In the summer in the city
1. Have you registered for Webstock yet? Only 33 more sleeps left to go and we are very very excited!
2. Have you checked out the programme for Summer City yet?
Wellington City Council’s three-month festival of outdoor activities. Events include music festivals, extreme sports, cultural celebrations and children’s entertainment. This year, Summer City’s music performances focus on Wellington bands.
There’s a giant display of info about it at the corner of Manners & Cuba Malls, or you can read their event info PDF (because Summer City is not accessible for everyone?)
3. Brenda has emphasised again why she was nominated for Best Contribution to the internet, with this revealing photo of the portrait of former mayor Mark Blumsky, standing outside Mermaids Strip Club. Nice one!
Comings and Goings
The start of each year often sees a shake-up of the bar and restaurant scene, and with the Current Economic ClimateTM one might expect a few more closures than usual. Let’s not dwell on such morbid speculation, and look at a few closings and openings that we do know about.
While discussing the demise of Temperance (which didn’t reopen this weekend, despite DB’s threats assurances), Blair mentioned that the Courtenay Arms had been replaced by something called "The Kiwi Pub". It doesn’t look quite as dire as I had feared, and its light, airy feel is more beach café than six-o’clock swill. It’s still nostalgia-by-numbers, though, presumably aimed at the backpacker market, and despite the odd decent beer on the list, the Society Of Beer Advocates is not impressed.
Across the road, New Orleans will open its new Allen St location in a a couple of weeks, in the space long left vacant by the unlamented Play. I hope it lasts longer than its cursed Lambton Quay incarnation, and while it’s presumably aiming at a different demographic, its Cajun cuisine will have stiff competition from Sweet Mother’s Kitchen around the corner.
For sooth o’er yonder hills doth joust
Imagine our delight to find that this weekend there is a jousting carnival in Upper Hutt.
Harcourt Park, Saturday and Sunday 10th and 11th January, Upper Hutt.
As they said in days of yore, be there or be-eth square.
O Temperance, O Mores
So, in accordance with rumours that have been floating around for a few months now, The Temperance is closing. So long: we hardly knew you.
But things aren’t so simple. According to the article, it’s more of a stoush between the head leaseholder (Dominion Breweries) and the operator (Andrew Gibson): the receivers have been called in, but it is expected to reopen by this weekend. Apparently, the Queensgate Mall of pubs was actually turning a profit.
Oh. And here were we thinking that this was a sign that Wellingtonians had some taste after all.
Cinephilia: Opening This Week
Following the flurry of Christmas and New Year releases (all of which are still playing), there are only two new titles to report this week. Firstly, The Tale of Desperaux an animated adaptation of a supposedly beloved children’s book. Matthew Broderick plays a noble little mouse with enormous ears who teams up with a kitchen-loving rat (Dustin Hoffman) to rescue a lonely Princess (Emma Watson) – sounds a bit like Dumbo meets Ratatouille. The rest of the voice cast is similarly prestigious including two gentlemen probably on the the Academy long-list for Best Actor this year: Frank Langella (Frost/Nixon) and Richard Jenkins (The Visitor). Playing at the Empire, Regent-on-Manners, Readings Courtenay and Sky City Queensgate (does anyone go there?).
Frank Miller is a hero to comic book aficionados everywhere. He created The Dark Knight Returns, 300 and Sin City (and co-directed the Sin City movie along with Robert Rodriguez). Now he has both hands on the wheel of another comic book adaptation, Will Eisner’s The Spirit and the promotional material makes it look like a long-lost cousin of Sin City. US reviews have not been kind but you can check it out at either Readings or Sky City.
The Paramount‘s Summer "Best of" series continues: Adam’s Apples, The Edge of Heaven, I‘m Not There. and Lars and the Real Girl get a second chance and they’re also raiding the vault with rare opportunities to see West Side Story, The Conversation, Elvis: That’s The Way It Is and North by Northwest.
Along with a rundown of all the Christmas releases, Desperaux and The Spirit will be reviewed next week at Funerals & Snakes (and in the Capital Times on Wednesday).
Super Fry
Stephen Fry, actor, author, wit and geek, is on his way to dear sweet Wellington and we are rather excited!
He’s coming to Aotearoa New Zealand to film some bits for a BBC series he’s presenting, Another Chance To See, where he’s travelling the world, checking up on endangered species. While he’s in Wellington, he’ll be visiting the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary to see how the kakapo tuatara are doing (rather well, thank you).
Oh, but this is no ordinary visit by a sleb.
Mr Fry, being a glorious geek, has been utilising the modern powers of the interwebs to document the filming of the series.
He’s been making regular tweets to his Twitter account (and fostered a Twitter community of Fry fans), uploading photos from his iPhone, posting video blogs of his African adventures, and just generally keeping a full and interesting website, documenting his travels.
This is great news for all! Because it means that instead of getting out there and stalking him when he’s in town, you can actually spend that time lying around, drinking yummy Margaritas and keep up with Mr Fry’s adventures with the laptop in your tiki shack, instead of having to go to the effort of getting out and stalking him.
(Of course, if you do happen to see him out and about, let us know!)
2008 TAWAs – the winners!
We all had a completely brilliant time on Thursday night at the TAWAs!
It was great to see so many of y’all along there, along with the awesome nominees and a few celebrity guests (not that Wellington has any actual celebrities, but, you know…)
Thanks to our fabulous sponsors who gave us swag and prizes
And thanks also to Wellington Central MP Grant Robertson for presenting the Wellingtonian of the Year award, which went to Callum Brown of Green Cabs.
After the awards, we relaxed to the lazy sounds of The Lonesome Cowboy, and then danced up a storm to Bunnies on Ponies, who ended their set with a v. swingorilliant cover of Dire Straits ‘Sultans of Swing’.
It was a super evening, and now that our Friday post-TAWAs fug has worn off, we’re looking forward to the 2009 TAWAs.
All that remains now is to celebrate this year’s winners. We encourage you to support these business and places (in fact, all the nominees are awesome), as they’re all part of why Wellington is such an excellent town.
WE <3 you
We will be updating with you with the news of the winner in each category tomorrow but we’d just like to say for now that according voters Callum Of Green Cabs is your Wellingtonista Wellingtonian of the year.
Go Callum and Go Green Cabs!
Thank you for being the enviromentally friendly people’s transport of Wellington.
[Update: As Brett helpfully points out in the comments, if you can’t wait for the ‘official’ results to be published, head over to Twitter where the winners were broadcast in real-time].
A word for our sponsors
So tonight we’re going to party like it’s 2008 at The Annual Wellingtonista Awards (come along from 6pm, presentations kick off around 7.30), but before we have too many of the Wellingtonista Cocktails that Mighty Mighty have designed for us, we want to take a minute or two to give much respect to the delightful lovely people who’re helping us to make such a great event with their donations of swag and spot prizes. In alphabetical order, mad props go out to:
Adidas New Zealand: You know who else is from Wellington? The Hurricanes. And we know that because Adidas have given us a brand new 2009 Wellington Hurricanes Super 14 jersey with the new embossed print to give away to one lucky ticket holder.
Aimée McLeod: Aimee is a local potter who has made our fabulous trophy tiles that the winners will be receiving tonight. Her works are for sale in a whole bunch of places, she’s been exceeding generous and supportive with her time and materials, and just quietly, she’s also a pretty choice mum too.
The Back Bencher: The Back Bencher Pub is somewhat of a famous destination eatery across the road from the Beehive with its political-inspired puppetry, menu and broadcast show and the service isn’t half bad either. We’re happy to be giving away three vouchers so you too can dine there, but we must warn you – talk to your companion quietly if you’re a public servant, because the enemy is sure to be all around you.
Bunnies on Ponies – Raver on Probation
To whet your appetite for tonight’s festivities down at Mighty Mighty, here’s some Bunnies on Ponies for you…
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch/v=fwc0TNWCAP8]