Post show look at: ‘Awhi Tapu’ and ‘An Oak Tree’
‘Awhi Tapu’ and ‘An Oak Tree’ are on until the end of the week. I found both fascinating for the way the story was told as much as for the narrative. Awhi Tapu at Downstage is set in a small ex-timber town. Wendyl is the leader holding Raj, Casper, and Girl Girl, together. He’s hoping […]
Preview: 2011 Film Festival
Despite the shocking and inexplicable decision to omit Patrick Keiller’s Robinson in Ruins from this year’s Film Festival (a disaster applicable only to me I think) the actual line-up is as good as everyone says. At least I think it is from surveying about 20 out of the 160+ titles in the programme – hardly […]
The semi-naked truth: Strip clubs in Wellington
So, you want to see some breasts. Nothing wrong with that. Where in Wellington should you go to see them? For the purposes of scientific research, we headed to Dream Girls and Mermaids to find out what you can expect. We also had a chat to a girl who’s worked in both places for the […]
Where would you take an odd tourist?
We occasionally get requests from people who see us as being experts on Wellington, and it’s true, we are. But so are you. So help us answer this guy’s question! “I am looking for places/locations in the Wellington area to take a group of overseas visitors too. I am not wanting to go to the normal […]
The bookworms be out in force
One rather delightful advantage of the Rugby World Cup is the arrival of the Downtown Community Ministry Book Fair in July, two months ahead of its normal timing. One might feel a little put out that rugby is screwing with your life, but this Wellingtonista thinks it’s the reverse. Personally I turn into a bit […]
Getting social while someone else does the cooking
On Monday night, some of the Wellingtonista went along to the launch of Social Cooking, a new cooking school based in Herd Street, so this fly tagged along too, buzzing overhead. The launch was held inside the City Market space, not actually in the classroom itself, where stands were set up by various purveyors to […]
No Way. Yes, Way.
Shot in Auckland and put together in Miramarwood, “The Warrior’s Way” is an NZ/South Korea/US East-West samurai-cowboy green-screen action-fx tongue-in-cheek cheese-fest mash-up. While this fine Oscar-worthy feature has unbelievably gone straight to DVD in NZ, following sold-out screenings at the Roxy last weekend (wrangled by its Wellington editor Jonno Woodford‑Robinson) there are three more this […]
The power of Voodoo (who do?)
When we talked about the Rapture, we mentioned Voodoo Restaurant on Manners Street in brief, but that really wasn’t enough. Seeing it’s got the Grabone treatment today (hurry! Only three hours left!), we do need to tell you just how damn delicious Voodoo is. In the wacked out Disneyland atmosphere of the old Harem, Voodoo is trying […]
Towards Another (Big Bang) Theory
The images of exploding fuel from Geoffrey H. Short’s exhibition Towards Another (Big Bang) Theory at {Suite} Gallery on Oriental Parade are immediately evocative to me of a number of different other imageries, occurring in roughly this order: of the US military napalming bits of Vietnam of Francis Ford Coppola napalming bits of the Phillipines […]
Overpass My Ass
We’re sorry it’s taken the Wellingtonista so long to weigh in on The Overpass. If truth be told we’ve all been kind of dumbfounded by the horror of it all. We’ll have more on the whole thing soon, but if you’re as appalled as we are (and if you aren’t, you might want to read […]