What’s in a name #1
So, perhaps the most drawn out sports decision ever to be made by an Australasian sporting body has finally been confirmed, and a Wellington bid has won the right field a team in Australia’s A-League soccer competition.
Now all they need is a name (oh, and some players, and a home ground, but let’s not mention that).
So, what do we think. What’s a good name for our local professional football team. The guys over at the A-League discussion forums have come up with some suggestions…
- Wellington Wizards
- Wellington Wonders
- Wellington Wanderers
…but, you know, that whole sports team alliteration thing is a bit passé. There’s some support for just continuing the Knights (noooo!), and, likewise, for a good old fashioned appendage like United, FC, or City. Today’s DomPost had these suggestions…
- Wellington Thunder
- Wellington Fever
- Wellington Hornets
- Wellington Blast
…of which Hornets doesn’t ring too bad, although, do we have hornets in Wellington? Surely the Wellington Killer Bees would be more appropriate? And despite the enthusiasm of the supporters on the back page of the DomPost today, I don’t think ‘Fever’ is the best idea in the world – the rich potential for headline puns when things go horribly wrong is just too much to consider.
Any other thoughts?
A Friday night and a Saturday morning
Down at the City Gallery on Friday night they are running another one of their Late Night Sessions, where you get to cruise around the big exhibition (this time it’s the biennial Prospect show) in relative peace and listen to lovely live music while you do so. And all for free.
City Gallery’s popular late night Friday returns. Wander through Telecom Prospect 2007: New Art New Zealand to a backdrop of independent and electronic sounds by local performers. Featuring Peneloping, Tc Wedde with Luke Buda, and Aspen.
The lovely Luke Buda is of course in The Phoenix Foundation, as is (the equally lovely) Tc Wedde. Aspen is also lovely and also known as Signer, and is one half of Over the Atlantic and one half of Skallander. And the "medium-core girl-boy plinkpop!" Peneloping also have a very good reputation as a live act. Having experienced Late Night Sessions many times before – from the point of view both of a performer and a patron – I can heartily recommend this event.
Putting out feelers: the Wellingtonista Cup
Not that we’re trying to get all Gawker on you or anything (or are we?) but the Wellingtonista would like to set up a league. A bowling league, if you will. Details will be confirmed later, but there would probably be a round-robin of sorts, and much booze would of course be involved ( because have you ever seen any of us out in public without a drink in our hands?), and as we’re not famous for our love of the ‘burbs, chances are the venue will be right in town at The Lanes.
This post is going out to see if anyone would be interested in taking us on. It would be great if teams had some sort of affiliation, no matter how loose it was (although ring-ins would be fine) and it would be best if teams had a place on the web in which they could let their fingers write cheques that their butts couldn’t cash in terms of trash-talking about their opponents. We’re envisioning competing against teams from other blogs (or blogs + notorious commentators), or web companies, or media outlets. Are you keen?
A drink for Autumn: the Negroni
At the wind whips at us with its chill flails, the blustery wet drizzle envelops our heads as we peraumbulate along the streets of downtown, as the night glows into the dawn with a dull damp violet cloud — we’re gonna need a drink to ward off the misery of the season. So I present to you the mulled-wine of the cocktail family: The Negroni.
It seems there are not a lot of people who will admit to a fondness for Campari. Indeed it was not two nights ago that a drinking companion of mine brayed something incoherent about “earwax” when the dreaded C-word was mentioned during a free-ranging session over at mine. However, for all its perceived sins, without Campari you would not have a Negroni.
It is the Campari that is the medicinal “bitter” and provides the characteristic flavor of the Negroni. A little background: according to my sources, Compari was concocted by Gaspare Campari in the 1850s. Gaspare, at only age 14, was the master drink maker at the Bass Bar in Turin, which was the commercial center for aperitifs at the time. Campari is made with natural ingredients that include herbs, spices, bark and fruit peels. The exact formula is of course a highly guarded secret. And as far as the Negroni is concerned, as with all great cocktails stories differ, but the most popular account of its origin is that Count Camillo Negroni, a Florentine aristocrat, decided one day to add some bite to his favorite drink, the Americano. He had the bartender add gin. From that time on he ordered the same drink every day. Eventually the bartender named the drink after him.
The Negroni. Complex. Spicy. Bitter, although not overly so. The tiniest bit of sweetness to offset that. It’s a drink to warm a cold breast. It’s a perfect aperitif, a drink to wake up your taste buds and shout “Ciao, ragazzo bello! Come stai?”. And the colour! The rich brown and deep red tones seem to glow with soft light and autumnal hues. Hold one near a light and your Negroni will erupt in orange novas. It’s the obvious drink-of-Autumn for a Wellingtonista.
“Bene, grazie!”
Cuba Street Carnival Feedback
Did you know that the Council supported the carnival?
Do you think they should support the carnival?
Got 2 minutes to answer those & a few other questions right here?
Supplementary question:
Are you offended by nudity at carnivals? If no, were you not outside Floriditas with half the Wellingtonista?
Then go here… and if that’s your wife/girlfriend/mother/daughter wrapped around that pole….
Well, way to go.
Plenty to wine about
There comes a time in everyone’s life when they feel the need to leave Wellington, even if it’s just for one day. No really, it happens! And a particularly good day to get out of town, if you don’t like the colour green, or potatoes, or Guiness or drunken fake-Irish louts, would be this Saturday. So where to go to get away? How about a wine festival – after we all know, that wine drinkers are a better class of people than beer drinkers – somewhere out of town but still nearby?
Well it just so happens that March 17 is your lucky day, with not one but two festivals taking place nearby. There’s the Wairarapa Wines Harvest Festival in Gladstone (as well as the International Balloon Fiesta and the day before Round the Vines, and also the Great Wellington Wine and Food Festival in Paekakariki. So how do you choose which one to go to when they both cost $25 for an entrance fee? Take our quiz to find out.
On the ball
Get your mask ready: it’s time to party quasi-anonymously with friends and strangers at a Venetian Masquerade Ball. Champagne! Chandeliers! Canapes! Cleavage! (if the poster is anything to go by)
Stately Dransfield House in upper Willis Street will play the gracious host for “Ballo di Sciocco” on the 31st of March. The venue and the imagery may me old-fashioned, but the ball itself must be Generation Next, since it has a myspace page. Looking at the organisers’ page and list of friends, I get the feeling this will be no ordinary ball.
Tickets $120 from Madmat on 027 290 3591.
Make a kitten smile
Start counting your coins people, because Craft2.0 hits the Hutt in four days. For those of you who can’t count, that’s this Saturday March 17th aka St Paddy’s Day.
The fair kicks off at 11am with the first 200 people scoring a Craft2.0 bag of awesomeness full things like:
- The Craft2.0 Poster
- Badges from SuperVery
- Babylicious candy and discount vouchers
- The latest Idealog – whose contributors include Craft2.0’s most favorite blogger
- Discount Vouchers for Beckon
- A surprise from Reka Cafe
- Big Bang balloons
- K-bars!!!!
- Your very own personal leprechaun.
And just for Wellingtonista music fans, here’s the band schedule:
- Jason McIver at 11.30am
- SpartacusR at 12.45pm
- Ryan Prebble at 2pm
- Monobasic at 3.15pm.
And did I mention there were crafts, loads and loads and loads of crafts all for sale? Just loads, people!
Just quietly my knowledge of Craft2.0 is so vast you’d almost think I was one of the two crafty divas making it happen.
Oh wait 😉
Note: all Craft2.0 Leprechauns are invisible to human eyes
Not-so Breaking News
- Tupelo has moved its beer menu to all boutique styles, with only Heineken remaining on its menu as a mainstream drop. They also have the very tasty Nelson Bays Gold and Nelson Bays Pilsner on tap, with (classy glass) jugs for just $10.
- Meanwhile the Wellingtonista’s semi-tiki bar of choice, Imbibe is now offering brunch on Friday-Sunday. While there was no obviously displayed menu on the windows, the people sitting contentedly in the sun appeared to be tucking in to large plates of eggs. Hopefully they’ll have more on offer for those of us less eggily inclined, because it’s a gorgeous space and looks very nice and chilled out for a hangover breakfast.
- And finally, the Dominion Post can as usual be relied on to run front-page stories about the weather in exact reverse of what’s going on that day, so today’s rain brings a ‘Drought!’ cover story. Hurrah!
We ask: why are you here?
The Wellingtonista would like to know why so many goddamn black-legged jellyfish decided to hang out at Lyall Bay over the weekend. Sure, it was hot, and swimming was a great idea, but for me, not for you creepy wobbly things! And it didn’t make a difference how calm it was on Saturday and how wavey it was on Sunday – you were still there! Bastards. It ‘s not like you were put on Earth first or anything, and yet you act like you own the place…