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……..

… and if you like movies, then why not come along to Wednesday nights at the Film Archive and check out the season of films that the Wellingtonista fought over democratically chose from the Archive’s collection of NZ features – all 6 movies are roughly related to, shot or set in our fair city.

7pm Wednesdays from tonight until the 5th November, tickets are $8 on the door (or $6 concession), and if you’re over 18 you get a free glass of wine with your ticket purchase. Because we like wine with our movies. ‘Nuff said!
Tonight’s movie is I’ll Make You Happy… the rest of the season’s details are after the jump.

There’s a particular kind of person who likes to watch movies for 24 hours in a row, and it’s quite likely that you’re that person. Luckily for you, Ant Timpson puts on a festival to provide you with exactly what you need. Unluckily for him, and ultimately for you, tickets for the Wellington event aren’t selling as well as they should, so unless you hurry up and buy your tickets for the December 13 event now from Ticketek, it may not happen at all! Full email after the jump.

This week should see an influx of visitors in town to WOW and be WOWed at the Montana Wearable Arts Awards being held at TSB Arena from the 22nd of September until the 5th of October.

The show was Nelson’s baby for 16 years but shifted to Wellington in 2005 because, according to WOW founder Suzie Moncrieff, “We knew we needed to be in a city with more production opportunities, audiences, corporate partners and an international airport.”