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Artist Sarah Keber, one of Massey's most illustrious current BFA students, appears to have arranged some pretty action-packed festivities down at Bar Bodega in Wellington this Wednesday for its inaugural Art Meets Pint Night. Sounds like a fun evening! For more info check out the event's Facebook page.
The Johnnys, who bill themselves as the world's only all-girl, all-Johnny Cash band are getting talked about like crazy these days, with many high-profile gigs and events internationally, and high praise from Cash's daughter Cindy. They are playing at Bar Bodega in Wellington this weekend and it sounds like an absolutely fantastic way to (at least temporarily) replace the mid-winter blues with Folsom Prison ones.
It's that time of year again, and although weather has been shockingly horrible the past little while in Wellington today is a great excuse to go out and support your local indie record shops, and we've had some glimpses of blue sky even, however intermittently. Strolled down to the terrific Death Ray Records and bought a few CDs, as unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) I haven't yet succumbed to the serious effort of getting back to vinyl. But great deals across the store, and if in Wellington your other prospects would be Slow Boat Records and Rough Peel Music. And tonight lovely looking gigs especially at Mighty Mighty and The Laundry.
Big congratulations to the Loomio team, who have met their Crowdfunding target goal + now being 106% funded hours in advance of the end of their campaign! And big thanks to their many generous supporters! If you're reading this now, and still want to participate in this worthy venture, some great things available for donors including obtaining the software early, limited edition artworks, technical support, etc. You can still contribute at https://love.loomio.org/real-democracy-needs-to-include-everyone and find out more about Loomio at https://www.loomio.org/
I often get way too disenchanted and glum about the potential of social action to effect actual positive change, even though there are countless historic and recent examples in which this has been very much the case. Most often this has involved some form of generative collective dialogue, whether virtual or face to face, or some mixture of both. And there is a vital instance close to home here in Wellington of a collective attempt to address the notion of facilitating social action and related decision-making processes via the ongoing development of a free open source software program called Loomio. The team behind Loomio is a highly engaged and ambitious bunch currently nearing the end of a crowdfunding campaign prior to the launch of Loomio 1.0. The Beta version of the software has already been in use successfully across the globe by a variety of different types of organizations. Thereby, the technological capabilities of a versatile social networking-style interface meet the idealistic, spirited ethos reminiscent of the Occupy movement. Here are a few videos from Loomio’s informative website: a TEDx talk by Loomio founding member Ben Knight, a short overview on how it works, and a clip discussing the crowdfunding campaign, which is has only TWO MORE DAYS to go and is getting very close to achieving their $100,000 goal but may not without your help! Again, for more info and to support their efforts check out: https://www.loomio.org/
Painter Douglas Stichbury has a new exhibition opening at Suite Gallery in Wellington on Thursday April 3 at 5:30 PM entitled The Practice of Leisure which runs through April 26. For more info and to see examples of the artist's previous work, consult http://www.suite.co.nz/artists/douglas-stichbury/
I'm feeling pretty punchy and irreverent, due to teaching, prep, and the decompression from both those previous activities and it's only mid-week! Yikes! In this state I was especially glad to run across an interview with my local art critical colleague (and writer of terrific fiction as well) Megan Dunn in Victoria University's Salient magazine. That is to say, Megan is a superlative conversationalist, witty, irreverent and engaging and this totally comes across in this short piece, stay tuned for such fascinating anecdotes as Kylie Minogue confronting a Jake and Dinos Chapman work...but lest I spoil the fun...also I will take this opportunity to call attention to Megan's wonderful piece Submerging Artist, posted last year. Like an increasing number of wordsmiths, Megan also has an informative Twitter feed. Man, I've gotta get with the program.
The Performance Arcade opens tonight at 6 PM and runs through March 3 as a wide variety of artists present public projects, performances, and events within and around shipping containers situated just behind Te Papa on the Wellington waterfront. An innovative and highly ambitious curatorial venture directed by artist Sam Trubridge it's well worth a visit! For more detailed info, please consult: http://theplaygroundnz.com/wellington-2014/.
It’s a bit frightening being friends with Bryce Galloway, who has just completed the 51st issue of his long-running zine Incredibly Hot Sex with Hideous People. Although Bryce is generally—his immense amount of superstar indie cred notwithstanding—the very sweetest of souls, he tends to caricature and incorporate into his autobiographical work just about anyone who might be passing through his daily orbit. But rather than skewer his associates, his tendency is to quite gently and perceptively render the mind-numbingly everyday as unexpectedly fascinating, perhaps because it is an everyday so many people (particularly artsy folk in Wellington) will be accustomed to coping with. Rather than spoil the zine’s considerable charms, I will simply highlight the cover above and especially for non-Wellingtonian zine aficionados, transcribe the small blurb buried in the midst of the issue: “Incredibly Hot Sex with Hideous People is a quarter-yearly fanzine created by Bryce Galloway. Free in Wellington at time of issue, back issues are available for $2 ea., CD/zine issues are available for $8 ea. PO Box 27527 Wellington, NZ. Two-yearly subscriptions are also available at cost of $28. Email contact: stinkispinkis [at] yahoo [dot] com. Printed on recycled paper.” Scoop ‘em up! (PS Yes, I made a cameo appearance in a dream sequence this time around which prompted the above thoughts…)
