It’s funny season in the City

It’s Comedy festival time in the Capital.

Personally I think the timing is always quite impeccable as winter has just hit and with it comes the winter blues. There are loads of amazing local acts and also some brilliant internationals.

Now normally the international acts like to include a little local content to make the crowd love them more. Often it’s limited to jokes about wind, jaffas and Australians. Sammy J is clearly the exception to the rule, and to prove it he’s even been making some extremly cute videos.

[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQG1pRpTF-c]

You can catch him at Downstage from tonight.

My hot local tip is the The Comediettes.  Emma, Jim and Sarah were amazing at the fringe festival with their stand up show. Sarah’s been winning a few comedy competitions lately, so you now she’s going to bring the giggles.

A thing at Spacething

There’s an exhibition opening on at Newtown’s Spacething tonight (Thu 7 May), featuring new artwork from Helen McVey and Tania Price.

There will also be live music from (the excellently named) Public Toilet ltd, Chris Palmer and Dan Beban, as well as casual rock cocktail poetry by Eliot White.

Starts at 6pm. 171 Adelaide Road. 

A book sale worth walking up a hill for

It’s sale time at Vic Books again, both at the Kelburn Campus and the Pipitea store by the train station.

The sale runs from Monday May 11-Thursday May 28, and if you’re clever you’ll figure out a way to get to the sneak preview with wine and nibbles at the Kelburn shop, from 3pm, Thursday May 7th.

‘Tis the season of twisted umbrellas, so it’s time to stock up on books which will keep you enthralled despite the weather. Our famous sale features fiercely discounted fiction, politics, history, art & architecture, sciences and current affairs. University Press & other academic books, quality hardbacks and paperbacks, children’s books and more.
During the sale we will also be holding special discount days:

• Thursday May 14th: for one day only, 25% off all children’s books not already discounted.
• Thursday May 21st: for one day only, 25% off all fiction not already discounted.
• Thursday May 28th: for one day only, 25% off all non-fiction not already discounted.

 

Paint that bus!

One of the highlights of this year’s Cuba Street Carnival was the painting of a GO Wellington bus by some of New Zealand’s top graffti/street artists and German artists Via Grafik.

The finished product looked great, the bus took pride of place in the Night Parade, and can still be seen in normal use on Go Wellington’s routes.

 
So when the independent Academy Cinema in Auckland planned to get some local graffiti artists to paint a Dargaville High School bus outside the cinema to help promote new graffiti documentary Alter Ego, you’d think the Auckland City Council would be as supportive as Wellington was for the bus painting.

But no! Find out the Auckland City Council’s bizarre reaction after the jump.

Rumbles is ready to rumble with DB

There’s been quite a bit of news around DB Breweries trying to copyright the already in use name ‘radler’ lately, and one Wellington liquor shop – Rumbles on Waring-Taylor street has had enough.

As seen on the Real Beer page: 

Join us in a boycott of DB Brewery’s products and support NZ Beer…

In response to what we perceive to be bully-boy tactics and a direct attack on the emerging boutique beer industry, Rumbles Wine Merchant will not be stocking the following products brands untl the threat of legal action has been lifted. We make no apologies for any inconvenience…

And you can read more about it on the Rumbles blog. Go Rumbles! Just reading about this makes me thirsty, I could really go for a Bennett’s right about now…

Win a Nokia 5800 worth $899 (still)

This competition is now closed.

Ok, we still have a super sweet Nokia 5800 smart phone, worth $899 to give away, courtesy of Vodafone, so it’s time to mash up this competition to make it easier to enter and therefore easier to win. Yay.

To enter, all you need to do is visit www.Vodafone.co.nz/easy and watch the video called "Internet Access Easy ANYWHERE" and answer this rather easy question: What is the occupation of the mobile internet user in the video?

Email your answer to info@wellingtonista.com with the subject ‘Vodafone Competition".

I especially recommend entering this comp if you like doing cool stuff online but you’re labouring with a crappy old cellphone. Cos mobile internet is one of the best things about 3G.

The competition closes at midday on Friday 15 May and the winner will be determined by a random draw. You must be a New Zealand resident. Righto.

UPDATE

We have a winnar! Congratulations to Brent Dickens who will very soon be getting a lovely new Nokia 5800.

Thanks to everyone who entered!

 

Calling all Neil Young fans!

Don’t miss this 35mm screening of the brilliant Rust Never Sleeps (USA, exempt, 103 mins) this Saturday night at the Film Archive.  Tickets are $8 ($6 concession) and this feature length documentary could sell out so get your tickets now.

The Godfather of Grunge is in essential (read: grungy) form on this acclaimed live video, widely considered to be the best record of Neil Young’s spectacular concert presence. Filmed in 1978, Young and his backing band, Crazy Horse, rip through sixteen of his best songs, including Like A Hurricane, Cinnamon Girl, and the modern classic, After the Goldrush.

Rust Never Sleeps is one of those rare concert films that renews one’s faith in rock and roll. Tell your Dad.

Review: Little India, Cuba Mall

It’s a Tuesday night. Rather, it’s 5.55pm, approximately. You walk into a restraurant that has its ‘OPEN’ sign up. The man behind the counter talking on the phone that gives you a "I am on the phone" look. You nod politely and look around the restaurant. It is totally empty. When he finally pauses his phonecall, he gestures you towards the six-seater right in front of the door and disappears again, apparently to finish off his terribly important phone call. You retrieve a bottle of wine from your bag, even though a glass of water first would be nice. The wine is a screw cap, but it takes you a couple of minutes to crack. No sign of water or menus, so you pull out your copy on NW and start the sudoku, even though you’d really rather order an entree before the rest of your friends arrive because you’re totally starving. and the intense heat in the restaurant and the HI NRG Bangra is really really offputting.

However, even though you’re not particularly fast at Sudoku, you manage to complete the entire thing before the waiter returns with menus for the whole table. You order some samosas, and turn your attention to the smaller crossword, which you plow through before your little pastry parcels show up. The crust of the samosas is not melty, the cabbage scattered on the plate has definitely seen better days, and the tamarind sauce seems unusually concentrated. For $5.50, it is acceptable, but not with that kind of service.

YAY for fabric!

There’s a fabric fair/market on tomorrow in Welly called Fabric-a-brac – come along to buy or to hock your too-big stash of fabrics off to someone else.

Or just come for the coffee!

Email Josie for info about registering for a stall, or check out the blog.

Hope to see you there, it should be fun! The idea is that people take a table at the event, and sell all that cool vintage fabric, those buttons, patterns and sewing-related items that they are just never going to get around to using.

Some people get some cash, others get some great fabric at bargain prices. Hey presto!

12noon – 4pm,  Saturday 18 April

Brooklyn Community Centre, 18 Harrison St, Wellington