Saturday, July 18, 2015

Two Nights in the City

We enjoy finding different things to do when we’re in a new place, and had two interesting evenings this week.

Sunday night, we met our friends Tim and Judith at the CBD Bar and Pizzaria.  Tim and Judith are both musicians (in addition to their respective day jobs as computer science professor and music teacher), and they were hosting five jazz musicians from Wellington at their house.  The musicians were performing at the CBD Bar under the name “The Ghost Chorus”, and we enjoyed listening to their variety of jazz music.  We talked to their lead singer, a woman who is originally from Vermont and has lived in northern Wisconsin – small world.

On the way home, the four of us stopped at the Hagley Park Botanical Gardens.  While nothing was blooming, the gardens were hosting a five-day event called “Night of D’Light”, where various lights, including laser lights, were being used to illuminate the gardens and structures.  The many displays were whimsical, interesting, and were overall quite impressive. The photos below are from Tim and Judith Bell.






On Wednesday night we attended a very different event called Pechakucha Christchurch, which was held at the University of Canterbury Student Association events centre.  Pechakucha is a presentation format started in Japan where speakers have 20 photo slides shown for 20 seconds each, and each speaker tells a story focusing on something they’re passionate about using their slides as a background.  We heard ten speakers, ranging from students to university staff, talking about everything from the benefits of organic cotton to why volunteerism is selfish.  The presentations varied in quality, but all had some nugget of information and interest, and a few were outstanding in terms of being both entertaining and thought-provoking.  There will be another Pechakucha in Christchurch before we leave, and we’re planning to return.  Pechakucha is now in 800 cities around the world.  If you’re interested in more information, check out http://www.pechakucha.org/ .


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