Did you know? Craiglist, the hugely successful free online classified, personal ad and listing service has a Wellington site. As an experiment, a few weeks ago I put up an ad for volunteers for the ‘V’ 48 Hour Film Competition and got a couple of responses (two more than I was expecting).

There are sections on employment, services, personals, community and housing. All listings are free and you can monitor any section via RSS.

Sadly, the signal to noise ratio is not great as most of the entries are a bit spammy but that should change as Wellingtonians start to use it.

Yes, I know it’s an old concept, but I couldn’t resist. Also, this isn’t so much a bar as a café, though it does sell wine. And it feels more like being in a friend’s living room, if you had a friend with lots of sexy mid-Twentieth-Century furniture and nice views.

Rather a nice place to sit in the sunshine (presuming you can do so without freezing your antennae off) at the weekend and watch the world go by. But where is it?

White Fungus is an experimental arts magazine based in Wellington, Aotearoa, New Zealand. Produced by a collective of artists, writers and designers, White Fungus is an ongoing experiment in community media art.

The new issue of White Fungus comes out this week. This issue is the strongest yet for experimental music with an in-depth article on the Dead C, an interview by Andrew Clifford with Justice Yeldham (who stunned and shocked audiences throughout NZ last year thanks to alt.music), an interview by Daniel Beban with Annea Lockwood, plus articles on John Wiese, Greg Malcolm and Manuel Göttsching. This issue also features a new 7-page colour comic, Noah, by Tim Bollinger, new art by Richard Killeen, Hye Rim Lee, Yao Jui Chung and Tao Wells plus much more….

And the launch party… my god, the launch party… (more after the jump)

Noone really does any work on Fridays, do they? So instead, tell us a story about one of your most memorable nights out in Wellington in the comments section. We’re looking for location, location, location, and what you choose to disclose is entirely up to you. Just entertain us. Thank you. My story will follow very shortly.

Wishbone have put up the prices of most of its food by $1, so now you will pay $7.50 for their cranberry, chicken and brie sandwich (luckily, next door to my local Wishbone is the Concorde Cafe where I can get a crusty baguette filled with salami and cheese, and a mystical half olive for a bargain $3.50). They say that it is the rising cost of petrol that has forced them into it. We say that maybe if they investigated ways to reduce the ridiculous amount of plastic that their food comes in, the cost of petrol wouldn’t affect them quite as much.

PS: Their black plastic boxes are #5, which can’t be collected, but you can take them in to Commonsense Organics who will recycle them for you. If you’re that dedicated. We think that Wishbone should take them back too.

Registration for this year’s ‘V’ 48 Hours Furious Filmmaking competition closes in only 8 days and organisers are once again looking (somewhat apprehensively) at a record-breaking number of entries. 2007 saw more than 120 teams take part in the Wellington region alone, and this year extra capacity has been made available so no one will get turned away.

There are over $100,000 of prizes up for grabs including a special Wellington-only prize for Best Film Written or Directed by a Woman, donated by WIFT (thanks to the efforts of the wonderful Gaylene Preston). While the attractions of camera-gear, facilities vouchers, travel, movie tickets and guarana-infused fizzy drinks are obvious, most teams enter for the sheer joy of filmmaking and return again and again.

Teams will shoot their films on the weekend of 16-18 May and the Heat screenings (this year free of charge) take place at the Paramount from 20 May. The Wellington Grand Final will be at The Embassy, once again, on Wednesday 11 June.

We know that we’ve mentioned their sales in the past, but we know that you like books, and discounts, and also free wine, and that is why we must let you know that once again, Vic Books is starting its sale of awesomeness.

It starts with drinks, nibbles & great books with ridiculously low prices from about 4pm, Thursday 1st May, in the Kelburn shop. The sale runs in both shops until Thursday 22nd May, and they have two special “discount days”: 25% off all non-fiction not already discounted on Thursday 8th May; 25% off all fiction not already discounted on Thursday 15th May.

And remember – if you’re too lazy to walk up the hill, you can take the Cable Car, or the numbers 17, 20 and 23 buses to get there, or check out Vic Books down at the Railway Station if you’re not so keen on fiction.

This just in from Metlink – Disruption to GO Wellington bus services – Wednesday 30 April 2008

On Wednesday 30 April bus services on all GO Wellington routes will be suspended between the hours of 10am and 2pm.

“The suspension of services is to allow a scheduled union meeting for our people represented by the Wellington Tramways Union,” says Zane Fulljames, General Manager Southern Region. “The union has one meeting each year to discuss union business with its members.”

“We apologise unreservedly for any inconvenience this causes our customers” says Mr Fulljames.

“With advance notice we trust our customers can plan their day’s activities with minimum disruption”

Services will be limited between the hours of 9.00-10.00am and 2.00-3.00pm.

Between 10.00am and 2.00pm, there will be no GO Wellington bus services.

A normal full service on all GO Wellington routes will operate up until 9.00am and will resume from 3.00 pm.

Valley Flyer, Runcimans, train and Cable Car services will not be interupted and will operate as normal.

A group of well-bred yet raffish gentleflies embarked on a Chaps‘ Night Out last night, in search of rare delights and exquisite debauchery. I won’t bother you with all the sordid details, but I think there are a few valuable lessons that are worth sharing.

• It’s dashed inconvenient to find so many otherwise fine establishments closed on an Anzac weekend.
• When in search of enlightenment and exotic delights from the mystic East, I wouldn’t bother with Raki.
• On a night when hordes of be-sneakered young ruffians have been lured into the city by popular music, one has yet another reason to steer well clear of the vulgar hoi polloi of Courtenay Place in favour of more sedate watering holes.
• When Hawthorn Lounge gets busy, the quality of their caiparinhas can slip quite alarmingly, yet they can still deliver an impeccable Crown Jewel Martini.

…

The Masked Barfly
Uncategorised
5 Comments