Splendid Wellington February continues. As I write it’s another glorious clear-skied sunny day without wind. Its nice, and also a bit sinister. Wellington’s wind is a major part of its character, and we’ve been without it for weeks. Where the heck has it gone?
And every year Wellington packs in more summer parties. On Saturday there were no less than three major events around town – the opening of the new Dowse museum in the Hutt, complete with big free concert with some great performers; the Island Bay festival, with its own free concert with some great performers; and the Fringe Picnic, with a wonderful free concert with some great performers. Truly spoiled for choice, we Wellingtonians are. It’s bloody marvellous.
Saturday night Cal and I stopped in at the bar/foyer of the Paramount movie theatre where a free Fringe thing was going on, the Chit Chat Lounge. Styled like a late-night talkshow, with guests along to plug their fringe shows and give short performances. It was a lot of fun, with a happy atmosphere and some nice wit on display. The final guests when we dropped in were percussion outfit Strike, who finished up a fun interview with a blistering set on an array of Rarotongan drums. Wild.
This reminds me of plans I have been developing off-and-on for some years. Wellington could sustain something like this long-term; a regular night where folk would turn up to drink some drinks and engage with some cool new kulcha. Hosts would banter and develop running gags over weeks and months; guests would come out to plug their albums/plays/novels/clubs/etc. Some of Welly’s enormous creative output could be put on stage (music videos from the Handle the Jandal competition, short films from any of the various short film competitions). I’d schedule it on Friday night, starting at 11pm, somewhere where the bar starts slowing down at 11 as people head off to the more late-night venues. There’s loads of people sifting about in Wellington around midnight on a Friday, looking for something to do that isn’t dancing, karaoke or a late movie – an untapped market. It would totally work.
It would also be a heck of a lot of work to put together, and you’d be relying on a portion of bar receipts to fund it, so it would be a tough challenge. Unless it could get sponsors or advertisers, or go out on “Wellington’s TV station”. Of course it would be webcast live.
Someone should do this. Go on.
7 thoughts on “Spoiled For Choice; And, A Lounge Project”
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Excellent idea. You could try picthing it to the huys who run texture.co.nz: they’re party of Positively Wellington Tourism, so they may be able to get some funding; and in any case, they’re in touch with a lot of the bar owners around town. Mighty Mighty sounds like exactly the sort of place where it might work, though not so well on a Friday night. Now that Cabaret has closed (to become a functions room for Chow), perhaps this would be a good regular gig for it.
God, three typos in one sentence: it’s getting too hot! I meant “pitching”, “guys” and “part”, of course.
I’m not sure it’s that easy. The compatibility of “drink some drinks” and “engage with some cool new culture” depends very much on the type of culture. If I’m meeting friends for a beer, I don’t want a movie or a talk show guest talking in the background; conversely, if I like the movie or I’m interested in the speaker, I really don’t want to have to filter out the uninterested people having a conversation at the next table or bar stool along. You really need to either focus on “cool new culture” that can cope with people switching in and out (both physically and mentally), e.g. music, or define yourself up front so that only interested people come along, e.g. a comedy club or literary salon. At which point we are back to “Late Nite Comedy at Bar X” or “Midnite Acoustic Club” which seems to fall a bit short of your ambition.
On the other hand, I do like the idea of somewhere that says, “Okay, it’s getting on, but it’s okay to engage your brain rather than having it hammered into oblivion by very loud dance music.” Late night offerings tend towards the dreadfully monotonous at the moment and this would be a great alternative.
Something to consider is that there may also be a conflict between the “drunk” audience (those who’ve been in the pubs up until 11pm) and the “sober” audience (those who live in the suburbs, and have maybe been to a play or a movie or a restaurant and are up for a bit more but expect to drive home). I realise that as a member of the second group I am in a minority but hey, if I don’t speak up for myself, who else will?
Tom: Cabaret is a perfect kinda venue. (So is Mighty Mighty, in some hypothetical future time when it’s no longer as popular!)
Ivan: the audience I’m thinking of are people who think turning up at midnight to hear a director talk about his new play actually sounds cool. I think it’ll self-select for people who will pay some kind of attention. A few cocktails and glasses of wine fit in well with this.
I also think there are plenty of people who, like me and you it seems, have come out of a movie or theatre and not been in the mood for bar-hopping as an end in itself, or for going straight home.
Wellington’s theatre and movie audience is very very large, and they don’t all go dancing or to music gigs afterwards. And there’s only so long you can sit in Midnight Espresso chatting.
(Actually, that last sentence is wrong – you can sit in Midnight indefinitely and never run out of interesting people to chat to.)
I love barhopping through Wellington, or enjoying some of the incredible music scene we have going, but I really see potential for another option.
(This idea first came to me when I was backpacking Europe and needed a break from bars and nightclubs, but couldn’t find anything else around.)
“Splendid Wellington February continues. As I write it’s another glorious clear-skied sunny day without wind. Its nice, and also a bit sinister. Wellington’s wind is a major part of its character, and we’ve been without it for weeks. Where the heck has it gone?”
YOU REALLY KNOW HOW TO RUB IT IN. I HATE YOU WELLINGTONITES, SINCE IT’S THREATENING SNOW.
you know what i love? triangle television. i am going to fork out the three hundred dollars and start my own show. it is going to be awesome. i can advertise your idea on my show if you’d like. although in return i’d want prominent placement on your poster.
also, i totally agree there is an untapped market – people who want to be out on the town and not karaoke-ing (well, at least these people exist in theory, however whenever i mention that i’d like to sing alison moyet’s all cried out all of a sudden everyone is chanting karaoke! karaoke! karaoke! but that is an aside)or dancing. personally at times like this i go and play scrabble at the cross, but having other options would be good too. however i caution against anything that verges on audience participation. i HATE audience participation and couldn’t advertise anything on my triangle television show that involved audience participation.
Alligator: Sorry man, but it is what it is.
homeperm: The support of your Triangle show will be counted on. I can’t wait to tune in and see you.