Stink Buzz
Stink Magnetic Tapes, the doggedly independant record company that has released music by the likes of the Mysterious Tapeman, Voodoo Savage and His Savages, Delaney Davidson, The Chandeliers and the Damned Evangelist, celebrates ten whole years of existence this December. Recently relocated from Wellington to that op-shoppers paradise of Wanganui, Stink Magnetic is holding one heck of a knees up next Thursday, Friday and Saturday (11, 12 and 13 Dec) at the company HQ, cnr Drews Ave and Rutland St, Wanganui. At only ten bucks a night for some sweet bands (mostly of Wellington origins) – at least 5 bands a night – you’d be loco to miss it, campadres. Rumour has it there’s a special ‘Werewolf’ compilation LP on hot black vinyl coming out too.
[edit: This time with the flyer!]
Cinephilia: Opening This Week
If you are considering going to the cinema this weekend, and you’ve already seen Bond and the other 21 films currently playing in Wellington, here’s a quick guide to the new releases.
Cinema owners all over the city are breathing a little easier now that two of the biggest box office releases from the States have opened at the same time. High School Musical 3: Senior Year is the third in the trilogy and the first to get a full cinema release: Readings, Empire, Sky City Queensgate. I saw it tonight at the Empire and my eyes and ears are still hurting.
Knocking Bond off his perch last weekend in the US was the Christmas rom-com Four Holidays starring Vince Vaughan and Reese Witherspoon. I believe I am out of step with most critics but I actually quite enjoyed it – and so did US$31m worth of other people. Readings, Empire, Sky City Queensgate.
Quarantine is a very quick-out-of-the-blocks Hollywood remake of the Spanish horror film [REC] that Ant Timpson was promoting earlier this year. It’s a Readings exclusive. Might be worth a look if, like me, you found it hard to read the subtitles in the original with your hands over your eyes.
The Visitor is going to be popular, mark my words. From Thomas McCarthy, writer-director of The Station Agent (which did more business per capita here than anywhere else in the world), this one is about a depressed middle-aged economics professor who rediscovers life when he meets an illegal immigrant couple in New York City. Oh man, it is so much better than I just made it sound. Penthouse, Paramount, Lighthouse Petone.
The acclaimed documentary The Survivors (about the final year of the Holocaust) gets two screenings at the Film Archive on Friday and Saturday respectively as part of their Human Rights series and finally, a Penthouse exclusive: Suddenly, a Swedish drama about a man and his son recovering from the death of the mother and brother. "A quiet and beautiful film," says IMDb.
The Visitor has already been reviewed at Funerals & Snakes, with the others following next week (and in the Capital Times next Wednesday).
UPDATE: My interview with The Visitor star Richard Jenkins is up at F&S
Midland Park, Right Now.
Anyone know what’s going on at the moment? There seems to be (forgive me my scorn) bad 80s covers (Rhythm of the Night as I type this) being blasted accross the road so loud we can hardly hear ourselves think. Owooo Owooo.
If we needed this, we’d have Mamma Mia (the sing along version natch) blasting from the Wellingtonista Home Theatre. Owoo owoo
But we don’t. Because we don’t. Owoo.
Hey, wanna buy some pot?
The Woolshed Potters, who are based at the Gear Homestead in Porirua are having their annual Cash’n Carry Sale over the next two weekends. You should get along and get your hands on some beautiful handcrafted individual pieces, because they’re great for Xmas presents, and also for yourself.
You might be a little sceptical, thinking that pottery is for hippies from the 1970s, but we’ve all seen knitting and crochet come back into vogue, so you should jump onto this bandwagon quickly. Especially if it means you buy pots by Aimée McLeod, which you should, because she is super fantastic awesome.
Pottery sales are from the Red Barn at the Gear Homestead, Okowai Road, just off Whitford Brown Drive in Porirua.
Open two weekends in a row:
- Saturday 6th & Sunday 7th December
- Saturday 13th & Sunday 14th December
- 10.00 am – 5.00 pm
Also, while you’re out there, you might want to take the time to explore the Gear Homestead, and pretend to blow up some sheep, because that’s where Peter Jackson filmed much of Bad Taste.
Google Street View knows where you live
Google Maps has today launched Street View for Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch all over New Zealand.
A few months ago, on what looks to have been early in the morning in winter, the Googlemobile drove around the streets of our fair city, photographing the streets.
You can now view these streetscapes as the closest zoom-in on Google Maps. They even made it down Cuba Mall!
Street View in other countries has brought up all sorts of interesting finds, from "Hey, that’s me!" to getting snapped out entering a brothel (though Google say they will blur the faces of anyone who could be identified).
So if you find anything interesting, do share it with us – you might be rewarded with a free ticket to the TAWAs!
Update
Could it be? Is this familiar looking woman at the gate of Premier House its former resident, Helen Clark?
$100 paintings!!!
For a limited time Wellington Arts Centre-based painter Elisabeth Vullings is having an online sale of her sweet paintings here: www.elisabethvullings.co.nz
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Small scale and only $100 each they’re on sale from today and will be updated throughout the month. It’s well worth checking out her site for a piece of local art – the perfect gift and a great way to support our creative community. You’d better be quick!
The Old Shebang of Cuba Street
The National Library has joined the Flickr Commons project, whacking up many of their photos on Flickr. At the moment, there’s not much from Wellington, but we’re hoping that will change as more are uploaded.
One particular Wellington delight, however, is a set of photos of a ramshackle house on Cuba Street called the Old Shebang (shebang in this instance means dwelling).
And as well as that, Google are in the process of putting Life magazine’s archive of 10 million photos online. So far, searching for Wellington brings up slim pickings, but it’ll be worth checking back on as the archive grows.
But until then, you can browse Life’s New Zealand photos. Or, um, check out this photo of Madonna looking all cool in 1984.
Splish Splash: Bucket Fountain Update
There’s been a bit of action going on at the old Bucket Fountain, icon of Cuba Street.
First, it mysteriously disappeared:
We initially thought this was a retro ’80s David Copperfield-style magic trick, but it turns out it was just taken down for maintenance.
The fountain returned, with a fresh coat of paint, ready to splash the good folk of Cuba Mall once again.
But then a hand-written sign appeared up the top. It’s not so legible from the street, but zooming in revealed this message:
"Prove your hunter-gatherer skills by finding food in the forest at Te Papa."
Perhaps, with the Current Economic Situation, Te Papa is right to put the emphasis on natural history and away from art.
And if you’d like to escape the misery of modern life, you can now journey back in time to when the Bucket Fountain was first installed in 1969, thanks to the WCC’s The Cuba Street Memories Project.
From this, we learn that the Bucket Fountain was originally nicknamed the Sugar Shovel Fountain and it was painted yellow and black (so 2000s!).
Cinephilia: Opening This Week
So, this is the week I come out of hibernation to resume posting and what do I have to report? Only the bleeding obvious information that the new Bond (Quantum of Solace) is everywhere this weekend and that the only cinema daring to go up against the behemoth is plucky little Paramount which is playing American Teen from today.
QoS is the middle film of an expected trilogy so don’t expect much in the way of resolution. And despite being the most expensive Bond film in history it’s a welcome half an hour shorter than the previous Casino Royale: More sessions = more money. Playing at Readings, Empire, Penthouse, Regent-on-Manners, Embassy and Lighthouse Petone.
A big winner at Sundance this year, American Teen is a documentary surveying a cross-section of current US young-adult-hood in the town of Warsaw, Indiana. The characters are stock (which is sort of the point): the Jock, the Nerd, The Queen and the Outsider. You’ve got to love a film with this poster though. Paramount exclusive.
Quantum of Solace was reviewed this week at Funerals & Snakes and American Teen will join it next week (and in the Capital Times if you prefer ink and paper).
I can taste the celebration already and it’s making me cellar-vate
Just quietly between you and me and everyone we know, there’s something tasty for tasting at Cellar-Vate on Molesworth Street this afternoon.
Today is all about holiday drinking! We’ve got some festive bubbles and a refreshing rose. How could you miss the opportunity to sample a quick glass of Champagne on the way home?
See you there 4.30 – 6pm at Cellar-Vate.