First it was “Bret or Jer­maine?” then “Smash Malice or Bru­tal Pae­gent?” but now it’s time for the really big decision – which Face­book group to join – “Hey, let’s NOT have a ‘Wel­ly­wood’ sign in Wel­ling­ton“or “A WELLYWOOD sign on the Miramar Cut­ting Hill is a STUPID idea”?

Every­one knows that while Wel­ling­ton has a world-class, award-win­ning film pro­duc­tion industry, it’s been sorely lack­ing one ser­i­ous thing: a giant sign pro­claim­ing WELLYWOOD.

Well, our pray­ers have been answered! By June a giant WELLYWOOD sign will be erec­ted in the hills of Miramar, and will serve as a visu­al dis­trac­tion for pas­sen­gers suf­fer­ing a bumpy approach to the air­port.

Quoted in the Dom Post, May­or Kerry sez:

“The sign will be one of the first things people will see when they arrive in Wel­ling­ton. They will be left in no doubt that this is the heart and soul of New Zeal­and’s film industry.”

Unless you make the approach from the Lyall Bay end of the run­way. In which case, you will be left think­ing you’ve just arrived in Wel­ling­ton, not the world centre of the film-mak­ing uni­verse.

Oh, I sup­pose I should­n’t mock it. After all, the Hol­ly­wood sign turned that small Los Angeles vil­lage into a film-mak­ing centre second only to Wel­ling­ton.

And, to be fair, it’s a little embarass­ing that Mos­giel has a giant sign in the hills but Wel­ling­ton does­n’t yet.

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.