As a fly, I obviously have some distasteful habits, and I am sometimes accused of buzzing too close to pretension or political bias. Well, I’m hardly going to change the habits of a lifetime, but just this once here’s a mystery bar without a hint of pretension.

No burlesque dancers or pan-Mediterranean tapas here, mate! It’s beery, blokey and beefy, and if there’s any pretence about it, it’s that it’s pretending to be somewhere else: the South Island backblocks, from the looks of things.

So, what and where is it?

Craft2.0 springs into the shopping season by returning to TheNewDowse on October 11th with a Craftastic Craftacular

(don’t ask us what that means, but pretty much beyond fabulous is a good definition)

There are over 60 crafters this time round and as always there is a mix of returning favourite crafters and brand shiny new ones.

We guarantee you’ll find presents for all the family, and more importantly some special treats for yourself. Plus you can feel good about spending money on 100% original NZ made hand crafted creations instead of imported mass produced stuff.

Everything sold at Craft2.0 is 100% New Zealand made.
Everything sold at Craft2.0 is made by the person selling it.
Most items are unique one-off or limited edition creations.

This time round there are free making activitites. In association with Hutt Valley Community Arts, kids little and small young and old can create floral bouquets from buttons, cardboard and pipe cleaners.

everything is supplied all you need is your creativity. this is a great activity for all the family, but we warn you it is addictive.

Special Treats
the most awesome gift bag ever in the history of craft2.0 , courtesy of those amazing folks at Cafe reka are being handed out at 10am.
inside you’ll find, badges, crafty things, fudge and some other treats that we are keeping secret for now, but will probably gush about on the website www.craft2.org/blog the night before the fair.

Because we know that everyone loves Crafts so much we also have a prize draw, where you can win over $200 of Crafty creations and other special things.

Last week was Bowlingtonista’s by-week, hence why I was lazy with reporting. But my spies tell me the scores were:

• Xero 338 to Mighty Boost’s 378
• Furry Ferals on 438 to the Purple Cobra’s 378

With Jamesh from the Purple Cobras getting an extra league point for fastest bowl, the scores currently look like this:

Bowlingtonista: 2
Furry Ferals: 15
Mighty Boost: 8
Purple Cobras: 9
Xero: 2

See you tonight for more excitement!

Has anyone noticed that the election campaign has spread to restaurants? Piccolo is sporting a big blue Stephen Franks poster in their window, and I’m not sure what it says about potential National voters if Vivian St is seen as fertile advertising territory. La Kasbah has taken it further: not only was the proprietor wearing a Labour badge, with a donations jar on the counter, but Trevor Mallard was filling up on tagine and couscous tonight! Yes, it seems that Damian Christie was right: in Wellington, that does count as a celebrity sighting.

Do any of the other parties have fanboy restaurants? Kai in the City seems an obvious Maori Party stalwart, and perhaps Aunty Mena’s and Green Land would go for the Greens. But what sort of place would support NZ First or ACT? And does anyone from United Future eat out?

Tonight in the special Wellingtonista season of NZ feature films, either roughly related to, shot or set in our lovely capital city (and what a typically brilliant answer to yesterday’s weather bomb than this beautiful day?) we have the hilarious feature Mark II, as selected by ourselves.

This film is worth viewing for the high-waisted jeans alone….

(click on the image for a larger version)

And it’s a road movie which follows three unemployed Maori teenagers adventuring in a two tone Mark II Zephyr!

Tickets $8 or $6 concession – which includes a complimentary glass of wine (with ID) unless you can tell us which year it was shot and we’ll give you a double pass. Film commences 7pm.

More details on The Film Archive’s website…

So, Wellington is currently the recipient of a whole lot of bad-ass weather and you may have received an email with an alarming list of all the damage the storm has done, like this:

Public access to the Basin Reserve has been closed. Approximately 15 windows in the RA Vance Stand have blown out.
Fulton Hogan working on Airport roof which is lifting Council Parks staff have closed off the walking tracks on Tinakori Hill due to the danger caused by many falling trees. Power poles are in danger of toppling on the seafront at Lyall Bay.

Slips! Buses and trains closed! Power outages! Pretty bad, huh?

Except it’s not. Find out the truth after the jump!

While today’s gale-force winds and rain isn’t much fun, there was much water-related fun last night on Abel Smith Street.

Late last night a water main on The Terrace burst, sending a torrent of water gushing down Abel Smith.

Rather than snuggling up under their duvets, local residents instead leapt out of bed and turned the infrastructure malfunction into an inpromptu waterslide, using recycling bins, deckchairs – anything they could get their hands on – to slide down the street. Awesome!

Even better – a video was made!

Thanks to _june’s Twitter Tweets for the reportage.
Video by MrJudkins.

WOW season is over for another year (for the 20th year in fact) with the last sold-out show last night. So now it comes time, dear readers, for the cold hard assessment. Our streets have been festooned with banners, the sponsors have been flinging free bubbles about eager for a photo op, merchandise has mushroomed and various shop fronts have been requisitioned for the cause.

So whadda ya think? “World-class”? Fab? Fug? Meh? Find out after the break.

The graveyard’s alive and dancing…..

Spacething presents the third annual Zombie Prom at Happy (cnr Tory and Vivian Sts.) On Saturday October 10th open the crypt door and shake your dead moves to fleshed-out tunes.

Zombie Prom III features live dead music by Voodoo Savage and His Savages, Knife Fight, The Death-Rays, Newtown, The Ghastlies, Market Value and DJ Bride of Pinbot, as well as the crowning of the best-dressed Zombie King and Queen of the Prom with prizes galore gore!

Happy. Friday 10/10/08, 8:00pm.
Tickets $10

Read more after the jump…

We all know that the only good part of the Capital Times is the film reviews, but this week, it’s also fun to play “what exactly is their sub editor smoking?”.

Exhibit A: a story about choreographer Michael Parmenter, diagnosed with HIV nearly 20 years ago,titled “Still pegging away“. Nice work.

Exhibit B: a piece about the Worser Bay School celebrating Dance Your Socks Off unofficially. The title? “Kids do it better”. Umm……..