Issue No40 — Small Mercies

Hi there,

Everyone has preferences. All day every day we judge and compare; we prefer one option over the other. You have favourite foods, favourite colours, favourite bands. You've also probably got a favourite chair in the breakroom, a favourite spot to leave your car/bike/scooter when popping into the shops, a favourite part of the running route.

Every winter I cling on to these tiny little spots of joy like they're the only sunlight I'll see each day, because, honestly, when it's really cold and wet and each week melts into the next, I really need a little patch of happiness.

Last year, forgetting that I am not usually a "walks for fun" person, I got a dog. Several times a week we go for an on-lead walk through the Botanic Gardens, where he tries to find the most foul-smelling thing to roll in, and I try not to get totally lost in my thoughts. There's one spot shortly after entering that we both always look forward to. The path has a water feature on each side, and if you stand really still you can hear water plinking through the metal fins on one of them, and gently trickling over rocks on the other. This is always calming for the three seconds before the dog reminds me why we came here and dives into one of the water features head first, sprinting around soaking wet and overjoyed, like that little splash of water charged his batteries.

Pre-dog, I spent several years walking between Hobson Street and Queen Street. The easy way is to go down Myers St and through Aotea Square, but if you feel like wasting your own time you can also cut through the back of Federal St. 

Firstly you'll go past Lost & Found, which is one of my favourite public artworks, and when you hit the corner of Federal and Wellesley on the left, you can see the garden at St Matthews in the City. A quick tour of google will tell you this used to be just a patch of grass and some shrubs, but over the last few years there has been a significant amount of planting. In summer it really sings, with flowers and bees and patches of sunlight. 

Winter, maybe it's more of a gentle hum, plants are still there and they're quieter, but it's still a spot in the middle of town that feels like a revolt against the grey – a reminder that come September, it's all going to kick off again.

Katie

Katie Fitzgerald is a former journalist now working in comms, and isn't quite sure what else to write here.

By Jean

RUMOUR MILL

Cassia, which is currently popping up at Ozone in Grey Lynn after leaving its SkyCity premises, has apparently found its forever home in the bottom of the Voco Hotel on Wyndham St.

NEW OPENINGS

A new mussel-and-chip joint MUSSEL AND CHIP has just opened on Anzac St in Takapuna. You can enjoy these shelled seafood creatures in a Vietnamese broth, with chorizo vodka tomato, with butter and wine, or buffalo cheese sauce. Served with tallow chips or bread.

There’s a new cafe in one of the long-empty spaces by Tony’s on Wellesley St – Coffee Shop Kueen. We’re not sure if it’s related to the Kueen Cafe in the tower at the bottom of Queen St. If not, awkward.

EVENTS

Xin Ji and Tony Guo are performing SPACE DRAG at the Auckland Art Gallery tonight, described as “the meeting of two artists, exploring body and image, gesture and surface”. 7.30pm for the performance inside the Chinese Art Now exhibition (ticketed) or 8.45pm in the atrium (free).

A small menswear-skewed VINTAGE CLOTHING POP-UP at Maeve Coffee Roasters this weekend, with $4 batch brews.

Moe Palae Myanmar Restaurant IS BACK ON tomorrow and Saturday for takeaway only, with pick-up in the Titirangi area. Delivery available!

If you BRING YOUR SKATEBOARD into Sagrado Cantina on Sunday for Go Skate Day you’ll get a free Aqua Fresca and $10 guacamole. No kickflips in the arcade, please.

NEWS

Remarkably this was the leading story on NZHerald for a hot minute two days ago: Vietnamese restaurant Phở Yến’s launch of its second branch is being delayed by a fight with the landlord over its bright yellow storefront. UPDATE: it is confirmed that they will NOT BE OPENING in Newmarket after all.

Khao Gaeng by Kiin has closed, although they will be incorporating some of its dishes at the new-and-much-bigger Kiin at 234 Dominion Rd. 

A new one-day food festival has just dropped, EATROPOLIS, this time spearheaded by Chow Luck Club. The concept is this: you pay $10 for entry, then $10 for each plate of food you try. How is it better than just spending $50 at a restaurant you like? Who’s to say.

Looks like that massive renovation which has been underway for months in the old backpackers by KFC Fort St is going to be a massive Cartier. Just what the city needed.

Parnelltalian place Cornelia is closing up after nearly five years. Last service is next Saturday.

Also closing next Saturday is Rosalia’s, the pizza by the slice place near the Powerstation.

Some people are HAVING ANOTHER GO at the Fort Lane building where Roxy and Everybody’s used to be. Apparently it will house five spaces, and the release reads like it will be open for event bookings but won’t be a public bar/nightclub.

Thanks for everything, Kane Williamson. (Editor’s note: This is Simon).

By Mike

About one-sixth of the office space in the CBD is currently vacant: some 250,000 square metres, the equivalent of six empty PwC Towers at 38 floors each. Perhaps then not the most auspicious market conditions for launching a new $350m office development, but that hasn’t deterred Cooper and Company from announcing BRITOMART CENTRAL, a nine-level building by Cheshire Architects that, come 2029, will have filled in the last remaining site by the waterfront, currently occupied by the squat black shops known as The Pavilions. Happily, the new structure will retain ground-level retail & hospitality within and around an internal courtyard that will link Waitematā station through to Takutai Square.

While WFH keeps a lid on overall occupancy rates, high-grade spaces with connection to transport links and plenty of amenities remain in demand, and investment in downtown developments continues. Precinct Properties announced this week the sale of 50% of the (not empty) PwC Tower to a Hong Kong-based firm for $300m, ahead of their enormous, soon-to-be-begun DOWNTOWN CARPARK REDEVELOPMENT. $300m also happens to be the cost of the definitely very structurally sound Seascape building languishing half-finished at the other end of Customs St, up for sale nine years after construction began in 2017. Agents Bayleys point out instructively that Seascape “represents a unique control opportunity at an inflection point” that will allow "future investment to focus on delivery, optimisation and value creation.” Nothing says premium like 22 months and counting of unplanned exposure to the elements, so best of luck to the receivers who are charged with shifting this gem on.

Choice items from the liquidation sales of Auckland’s two-speed recovery.
By Simon

A LARGE NUMBER OF TOTAL GYMS
Starting at $30, Closes Wednesday
A long time ago there was a late night infomercial selling an old version of these with Chuck Norris and Christie Brinkley, and my flatmate Ollie and I bought one in a moment of weakness, determined to become yolked and proceeded to get into some of the worst shapes of our lives (largely through unrelated lifestyle choices).

WEDDING DRESSES
Starting at $10, Closes Tuesday
Sad times in the wedding dress scene with a second liquidation auction in two weeks. These ones are a bit flasher than last week’s but sadly no tiaras.

RECORDS
Starting at $20, Closes Monday
That JB Hi-Fi insurance claim from last week is back with more stuff – a lot more tables full of new vinyl but also various digital knicknacks.

70 CAKE FORKS
Current bid $0, Closes next Tuesday
If you are set to be romantically entertaining at home for the first time with a new love interest and are experiencing nervousness about your performance, it’s a good idea to pre-emptively practice a little misdirection just in case. For instance, if you replace every utensil in your kitchen with this huge pile of cake forks, I guarantee the takeaway from the evening in your partner’s future anecdotes will be about the weirdest cutlery drawer ever, and your subpar lovemaking will likely go completely unmentioned.

32 GROOT DECOR ITEMS
Current bid $20, Closes Today
If you have a restaurant or cafe that needs some publicity, what about spending $20 on these Groots, putting one on each table and getting into a huge, public legal battle with Marvel/Disney over your newly Guardians of the Galaxy-themed establishment? You just know the Herald would be all over it, and the worst thing that will maybe happen is a cease and desist letter, at which point you can just on-sell them to the next place.

By Simon

FRIDAY 19TH

NICOLA BLUMENTHAL
Treadler, Free
Fun, Australian mixed-mediaist back at Treadler after last year’s two-hander with Rea Burton. Runs till July 19.

HARVEST CUP
Hopetoun Alpha, $150
I triple checked the $150 fee to get into this Marijuana Harvest Celebration and there is no explanation so make of it what you will. The afterparty, The Club Cannabis Cup is at Neck Of The Woods ($15) with MAN(K)ILA + Takatapunani, 2BREW, Merchie, CCME, Samare Alofa, PLASTIC POUNAMU + KTA and RIDLER.

ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE
Double Whammy, $75
Japanese psychedelic/space rock. FYI this is the Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. version of the band. Support from Half Hexagon.

SALMONELLA DUB
Leigh Sawmill, $30
Still going! With The Mighty Asterix (still alive!) and Pete Wood on horns.

SATURDAY 20TH

DAVID ATTWOOD
59 Pitt St, Free
A solo show organised by the May Art Fair people of work by Perth-born David Atwood who seems to work primarily in intervening with MacBook boxes. The show is open for three Saturdays till July 4th and it looks like in the old Grace gallery space. 

FACE OF BEAUTY INTERNATIONAL NZ GRAND FINAL
Airport Naumi, $80
I had no idea there was still so much beauty pageant activity going on around the city but lookie here, it’s another! This one is a specialised ‘global youth and women’s empowerment’ pageant which I’m sure we can all agree is a good thing and the empowered teens and women involved will be competing for Teen Face of Beauty, Miss Face of Beauty or Mrs/Ms Face of Beauty depending on how old and haggard they are.

WINTER SERIES #3
Audio Foundation, Koha
With Rāhana Tito-Taylor, Jadyn Flavell and Rob Thorne. Looks like there might be a bit of traditional instrumentation here with Taonga Pūoro.

RETURN TO TRASHATHON
The Hollywood, $50 or $65 for bean bag space (BYO bean bag)
12 hours of cinematic garbage, starting at midday. Filter coffee available all day – there’s a discount if you have a keep cup. Short dinner break around 7.

NYMPHO
Double Whammy, $60
A huge Nympho this time round with British artist, clothing designer and more importantly, DJ, KAVARI over from her base in Scotland to play a live A/V set. Also playing Savage (WLG), Tocka (WLG) and Takatapunani all playing live with DJ Sweat, Sequentia, Odious and Man(k)ila.

SUNDAY 21ST

RECORD RIOT
Whammy, Free
The 12th instalment of the Whammy record fair, running from 2-6pm with DJs Aaron and Janna and MODEL playing live at 4.

JOHN SPLITHOFF
Tuning Fork, $50
QUICK FACT: Eroni Clarke sang Splithoff’s ‘Sing to You’ on The Masked Singer NZ so he’s probably a big fan and will probably be there since he’s doesn’t need to worry about playing in the Super Rugby final this weekend.

MONDAY 22ND

SANGUISUGABOGG
Double Whammy, $85
Ohio death metal three-piece who have released three albums called: Tortured Whole; Homicidal Ecstacy; and Hideous Aftermath which is probably all you need to know about them. Support from Peeling Flesh.

THURSDAY 25TH

FUGUE NOTES SCREENING
Artspace, Free
To supplement her current show at Artspace, the first local screening of Selina Ershadi’s fugue notes since it was remastered for the BFI Film Fest in London.

SWEET TREATS
Whammy, Free
The great free punk show returns with Masc/Femme, Sprawl and Mistress playing this month’s instalment.