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.