Cinephilia: Opening This Week
Strange things are afoot concerning the release of the film License to Wed (the trailer for which has been torturing audiences for weeks). The radio preview was at Readings tonight, they have been trailering it heavily and it’s got a start date of Thursday on their web site. But they don’t have any sessions listed for Courtenay Central.
It wouldn’t be the first time that Readings have dropped a film at the last minute as a bargaining position (they have been known to throw their weight around with distributors) or maybe they just wanted to give The Simpsons Movie triple the usual number of sessions (which they have done).
Then again, they might have seen the film and exercised some critical judgement. No, of course not, how stupid of me.
License to Wed is therefore only playing at the Empire in Island Bay so to experience it at the multiplex you’ll have to trek out to the aircraft hangar at Queensgate.
[Because I Said So and Catch a Fire after the jump.]
Flight of the Conchords – The Most Beautiful Girl in the Room
Okay, so there’s enough Flight of the Conchords material from their HBO series making its way onto Youtube now for us to resurrect FotC Wednesday, so, without further ado, here’s “The Most Beautiful Girl in the Room”…
(Lyrics after the break…)
What’s for lunch?
Remember when we asked you for hot tips about where to eat on Lambton Quay? Well, the Wellingtonista Towers has opened up yet another branch office, this time temporarily on Mercer Street, so we want to know where to max out our expense accounts. We’d also like to know where the best coffee is, keeping in mind that our definition of best coffee generally includes the ability to purchase something yummy like a muffin or a scone to have with it. And, because we always Push Play and have managed to find a branch of our gym up this end of town, hurrah, we’d also like suggestions for takeaway lunches, because we’re really really going to miss Kapai.
Wellingtonista Quiz League results: Round two
Last night the WQL hit the Bristol, where the quiz had the advantage of ever-so high tech computer graphics on screen, and the opportunity to win an ice machine and waffle-maker in the jackpot draw, but the disadvantage of a quiz master who refused to pronounce ‘Quizingtonista’ properly. Because we couldn’t book, the bar was stupidly full, but luckily ClickSuite are bolshy enough to ask people to leave to give them tables. The Alohas were wearing their leis again, but didn’t get extra points for them this time. The M team almost lost points for trying to steal one of our players (we swear that most of them were purely ornamental!) but escaped because it was lovely to meet the Americans for the first time. But you know, if I wasn’t so damn hubristic and full of myself, I’d be starting to worry that I smell bad or something because neither Silverstripe nor Xero showed up for quiz last night. So we’ll award them 72 points each, and I will comfort myself with the bar tabs that we keep winning.
Points so far:
- Alohas: 140
- Click Suite: 144.5
- M: 132
- Silverstripe: 136
- Quizingtonista: 179
- Xero: 141
So it’s looking like a pretty close game right now, and anyone could take out second and third places…
Entertainment Book Review: One Red Dog
At the Wellingtonista we don’t often give props to less consciously hipster places like One Red Dog, even though their continued success shows they have a devoted following. Today we discovered one of the reasons why this devoted following might exist.
Review after the jump.
Turning Chinese
Longxiang Restaurant, on Dixon St opposite the cowboy (or where the Cowboy
And if real Chinese people from China like it, it must be good, authentic, and tasty, right? I decided to test it out for myself, having previously only tried takeaways that suffered from long delays before we got to eat them, which is hardly a sporting chance.
So after the Beckon VIP night, I grabbed my constant restaurant buddy/sister Karen, as well as the Wellingtonista’s Hadyn and the delightful Amy and set out to give it a go.
Review after the jump.
Cinephilia: Opening This Week
The highlights of the Northern Hemisphere blockbuster summer keep on arriving, led this week by the long-awaited Simpsons Movie. I previewed it today and I recommend that you stay through all the credits. Playing Readings, Empire Island Bay, Sky City Queensgate and Regent-on-Manners which despite the best efforts of some enthusiastic staff is complete pants.
Lindsay Lohan teams up with Jane Fonda and Felicity Huffman for the inter-generational comedy-drama Georgia Rule. Love interest is provided by Dermot Mulroney and Garrett Hedlund (Eragon). Again all over town: Readings, Regent-on-Manners and Sky City Queensgate.
More after the jump
Wellingtonista Quiz League results: Round one
So, tonight was the inaugural round of the WQL, and I reckon it went quite well, really. Quiztron and the M-Team were no-shows (I understand why the M-Team weren’t there, but I really missed Quiztron), so if they can make it next week they’ll start out with the same points as the lowest-scoring team tonight. Which happened to be the Alohas, even though they got a bonus point for their costumes (dude, they all totally got lei’ed). Silverstripe almost lost a point because Matt tried to make me cry (I can’t remember the context, except that they kept trying to sit at our table), but ultimately they earned a bonus point for their can-can.
Points so far:
- Alohas: 61
- Click Suite: 71.5
- Silverstripe: 64
- Quizingtonista: 85
- Xero: 69
Woo haa! Stayed tuned for the announcement of next week’s venue. If you want to join us, let me know, you’ll be starting out on 60.
Spotted Around Town
A reliable informant tells me that former hobbit and tv star Dominic Monaghan is in town, spotted browsing the fine fare at Whitcoulls in Courtenay Central.
I wonder whether he’ll be around long enough to have Sunday brunch at Fidel’s like the old days.
Phoenix in ‘not crap’ shock
Wellington Phoenix 3 Sydney FC 0
The Phoenix made a lot of friends on Sunday afternoon with a confident display against an out of sorts Sydney side. Rarely troubled at the back, showing good enterprise and pace going forward, and superbly marshalled by the experienced Ross Aloisi in central midfield, the Phoenix looked better than both the Rufer-era Kingz and the woeful Knights put together.
The official attendance was just over 6,000 (which is sensational for a pre-season match) and the organisers sensibly stuck us all on one side of the ground to help harness the atmosphere. The official site has yet to be updated with the result and Stuff don’t have a match report so I’ll tell you that there were two goals for Shane Smeltz plus an own goal from an unknown Sydney player.
The Brazilian number 4 Cleberson is going to be a definite crowd favourite – he’s a big lump of a bloke and he totally bossed the central defence, winning everything in the air – and compatriot Cortes looked pretty lively down the right wing.
Phoenix match tickets go on sale on August 13 and I’d recommend getting into them early, particularly as more than half the games are kid-friendly Sunday afternoon affairs and it won’t stay this cold forever.