A wee heads-up about a very interesting (and FREE) film screening this Saturday at 7pm at the Film Archive.

Shot in 1954 by a UK team, The Seekers is a very colonial take on first contact between Maori and Pakeha in a bizarre NZ ‘Wild West’ style feature film.

Both riveting and shocking viewing (there’s eroticised dancing and plasticine moko for a start) it’s also one of the few films made in NZ the late fifties/early sixties. A combination of the introduction of television and a lack of government support for independent film making at the time means we have only the occasional international project like The Seekers to show for nearly 15 years of New Zealand’s feature film history.

Witness people falling live into boiling mud, geysers exploding around sailors etc etc – all used for maximum impact to represent our great ‘Land of Fury.’

And did I mention it’s FREE?!

Kia Ora Tatou, I’m Richard Meros and I have a Dream.

Our proud nation has laboured too long under a barely discernible pendulum wobble from Labour to National, National to Labour, so on ad nauseum. Yet we yearn for, and deserve, something greater. Through meticulous research I have drawn an inescapable conclusion: that only my personal engagement with the electoral process – and with our noble Prime Minister – can herald the glorious future of our South Pacific Utopia.

My acclaimed pamphlet of romantic political philosophy, On the Conditions and Possibilities of Helen Clark Taking Me as Her Young Lover, provoked howls of acclaim when published in 2007, and I have committed to share the “powerpoint” version of my book the length and breadth of New Zealand before Election Night 2008. Why? Because I care.

This life-changing lecture has toured across Aotearoa; enlightenment comes now to Wellington.

Apologies for the incoherence, but this fly’s report cannot help being rendered in a burst of overexcited sentence fragments with gratuitous exclamation marks.

Tropical cocktails! Shimmery dresses! German covers of The Monkees! Omnisexual pan-ironic hipsters! Six-foot-four drag queens wearing yellow balloons! Wildly abandoned rock’n’roll dance moves!

Sources admit there was a “balls up”.

Full story here.

and more books

wellington’s biggest booksale starts tomorrow. There are over 60,000 books being stacked as we speak for the Downtown Community Ministry Bookfair tomorrow.

It’s all being held at TSB area, entry is free, But the books, jigsaw puzzles, magazines, records, CDs and DVDs are not. however the prices are just the right size for anyone wanting to stock up on reading for the summer

as a mad keen collector, my favorite stop is the children’s book area. However i will also be spending quality time in the Science Fiction (usaully all sells out by about 2pm Saturday) DVD and vinyl sections. I also plan to pick up a truck load of magazines, hopefully a years supply of the new yorker.

Doors open at 9am on Saturday (closing at 5pm) and at 10am on Sunday (closing at 4pm).

Plus the best part every bit of money you pay for all those books, jigsaw puzzles, magazines, records, CDs and DVDs goes toward helping wellington’s most in need people.

it’s shopping and helping save the world all at the same time 😀

MarineVille always do the cutest e-mailouts, so I’m leaving this in their words (and punctuation!)…

Yes! This September 11 Marineville and Holiday with Friends reclaim the day from such horrible tragedies as … the birth of Moby! He may think he’s a smartypants but he’s not as clever as these post art school hipster pop/rockers!!! Come see for yourself!!!
MarineVille / Holiday with Friends
Bar Bodega
Thursday Sept 11
$5, 9pm

PS: After the gig has ended we will be observing approximately 8 hours silence in memory of these Sept 11 events (after the jump):

Some of us have missed out on Peaches tickets AND found ourselves too skint for Bill Bailey at the St James tonight.

Le Sigh.

Le Big Sigh.

Fortunately solace can be found at Mighty Mighty tonight in the arms of some sweet, sweet electro. NZ based producers, DJs and live performance will be on hand to pound away that pain. The main act is billed as CureMotel but in this girl’s completely biased opinion Stress Cadet alone will be worth the five bucks on the door. Having seen their work as part of Auckland based bands Soft Shoe and the legendary Meatbix (taking a break, maybe they are all shagged out?), Josh Lynne and Damian Golfinopoulos are sure gonna bring the puntastic with plenty of visual and aural frights and delights.

Short Circuit: CureMotel and Stress Cadet
Venue: Mighty Mighty
Doors open: 9:30pm
Cost: $5

…

Well, maybe not this person. But others, and especially out-of-towners, might be intrigued by this auction of a mystery weekend in Wellington this weekend. Even if you’re in Wellington already, the accommodation for two, together with promises of “presents, chocolates …” and “… something in there that no amount of money could buy” could make it all worthwhile.

You’d better hurry, though, since the bidding closes this evening.

Although the last thing in the world that I want is for the Wellingtonista to come across like traditional frighteners media, I think we can all acknowledge that sometimes the world can be a scary place for women (and men), so here’s something you can go to that might make it a little less scary.

Protect, who teach reality-based self-defense, is running a seminar entitled ‘Safe For Life’ in Wellington on Saturday October 18. If you don’t want to take the bus out to Khandallah by yourself, how about you go with Leaf, Probably?

I haven’t been to one of their courses, so I can’t tell you what it’s like, but I do appreciate that they advertise one of the things that they teach is confidence, which will provide a healthy reminder that no one is ever asking to get attacked or deserves it (just be wary: possibly NSFW).

Today’s the second to last day to enter our competition to win a new Vodafone phone because we’re going to draw it at noon tomorrow. Having had a 6121 for a couple of weeks now, I have to tell you that it’s pretty damn awesome for checking your email on, especially while waiting for your bags at airports. Except for today when the network didn’t seem to be working. So what are you waiting for?

Congratulations Cat! The Randomizer picked your number, so you’ve won yourself a fantastic new phone. We’ll be in touch to get your delivery address.