Day Tripper

Sometimes it takes the eyes of a visitor to shed a new light on the ordinary.

Fernando Ramierez is a Chilean photographer who’s been spending a bit of time travelling around Wellington buses using the Daytripper ticket.

He started noticing the other passengers on the bus, and began talking to them and photographing them. This lead to his Daytripper photo essay series.

[I] soon realized that Wellington is a beautiful city not just because of the great architecture. It’s a beautiful city because of its people. Really kind, they let a complete stranger approach, take photos, learn about their lives and hope for the best.

Scoop has some photos online and also the photo essay available as a PDF. And there’s also Fernando’s Flickr group with the photos.

Cinephilia: Opening This Week

G-Force posterFreakin’ school holidays. 9 – count ’em – new films are opening this week and most of them are designed to keep restless young people out of the hair of their elders and betters. Time is short so I’m just going to list them here:

Eat before you WOW?

f you’re going to the Montana World of WearableArt and you want to make sure that you eat first, WellingtonNZ have put together a handy list of nearby-ish restaurants that offer express menus to make sure you get to the show on time. We’re particularly fond of Trade Kitchen. Naturally, even if you’re not going to the show, you can still indulge yourself with these dinners…

Off the Hook

While the Hook of Maui has been scrapped due to cost overruns and problems with the frickin’ laser, the Wellington City Council is still keen on the idea of a gateway sculpture, and indeed the competition will be re-run later his year. The proposal had some mixed responses, but now there’s a chance for a rethink.

So, what do you think? What (if anything) would make a suitable marker for the northern entrance to Wellington?

Spotacular

You’d have to have been living under a rock (by which I mean "not been in Civic Square for the last couple of weeks") not to have noticed the outbreak of spots all over the City Gallery. It’s an installation by Yayoi Kusama to publicise her Mirrored Years exhibition, which is a showpiece for the newly revamped and extended gallery.

Yayoi Kusama installation on City Gallery

After nearly a year of closure, the gallery is celebrating its relaunch with the Gallery-a-Go-Go event in Civic Square this Sunday. While many will be most excited by the return of Nikau café (which reopened a week or so ago) and its famous kedgeree, there are a whole lot of new gallery spaces to explore after the expansion. There’s the brand new Roderick and Gillian Deane Gallery of M?ori and Pacific Art, which will host Ngaahina Hohaia’s Parihaka-themed work; a new Adam Auditorium; and a much larger Michael Hirschfeld Gallery. The opening exhibition there will be the huge installation Make Way by Regan Gentry, a Wellington artist best known for his large-scale public sculptures exploring public space and urban change.

[more after the jump]

Cinephilia: Opening This Week

Moon posterStill, they are returning from the Festival: Moon by Bowie’s boy Duncan Jones is a Paramount exclusive which should do quite nicely for them as they prepare for new ownership (discuss rumours you might have heard in the comments). After three years alone mining the moon Sam Rockwell might be going slightly nuts and imagining that he’s got company. Or is he?

The Penthouse and the Lighthouse both share Stephen Frears’ Chéri and the documentary that launched the Festival back in June, The September Issue. Chéri is based on two novels by Colette and is a cherished project by acclaimed screenwriter Christopher Hampton (Dangerous Liaisons, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly).

[The rest of this week’s new releases after the jump]

Karearea for Bird of the Year!

Wellington is blessed with many and splendiferous forms of avifauna. Between the Sanctuary; the council’s efforts in keeping pest numbers low; and the natural attractions of our location, Wellington is party central for birds.

And so it is only fitting that the Wellingtonista takes at least a passing interest in Forest & Bird’s Bird of the Year Poll, given that some of our favourite residents are top candidates!

In truth though we’ve had some difficulty deciding if we should endorse one particular bird over another. One person wanted the Robin; another the Tomtit; and another suggested a non-resident left-field contender, the now extinct and totally not eponymous of any Wellingtonista alive or dead Chatham Island Whaktard (which is only a half-decent FaceBook campaign away from being the poll winner that cannot be admitted to).

It turns out though, that the person that writes the blog posting gets to decide, and thus I would urge you all to vote for the Kārearea (New Zealand Falcon).

Why? After the jump.

Smarten your Snapper – Voting starts

Finally here they are.

The top 14 finalists in the Smarten your snapper Competition
as chosen by our panel of delightful judges, and you can now vote for the ultimate winner!  (click on the image to see large-wise, yo).

the top 15

So what comes next?

Well it’s now down to you, the fine readers of the wellingtonista to tell us which Snapper cover you like best. All you have to do is head over to a very simple entry form, and vote for the snapper cover you like the most.

Click here to vote.

Of course it might help to be able to check them out first
Voting runs from today September 14th till Monday September 28th

Our finalists in alphabetical order are:

  1. Bite Me – created by Amie McCarron
  2. Cassetiquette Case – created by Matt Whitwel
  3. Jeans for your snapper  – Created by Heike aka minu.
  4. Kokako tie up cover – created by Deb from Boocraft Designs
  5. Library Card Cover – created by Matt Whitwel
  6. Patchwork Snapper card – created by Marjorie from WHSKR
  7. Pirate Patch – created by Amy from Bad Animals
  8. Sequined Snapper – by Emma from emma makes
  9. Tahi Blue – created by Miss Millie
  10. The Big Snapper – created by Miss Millie
  11. The Hoff – created by Paula from Madame Cake
  12. Urban Vintage card holder – created by Shelley Gardner from "Sweet William"
  13. wave– by Yana from chromatophobic
  14. Yum Yum Donuts – created by Paula from Madame Cake

Over the next week all the finalists are being profiled over at Craft2.0 and we’ll also be sharing some of the judges thoughts on the finalists.

There there is one vote per email address.

And you can vote right now!

Review: Good Night – The End

For the last couple of weeks, Wellington has been teased with the sight of grim reapers going about their business around the city. These hooded folk were promoting the new play "Good Night – The End", which has recently opened at Downstage.  Written by the multi-talented Jo Randerson, the play looks at a group of three grim reapers (and their zesty Italian administrator), just spending time in their break room between reaping.

And like most people, the stuff that gets discussed on breaks is often nothing to do with their work. So instead it’s arguments about doing the dishes, using all the Milo, and Cheezels, pies, pizzas and hash browns, coming across as an unruly mix of between The Office, passiveaggressivenotes.com, Big Brother and a bit of the Mighty Boosh thrown in for good measure.

a tiki tour of craft fairs

There must be something about spring, and craft fairs as this saturday has 3 crafting events on in our fine city.

Make your first Craft destination Berhampore school from 9.30am, it’s home to wellington’s popular seasonal fair, knack. Knack’s been running since 2007 and there are 3  things I truly love about Knack:

  • Knack is run as a fundraiser for berhampore school
  • Knack is often where you will see some of Wellington’s emerging Crafters show casing their crafts for the first time
  • There is a lovely laid back vibe at every knack, which makes it a lovely destination for some crafty culture.

spring-knack


 

Once you’ve checked out spring knack in Berhampore head further down the road and you’ll hit Craft Village in Island Bay.

Home  to about 50 Crafters, Craft village is a monthly market featuring local crafters like Kate Burgess of Stitch Lips whose quirky creations are featured on the Craft Village Posters.

Rest up overnight and then head out to the long established Annual Pinehaven Arts and Crafts Fair  at Pinehaven School Hall, Pinehaven Road, Upper Hutt.

It is not a ‘sit at your stall’ type of fair more like a gallery where, everything is set out on walls, and display tables. The school hall looks very unassuming from the outside but once you get in it’s an eye opener. The event is a fundraiser for Pinehaven School, so just like spring knack you can do some shopping and feel like you are helping make the world a better place.