Pass the lemonade

You know what they say: when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

Or in this case, when earthquakes close all the venues and break the recording studios, turn those streetside jam sessions into a full-length fundraising album recorded in harbourside homes and garden sheds. (yeah I know, not quite so catchy eh!) The seismically-inspired juggernaut that is the Harbour Union has been up and down the country over the last few weeks, with a tour that kicked off at The Aurora Centre here in C-city.



I've been doing my bit to spread the love that shines from these beautiful souls. I bought 10 copies of the CD at the album release party (Wunderbar re-opening #2), which have since been given to friends and sent with much aroha all over the country and around the world. Of course, APRA have much bigger budgets than I, so they decided to shout all the attendees of the NZ Music Awards a copy of the album (that's 380 copies). Delaney Davidson, one of the Harbour Union members, was nominated for the Silver Scroll award for his song Little Heart, and the band themselves (minus DD, who's in Europe) were set to play as part of the ceremony. And w00t! Thanks to NZ Herald, their NZMA performance of Ghost of this town - the extended spoken word megamix featuring Harbour poet Ben Brown - is available to view here.

I've also been indulging in a bit of counter-phobia... and thanks to this next piece, I'm now looking at bricks in a whole new way. In the case of Blair Parkes, when earthquakes damaged his chimney, he used the bricks to tell a story. As a snapshot of life in the eastern suburbs, this story composed of images and memories, created from fragments of a family home, is simply stunning. For the story behind the project (it debuted at the Orcon Great Blend in August), and some explanatory comments by the creator, read this post at Public Address.

Turn the sound up and the lights down... it's time for Chimney Book. Oh, and pass the lemonade... I'll have mine with lime and vodka :)