Cyclists who cruise are awesome, cyclists who whoosh are not
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eY8FSTlH5C8&]Cycle Aware Wellington has a cute campaign going to encourage cyclists to ride nicely on the waterfront.
If there’s anything we at the Wellingtonista endorse, it’s freebies and nice cyclists.
More details here.
This job is pretty rubbish
Remember when rubbish collectors used to come up and collect from your bins at the back of the house, even when you lived up big steep pathways? Good times. Anyway, here’s a mini documentary called Dusties from NZ on Screen for your Friday afternoon viewing. Enjoy!
Doug Jerebine (AKA Jesse Harper) in town this weekend
Legendary (and non-mythical) NZ guitarist brings his Eastern influenced Blue Cheer-Hendrix-Atomic Rooster meets Sonic Youth skwall to Wellignton at Happy on Saturday 8th May.
[video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OOG-As652k]We can’t pinpoint when Doug was last in Wellington, but he was there in August 1965 when The Pretty Things swung through town, playing in Mike Perjanik’s group*. Doug left for the UK in 1968 searching for more open minds. The next year he recorded an albums worth of Hendrix influenced material under the name Jesse Harper. Acetates and tapes filtered back to NZ and the Human Instinct appropriated the best songs for their first two albums. Giving away music in 1971, Doug moved to India where he stayed for 35+ years.
Currently based in NZ – Doug Jerebine will be bringing his searing musical message to Dunedin, and taking no prisoners. This will be a unique performance. Accompanying Doug will be Miles Gillett (drums), son of Bob Gillett – Doug’s musical inspiration and fellow member of Dougs late 60s group The Brew, and Chris Orange on bass. Opening the show will be the EXCELLENT MANTARAYS!
For more info on Doug, check out Keith Newmans excellent Doug Jerebine story.
Doors at 8pm – DOUG ON STAGE AT 10pm
ADMISSION $15
* Google him – fascinating career – and you probably know one of his most famous compostions if you watch Australian soaps!
It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s A TREE
We love community, and we love art, so it’s no surprise that we love community art projects. Especially when they’re organised by our own lovely Sue from Craft 2.0 and the fabulous Knitsch from the TAWA-nominated Outdoor Knit. Needless to say, we’re very excited about It’s A Tree:
there are a few very tall lamp posts outside the New Dowse in Lower Hutt, and OutdoorKnit decided it would be a pretty fun idea to turn them into something different…trees! What OutdoorKnit needs is lots of knitted, crochet or even sewn flowers, leaves and native birds to cover these ‘trees’. The best medium for this is acrylic – it wears better when the weather gets a bit grotty.
The first installation is beginning in a week’s time, so now’s the time to make like a tree and make leaves. Or flowers. Or tuis…
Brazil – da da da, da, da, da, da, daaaaaa
This classic film is screening on 35mm on the big screen at the Film Archive every night this week at 7pm.
Terry Gilliam’s brilliant "Nineteen eighty-four for 1984" is beloved by film buffs around the globe for obvious reasons, and yes, it’s in the Film Archive’s extensive collection.
If you haven’t seen it you must. And if you have seen it you’ll know why you should go and see it again.
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xNnRBksvOU]Review: Lagerfield
Last year, for the second time in a row, Team Wellingtonista won the Webstock Pub Quiz (we intend to win it this year too, by the way). Our prize was a $300 tab for Lagerfield at 21 Blair Street. Having been there late at night when it was full of munters, I was not overwhelmed with enthusiasm, but as it turns out, it was a lovely experience.
On a horribly rainy night, perching at a high banquette table under a heater was a good place to be, especially as the lovely staff told us to let them know if it got too hot. The circular booths that were a key feature of The Last Supper Club may be gone, but the wavey ceiling remains to make the space more interesting, with dark wood adding to the warmth. It’s a shame that there were TVs on, featuring polo, and the music was from the ’80s, but not unbearably so, especially after a little wine.
We started on a bottle of Akarua Rose ($40), and an OldRoaring Meg Pinot Noir ($55), we happily discovered an St. Hallet’s Gamekeeper’s Shiraz which at $35 was one of the cheapest on the list, but was fully flavoured and yum, and so we got through quite a few bottles after that. It made for very happy mouthfuls when paired with the blue cheese and crispy proscuitto entree ($12). Fries and gravy weren’t amazing, but the Drinkers’ Platter of dumplings, prawns, spring rolls, samosas, bread and four dips at $15 was exceptional value. The cheese gratin was a solid hotpot in which to dip crusty bread, and I’m told that the chicken liver parfait was very tasty too.
Lunchtime Willis Wander
If you are working near Willis Street today you could use your lunch hour to sample two very different exhibitions.
The Japanese Embassy on Level 18 and 19 of the Magestic Centre on 100 Willis Street is always worth a visit to give you that thrill of surveying the city from the floor to ceiling glass windows of a shiny tall building.
Today is the last day of the a photography exhibition at the Japanese embassy, Gazing at the Contemporary World: Japanese Photography from the 1970s to the Present.
Crossing the road you can visit a sound installation that has been set up in vacant commercial space at 141 Willis Street. Popular Archeology: A Sound Archive is one part of larger project called Letting Space that is looking pretty exciting.
Popular Archeology is focused on redundant technology and is constructed with a variety of tape decks playing tape loops of disintegrating fragments of New Zealand singles that made the top 10 between 1967 and 1994 in a wall of sound comprising over 30 tape players. You have until 9 May to catch this show but it would make a nice juxtaposition with the show across the road for today only.
When is a shop not a shop?
When it’s a Pop-Up Shop, of course.
Right now in Thorndon, Wellington’s first Handmade Pop-Up Shop has arrived. It opened on the 13th of April and closes again on the 1st of May. Each day the shop features a different artist or crafter showcasing all their lovely creations.
Pop-Up Shops are traditonally places where retailers offload sale or discounted stock, but this shop is pretty much the opposite. It’s about a home for beautifuly designed and handmade things, with a real focus on the person behind the product.
You can find the Pop-Up Shop at 302 Tinakori Road, Thorndon.
What’s the real reason the Miss Universe pageant has moved to Wellington?
Last year the Miss Universe New Zealand pageant was held in Levin. Which makes sense, because Levin is actually pretty much the centre of the universe, based on the laws of gravity and denseness and all that kind of sciencey stuff. And this kind of shocking behaviour happened at the event:
The beauty queens sashayed their way through Levin and Paraparaumu shopping malls last year, leaving elderly shoppers agog.
But this year, the pageant is moving to Wellington:
Event organiser Val Lott has instead opted to hold the final in Wellington after a "gorgeous" day out at the Wellington Cup. "The [Levin] event centre was not set up well enough. The catering was not up to standard. It cost a dreadful amount of money," Mrs Lott said.
But one commentator on the article suggests that there is a much deeper conspiracy going on:
I think this is all complete rubbish, and the organiser just wants to glam the thing up and get rid of the ruggeds that might otherwise have attended.
So what exactly is going on here? Are we through the looking glass? Do we even need to mention Terry Serepisos here, given that it’s Donald Trump who owns the Miss Universe franchise?
Answer the poll – The Miss Universe Pageant is moving to Wellington because:
And you thought we were joking about the Octopus threat?
Earlier this month we read about an octopus off the South Coast that mugged an innocent diver and took his valuable new camera. The news flashed around the world and everyone had a bit of a chuckle at the diver’s expense.
Not so fast, laughing boys (and girls).
It turns out that this is but the latest episode in a long history of criminal behaviour by the city’s cephalopod citizenry.
We need only look at another, earlier encounter between a Wellingtonian and a rogue octopus to prove the point. An encounter that, just like our earlier story made world headlines… but back in 1888.
Read on, after the jump.