Oct/090
Women active in all kinds of business
Laura and I interviewed a bunch of quite admirable women on our show this Tuesday.
First, we had award-winning local artist Jane Kellahan talk about an auction event coming up just over the weekend, Molly from Refugee Services tell us about organising a jazz fundraising event for refugees and Sally from Her Business Network who was just brimming with passion about fostering local women entrepreneurs.
It is truly a reflection of the many creative, multi-tasking, bustlingly busy women who live in Wellington. In fact, if you know of one whom you think particularly deserving, quickly scroll to 26:34 to find out how you can nominate her for the Wellington Women in Business Awards!
2:36 Jane Kellahan
14:30 Molly from Refugee Services
26:34 Sally, Her Business Network
Sep/090
Death by chocolate and live jazz with Blackbird
We found out about Death by Chocolate, an interactive murder mystery that will run from 4th to 27th September of this year. It's very much for those of you who believe that drama isn't meant to be a performance by a cast of actors, but an interaction between the audience and the actors. It's also for those of us who believe in chocolate.
And then, we had live jazz again, which always gets us excited. Blackbird, a local jazz trio, was so amazing with their saxophone and guitar combo, the guys listening to the show outside of our studio exclaimed with admiration. If you like tear-jerking classics like 'What a Wonderful World', you'll really have to catch this segment. I can't wait for the world to discover how wonderful Blackbird is, really.
1:40 Death by Chocolate
11:36 Blackbird
Aug/091
A sandwich with all kinds of fillings
I was just thinking this week that, if I had to think of a metaphor to describe our shows so far, it would be that of an hour-long sandwich crammed with all kinds of fillings. I mean all kinds. We don't strive to create any harmony in the sandwiches we make. In other words, we don't do 'chicken and cranberry', or 'baked beans and cheese on toast'. We do the Everything Sandwich.
For instance, we had a chat with Ravi from Urban Fusion about Indian Independence Day, which is this Saturday. It was also Islam Awareness Week this week, so we had a meaty conversation with Hanif and Shamim about Muslims living in New Zealand. They've recently contributed to a beautiful photographic book- The Crescent Moon- which is well worth a look.
Sandwiched in-between is a quite hilarious interview with Hot Club Sandwich about hot club jazz, who play every Friday at the Old St Paul's on Molesworth Street, and the namesake of this post. Andrew London was such a ball of sunshine.
And to end it all off, an interview with Luit Bieringa, director of the successful New Zealand-made film 'The Man in the Hat'.
If we had managed to get the simulcast going this week, you would have been able to see the state of chaos that sometimes happens behind the scenes with us. Not sure yet if it is a bad or good thing that all the carry-on in the studio was all hidden from the view of listeners. I guess we'll find out after I figure out why the USB port refused to detect my camera.
0:21 Indian Independence Day. Check out Urban Fusion.
6:37 Islam Awareness Week
20:08 Hot Club Sandwich
32:06 The Man in the Hat
Jul/098
World Peace and Tree Planting
Bringing peace to the world through music. It’s a big aspiration but if anyone can do it, softly spoken jazz musician Louis Baker might just be the one. Listing Joni Mitchell and Jeff Buckley among a string of influences, Louis is the talented local songwriter who joined us for a live set this week. Even if you’re not the type to buckle at the knees when you hear a love song, these songs might just soften you- Yen melted all over the sound desk. Note my gushingly excessive use of the word “beautiful” throughout the interview… If you are more apt at describing the stunning sounds of Louis Baker, drop us a comment and we’ll send you a prize. We have gorgeous organic beans from Peoples Coffee and passes to the next Vector Wellington Orchestra performance to give away.
This weekend the Island Bay community will be out in force to help with the continued replanting of Oku Reserve. Ted joined us to discuss the future of the Reserve. The ongoing support of the community with planting and tending to the trees is hugely admirable and another awesome example of Wellingtonians pitching in. If you’re keen to get your hands dirty this weekend, take the whole whanau down to Severn Street from 9.30am. They provide the spades and barbecue lunch. Email Ted for more information.
Khandallah Arts Theatre is celebrating 50 years in the game and as part of the festivities they’re bringing Christmas five months early! Twelfth Night is currently showing at Cochran Hall- complete with Christmas trees, snow and mulled wine. Margaret shared a little about the play with us- it’s often described as the most approachable of Shakespeare’s works and their version sounds fabulous. They’re already getting packed houses so make sure you book tickets before they finish this Saturday.
The NZ Film Festival is in full flight and film reviewer Hannah is appearing on every Community Zone programme throughout the festival. She popped in to give us a brief run down of her top picks- make sure you give it a listen- it sure beats wading through the overwhelming Film Fest brochure!
And next week is Maori Language Week- don’t miss the next programme if you’re keen to learn a couple of handy phrases. Tuesday 5pm on Wellington Access Radio 783AM!
Local songwriter Louis Baker
5.30 Ted tells us about the Oku Reserve planting this Saturday.
11.27 Margaret from Khandallah Arts Theatre fills us in about Twelfth Night.
24.30 The sweet sounds of Louis Baker. You can purchase his music on Amplifier.
39.58 Film reviewer Hannah
Jul/090
Mixed Bag
A wonderful mixed bag on the programme this week! Consider it an education; I sure enjoyed learning about sharing stories and saving them for future generations to enjoy. That’s the field of Community Archivist Kylie Ngaropo. She and the team at Archives New Zealand have just launched The Community Archive - an interactive, user generated archive to replace the piles of paper they used to have lying around their offices in Thorndon. Hugely interesting and user friendly, the site is set to become a veritable trove of taonga from the past. It’s worth perusing- I jumped on and learnt a little about the first European to settle my home town.
Baden interviews Clayton Curnow from Starlight Express and we sample a little music from Wellington locals The Great Hoax - bluesy and funky, these songs prove the power of sound to ignite your imagination. Cheers to Nick for letting us podcast them.
Do we have a thing for brothers? Perhaps! We’ve stumbled across a couple of talented siblings again this week. Joel and Jake from Binge Culture popped into the studio to introduce us to reality theatre. Described as a live experiment, Animal Hour promises to solve what ever Darwin couldn’t. Joel directs and Jake performs and with sax in tow they attempted to explain how a game show involving animals might work on stage. For the highlight of my week scroll along to 42.10 in the podcast. Binge Culture is another fabulous example of the best thing about Wellington Theatre- if people in this city don’t find theatre that works for them, they just get off the couch and start devising their own. The results are often spectacular. So cancel what ever you have planned this weekend, take our give away tickets and head along to Animal Hour for “lots of laughter, lots of awkwardness, a bit of fear”. It’s a little ludicrous, but Joel promises they take it all very seriously.
And with a poster like that you can’t say you’re not curious!... The animal on the poster is also the symbol of the worlds largest and most experienced independent conservation organisation. Click comment, tell me what (that) WWF stands for and two tickets to opening night of Animal Hour are all yours. You’ll probably get bonus Peoples Coffee too…
