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Blogs / March 2009

April 2009 | February 2009
    • Cinephilia: Opening This Week
      • Pick of the week at the movies must be The Wrestler, Mickey Rourke's triumphant return to major leagues after years wandering in the wilderness. It's a comeback of sorts for director Darren Aronofsky, too. His last film, The Fountain, was a strange and beautiful fable about trying to escape death but he's probably best-known for Requiem for a Dream, nine years ago. Rourke plays a rung-out and stru
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    • Earthly
      • We Wellingtonistas have been strong supporters of Earth Hour in the past, and even though Keith Ng gave it a damned good fisking over on Public Address, we're still behind the concept. And so, it seems, are a lot of local bars and restaurants, with Wellingtonista favourites Fidels, Sweet Mother’s Kitchen, the Southern Cross, Caffe Italiano and Trade Kitchen among the many places offering can
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    • Colenso’s collections
      • This amazingly comprehensive compilation of archival material relating to William Colenso’s botanical collections has just been published by the New Zealand Native Orchid Group. The material has been researched by Ian St George and includes unpublished work by the late Bruce Hamlin (former Curator of Botany at the National Museum of New Zealand), who was [...]
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    • Weedy ferns
      • Chris Horne of the Wellington Botanical Society recently sent me a fern frond they collected on one of their trips. Although the frond is small and lacking the diagnostic reproductive characters, I think it is the introduced holly fern (Cyrtomium falcatum). It looks like the shining spleenwort (Asplenium oblongifolium), but the flanges, or ‘teeth’, of the [...]
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    • New arrival
      • Last week we took delivery of Art at Te Papa, the big book on the art collection. We are absolutely thrilled with it. The book’s official launch isn’t until next week, but Te Papa store already has an impressive display in its window. Some numbers: The book features 419 works in the collection by 300 artists. There [...]
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    • Squid - done and dusted!
      • Breaking news from our squid fix-it team - the work is complete and we are on track to reopen the colossal squid exhibition to the public from tomorrow 21 March 2009. Yesterday Robert Clendon our Conservator and Hutch Wilco, one of our exhibition preparators finished the last few tweaks to the squid itself. They  managed to draw the [...]
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    • Cinephilia: Opening This Week
      • It's a busy week at the Paramount: exclusive seasons of Atom (The Sweet Hereafter) Egoyan's new drama Adoration and the documentary The Spirit of the Marathon started today along with a shared season of Al Pacino Shakespearean vehicle The Merchant of Venice. Pacino plays Shylock, and fans of his Richard III doco Looking for Richard will already know Pacino's facility and enthusiasm for Shakespeare
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    • One week to go….
      •   James Luna’s project for One Day Sculpture will be next Thursday 26 March 8 am - 4pm at the Te Papa Amphitheatre (Soundings Theatre if the weather is bad). The project is called Urban (Almost) Rituals and it promises to be a multifaceted piece that will unfold in four acts over the 8 hours. As one [...]
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    • Some Thoughts on the Botanic Gardens
      • Ahem … climbs up onto soapbox. I have something to say about the Botanic Gardens, the Council & Garden staff & some of the people who go there. 1. To the Wgtn City Council & Garden staff: Many thanks for the doggy-doo bag dispensers at the main gates, cable car & Rose Garden – I'm not sure if all dog owners have noticed them yet (more on that later), but even thos
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    • Fat Freddy's Drop
      • So, Simon Sweetman's live review of Fat Freddy's Drop (he really, really didn't like them) seems to have touched a nerve amongst some in the Wellington music scene. A few (actually, quite a lot) have come out in support of Sweetman - says Josef... the perfect music for the iPod generation who wouldn't know good music if it bit them in the ass. And Hugh... Thank goodness someone has seen the elepha
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    • More rare maidenhair spleenwort.
      • The rare, tetraploid maidenhair spleenwort  (Asplenium trichomanes subsp. quadrivalens) has only recently been rediscovered in New Zealand.  Several people have contacted me with possible additional sightings. As described by the Scoop website, Jack Ritchie had a maidenhair spleenwort self-sow on a rock used to construct a water feature in his nursery, Tree Guys, in Otane. Jack [...]
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    • Disappearing hooks, or not?
      • More news from the squid tank. This morning I caught up with Robert Clendon the conservator who is looking after the work on the squid. Over the past few weeks we’ve been a bit concerned about the hooks on the tentacles and the arms. It looked as though the hooks could be disappearing. Not something we wanted to [...]
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    • Urban isolation
      • Terry Urbahn has spent a lot of time in bars and hotels, just the kind of guy we love here at the Wellingtonista. He has an exhibition of selected works from 1994-2008 on show at the Film Archive mediagallery until 9 April, with the opening taking place tomorrow - Saturday 14 March at 5pm. This is a bit of a departure for the gallery. A weekend opening! Come along and start your Saturday night rig
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    • The Waiting For God Commission
      • Let's have a little competition - the NZ Retirement Commissioner, Diana Crossan, says she's wanted a change of name for the Commission for several years, but no-one has coined a suitable name. Waiting for God, and The Golden Years were suggested at Select Committee, but rejected (Un. Be. Lievable.) We'll think of a prize as we go along, maybe a bag of Kapiti Macadamia nuts, I'm sure we can l
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    • Hollywood That Was
      •   This very happy looking young man is New Zealander Ron Tonkins (pictured with Margaret Chapman) who travelled to Hollywood in 1946 and worked as a publicity photographer. Interesting thing is, during his time in Hollywood he shot reels and reels of Super 8 film footage like any usual tourist. Completely Bizarre thing is, he had unlimited access to the stars of the day and the majo
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    • Missing Man
      •   Have you seen Craig Osborne Wallace? He's been missing since March 1.      He was last seen at Chaffer's Marina area on Sunday 1 March, dressed in a red jacket and blue and green horizontally striped polo shirt. Anyone with any information should contact Wellington Police CIB on 0800 TIPOFF (0800 847 633) or the Wellington Central Police Station on 04 381 2000 There's more de
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    • Art and architecture
      • My trip to Christchurch for the opening of Rita Angus: Life & Vision went well. I’m pleased with the way the exhibition looks at Christchurch Art Gallery, especially as the exhibition designer and I worked on whole thing pretty much via phone and email. By the time I got there the show was hung, and [...]
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    • Newtown festival 09
      • Discovering the unique Newtown community – Wellington’s festive suburb through a series of outdoor events, performances in the Community Centre, the Carrara Park jazz picnic and the Newtown Street Fair.
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        • Newtown, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • What’s a punga?
      • “Punga” is a quintessential Kiwi word, used to refer to tree ferns or, sometimes more specifically, the trunks of tree ferns.  But, no tree ferns were recorded by James Beever in his book A Dictionary of Maori Plant Names as being called punga by Māori.  I don’t know for sure, but I suspect that “punga” [...]
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    • Happy Birthday to the little station that could
      • Well blow me down, the VBC is turning two! Bravo!    Not entirely sure how they've pulled it off but the radio station continues to go from strength to strength (best listened to streaming at www.vbc.org.nz  And they're throwing a whopper party to coincide with VUW Orientation 2009.    See you at the Front Room TONIGHT (at 5 Hania St off Kent Tce) for the De
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    • Next stop, Christchurch
      • Rita Angus: Life & Vision opens at Christchurch Art Gallery this weekend. I’ll be heading down for the official opening tomorrow evening. On Saturday I’m doing a floortalk in the exhibition at noon, the first in what looks like a great line-up of events alongside the show. It’ll be nice to see the works again and [...]
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    • Cinephilia: Opening This Week
      • I expect there'll be an awful lot of disappointed 15 year olds when they discover that long-awaited graphic novel adaptation Watchmen has been rated R16 despite being trailered in front of every big movie since The Dark Knight. Evidently, it earns the rating being every bit as bloody as the book (not to mention featuring 50 foot high blue penises). Director Zack Snyder looks to have used plenty of
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