Our favourite cab company has expanded to Auckland and Christchurch and are doing pretty well in both. But it’s not all expansion and increasing profits. Recently the eco-friendly cab company has had to defend itself against statements from the head of the Taxi Federation. Then they had to fend off spurious claims from other taxi companies (Combined in this case) that they were also "green".

The Commerce Commission began investigating Wellington Combined Taxis in March after receiving complaints about claims on its website. The website suggests the company’s LPG taxis reduce carbon dioxide pollution by up to 25 per cent, and its Nissan Maxima engines are 20 per cent more fuel efficient than traditional automatic transmissions.

And then today I heard another mean story. Green Cabs received a call for a big job: 9pm, 40 people, 10 cars. They naturally accepted. But 10 cabs is a lot out Green Cabs’ fleet so it was also a gamble. You know what’s coming don’t you? That’s right, nobody showed. The cars didn’t wait around for long but it was long enough at that time to miss out on a large number of jobs. Green Cabs have an idea who was behind the prank but we’ll let our readers make up their own mind. Something else that is interesting to note: the average cab driver spends approximately $80 a day on petrol, the average Green Cabbie spends approximately $20 a day on petrol.

Finally Wellington gets its own MySpace Secret Show, and what a show it is – NZ’s own world-class, world-famous, worldly-wise electro rappers, masters of the mellow-drama and hip hopera Coco Solid play for free at an as-yet-undisclosed Wellington venue (that’s the secret, duh) next Wednesday (18th). They also have a psychedelic kaleidoscope of a new video on their MySpace page for their new single ‘Electrik Love’; it’s made by Aleks Sakowski who also made the overwhelmingly brilliant ‘Crimefighters’ vid – which I feel compelled to include here as it’s my absolute fave and it wins people over like nothing else:

More Coco love, and details on how to get into the gig, after the jump:

Untouched World on the corner of Brandon and Featherston streets has a logo which looks unreasonably similar to Antony Gormley‘s Angel of the North, which is located outside Gateshead in the north of England.

I’ve tried to ignore this for months now, but it finally got the better of me this morning. C’mon Untouched World, what were you thinking? How did this come about? How could this have been let to come about? How could your logo-designer not be aware of one of the most famous and all-pervading visual images of the last 20 years? Sheesh.

And what’s more (keep reading after the jump)…

Eva Dixons lives on in Miramar (133 Darlington Road – Google Map | Zoomin Map) – just up the road road from the newly visited Weta Cave which, as Richard Taylor said to me, “It’s a bit different for Miramar eh?” … such a shameless name dropper I am.

Back to Eva Dixons … Not only is it a great place to eat (all day menu), drink and be merry but if you happen to pop in on any Thursday eve (menu) this month you’ll be treated to free live music.

12th: Mojo Mama
Piano based boogie and blues with enough sass to light your fire.

19th: Sean & Amanda O’Connor
Inspirational folk/pop songwriters & harmonisers, singing their inner and outer journeys with guitar, flute, heart and soul!

26th: Eva Prowse Trio
Eva Prowse (vocals, violin, mandolin), Chris Prowse (guitar, bva), Dave Currie (bass, ukulele, bva) playing a variety of alt-country music. Suitable for old-timers and new-timers alike.

Here at the Wellingtonista we like public transport, but there are times when you need a car to do stuff, like picking up that flatpack cocktail cabinet out in Lower Hutt.

At the moment your options are pretty much limited to borrowing a friend’s car, hiring a taxi, or forking out for a rental, but there is a more sensible option.

It’s called car sharing, and is currently up and running in Auckland through a company called Cityhop.

With Cityhop, you pay a yearly fee (currently $75), and when you need to use a car, you make a booking, then pick up your car from one of the specified city car parks, do your car-related stuff, then return it, paying a $13.50 hourly rate (including petrol!) for its use.

Cityhop’s been running in Auckland since September last year, and according to their website they’ll be opening soon here in Wellington.

Needless to say, we will be keeping a close eye on this. Perhaps now we’ll finally be able to get that cocktail cabinet for Wellingtonista Towers.

I read a great review of the new album by the Bravery , The Sun and the Moon, where the reviewer claimed that the band were the Stone Temple Pilots to The Killers’ Pearl Jam. How great is that – grunge bands-as-metaphors! And a metaphor that I can certainly relate to (err, not that I’m the Weiland to anyone’s Vedder, but y’know, I appreciate the analogy). And yeah, the Bravery are one of that bunch of Nu-Wave-New-York bands that seem too fashionable to be true, but unlike the Killers et al, they’re actually really good – less fashion magazine, more FASHION (bop bop bop) a la Bowie.
Ok before I get into glam similes and really lose the plot, all I wanted to point out was: The Bravery are playing in Wellington this weekend – Saturday night at San Fran Bathhouse to be exact, with support from local synth-core darlings Heat Like Me. Get your party pants on and check them out, tickets are available from Ticketmaster or on the door from 7:30pm Sat 14th.
A wee heads up for Friday night too – Liam Finn plays Bodega, fresh from a US tour with … Eddie Vedder!

Collections for Downtown Community Ministry’s annual Book Fair Fundraiser are underway. I love the book fair, because you name a book and you’ll most probably find it there. Plus you get to go shopping and know that all you money is going to a good cause – like addressing homelessness in Wellington.

Scattered around town are wheelie bins for people to donate their unwanted books. Some of the current locations are:

• St John’s Willis St
• Wesley Wellington (Taranaki St)
• St Paul’s Cathedral (Molesworth St)
• Central Baptist Church (Boulcott St)
• Aro Valley Community Centre
• Newtown Community Centre
• Kilbirnie CAB

If you’ve got a pile of books, DCM come and collect from Wellington locations, so why not have a mini book collection in your office?

DCM also collect DVDs, CDs and vinyl records as well. I can confirm their vinyl bins are always treasure trove of magical discoveries.

The book fair is one of the biggest in the country. It will be held on the 6th and 7th of September in the TSB Arena on the waterfront.

This looks really good:

You can see some more of John Lake‘s work on some of those big display units at the new park on the western end of Courtenay Place (Courtenay West Park?).

I just wrote about this for this week’s issue of Bandwagon, but it’ll be out a day late because of the Queen’s day off yesterday – so I thought I’d let you Wellingtonistas know about it too.

Thursday June 5th is World Environment Day, and one of the cutest of a bunch of interesting events going on is happening down at the MP’s end of town. The folks at Green Land, purveyors of fine coffee and counter foods with an eco-ethos, are giving away free Northern Rata (Metrosideros robusta) saplings with each coffee sold on Thursday until stocks run out.

Hunt them down in Kate Sheppard Place in Environment House — walk/bus/run/skate there for extra carbon kudos!

Enjoy Gallery is hosting the penultimate event in their performance workshopping series tonight. Of course, dear reader, it would be outrageous to suggest that you have no other social engagements lined up for the Saturday of a long weekend, but if you can forgive me once again for the short notice, may I suggest that you nip up to the Enjoy gallery on Cuba St (upstairs near Scopa). Come along in the spirit of being a participator not an observer and I guarantee you will not be sorry.

The action will kick off at 6.00pm and bucking the established gallery tradition this event will be BYO.

Chris Brady will be attempting to bring his “Rôti Sans Pareil – Roast without Equal” project to a delicious conclusion. I hear rumors that up to eight birds, layer upon layer, will be involved. The surprise twist being that the eatable end result of all this performance art will be up for grabs tomorrow at an as yet undisclosed location. So you gotta show the commitment by turning up tonight if you want to get yourself a tasty tit bit tomorrow.