So, Simon Sweet­man’s live review of Fat Fred­dy’s Drop (he real­ly, real­ly did­n’t like them) seems to have touched a nerve amongst some in the Welling­ton music scene. A few (actu­al­ly, quite a lot) have come out in sup­port of Sweet­man — says Josef…

the per­fect music for the iPod gen­er­a­tion who would­n’t know good music if it bit them in the ass.

And Hugh…

Thank good­ness some­one has seen the ele­phant in the room and had the courage to say it like it is. FFD as indi­vid­u­als may be tal­ent­ed, but the group sound is noise and inut­ter­ably bor­ing. And the incessent chirp­ing about how good they are is the ulti­mate sad­ness. Well done Simon

But, like­wise, the FFD sup­port­ers are also out in force. From a guy called guy…

Your douch­ery has no lim­its. FFD are awe­some. Regard­less of what you think. You.. not sur­pris­ing­ly are not.

And Seb says…

How about real­is­ing the suc­cess they have had. They must be doing some­thing right for them to do as well as they have. You just have poor taste in music.

So, what do you think? The Drop, hot or not?

[Updat­ed — the poll, which was­n’t work­ing for some users yes­ter­day, should be ok now. Vote away…]

Gam­bari­mashooooooo

The Film Archive is hav­ing a mini-Japan­ese Film Fes­ti­val this week with sup­port from the Japan­ese Foun­da­tion. And all the films are screen­ing for FREE! 

If you’re any kind of ani­me fan you’ll be rush­ing to see:

1979 ani­me clas­sic — Lupin the III — The Cas­tle of Cagliostro (Thurs 19) and the bril­liant Death Note (Fri 20) based on the man­ga series of the same name.

On Wednes­day eve (that’s tomor­row) there’s also the hurtling mar­itime action movie Umizaru 2 — Test of Trust which promis­es a wild ride. 

All screen­ings start at 6:30pm and it’s on a first in basis. 

Ter­ry Urbahn has spent a lot of time in bars and hotels — just the kind of guy we love here at the Welling­ton­ista.

He has an exhi­bi­tion of select­ed works from 1994–2008 on show at the Film Archive medi­a­gallery until 9 April, with the open­ing tak­ing place tomor­row — Sat­ur­day 14 March at 5pm. This is a bit of a depar­ture for the gallery. A week­end open­ing!

Come along and start your Sat­ur­day night right with a tip­ple and some great art — pho­tog­ra­phy, video work, dio­ra­ma and sculp­ture — by one of Welling­ton’s favourites. Every­one is wel­come to cel­e­brate this launch. 

All of the work was made dur­ing Urbah­n’s time liv­ing in Cap­i­tal City (he cur­rent­ly lives in Syd­ney) but it’s the first time it’s been shown here…

includ­ing the spec­tac­u­lar work The Sacred Hart (pic­tured) which is on dis­play by spe­cial arrange­ment with Auck­land Fes­ti­val.

[Image cour­tesy of Gov­ett-Brew­ster Art Gallery, New Ply­mouth]

I could scarce­ly believe my eyes when I saw this today, down by the Ceno­taph:

Could it be true?

Can’t quite read it?  No wor­ries, there’s a zoomed-in ver­sion after the jump…

Pumice and Grouper are play­ing at Hap­py on Sat­ur­day night, with local sup­port from seht (yesh, moi). It’s gonna be a great show. 

Grouper (Liz Har­ris from the U.S.A.) has put out (at least) 4 incred­i­ble, beau­ti­ful albums* in the last few years, and appar­ent­ly her live shows leave the records in the dust.

more after the jump…

This very hap­py look­ing young man is New Zealan­der Ron Tonk­ins (pic­tured with Mar­garet Chap­man) who trav­elled to Hol­ly­wood in 1946 and worked as a pub­lic­i­ty pho­tog­ra­ph­er.

Inter­est­ing thing is, dur­ing his time in Hol­ly­wood he shot reels and reels of Super 8 film footage like any usu­al tourist. Com­plete­ly Bizarre thing is, he had unlim­it­ed access to the stars of the day and the major Hol­ly­wood lots (includ­ing Hopa­long Cas­sidy). All with­out a secu­ri­ty guard in sight.

Come and watch this “back­stage” look at Hol­ly­wood, shot by a plucky Kiwi and nar­rat­ed with his own rec­ol­lec­tions, “Here’s Mar­lene Diet­rich and she’s ask­ing me, ‘What’s New Zealand like Ron?’ ??!?!

I kid you not, this rare record of Kiwi inge­nu­ity must be seen to be believed.

Screen­ing Thurs­day 12 and Fri­day 13 March, 7pm. FREE ADMISSSION at the Film Archive. 

Let’s have a lit­tle com­pe­ti­tion — the NZ Retire­ment Com­mis­sion­er, Diana Crossan, says she’s want­ed a change of name for the Com­mis­sion for sev­er­al years, but no-one has coined a suit­able name.

Wait­ing for God, and The Gold­en Years were sug­gest­ed at Select Com­mit­tee, but reject­ed (Un. Be. Liev­able.)

We’ll think of a prize as we go along, maybe a bag of Kapi­ti Macadamia nuts, I’m sure we can lay our hands on one of those.

So have at it in the com­ments, we’re look­ing for the best sug­gest­ed new name for the Do Not Go Gen­tly Into That Good Night Com­mis­sion, the win­ning label will be for­ward­ed to Ms Crossan.

Judges deci­sions are final & not to be ques­tioned.

Nev­er mind, on Wednes­day 11 March at 7:30pm the Film Archive is host­ing six Gyu­to Monks who will per­form live chant­i­ng before a fundrais­er screen­ing of Mur­der in the Snow. On their way to Wom­ad this week­end the monks will con­duct a Q&A ses­sion after­wards.

Have you seen Craig Osborne Wal­lace? He’s been miss­ing since March 1. 

He was last seen at Chaf­fer­’s Mari­na area on Sun­day 1 March, dressed in a red jack­et and blue and green hor­i­zon­tal­ly striped polo shirt.

Any­one with any infor­ma­tion should con­tact Welling­ton Police CIB on 0800 TIPOFF (0800 847 633) or the Welling­ton Cen­tral Police Sta­tion on 04 381 2000

There’s more details on Stuff.

Pho­tog­ra­ph­er John Lake, who we last saw at Toi Poneke with The Rise and Fall of West­ern Civil­i­sa­tion: Part One, is back at the Toi Poneke Gallery with a new exhi­bi­tion, this time look­ing at the Welling­ton Cen­tral can­di­dates in the 2008 gen­er­al elec­tion and their many sup­port­ers.

The exhi­bi­tion con­sists of por­traits of all of last year’s can­di­dates for Welling­ton Cen­tral. These por­traits — stripped of all pos­si­ble con­no­ta­tions by using the same white back­ground and light­ing — will line the gallery walls. Pho­tos doc­u­ment­ing oth­er parts of the cam­paign — such as par­ty sup­port­ers flanked in par­ty flags, vol­un­teers at work, union ral­lies and polit­i­cal debates in big halls or even sit­ting rooms — will also com­ple­ment the por­trait dis­play.