Despite my frivolous title, it seems that most people loved the Kusama installation "Dots for Love and Peace", and are sad to see it removed, dot by colourful dot, from the front of the City Gallery today.

The Gallery have been helpfully answering questions on Twitter, and unfortunately for souvenir hunters that includes the news that the dots will be "very carefully disposed of". On the plus side, the Hotere/Culbert installation Fault will be soon be making a glowing return.

…well the stage itself will be lit up like a Christmas tree but the bar and exteriors will be lit by candles for Earth Hour.

 Saturday is the closing night for Pick of the Fringe at Downstage, if the whirl of Fringe and the New Zealand International Arts Festival has passed you by this year you can still catch two outstanding shows at Downstage. 

Theatre is an experience to be shared and both shows on offer are really accessible as well as being ‘Fringe’, so you could take you sister or your boyfriend or your work colleague.  You can see both shows for $40 which is very reasonable.

back/words is a piece of documentary theatre with performances that focus on being completely faithful to the source of the story.  The source being in this case, filmed interviews with people that have been loosely framed around important ‘firsts’.  Out of hours and hours of footage they have shaped a theatre length show full of humor and emotion.

 Those clever folks at Clemenger have a nifty project on the go called Watch This Wall. They’ve created a huge paint-by-numbers, and are inviting friends and clients (including Vince Martin, Vince!) to colour it in. All proceeds are being donated to the Wellington Sculpture Trust, when it is eventually finished and auctioned on Trade Me.

This Sunday 28 March there is an international celebration of the beautiful game going on at Martin Luckie Park, Berhampore 9am – 5pm.

Culture Kicks is a multi ethnic football festival with five-a-side teams from Wellington representing countries from around the world battling it out on the pitch for a chance to take home the 2010 trophy.

There will be Columbian dancers, African drumming, music from Matiu Te Huki and Lion dancers from the Chinese Sports and Cultural Centre.

The day kicks off with Bella Kalolo singing the New Zealand National anthem (the woman has some pipes!) and prize giving will be at 3.45pm.

With around 40 teams representing over 20 countries you don’t have to pick just one team to support.  A few team names to give you the flavour of the day: Havana Hustlers, Tartan Army, Unity Arabs, Somali Eagles, Los Decadentes, Korean White Angels, West African Kiwis. 

There will be healthy foodstuffs on offer from the Hari Krishnas, so all you need are your chants and some sunblock (well let’s face it, you should probably bring a raincoat too, this is Wellington after all). 

So, right now there’s a whole lot of really good stuff being exhibited in Wellington’s galleries.

City Gallery

After the hugely successful Yayoi Kusama exhibition turned the gallery into a magical wonderland, the main gallery space has now been given over to three also wonderful artists.

More after the jump. 

I’m more likely to write about nightlife than wildlife, but I do like urban observations in general, so Project Noah caught my eye. It’s a website and shiny new free iPhone app that lets people track, record and find out about the species in their environment.

Not surprisingly, I’ve mostly recorded very urban species (that’s not quite what Baudelaire meant by "the botanist of the pavement"), but it could be very useful for mapping rare plants, spiders, invasive species or even neighbourhood cats, if you were so inclined. It’s all pretty new in this neck of the woods, so there’s only my lightly-informed spottings of scrappy roadside cabbage trees and frightened little penguins to look at, but if more Wellingtonians get involved it could become a really useful guide to local flora and fauna.

A few weeks ago we wrote about the proposed city-wide ban on "drinking and carrying liquor in public places, 24 hours a day, seven days a week." We don’t like to harp on this issue, but the nexus of booze, urban life and social justice is catnip to the hard-drinking city-living caring folk here at the Wellingtonista.

Mark your calendars for Tuesday the 30th of March — consultation will start then.

PS: when did we all adopt the Americanism "liquor?"

 This list was published in abbreviated form in the first issue of FishHead, which is having its launch party tonight. Here it is in all its smoking-promoting, Oriental Bay-enraging glory…

1. Wander aimlessly around the Cuba Quarter: window-shop, have coffee, sit in the Mall & people-watch, draw or photograph the buildings.

2. Go to the waterfront on a sunny day: Put your polaroid sunglasses on, then get something nice in a cone from Kaffee Eis on the waterfront, and go spotting eagle rays in the Frank Kitts park lagoon. Don’t forget to point them out to swimmers and people in small vessels.

3. Swim on the South Coast: Oriental Bay is for pussies. Any of the beaches near Seatoun are where it’s at, or if you’re hard enough, brave the surf and the cold at Lyall Bay.

4. Go bush, then go posh: Zealandia’s all very well, but take the #14 bus to Otari/Wilton Bush for free native bushery, waterfalls, tui and an 800-year-old rimu. At night, take the #14 in the other direction to peek into all the expensive real estate along Oriental Parade and Roseneath where the residents obligingly leave all their lights on, and imagine what it would be like to be rich.

5. Hide out: Go to almost any bar that’s tucked away upstairs, in a basement or down an alley; Hooch, Hawthorn, Library, Good Luck, Watusi, Mighty Mighty are all gems.

6. Get cultured: Te Papa and the City Gallery are obvious choices, but add visits to Manky Chops, the Adam Art Gallery and Museum of Wellington City and Sea and you’ll feel much more well-rounded (and sore-footed).

7. To market, to market: Head to Waitangi Park on Sundays for the City Market/Harbourside Market combo, plus fresh fish when the boat pull up to the dock.