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.

Sure, you already play Hipster Bingo at the SFBH, but have you thought about playing the real game instead? From the good people who bring you the movie quiz at the Paramount comes a new way to spend your Sunday afternoons: Hangover Bingo!

It will be happening for the first time at 2pm on Sunday 7th September at the Courtenay Arms.

Settle down in front of a warm fire, with yummy food, some hair of the dog and a few leisurely games of bingo!

Cash Money to be won plus loads of other goodies. Go along and make it a success so that it can become a regular event.

Art No Made is a live audio-visual performance staged by Argentinean multimedia artists Niko and Ayelen Schiavi at the Film Archive this Friday and Saturday night.

The artists, who are currently resident in Wellington, marry 3D film created using Chromadepth – which transforms a 2D graphical interface into a striking 3D illusional space – with electronic soundtracks DJ’d live in the cinema. Tickets are available from the Archive, pre-sales and door sales alike are $8 or $6 concession, and on the night(s) 3D glasses will be provided for your enjoyment of and participation in this world premiere event.

Originally Niko and Ayelen designed the project for a party, but have since adapted the project for a lounge format, which “involves the spectator all the more since he/she is not losing energy and concentration in dancing”.
Friday 29th & Saturday 30th August at the Film Archive, cnr Taranaki & Ghuznee Sts

You can tell that summer is coming from the touring internationals headed our way, if not by the weather right now! September to December is always a frenzy of northern hemisphere bands escaping the cold to tour down under and to kick it off none other than Brian Jonestown Massacre are hitting (hopefully not literally) Wellington on Sept 4th.

Anyone who’s seen the fabulous doco that follows BJM and their friends-turned-bitter-enemies the Dandy Warhols, Dig, will be excited to see the volatile band in the flesh as well as thrilled to know that after a hiatus, tambourine player (yep, that’s his instrument) Joel is back in the band.

Supported on their Auckland and Wellington tour dates by Shayne Carter’s Dimmer and by Martin Phillipps’ ever-evolving Chills in Dunedin, the line-up is like a rock-slash-drama nerd’s dream! But to top it off, if you can’t make the Wellington show (tix selling fast, by the way – from Slowboat records on Cuba st or through Under the Radar) you should hightail it to Christchurch on the 3rd of September for the super-special support from the Hasselhoff Experiment! I kid you not! They reformed for a one-off reunion earlier this year and blew everyone’s socks off so if the deep south is calling you, now’s the time to visit. (I have a feeling this might be a secret support slot but, hello, don’t tell Wellington’s biggest gossip in that case… that’s me, by the way). See you at San Fran Bathhouse on the 4th – BYO tambourine.

On Friday night, Fur Patrol played at Bar Bodega. They announced their last song, played it with aplomb, and left the stage. Now, everyone knows that the last song isn’t really the last song because the band comes back for an encore or two – well, everyone know that, that is, except for the DJ, who started playing MGMT again, even as curious heads emerged from around the corner of backstage going “What? Can you turn that off please?” to no avail. The crowd were confused – DJ music always means the end of a gig – and shuffled off, so by the time the DJ got the message that they’d fucked up, Fur Patrol would have played to an empty room.

So, because someone didn’t know the rules of the encore, we missed out on Fur Patrol’s first airing of ‘Dominoes’ in like, eight years. You suck, DJ.
Photo by Rat Pony

What’s something that this fair city has been needing since it was founded in… say, when was Wellington founded anyway?

That’s right, you guessed it, you KNEW it all along, Wellington needs a sonnet!

And here’s where you can help: You can write that sonnet!

Wellington Sonnet Competition 2008

Wellington needs a sonnet. London has ‘Upon Westminster Bridge’ by William Wordsworth and in more recent times, other poets have written sonnets about their favourite cities. So have you got what it takes to write Wellington’s sonnet? We are looking for the best unpublished sonnets about Wellington and you could be in to win $1000.

This competition, sponsored by New Zealand Post, is being run as a promotion for the Wellington Writers Walk, an initiative of the New Zealand Society of Authors, Wellington Branch. The walk pays tribute to nineteen New Zealand authors with a series of sculptural and ‘benchmark’ quotations set in surprising and unexpected places around the waterfront.

The Wellington Writers Walk is continuing to develop, assisted by generous individual sponsorships for each commemoration and overseen by a small, voluntary committee. By entering this competition, you are contributing to the continuity of the project.

Find out more about the walk here

Prizes
1st prize $1,000
2nd prize $500
3rd prize $250
Plus 10 highly commended prizes of $50 each

Click here for further details, an entry form & the small print.

Please note: there are very specific rules governing the construction of sonnets: the number of syllables in each line, the number of lines in the sonnet, metre, rhyme scheme etc etc…