October 22, 2014

The Bodice Ripper: Katherine Mansfield from decorum to decadence and Dressing the World of Katherine Mansfield

Perfectly timed to coincide with the World of Wearable Arts awards the Katherine Mansfield Birthplace is holding an exhibition of corsets. Costume students from Toi Whaakari have contributed pieces to show alongside items from Te Papa and the Birthplace's collections.

Some of the pieces on display are so delicate that gloves are provided should you wish to touch them. But in another room there were some available to try on. The costume student's pieces to a certain extent represented their creators; reasons behind their designs are detailed on cards next to them.

The written posters provide information about the history of corsetry and its recent resurrgence. You'll find old promotions from our own Kirkaldies and Stains. They also track Mansfield's private life; her affairs with men and women, early forays into writing and opinions of those who knew her.

In conjuction with the exhibition on Saturday 4th October a fashion show called Dressing the World of Katherine Mansfield was held at Old St Pauls. The Dreamstress (Leimomi Oakes) presented an engaging show with 8 models showing how fashion, from underwear to eveningwear, evolved through the timeperiod of Mansfield's life. She wove the story of Mansfield's life and how revolutionary she was around the fashions. All items were sewn as accurately as possible to the period, both material and composition.

Price: $8 (admission price to the birthplace)
Opening times: Tuesday to Sunday, 10am-4pm
Dates: 21 September - 21 December
Location: Katherine Mansfield Birthplace, 25 Tinakori Road, Wellington

http://www.katherinemansfield.com

October 12, 2014

Richter City Convicts vs Hellmilton Roller Ghouls

The Richter City Convicts played Raggedy Angst of Hellmilton Roller Ghouls at Kilbirnie Rec Centre. A lot of lower north island players who normally attend our games were in Levin for Sur5al Worlds; a 16 team tournament with mixed teams from all over the country. This meant a lower turnout for the game played in Wellington. It was an unfortunate schedule clash.

Hellmilton was captained by one of their two Team NZ representatives and featured jammer, Miss Crunchbull. She didn’t do much to impress us, though she was taking a lot of big hits from the Convicts.  Their other main jammer Indi Slam-her Jones appeared to have more success breaking through the orange walls. Richter pulled their jammers from a larger pool, by the end of the bout it seemed that most of the team had jammed at least once. Core jammers Burn Witch Burn!, Volcanic Ash, and Meat Train played a strong and consistent bout, as they have done all season.  Again, Poise’N’Dart proved she is growing to be a formidable blocker.

The Convicts got an early lead which they maintained throughout the game. At halftime the score was 149 Convicts to 107 Hellmilton. The final score was 128 Hellmilton to 259 Convicts.

It was a mostly drama free match. There was a brief concern that Invisigirl was injured but she came right. No skaters were sent out of the game. However, behind the scenes other things were going on. Earlier in the week, the New Zealand national team was announced. Three Richter City skaters made the team Anna Pave-U'Ova, Beatrix Skiddo and Jem Molition. Some ruckus broke out when the head coach made a frankly stupid statement that Meat Train had not been selected because she was deaf. Although it was later made clear that was not the only reason for the selection decision, and offers were made of providing statistics to back it up, the damage was done. It is understood that the Human Rights Commissioner will shortly be involved.

Next weekend (18 October) Richter City plays Auckland on their turf. You can buy tickets here.

Next home game: 29 November against Bay City Rollers. They appear to be warming up to take Richter City on by a full calendar of events between now and then.