Busking 2006

I guess it's the Fringe, or the Festival itself that brings these guys here, but this particular busker is well worth a look at. Today he was in Manner's Mall. I could hear him a block or so away & the sound he was producing made me wonder if one of the theremins was in use somewhere close. But no he's doing it with a violin, what looks like some satanic tuning fork, and a whole lot of other odds & ends. And he speaks into a mike too.

Hard to describe, eerie, haunting, beautiful. He got my small change. And also had me wondering if this was Dodderyoldfart down in Welly on a working holiday. (Hah! Blogging insider joke.)

Wellington Airport highlights package

For those of you who haven't experienced the 'thrill' of landing at or taking off from Wellington Airport when there's a decent breeze blowing, the video below will give you an idea of what to expect. Which is terror.



[Warning, video has annoying, irrelevant bad electronica soundtrack - we advise speakers off for this one]

lunchtime confrontation

We will admit it was the mention of a freely downloadable podcast commentary in this week's Listener that drew us in. Some of us Wellingtonistas are more geeky than others.

But given what seems to be the theme of the City Gallery's latest exhibition, Australian artist Patricia Piccanini's In Another Life (19 February to 11 June 2006, free entry), this use of technology for drawing the punters in now feels a little ironic to us.

As card- iPod-carrying technophiles not exactly orientated to the world of conceptual art, we would not have thought to attend had we not first seen the podcast advertisement. Yet our perhaps naïve and sometimes heedless personal belief in the use of technology for solving all problems makes us the perfect audience for Piccanini's work.

For the highlights of the exhibition are a series of sculptures, hyperreal chimæric depictions of what could happen if we, as the artist says in her commentary, "do the wrong things for the right reasons" with technologies such as GE and nanotech. Initially the sculptures may come across as grotesque and disturbing, but over time the viewer may come to see the underlying beauty, and even humanity, on show. These may be flawed creations, perhaps the artist is saying, but they are also a reflection of us.

In particular, We Are Family pushes all the maximum discomfort buttons, with what appears to be a human-pig hybrid suckling a litter of hybrid babies. Yet on closer inpection we see that this is a mother whose concern for her children is clear. And, to twist the knife further, in her commentary the artist points out the probable real-world use for such a hybrid: organ transplants. Does the mother realise the fate of her babies?

But enough of our attempt at serious art commentary in an artificially cool and monotonic voice! It's quite hard to sustain. So go visit In Another Life at the City Gallery, and while you are there, check out Michael Smither - the Wonder Years (19 February to 5 June 2006, free entry) for a retrospective of one of our most important and best-loved painters (although in our case this must be saved for our next spare lunch hour).

World, meet Cortina

As James pointed out yesterday, there's a lot going on in Wellington at the moment. I don't know about any of it, because I live in Auckland.

But there is one particular upcoming Wellington event that I am aware of. Tomorrow night, Friday 24 February, much-lauded Wellington-via-Palmerston-North band Cortina will perform at Indigo alongside Disasteradio, The Mysterious Tape Man, and Knife Fight. It's not just any show - although it never is with Cortina - they're raising funds for their forthcoming world tour.

Following the December release of their debut album Control Freaks Rule The World, Cortina are shortly taking off overseas to spread their singular brand of space rock. They'll take in the sights of San Francisco, LA, Texas, Washington DC, and New York, as well as stopping by London and one or two other European locations. If you're tuning in from those parts, keep an eye on Cortina's myspace page for details.

Described as "a cross between Ministry and Blondie in the bottom of a swamp", or alternately as "Chicks On Speed meets ZZ Top", Cortina tie unpredictable spontaneity with the most accessible of art-forms. Bek's unique voice (and fashion sense), Dreamboy's total dreaminess and metal demi-god Ace Hurt's lead breaks have to be seen to be believed. Go, people - show the love. The world might not give them back.

Links for Thursday, 23 February 2006

• The latest Mystery Bay (up to #22!) is up over at WellUrban.
• Kate at myegoism wants some advice on the apartments in the Wellington Working Men's Club building on Cuba St. Good or bad?
  
• And it looks like we might be seeing a return to some local welly telly, with the successful bods behind Auckland's Triangle TV making some noise about opening up shop here "about the middle of the year."
• So that's what Llew looks like. (Well, we knew, but you may not have).
  

Links for Wednesday, 22 February 2006

• As both WellUrban and Oddity 59 (and now us) point out in their blogs, so much is happening in Wellington at the moment that it's hard to keep track. What with the International Arts Festival, accompanying Fringe Festival, so called 'fun' runs, fairs, concerts, ocean races (come and gone) and the occasional game of footy or cricket to watch, the natural inclination is to flag work for the next couple of weeks, get the visa gold card out, and spend the rest of the month enjoying the 'Events Capital of New Zealand'.
  
• One event we won't be seeing is the V8 'Supercars', which have decided to send themselves to Hamilton for their 2008 street race. Llew gets it right when he states...

  Hamilton would seem the perfect place for such an event: the picturesque river beside which the course will presumably run; a receptive population for whom the term "petrol-head" seems as custom-made as their vehicles...
  
  My only question is... when the race actually starts, who will notice any difference?

  Funnily enough for Hamilton, the whole thing still needs to go through a resource consent procedure before the whole thing gets the final green light (so to speak), and with both the Auckland and Wellington bids coming unstuck on that very technicality, we can but wish our northern friends well in cutting through the red tape. No, we really mean that. Good luck.
• FirstBite has a new webcam looking south-west from Mt Vic.
• And if you're looking for a laugh, there's a couple of new monthly comedy nights on at venues around town: The Green Room (at Kitty O'Shea's) has a show on the second Sunday of each month, and Comedy Underground (Room 101 - downstairs at Bodega) on the last Sunday of every month. [hat-tip: first against the wall]
  

Links for Thursday, 16 February 2006

• Wanda Harland alerts us to this weekend's Petone Fair. A good excuse, as she points out, to try the new Petone Ferry (which leaves from Queens Wharf, and thus leads us nicely onto our next post...)
  
• Dave5 has photos of the Volvo Ocean Race arriving in port (where they're to be tied up down by Queens Wharf) presumably taken from his office window (with a phonecam?). Kiwi-skippered ABN Amro One was pipped at the post by movistar. Only nine seconds difference after 1450 nautical miles of ocean racing!
  
• And, always a good way to test your knowledge of our fair city, see if can pick Mystery Bar #21 over at WellUrban.
  

Synth Birds of Dawn: take two

Well, this particular Wellingtonista thought the Synth Birds of Dawn sounded great.

Nic McGowan and his two fellow theremin players waved their arms about half an hours worth of other-worldy noise making early on Tuesday morning, creating sounds that at times sounded like the gibbon cries heard from the zoo in Newtown every morning, to whale song, to plain old weird Dr Who frequency squiggles.

Naturally, some people found the concept hard to come to grips with...

For the first five minutes I thought it was a car alarm," said Derwent St's John Pedersen. "I don't see any art in it at all. It was just a wail, it didn't sound like birds, just weird wailing.

It didn't sound like birds! It was ... different! Therefore, I hate it! Jesus.

Another concert is due to take place tomorrow morning (Thu 16 Feb), with the start time an hour later at 7:30am, to allow the likes of Mr Pedersen to make the most of their "precious rest".

Links for Tuesday, 14 February 2005

• They're putting mental patients in Whitby. Whitby? As WellUrban points out: "...do they seriously expect a depressed person to get better in Whitby? I feel like topping myself after five mintues there." [And here's quite a good discussion on it on NatRad from this morning.]
• The Volvo Ocean Race yachts should be sailing into town this week. ABN Amro One, with kiwi skipper Mike Sanderson, is leading the 'sprint' across the Tasman Sea, and is due to arrive early Thursday morning.
• Check out the new Wellington-based podcast show from The Dropkicks - a weekly show discussing the ins and outs of the Super 14 season, during which they "...pretend to know stuff about rugby, and then force it on to you."

Hurricanes beat Blues

I would have used some sort of pun based on the word 'Hurricane', but, well...

• Blues blown off park [NZ Herald]
• Second-half blitz blows Blues away [Dominion Post]
• Hurricanes storm to win over Blues [The Age]
• Hurricanes blow past Blues in opener [Sporting Life]
• Hurricanes storm home as newcomers face reality [RNZ]
  

Gah! Anyway, the win augurs well for the new Super 14 competition. It was particularly satisfying seeing some smart play from the 'Canes: eg. having just seen Jerry Collins (of all people) smash Blues' half-back Steve Devine onto his head and leaving him semi-conscious, the Black and Golds had the good sense to run human wrecking ball Ma'a Nonu straight into and over the groggy Aussie/Aucklander the very next play. Good thinking lads. Still, early days yet, touch wood, don't step on the cracks, make sure that mascara is waterproof, etc...

And hasn't the renaming of the competition has opened up a whole new can o'worms? For starters, Super 14 just sounds wrong. Bring on the Fantastic Fourteen, is this particular sport-watcher's call. And isn't it weird how the combined 12/14 stats are now referred to by dropping the number? eg. "Tana Umaga has now scored 43 Super tries." I'm sure some were super, but, equally, a few may have just tipped into the realm of 'regulation', or even 'lucky'.

Anyway, if anyone's playing VirtualRugby, drop your username in the comments box and we'll add you to our Mates list.

Island Bay Festival

As mentioned earlier in the week, the Island Bay Festival kicks into gear this weekend. Tomorrow (Sat 11 Feb) we get some of the best stuff: a Street Parade (all welcome - kids in costumes are recommended), Bands in the Park, and a new event which shapes to be a particular favourite of ours: Pimp my Bike.

The Bands in the Park features Wellingtonista fave Disasteradio, as well as Mestar, Tessa Rain, and a host of other local acts that you may or may not like. And...

The 'Real Hot Bitches' will make some acrobatic appearances. There will be food stalls, oddity stalls, and random spontaneous rock moments. The late dance slot will be occupied by Wellington star, Island Bay's own Rhian Sheehan.

Check out the official schedule for more info, including next week's Third Annual Island Bay Trolley Derby.

Synth Birds of Dawn

Residents of Island Bay, do not be alarmed. Those weird, spacey tones reverberating around your suburb next week will not be signalling the impending invasion of Wellington by aliens, but will be, in fact, The Synth Birds of Dawn.

Local composer/producer Nic McGowan is co-ordinating a three-piece theremin 'band', who will be located one-a-piece on each of three hill-tops around the suburb to create...

...subtle creature-like electronic tones [that will] softly resonate across the valley; eerie and otherworldly.

'Synth Birds of Dawn' will be performed using three vintage synthesizers known as theremins. Theremins are a special instrument which can be played without being touched. Invented in 1919 and one of the very first electronic instruments, the theremin consists of a box with two projecting radio antennas around which the user moves his or her hands to play. The sounds created are ethereal and highly expressive.

'Synth Birds of Dawn' will be performed live from three hilltop locations in Island Bay on Tuesday, February 14th and Thursday, February 16th between 6.30 and 7.00am, and will have a duration of approximately 30 minutes.

Synth Birds is part of the Island Bay Festival, other events we'll be giving a heads up on as they draw closer. Like the Ribble Street Soapbox Derby.

Treaty2U

For those of you interested in neither the Sevens, nor local music...

How about this?

An opportunity to see the Touring Treaty exhibition

TREATY 2 U, the Treaty of Waitangi touring exhibition which is travelling around New Zealand over the next few months will be in the Wellington region over Waitangi weekend. It will be in Lower Hutt at Waiwhetu Te Ra o te Raukura on Sunday (an annual family day held at Te Whiti park opposite Waiwhetu marae) and at the Porirua Festival of the Elements on Monday.

The exhibition includes a number of inter-active displays suitable for children as well as a set of replicas of the original nine Treaty sheets which are housed at Archives New Zealand.

The replicas were created by Titahi Bay's Daniel Reeve who also worked on the documents featured in the Lord of the Rings.

The Little Day Out

For those of not interested in (or without tickets to) the Sevens, and an appreciation of fine local music and the joys of a BBQ on a nice day, may we recommend the Little Day Out, taking place today (Fri 3rd Feb) at 42 Old Porirua Rd, Ngaio.

Wellington blues-rockers Connan and the Mockasins are headlining, reason enough to head along, and there's also the lure of free sausages and a BBQ for whatever else you might want to cook up.

Entry is $3, the whole thing gets going at about Noon, and will go through to 6ish.

Sevens starts today - anyone want a ticket?

MainlanderMike has a spare ticket going for the Sevens starting today. Head over to his site and leave a comment if you're keen to snap it up.

Probably best to try and get in before 1pm today as we'll be away to the first day by then.

If you can also get into the Jamaican Netballer spirit of things as well I'm sure the price will reflect your effort accordingly.

Wellington Sevens Fever!

If you happen to see a group of large, fit, young lads wandering about the Wellington streets this week, chances are you've either stumbled across the cast of Downstage's latest play 'The Boys in the Band' , or, and more likely, one of the Rugby Sevens teams that are in town for this weekend's tournament.

More info here, draw here, results here. Quick reference for Friday's pool play: New Zealand plays Kenya at 3:12pm, the Cook Islands at 6:08pm, and wrap up the pool play by taking on Samoa at 9:56pm (those later games all look to be corkers in fact, with South Africa v. Argentina, Fiji v. France and England v. Australia coming immediately before the last NZ game).

And don't hold your breath on the NZ team defending their crown. Poor old Titch is lamenting (and rightly enough) his inability to get a full-strength team together when the Super 14 teams are already playing pre-season warm-ups, and won't release players for what is the highest profile sevens event in New Zealand (and one of the top two or three in the world). As a result, the NZ Herald reports that...

More than half of the squad to defend New Zealand's IRB Wellington sevens crown have never played for their country and coach Gordon Tietjens will be "pleasantly surprised" if his side can win the tournament.

"Pleasantly surprised"? Still, we were having the same pessimistic thoughts before the announcing of the host of the 2011 Rugby World Cup, so perhaps there is some hope.