This morning, Wellingtonians were called on to Walk2Work. Supporters received free coffee, tea and breakfast for their efforts. People came from near and far, mostly into the central city. I walked into to town to catch a train to Lower Hutt, continuing my walk to work from a nearby station.

Not without political overtones, Jeanette Fitzsimons has a few points to make to Transport Minister Stephen Joyce regarding his opening speech. And so she should. Mayor Kerry had one short-lived heckle as she spoke on pedestrian safety, as in don’t jump in front of cars.

All told, Wellington is a great place to get around on foot and getting together for breakfast like this was a nice touch.

Edited later on: Adding image of the sticker I was given.

The summer program in Wellington is pretty awesome. We’ve had concerts, art, theatre, street performance, dance and free hugs. The jazz festival is about to come up – we’ve got tickets to see the Mingus Big Band – and I think there’s a children’s’ arts festival just about to start. The program has easily made up for a summer of pretty average weather.

It’s hard to pick a best of the best, but I’ll definitely give a shout to the fringe festival. I had a blast and made great use of my discount card. Two years of awesome. Also up there was the Cuba St. Carnival. I ran around with a camera for the first 6 hours and then put on my skates to be a part of the carnival, to the detriment of my wheels. But oh, so fun.

I was greeted by a familiar staff member at Deluxe with a hearty Happy Wellington Anniversary. It was the first time I’ve ever heard it put like that, but was also kinda cool. The regional holiday extends the 3rd weekend of January by a day and we all hope that the weather plays summer. A few special events took place over the 3 days and the summer entertainment program happily filled in gaps for those who had a free moment.

Leonardo’s Picnic was set in Frank Kitts Park and featured music, crafts and a few da Vinci themed ideas to link it to the exhibition running at the Academy of Fine Arts.

The amphitheater hosted several bands over the two days. The second day had to be delayed until Monday, and after a brief rain, the sun turned on and quickly dried the seats.

The picnic finished off with a splash. I wasn’t able to get close enough to the water to see the flight of da Vinci’s wing, but a few hundred people lined the edges to catch a glimpse of the brief voyage.

Breakdancing was brought to centre stage at Civic Square. Body Rock was a full-on competition for the young and not-so-young.

The fun stuff wasn’t limited to special events. Richter City Roller Derby is gearing up for a first bout, and as a ref, I have backstage access to the training sessions. Promotion for the bout is ramping up and the guys from Chit Chat Lounge came out for a skate and to interview some of the girls. Expect the cut and judiciously edited film to go public in the 3rd week of February.

I wasn’t thrilled with my photos of the boys, but I managed to get a decent one during a break in the training session.

The next long weekend is only a couple weeks away, but there’s a lot of summer to find before we get there.

I received a flier for the 2009 edition of Wellington’s Round the Bays. This year, a half-marathon distance has been added to the program – runners only. I don’t think I could train up for the longer distance before Feb 15, but I’ll definitely be doing the fun run portion.

The New Zealand Cartoon Archive played host tonight to a panel discussion of political cartooning in modern New Zealand. It was tied to the current installation of engravings by William Hogarth and attempted to answer the question of whether modern cartoonists carry the same strength and capacity to deliver commentary as Hogarth had several centuries ago.

The three cartoonists each spoke about his work in terms of publication, intention and technical details. Several examples were presented, explaining in a concrete fashion the approaches taken. The audience was presented with a range, from striking single images that cause instant recognition of an idea to intricately detailed works that require analysis, and maybe a history lesson.

It was a fascinating session, binding tightly the realms of politics and entertainment. This is a good thing.

First off, don’t make comparisons. Even though the event listing in the Wellingtonian started off with “If you liked…”, don’t go there. It’s not a fair comparison. Take Adagio for what it is. And that is good.

Dance, acrobatics, pole and aerial movements mingle with comedy and music, sketching a loose story. The individual performances were well done and the whole show was well received, although the scenes seemed a touch isolated. Two real, live musicians provided a very nice interactive touch – they did well bringing the piano into the set and working a piece around it.

If Adagio is a starting point, I expect that New Zealand is in for a treat. There is room to grow and develop a stronger show, but I left satisfied with this one.

I picked up two sets of tickets for upcoming concerts on my way home last night. Slow Boat has tickets for both The New Pornographers on Oct 16 and for Holy Fuck on Dec 8. Both shows should be incredible and San Francisco Bath House is a pretty sweet venue.

Now if only I could convince Wintersleep to come and play, it would round out the year in amazing form.

I found out about this by accident. I was in the cafe at Te Papa with a friend last month and happened to see everything being set up. We didn’t stay, but my curiosity was piqued.

On the first Thursday of every month, Te Papa hosts Science Express, a series of science seminars on a broad range of subjects, free to the public and podcasted. I’m planning to go along tonight, even though the topic is a little less science and a little more social: Youth Crime – A Hot Election Issue

I had seen the poster ages ago and was intrigued, but it was on a whim that we bought tickets for Elemental, the new performance by Strike Percussion. The show was quite good, both visually and musically. It started with the ignition of 2 pairs of mallets, providing a fiery light show to go with the heavy, driving rhythmic introductory piece and setting the expectation level quite high. The overall quality was high, playing with water and fire through the program – arguably with air as well, but there were a couple of segments where the broad noise of the cymbals drowned out the melodies. The good far outweighs the bad, and the show is well worth the ticket price.

While walking home a couple days ago, I saw a poster in Slow Boat for an upcoming show. The New Pornographers are set to play Wellington on October 16th at San Francisco Bath House. I may have to drag a few friends out to this one. It should be an awesome show.

I’m a little late off the mark on this one. It’s nearly the end of my first day of July, but there are several timezones still spinning around the sun on the 141st birthday of my country. I was pleased to hear a couple people humming O Canada for me this morning, mentions of The Logdriver’s Waltz and watching a new ad campaign for the CFL.

I don’t know of much actual celebration going on in Wellington. I don’t have anything planned for it, but I’ll be up in Auckland this weekend, so I might bump into a few Canadians then.