One of the nicest things about the Festival of the Arts is that there are almost always several events that leave the realm of overpriced towers of high-culture and invade the everyday places. For example this year, we’ve loved the circus events and the dancer with digger in Waitangi Park.

Right now, the festival is getting a little more into the faces of the golden mile shoppers and office lunchtime refugees with a series of shop window installations along Lambton Quay and nearby streets.

This is the Revolt of the Mannequins, from French theatre company Royal De Luxe. Every night, a new "episode" in each installation is revealed; stories are told against a wider narrative of a revolution of mannequins against their oppressors. 

And while you’re busy checking out all ten official locations (map here), put this track on high rotate, and let us know what and where you see the mannequins next. For not all of the mannequins are inside the shops (as the passers by who caught sight of the sniper yesterday found out). 

And who knows – it could be that those that are not for the revolution, are against it. 

There’s a lot on at the moment for fans of Modern architecture. The Long Live the Modern exhibition is at the New Dowse until the 4th of April, including two bus tours this weekend.

Sunday’s tour will feature Bill Toomath talking about his design for the Teachers’ College in Karori. Wellington City Gallery’s exhibition on Toomath’s work, Liberating Everyday Life, finishes this Sunday. Eye of the Fish hosts two lively discussions on his waterfront plans and study, showing that Toomath’s contribution to Wellington architecture and architectural debate is still strong.

If you’re more interested in what the buildings of tomorrow might look like, have a look at Reactive Architecture at Te Papa. Some of the giant inhabited sails, human-powered slotcars and polyp-like motion-sensitive façades may seem fanciful, but it’s a much more inspiring approach to materials and design than just choosing which Hardie product to use.

If you weren’t aware, just a heads up that the Pompeii exhibition down at Te Papa is free for Wellington ratepayers and residents this Thursday (4 March). Details here.

[hat-tip: goNZo Freakpower]

Craft2.0 kicks off 2010 with a fourth birthday bash this Saturday (March 6th) from 11am to 3pm at TheNewDowse in Lower Hutt.

Over 4 years Craft2.0 has become synonymous with high quality, diverse products proudly claiming ‘New Zealand Made’ or even better, ‘Wellington made’. March sees the biggest fair yet with 70 crafters, many selling for the first time. You may discover that your neighbour moonlights as an artist, a colleague is a closet knitter and the kid next door’s Dad is rather resourceful in the design department.

Many of the crafters use recycled/vintage materials, like cast-off aluminium tabs, e-waste, old board games, cutlery and other quirky objects that often end up at the rubbish dump – it’s all about being resourceful.

Plus there is a free making table for a kids, and if you are a Friend of Craft2.0 you get a free gift on arrival and the ability to start shopping at 10.15 before the crowds arrive at 11.

and if you’ve a hankering for all things handmade, don’t forget The Inaugural 2010 JAM OFF tomorrow at 11.30 at mojo old bank.

If you haven’t heard already, the Big Tune-in Sit-in is on today from 1-2pm on Parliament lawn. Bring your portable radio and a picnic lunch to celebrate Radio New Zealand and its importance to New Zealand’s cultural life. As Sue says over on her Craft2.0 blog:

yup it’s a protest picnic, which really is an incredibly classy and special way of saying how much you love our national broadcaster.

Next Tuesday, 2 March, sees the very first Ignite evening in Wellington, 6.30 at the Paramount Theatre.

Ignite is similar in format to Pecha Kucha evenings. With Ignite, the speakers have five minutes each to deliver 20 slides, at 15 seconds per slide. This constraint will (hopefully) unleash creavity and causes audiences brains to ignite with inspiration. Or something like that.

The line-up so far has something for everyone:

James Everett – Design for Play
Mike Brown – Cycling across America
Tim McNamara – Kiwis helping Haiti (& more!)
Lenz Gschwendtner – Realising your ideas
Julia Holderness – Venice Biennial
Dave Moskovitz – The music industry
Mark Harris – ACTA – We *could* tell you, but we’d have to kill you
Dave ten Have – Nothing to fear, but fear
Melissa Clark-Reynolds
Sarah Harpur
David Ritchie

Find out more at the Ignite website. Admission is free, but make sure you register if you want to go. It’s going to be a good one.

The "Excuse Me" guy aside, Wellington doesn’t see all that many panhandlers around. But recently, a fellow has taken up in the doorway of the old United Video on Courtenay Place, with a sign advising passersby by that he’s looking for money for a trip to Auckland.

What lies in this golden land is uncertain. When I passed by the spot tonight, he was nowhere to be seen, but someone had made this sign:

A guerilla art project? A clever anti-panhandling measure? Or perhaps this will become a new tourist attraction – get your photo taken looking forlorn under the sign, and maybe one day you too will make it to Auckland.

Yesterday twitter was all atwitter trying to figure out where all the smoke in Wellington was coming from, before someone figured out that it was a fire in Titahi Bay. What’s been interesting today has been the amazing collections of photos of the fire on Flickr – not just in our sidebar or this great shot by Wellingtonista friend Lisa Fur, but also this curated flickr gallery. Nice work, flickrinos!

We’d been wondering for a while where our other favourite McKenzie brother has been at because we haven’t seen him behind the bar at Hooch or Hawthorn for ages, but of course we kept forgetting to ask, because naturally we were too busy asking for another drink.

Well, it turns out that Justin has been working as 42Below’s vodka professor (we hope this means he gets a cap and gown) and he’s been rather busy today with the regional finals of the Cocktail World Cup. The three bartenders who’ll be representing New Zealand will be Auckland’s James Goggin from Racket and our own Josh Crawford from Hooch and Calum Chadwick from the Matterhorn.

As usual, there’s all kinds of fun and games in Queenstown around the event, but since we’re the Wellingtonista probably the bit that you’re interested in is that the grand finale is happening in Wellington on March 27, featuring the world’s best bartenders and (I’m going to quote the press release here) "New Zealand’s best rock group ‘Midnight Youth’", and probably quite a few splashes of vodka as well. And we’ve got a double pass to give away to it!

Along with the invited VIPS, 42BELOW is offering a select number of people the chance to attend the Grand Final Shake off as vodka groupies. Tickets are being sold for $42, which includes four cocktails, food and entertainment so get in quick for a chance to party with New Zealand’s best music and with the world’s best bartenders.

Joanna

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