest poster was rightly excited about Music Fair of Japan that is part of the Japan Festival, unfortunately both concerts are fully booked. Zannen desu ne! However don’t despair, there is plenty of Japanese culture to partake of:
More details can be found on the asia:nz website (now with RSS for their event calendar).
If you don’t make it along, don’t forget that the Japanese Embassy runs free movie nights on the last Tuesday and Thursday of every month at 6.00pm. They often sponsor other free events that usually book out fast. You can find details on their website here.
Tanoshi so desu!
Drypnz will be familiar to many Wellingtonians with his distinct street style gracing the streets, alleyways and gallery walls around town. From the paid mural work and other commissions, to paste ups and throw ups around town which are a gift to the city, Drypnz is a prolific, hard working artist who deserves plenty of recognition (and to get paid). The Wellingtonista were lucky enough to have a sneak peak at the new show opening at Manky Chops tonight, and gotta say, we are not disappointed. Those luscious juju lips with their geisha girl pouts were there in abundance of course but there is a range of work, different sizes and mediums and there will be prints and T-shirts available tonight as well.
Head on down from 7:00pm until about 9:30pm tonight, the crew at Manky Chops are always friendly and put on a good party.
Take your wallet, I suspect the smaller works are going to sell fast.
So today is the official start of Matariki, for some time now there has been a push for Matariki to become a public holiday, Minister of Maori Affairs Dr Pita Sharples last week announced the Maori Party had drafted a bill to make Matariki a public holiday. See what the Prime Minister thinks of the idea here.
Some accounts have Matariki as a mother and her 6 daughters assisting Te R? as he turns around and heads south. I like this story better than the Greek version of Pleiades which has the seven daughters of Pleione and Atlas turned into stars to ‘save them from Orion’s dishonourable intentions’. Where are the kick-arse goddesses of legend when you need them? In Japanese legend the sun goddess Amaterasu was lured out of her cave by a good old bit of burlesque dancing and silliness performed by the voluptuous goddess of merriment Ama-no-Uzume. That is certainly one way of coaxing the sun out of a funk.
There are a range of things around Wellington planned help get the Matariki celebrations rolling:
Well today there is time to squeeze the out the last of solstice by squeezing out a quick post to mark the occasion. Mid-winter is officially here with the end of the shortest day, the end of the growing power of cold and darkness and the start of the growth of warmth and light. While there is plenty to celebrate about mid-winter (mulled wine, boots, hats and scarves spring to mind) there is something heartening in the knowledge that the days will be getting longer and us hardy Wellingtonians can give ourselves a pat on the back for surviving the worst of it with our love for Wellington intact. After all, there is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothes.
You may or may not have noticed but the energies of the Wellingtonista have been diverted into the twitterstream somewhat of late, but hey we find plenty of our readers there these days too! Solstice is getting a few a mentions around the place and I found this charming tweet:
@RowanSmith Went to Druids’ solstice do at Stonehenge Aotearoa. Druid: "We give thx to the powers of the East and to the guy holding this light for me"
So we are curious, do you mark Solstice? Are you planning anything for Matariki this week? Let us know in the comments or on twitter @wellingtonista, a post on hot tips for Matariki is planned for tomorrow.
So sometimes right, you have the kind of week where all you really need is a good hard laugh. Two weeks ago I had such a week and took myself off to Happy Bar for a good seeing to by the lovely Diane Spencer, who was feted to be ‘full of wit, charm and filth’ according to www.theatreview.org.nz. She did not disappoint, and neither did Happy Bar and its convivial new owners, cosy refurb and new drinks menu.
Tonight Deborah and Sam are having a re-opening party at Happy Bar with $5 drinks and a full line up of live music. Dress as something that can fly and go now!
Deborah and Sam hail from Auckland and I get the impression that they are going to keep what works with Happy; namely the focus on being a performance space open to allcomers, while opening it up to more of the bar crowd that enjoy Watusi and Mighty Mighty. People that have been to the supremely comfortable and living room like Wine Cellar in Auckland may recognise Sam from behind the bar. Here’s hoping they bring some of that unpretentious goodness to Wellington.
Deborah told me a bit about the drinks:
So you can’t sleep right? If the Fringe festival has left you all over stimulated and you are in need of night time novelty may I suggest that you head to the Watsui tonight for the start of a frenetic 24 hour art gumball rally around Wellington. Welsh artist Bedwyr Williams is going to give us his spin on the ONE DAY SCULPTURE series by taking a used station wagon around 24 locations in 24 hours, aiming to stack up 24 works on the roof rack by midnight tomorrow.
Planned itinerary after the jump
The streets of Wellington on a day like today are a joy, the sun is shining, the breeze is more balmy than bluster and you probably have a home to go to if you need some cave time. In Wellington the streets are shared with all, and if you head into the CBD you will see suits, students, hipsters, children and gold-card holders utilising public space alongside street people and alcoholics. Auckland is responding to the challenges of in-your-face social problems by considering a bylaw to force homeless people off the streets by making the police responsible for moving the problem around. Good luck with that one.
Wellingtonians can’t afford to be smug about the issue but at least the focus is on a range of solutions including a wet hostel and liquor bans. There was plenty of thoughtful discussion over at Poneke about this issue last year.