The graveyard's alive and dancing.....

Spacething presents the third annual Zombie Prom at Happy (cnr Tory and Vivian Sts.) On Saturday October 10th open the crypt door and shake your dead moves to fleshed-out tunes.

Zombie Prom III features live dead music by Voodoo Savage and His Savages, Knife Fight, The Death-Rays, Newtown, The Ghastlies, Market Value and DJ Bride of Pinbot, as well as the crowning of the best-dressed Zombie King and Queen of the Prom with prizes galore gore!

Happy. Friday 10/10/08, 8:00pm.
Tickets $10

Read more after the jump...

Sure, you already play Hipster Bingo at the SFBH, but have you thought about playing the real game instead? From the good people who bring you the movie quiz at the Paramount comes a new way to spend your Sunday afternoons: Hangover Bingo!

It will be happening for the first time at 2pm on Sunday 7th September at the Courtenay Arms.

Settle down in front of a warm fire, with yummy food, some hair of the dog and a few leisurely games of bingo!

Cash Money to be won plus loads of other goodies. Go along and make it a success so that it can become a regular event.

Art No Made is a live audio-visual performance staged by Argentinean multimedia artists Niko and Ayelen Schiavi at the Film Archive this Friday and Saturday night.

The artists, who are currently resident in Wellington, marry 3D film created using Chromadepth - which transforms a 2D graphical interface into a striking 3D illusional space - with electronic soundtracks DJ’d live in the cinema. Tickets are available from the Archive, pre-sales and door sales alike are $8 or $6 concession, and on the night(s) 3D glasses will be provided for your enjoyment of and participation in this world premiere event.

Originally Niko and Ayelen designed the project for a party, but have since adapted the project for a lounge format, which “involves the spectator all the more since he/she is not losing energy and concentration in dancing".
Friday 29th & Saturday 30th August at the Film Archive, cnr Taranaki & Ghuznee Sts

September is the month for dance lovers - whether observational or more involved - with the Dance Your Socks Off festival running all month.

The festival is a celebration of contemporary dance and dance theatre, and to kick it off there are two interactive events organised by DANZ. The lead-in is on August 26th from 5:30 - 7pm with a (free) forum at the Film Archive, featuring performers and producers of festival shows talking about their work and sharing ideas with interested observers and people within the industry alike. It looks like the perfect introduction to the festival if you're unsure where to start after looking at the program here. Then on September 6th there's a contemporary dance workshop at Toi Poneke (aka the Wellington Arts Centre at 61 Abel Smith Street), only $5 on the door, with tutor Anita Hutchins. Aimed at beginners aged 15 and up, the promo says you should wear non restrictive clothing with bare feet or soft dance shoes, and take your lunch! Call (04) 802 0536 for more info about either of these events, or check the Feeling Great website for the extensive line-up of Dance Your Socks Off events and workshops.

Congratulations to team Puppy Guts who have only just gone and won the grand final of the 2008 48Hours film competition with their dance short F*DANCE, making them the first Wellington team to do so.

F*DANCE is the tale of a bad-ass finger dancer (you know, when you make dance moves with your fingers) who loses his mojo and must learn the hard way how to finger his way back to the top.

The film impressed the judges enough to make it to the Wellington finals, and was a Peter Jackson wildcard pick (oo-ooh!) for selection in the national finals.

So what impressed the international judges? Was it the humour? The finger dancing? The special effects? Or was it the splendid montage training scene that featured a gruelling finger-run up the Civic Square steps?

Well, whatever it us, team Puppy Guts have done us proud.

Saturday 14th of June 2008 is Worldwide Knit In Public Day. As we all know knitting is not a crime, but very much an activity people mostly do on their own.

In Wellington why not fully embrace the outdoors and head along to the Bucket Fountain in Cuba Mall where the lovely Tash will be from 2pm with her needles (or at the Southern Cross if it's raining).

Yay for knitting in public!

And speaking of knitting in public, how much are we all loving, loving, loving the urban knitting that is appearing around town. Finally Wellington is experiencing a fashion renaissance of the woolen variety. Every day I keep hearing and seeing reports of subversive knittyness around the city, and honestly I don't think Wellington has ever looked more beautiful.

Sadly someone disagrees as nothing seems to stay up for too long.

Which makes me wonder, if you could see subversive knitting anywhere, where would it be?

A visit to The Children's Bookshop in Kilbirnie with Meg this arvo had me staring at (and snapping on my mobile) a poster advertising Weta Cave's first event - Narnia Day, Sunday 15th June, 1pm-4pm

The details* after the break:

On May 28th - that's this Wednesday night - PechaKucha returns to Wellington for it's second Wellington outing.

All you need to do for a great night out is head out to TheNewDowse at 45 Laings Rd in Lower Hutt.

PechaKucha Night is an event in which presenters give brief presentations about a topic of their choosing accompanied by 20 images, each of which is shown for 20 seconds - giving a total presentation time of 6 minutes 40 seconds.

Doors open at 7.30 pm and the whole thing kicks off at 8.20pm. The bar is running all night, so you get to hang with great people, hear about some inspirational stuff and have some fun, all at the same time.

After the jump is the list of lovely speakers they've lined up for Wellington.

Don't worry, I don't mean like proper grown-up investments, but instead I wanted to give you a list of things coming up in the social calendar that you might want to save that last $[insert amount here] bucks for. I've recently become only semi-hardly-employed (anyone need a freelance editor/writer's services?) and am slowly relearning the concept of selective socialising, for which advance warning is always good.
Read on for upcoming gigs, events and even some insider's rumours....

About half the Wellingtonista now call Newtown home, so we thought it was about time we did some exploring of the area. Therefore, on this coming Saturday, we're going to be doing a Newtownista Pub Crawl, and you should come with us!

We're going to start on Riddiford St down near the zoo around 7.30pm, and work our way back towards town, aiming to end up at Amigo's for tapas. Most of us haven't been to most of the bars, so we'll be intending to give them all a go-to, even the dodgy ones - but we may change our minds on the night when we look in their doors.

To come along, either show up in that area at that time, get in contact with a cellphone number so we can text you our progress, or follow my twitter account as hopefully I'll remember to update it as we go along. We're going to boldly go where some people have gone before, and it should be a jolly good time.

Gorgeous photo by Dead Possum, yanked from flickr

A swag of Wellington artists have produced video art for The Artists Film Festival, opening tonight at 5:30pm at the Film Archive (cnr Taranaki and Ghuznee Sts).

Curated by Wellington-based curator (and Listener art critic) Paula J Booker, the show promises an extreme mix of artworks....28 video works in total, possibly the largest video exhibition ever undertaken in NZ.

Highlights include someone singing to Janis Joplin until almost passing out, CHCH artist James Oram generating electricity by bike to power his own ME sign....it's all pretty entertaining/shocking/thought-provoking stuff.

EXHIBITION DETAILS
The Artists Film Festival
11 April – 17 May 2008

LIVE PERFORMANCE, Thursday 17 April, 7pm
The Twilight Drone by Johannes Contag (of Cloudboy fame) Tickets $8/6.

Contag explores the notion of the ambient film with live accompaniment to this film work shot in a snow-covered Austria...

Via my wonderful my last.fm connections (Sue!) this came to my notice:

Details:

Tickets $22.50 plus service fees, available online from Ticketek.

Pulling together some of the capital city’s favourite musicians and commanding the four-string like you’ve never heard it, the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra’s live show features comic banter, singalong favourites, stunning dress sense sparkling harmonies.

Having already jammed with the likes of Jordan Luck, Don McGlashan, Annie Crummer, Camp Mother and Shortland Street’s Dr Potts, you can expect plenty of surprise guests from across the pop spectrum, along with some classic uke gags and legendary licks in this cabaret spectacular.

Some Wednesday night party good times for you all, in celebration of the new-ish Kitchen Sink event guide site...

Come early (doors are at 7:30pm) for goody bags and a seat!

Here's another one of the wee guys in this series of temporary sculptures:

Quite an appropriate location, atop the long-abandoned toilets and amid the construction of the new Courtenay Place park.

Yes, it's Valentine's Day again. There may be some of you out there in need of last minute inspiration to "score brownie points". Don't you hate those bill boards trying to get men to buy flowers around town? They are almost as limited in their conception of masculinity as this little beauty

[contributed by Robyn of the Aucklandista.]

Those of us holed up in the Molesworth precinct earnestly "leveraging" this, getting "traction on" that and generally "actioning" the hell out stuff all day long, hardly need Valentine's Day as an excuse to have a wee -tipple. Fortunately Cellar-vate on Molesworth are having free wine tasting from 4:30 till 6:30 this afternoon, and they are promising bubbly no less! So grab your office-bound honey and head on down.

I am going to avoid any cliched suggestions involving flowers or chocolate but spare a thought for all the Japanese office ladies who suffer through the Japanese version of Valentine's Day where the onus falls on the woman to buy men chocolate and flowers. One month later, on White Day the men reciprocate three-fold, read into that what you will.

The top tip for Valentines Day, in this office lady's opinion, is the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary. They are having an adults-only night at the Sanctuary (oh la la) tonight with free boat rides on the lake, birdsong at dusk and most importantly, no children. They are open until 8.00pm so get a babysitter and get back to nature.
(Ed note: we take no responsibility for anyone caught getting really "back to nature")