By the beach of Babylon, where we sat down. And waited. And waited.
Sunday would have been a lovely day to have brunch at Sweet Mother’s Kitchen, except pretty much every other person in Wellington had the same idea, and we were told it was going to be a 45 minute wait. We decided we’d venture further afield, and made the mistake of heading out to Oriental Parade, and Beach Babylon.
When we got there, it was really busy, but we thought surely it would be less than the 45 minutes wait at SMK, because there were free tables outside. It was a bit breezy, so we were keen to sit inside – since there were no free tables they offered us one outside and told us they’d give us the first free table inside. So we hopped up on stools crammed in the corner, and consulted the menu. Lots of things sounded tasty on the menu. K was happy that they had Foxton Fizz. I contemplated ordering a Pink Princess, which was fizzy raspberry and vanilla ice cream, but I decided to pretend to be a grown up and order a latte bowl instead. So we waited for a waitress, and waited, and waited. Eventually one came up and told us that she couldn’t take our food order right now, because the kitchen was slammed, but she’d be back to take our drinks order. Seriously? I appreciate the place was busy, but surely it is the job of the staff to manage the workflow. If the kitchen wasn’t ready for our orders (which seems strange), the wait staff should still take them, and hold onto them, and let us know approximately how long a wait we could expect.
Review: Mark Twain and Me in Maoriland
In 1895, an elderly, ill Mark Twain embarked on a world lecture tour, in order to earn enough money to pay back the $100,000 debt he held. The tour took him down under, including a visit to Whanganui. And it’s this event that Mark Twain and Me in Maoriland takes its inspiration from.
After its premiere at the New Zealand Festival of the Arts earlier this year, the play returns for a short run at Downstage.
The play supposes that Mr Twain took a rather more active role in local politics, inflamming the Pakeha, and both pro-European and anti-European Maori alike.
But this is no staid historic drama. The play has lashings of te reo Maori – sometimes translated, other times not, but you’re clever so you can figure it out from the context. And there’s a pleasing amount of song and music, with Mr Twain strapping on an electric guitar at one point, to join in on a blues number.
Playwright David Geary’s innovative script has moments of high comedy, yet with the power to get right down into some really gritty emotional moments. But what I really enjoyed the most was how New Zealand this play is. I’m sure all the places Twain visited on his 1895 tour have their own stories to tell (or make up), but it’s just really satisfying to see an inventive, entertaining play like this that’s come out of New Zealand.
- Mark Twain and Me in Maoriland
Downstage Theatre until 24 July
Film festival frenzy
I am not going to see a single film at the Film Festival. I’m not much of a movie-goer at the best of times, and the idea of having to decide where I’m going to be weeks in advance in order to avoid having to sit with my knees around my ears in the back row somewhere just doesn’t appeal to me at all. But I know that there are people amongst us who love the festival. One Wellingtonista has taken two weeks off work to attend as many films as possible. Another’s going to see The Room in Christchurch and Wellington. You crazy kids and your hula hoops and your moving pictures!
But apparently not all is running smoothly. We got a copy of an angry letter an acquaintance is sending to the festival, and I thought I’d post it here to see if any of y’all are having similar experiences.
To whom it may concern,
I write to you in response to the chaos I witnessed this afternoon whilst lining up to buy a ticket for a popular film at the Embassy theatre. I know it was silly of me to expect to get a ticket on a busy Saturday half an hour before the film starts, but some people choose to make these choices. What shocked me was the level of competence involved at the box office. The whole thing seems very inefficient. I have an idea that you may find useful or not. Why not have three separate lines leading to the three separate consoles using dividers? I used to work at the Embassy and I know they have these dividers in the basement. If the lines are organized you can then make things a lot smoother during peak times. Make one line for advance bookings, one line for ticket collection from pre-orders, and one line for the immediate screening. You can even go a step further by using a sign stating the title of the film about to screen and whether or not it is sold out
Have a wander around some wool
There are craft markets that happen occasionally like Craft 2.0 and the Knack, which we get suitably excited about at the time, but another market that happens every weekend takes place on Saturdays in the underground carpark at Frank Kitts.
Usually they have a mix of stalls, food and music, but tomorrow they have a particular focus:
"Wonders of Wool" Market
Showing off the region’s fibre artists, spinners, felters, knitters & weavers.
Including demonstrations on spinning, weaving, crocheting as well as some specifically for the kids.
Over 60 stalls, including:
- Felted hats, scarves & throws
- Alpaca clothing
- Handwoven novelty yarns
- Hand-dyed spinning and felting fibres
- Crocheted items
- Merino clothing
- Balls of wool, knitting needles, felting needles etc
The market runs from 10am-4pm, it’s under cover, and the organisers promise it’ll be warm, so if you’re up for some yarn, you should definitely go along and check it out, not least because my aunt will be selling off her huge stash of weaving wool (we’re all about the nepotism here, of course).
Wellington Film Festival opens tonight!
It’s never been a tougher time to be running a film festival. In addition to the usual commercial considerations of just selling enough tickets to stay afloat, each year brings with it fresh wrinkles to be accommodated. The window of availability of titles shrinks every year because distributors don’t want to sit on their investment. There’s increasing pressure to get films into cinemas before downloading destroys the market and less time for films to build a deserving international buzz.
In previous years films like the Argentinian Best Foreign Language Oscar winner The Secrets in their Eyes might have been tent-pole features for a Wellington Film Festival but have already been and gone from local cinemas so it’s incumbent on director and chief programmer Bill Gosden (and his cohorts) to dig deeper to find more gems for our annual mid-winter fix.
People keep asking me, Dan, they say, what sort of Festival is it, this year, and I have to answer that I really don’t know. I’ve only seen 19 out of the 160+ movies in the book. That’s not enough to know anything, really, about the Festival as a whole. It’s less than 15% of an enormously rich and diverse smorgasbord of potential goodies.
As usual, I asked the Festival people to feed me the unheralded and unknown, the films that might miss out on attention from the big media, and they did. As might be expected, not all of them worked for me but I have some suggestions for films that I am assured will not be coming back on general release later this year.
In the drama section I was very affected by Honey, a beautiful Turkish film about a young boy with some kind of learning disorder, desperate for the approval of his teachers, classmates and his taciturn beekeeper father. A fine example of slow cinema, I feel certain that you will be absorbed by its beauty and the miraculous central performance.
The rest of the Wellingtonista preview, after the jump.
Eat and eat and eat: win a voucher for Elements Cafe
We already told you how excited we are about the upcoming Wellington on a Plate festival, and now we’re even more excited to announce that we’re working with Positively Wellington Tourism to help you get the most out of the event. Yes, that’s right, you! Over the next five weeks, we’re going to be giving away one $100 voucher each week to one of five different restaurants participating in Wellington on a Plate. That’s some serious deliciousness to be had right there!
First up, we have a voucher for Elements Cafe. Elements is a frequent nominee in our TAWAs for Best Surburban Venue, and with menu items like chargrilled lamb loin, lamb & porcini pie served with truffle mash on the dinner menu, it’s not hard to see why. The service is warm and friendly, the setting in an old butcher’s shop is lovely and the food is extremely tasty. It’s well worth a trip out to Lyall Bay either for brunch, dinner or their cooking classes. As part of Wellington on a Plate, Elements are offering a $35 two-course lunch, or a $40 three-course dinner, including a glass of wine. Yum!
Undo the top button on your pants
It’s time to eat eat eat! The programme for Wellington on a Plate has been launched, and it is making us mighty hungry. At the same time though, it makes us a little frustrated, because we’re not sure how to book events, or how much they’ll cost, and the descriptions are often quite vague. Still, there’s a lot of events that sounds fun, from Steampunk tours to murder mysteries, and there’s a range of special deals on at restaurants (finally eating at Martin Bosley’s is in financial reach!). Also new this year is a burger contest. We dare you to try each and every one, and report back to us with your findings. So, you’re taking us out for dinner then, yes?
Review: Mauritius
I tried stamp collecting when I was younger. It ended somewhat disastrously when I got bored with the gummed hinges used to afix stamps to the album pages and instead switched to PVA glue. My grandfather would not have been so proud of me.
And it’s another philatelic poppa that’s at the centre of Circa Theatre’s new play Mauritius. It tells the tale of New York half-sisters Jackie (Danielle Mason) and Mary (Lyndee-Jane Rutherford) and the stamp collection that belonged to Mary’s grandfather. And in that stamp collection is the extremely rare and extremely valuable Mauritius "Post Office" stamps.
I just can’t get you out of my garden
Here at the Wellingtonista we’d like to think we have a fairly diverse range of readers, but perhaps we don’t cover enough of the really pop side of pop culture. Luckily, others do so now we’re going to tell you what another website is up to.
This Friday July 9, AaronandAndy.com, along with ZM is having a party with Kylie at the Garden Club (Apparently she’s now just a one-word-wonder now though, so don’t be dropping the M word too loudly).
Come along and celebrate the release of Kylie’s hot new album Aphrodite. We’ll be giving away Kylie posters, copies of Aphrodite, signed copies of X, and whatever other goodies we can get our hands on!
It promises to be a fun-filled night — and don’t worry, we won’t just be playing Kylie! — we’ve even got the country’s leading Kylie impersonator on hand to add to the festivities, and she’s still looking for some hot dancers if you’re keen!
Friday 9 July 2010
9pm til late
The Garden Club, 13 Dixon St, Wellington
$10 on the door, or find a flyer for free entry
Smell the ‘glove
It may not be what we were expecting from a "West Hollywood lounge experience", but all that money certainly has ensured that Foxglove is a vastly more impressive visual experience than the ol’ Loaded Hog. But a bar is not just about the pretty, so how does it stack up? See what the ‘fly thinks after the jump.
