First class citizens at last
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.
Vote for the T4WAs!
In the last month or so we’ve collected nominations for the various categories in the Fourth Annual Wellingtonista Awards; we’ve written them all up for you to read; we’ve handed out certificates to (most of) the nominees (if you’ve been nominated and haven’t got yours yet, hold tight, I’ve been somewhat occupied elsewhere – Jo); and we’ve generally been living in anticipation of This Very Moment.
For now… [drum roll please] …it is your turn.
You need to vote, in each of the categories, for whom you think should win one of the coveted T4WAs.
And you need to do that, right here, right now. But only one completed survey per person, please!
VOTE HERE (Voting has closed).
Voting is open from now through to midday on December 15th. And once you’ve voted, you should clear a space in your calendar for the Awards Ceremony, which will be at Mighty Mighty on December 17th (Add the event on Facebook if you roll that way). The awards presentation should be happening around 7.30pm, and then at 9.30pm we are very excited to have the Klezmer Rebs playing tunes for us all to shake our tuchasses to!
Lastly, in case you need to check back on the details of some of the category nominees, here’s each posting:
- Best Apparel
- Best Art Experience
- Best Cheap Eats
- Best Coffee
- Best Drink in Town
- Best Event
- Best Live Performance
- Best Non-Drinking Destination
- Best Place to Shake it
- Best Regular Entertainment
- Best Service
- Best Shop
- Best Suburban Destination
- Best UnCheap Eats
- Best Late Night Hangout
- Most Needed
- Best Public Space
- Wellingtonian’s Contribution to the Internet
- Wellingtonian of the Year
T4WA nominees: Wellingtonian of the Year
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.
Crocodiles
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!
The Verlaines and the VBC!
Woo hoo – this is going to be a big one.
Presales are available now for The Verlaines – live in Wellington at SFBH on Wednesday December 9 (which just happens to be my birthday – thanks guys!)
Having just released a new album ‘Corporate Moronic’, don’t miss the chance to witness one of the great Flying Nun bands, who haven’t played here for ages!
It’s also the VBC Christmas party!
Presales $20, available now from Real Groovy, Under the Radar + the VBC.
Aeon – Wellington in Flux
Brenda from NZ On Screen alerted us to the the fact that Richard Sidey’s short film Aeon is now available to view on the site:
Wellington is given the Baraka ‘time-scape’ treatment in this short film by Richard Sidey, made while studying at Massey University. There’s no characters or conventional narrative, but the life cycle of a city is captured in a Koyaanisqatsi-like compilation of day and night-time scenes. Clouds scud by in hyper-time-lapse and slow-motion, and Wellington landmarks (harbour, bucket fountain, turbine etc) are seen anew, cut to a soundtrack by percussion group Strike. The tone poem won best student film at the American Conservation Film Festival 2007.
Update: Embedding is now enabled via NZ On Screen’s very own external player. Ka pai.
Kia Ora
Hello dear readers of the Wellingtonista! This is just a quick note to say hello to you all, as I have recently been enveloped into the fold (?) and will now be informing you all of upcoming events I think are worth your time via this here blog.
A little about me – I work for The San Francisco Bath House, and also promote other shows across this fair city (i.e. at other bars). Usually I have a good deal of insider info regarding ticket sales, support bands, rumors of upcoming acts and gossip in the form of unusual rider requests and stories of bad behaviour and debauchery that inevitably go down when people + music + liquor come together. All to share with you!
There are a couple of gigs needing special mention coming up, but I will post on those separately soon…
Nice to ‘meet’ you all, and thanks to the Wellingtonista team for the warm welcome.
Lover’s Tiff – Oh Wellington we could never stay mad at you for long
"The quiet doors, which led to Wellington’s morgue, were off Taranaki Street."
Thus begins Rowan Saker’s murder mystery novel Lover’s Tiff, which, right from the word go, wears its setting on its sleeve. Fittingly for such a Welly-focused read, a preprint copy was flicked Wellingtonista’s way for a review prior to the book launch. Lover’s Tiff is Rowan Saker’s first novel, written after a recent return to Wellington after nine years living in France.
The book launch is tonight (Wednesday 25 November) at Turnbull House from 6.00pm until 8.00pm.
This is a murder mystery firmly within the pulp traditions of the genre: complete with tough but square cop who will never be hip, the smart middle-class girl who turns into a feral and somewhat slutty dropout, and all the twists you would expect in the hunt for her killer that takes us to Palmy, the Hawke’s Bay and all across Wellington.
Mighty Mighty Crack
Remind me never to sit on the stools at Mighty Mighty again without wiping down the seat first.
Lightning Bolt are here! Tomorrow night!
Somebody just asked me what Lightening Bolt are like.
I said: take the White Stripes and feed them, force them through the eye of a needle which is made frmo something which looks like Cream’s farewell live gig Albert Hall 1969, push them all the way through to the other side in a place where everything’s in the red and the sound becomes an enveloping 4-dimensional bear hug choke-hold strangle deadly embrace, where the stone inveades yr bone and
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[video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Hcw1C1AzQI]Wednesday 25th November in the middle of the floor at San Francisco Bathhouse… tickets available from Slow Boat Records and Under The Radar… updates and more info from Galesburg.