MUSIC
She played at the pub last week, and this week Bic Runga heads out on her acoustic church tour, which starts today at Whangarei's Central Baptist Church, and includes two dates next week at Parnell's Holy Trinity Cathedral on Tuesday and Wednesday. And if you're not going to the chapel on Tuesday, then you might be up for doing the Neutron Dance with the Pointer Sisters at the Civic. Or else the Flying Nun 30th birthday celebrations continue at the Kings Arms with Ghost Club and Solid Gold Hell whipping up a melodic noise storm tonight. It's tribute night on Friday, and the Bats play Saturday.
MOVIES
The new Twilight movie - and second-to-last film in the saga, oh please, make it end - starts today and that's all I am going to say on the matter. For those not flocking to see it, like my nearest and dearest, also opening today is monkey doco Project Nim. It's about a chimpanzee called Nim Chimpsky who was transplanted into a Manhattan family in 1973 as an experiment to test Noam Chomsky's theory that language was unique to humans. But be warned this biopic from director James Marsh (who was behind excellent 2008 documentary Man on Wire) is sometimes troubling when it ponders the ethics of these sorts of scientific experiments.
TV
Not to be mistaken for an Australian outback version of Keeping Up With The Kardashians, Keeping Up With The Joneses is a new primetime TV One show on Saturdays at 7pm that follows Milton Jones and his family and the daily goings-on on their 1.3 million acre cattle station in the Northern Territory.
Elsewhere Inside NZ (Tuesday, 7.30pm, TV3) investigates child poverty in New Zealand, Rhodes Actor Singer (Saturday, 8.30pm, Maori) tells the story of Dame Kiri's protege, Phillip Rhodes, and on The X Factor results show on TV3 Friday night Rihanna performs latest single and current New Zealand No. 1 We Found Love off new album Talk That Talk, which is out on Monday.
OR...
Pack a picnic and a few beers and join the masses at the annual Grey Lynn Festival in Grey Lynn Park. Grab a patch of grass and while away the day to the sounds of DJs at a number of different hubs around the park. Closing the day will be Che Fu (at 4pm) and his dad's band, Unity Pacific (at 4.45pm).
