Rustic Mexican

Well we rushed down to the new venue for Viva Mexico this evening and thoroughly enjoyed that they’d almost completely run out of stock!

Viva Mexico

Luckily they agreed to sell us what they still had… which was some pretty good enchiladas.

Hutty goodtimes

The Hutt is a seething mass of culture (as if you didn’t know), and at the moment there is a particularly splendid outdoor exhibition of sculpture, Shape Shifter. The art works are for sale, and we at the Wellingtonista Towers feel a few would look just the thing in the foyer. The exhibition is at the Civic Gardens, next to the Horticultural Hall and opposite the Dowse.

Why not make a real trip of it, and come out on Saturday for the Petone Fiesta. This street carnival features a vibrant and eclectic mix of music, food, theatre, arts and crafts. A certain shop may even be open especially late for the fun , and a certain shopkeeper may be guzzling grog to make the fun funner, but that is another story…

Petone Fiesta, Jackson St, 6pm-10pm 8th March.

Shape Shifter, Civic Gardens, 22 February – 16 March.

Yes, you can has synth!


The L.E.Ds are playing Mighty Mighty on Friday night, and you should go along. But make sure not to party too hard and render yourself incapable of attending the official Newtownista flatwarming the next day…

3 things Miramar needs

  1. Mesh network
  2. The cinema open
  3. Statues of Pillars of Argonath either side of ‘the cutting’

Read why …

A city littered with poetry

Now, everybody has seen the poetry which seems to appear just about everywhere down near the lagoon and around Te Papa, right?

This one took me by surprise though.

Fiona Kidman, Speaking with my grandmothers

It’s Fiona Kidman, and is in such a comparatively out-of-the-way place I literally stumbled across it.

The full text of the poem is here.

But can you guess where the picture was taken?

Something fishy going on

Which waterfront restaurant, famous for its seafood, is unlikely to be telling its guests that their special fish de jour Sole is actually frozen, not fresh?

Mo’ Ho?

Some have accused Mojo of becoming Wellington’s answer to Starbucks, but according to one blogger, maybe they’re more like Hooters. Apparently, “All the female staff have their shirts buttoned down to the lowest feasible button meaning that any movement will expose a little more breast than your average cafe.” Is this a new moral low for coffee marketing? Such a major incident required fearless investigative reporting, so a fly was dispatched to Mojo to find out…

Cinephilia: Opening This Week

Just in time for the weekend, here’s a quick run down of the films opening this week in cinemas across town.

Lady Chatterely poster Returning from last year’s Film Festival is Lady Chatterley, a French adaptation of an earlier (“kinder, gentler” according to Ebert) version of D. H. Lawrence’s famous erotic novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover. It sounds like it could have been titled There Will Be Sex: Rialto only.

Also returning, but from the more recent French Film Festival is big-budget costume drama Molière, about the great dramatist played by Romain Duris.That one is a Penthouse exclusive.

Finally this week, 300‘s Gerard Butler romances Hilary Swank from the dead in P.S., I Love You. Described by one reviewer as having a “high ick factor”. Readings and Regent-on-Manners.

All these films will be reviewed at Funerals & Snakes by next Wednesday (and in the Capital Times on the same day).

Four and a half things to do this weekend

1. Right now you should go and buy your ticket to the Wellington Girl Geek dinner, because according to their site, there are only three tickets left. And you know you want to go, because a) Brenda is awesome at all things interweb b) I’m speaking and there must be a reason why I’m so hubristical and c) we already mentioned the hopeful swag.

2. On Saturday, you should go to the Gay and Lesbian Fair in Civic Square, because, to quote Sue, it’s “fully licensed with rumours of whitebait fritters”.

3. As if that wasn’t enough of a fair, on Sunday there’s the Newtown Festival!

4. Also on Sunday, the Costume Cave is having a sale of its old costumes, so you should go along and get some new outfits to spice up your life. As a side note, I was going to do a post at one stage recommending that you rent any wigs you may need from the Costume Cave instead of since Creative Showoff in Thorndon they’re $10 instead of $20, but then I was a month late in returning a wig to Creative and they didn’t charge me anything, so that’s nice.

And the half point: Since we know there’s plenty of Aucklanders who read this site as well, on Saturday at 5pm the Aucklandista is having its first meet-up in an extremely untrendy bar near the Viaduct, and so if you’re interested in contributing to the site, you should get in contact to find out where they’ll be and come along.

Homage to Duchamp

Here’s another one of the wee guys in this series of temporary sculptures:

Gargoyle temporary sculpture

Quite an appropriate location, atop the long-abandoned toilets and amid the construction of the new Courtenay Place park.