On 6th August a group drawing show is opening at ROAR! Gallery.

The show features work from artist in residence Yelena Barbalich, as well as 75 other artists.

(full list after the jump)…

El Horno on Courtenay Place might suck the big kumara as far as a bar experience might go…

… but… (more after the jump)…

Wellington zine artist makes home-made history

Don’t move house, be sure to feed hungry ghosts and keep your sugar bowl full next month. August is the month of the Ghost Festival (15 August) or ‘Chinese Halloween’ — the time when spirits of the dead visit the living.

Chinese families observe this date through Bai Shan, which involves lighting incense, burning joss papers and preparing a banquet to share with ancestors. Such customs have long been observed since the Chinese first arrived in New Zealand nearly a century and a half ago. They also feature in an upcoming exhibition by local artist Kerry Ann Lee — Home Made: Picturing Chinese Settlement in New Zealand, which opens on 31 July at Toi Pōneke Gallery.

Read more after the jump…

The third Wellington Pecha Kucha Night is upon us! It’s happening Wed 30 July at the City Gallery. Doors open at 7pm, the event starts at 8.20, and it’s $7 admission.

A Pecha Kucha night involves a number of presenters, usually from the design, architecture, photography, art and creative fields, who present a slideshow of 20 images and speak for 20 seconds per image.

After the jump, check out the stellar line-up of people who’ll be speaking on the night.

It may not be Wellingtonista Awards season just yet, but here’s another chance to put in a plug for your favourite things in the Wellington built environment. The Wellington Civic Trust Awards are coming up, and the trust wants your nominations for the best recent contributions in the following fields:

• Building
• Heritage
• Environmental
• Public Space
• Street Art

Nnominations close on the 18th of August, and nominated projects must have been completed since the previous awards in 2005. There’s also a separate voting form for best new sculpture, and if the sculpture that does it for you isn’t on that list, you could always nominate it in the Street Art category.

As well as nominating your favourites, feel free to comment here and share your rants and raves.

Apparently all hell is breaking loose in the Hutt: rumours of heavy rain warnings abound, and messages are going around offices advising people living in Eastbourne to head home NOW. Certainly the radar shows some nasty stuff around, the result of the southerly making its way northwards, and the rainfall sensors and stream flows are starting to pick up. If anything dramatic starts to happen, do let us all know!

I’m completely gobsmacked. Just got a little sneak live preview of the one and only CW Stoneking (Myspace) who plays the Mighty Mighty tonight.

I advise you to fight your way to the door. Wellington’s own Slim Chants will be kicking things off from 9pm and Palmy’s howing wolf man Boss Christ will take things into the night…… but this CW Stoneking.

I think I’m in love.

(actually I’m not sure that he does, but that’s another story.)

The guy at the CHINA outlet in the Courtenay Central complex has twice claimed to me that his BBQ pork is the best in town.

The results after the jump!

Consider, hypothetically, that one had dropped one’s laptop, breaking the backlight to the LCD screen but leaving the screen itself intact. Consider also that the authorised repair company for the laptop manufacturer (name omitted to protect the thieving monopolistic b*st*rds innocent) said that the whole screen has to be replaced at a cost of nearly $500, when it seems that it is theoretically quite possible to replace just the lamp, a component that is worth in the region of $20.

Now suppose, hypothetically of course, that the owner of said laptop is too stingy environmentally responsible to throw away a perfectly good LCD screen. Where in Wellington might that theoretical owner find a reliable, reasonably-priced independent laptop repairer?