Books, Books & more Books

It’s only 3 days till DCM‘s very delightful & very Large annual bookfair. Over 75,000 have been sorted and packed ready for sale starting 8am this Saturday at Shed 6, Queen’s Wharf. This year it’s a one day event running for 12 hours from 8am till 8pm. At the bookfair you’ll find classics, cook books, […]

Review: A Briefcase, Two Pies and a Penthouse

It’s a common grievance in 2016 New Zealand that, even with cack-handed dunderheadry in the ascendent and stupidity neck-and-neck with malice in a race to the bottom, nobody’s bothering to satirise this outrageous shit. Prime Ministerial candidates launch campaigns stood atop visual props, yet where is our Veep? Wither an Antipodean Iannucci to harvest all this buffoonery, craft Godzone’s […]

Brand new bars

The last few weeks have seen a rich crop of new bars popping up in Te Aro like hospitable mushrooms. Here’s a quick round-up of the most notable. Wellington’s had no shortage of new beer bars over the last few years, but it’s been a while since we’ve had a proper wine bar. Noble Rot fills […]

A new taonga for Ngā Taonga

The 2014 amalgamation of our Film, Television and Sound Archives into Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision saw its nomenclature justified this week with the unveiling of an aural taonga for the ages. On the 35th anniversary of Wellington Access Radio’s arrival on air, broadcast material dating back throughout the station’s lively history has been added […]

Their wings have not been clipped…

Last week I encouraged Wellingtonians to get out and support the Phoenix as we attempt to #SaveTheNix Plenty of people turned up to the stadium to support the team, 13,654 in fact! That’s over double what the Phoenix have had at their last few home games! So: THANK YOU! It was a fantastic evening of football […]

The hill that isn’t there

Last week saw the launch of Pukeahu: an Exploratory Anthology, an online collection of writing and photography exploring Pukeahu/Mt Cook from historical, cultural, geographic and imaginative perspectives. Collated and published by staff and students of Massey University, it explores a part of Wellington that’s seen more than its share of anguish, conflict and grandeur. It features work […]

Sleeping Beauty on Ice

Sleeping Beauty on Ice plays at the St James until the 5th July.Part of a worldwide tour by the Imperial Ice Stars, a group consisting of actual skating heroes. It is based on the ballet set to Tchaikovsky’s tunes. I’m pretty convinced all ballet should actually be performed on iceskates, an opinion formed in the […]

Resene Architecture and Design Film Festival

The Wellingtonista sent along Glen Barris, a mature and frankly very attractive, student of Architecture along to the launch of the Resene Architecture and Design Film Festival. He seemed to enjoy it: “The Resene Architecture and Design Film Festival is on in Wellington until 10 June. On Thursday night I went to see ‘Bernardes’ – […]

Grimm Bedtime Stories

As part of the New Zealand International Comedy Festival the Playshop Performance Company presents Grimm Bedtime Stories. I took along my three children aged 6, 10 and 12 on Saturday and I’ll allow them to share their experience. Let me say that as an adult I found it super enjoyable and laugh out loud funny. […]

Without literature, life is hell!

This Saturday a large number of spots in Wellington are taking part in a pub crawl but without the pubs. And with literature instead. A LitCrawl if you will! Actually that’s a slight lie. There are not only three pubs involved (Hashigo Zake, Meow and Little Beer Quarter) but there’s a Writers’ Beer as well. Nine […]