Kai in our puku

bread bowlsRecently we asked you where the best places to eat on Lambton Quay are, and naturally, the internet word-of-mouth answered: Kapai Salads in Lambton Square.

There’s plenty of reasons to love Kapai, including:

  • Whānau: Everyone knows someone who knows the owners, hence the mass emails and bulletin board postings about the shop.
  • Mata: Your salad will be freshly made right in front of you, and you will get to choose the ingrediants yourself. No droopy lettuce and skankyass grated cheese here, no no.
  • Taiao: The soup is served in bowls made out of bread, while salads are served in potatopaks (which you probably wouldn’t want to eat, although technically they’re safe enough to), minimising environmental damage. Plus, the coffee’s fair trade.

We’d like them to offer lists of available ingrediants and make it a little clearer which are the gourmet ones that’ll set you back an extra $1.50, but when you can get a rocquette, falafel and feta salad with aioli in less than five minutes and feel good about doing it, you’ll definitely be going back.

Crazy Intersections of our time: #31

the madnessThis week, the stretch of Adelaide Road where it intersects with Britomart Street/Herald Street, and then, a little further up the road, with Luxford Street.

As you can see on our hastily assembled little map on the right there, North-flowing traffic splits into two lanes once it gets past the Britomart/Herald intersection, so right-turning traffic gets its own turning lane into Luxford.

Now, this would work fine if there weren’t a couple of 5 minute parking spots (outside a dairy) in the straight-ahead lane (photo 2). Cars parked in that 5 minute spot (indicated by blue in the graphic) act as a roadblock, so once the turning lane hits a red light, traffic quickly backs up to the point where no-one can actually get into the straight-ahead lane (photo 3).

Muka

The Settlers Museum is hosting the MUKA YOUTH PRINT EXHIBITION 2006.

The exhibition features a collection of forty original lithographs by twenty prominent artists from New Zealand, Australia and Europe.

The exhibition is unique in that it is only open to young people aged 5 to 18. The idea is that young people are given the opportunity to see, select and buy an art work that they like, uninfluenced by adults or the name of the artist. All the works reflect the normal style of the artists and there is no “talking down” to the children.

The uniform low price means that this is an excellent way for young people to get real works of art into their hands.

Settlers Museum
The Esplanade
Petone

25 and 26 November
12 noon – 5pm

The horror!

Videoblood brings you ‘FIRST BLOOD’. This dvd project brings together 11 video artists and visionaries to create an original masterpiece with the only rule being that it had to finish within 90 seconds.

Filled with motion graphics, stop motion, claymation, porno, comedy, 3d, surgery, flying, dude, geisha, planets,cosmic arts, snails and all in one serving of 15 minutes.

The Paramount is a massive theatre, tell everyone to come along because it’s FREE! FREE! FREE!

Featuring work from:

Alistair Cheyne
Vincent Lowe & Jon Strang
Lakshman Anandanayagam
Mike Heynes
Sally Tran
Guy Capper
Matt Pitt
Paul Herschell
Sam Webber & Gareth O’brien
Ed Davis
Jeremy Mansford

Check out the teaser at:
www.videoblood.com

FIRST BLOOD DVD LAUNCH SCREENING FRIDAY NOVEMBER 3RD, 9:30pm PARAMOUNT THEATRE

Wellington Lions set to Roar

despite gluing his hand to his head, Nonu still took his place in the starting lineup…and if I had a cent five cents ten cents for every time that pun has been used

Anyway, the Wellington Lions are indeed headed North this weekend to take on Waikato (who, like Hadyn in his Dropkick’s guise, doesn’t have an ‘official’ nickname) in the final of the NPC Cup. There they’ll be confronted by a very in-form team, a stadium full of fantical cowbell ringing Waikato supporters, and their own capability to implode in spectacular fashion.

Wellington haven’t won the NPC tournament since 2000, and Waikato fourteen years back in 1992 (the only time they’ve won it, in fact). Ominously though, it had been fouteen years since Wellington won their last trophy, and in this year’s round-robin play, Waikato were convincing winners over the Lions.

So, whadda we think? Are Wellington up for it? Will the fast and flashy Lions turn up? Or the bumbling and clueless Wellington team that occasionally takes their place?

Mother Baby & Child Show

In your spare moments not spent at Craftwerk this weekend, you may like to come out to sunny Hutt City for the Mother Baby and Child Show. This free event features an array of exhibits from enterprising mothers (catchily titled Mumz Biz).

Not wishing to pimp my own ride too much, watch me pimp my ride. Babylicious will be there, as will uber-local-clever-evil-bears, the Scrappers.Srappers pillows

Horticultural Hall, Laings Road, Lower Hutt.

Sunday, October 22nd – 10.30am to 5.00pm

Monday, October 23rd – 10.00am to 5.00pm

Spend it

Wellington may be New Zealand’s most exciting city, but that’s not enough to earn us one of Wallpaper*s City Guides. Almost as galling as the news that Auckland will get one next year is the fact that this disqualifies us from entering Gridskipper’s $100 a day contest and winning the complete set of guides.

Still, that shouldn’t stop us. What’s the best way to blow US$100 (about $150 Kiwi) in Wellington in a day?

Silicon Welly

We didn’t even have to come up with that pun – it came preformed via Idealog, in an article which talks about how Wellington is helping to make the web ‘cool’ again in New Zealand.

With the likes of TradeMe, ProjectX (the latter being the creators of zoomin.co.nz), and, well, us, being based in our fair old town, not to mention those movie guys over at Weta, Wellington is quickly making a name for itself as a hub of creative technological endeavour. As is pointed out over at the ProjectX blog

Wellington is hotting up with start-up fever. I know of 4-5 startups that are currently in the pipeline. With Weta now scaling up in terms of people and projects (more movies, animation and games) , Wellington is a buzz with all the activity. There are going to be some good opportunities for skilled people to work on some kick ass projects.

Full article here…

How am I funny?

I'm here to fucking amuse you?

What do ya mean, funny? Let me understand this cause, I don’t know maybe it’s me, I’m a little fucked up maybe, but I’m funny how? I mean, funny like I’m a clown, I amuse you? I make you laugh… I’m here to fuckin’ amuse you? What do you mean funny, funny how? How am I funny?

Errr, that’s not really relevant, but it is a good scene.

Anyway, if you think you are funny, register yourself for the Wellington Comedy Club’s Rookie competition, taking place at the San Francisco Bathhouse on October 21st (as per the Comedy Club’s website), or maybe the the 19th of October (as per Newtown Ghetto Anger’s website). Head over to the Wellington Comedy Club website for more details.

There’s also a related workshop for budding comedians to hone their skills – a one hour session with some local pros on the 12th of October, again at the SF Bathhouse. More details on that at Newtown Ghetto Anger.

Links for Monday, 9 October 2006