Let Me Lose My Mind Gratefully
Hold onto your hat and get ready for one of the most over-the-top rock n’ roll bands of all time.
Hailing from Japan, the King Brothers (Myspace page here) make it their business to somehow mash-up the elements of every vital era of rock n’ roll music and then utterly demolish it. They approximate the sound of the Germs backing Howlin’ Wolf — with his hand caught in a garbage disposal unit.
What up, weekend? 27 April edition
So, what to do over the next couple of days? Do like we do, and do these things:
- Get your fancy pants on, and head along to the Madame Fancy Pants new store opening tonight at 217 Cuba St.
- I’m sure you know by now how we feel about anything even vaguely Tiki-related, so naturally Voodoo Mambo at Mighty Mighty ranks highly on our must-do list.
- Or, if you’re after something more traditional, why not check out the Maori Market 2007 at the TSB Bank Area? it promises to feature
…paintings, weaving, sculpture, wood, silver, bone, gold, and greenstone carving, clay, Ta Moko or traditional tattoo with items ranging in price from $500 to $80,000.
- How about an immersive environment of light and sound? That’d be Looklessness and it’s on at the Film Archive. Saturday night sees a “live performance by the artists entitled Light-mantled Sooty Albatross. People are invited to view live in action “the mutli-projector analogue delights: spliced and bubbling marmite collage, eye-bending glass light, and bleached, honeyed sprocket-holes.”
- Or, if you prefer your birds to rise frm the flames, there is, of course the Phoenix Foundation playing at San Frindigo on Saturday night.
When the lines go down
I’m sure you know that the Wellingtonista is a big fan of the trolley buses, and thinks that everyone who bitches about the wires overhead being an eyesore is an idiot. You probably think that it’s because we’re dirty leftie greenies that we’re fond of the wires, but the truth is, we like them because it’s hilarious when they go down. Like this morning, watching a trolley-bus having to get shunted by another bus out of a major Hataitai intersection. And getting to ride on the other side of Courtenay Place around marooned buses. And seeing Willis St totally blocked up with the corpses of trolley buses left lifeless. Actually it was lovely to see how friendly all the traffic was, and how quickly police and other people in shiny coats were there to direct traffic and keep things running. Sometimes Wellington is a surprisingly well-oiled machine. The official word after the jump:
WBL Round 1: the results
So we met, we bowled, great epic battles were fought, and drinking was the winner on the day. And also Xero. Here’s the league points so far.
| Played | Won | Drawn | Drink bonus | Points Bonus | Total | |
| Bowlingtonista | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Bowltron | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 5 |
| Clemenger | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 5 |
| Clicksuite | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Silverstripe | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Xero | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 6 |
Team bowling scores are after the jump.
When you come back home
Sometimes there comes a time when you must leave this town, your town for a break – it could be a holiday; it could be your OE; it could be that career move; it could be to do a geographical and just get away.
What’s that? Your favourite barista moved to Westport, and you had to follow? (Yeah, OK. There’s always an excuse.) But sooner or later, you must come back. And when you do there is always a moment when you know you are home.
Here’s one such:
Coming down the Ngauranga Gorge there’s that long sweeping curve where the Hutt and Porirua motorways meet. Look up from the road and you’ll see Wellington arrayed in full panoply before you. There are our small cluster of tall buildings standing proud, feet in the sea and backs to the hills. There are the hills themselves, steeply carpeted with houses in defiance of tectonics and plain good sense, looking on to and out to the sea. There is the bowl of the harbour, rimmed with bush and filled with reflected sky. There is the sky, mostly blue, sometimes grey, often set with clouds scudding.
There it is. Our town. Where you live. Where I live.
Where is this moment for you?
Is it, as the Front Lawn once had it, flying overhead?
over Wellington Harbour
Oriental Bay is standing there in the sunlight
Is it that first sip of Mojo or Fuel?
Is it Courtenay Place at the weekend?
Where? What? With whom? Comment, zoomin, or blog away!
The Wellingtonista Bowling League Draw
It gives us tremendous pleasure to announce the draw of our Bowling League. Brave (but foolish for thinking they could possibly beat us) teams from Xero, Silverstripe, Click Suite, Clemenger BBDO and the fantastically named Bowltron will be taking part and therefore get massive karma points.
Round 1 will be Tuesday 24th at 8pm at The Lanes on Wakefield St.
The rules on the night are as follows:
- If at the end of the game your team’s sum total (total of all four players) is higher than your opposition’s then you get four competition points.
- If your team consumes more than four alcoholic beverages (or averages more than one per player) you get a bonus competition point
- The team with the highest sum total on the night gets an extra bonus point.
So if you booze up and roll like a god your team could come away with 6 points.
Expect to see many people at Clemenger crying on Wednesday morning after the Bowlingtonista give them the thrashing of their lives. Hurrah!
Flight of the Conchords: Jenni
Nearly forgot! Flight of the Conchords Wednesday!
“What a hilarious misunderstanding!”
Carnage on the corner
Fancy a little accident spotting while you enjoy a nice pizza? Word on the street is that the best seat in town is at Scopa.
Michael Gregg comments:
Someone will be injured on the Ghuznee/Cuba Corner soon. Spend ten minutes in Scopa and watch the intersection to see for yourself.
Pedestrians crossing Ghuznee Street are struggling with the new two-way traffic flowing through Ghuznee. There is no reminder to look both ways and regulars are falling back into old habits, glancing and running. Even worse, the new traffic lights bring traffic out of Cuba at the same time as the pedestrian signals engage, meaning the intersection brings impatient drivers and bustling, rushing walkers together. As the weather deteriorates, I’m worried that someone might get hit.
The solution:
- Remove the chains and allow pedestrians to cross diagonally and on both sides of Cuba Street halting all vehicle traffic for this period. This will quickly clear the backlog of walkers by allowing more room to cross, plus take them off the street when the cars get their right of way.
- Install clear signage at eye height and on the curb.
- Mark the Ghuznee east intersection clearly with a no-left turn arrow.
- Mark the Cuba intersection with left and right lanes to direct turning traffic.
- Put two way arrows on the Ghuznee roadway (like we do for tourists on SH1) for both entry/exits into this intersection
How are you enjoying the two way traffic on Ghuznee?
I love it, but then my favourite memories are of cars going the wrong way down Molesworth St. Such a blissful spectator sport.
3rd Annual NZ Comics Weekend
For the third year in a row, the New Zealand Comics Weekend is up and running from at Graphic Comic Shop (106 Cuba Street), and the Southern Cross Garden Bar (39 Abel Smith Street, Wellington.)
This annual festival of independent comics runs alongside the Armageddon Pulp Culture Expo in order to showcase and highlight the underground talents in New Zealand Comics.
More info here at Feeling Great.
A Mighty Mighty Mighty Weekend
Not only is The Mighty Mighty one of our favourite bars, what with its endearingly gauché fit out and entertainingly gauché barstaff and wot-not, but this weekend they host two very exciting (and very different!) gigs.
Mëstar are touring their recent album Shut The Squizwot Factories Down and on Friday night (the 20th) they play at Mighty Mighty with Hot Swiss Mistress:
(Sorry for the stink photo of the gig poster but it was the best I could do with my phone-camera on the way to work this morning.)
And then, on Saturday night (the 21st), at the starting time of 9pm is the avant-punk theatrics of Mr. Sterile Assembly, with Xenu and Thee Strapons:
