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.

Some Friday music video viewing for you. Two of the best things in life -- Cricket and Music -- combined into one fine music video from Wellington's increasingly hirsute Phoenix Foundation...

Just in case you've managed to avoid the saturation coverage across the news media for the last week or so, today marks the 40th anniversary of the Wahine disaster.

We won't add to the plethora of stories (well, we are with this story I suppose, but, well, err...) we mostly just wanted to make note of one article in the NZ Herald, entitled...

Wahine ticket revives terrifying memories (+photos, audio)

Ahhh, yes. It'll be the ticket reviving those terrifying memories. Not the barrage of photos, audio or video.

Anyway, cynicism aside, it was a tragic event in Wellington's history, and we'll be taking a quiet moment today to remember the victims, and to salute the many brave people who risked their own lives to head to the beaches (and, in some cases, out into the storm-lashed waters), to help rescue the hundreds of passengers and crew of the ship who had been thrown into the sea from the foundering ship.

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...

Great 50 second time lapse video of Evans Bay towards Miramar and the airport as shot from Hataitai by John Lewis* as discovered by Rowan Simpson - enjoy:

* the person, not the department store

Footloose - so much to answer for...

With my usual excellent sense of timing I have decided to make my contribution to the Intenscity event some days after it has been dismantled but I hope Wellington history aficionados will appreciate it anyway.

This short video features Brian Sergent playing his well-loved character Gavin Soper (Air New Zealand Cabin Steward) for TV3's Nightline in (I think) 1992 or 3. Gavin is celebrating the impending completion of the refurbished Te Aro Park, the cost of which was a source of some local controversy at the time. The other great contemporary issue he alludes to is the number of glue-sniffing street-kids predominating around the Te Aro area. Simultaneous with the beautification of Te Aro Park was the WCC scheme to house these “poor glue-addled kiddies” in a couple of converted shipping containers on waste ground south of the Basin Reserve.

Written by Brian Sergent; directed by Jonathan Brough; produced by Jonathan Brough, Gordon Harcourt and myself.

With a shiny US record deal under their belts, The Phoenix Foundation are getting ready to take over the world with their upcoming third album entitled "Happy Ending" (which dispenses with - disappointingly - the equine-themed nature of their previous two releases: "Horse Power" & "Pegasus").

Here's the first single and video from the album, shot, I'm told, in Island Bay, and directed by fellow Wellingtonian and Oscar-nominated film-maker, Taika Waititi.

Lyrics? Oui! Après l'interruption!

Bret and Jemaine channel the Pet Shop Boys circa "West End Boys"...

Okay, so there's enough Flight of the Conchords material from their HBO series making its way onto Youtube now for us to resurrect FotC Wednesday, so, without further ado, here's "The Most Beautiful Girl in the Room"...

(Lyrics after the break...)

Friends, supporters and other interested parties are invited to assemble at The Establishment on the corner of Blair St and Courtenay Place on Sunday evening to watch a bit of telly, specifically the C4 broadcast of the “V” 48 Hours National Final.

Three Wellington films are in contention for the big prize (and the even bigger prize for Best Cinematography): Wellington winner Maori Detective and the Boogie Fever (Team Good Times) and Peter Jackson-selected wildcards Shooting Star (Will She Wait) and WhoreCop 3: Night Justice (The Three Dicks).

Viewers around the country will be voting by text as soon as the show finishes - come along and add your support. The broadcast starts at 8.30 but the entire Wellington Final 12 (plus Taika Waititi's ineligible but hilarious Arab Samurai) will be screened again from 7.30 to warm you up.

A little late today, still recovering from last night's bowling...

But worth the wait! The first episode of the Flight of the Conchords' HBO show is now online for your viewing pleasure.

(Hat-tips to the various people who were kind enough to point this out to us. Tobin, Jessie, and someone else who's name eludes me now.)

Wellington's favourite comedy export aren't here for the NZ International Comedy Festival (lots of good acts are though, click through for more info), so you'll just have to make do with our weekly wednesday Flight of the Conchords clip...

"It's better now."

Thankfully the boys' HBO show seems to be coming along nicely, so we should have a new source of clips anytime soon.

In the meantime, here's one for the ladies...