spring festivities

Once again, the Council has put together a great program of events for its annual spring festival. Although there's no specific website for it, you can download the PDF program here (2.1 Mb, unfortunately). Today (Saturday) is the first day, and it runs through the school holidays to October 9.

We like the look of quite a few things on the go: Fairy Trina (for the kids, right!); night-time Glowworm tours; storytelling; guided forest walks; poetry readings; a naughty native bird show with Harold the kaka; and much much more. Some events are at the native botanic gardens at Otari-Wilton's Bush, and so there is (very thoughtfully) a gold-coin fare bus running between the Wellington Botanic Garden and gardens and Otari-Wilton's Bush.

And don't forget to take your camera with you: there's a photo competition as well. Photos must be taken in one of Wellington's botanic gardens. There are three categories: "Garden Life", "Celebration of Spring", and "Garden Icons"; and the prize for each category is:

A suite at the Bolton Hotel for a night, dinner at Bisque on Bolton, tickets to Little Shop of Horrors at Downstage Theatre, lunch at the Botanic Gardens Cafe and a beautiful floral photography book.

Entries close Thursday October 6; obtain your entry form and full T&C here (600k PDF).

So get out of the house, go festivalling, and get snapping then.

The Challenge. Can the Lions lift the Shield?

"It's our time," says Lions captain Ma'a Nonu. Wellington have not held the shield in 23 years and Nonu said the significance would not be lost on the Lions.

It is (special to me). It doesn't come around too often. Last time we won it some of us weren't even born. It's now or never for a lot of guys.

It's my first (challenge), but I've seen it go up and down New Zealand. It'd be nice to have it here.

Too right. And with the Cantabs missing most of their All Blacks, while the Lions have the services of Jerry Collins, Ma'a, Conrad Smith and Piri Weepu, it's about as good a chance as they'll get. Go the Lions.

World of Wearable Arts

The World of Wearable Arts extravaganza draws closer every day, as can be seen with the excellent Kirks display that Tom at Wellurban was so kind to photograph and upload to flickr.

The show itself starts tomorrow (Fri 23 Sep), with the Awards evening at the Queens Wharf Event Centre, and subsequent shows on the 24th, 25th, 29th, 30th of September, and 1st and 2nd of October. All Shows start at 8:00pm except for the Sunday Night performances which start at 6:00pm and Saturday 1st of October 2005 has a 1pm and an 8pm Show. Also note that ALL PRESALE TICKETS are SOLD OUT, but there limited on-the-day sales available. Head over to the WoW Ticketing page for more info. Everyone's favourite ticketing company - Ticketek - is involved, just so you know.

And for those of you downtown today, pop into the Air New Zealand centre on Lambton Quay at about 12:30pm, to see ex-Wellington pop-singer about town, and current-NZ Idol judge Jackie Clarke modelling an outfit from the upcoming event. (hat-tip, nzidol blog)

Lee "Scratch" Perry at the Wellington Town Hall

Photo © karimsahai.com. Used with permission.

Lee "Scratch" Perry and The Mad Professor performed At The Town Hall last night - Karim Sahai was there with camera in hand, and got some fantastic pix. Enjoy.

Bot Gardens this weekend - Trees, Tulips and er... a fairy.

The best of the region's tree climbers head for the skies at the Botanic Garden on Saturday 24 September.

The annual New Zealand Arboricultural Association Regional Tree Climbing Competition - a chance for competitors to show off their skill, strength and agility - is on between 9.00am and 4.00pm in 30 metre-high trees around the Botanic Garden duck pond.

Meanwhile, on the Sound Shell Lawn on Saturday, you can dance to a different beat at the Dances of the World workshop. Bring your friends between 1.00pm-3.00pm for some active, healthy fun for all ages. On Sunday, Fairy Trina will be telling stories at the Sound Shell at 11.00am and 1.00pm followed by her pinata parties at 2.00pm (for the under-fives) and 2.30pm for kids aged six to 10 years..

And of course, the tulips will be at their peak until Mid October

News - Tree Climbers Compete for High Stakes: "The best of the region's tree climbers head for the skies at the Botanic Garden on Saturday 24 September."

Don't Vote! Governments Always Win!

No... just kidding. It is your duty to vote this Saturday! Get out & do it early, then enjoy the day, and the theatre offered as the results come in.

And by all means read & take to heart this advice from Damian Christie at Public Address, on how to score on election day.

Flight of the Conchords

Wellington folk-comedy duo Flight of the Conchords now have their own website up and running, with what promises to be a running diary of their exploits in the UK, as they, in Bret's words: "...attempt to make it in the cut-throat novelty music scene in England even though we probably won't, it's just too cut-throat."

Probably not harming the lads hopes for fame and fortune in England is a comedy doco being broadcast on BBC radio about the boys exploits in London. As is usually the way with the wonderful BBC, it's online for listening to here. (Can Neil Finn save the day?)

And why so long with the website development? There was some disagreement over the use of the letter 'W'.

While Bret wanted four making the domain name wwww.conchords.co.nz Jemaine was vying for seven with wwwwwww.conchords.co.nz. It turns out that you're only allowed three anyway.

So there ya go.

Meet the Candidates!

There's nothing more traditional to an election campaign than assembling in a local community hall to listen to, and maybe heckle the latest crop of wannabees.

And check out who the hell lives in your neighbourhood & who they look (and sound) like they might vote for.

At least one Wellingtonista will be at St Michael's Church Hall this Sunday. I can't wait (well. actually I can, but I'm looking forward to it anyway).

Meet the Wellington Central Candidates.
11 Sept - Greater Kelburn Progressive Association Candidates Forum - St Michael's Church Hall, Upland Rd, 7:45pm
12 Sept - Northland Anglican Parish Meet the Candidates - St Annes @ Ward Church, 7.30pm

Wellington Film Society for September

September was supposed to be the second and concluding month of the Wellington Film Society season of French films that "got away".

But two of the scheduled films did just that and we have had to find replacements. FORGET ME has been replaced by another French film from the same source, NIGHT SHIFT, but for UN AIR DE FAMILLE we have rescheduled THE PUBLIC ENEMY, which was in the draft schedule for about this time but replaced when the strong programme of French films was made available through the French Embassy.

All films this month are for members only and screen at the Paramount at 6.15pm on Monday nights. Now to the details.

First up on Monday 5 is THOSE WHO LOVE ME CAN TAKE THE TRAIN (1988). Director Patrice Chereau follows an ill-matched group of mourners travelling by train from Paris to Limoges for the funeral of painter, Jean-Baptiste Emmerich. It's a trip the brilliant, charming and tyrannical painter specified before he died, saying in effect that those who cared most about him would be willing to undergo the considerable inconvenience of a long journey to pay tbeir respects. The ensemble dynamics concentrate on the sundered relationships around the Emmerich family and the competing claims of friends and kin over the memory of the dead painter.

The following week, Monday 12 September, the first replacement, NIGHT SHIFT (2001). Writer-director Phillipe Le Guay takes up the subject of bullying - not at school which gets most public attention - but in the workplace. In a small French town the pleasant, reserved Pierre takes a night job on the production
line at a small bottling factory. On his first night a burly co-worker needles him over his prudery in removing his predecessor's nude photographs from his locker door. Over the weeks the provocations escalate. In Pierre's troubled world going to work becomes hell.
He can't explain things to his preoccupied wife and is discouraged by his colleagues from bringing his bosses into the affair. A taut, economical film.

On Monday 19 September, an unscheduled break from French films as we turn to the American classic THE PUBLIC ENEMY (1931). William Wellman's film is one of the earliest and best of the gangster films from Warner Bros. in the thirties. James Cagney portrays the lead character as a sexually magnetic, cocky, completely amoral, emotionally brutal, ruthless and terribly lethal individual. However he begins his life, not as a hardened criminal, but as a young mischievous boy in pre-Prohibition city streets, whose early environment clearly contributes to the evolving development of his life of adult crime and his inevitable gruesome death. The film examines the social forces and roots of crime in a serious way.

The final film of the month on Monday 26 September is also the final of the French season. POSSIBILITIES (1996). In her "comédie dépressive" filmmaker Pascale Ferran, one of France's most promising auteurs, confronts what it means to be in your early twenties as the end of the century nears. Working with ten actors studying at the National Theater of Strasbourg, Ferran created a script that explores the feelings of both anticipation and dread in the lives of young people who are struggling to write graduate theses or stuck in stagnant service jobs or frustrated in unfulfilling relationships. In a series of short, realistic vignettes, culminating in a revelatory party that brings everyone together, the film uncovers the interlocking passions and fears of Gallic twentysomethings who must decide who and what they want to become. Equally charming and philosophical.

That's it for September. But don't stop reading yet - there are several film festivals that deserve your attention.

On the Fridays and Saturdays throughout the month, the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between New Zealand and France is being celebrated at the Film Archive's mediatheatre with a season called "Polar en tous genres (Whodunits of all Sorts)".

Commencing on Friday 2 September, the films include: GARDE A VUE (The Inquisitor)(Claude Miller, 1981), VIVEMENT DIMANCHE (Confidentially Yours!) (Francois Truffaut, 1983), INSPECTEUR LAVARDIN (Claude Chabrol, 1986), L627 (Bertrand Tavernier, 1991), REGARD LES HOMMES TOMBER (See How They Fall) (Jacques Audiard, 1994), LE COUSIN (The Informer) (Alain Corneau, 1997) and L'AFFAIRE MARCORELLE (Serge Le Peron, 2000).

For further details of these and other Mediaplex events check the Archive's events calendar

The Date Palm Film Festival runs at the Paramount from 8 - 14 September. Bookings are now open. The films are: A MAN IN OUR HOUSE, an Egyptian classic from 1961 set prior to the 1952 revolution and starring Omar
Sharif. IN CASABLANCA, THE ANGELS DON'T FLY (Morocco, 2004), director Mohamed Asli's imaginative look at the
dream for a better life and the sacrifices necessary to achieve it. Italian director Saverio Costanzo's PRIVATE (Italy/Palestine, 2004), winner of the Golden Leopard, the top award at the Locarno Film Festival. MAMA's GUEST (Dariush Mehrjui, Iran 2004), a comedy about a poor family's attempts to pull off a traditional banquet with the help of their neighbours.
ALI ZAOUA: PRINCE OF THE STREETS (Nabil Ayouch, Morocco 2000), which chronicles the efforts of a trio
of friends to give their murdered companion a decent burial. As well there are three strong documentaries which give insight into the current situations in Iraq and Palestine/Israel.

Check details here.

New Zealand's First International Documentary Film Festival runs in Auckland 15-28 September, with a "best of" selection screening at the Paramount in Wellington 29 September - 5 October. The "Life Unscripted" brochure describing all the films is available at the Paramount now.

The website is not of much help!

And keep supporting the Paramount by attending their regular screenings. All three screens are now operating. Coming up:

YOUNG ADAM (UK 2003). Two men and a woman on a barge. No one who has seen Jean Vigo's famous film "L'Atalante" (1934) can watch "Young Adam" without feeling its resonance. There cannot be peace unless the woman or one of the men leaves. In the Vigo film, newlyweds make the barge their occupation and home, and the bride feels pushed aside by the crusty old deckhand. In "Young Adam," the chemistry is more lethal. Opens 1 September.

Also starting 1 September is FESTIVAL EXPRESS (USA 2003). This last great rockumentary was kept out of sight by 30 years of legal wrangling. The surviving footage has been cut into fine shape by Bob Smeaton. It was in the 2004 Wellington Film Festival and also in this year's World Cinema Showcase. Now it gets the season it deserves. Once again catch the train as Janis Joplin, The Band, the Greatful Dead and others gig and party across Canada in a rented train.

Another musical documentary opens on 22 September. DIG! (USA, 2004) traces the parallel fortunes of two prominent indie bands, The Dandy Warhols and The Brian Jonestown Massacre. The two bands start as mutual supporters, then drift apart as they strike different deals with the system. From this year's Wellington Film Festival.

Again from this years Film Festival is KEKEXILI: MOUNTAIN PATROL (China/Hong Kong 2004) which also opens on 22 September. This superbly photographed ecological manhunt movie has a spartan granduer that is thrilling. Director Lu Chuan creates an aesthetic so powerful and stark, so aware of human impotence, that he actually transcends the obvious moral dichotomy between poachers and patrolmen.

There are still three New Zealand films to go in Lindsay Shelton's selection, screening at the Film Archive, to mark the publication of his book "The Selling of New Zealand Movies". All are at 6.30pm on Wednesday nights.

On 7 September: THE GOVERNOR, Episode One of the controversial TV series.

On 14 September: OTHER HALVES (John Laing, 1984)

On 21 September: KING PIN (Mike Walker, 1985), the story of life inside a Social Welfare Boys' Home.

As usual, check the Archive's events calendar

Thanks to Wgtn Film Society President David Lindsay for supplying the details.

Wellington Central candidates meeting @ Aro Valley

The Aro Valley Community Hall Meet the Candidates of Wellington Central meeting has long been one of the highlights of the campaigning that goes on in the build up to an election, and this time around would appear to have been no different.

Smack bang in the middle of the hippy-lefty-green hub of Wellington (as National Party candidate Blumsky pointed out, the Greens out polled National by 400% at the Aro Valley polling last election), it's always a challenge for the right-of-centre parties, and one that most of them seem to enjoy, as the (generally) good-natured attitude of the audience heckle all the participants constantly, as Green Party candidate Sue Kedgely found out, when bemoaning the shortage of ambulance staff to take accident victims to hospital, and someone yelled "send them by trolley bus" - a reference to her promise to introduce wind-powered trolley buses to the region.

More write-ups of the evening at beNZylpiperazine, David Farrar, Liberty Scott, BlogGreen and the Dominion Post.

Survival Guide

Courtesy of the Downtown Community Ministry, here's a guide to surviving Wellington on a low income.

Hat tip to T at Procrastinatehere.blogspot.com

Survival Guide to Wellington

Hope they kept the red carpet from last time.

As if they could even think of holding it elsewhere, it has been confirmed that the NZ premiere of King Kong is going to be held in Wellington, in mid-December.

United International Pictures, the film's New Zealand distributor, has confirmed Wellington will hold the premiere hours before King Kong is released around the world.

Spokesman Jonathan Park said other details about the premiere, including where it would be held and guests, would be announced in coming weeks.

Wellington City Council spokeswoman Trina Saffioti said the council knew about the premiere date and was working with the distributor "on a premiere event" for the city.

It was confirmed yesterday that the world premiere of King Kong in New York would be on December 5.

Hopefully the weather will be as fine, and the crowd as good-natured as that for the Lord of the Rings premiere.

Links for Tuesday, 06 September 2005

• Tom at WellUrban has an excellent scheme for sprucing up the rather ugly concrete bases that support the various verandah columns down Cuba Street.
• Fleet FM - started (and increasingly popular) in Auckland, is a low-power FM station run by music enthusiasts that is now up and running in Wellington on 107.3Fm. Good music, recommended.
• Wellington bands Phoenix Foundation, Shihad and Fat Freddy's Drop are three of the five bands nominated for this years NZ Music Awards Best Album Award. (The Phoenix Foundation's Buda talks about the making of their album Pegasus in a recent inteview over at Salient). Other Welly acts and people up for gongs include Brooke Fraser, Audiosauce and Trinityroots.
  

Meridian Energy Wind Turbine Fun Run and Walk

As a lead up race to the World Mountain Running Trophy a race to the Brooklyn Wind Turbine will be held on Sunday 18 September.

The race will commence from Anderson Park in the Botanical Gardens, with walkers setting off at 9am and runners at 10am. Heading up through Kelburn, Highbury onto the rollercoaster Karori Wildlife Sanctuary fence to the Wind Turbine, the course is 98% uphill and covers 7km.

Sponsored by Shoe Clinic and Adidas

And some more info courtesy of Ben.

Race Entry and registration numbers
Shoe clinic, 64 Willis St
Fri 16th September, 11.00am - 1.00pm
Sat 17th September, 10.00am - 12.00pm
Postal entries received before Monday 12th September will be sent race numbers by mail. Only out-of-town entries can pick up race numbers on race day at Anderson Park between 8am and 9am.

Entry Fee
Cost: $20.00pp
Secondary School age: $10.00
Primary School age children: $5.00
Family (2 adults, 2+ school aged children) $45

For more information check here.