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Blogs / January 2009

February 2009 | December 2008
    • Big names for this years Wellington Jazz Festival
      • The smoothest festival on the calender is coming our way.  Wellingtons Jazz Festival has announced its programme for the 5th to the 6th of March 2009.  And there is something for just about all tastes - with old, new, international and local favourites taking centre stage. Speaking on 21 January at the launch of the final programme, Wellington Jazz Festival Artistic Director, Lissa Twome
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    • Cover version
      • Don’t judge a book by its cover, the saying goes. There’s no doubt, though, that a book’s cover can say an awful lot about what’s inside. Michael Illingworth, Untitled 1971 Deciding what work should go on the cover of the forthcoming book Art at Te Papa — Michael Illingworth’s Untitled 1971 — wasn’t easy.  We tried lots of different possibilities, shopped ideas around, got sometimes co
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      • te-papa

    • Alexandra Owen's first ever boutique
      • Alexandra Owen - the Wellington based designer wowed the fashion critics at her ANZFW debut show in 2007 and again in ANZFW 2008 where the show was termed 'show of the week'. She's taking NZ and the world by storm with her intelligent and mature designs. Now the the first ever Alexandra Owen boutique opens on Saturday at 253 Wakefield Street (under the Museum Hotel Apartme
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    • One Day Sculpture
      • If you are an art follower you may have already know the One Day Sculpture project. One Day Sculpture was launched in Wellington in March 2008 in conjunction with the New Zealand International Arts Festival. Since then there have been 7 projects presented. These were all commissioned by different institutions around Aotearoa/New Zealand and have taken place in Auckland, Hawera, Wellington and Dun
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      • te-papa

    • Jay Reatard and No Age
      • Time to get excited kids; Jay Reatard and No Age are playing in Wellington at San Fran on 3 February. Yes, we are fortunate enough to be blessed by both Jay Reatard and No Age performing here for your sonic pleasures. This is going to be the show to see this year make no mistake, in fact it's already in my top 10 and it hasn't even happened yet! Recently signed to Matador records for an 8 album de
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    • Ephemera
      •    NZ Post has been busy over the last year, sending out messages of PostCodes to the whole of New Zealand. We had, until recently, a system of Post Codes that were laughable in their pathetic simplicity. My NZ Post Code in 2000 was 6001, which I shared with approximately 100,000 other people. I don’t think that I ever heard of anyone living in 6002, although it is certainly possible. In 2008 howe
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    • Don't Miss the Motorik Workouts of Stereolab on Thursday...
      • London outfit Stereolab are a rare group in that they are a 'homage' band of sorts but still manage to be absolutely terrific and distinctive at the same time. Formed in 1990, Stereolab is Timothy Gane, Andrew Ramsay, Simon Johns, Joseph Watson and Laetitia Sadier. Reliable friends who have seen Stereolab live tell me that the music translates fantastically in a live context, so I am dea
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    • The big art book
      • Art at Te Papa - coming soon. Hi there, I’m William McAloon, Curator of Historical New Zealand Art here at Te Papa. Over the last couple of years I’ve been working on a big book on Te Papa’s art collection. Art at Te Papa features over 400 works, from the 15th century to the present day. The cover star is Michael Illingworth’s painting Untitled, 1971. The book is due out in
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      • books

    • Thanks for the memories Boulot
      • After some great years of providing fabulous informal dining to Wellingtonians, Boulot restaurant has now officially closed for good.  Owned by those infamous Bressolin boys, Boulot brought a distinctively laidback European twist, to the oft-chaotic downtown Wellington area.  Their pizzas were of the highest quality, cooked in one monstrous Manuka-fired oven to near perfection.  An
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    • Volunteering Tea and Comfort
      • The streets of Wellington on a day like today are a joy, the sun is shining, the breeze is more balmy than bluster and you probably have a home to go to if you need some cave time.  In Wellington the streets are shared with all, and if you head into the CBD you will see suits, students, hipsters, children and gold-card holders utilising public space alongside street people and alcoholics.&nbs
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      • featured

    • A Menu for Monarchs
      • In the summer months I get plenty of phone calls and emails from monarch butterfly fanciers, all with a common problem: Monarch butterfly caterpillar (Photo credit: R Sharell, Copyright Te Papa       “My swan plants are almost stripped bare yet I have so many monarch butterfly caterpillars I really don’t know what to do. Is there anything else I can feed the caterpillars on?” This problem arise
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    • Century City Ho
      • For a brief moment in time it seemed as though time had stood still, and that El Terry had given up finishing it, but then it was restarted with new contractors who actually seemed keen to complete the project. It’s one of the more complex developments Wellington has seen for a number of years: taking a barren empty site and layering on it a monster carpark for initial income generating pote
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        • 78 Tory Street, Wellington


    • Longing For More Leonard Cohen?
      •  I know she is comingI know she will lookAnd that is the longingAnd this is the book...- Book of Longing  I keep hearing how sensational Leonard Cohen's Wellington show was. And epic at three hours long! Whether you missed his show and want some kind of a consolation or if you did go and loved it so much that you want to start a Cohen binge, his books will fit the bill.Before he turned h
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    • Disguised in the bush - a plant mimic
      •  Last weekend, when I should have been writing grant applications, I was dragged out for a bush-walk. However, my arm didn’t have to be twisted too hard, since it was a fine day and the track between Kiriwhakapapa and Blue Range is lovely (although steep). Alseuosmia pusilla Alseuosmia pusilla was abundant along the track. This is a very interesting little shrub. It looks a LOT like a juveni
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      • te-papa

    • Big Day Out
      • There seems no doubt that today will go down in history as an important date, and it seems churlish to ignore it and debate the whys and wherefores of buildings in wellington, when the real focus for much of the world has been on the buildings and public spaces in Washington, half a world away.  The date for us is clear enough: its the 21st of January, although America, being so far behind the ti
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    • Cinephilia: Opening This Week
      • As Oscar night approaches another of the expected heavyweight contenders goes into cinemas: Sam Mendes' Revolutionary Road reunites Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio for the first time since Titanic (still the highest grossing film of all time fact-fans) in a story of a middle-class 1950s couple dissatisfied with the American suburban dream. Based on (what I understand to be) an awesome novel by
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    • Anna Coddington is awesome…
      • …and is returning once again to grace the notorious Mighty Mighty stage to perform a stripped back acoustic set as part of her summer T-shirt tour… oh yeah! Coddington undertook an epic fifteen-date-nationwide-tour in June last year in support of her debut album, The Lake, so this micro summer tour is all about sunshine, playing in some mean (slang for hip-as) venues and, of course, the promotion
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    • Summer daze
      • We admit it: we've been slack. Normal blogging service will gradually resume as we re-emerge from the rum-induced inebriation heat-induced torpor of summer, but things are taking a while to crank up again. Some of us have been out of town on summer holidays, enjoying all the clichés of the Great Kiwi SummerTM: beaches, jandals, boats, sunburn and ill-advised sexual liaisons. But some of us
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    • Kreüzberg Summer Café! Hawt!
      • So… Cuba Street has a new place to nab a fantastic coffee and, by all means, it’s a little unconventional.The Kreüzberg Summer Café is a backyard-style café (so an established caravan parked in an old car park set amongst brightly coloured picnic tables) at the top of Cuba Street… like the very top… like pretty much on Webb Street… The café is named after a district in Berlin, which is renowned fo
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        • Cuba Street, Te Aro, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • Fringe, fabulous Fringe!
      • It’s time to get freaky on it. Because the 2009 New Zealand Fringe Festival is set to storm through your doorway and dance all over your furniture.  Just because it can. The programme for this years Fringe fest has been released, and it’s so chocka with Comedy, music, arts and theatre goodies, that Santa has decided to retire and drink mai-tai’s somewhere in the Florida Key’s (Just kidding ch
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    • Top Five Summer Reads - Breezy and Bright, No Chick Lit In Sight...
      • I always have a precariously towering bookstack next to my bed because I have the unfortunate knack of acquiring books faster than I can read the damn things. For me, one of the best things about having a wee break over summer is the pleasure of having entire days to live inside the sparkly books that beckon from the stack.I can't recommend the following three titles from the last year highly enou
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    • In the summer in the city
      • 1. Have you registered for Webstock yet? Only 33 more sleeps left to go and we are very very excited! 2. Have you checked out the programme for Summer City yet?  Wellington City Council's three-month festival of outdoor activities. Events include music festivals, extreme sports, cultural celebrations and children's entertainment. This year, Summer City's music performances focus on Welli
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    • Grand Designs
      • Watching an episode of Grand Designs recently, while on holiday, made me thankful that we don’t have such a high and idiotic level of bureaucracy as they do in England: but then again, nor do we have an architectural presenter with the charisma and sardonic tongue of Kevin McCloud.  In this programme, an architect called Francis Shaw was attempting to restore a castle in Skipton, in Yorkshire. Hi
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      • heritage-buildings

    • Lancewood hunting
      • Field-work is one of the best aspects of working as a Natural Environment curator at Te Papa.  I get to spend about three weeks a year in the field collecting plant specimens. Te Papa’s 4WD. If seen outside Wellington, there is a good chance this vehicle is being used to collect plants, whales, or fossils. I’ve recently returned from ten days field-work in the South Island, collecting samples for
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    • Comings and Goings
      • The start of each year often sees a shake-up of the bar and restaurant scene, and with the Current Economic ClimateTM one might expect a few more closures than usual. Let's not dwell on such morbid speculation, and look at a few closings and openings that we do know about. While discussing the demise of Temperance (which didn't reopen this weekend, despite DB's threats assurances), Blair mentioned
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    • A new structure on T3
      • We are at it again!!This is the beginning of a new structure on T3, thanks to the great guys from the GVN we were able to get the platform in for what will be a very interesting obstacle.For more information you will have to come along on Sunday February the 1st to find out.Meeting at the bottom of Varleys at 10am, lunch and tools provided.
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      • makara

        • Makara, Wellington


    • A new structure on T3
      • We are at it again! This is the beginning of a new structure on T3, thanks to the great guys from the GVN we were able to get the platform in for what will be a very interesting obstacle.For more information you will have to come along on Sunday February the 1st to find out.Meeting at the bottom of Varleys at 10am, lunch and tools provided.
      • Tagged as:
      • cycling
      • makara

        • Makara, Wellington


    • On the Buses
      • While I’ve been quite impressed by the new trolley buses in Wellington, one gleaming in its paua-shell colour-scheme as it slides silently through the city, I still have a hankering for a double-decker, which are fairly common throughout England, and of which we seem to have one roaming solo in the streets of Wellington.
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    • The Year Ahead
      • In all probability, this year is going to be a bit of a quieter year than previous years, especially on the Design and Construction front. Auckland has been in a constructional doldrum for the last 18 months or so, while Wellington has been curiously bouyant, but realistically, this is not a state that is going to continue. Although there are no real reasons for our economy to crash screaming to t
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    • The Year Ahead
      • In all probability, this year is going to be a bit of a quieter year than previous years, especially on the Design and Construction front. Auckland has been in a constructional doldrum for the last 18 months or so, while Wellington has been curiously bouyant, but realistically, this is not a state that is going to continue. Although there are no real reasons for our economy to crash screaming to t
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      • architecture
      • blogs

    • On the Buses
      • While I’ve been quite impressed by the new trolley buses in Wellington, one gleaming in its paua-shell colour-scheme as it slides silently through the city, I still have a hankering for a double-decker, which are fairly common throughout England, and of which we seem to have one roaming solo in the streets of Wellington. It is of course a RouteMaster, the most famous of all the London Trans
      • Automatically tagged as:
      • architecture
      • blogs

    • On the Buses
      • While I’ve been quite impressed by the new trolley buses in Wellington, one gleaming in its paua-shell colour-scheme as it slides silently through the city, I still have a hankering for a double-decker, which are fairly common throughout England, and of which we seem to have one roaming solo in the streets of Wellington. It is of course a RouteMaster, the most famous of all the London Trans
      • Automatically tagged as:
      • architecture
      • blogs

    • The Year Ahead
      • In all probability, this year is going to be a bit of a quieter year than previous years, especially on the Design and Construction front. Auckland has been in a constructional doldrum for the last 18 months or so, while Wellington has been curiously bouyant, but realistically, this is not a state that is going to continue. Although there are no real reasons for our economy to crash screaming to t
      • Automatically tagged as:
      • architecture
      • blogs

    • the year ahead
      • In all probability, this year is going to be a bit of a quieter year than previous years, especially on the Design and Construction front. Auckland has been in a constructional doldrum for the last 18 months or so, while Wellington has been curiously bouyant, but realistically, this is not a state that is going to continue. Although there are no real reasons for our economy to crash screaming to t
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      • architecture
      • blogs

    • Early 09 brings good theatre times!
      • Coming from the pen of one of Wellington's most talented writers and performers, Jamie Burgess, (who was behind Shoes, at BATS in March last year, and played the fabulous Munkustrap in CATS at the Opera House in June), is Becoming the Courtesan - a Remarkable Seduction on at BATS from 10 - 17 January. This show is written and performed by Burgess and old friend Karen Anslow, with all ori
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    • Whanau is number 1 in this town
      • Talk about family values, Wellington has been voted the best place in New Zealand to raise a family.  This is  according to the ASB top-spot report, which acts as an indicator as to which parts of the country excel in which areas. And you can see why such a decision has been made.  Wellington lies smack in the middle of the country, between the sometimes overly conservative Christch
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    • Cinephilia: Opening This Week
      • Following the flurry of Christmas and New Year releases (all of which are still playing), there are only two new titles to report this week. Firstly, The Tale of Desperaux an animated adaptation of a supposedly beloved children's book. Matthew Broderick plays a noble little mouse with enormous ears who teams up with a kitchen-loving rat (Dustin Hoffman) to rescue a lonely Princess (Emma Watson) -
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    • Throwing Muses only NZ show!
      • SFBH is pleased to announce the ONLY New Zealand show from landmark band Throwing Muses.  Over the course of 11 albums, even more EP's and a career spanning a quarter of a century, Throwing Muses have been pioneers in what we now know as "indie" and still remain hugely influential, with echoes of their  groundbreaking sound still heard today. Throwing Muses were the first American
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    • The Top 5 Wellington Events for 2009
      • It’s two-double-oh-nine so what are you gonna do about it??  More of that same old s%*t for another year?  Say it with me people… HELL NO!! 2009 will bring us all a load of opportunities to try new adventures - and go to those fabulous events that we missed last time around.  As we have recently seen all types of half-baked lists for the year passed (Top 100 songs, albums, movies, e
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    • The Best Calendar
      • Happy New Year! Other than new begins and creating resolutions that won't be kept, it's time for a new calendar. I have found the best ever calendar, and have bought four of them so far (they made great xmas presents). Women that Rock! Made by the 'Calendar Gals 2009' is a locally made calendar that comes with a CD (which matches the songs highlighted in the calendar), is all about inspiratio
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