Announcing the Second Annual Wellingtonista Awards: nominations
The Wellingtonista is ridiculously pleased to announce the Second Annual Wellingtonista Awards. We’ve cut down the previously insanely long title because of all the excitement and adventure that we need to fit in. And hooooooooooo boy, we’ve got some exciting things going on. Here’s what’s going to happen:
- Over the next week, we’ll announce the categories and the nominees in a series of posts, with a little bit of a blurb about why we chose them. We’ll also make sure to provide you with a handy map and directions so you can get out there and check out all the nominees.
We’ll open up online voting on November 19, Voting is now open, so you get to have your say. We’ll ask you to include a name and email address so that a) you don’t cheat and b) if you come along to the awards night, you;ll be up for some fantastic prizes.- We’ll close voting on December 4.
- On Thursday December 6, we’ll announce the winners at a huge big stonking party, in association with some other very very awesome people who we’ll tell you about as soon as everything is locked down (and let me just say, I’m kinda wetting my pants in glee about it all). We’d love you to come along to our awards and party with us, please. You won’t regret it. Except for in the morning. But after you’ve had another coffee you’ll be fine with it.
Also, this year, at the awards, we will be asking those of you who can to make a donation to the Downtown Community Ministry, and here’s why:
- We love this city, right? And so therefore, it is important that we actually do good things for it, as well as talking about it all the time.
- We eat and drink to excess, and it’s awesome that we celebrate that, but it might be nice if we think about the people who have difficulty eating, or who have problems with drinking.
- Blanket Man was voted Favourite Wellingtonian at the Wellingtonista Awards last year. How about we give some attention to the not-so-visible homeless people?
So get out there and start checking out our nominations as we put them up, and then come back and vote when we open it up on November 19. Yay!
Nominations currently include:
- Best drink
- Best shop
- Best late-night venue
- Best public art
- Best coffee beans
- Best Wellington Web Writer
- Wellington Supervillan of the Year
- Best building
- Most Needed
- Best cultural venue
- Best apparel store
- Best uncheap eats
- Best breakfast
- Best public space
- Best cheap eats
- Wellingtonian of the year
- Best nondrinking venue
- Hottest hospo of the year
- Best suburban venue
- Best Wellington-based event
Sleb Sitings – Dan Carter – Mercer Street
Woohoo – if we’re not mistaken there are two male underwear models in town.
No idea where Mark Wahlberg can be found, but Dan Carter can be spotted today at his very own store in Mercer Street. We think it might be called GAS or something.
Story here, at Stuff.co.nz
Cinephilia: Opening This Week
I have it on good authority that Quentin Tarantino gave his personal permission for the Film Festival to screen the complete Grindhouse exploitation double-feature as he and Robert Rodriguez intended, despite it being yanked early from American cinemas due to dismal box office: however Roadshow intervened to prevent the screening and the only way NZ audiences can see Grindhouse will be on DVD at some future time. That big screen experience has been replaced by an expanded version of Tarantino’s Death Proof, opening today at Readings and Sky City Queensgate. The tale of a crazed stuntman (Kurt Russell) stalking two sets of beautiful women including kiwi stuntie Zoe Bell and Sydney Poitier, Death Proof looks like more of that patented Tarantino-like fun.
The rest of this week’s new releases after the jump…
To stand or not to stand, that is the question
It’s not easy to keep your balance on a trolley bus if you are wearing vertiginous high heels or are weighed down with shopping. It can feel like surfing rather than just riding the bus. But spare a thought for those whose seatlessness is more than just an inconvenience. In recent months, this Wellingtonista has noticed her protruding baby bump doesn’t get her a coveted seat on a packed peak hour bus. I can be standing with my bump right in some civil servant’s face and he won’t budge. And just this morning, I watched embarrassed at myself and my fellow Wellingtonians, as a woman with Parkinson’s struggled to hang onto a pole as our bus swept down Brooklyn Hill packed to the gunnels with people looking the other way. Have Wellingtonians lost their benevolence for their fellow man – all for the price of a seat on the bus? Surely the people of my beloved city are better than that? Surely?
Trolley buses, how do they do it?
How do trolley buses get their poles to go right or left when they come to a junction?
Pao Pao Pao
This evening the town hall will play host to three hours of indigenous noise making as Pao Pao Pao takes centre stage. This lucky Wellingtonista is on a mission; I have gained access as an embedded civilian photographer to report on the proceedings and soak up the atmosphere. My compatriot will be reporting for Taiohi. She is tasked with extracting some sound bites from the rangatahi and I will be running around with a camera in place of the delicious Mys-T.
Wellington is a small place, as I have been discovering since I moved here. Unless you are a complete hermit you will find yourself being inexorably drawn into various networks and their attendant sticky webs of gossip. Of course this is the same where ever you go, I think anyone who has felt slighty queasy looking at those Facebook friend wheels will know what I am talking about. On the other hand, sometimes the people you meet make you feel like the universe is conspiring in your favour. I am happy to be a drone for the hive mind here at Wellingtonista and will do my best to bring the honey, so in that spirit here is a link to my girl Shaarne clad in Blackberi. Some of our readers may remember a shop called Stand Up Apparel on Plimmer Steps that was featured on Wellingtonista way back when. Blackberi is still alive and kicking via Trademe and Bebo, so check it out if you like what you see.
Shaarne and I will be joining the hordes at the Wellington Town Hall from 7pm. The cost is $30 which is very reasonable for such a wide range of performers. I am looking forward to my first taste of the ancient art of taonga puoro and a chance to check out 4 Corners. Come along and get down with the tangata whenua.
Summer in the City Suburbs
You’ve got to love the effect a sunny day has on people – I’ve seen more smiles on the streets of Newtown today than I have done the entire 6 months that I’ve lived here.
And speaking of Newtown, time to give props to a local icon,The Adelaide…
Once the infamous Tramways Hotel, and sticking resolutely to the “smalltown pub” vibe and decor, the Adelaide has quietly reinvented itself as one of the best places in town to see bands play for around the $5 mark. Cheap beer, great mirrors in the ladies’, flashing lights behind glass bricks at the counter and under the stage, pool tables, pub meals … one day I’ll devote an entire post to how much I love unpretentious hospitality. But the point of this post is to announce the inaugural Saturday Matinee at the Adelaide – just in time for the return of the golden weather!
Details after the jump…
Le Parkour Wellington
Ever been wandering around town and seen a group of youngsters behaving like a bunch of naughty monkeys? Whaddya know.. they’re probably doing parkour.
Parkour (sometimes abbreviated to PK) or or “free-running” or l’art du déplacement (“the art of displacement”) is an activity with the aim of moving from one point to another as efficiently and quickly as possible, using principally the abilities of the human body.
Founded by David Belle in France, parkour focuses on practicing efficient movements to develop your body and mind to be able to overcome obstacles in an emergency. It is also practiced by many as a form of entertainment or as a pastime.
As I hinted above, there’s a thriving parkour scene in Wellington; especially in and around the urban/recreational areas of the waterfront and Civic Square.
Interested? There’s more after the jump..
The Garbage and the Flowers
The Garbage and the Flowers (formerly of Wellington and now based in Sydney; Myspace) are touring NZ.
They’re playing tomorrow night (Friday Nov 2nd) at Happy with Birchville Cat Motel and Panel of Judges.
Maximum Joy Number Two
Disk-jockeys Longboss and Name return to Mighty Mighty for another night of dizzy disco heat this Friday with MAXIMUM JOY #2.
MAXIMUM JOY!! is night to celebrate leftfield disco, Balearic soft rock, postpunk and electrofunk: music to boost your mind, ass and soul to cosmic new heights.
Through the year, Name and Longboss toil tirelessly to source the hottest, most bent-up byproducts of the disco era and today. Using extra sensory intelligence, they bring MAXIMUM JOY!! to Wellington.
MAXIMUM JOY NUMBER TWO: Friday 2 November at Mighty Mighty, 9pm till late. Dress to impress, not suppress…