I was out with my Dad and my daughter today and needed to find lunch for three generations of Judds in the Cuba St area. I thought we’d wander down the Left Bank to get some empanadas from Buenos Aires. Despite the window saying that they are open 12-2 on Fridays, Buenos Aires was decidedly shut. So we went next door to Viva Mexico instead.

It was a surprise when we walked in to see that the place was completely redecorated. It’s now a revolucion-themed taqueria. I talked to the new owner and he’s a solid Zapatista — that stuff’s not just hip branding.

We were quickly seated and given menus. The choices are pretty basic: enchiladas, tacos, or eggs with a variety of fillings and sauces. I watched other tables’ food go out and it looked good. Like other cuisines that prize homogenous textures and complex mixtures, Mexican food can be danger of looking like cafeteria slop, so it was good to have nice plating.

I had not even begun to wonder where our order was when the proprietor apologised for the wait and gave us a little dish of fried cheese-stuffed jalapeños to keep us going. They were good enough that I would have been happy to be kept waiting longer as long as the apology food kept coming. Our orders came out shortly afterwards and they were damned tasty. Of note was my huevos machaca, eggs scrambled with shredded beef and a good dose of hot peppers.

The food, the politics and the price are all more than good enough for a humble taqueria and we left well satisfied. I know many people liked the old regime at Viva Mexico — I am happy to report that the new regime is more than up to the job ¡Viva Viva Mexico!

Follow-up question: where do readers rate for Mexican food in this town?

WOW season kicks off today, as the city turns into the World of WearableArt.

The Montana World of WearableArt shows kick off at TSB Arena tonight, with the awards show on Friday night. The Wellingtonista Will be there to report on the 2010 winners and general goings-on.

Most of the shows are sold out, but there are still a few $50 "restricted view" tickets left to most shows – a good option if you’ve always wanted to experience the extravagant WOW show.

But as always, there are other ways of experiencing the magic of WOW.

WoW designer Susan Holmes has a number of her previous entries on display at various locations around the city, incliding the Museum Hotel, TSB Arena and the airport.

Various Wellington retailers are getting crafty with their own version of WearableArt on display, complete with goodie bags and other prizes for lucky shoppers.

And coming up on Sunday 3 October at Te Papa is Get Set Create, a one-hour challenge for WOW designers to come up with a creation.

So strap on your bizarre bra and get down with the WOW.

Update: MyGalaxi will also be open on Sunday 26 September.

You know how we had a blue moon this New Year’s Eve, right?  And how that is kind of a freak occurrence when you think about it, right?

Well, this Saturday is the blue moon of markets. There are two only once-a-monthers and one super-special, souped-up weekly market being held in our fair city.  It won’t matter if the skies ain’t blue because they are all held indoors (very sensible).

First up, the Frank Kitts Underground Markets are holding a special Indie Fashion and Jewellery themed market in the Wilsons carparking building under Frank Kitts Park on the waterfront.  This market has been putting in the hard yards over winter, hocking their wares weekly and building up a dedicated following.  Their regular stallholders will be there plus a range of special guests.  Check out their latest newsletter for details.

Next up is the fourth outing of Mygalaxi Art Markets based in the basement of 39 Dixon Street.  These markets are keeping it arthouse under the firm leadership of Arlo Edwards (best Art Experience don’t you know) and the benevolent patronage of James Gilbert at Photospace who is the wind beneath a few creative wings.  Long live the patron, we say!

The newly launched New Zealand Fashion Museum aims to preserve and celebrate New Zealand’ fashion history.

It doesn’t have a physical location, instead displaying exhibitions in pop-up locations.

Its first exhibition is Looking Terrific – the Story of El Jay, looking at the career of fashion designer Gus Fisher and his label El Jay.

El Jay held the exclusive New Zealand licence for Christian Dior designers, bringing elegant frocks to New Zealand women wanting some Parisian chic.

The exhibition is on display at Kirkaldie and Stains, which aptly enough was one of El Jay’s stockists back in the day.

The Looking Terrific collection spans 40 years of El Jay, from the ’40s to the ’80s, with all garments borrowed from private collections – often the original owner.

The exhibition runs until 3 October, and can be viewed inside (and outside) Kirks on Lambton Quay.

OO lucky handmade shoppers, the much loved and short lived Tinakori Road pop-up shop has popped up again, but this time in a different location.

With a  mix of designers in for a day and another mix in for a week and some designers in for the whole time, it’s one of those places that’s worth a weekly visit.

You can find the Pop-Up Design Store at 24 College street from now till October 17th.

The Masked Barfly has been busy in the last little while soaking up the scene and hanging around the hors d’oeuvres in our buzzy little town.  As could be expected the Masked Barfly favours fecund environs where one can imbibe a good compost of booze, blood and guts, gossip and culture.
 
 Some bullets of buzz after the jump:

This week in Wellington you could be geeking out, smelling the flowers or listening to some sweet, sweet music to celebrate the start of Spring.  We have two girlie gigs to tempt you with this week featuring three sets of ladies that are definitely in bloom.

Claire Terry of Madame Fancy Pants fame is performing with City Oh Sigh at Mighty Mighty from 8.30pm this Wednesday.  This lady has been steadily adding strings to her bow and treasures to her jewellery box, not to mention growing a young’ in with her spare time.
She will be there with her pipes, her guitar and her charms. 
Always a pleasure.

City Oh Sigh features the lovely Kate (cello, vocals) Sarah (keys) and Catherine (trumpet, guitar, vocals) bringing the musicality and the sweet, sweet harmonies.  These ladies are tight and truly committed to the musical arts.  You can see them hot on Claire’s heels from 9.30pm. 

Details on the invite here. ($5 on the door).

Lisa Tomlins is doing it for herself on Sunday, front and centre as part of the Soundstage season at Downstage with backing from Twinset.  These Soundstage events are one-offs that allow you to go to the gig and focus on the music in a theatre environment, a real treat for the performer and the audience.  Lisa is a generous artist who is coming into her divalicious own after lending her talents to others and putting in the hard yards learning her craft.  Worth. Every. Damn. Cent.

WCC Watch is a local website that does what it says on the tin.

They drew our attention with some kind words a few days ago.

If you haven’t voted yet, they seem like an ideal source for additional reading to inform your decision. Their recent archives have a lot of good material on the candidates.

If you have voted, we expect they’ll be doing a good job post-election in monitoring what those naughty councillors get up to.

It is reassuring to know that the salon did not die in 18th century France, gathering together in RL to converse, spar, eat, connect and display our intellectual charms has not gone out of style.  Recently we have had Pecha Kucha, Ignite and more BarCamps than you could throw a pack of PostIt notes at.  Today the open source inclined have been playing with their toys at Software Freedom Day and this week is full of occasions to be witty and pretty and geek (slash nerd).

This week brings Nerdnite#2, another Tuesday night dinner and Webstock will be bring us mini-marvels and the big unveil of the speakers for 2011.

All of these events are non-geek friendly (plenty of room for fraghags), all you need is an eclectic mental diet and a love of creativity and innovation, so don’t be shy.  Nerdnite looks to be taking eclectic to a whole new level with geoengineering, stories, witchcraft, and food on the menu at Bettys Bar this Monday.  It seems the case that people self-identify as geek but get twitchy when refered to as "nerds", well perhaps this word is going to be reclaimed as well if this Nerdnite thing catches on.

Besides, geek appears to be contested term, this week we have had @BR3NDA tooting about privilege and computers: