The Wellingtonista guide to drinking for free
Now, don’t get me wrong: we Wellingtonistas are not usually parsimonious when it comes to paying for drinks. On the other hand, we’re a canny and logical bunch, and it only takes about 10 free glasses of house wine to save up enough for a Mega Mai Tai, so in the long run it pays to seek out gratis grog.
Let’s start with the obvious: gallery openings and launches. You can get lucky by simply cruising the streets on a midweek night seeking the tell-tale sounds of clinking glasses and poststructuralist discourse, but dedicated cheapskates know that the best way to guarantee results is to get on the mailing lists.
Genevieve Packer: Wish You Were Here
Genevieve Packer, probably known best for her Hutt Valley and State House tee-shirts, has taken over Old Victoria Arcade for her Master of Design exhibition.
The show is open 12 noon until 6 pm on Thursday — Sunday, from the 18th of October to the 4th of November. Gen’s site is here.
Cinephilia: Opening This Week
The best grown-up film of the year opens today. Atonement is directed by up-and-comer Joe Wright (Pride & Prejudice) and is adapted from the acclaimed novel by Ian McEwan. 12 year old Briony Tallis (played by Saoirse Ronan from Peter Jackson’s forthcoming The Lovely Bones) tells a terrible lie, condemning family friend Robbie Turner (James McAvoy) to prison and disgrace and her sister Cecilia (Keira Knightley) to heartbreak and loss. It takes a lifetime for Briony to atone. Atonement is playing at the Embassy, Readings, Penthouse, Lighthouse Petone and the Empire Island Bay.
New Zealand vampire thriller Perfect Creature gets a long-awaited cinema release, more than two years after completion. Directed by Glenn Standring (The Irrefutable Truth About Demons) and starring imports Dougray Scott and Saffron Burrowns along with locals Scott Wills and Robbie Magasiva, Perfect Creature offers us an alternative New Zealand known as Nuovo Zelandia where vampires and humans peacefully co-exist – until the balance is challenged by a renegade vampire known as Edgar (Leo Gregory). Readings, Embassy and Sky City Queensgate.
A kinder, gentler option is provided by Conversations With My Gardener from director Jean Becker (Children of the Marshlands). Daniel Auteuil plays an artist who returns to the family home to escape a messy divorce and renews a friendship with the old school mate (Jean-Pierre Darroussin) who tends his veggie garden. Penthouse and Lighthouse Petone.
Finally, the Italian Film Festival kicked off with a gala shindig at the Paramount last night. It runs for a fortnight and there’s plenty to keep you entertained.
Atonement and Conversations With My Gardener are reviewed at Funerals & Snakes, to be joined next week by Perfect Creature.
aleatoric — Wellington word of the week
Don’t say that we at Wellingtonista Towers don’t know nuffink.
Aleatoric
Aleatory means “pertaining to luck”, and derives from the Latin word alea, the rolling of dice. Aleatoric, indeterminate, or chance art is that which exploits the principle of randomness.
Source: Wikipedia, of course
How this relates to Wellington — I think it was fairly aleatoric that there was no-one worth a Wellington Windy Day standing against Kerry Prendergast otherwise she’d be history*
* the views expressed in this posting are the authors own and don’t reflect on other posters
Exhibition — Deborah Barton
Deborah Barton is a Wellington-based print maker. She has done a number of exhibitions, and is about to open at the Solander Gallery in Lyall Bay this Saturday, 13 October.
Deborah’s prints are dark and intriguing, with overtones of childhood mysteries.
And now for the good news. As a young artist Deborah’s work is surprisingly reasonably priced…
Need I say more.
Have You Voted?
If your votes aren’t in the mail today you’re probably going to have to deliver them personally to ensure you get your ticks in before noon on Saturday.
The Wellingtonista (a collective entity that has assimilated all individuality) agonised mightily whether it would instruct you in how to vote & who for, but in the end we plumped for freedom of choice for all.
So please exercise it.
Issues we are passionate about though, and therefore worth perusing candidate puff pieces for any mention thereof, are transport, including roading proposals & light rail, rampant & unchecked property developments & developers, and most importantly, the complete absence of tiki bars in the city.
We did consider reviewing every mayoral candidate’s website & reporting back the number of typos & errors, but we gave up after Jo found 54 on one page of John McGrath’s site. The job is too big for us.
Cinephilia: Opening This Week
In 2006 the New Zealand Film Commission announced a new ultra-low budget feature film scheme called Headstrong and asked for submissions. The Headstrong team (including the Incredibly Strange Ant Timpson, director Paul Swadel and producer Leanne Saunders) went through the 300 scripts to select 10 to develop in the hope that four would go in to production. The first completed film gets a large scale national release today: The Devil Dared Me To (in which legendary stuntman Randy Campbell attempts to jump Cook Strait in a rocket car).
The Devil is screening at Readings, Empire, Regent-on-Manners, Sky City Queensgate
At Readings, Lighthouse Petone and the Penthouse, Angelina Jolie plays Marianne Pearl, widow of murdered journalist Daniel Pearl, in the true story A Mighty Heart. Directed by the great Michael Winterbottom, A Mighty Heart has been described as “moving and frighteningly real†by the LA Times.
[The rest of this week’s new releases after the jump]
Pink Ribbon Day Street Appeal, Friday Oct 12
The Pink Ribbon is the international symbol for Breast Cancer awareness.
This Friday is the Pink Ribbon Day Street appeal.
Collectors, including at least three of the Wellingtonista, will be fetchingly clad in pink sashes, and will be found lurking on streets & street corners accepting your kind donations towards breast cancer research.
More details, including how to volunteer & wear your own pink sash, can be found at the NZ Breast Cancer website
here
For Sale — One Ticker Tape Parade, Unused
Includes:
25 shipping containers multicoloured shredded paper,
Day’s hire of novelty vehicles & floats,
2000 dancers & street performers,
50,000 black flags.
Speech from the Prime Minister*
Population of one small city looking for something to celebrate.
Make a loved one’s birthday celebration, or anniversary, unforgettable.
Ready to go for October 26.
*Late change, Peter Dunne Subbed for the PM.
From the Archive: Gavin Soper, Cabin Steward and Ratepayer
With my usual excellent sense of timing I have decided to make my contribution to the Intenscity event some days after it has been dismantled but I hope Wellington history aficionados will appreciate it anyway.
This short video features Brian Sergent playing his well-loved character Gavin Soper (Air New Zealand Cabin Steward) for TV3’s Nightline in (I think) 1992 or 3. Gavin is celebrating the impending completion of the refurbished Te Aro Park, the cost of which was a source of some local controversy at the time. The other great contemporary issue he alludes to is the number of glue-sniffing street-kids predominating around the Te Aro area. Simultaneous with the beautification of Te Aro Park was the WCC scheme to house these “poor glue-addled kiddies†in a couple of converted shipping containers on waste ground south of the Basin Reserve.
Written by Brian Sergent; directed by Jonathan Brough; produced by Jonathan Brough, Gordon Harcourt and myself.