Maximum Joy Number Two

Disk-jock­eys Long­boss and Name return to Mighty Mighty for anoth­er night of dizzy dis­co heat this Fri­day with MAXIMUM JOY #2.

MAXIMUM JOY!! is night to cel­e­brate left­field dis­co, Balearic soft rock, post­punk and elec­tro­funk: music to boost your mind, ass and soul to cos­mic new heights.

Through the year, Name and Long­boss toil tire­less­ly to source the hottest, most bent-up byprod­ucts of the dis­co era and today. Using extra sen­so­ry intel­li­gence, they bring MAXIMUM JOY!! to Welling­ton.

MAXIMUM JOY NUMBER TWO: Fri­day 2 Novem­ber at Mighty Mighty, 9pm till late. Dress to impress, not sup­press…

If Only: Striving for perfection in the real world

In the cor­ner office of our won­der­ful Ivory Tow­er (lit­er­al­ly now, thanks Noizy for shelling out for that rebuild) we look down upon the seething pop­u­lace of Welling­ton that we love so dear and think to our­selves: if only…if only they were as per­fect as we are. At which point it’s time for our 11am mas­sage and man­i­cure.

This time gave us the chance to con­struct a short list of estab­lish­ments around Welling­ton that could be bet­ter if only they changed some things.

The Port Café

What they have going for them: Fan­tas­tic day­time sun, great city views, real­ly good fish & chips, and a BYO license.
What they need to change: The décor! Plain white walls and con­crete floors alone do not add up to styl­ish min­i­mal­ism: that requires ele­gant pro­por­tions and exquis­ite detail­ing, where­as this place just looks cheap and unfin­ished. The chairs were sal­vaged from the bar­gain bin at Ware­house Sta­tionery, and the only attempts at actu­al design (mod­el ships and some blue down­lights) make it look tawdry and twee. Either get in a prop­er inte­ri­or design­er or drop the prices and be a plain old chip­pie.

more after the jump..

Genevieve Packer: Wish You Were Here

Genevieve Pack­er, prob­a­bly known best for her Hutt Val­ley and State House tee-shirts, has tak­en over Old Vic­to­ria Arcade for her Mas­ter of Design exhi­bi­tion.


The show is open 12 noon until 6 pm on Thurs­day — Sun­day, from the 18th of Octo­ber to the 4th of Novem­ber. Gen’s site is here.

Sandra Schmidt: Hinterland II

Hin­ter­land II
San­dra Schmidt

Michael Hirschfeld Gallery
(at City Gallery)
10 Octo­ber — 18 Novem­ber 2007

The crys­talline shapes and icy-coloured forms of San­dra Schmidt’s Hin­ter­land II make up the sequel exhi­bi­tion to her 2006 hot-hued Hin­ter­land which appeared at Mary New­ton Gallery, Welling­ton. The ear­li­er spiky-shaped works in Hin­ter­land expressed ideas of fire, heat, pres­sure and fric­tion. In Hin­ter­land II the focus is on cool colours and ref­er­ences to ice and water. Both extremes of tem­per­a­ture rep­re­sent inhos­pitable areas, the back coun­try or under­de­vel­oped place, either metaphor­i­cal or real.

(more after the jump)

White Fungus Issue 8 Release Party

Come see the new mag for the first time and enjoy a night of off-beat enter­tain­ment.

(details after the jump)

Jason Kahn and White Fungus

Jason Kahn is a sound and visu­al artist based in Zürich whose work includes draw­ing, sound instal­la­tion, per­for­mance and com­po­si­tion. He was born in New York, grew up in Los Ange­les and relo­cat­ed to Europe in 1990. Kahn has been exhibit­ing his sound and visu­al works since the late 1990s, and has had solo and group exhi­bi­tions in muse­ums, gal­leries and arts spaces pret­ty much every­where in the damn world.

And he’s play­ing in Welling­ton on Sun­day night.

Bus woes

Stupid busesI’ve avoid­ed it as long as I can but I’m going to have to start lay­ing into the Welling­ton bus­es. This will serve two pur­pos­es — to gath­er a weight of evi­dence with which to con­struct a plat­form from which I can launch a series of more for­mal remon­strances; and pos­si­bly more impor­tant­ly, to make me feel bet­ter.

I have begun a jour­nal of woe — chron­i­cling my prob­lems and frus­tra­tions — and you can join in too, if you want.

Gigging of a Friday night

Tonight you can have your cake and eat it too.

Long­time gui­tarist and co-con­spir­a­tor of Greg John­son’s, Ted Brown is play­ing a free gig at Bode­ga. Singer-song­writer Brown has been based in Los Ange­les over the past few years, after mak­ing the big move there with Greg John­son (U.S. site) in 2002. After 5 years build­ing a fol­low­ing they now tour reg­u­lar­ly across Amer­i­ca. And did I men­tion that the gig is free? That’s bet­ter than bad.

Across town at the Ade­laide, the post-rock­ing Dukes of Leisure are play­ing with rock-posters Marineville. They’ll be start­ing at a sen­si­ble time, pro­vid­ing as much oppor­tu­ni­ty as pos­si­ble for drink­ing plen­ty of that cheap cheap Ade­laide booze. Door $5 for that show.

Real Art Roadshow

Real Art Road­show is a mobile exhi­bi­tion of orig­i­nal work by more than 60 lead­ing New Zealand artists. It’s cur­rent­ly parked right out­side the Bee­hive.

More details, incl. list of artists, after the jump.

Mana College v. Wellington College

If you’re stuck for some­thing to do next Mon­day night, you could do worse than to head to Porirua Park for the final of Welling­ton’s pre­mier one grade school­boy rug­by com­pe­ti­tion. The match is to be played between Mana Col­lege and Welling­ton Col­lege.

As detailed in a sto­ry in the Dom Post, Mana has made a dra­mat­ic rise through the grades after start­ing the year in pre­mier two and being pro­mot­ed mid-sea­son, and to have made it to the final is nigh-on mirac­u­lous.

More, includ­ing much politi­cised froth­ing, after the jump