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
Aug/092
Want to Meet Some New People?
This weeks programme tossed up a couple of great ideas on how to get more social in the City- so stop complaining you find it hard to make new friends. Instead try carpooling or improv classes. Or talk to the person sitting next to you in the theatre.
Carpooling is being made easy by Ping’s crew at Greater Wellington. Let's Carpool is a government initiative to encourage people to try a more sustainable kind of transport. Cheap, social and a great way to show off your environmental awareness, carpooling is due for a revival- so jump on and make it more than a trend. The website makes it easy to match up with people in your area who keep a similar schedule. According to Ping it’s not exactly like a dating service but it is a great way to meet someone perfectly matched to your transport needs! And nice work Wellington- first region to get a carpool scheme up and running.
All the World’s a Stage is back by popular demand. Twinkle eyed Ray Henwood joined us in the studio for a truly fascinating chat about the never waning appeal of Shakespeare. A Round-the-Bard trip in 90 minutes, Ray’s solo performance promises to showcase the many facets of Shakespeare’s genius. I’m constantly in awe of the way people can recreate these scripts which have been played over and over for 400 years. Ray is setting it Elizabethan style, as it would have been played in the Globe Theatre- so be prepared to have him look straight in your eyes while he talks! We have a double pass to All the World’s a Stage- drop us a comment below and it’s all yours.
Derek Flores, Wellington’s comedy darling, popped in to help us up the WIT. Wellington Improvisation Troupe is a grass roots theatre class for comedy newbies. There seems to be a comedy explosion in Wellington and this is a chance for every Joe Average to get on board. What’s the draw of standing up in front of strangers and risking total humiliation? Improvisation scares the pants off me but Derek convinced us it’s a confidence booster. I imagine mucking up over and over again with a group of new classmates is one way to ensure a close bond. Want to try something new and meet new people? As Derek says, the Greek class at Wellington High is full- so maybe try improv!
If you’re keen to learn a little radio history jump to the end of the podcast- Yen’s been on Wikipedia! And advance warning- you might be seeing a little more of our faces here soon. Perhaps time to set up a firewall?
Ray Henwood- All the World's a Stage
1:15 Ping on Carpool Day
9.25 Derek from WIT
16.50 Ray about All the World's a Stage
Jul/091
It’s All About the Homegrown Tunes
Crystal and Dave present Community Zone every Thursday, they're totally dedicated to bringing you the hottest interviews and music from Aotearoa, our little slice of heaven...
Crystal and Dave interview James Mill lead member of Lawrence Arabia about what he had been up to while gallivanting across the globe and talk about now released Pop / Folk Rock / Psychedelic album Chant Darling.
Dave chats to Andrew Spraggon, creator of New Zealand’s best Electronica group, Sola Rosa. See what makes Sola Rosa tick with Andrew giving you the history of Sola Rosa and insights of what is to come.
Crystal and Dave corner one of their favourite Kiwi MC’s the legend P-diggs! P-diggs is, the front man of New Zealand’s biggest Drum and Bass act, Shape Shifter. After getting over being star struck Crystal and Dave ask P-diggs about the man himself and his upcoming act at Summerset.
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/098
NZ podcasters making their voices heard
Hi. My name is Yenping, and I am crazy with passion for New Zealand music.
For those of you in the know, there is a whole world of podcasts out there about virtually any topic under the sun. One way to segment the world of podcasts is to divide it into two groups: podcasters who want to make other people's voices heard, and podcasters who want to make their own voices heard.
This week, we spoke with two very regular guys, who each fall into one of these two groups.
Guy 1: Ki Mansell, creator of nzbeats.com
I tend to be a little sceptical about anyone or anything that claims to be the #1 of whatever it may be, but nzbeats.com lives up to this self-proclaimed name (tell me if you disagree). I was immediately pulled by the clever, yet unpretentious design of the website upon entering. As it turns out, about half of the visitors to the site think so too. Although Ki's first degree is in computer science, he nonchalantly remarks, "It's just another Wordpress theme."
To be specific, everything on this podcast site works, and there's nothing there that you would not need. The songs even play right til the very end - just like radio. What a pleasant surprise. But the clincher is, all the songs actually rock. And they are all New Zealand music. No, wait. I think the real clincher is this - it's all free.
I could not help noticing, when skyping with Ki to discuss music and similar things, that the design of his bedroom was just as unpretentious. It made me feel comfortable enough to tell him that his podcasts have converted me to New Zealand music.
Guy 2: Tom G (of Brothers G), Like a Mad Dog Running through a Puddle of Gravy
In the age of the Internet, any man and his dog can opt to have their innermost thoughts heard if they had an Internet connection and a strong desire to speak. This podcast series tries to embody and stretch the potential for this very sense of vociferous freedom afforded by the Internet.
Listening to Episode 10 of this series, I was initially befuddled. It felt like I was in a very small coffeeshop with tiny tables that are arranged about an arm's length from each other - what is usually described as an "intimate" setting. It felt like there were two regular guys at the table beside me, sharing an unusually boisterous conversation that is more than within earshot. The topics of conversation were variously astounding, amusing and incomprehensible.
I understood my befuddlement slightly later. These guys are really the world's most average guys, expressing their innermost average thoughts in an unbridled fashion. A celebration of the male voice. Hence, the "explicit" rating in iTunes, I reasoned to myself. But Tom has a better way of explaining this. . .