Wellingtonista Twitter
Being the hep cool web cats that we are, the Wellingtonista has recently set ourselves up a Twitter account so that we can send out updates about what you should do with yourselves. If you’re already a twitter user, head on over to our account and sign up to receive the word from the streets, generally at a one-or-two updates per day rate. If you haven’t used Twitter before, we’ve got a little specific how-to after the jump.
Free tickets to Downstage (limited time, conditions apply)
The lovely people at Downstage have offered Wellingtonista-readers the chance to see the new NZ play Finding Murdoch free next Monday or Tuesday.
Reviewer John Smythe at theatreview.org.nz said of the show:
My partner loved it and rugby is not her bag. But then it’s written by a woman about a woman’s desire to achieve and understand, and it’s directed by a woman, so I shouldn’t be surprised. Which isn’t to say rugby orientated blokes won’t like it too. Heading for the car (after the Monday 6.30 show) I bumped into Keith Quinn – of sportscasting fame – and asked him if he’d just been to Finding Murdoch. “Saw it on opening night,†he said. “It’s terrific. You should go.â€Â
There’s more about the show here, and we have 20 double-passes to give away to either Monday or Tuesday of next week. Simply email theatre@downstage.co.nz with the word “Wellingtonista†in the subject line, and the name of the All Black the play is about in the body of the email, and the magic of time-stamping will do the rest. First 20 are in.
“V” 48 Hours National Final – Live at The Establishment
Friends, supporters and other interested parties are invited to assemble at The Establishment on the corner of Blair St and Courtenay Place on Sunday evening to watch a bit of telly, specifically the C4 broadcast of the “V†48 Hours National Final.
Three Wellington films are in contention for the big prize (and the even bigger prize for Best Cinematography): Wellington winner Maori Detective and the Boogie Fever (Team Good Times) and Peter Jackson-selected wildcards Shooting Star (Will She Wait) and WhoreCop 3: Night Justice (The Three Dicks).
Viewers around the country will be voting by text as soon as the show finishes – come along and add your support. The broadcast starts at 8.30 but the entire Wellington Final 12 (plus Taika Waititi’s ineligible but hilarious Arab Samurai) will be screened again from 7.30 to warm you up.
Cinephilia: Opening This Week
School holidays start on Monday and Hollywood is doing its bit to turn your kids’ brains to mush with Transformers, an enormo-budget extravaganza about cars that turn in to robots (or the other way around). Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Michael Bay, Transformers should give the boys plenty of bang for your buck (while the girls get to swoon over current heart-throb Shia LaBeouf). Playing all over town including Readings Courtenay Central; Sky City Queensgate; Embassy; Regent-on-Manners.
Sensible-shoe wearing girls may well get more out of the latest incarnation of teen detective Nancy Drew, this time starring Julia Roberts’ niece Emma. A slightly smaller release this one, at Readings Courtenay Central and Sky City Queensgate only.
After the jump: Heartbreak Hotel, Starter for Ten, Francesca and Nunziata and The Iron Giant.
Early warning: The Wellingtonista Quiz League
I’ve been rather quiet on the Wellingtonista front (well, for me anyway) because I’ve been busy finishing up my contract and looking for a new job (anyone who knows of a new home for a person with tremendous writing, editing and communication skills who knows the internets like the back of her hand should get in touch), but when I come back from a tropical holiday, the Wellingtonista will be very very excited to announce the start of the Wellingtonista Quiz League.
This will be held a different inner-city pub each week on Tuesday night for four weeks, and point totals is what you’re after. So start assembling your team of four now, and look out for more details in the second week of July.
You will want to enter this, no one who participated in the Bowling League regretted it, and I’m sure they would happily furnish you with testmonials about the awesomeness that is participating in a Wellingtonista event!
When Typos Attack
The Wellington News Feed (an aggregated collection of local RSS feeds kindly supplied by our friends over at wellington.gen.nz, which we display in the right hand sidebar on the Wellingtonista homepage), is not only a rich source of grass-roots info about what’s going on in this lovely city of ours, it also offers the occasional good ol’ fashioned laugh.
From the indecipherable news events conveyed by the local shortwave enthusiasts, to the breathless match reports of Karori Slapperz AFC (“Wellington’s finest social football [team]”), there’s always something popping up that makes you think, ‘you’re in ma feed, mirthin’ up ma blogz‘. Or something.
Anyway, today’s laugh came from an inadvertant typo (at least, we hope it’s a typo): “pubic forum tonight“. The mind boggles…
Cinephilia: Opening This Week
It’s as if the gurus in Hollywood know that here in Wellington the Film Festival approaches and they’re trying to get the popcorn material out of the way before it is overpowered by more cerebral delights. Actually, that can’t be true, pretty much every week is like this…
The latest in the seemingly endless series of Will Ferrell sports movies in which our the star improvs himself a feature film while playing an emotionally stunted man-child is Blades of Glory and the sport this time is – Ice Skating! Figure Skating to be exact. Ferrell is joined by Napoleon Dynamite‘s Jon Heder as the two pair up to be the first all-male Olympic Ice Dancing champions (Readings and Sky City Queensgate).
After the jump: Fantastic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer, Paris je t’aime, Eden and Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
Soup’s up!
Apparently it is National Soup Week, and since we of course believe everything that marketing people tell us, we’d like to know where the best soup in Wellington can be found. Is it served in bread at Kapai? Whatever it is at The’Ho that Gemma from Texture obsesses over? Something from the ever-expanding Wishbone? Or is there really no better soup than Continental Cream’o Vegetable cup’o soup served in a mug under a duvet on a couch to fight off a hangover?
Glancing at the Stars
If this were the Aucklandista site, this’d surely be about Millie. But it’s not. Besides, we’d never heard of her until yesterday. Millie Elder? Millie Holmes?
Anyway… that’s just alluding to celebrity gossip to lure you in. And to trap the googlers… yoohoo!!
Here in the Capital city, when we talk about stars we talk about the really big ones! Real stars.
Matariki.
In May or June each year, just before dawn (yeah right!) look toward the North Eastern horizon & you should see the Matariki constellation. The Greeks called it Pleiades (although they view it upside down to us) or the Seven Sisters, the Japanese called it… Subaru!
To Maori, it marks the New Year, and is associated with the Winter Solstice. The name itself literally refers to the Eyes of God.
This month till the 1st of July, Te Papa are hosting a Matariki Festival, click through for further details.
Further information on Matariki itself, can be found here, here & here.
Exhibition: Cameo Appearance
The exhibition Cameo Appearance at Mary Newton Gallery brings together eight artists working in the area of the portrait – Tony Bond, Gavin Hurley, Anna-Marie O’Brien, Gary Freemantle, Tanja Nola, Octavia Cook, Areta Wilkinson and David Cauchi.
And then my magical art powers failed me, 2007 by David Cauchi