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Blogs / March 2009

April 2009 | February 2009
    • World Cinema Showcase Opens on Thursday...
      • The World Cinema Showcase is nice lead-up of sorts to the New Zealand International Film Festival and it opens this Thursday. Committed to compiling a diverse and engaging programme of international arthouse films, the selection this year looks as strong as ever. John Crowley's galvanising realist drama Boy A impressed me immensely last year in the NZIFF, though I felt that it undeservedly fell un
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    • Skate or… Die
      • No no no… the Richter City Shakedown: The Grudgemaker is not your traditional flat-oval-track-spandex-wearing roller skate race… heck no… this is a contemporary-all-woman roller derby bout at its absolute baddest and will of course feature the sport’s trademark theatrical athleticism, mock-violent pseudonyms and third-wave feminism aesthetic.The Richter City Shakedown: The Grudgemaker is the inaug
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      • roller-derby

    • 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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    • 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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    • A Landmark Night for Dance Music
      • This Saturday will be a landmark date in dance music for the entire Southern hemisphere.  And the great thing is that it will be celebrated right here in Wellington. It’s the official launch party for Southern Cross music, a new entity created to become a digital portal for dance music producers and enthusiasts.  This massive gig will kick off at 10pm on Sat, hosted by that rather s
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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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    • Filmmaking Insights - An Evening With Sima Urale
      • Filmmaker Sima Urale is one of the best filmmakers of her generation presently working in New Zealand. One of the hardest things for a filmmaker to master is not only to tell a good story, but to translate it successfully via moving images. Urale's films which include the excellent shorts Still Life, Coffee and Alah and O Tamati (which won the Leone d'Argento or Silver Lion Award in Venice) are fi
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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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    • Smugglers and Highwaymen party at Motel
      • Break out of the monotony and join Motel bar in celebrating all things illicit and lawless - with their Smugglers and Highwaymen party this Thursday evening.   Make sure you get into the vibe, because those in costume get a cocktail on arrival, with the best dressed male and best dressed female receiving rather fabulous prizes. Food will be provided, fine tunes will be played, convi
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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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    • Match-point: Flight of the Conchords
      • The Flight of the Conchords' masterminds, Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement, have achieved outstanding international success over the last five years… a Grammy… two Emmy nominations… four New Zealand Music Awards… 184,826 myspace friends....and are now a major-draw card for an upcoming charity tennis tournament at the Wellington Renouf Tennis Centre… neat… 
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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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    • Goodbye Valve, Hello Hole In The Wall...
      • When Valve bar closed it's heavy steel doors last November after 11 years in the business, punters were left wondering whether anything would replace the niche venue, which by and large catered to the punk and metal scenes. I've fond memories of seeing some terrific doom metal shows at Valve, which were made memorable thanks to the fantastically grunty and loud rock PA and dry ice machine. I know
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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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    • The rebirth of Italian cool
      • Goodbye Boulot… and hello Fratelli.   Just a few months after Blair Streets best restaurant closed, another has arisen in its place, to take-up their European mantle.   However, Fratelli is a very different beast to the dearly departed Bressolin Bros enterprise.  It harks back to the good old days of classic Italian restaurants, showcasing a select menu of the many fo
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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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    • 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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    • BAMO! Show me the Art!
      • I am overwhelmed. Given any week, there are always so many fantastic exhibitions happening around Wellington and with the weather set to slip into the cool, crisp conditions of autumn it is positively fitting that I share with you the exhibitions I’m going to tap in the next wee while: Karen Mills, Thistle Hall, 9 - 15 March: I love the expressiveness and elegance of a burlesque performance;
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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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    • Are You For Real?
      • The thing about real-life is that it can be a far-sight more interesting than anything anybody could have made up. 2009’s DOCNZ international Documentary Film Festival, is about to prove this case (With footage!) when it hits the eager streets of Wellington this Thursday evening. 52 vastly different films from over 20 countries will be on show.  You will see stories about revolution, do-
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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)


    • I want to sketch a sexy burlesque dancer…
      • …and you can to with the launch of the Wellington chapter of Dr Sketchy's Anti-Art School on Saturday March 14th from 4pm at Mighty Mighty.Dr. Sketchy is a life drawing session with a difference… it is different in that it seeks to mix the sassy and risqué elements of a cabaret, circus and burlesque performance with the (usually dull) experience of an art-school life drawing class… put simply, ins
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    • 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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    • 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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    • 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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    • They're Only the Best Band in the World: The Dead C on Friday...
      • And you know I'd never say such a thing to you so flippantly. Presented by VUWSA and VBC 88.3FM, The Dead C, Rory Storm and The Invaders and So So Modern will play at The Front Room (the old James Cabaret) on Hania Street (off Kent Terrace) on Friday as part of Orientation/VBC's 2nd birthday. I can honestly say that nothing this cool was ever organised for any Orientation shows when I was a studen
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    • Jazzing Up the Town Hall
      • 208 litres of paint, 8 truckloads of staging and construction equipment and 6,500 metres of scaffolding is just the start of the construction process underway in Wellington's Town Hall to create the purpose-built jazz club holding 900 seats -  the Pacific Blue Note - for the new Wellington Jazz Festival. Organisers are raising the floor to the existing balcony level and seating will
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    • Orientation Week… it’s time to get loud
      • Oh gaaaawd… it is Victoria University’s Orientation Week… and like all Orientation Weeks you can bet on a few things: cheap drink deals, girls wearing small dresses, an obnoxious treasure hunt and, more importantly, bloody good music.Generally, the Students’ Association’s events team do a pretty good job at selecting the musical line-up, as they mix the finest local talent with, if possible, a cou
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