June #13
Kia ora! Our apologies for being 24 hours late this month (our first time in 13 issues), but we got waylaid by some family stuff. We are enjoying the Friday evening vibe, though.
Sure, Fieldays. But Matariki! A gift registry for the Meteor! French cine-mwah. Excitingly, Hamilton gets a new comedy club.
I was reminiscing about the Matariki Dish challenge recently - in particular 2018 this eel dish from the excellent (and dearly missed) Dough Bros on Victoria Street, which sadly closed the following year. The event has been picked up by other regions, but started in Hamilton well before Matariki celebrations were “mainstream”. Run by Waikato Food Inc, it disappeared from view when they folded peri-covid, and just as it became an actual public holiday. I can imagine some arguments against it, but I always think of it as being a little before its time, introducing many to the idea of Matariki, food and harvest as being intricately interlinked. (Please do write in with your thoughts, hello@thewaikatodraft.com)
We hope you’re eating well for Matariki, readers. Perhaps from your garden? Happy new year folks x
Scuttlebutt
More council shenanigans. The big story in the last week has been the attempt from 5 councillors (Tim Macindoe, Geoff Taylor, Ewan Wilson, Mark Donavan, Andrew Bydder and Kesh Naidoo-Rauf) to shrink the council, by merging the two wards into one and by having 10 councillors instead of 14 (currently six per ward and two Maaori ward councillors). The pay of councillors comes from a static pool, so reducing the number of councillors doesn’t save money, it merely increases the salary of each councillor. While that’s obviously not the motivation for the move, if anything, dear reader, you should be asking for more councillors to get a better return on your investment. (Also, bold of Cr Taylor, given his attendance record.) The review to consider all this would cost $100,000, and may change nothing.
Te Huia kept its funding and will complete its 5 year trial as originally intended. Their numbers bounce around a little bit - but their April numbers saw a bump to 9, 200-odd, proving there’s no such thing as bad publicity.
We have been following the Cherry Festival/Stuff/Gary Farrow defamation saga with quiet enthrallment, for fear of saying… the wrong thing? Now it’s over, and Stuff and journalist Gary Farrow were awarded $54,970 in costs from Waikato Cherry Tree Festival organisers and couple Cherry Anne Cao and Paul Oulton, who incidentally are selling the property that formerly hosted the festival and have posted a video that suggests that you (yes, you!) could buy it from them, which they explain while pivoting in a circle and looking like Dr Who villains.
Waikato/Bay of Plenty Architecture awards were held last month, and the University of Waikato building The Paa (Arichtectus, Jasmax and Design Tribe) was an absolute standout. Undergrad Waikato University sources tell us that they have non-functional or spotty wifi on campus at best but they are glad there’s a pretty building on site.
Last month we included a story about the removal of the glasshouse gardens at the top of the garden - and the story said they were being removed as they were underused and inefficient. One of our dear and loyal readers Shawn wrote in to say that there was a little revisionist history going on here - the glass houses were shuttered in favour of a new road layout and – because every Hamilton story is eventually a parking story – carparks.
Today’s Waikato Times’ main headline: free parking in the CBD to continue (car bros, we’re so back!)
The bus depot is getting a refresh.
What’s on
Gigs
By Adam Fulton
June 13th HŌhĀ, Half/Time, Crime Hospital. Last Place. Tickets. Two acts from Õtepoti, art-rock duo HŌhĀ (Night Lunch's Liam Clune and Riot Gull's Madison Kelly) alongside Clune's exploration of "music" in Crime Hospital.
June 15th Zinefest Afterparty. Mesoverse. A night of poetic stylings from Martial Law and non-musical poet David Merrit.
June 16th Discovery (Daft Punk tribute band). Yot Club, Raglan. Tickets. Possibly the only tribute show that will feature in this gig guide, but there is a very very tiny possibility that a Daft Punk tribute band could actually be the real Daft Punk and it is worth considering.
June 22nd Take Hold ep release show. Last Place. Tickets. The first of two (2) EP release shows in Kirikiriroa for the Tāmaki Makaurau post-hardcore outfit Take Hold. Joined by ColdXWar (Pōneke), Two Skinner and No Reason.
IRL
Food
Mr Pickles have their new menu up and running: the surf and turf that immediately caught our eye. In terms of upcoming events, their dicey x mr pickles night June 26 looks like a banger, showcasing wines from the two Otago dudes who comprise Dicey. 5 wines with sensible pours for $75, or $140 for “more wine than is appropriate”. Get a matched feed for $150. No dietary requirements will be accommodated, the bookings brag. Tickets.
Local food rag Nourish is moving and they’re having having a second-hand cook book sale June 16.
Matariki
Image by Jo Bryce who will be at this year’s Zinefest.
Hamilton Gardens are holding a market, June 22.
The central library is holding an origami workshop June 23, from 1pm.
The Fairfield Project hosts a Hauptau Dawn Event on June 28.
June 28th the Hamilton Astronomical Society are holding a lecture on the history and astronomy of Matariki from 7.30pm. Tickets.
A full listing of what’s on offer is at Matariki Waikato, and you can register your own event.
Other stuff
There’s been a lot of upheaval in the publishing industry lately - but the Kirikiriroa Zine festival turns 10 this month! Running Saturday June 15 - check out their facebook page, which might just be the last bastion of sanity on that zombie website. Stalwarts Bryce Galloway (Incredibly Hot Sex With Hideous People) and David Merritt will be there, and we’re excited about Rimu Bhooi. The festival’s workshops leading up the Saturday market day are always a highlight - a kids one with Wyatt Dawson June 13 (Thursday) from 3.30 to 4.30pm. (Kids that are under 14 must be with a grown up).
As always, the Zinefest afterparty. This year it’s at Mesoverse 7-11pm. Martial Law will be playing, plus some band known as TBC. (See Gigs section).
I think of Fieldays like a grown up rural science fair with some food. It runs June 12 - 15. Precincts are out and “hubs” are in.
Oui! Oui! It’s the Aotearoa French Film festival, and the Hamilton programme can be found here (see our film section for our pick).
Theatre
by Louise Drummond
June is an often quiet time for theatrical events. So we take a break from our usual listings to draw your attention to the Meteor’s 10th birthday gift registry. This piece originally made reference to the absolute shafting of both the Meteor and the Clarence Street Theatre originally got in a recent round of council funding - only for their funding to get reenstated today (based in part on community feedback), which is fantastic news. But times are still very difficult for the arts. Their registry has everything from fancy $5k lights to gaffer tape and audio pins for less than $20. You could even buy them a month's supply of toilet paper or a bucket of dishwashing liquid. It's all here.
If we want our fair city to have any kind of artistic expression then we have to support it at the grassroots. Let's not let another of Hamilton's absolute gems go the same way as our beloved Ernest bar.
Movies
By Jason Marshall
The French Film Festival Aotearoa 2024 kicks off nationwide on June 5, with Hamilton screenings of a wide range of French films taking place at the Lido throughout the month until June 25th. Our pick of the festival, The Sitting Duck, sees the first lady of French cinema, Isabelle Huppert, portraying whistleblower Maureen Kearney - a union organiser at the French state nuclear energy company, who goes public after stumbling upon a wide ranging web of shady backroom dealings, with terrifying and brutal consequences for her and her family. Tickets. Trailer.
How many movies can you stretch out of a single reggae song? Four, as it turns out. Will Smith and Martin Lawrence return in Bad Boys: Ride or Die. Guaranteed to have car chases and gunfights. Although, let’s be honest - probably nothing quite as good as the final set piece from Bad Boys II. The real tragedy of it all? If they’d refrained from calling the previous entry Bad Boys for Life, this could’ve been released under the much catchier Bad Boys 4 Life. Missed opportunities abound. Trailer.
The thinking persons’ heart-throb, Mads Mikkelsen, returns in a period drama that’s part-palace intrigue epic and part-Western from The Promised Land from director Nikolaj Arcel (A Royal Affair). When a retired soldier receives a royal warrant to build a settlement on a piece of swampland in 1750s Denmark, he knows a ticket to high society will surely follow - if he succeeds. “As a portrait of human will, the engulfing depredations of nature, and sheer terror and retribution, The Promised Land stakes its claim with admirable gravitas and visual finesse,” writes Ann Hornaday of the Washington Post. Trailer.
Lol, there’s a new Comedy Club
There’s a discourse that starts when something new opens up in this town. It goes something like, is Hamilton ready for an [x]? Well, the night we dropped into Last Laugh, which just opened on Victoria street, the cozy new comedy club on Victoria Street, it was a Friday just as the Chiefs were kicking off against the Hurricanes. It was full. We do a Q and A with owner and comedian Tom Lucus, here.
What we put in our mouths this month
(or, because that’s such a mouthful, WWPIOMTM)
We been to Neat, twice. It’s takes the expertise and experience of Wonder Horse and launches it into the retail space. It’s very pretty.
From Vetro: we’re very charmed by these sardine-themed chocolates.
We made a whipped feta.
We have a complicated relationship with Winner Winner (one of our editorial team was denied salt there once, with a bit of a scoff, and has never forgiven them). But their recent banoffee pie was excellent and starting to approach Sweet Mother’s Kitchen vibes (iykyk). More pie cabinets in the city please.
We had the Chicken 65 from Royale Indian Road on Cameron Road. (Add it on to their lunch special.)
We had a pretzel and a pretzel dog from Mr Twist, and endorse both. They had a child working the register on King’s Birthday and she did a great job.
We’re very enamoured with the, honestly adorable, portable banchan that came with our takeaway order from Minsokchon on Ward Street.
