The Safety Dance
The Fly was out buzzing around recently, and was horrified to hear someone at a supposedly upmarket bar (for its type) politely ask a gentleman to remove his hat. Why might this be? he asked. Apparently it was a "security issue".
Are the watering holes of Wellington desparately afraid of tommy guns in trilbys? Semtex in sombreros? Flick-knives in fedoras? Apparently not, because the gentleman in question was later approached by the apologetic bar manager and provided with a glass of wine on the house, because the rule was devised to deter chavs rather than chaps: a rash of baseball caps at apeish rather than rakish angles had prompted a revision of the dress code.
Fair enough, one might say, but numerous punters were happily served while wearing the aforementioned ersatz sporting headgear, and one rum cove was even spotted wearing something more appropriate for a llama herder than a man-about-town. While one can sympathise with the management looking askance at our companion’s attire (and really, a Gatsby cap and club collar is so nouveau riche), surely if they mean to enforce sartorial standards it would be better not to hide behind "security" concerns and just be open about it.
WBL Round Four Results:
Holy crap! The last game of the season is tonight, and things are looking tight tight tight!
Last week the Purple Cobras took the Bowlingtonista 471 to 349, picking up an extra point for their highest score, while Tom from the Bowlingtonista got the league point for the best flair, bowling without spilling a drop of his martini held in the other hand. The Furry Ferals took Xero 372 to 314, which means they’re tied for first place with the Cobras, although the Cobras have a by-week this week, which means in theory that unless the Ferals don’t show up they can’t win the league, but I’m going to throw things WIDE OPEN and announce that tonight there’ll be league points for fastest bowl, slowest bowl AND best flair, and I know the Cobras have booked their own league, so we’ll see how things go. Meanwhile Bowlingtonista will be playing Xero for last place, and the Mighty Boost will be trying to move up to first or second instead of third. All bets are off, except on us having a good time.
Bowlingtonista: 7
Furry Ferals: 22
Mighty Boost: 16
Purple Cobras: 22
Xero: 6
Greens launch Wellington Transport Plan
The Greens have just launched their new Wellington Transport Plan, complete with Green MP Sue Kedgley as their Wellington Transport Spokesperson.
Wellington has a pretty kick-arse public transport system as it is, with a well used network of buses, trolley buses, trains and the good ol’ cable car. So what plans do the Greens have for the future?
In short, their plans involve: better walking, more cycling, cheaper buses, light rail, expanded trains, trolley bus love, and useful bus stops. And then there are other ideas, like encouraging people to work from home and shop online, and rethinking those mammoth planned roadworks.
Personally, I’m excited by the idea of turning the Melling train line into light rail that will extend into a loop through Lower Hutt. That’s right, you’ll be able to get the train to Queensgate without a massive walk. Wow, just like a proper grown-up city!
It will be interesting to see what plans, if any, the other parties have for Wellington’s transport.
Double Meat Palace
Temperance Bar might not be doing quite as well as it hoped, because they’re offering 2-for-1 mains on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays in their ads in the Capital Times. You can "Choose any menu item of our menu and receive another of the same or lesser value for free." Y’hear that? Any menu item of their menu!
Meanwhile The Establishment clearly feels threatened because they’ve been running an ad right next to it stating that they offer 2-for-1s every day but they don’t have any sign of their special on their annoying music-playing site (Seriously, who still does that? Is it still 1999? Is Flash still cool?). If their 24 hour liquor license wasn’t enough of a threat to society, they also offer a 1.2kg steak – which if you can finish within 40 minutes, you dine for free. Yeesh.
If that’s not yet enough meat for you in the meat-market-district, Four Kings offers "All you can eat ribs" for $19.95 on Monday nights.
Yikes. I think it’s time we did a review of Prannah and maybe Higher Taste.
Halloween: Wrestling and zombies and dress-ups, oh my!
Next Friday is, of course, Halloween. And if you’re not trick-or-treating, you’ll need some in-town entertainment. Oh boy do we have ideas for you!
(Awesome zombie pin-up picture stolen from My Zombie Pin-up)
First up, there’s the Halloween Howl II wrestling at Wellington High School. You already know how much we love the wrestling. Hollie, Queen of the Divas, will be there. We’ll be there, dressed up like zombies again. Wouldn’t you like to come with us?
That’ll be over and done with in time for the Zombie Meet-Up at the Paramount around 10pm. They’ll be screening poo-yourself-scary [REC] at 10.30pm with proceeds going to NZBlood, and then doing a Zombie March down Courtenay Place at 11.45pm.
There’s no word yet on how to tell the difference between the zombies and your average Courtenay Place munter, but just in case you need to here’s a helpful video from the good folks at CommonCraft.
People’s Empire
Newtown may or may not be a bit shit, but their right-on coffee company People’s Coffee (sorry, I couldn’t resist adding the apostrophe) certainly know their shit. Their presence in central Wellington is expanding, and two recently-opened cafés proudly stock the People’s brand: Meow and Mon Ami.
Meow has taken over the space of the former (and much lamented) Roti, next to Quoil in Willis St. The decor’s only had a mild makeover, but the retro kitschy kiwiana theme is pretty consistent, with the usual Tretchikoffesque prints, orange lampshades and ’70s TV augmented by some nice chunky crockery. I haven’t eaten there yet, but the brunch menu included some interesting variations on the standards, such as pinenut & saffron scrambled eggs, cashew & cranberry rosti with haloumi and rocket, and all sorts of things with "wild" bacon.
In Bond St, a French café called Mon Ami has also recently opened. It’s interesting that while many French places in downtown Wellington emphasise the stylish urban theme (e.g. Simply Paris, Le Metropolitain), Mon Ami is full of outdoorsy magazines, and their website goes on about "tramping, sailing, kayaking, biking, paraglyding". The decor manages to look both rustic and sterile at the same time, but even if that’s not your thing, dishes such as rabbit terrine and roquefort & sultana loaf (at reasonable lunchtime prices) should be enough to tempt you in.
All stitched up
Rose Marie Salmon, who makes these weirdly erotic and witty "sewing machine drawings" using a household sewing machine, has a solo show opening this Thursday 23 October at Daf106 in Aro Valley at 6pm.
A self-taught artist, Rose works as a costume assistant on films (most recently Second Hand Wedding) but originally studied Organic Horticulture (?!!). She also has a text message based series of sewing machine drawings which are very cool and will be included in the exhibition.
Least said, soonest mended
Rose Marie Salmon
Daf 109
109 Aro Valley
23 October – 16 November
Flower (political) power
We’ve already seen political signs bringing out the worst in people, but check this out: floral tributes to support signs for good political parties:
More please!
Wine from the other side of the world
We’re regulars at Cellar-Vate’s Winemakers’ Dinners, because we love meeting the winemakers, we love New Zealand wine, and we love having it matched with tasty tasty food. But we’re not just patriotic racialists, oh no. We’ll drink wine from anywhere! And that’s why we’re excited about the upcoming European Wines Tasting in the Cabinet Room above the Backbencher next Wednesday October 22 at 6pm:
The thriving wine industry in New Zealand and Australia has provided us with a vast array of superb wine to savour or cellar, but it’s easy to forget about the ancient viticultural traditions of Europe. As imports of European wines grow steadily, there is now a great selection available. However, the regional denominations and classifications can be intimidating, and the New Zealand wine industry’s focus on single varietals means we are often cautious about buying European wines because we don’t know what they are made from. This is a shame, as European wines often represent great value, and due to their food-friendly nature are great to enjoy with friends and family. This tasting is an opportunity to learn about some unfamiliar grape varieties, which grapes you should expect to find in wines from different regions (and therefore how the wine should taste), and to navigate some unaccustomed flavours.
Tickets are $40 for seven wines matched with six small courses with matched wine, and bookings are still available if you email becs[at]cellar-vate.co.nz. We’ll see you there – we’ll be the ones holding out our glasses for a top-up.
UPDATE: Here’s the menu for tomorrow:
WBL 2008 Round Three Results
I wasn’t drinking last week at the bowling, so consequently, I forgot to pick up the score sheets. Ridiculous, I know.
But I can tell you that while a Dom Post photographer snapped merrily away, the Mighty Boost beat the Bowlingtonista AND got the slowest bowl, that the Purple Cobras beat Xero, and that Ferals showed up just to drink and cheer us on, so they got a league point. That means the scores stand as:
Bowlingtonista: 4
Furry Ferals: 16
Mighty Boost: 15
Purple Cobras: 15
Xero: 4
Things are looking as tight as the holes in a number 8 ball right now, so tonight will no doubt be full of excitement and sabotage. But, if you’ll just let me put on my teacher’s hat for a minute here, I was made aware of some rather unsportsmanlike criticism last week, and that is not cool. By all means, talk yourself up, and put down teams as a whole, but repeated calling out an individual player’s technique, especially when you don’t actually know them is for chumps. And there aren’t any chumps in our league, right?