Newtown words
Tomorrow night, the Newtown Community and Cultural Centre hosts Newtown Spoken Word Winter 06, an open mike event organised by the Word Collective, the people who brought you Sk8board Poets, Karaoke Poetry and the Word Festivals. It starts at 7:30pm at the corner of Rintoul & Colombo streets, and entry is by koha. For more information, call Craig on 027 242 3453.
Snakes! On a plane! In Wellington!
Not that long ago, the London Time Out ran a feature on pirates in London to celebrate the release of Pirates of the Caribbean 2. Way to be hip, Time Out. Everyone who’s anyone knows that the actual most important movie this year is Snakes on Plane – or as some like to call it “Motherfucking snakes on a motherfucking plane”. So, in tribute to this movie that opens on Thursday, the Wellingtonista is proud to present this very special activity guide to recreating snakes on a plane in Wellington:
Musique Non Stop
(right, that’s the obligatory Kraftwerk reference out of the way)
This weekend’s a busy one for followers of electronic and dance music. Tomorrow night, Module‘s live band (including Rhian Sheehan and Raashi Malik) plays the late set at Cabaret. From there, it’s just a quick jaunt along Courtenay Place to Sandwiches for Rhombus, who will be starting at about … oh, whenever gigs start at Sandwiches these days.
After a late night like that, on Saturday you might be in the mood for something more laid-back, so try out While_you_were_sleeping‘s explorations of ambient and experimental sounds at Room 101 (under Bar Bodega) from 8pm. To get a preview of the sounds on offer, listen to The Session on Radio Active tonight, featuring tracks and interviews from some of the artists involved (inclding Pang, Panoramica and Anaesthesia Associates).
So So Modern, Disasteradio and Chairman Miaow, will be playing an Amnesty International benefit show at Indigo The San Francisco Bathouse from 9:30. And if you’ve any pills energy left, Concord Dawn and Minuit are playing not one but two gigs at Subnine: all-ages from 7pm to 10pm, and grown-ups only from 11pm.
It’s not my bag, baby!
Posted in the window of a certain shop in Cuba St:
I guess he won’t be trying that again.
Dancing in the streets
Amnesty International are looking to recruit street performers to support human rights as part of Freedom Week 2006(their annual awareness and fundraising week 31 july – 6 august)
Money collected on the streets this year will support their crisis campaigning work, in particular their work to stop human rights abuses in Darfur, Sudan.
To help raise the profile of Freedom Week, and boost public donations, for the first time this year, they’re asking artists, buskers and performing arts students to give up half an hour or an hour of their time to busk on Freedom Day, their street appeal day. In Wellington that’s Thursday 3rd August.
This is an invite to dance for love in the street to support Amnesty International’s Freedom Day.
What: Freedom Day street performance with Wellington Batucada (for Amnesty International’s Freedom Week)
When: Thursday 3rd August, between 5 and 6pm
Where: Corner of Lambton Quay and Featherston St (in front of Old Bank Arcade)
Costumes: To be advised
Other: There will be no practices, so you will need to be confident in following carnival/samba reggae moves as lead by a teacher and freestyling as well.
Shake it for a good cause, or just go along and show your support.
Tom’s Martini on National Radio
For those who missed Tom discussing his Wellington Martini mission on Kim Hill’s Saturday morning National Radio, here’s a streaming mp3 link of the show. (Just click on it – it should fire up your default mp3 player and play the file. Don’t know how long the link will stay active, though.)
If windows media format is more your thing (and, if it is, may we recommend you review your digital media usage options), then head over the National Radio site and try changing the settings there.
Williams Gallery
There is a great exhibition at the Williams Gallery in Petone featuring a range of prints by Michael Smither. Most of the art uses fairly abstract forms in a limited palette. I rate them highly. Don’t be put off by the boat picture on the Williams website, because frankly I think there are far stronger pieces than that.
Very appealing too are the prices. Plenty to be had for under $1000, and if you’re in the market to spend more, you can get a lovely big print.
And for the more sensitive amongst you, I didn’t notice any paintings by Patrick Williams starring lady bits. Praise be.
And we will party on, thanks to you
The front page story on the Dominion Post is Party on, says dying Il Casino Boss, and all media grumbles about the horrible exploitative nature of that stupid newspaper aside, the Wellingtonista is really upset to hear that Remiro Bresolin has terminal cancer. Readers will surely know how dear to our hearts Il Casino, Scopa and Boulot are, so our thoughts and well wishes are with the family.
Bender
The next installment in the “bleep” series takes a kind of DIY mad-scientist approach to making music. Bleep #2 is all about “circuit bending“: the art of torturing, transplanting, and grafting electronic sound-making devices so that they make more interesting sounds. Start with some mass-produced techno-toy from the Warehouse, the sort of thing that make irritating electronic noises, and attack it with screwdrivers and soldering irons to coax more interesting (and yes, probably more irritating) noises from its innards. The street finds its own uses for technology, indeed!
It is a two-part event, consisting of an interactive worshop this Sunday afternoon, followed by a gig at Happy next Wednesday. Full details are on the bleep website.
Now you see it….
Remember a few months back that the city council was worried that someone might steal the 2.5 tonne Henry Moore statue that sits at the edge of the Botanic Gardens near Salamanca Road?
I mean, since they planted the idea the Wellingtonista crew did band together & steal it for our foyer one night. But in the morning we regretted it & snuck it back before anyone noticed.
Anyway, I’m not sure what is happening here… either the council has decided to disguise the statue from prospective thieves…. Or it represents a new work of art in itself. Perhaps by Christo?