6 thoughts on “Mad Home”

  1. Went up to Mt Vic to watch the 747 flypast and then ventured into the city. I made it to the Embassy via Majoribanks St (i.e. from the back way). It was crazy. I stood for half an hour looking at the back of people’s heads and waited for something to happen. A few elves, hobbits, Harads and Rohirrim were glimpsed marching into the theatre. I was hot and getting sunburnt so I bailed and went home to crack open a cold Becks and watch proceedings on telly. Richard and Anna were stationed elsewhere and saw more than I.
    That underwhelm-ment aside the whole atmosphere was really cool. And it’s this semi huge going worldwide thing happening in our city which is pretty cool as well. Also there’s something very sexy about a ballgowned but barefoot Liv Tyler.

  2. Ballgown + barefoot is about as sexy as it gets.
    Photos of Welly have been in all the papers here, on the news, on CNN.com… everywhere. That sunshine looks damn appealing. Since when is it not raining on December 1?

  3. It drizzled the next day.
    I got sunburned, but I was on the scaffolding on the outside of Downstage; got an okay view, but I wasn’t at the front, so no good for pictures.
    Viggo thanked the NZ taxpayer for paying for the movie, and the Wellington ratepayer for refurbishing the Embassy, which I found more impressive than Orlando Bloom’s “I [heart] NZ” t-shirt. Andy Serkis made a good impression, too.
    The NZ presenters were not uniformly dire, though they were patchy.
    Some of the NZers were a bit annoyed at how we seemed compelled to ask the actors whether they liked NZ, referring to what they called our cultural inferiority complex. (I too have an inferiority complex – but it’s not a very good one. Ha-cha!)
    It was quite fun. I wonder if it will happen again.

  4. I went for the parade and then watched the rest on the (pretty good) webcast from the office.
    I thought the interviewers were pretty dire. They kept asking what they thought of NZ, Wellington, the film, and other inanities. You’d generally expect better from Tom Scott and Raybon Kan. Tom Scott loosened up a bit when he was talking to Alan Lee and Barrie Osborne, since it seems he’s pretty chummy with them both (Osborne is collaborating with him on a film project and I guess he and Lee have mutual admiration of each other’s work).
    Peter Jackson thanked the bars, cafes and women of Wellington, and Ian McKellen thanked all the men. It was a fairly positive afternoon although the standard NZ response of getting awfully excited when people overseas takes notice of us is still pretty accurate. It’s nice that people were coming out to celebrate an artistic and business success rather than a yachting or rugby one. I just wish there weren’t as many d*rks in town for the preceding weekend.

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