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