A million(ish) parties in our big city
Greenland’s having a party! Pretty Pretty Pretty’s having a party! Craft2.0 is having a party! Eateria De Manon is having a party!
Item! Although it’s hard to believe, both because it feels like we’ve been going there forever and because it still seems so shiny and new, our beloved Greenland Cafe is turning 1 next week!
Green Land cafe on Kate Sheppard Place in Thorndon will celebrate their first birthday with some really sensational giveaways next Thursday, April 16. Why not visit for a coffee and a piece of their brilliant and famous ginger crunch (it is crunchy)? You also might actually win something, which would be nice. These super snazzy prizes include:
- Teza iced teas and t-shirts
- Havana coffee
- Trade Aid treats
- Zany Zeus feta
- Pandoro bread
Paul and Jane really, really appreciate your custom and wit over these past 12 months. They say: "Thanks ever so much and do come again, and again."
Item! Wellingtonista-affiliated Pretty Pretty Pretty is also turning 1, and to celebrate they’re having a big old girlie party with clothing swaps, makeovers, facials and all kinds of good stuff to give away. You should check it out, if you are prettily inclined.
Wellington reclamation animation
From the ‘Reclamation of Wellington Harbour‘ Wikipedia article, here’s an animation by Matt Lane that shows the various stages of the city’s expansion seawards over the last century and a half.
The reclamation of Wellington Harbour was a phased approach (starting in the 1850s) of land reclamation from the Wellington Harbour. The original goal of the reclamation was to increase the amount of usable flat land for Wellington City. The motivation of latter reclamations in the 1960s and 1970s was as a response to container shipping (containerisation) and new cargo handling methods. Today, reclamation has added more than 155 hectares to the Wellington
[Via Mirarmar Mike]
Reggaeton on a boat
Jinetero MC is a locally based Cuban reggaeton artist (yeah, one of those) and part of Olmecha Supreme.
But as a solo artist, he has a new song called "Wellington", his danceable ode to the city.
Sample lyrics:
I say thank you, thank you very much.
Wellington, you have give me lotta lotta luck.
But more importantly, the video is AWESOME. It manages to transform this windy city into a subtropical paradise, including a sticky carnival parade, hot city streets, and the highlight – Jinetero dancing with booty girls out in the harbour on a mothertruckin’ boat, y’all.
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKwwEq0xtlM]One lap Dick Johnson
The Nissan Mobil 500 may be a distant memory, but it still has made its mark on the city – check out the way that Jervois Quay feels more like a chute designed for cars to hurtle along at high speed than a pleasant harbourside city street.
But those wishing the relive the glory days can do so over at YouTube, where petrolheads have uploaded a selection of choice clips. My favourite is "One lap Dick Johnson" from 1990. While this would be a perfectly good name for a porno, it’s actually a dashboard cam of driver Dick doing a lap of the circuit.
It ends up being a really good snapshot of Wellington’s waterfront environment before the big regeneration of the ’90s – no Te Papa, the Museum Hotel is still down by the water, Waitangi Park is full of warehouses, no Meridian building, no Kumutoto stream revival, no City to Sea bridge, and no lovely pleasant harbourside walk.
Vrrm vrrrrrm:
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWx4sljvFVI]Demon Woman – Flight Of The Conchords
The ‘nista have been too busy hitting the town this week to actually make any posts. We’ll try harder next week. In the meantime, since it’s Friday, here’s some Conchords…
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnU62CUevn4]
Enamel – a literary magazine from Wellington
Enamel is a small print magazine edited by new Wellingtonian Emma Barnes. Its first issue contains work from writers based in Wellington, other places in New Zealand and all around the world. In this issue you’ll see writing from: Johanna Aitchison, recent Randell Cottage writer in residence Jennifer Compton, Miriam Barr and Tim Jones as well as other new and established writers. It also includes art by artists from New Zealand, Australia and the U.S.A.
Largely an experiment in creating a literary magazine, Enamel seeks to become an ongoing part of the literary scene in New Zealand. Enamel is printed each year in March. Submissions are always open. Enamel is especially open to experimental work but considers anything. You can visit the blog at http://enamelmag.blogspot.com, email your submissions through to enamel.editor@gmail.com or buy it from Trade Me.
Auckland, Wellington and televisual debate
This week’s episode Media 7 looked at the Auckland vs Wellington cultural debate sparked by the Metro magazine article (as previously covered here).
Russell Brown rounded up Simon Wilson – the article’s author; with Tommy Honey representing the arts in Wellington and Simon Prast representing Auckland.
It was a lively debate, and didn’t resort to much "us versus them" bullhunky, but they managed to slag off both Palmerston North and Hamilton. Heh.
They basically concluded that Wellington City Council supports the arts better than Auckland City Council does, and that there’s nowhere near Auckland’s Maidment Theatre to get a drink.
You can watch the episode here. The Auckland/Wellington discussion starts in part three (part one looks at the death of advertising, part two at – ooh – holograms).
Cinephilia: Opening This Week
Pick of the week at the movies must be The Wrestler, Mickey Rourke’s triumphant return to major leagues after years wandering in the wilderness. It’s a comeback of sorts for director Darren Aronofsky, too. His last film, The Fountain, was a strange and beautiful fable about trying to escape death but he’s probably best-known for Requiem for a Dream, nine years ago. Rourke plays a rung-out and strung-out professional wrestler trying to reinvent his life outside the ring. Readings, Penthouse, Lighthouse Petone.
In other news, Elizabeth Banks (Zack and Miri Make a Porno) tries a change of pace as a (possibly) evil nanny in the chiller The Uninvited (Readings and Sky City Queensgate) and my favourite B-movie action hero Jason Statham returns as the eponymous Transporter in the third episode of Luc Besson’s action series. Big question in Transporter 3? Is Frank Martin gay. The director has a perfect action movie name: Olivier Megaton. Readings and Sky City Queensgate.
Earthly
We Wellingtonistas have been strong supporters of Earth Hour in the past, and even though Keith Ng gave it a damned good fisking over on Public Address, we’re still behind the concept. And so, it seems, are a lot of local bars and restaurants, with Wellingtonista favourites Fidels, Sweet Mother’s Kitchen, the Southern Cross, Caffe
Italiano and Trade Kitchen among the many places offering candelit dinners on Saturday night. We just hope it doesn’t make those poor, fragile roller girls crash into one another*.
Keith’s right that the actual energy saved in an hour will be minimal, and the powers (no pun intended) that be are unlikely to be swayed by the symbolism, but that needn’t make it an empty gesture. If it helps a few people understand the impact of their decisions, and look for practical options to save energy in the long term, then it will do some good. Keith points out that switching to low-energy light bulbs is, for most applications, a simple and sensible thing to do right now. So it’s just as well that as part of the Earth Hour promotion, Wellington City Library is giving away free CFL bulbs until Saturday.
[*not really]
Shhhh….some secrets
No, this isn’t a fellow Wellingtonista helping another out after a hard Friday night on Courtenay Place, it’s a pic of the New Zealand Medical Corps in 1917.
This Saturday at the Film Archive (7pm, entry by koha) Dr Chris Puglsey is presenting a peek at some of the oldest surviving films in the Archive, from 1910-1920 of the New Zealand experience during WWI.
Dr Pugsley is a total hoot (teaches at Sandhurst – yes that’s right, the school of choice for Wills and Harry) and he’ll be joined by live piano accompaniment.