Notional Significance: Clearing

 [See all Notion­al Sig­nif­i­cance posts] The offramp leads me down into what, for want of a bet­ter term, I will call the heart of John­sonville. The local RSA greets me with a Bofors gun and an ad for its epony­mous restau­rant (“Fam­i­ly Friend­ly Envi­ron­ment”). Along with the Sal­va­tion Army, Super Liquor, a ser­vice sta­tion and […]

Erm, an antidote to Wellywood?

At the 48 Hour Film Fest this week the pines up on Mt Vic got a cer­tain amount of screen time in one video in par­tic­u­lar — the win­ner of the Best Worst cat­e­go­ry. Here the pines star again, this time as a Mag­i­cal For­est in the lat­est cre­ation from the nut bars behind I […]

What year is St. Patrick’s College living in?

When I was 15,  I had my first ever pash. I was at Onslow, but my best friend’s boyfriend went to St Pat’s (Town) so one New Year’s, we got to hang out with some of the boys from there. There was a par­ty in Strath­more, a New Year’s Count­down in a tun­nel, a Haka […]

cuckoo for caffeine

You may be wan­der­ing along the water­front lat­er in the year when a crowd of large gen­tle­men in colour­ful cot­ton knit shirts may ask for direc­tions to some­thing called the “RWC Par­ty Zone”. And there­fore, as a polite host want­i­ng only the best for guests to our city, you may direct them to Cuck­oo, this […]

NZ Country Blues

I’m post­ing this as I’m amused this band’s appear­ance on Good Morn­ing is list­ed on their poster! Play­ing the San Fran Bath House tonight, $10

Two marches you might want to join

Welling­to­ni­ans have two great oppor­tu­ni­ties in the next cou­ple of weeks to join impor­tant caus­es and demon­strate that you are decent human beings. On Thurs­day June 9,  a march will be held through Welling­ton city to help stop homo­pho­bia and trans­pho­bia on our streets. Then on Sat­ur­day June 25, a Slut­walk is hap­pen­ing. Queer the […]

Notional Significance: Gorge

[See all Notion­al Sig­nif­i­cance posts] The stretch of Hutt Rd from Kai­warawhara to Ngau­ran­ga is a long, dry slog through an arti­fi­cial val­ley. The west­ern side is almost nat­ur­al, cov­ered by tena­cious regen­er­a­tion, but often cut, but­tressed and bat­tered to keep the slope from fail­ing, occa­sion­al­ly sliced by gul­lies and roads that scrab­ble up to […]

Let the handmade revolution begin

Well ok it’s already start­ed, but Welling­ton is mak­ing a giant leap for­ward in cel­e­brat­ing all things you can make by hand this Queens birth­day week­end at HANDMADE 2011. Yes it’s a bold state­ment but when an event takes over Te Papa and the area around it you know it’s not just for a lark. […]

Wellywood Sign Song

Come­di­an Rob­bie Ellis — who you may remem­ber for his show-stop­ping per­for­mance of Man­ners Mall Emo Song (Bus­lane Through My Heart) at the 2009 TAWAs — has a new video. In reac­tion to the huge­ly unpop­u­lar plan by Welling­ton Air­port to erect a “WELLYWOOD” sign, Rob­bie has put his feel­ings into song. Sing along!

Oh god no

Remem­ber when Welling­ton Air­port, after the howls of protest and out­right mock­ery, backed off on its cringe-induc­ing Welly­wood sign idea and promised to go away and think of some­thing bet­ter to cel­e­brate our film indus­try? Well, they’ve had a good, long think about it, and this morn­ing’s paper announces that they’ve come up with a […]