A week of it

Russell Baillie.

MUSIC

Both Katchafire and Hollie Smith are making northern excursions this weekend while the feelers round off their Right Here, Right Now tour in Tauranga tonight, Hamilton tomorrow and Browns Bay on Saturday. Also finishing up a tour is the exceptionally punctuated Die! Die! Die! (at Henderson's Zeal on Saturday) while the Drab Doo-Riffs welcome their latest EP with a show at the Kings Arms on Saturday night.

MOVIES

The biggest of this week's new releases is undoubtedly Salt, which stars Angelina Jolie as a secret agent in something resembling the real world, but whose outlandish espionage skills make Lara Croft look like a credible archaeologist by comparison. Her director Phillip Noyce. The most highly recommended new release of the week also has pre-Glasnost connections. But The Concert, about a Moscow orchestra venturing to Paris, is a real heartwarmer and does for Tchaikovsky-playing Russian violinists what The Full Monty did for redundant Sheffield steelworkers.

TV

Lucy's non-toga party Spartacus: Blood and Sand finally turns up on Sky's Box channel on Sunday night among a big week for new and returning shows. But other than Xena, the funniest thing you might see this week is Feedback, the new local combo of media satire and skit-com (Wednesday 11pm, TV2) powered by the wit of Back of the Y's Matt Heath and playwright-comedian Arthur Meek who stars as ... Arthur Meek, a disgraced current affairs host fighting his way back to primetime with his team of reporters, one of whom is carrying his lovechild.

OR...

Head to Ohakune for the first weekend of the Fallout Festival which has its opening party on Saturday at various venues throughout the ski-town. It celebrates the season getting into high gear on the nearby Turoa and Whakapapa fields. Fallout runs with a programme of music, comedy, short films and some strange local tradition called "Crazy Bingo" until September 4. For more info see falloutfestival.co.nz

- TimeOut