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!

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.

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.