Hey you, Vic student! Shouldn’t you be busy studying instead of reading blogs? Well fine, if you’re looking for ways to occupy your brain, Vic Books has a suggestion for you

Vicbooks is running a duo of writing competitions, one for Poetry and the other for Short Stories. We want to see what Victoria undergraduate students are capable of when they delve into poetry instead of economics, dip into fiction rather than history (wait… was that irony?) and draw fully on their talents and imagination.

The selected winner in each category will receive over $200 in Book Tokens, plus a pile of selected books from our excellent stock. The winners will also be published in the student paper Salient, on the vicbooks website and on our blog. There are no entry fees and all the details are on our website.

Of course, if you’re not a Vic undergrad, you can always tell us a story instead. Have at it in our comments section. 

Tonight saw the opening of the Royal New Zealand Ballet‘s Meridien season of Carmen.

Set in the metropolis of modern-day Rio de Janeiro, Carmen works in a cigarette factory by day and hangs out with a gang of low-life criminals by night. When José makes the mistake of falling in love with Carmen, things spiral out of control. As José’s world falls apart, Carmen’s desire to live life on her terms sets a course that can only lead to disaster.

The ballet is based on the opera by Bizet (Wikipedia contains some serious spoilers, of course), but this ain’t your grandpappy’s ballet. Gangsters tote cellphones, a bullfighter has become a rockstar, the seedy bar has soccer on its TV. The result is a steamy piece of theatre that crackles with sexuality, while still being crammed full of playful humour and heated tension.

I’m not a dance expert, but I’d say that this production uses a lot of elements of modern dance as oppposed to straight ballet. There is a lot more swagger from the guys in their leather jackets. Carmen shakes her ass in a pair of tight jeans, while in her sparkly gown and heels she comes across like Cyd Charisse, all legs and sex.

And let’s talk about the set design! Harsh chainlink fences at the cigarette factory are incorporated into the choreography, neon signs light up the bar, and an iron bed is a stage for some incredible foreplay. The sets all seem very stripped back and simple, but it’s obvious how much thought has gone into them. The Vector Wellington Orchestra play alongside the action on the stage, and seem to have a lot of fun with the bugle-heavy score.

The Free Store has been open at 38 Ghuznee Street for 11 days now and word has certainly got out that there is such a thing as a free lunch.  The Free Store is due to shut up shop on Saturday this week so if you want to take or give to the project you have 5 more days.

There are a lot of ideas packed into this shop.  Part artwork, part social experiment the Free Store is part two of the Letting Space series that began with Popular Archeology: A Sound Archive.  One of the stated intentions of the project is to:

highlight the underground ‘free economy’ that redistributes produce and food around Wellington, [Kim Paton] is currently making a call to sellers of fresh produce, as well as to to cafes and supermarkets for their excess stock.

The logos of some of the participating businesses grace the chalkboard.

Stock comes in at variable times, feast or famine if you will.  But the observant and dare we say the needy, are discovering what time discarded cafe food is due to arrive and loitering ready to descend.  This makes for a challenging project for those volunteers who are staffing the shop.  I can imagine they are experiencing the business end of what must be a normal day for Downtown City Mission staff, although possibly with more hipsters.

It’s a cold, rainy Tuesday afternoon in the first day of winter. Why, it’s a perfect day to go to the beach!

The occasion is the first day of business for the back-from-the-dead Maranui Cafe. After being damaged in a fire last year, escaping the threat of demolition and managing to keep not just the building intact but also the business, the cafe has been reborn, like a phoenix rising from a pile of coffee grounds and sand.

While there’s still a little bit of work going on in the rest of the building, the cafe is well open for business. It’s much like the old cafe, only with a fresh, shinier feel to it.

One massive improvement is the sound-absorbing ceiling, which helps cut down the Saturday morning echo chamber of doom ambience old Maranui was notorious for.

The new kitchen is bright, white, tiled and with one of the better views offered by a cafe kitchen in Wellington, is back in full effect. The staff seemed busy and buzzy and they have every reason to be.

The cheerful interior was a perfect place to be on such a crappy winter day (especially after a tortuously slow bus trip over on the #3), complete with a view of the truly miserable, grey Lyall Bay, that seemed to say, "Oh hai guyz. I’m a surf beach. Let’s go surfin’!!! Lol". (Man, Lyall Bay is a dick.)

It’s really good that Maranui Cafe is back. It’s quite different from your standard Wellington Cafe, and come summer, the place will surely be jam-packed.

But the best thing about the new Maranui – the all-important Maranui SLC visitors’ sign-in book is charred and smoky from the fire.

 Remember how last year Erogenous Tones was nominated for a TAWA as Best Art Experience? Well now’s your chance to experience it for yourself! 

Erogenous Tones is cumming to you live again, again and again. Now two ladies (we lost one to the devils dandruff in Brazil) read you erotic stories XXX rated, romantic trash, and shocking fan fiction, all accompanied by sexy synthesiser music by the Kremer. A romantic night of aural pleasure, that will make you wanna come again, again and again.

So we’ll see you on Wednesday June 02 at 9pm at The Watusi, right? 

The Film Archive is mixing things up a little for the next three weeks. 

On three consecutive Thursdays (starting this week) speakers from the Education team and one special guest will talk alongside rare and interesting footage from the collections.

The series is called Talk/Show (just to make it obvious) and it’s a nice departure from the usual screening programme. 

First up is a session on Wellington and its unique geography and settlement. Some great footage in here including documentary extracts, early silent footage, government and unofficial sources and early home movies.

Will be a fascinating and informative look at this rainy, windy, steep place we choose to call home! 

• Wendy from the delicious Cultured Petone is running a cheese-making workshop. Learn to make your own haloumi and ricotta. Yum!
• A treat for NZ Music Month: Phoenix Foundation fan fiction. Bear costumes surprisingly do not feature. Please feel free to contribute your own fan fiction stories in the comments. 
• Issue #2 of FishHead is out now. We haven’t read it yet so we don’t have further comment to offer at this stage.
• Richter City Roller Derby is having a CARNIVALE-themed fundraiser at the Garden Club on May 29:
  

  This fabulous event features the talents of The Eyeballs, The Beat Squad, MC Lisa Tomlins, The Raskolnikovs, DJ Rhys, DJ Forge and DJ Taip. Cheap drinks available until 12am, and a prize will be awarded to the Best Dressed.

• The menu for the Mebus Winemaker’s Dinner at Cellar-Vate on May 26 has been released (along with the email addresses of everyone on their mailing list, whoops!):  
  
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We’ve raved about Monterey Bar before, but just quickly, we want to point you to their blog on which they display the best of the artworks drawn on their paper-covered tables. You have to wonder about what was going on when this divorce settlement was written, or what exactly is wrong with these tights – but I could tell you the backstory to Senor Handsome if you ask nicely. 

Bizarre uses for ping-pong balls, megalomaniac robot dogs, fire juggling, and a healthy dose of audience participation are just some of the ingredients in Joel Salom’s Gadgets, which opened tonight at Downstage as part of the Comedy Festival.

It’s a mixture of accomplished physical comedy from Australia’s Joel Salom, backed by Marko and Jim, a couple of very talented musician-performers who, from time to time, become part of the action.

Read on…