From the numbers of you lot voting for the Montana World of WearableArt awards in the TAWAs, we’re guessing that you’re already pretty familiar with Montana wines. After all, it’s been more than 30 years since Montana’s original 1979 vintage Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc introduced the distinctive flavours that established New Zealand’s reputation on the world wine stage. As part of the commemorative celebrations, Montana took the opportunity to freshen up the look of the brand. Always keen to get our hands on free wine, even if we have to pass it on, we have two triple packs to give away so you can see the new look for yourself.

With the compliments of the lovely people at Montana and us adorable Wellingtonistas, you can enter the draw for a chance to win one of two Montana prize packs valued at $50 each. The prize pack includes three bottles of the new look Montana Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2009

In order to get into the draw, all you gotta do is leave us a comment and tell us where you’re going to drink the wine. Are you going to take them to your favourite Malaysian BYO place, or drink them (carefully!) at the top of the secret tree in the Bot Gardens? Tell us before December 15 (which is also the cut-off date for voting in the Wellingtonista Awards, don’t forget!) and we’ll choose two winners at random. And now for the legal stuff: you need to be over 18 to enter this competition. We will be checking IDs because we definitely learnt our lesson with that one guy we met on Courtenay Place that one time.

Just a quick note about an exhibition tonight (Tuesday December 8th). Colin Kaldenbach – gig poster designer extraordinaire – exhibits the best of his work from 2009 at SFBH, with a live set from Wellington’s Kittentank.

Showcasing posters featuring bands such as Flipper, Sons of Midas, Gaywyre, The Postures, The Verlaines, Kittentank, New Telepathics, Newtown Street Justice and more . Prints, framed work and canvas are available for purchase. It’s free and there will be happy hour pricing all night. It kicks off at 6pm.

So if there’s a gig poster that has taken your fancy this year, you can either pick up a cheap good quality print or go the whole hog and get a framed piece. There is some original one off work for sale as well. The exhibition will run for two days only, so get in there! You can view some of the posters available here

There’s a moment very early on in An Adagio Christmas when the whole theatre gasped in unison, and both our daughters stood up in shock. The moment passed, the shock faded, but they never quite settled back past the edges of their seats. Like the rest of us, from then on they were hooked.

An Adagio Christmas is a retuned-for-Christmas version of the earlier Downstage production of the same name; a series of loosely linked vignettes whose performances encompass various circus skills as well as music, singing, dancing, and comedy.

Tonight from 6.00 until 8.00pm Thistle Hall is holding their annual $100 art sale. 

Support the artists, the venue *and* get something unique for the important people in your life just in time for Christmas.

Check out pictures of some of the pieces for sale here.

You can try and deny it, but the season for shopping is upon us.

If your plan this year is to shop local and/or shop handmade, then tomorrow night is the answer to all your plans.

TheNewDowse pre-Christmas combo has  space rockers Spartacus R and the first-ever Craft 2.0 Twilight Delight.

Music + shopping + art

= a multi-sensory treat to celebrate the festive season

Craft2.0 kicks off at 6pm and runs till 9pm.

All the galleries, bars and cafe are also open till 9pm.

If you’re a pedestrian, sometimes it seems as though you’re the last to be considered. Other modes of transport get all the big bucks while we get to stumble along on our own, catching our heels on the cobblestones and dodging the seemingly interminable earthworks.

So it’s nice to see that there’s a dedicated Cycling and Walking journey planner from the Greater Wellington Regional Council. I particularly like how it tells you the elevation of your route so you can see whether an apparent shortcut is going to be like scaling Everest or not. There is also a calorie counter, which I guess helps justify your morning tea when you’ve got to work.

I experimented with the route from my house to work, and the default suggestion was definitely the most practical for the unathletic, though not the shortest — it knows about the tracks over Mt Vic, but you have to drag the route over the mountain yourself.

Definitely worth exploring, even if you’re a dedicated walker, if only so you can boast about the distance to your lazy mates.

Voting in the Fourth Annual Wellingtonista Awards is open from December 1-15. Then come find out the results at our Awards Night at Mighty Mighty on December 17!

To vote, visit this page.

Our nominations for Wellingtonian of the Year are all people who make our city a brighter, better place to live. Their contributions are as varied as Wellington itself, and we’re so proud of them all.

The dark side of the California sun is about to shine on us as San Diego duo Crocodiles begin a series of shows in NZ this week– kicking off at SFBH this Wednesday December 2nd with support from Wellington swamp-disco legends Thought Creature.

For the uninitiated, Crocodiles songs began slinging across the Interwebs after No Age named the band’s song “Neon Jesus” as one of their Top Ten shredders of 2008. Unprompted, the forward-thinking Fader Blog posted two more stunner tracks, ’I Wanna Kill’ and ’Summer of Hate’. The influential Stereogum named them “Band to Watch” and described them as “The Velvet Underground swinging Jesus and Mary Chain.”

Crocodiles’ hometown San Diego is a sleepy military town, stuck between Tijuana and the bright lights of Los Angeles, but it isn’t Surf City, USA. Hells Angels, jocks, drug casualties, and the medicated rich populate the beaches, and while warplanes rumble in and out of the naval base. The kids here are bored. Charles Rowell and Brandon Welchez played in various bands (including The Plot to Blow Up The Eiffel Tower who played some memorable shows here in 2005) before the duo struck out on their own as Crocodiles. They quickly self-released a 7″ single and used it as an excuse to escape their tarpit hometown. Crocodiles album ’Summer of Hate’ is born of the alienation and frustration fuelling their initial pairing.

Presales for this show are a ridonkulous $23 for an international act, available from our friends at Good as Gold, Real Groovy and undertheradar.co.nz. But act now and you shall receive a double pass for the even more ridonkulous price of free!