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Blogs / November 2008

December 2008 | October 2008
    • The Big Lift
      • I have to admit - there’s something special about about getting up at an ungodly hour to do something or see something out of the ordinary. Driving this morning through a beautifully still Wellington morning with no traffic is something out of the ordinary in itself So it was exciting to see all the big trucks, flashing lights and men in reflective vests - I knew I’d come to the righ
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    • The Old Shebang of Cuba Street
      • The National Library has joined the Flickr Commons project, whacking up many of their photos on Flickr. At the moment, there's not much from Wellington, but we're hoping that will change as more are uploaded. One particular Wellington delight, however, is a set of photos of a ramshackle house on Cuba Street called the Old Shebang (shebang in this instance means dwelling). And as well as that, Goo
      • Tagged as:
      • cuba-street
      • local-history

        • Cuba Street, Te Aro, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • Cuba vs Manners
      • So I was thinking to myself, as you do on a fine summer’s day like today: what is it that makes Cuba St so special, whereas Manners Mall just doesn’t cut the mustard? Is it the paving? Grey bricks just aren’t as warm and friendly as the orange hues of Cuba. Is it the architecture? Cuba’s sure is older, while Manners is newer: but is that all there is? Is it the people? Su
      • Tagged as:
      • architecture
      • cuba-street

        • Cuba Street, Te Aro, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • Architecture Awards night
      • es, tonight is the night for the architectural community, as the local Wellington region Awards for Architecture and annual knees up are being held tonight. Last year the awards went to the New Dowse, the Masterton Police Station and the Greytown Town Hall, Holiday Inn, the new Maritime Tower, Len Lye’s water whirler, the waterfront refurbishment of Shed 13, and the highly deserved award for Conservation House (which went on to win a Supreme Award by the year’s end), as well as a swathe of awards for some very fine housing. Awards are being held in the very evocatively period Shed 13 tonight - lets hope that the owners have managed to install some toilet and kitchen facilities which are noticeably absent in this picture from last year!
      • Tagged as:
      • architecture
      • waterfront

    • Splish Splash: Bucket Fountain Update
      • There's been a bit of action going on at the old Bucket Fountain, icon of Cuba Street. First, it mysteriously disappeared: We initially thought this was a retro '80s David Copperfield-style magic trick, but it turns out it was just taken down for maintenance. The fountain returned, with a fresh coat of paint, ready to splash the good folk of Cuba Mall once again.
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      • cuba-street

        • Cuba Street, Te Aro, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • Cinephilia: Opening This Week
      • So, this is the week I come out of hibernation to resume posting and what do I have to report? Only the bleeding obvious information that the new Bond (Quantum of Solace) is everywhere this weekend and that the only cinema daring to go up against the behemoth is plucky little Paramount which is playing American Teen from today. QoS is the middle film of an expected trilogy so don't expect much in
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      • cinema

    • Shrinkage?
      • Many people have asked us why the colossal squid specimen was so much smaller than anticipated when we thawed it. Initial reports suggested that the specimen was considerably larger than the final measurement of 4.2 metres in total length. We suspected that the specimen had shrunk (rather than the size being greatly exaggerated!). In order to test our theory we purchased several fresh arrow squid
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      • te-papa

    • Mauled Mall - Bus Route
      • As you’ve probably noticed, the WCC is canvassing for opinions on the proposed change to the bus route through Manners Mall. We’re a bit surprised how little public dialogue there has been so far on the proposal - and so we thought we’d open up a place for your informal dialogue and discussion to go. The picture above is of Manners Mall, taken on the corner of Cuba, just a few d
      • Tagged as:
      • consultation
      • cuba-street
      • transport
      • manners-mall-bus-lane

        • Cuba Street, Te Aro, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • A moving experience
      • With less than a month to go until our squid meets her adoring fans, there is still much to be done behind the scenes, not least of which is trying to figure out the best way of getting a 2.5 tonne display tank - squid included - from its storage facility across town, to its final resting place here at Te Papa. As the Exhibition Preparator assigned to the exhibition, it is my job to not only manag
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    • The Little Dog Laughed: A hack's view.
      • Let's get one thing straight; I'm not a theatre reviewer. I'm a cycling journalist who knows a cyclist who works in theatre. The old adage "it's not what you know, it's who you know" holds true in this scenario. While I know more about handlebars and chains than ad-libs and breaking a leg (and although that can happen in cycling, you wouldn't wish it upon someone embarking on a ride), I'm alwa
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        • Hannah Playhouse, 12, Cambridge Terrace, Mount Victoria, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • The Little Dog Laughed: Ellen's blog
      • Stupid people make me want to hurt myself. They are everywhere! There needs to be a law, if you are an idiot, you get your tubes tied and are cock chopped off! It infuriates me how much time I waste in my everyday life dealing with total brainless fuckwits! Yesterday in Starbucks – Yes shock horror I get coffee from Starbucks – get over it! I don’t believe in all that globalism bullshit anyways, so, there I was waiting for my vanilla latte hoping that the guy behind the counter would remember me from last week and give me free coffee again, - I don’t know what it is but people just keeping giving me shit at the moment. Anyways so I overheard this lollipop-head barbie telling her friend in Starbucks, that she had come to New York City to ‘Find herself’!!!!!!!!!!!!! what the fuck? You don’t ‘find yourself’ in NYC you stupid horse-face bitch!! The whole point of being in NY is so that you don’t have to even think about that kind of thing, I mean, if you want to put it spiritually or some shit, you come to NY, you stay in NY to ‘loose’ yourself if anything!! What has she been doing here? Sitting in Central Park next to the John Lennon memorial and singing strawberry fields forever??? For fucks sake?? So I leaned past her toothpick of a so called friend and said “Honey take my advice, I think you should just fuck off back to the farm you came from and start looking up your own arse because you’re clearly gonna have more luck there, there’s no room on the subway for fuckwits like you!” They both turned around and stared at me for a few seconds, and then the walking anorexia advertisement says to me ‘NO thanks, we’ve just ordered.” I flicked my cigarette ash into her coffee and walked off. What an Idiot. Later on I’m in Macy’s waiting for the alien behind the Chanel counter to go on her break so I can grab so lipstick and I hear this wrinkly old tart telling her equally as wrinkly and hideous friend that her daughter is getting married in a month but she’s not sure if she can go to the wedding because she can’t get into see her plastic surgeon till December and she is NOT going to the wedding unless she can get her eyes lifted. She then asks the girl behind the Dior counter if she had any “rouge.” I called out to her from my perch “Rouge is what hookers wear!”Stupid people deserve the stupid things that happen to them. Don’t leave your bag open on the counter while you choose your lunch! Don’t get a perm! Don’t go to the movies, sit in the back row and get annoyed if the people around you are having sex. Don’t think that by adding a cherry to my drink you can call it a cocktail and then throw me out of your stupid, hideous 80s décor bar if I throw it in your face. Don’t make faces at “tsk tsk” noises at me if I smoke standing next to your child at the park, Move!! You stupid saggy-tit moron!
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        • Hannah Playhouse, 12, Cambridge Terrace, Mount Victoria, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • More Mall for J’ville
      • Thanks to the very friendly and amenable Wellington City Council External Media Advisor, Richard Maclean, we’ve been able to bring you some further info about the proposed new expansion to Johnsonville Mall. Now that’s what I call a helpful public service. So, to recap since our last message on Johnsonville, although the Council is still deciding whether it will publicly notify the scheme or not, the project is available for public view anyway, and as part of that we thought it would be helpful for you to see some of what is being proposed.
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      • johnsonville

    • The Mighty Booth
      • After every election there are geographical analyses of voting patterns, inevitably followed by suggestions that certain regions should secede and form their own country. Such analyses are often at electorate level, but there's a lot of fine detail below that, and a cell of socialist insurgents might live just around the corner from an enclave of conservative curmudgeons. So I made the following map of Wellington voting tendencies at a booth-by-booth level.
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      • blogs
      • featured

    • The End of World War I: 11 November 1918
      • Almost 250 objects and images related to World War I held by Te Papa can now be viewed on online. Curators have chosen items with sentimental value or connected to the home front and the war’s aftermath in New Zealand, as well as those associated directly with the conflict and overseas theatres of war. Find out more about these items and their significance at http://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/Theme.aspx?irn=647. This work commemorates the anniversary of the end of World War I when, ninety years ago on 11 November 1918, the Armistice was signed between the Allies and Germany. You will also find some of Te Papa’s World War I collection items amongst similar content from other institutions around the country by searching Coming Home / Te Hokinga Mai:       
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      • te-papa

    • A reminder: get your nominees in for the Annual Wellingtonista Awards
      • Soon we're going to start publishing lists of our nominees for the AWAs (this year, it's the TAWAs because it's the Third Annual). Always after we do this, we have people go "oh but you should have nominated blah blah and this and that", so let us remind you again: if you want something to be nominated, you need to tell us. Do it now, or forever hold your peace or piece - at least until you get to vote, of course.
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      • events

    • The Little Dog Laughed starts at Downstage - A note from Director Willem Wassenaar
      • Diane: And that’s how one wins. By shutting up. You can win. And all you have to do is shut up. Don’t say anything. This is where we are in our lives. This world is a brothel. And we are all prostitutes; selling ourselves to fit the ideal image of success and happiness. What is hidden behind the perfect smile of those Hollywood icons we have come to love and hate? They are people at the top of their profession, who have everything, who have achieved greatness… and yet, we love to grab a random tabloid, go to the red carpet pages and put their achievements to the test. Fold the page over those cheesy grins and the eyes start to reveal a whole other story. Compromise ─ I hate that word, as a human being and as an artist. Has our idea of happiness superseded our primal need to love and be loved? The Little Dog Laughed by Douglas Carter Beane presents the façade, the make believe world that we all consume, chew over and spit out in fits and starts. But would we have it any other way? In this dark comedy of manners, we watch in horror as four people make their individual choices to be happy. The truth has consequences; but the lies are a living hell. So, do we shut up in order to win? My thanks to the amazing, brave team of The Little Dog Laughed and Downstage Theatre, and a special mention for my long term collaborator Daniel Williams. This is our last project before this beautiful man heads out into the world to go on outrageous adventures. Let’s hope for the theatre in New Zealand that he comes back. I also wish to thank… (cut to music) Willem Wassenaar Director The Little Dog Laughed
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        • Hannah Playhouse, 12, Cambridge Terrace, Mount Victoria, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • Hot theatre
      • BATS Theatre's new play Heat starts this Friday, and has been selling itself on an unusual point: "eco-theatre". The show's lights and sound will be completely off-grid, and the preparations for the sustainable energy sources were visible over the weekend. Such a ploy could come across as gimmicky, but it's designed to mimic the constraints of its setting, an Antarctic survival capsule.
      • Tagged as:
      • conservation
      • theatre

        • 1 Kent Terrace, Wellington, New Zealand


    • Johnsonville Mall
      • In a move to the suburbs, an area not normally frequented by the Eye of the Fish, a Mall is on the menu. Johnsonville Mall, to be precise. And there’s a big fuss brewing. Not about the concept of a mall - after all, there’s one there already. But this one is due to be different, to be bigger. Much bigger
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      • johnsonville

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