I went to the Tauranga Farmer’s Market on the weekend and to my unexpected delight Richard the Chilli guy had Grapefruit Chilli Marmalade. It’s great stuff. I haven’t had any in years and I really should make it myself as I have loads of chillies in the freezer and there’s grapefruit all around at the moment. The only other place I’ve seen grapefruit chilli marmalade is Q Gardens near Waitara, Taranaki.
Anyway, if you’re in Tauranga get to the farmer’s market and support local produce. The gluten-free sausages are great and I had the best masala dosa outside India there one fine day. I’ve only had two dosas outside India but it was pretty authentic.
The farmer’s market is starting at the Mount soon on Sundays and running to the slightly more civilized hour of 1pm.
All three of Carl Shuker’sThree Novellas for a Novel are available as limited edition downloads now. For free or more!
Interesting to see a novellist making their work available online for tips ala The Crimea, Radiohead & NIN. I guess Carl liked the idea of bypassing the publishing companies and making his work available for tips. It drastically reduces the cost of getting his work out and it’s environmentally friendly too. Or is it? No paper or transportation costs but more electricity consumed by readers and I was tempted to print them as well.
Malcolm’s new album, Sleight of Hand, is out now. It’s mostly acoustic collection leftovers, covers and wind ups. I’m looking forward to the next project though - “Right now, everything sounds like a fat child throwing a Casio keyboard down a flight of stairs and hitting an old man at the bottom who’s playing Verve songs badly on an over-priced guitar,” says Malcolm.
Meanwhile the filthier half of Arab Strap Aidan John Moffat has released the rather dirty, R rated I Can Hear Your Heart and a singing bottle opener that plays a wee ditty by Aidan every time you crack open a beer. Now I have several rather nice bottle openers including one from Suck UK that looks like an unsuspecting house key and the trusty one that I won at the Massey University chilli eating competition but now I think I need one more.
Carl Shuker’s excellent novel The Lazy Boys is being made into a feature film directed by Brendan Donovan (Insider’s Guide to Happiness, Insider’s Guide to Love, Grasp, Here) and produced by Michael Wren.
Jingle Jangle Morning, taken from a verse in Bob Dylan’s song ‘Mr Tambourine Man’, is the title of a Bill Hammond painting depicting majestic avian musicians and serpentine creatures who sing, dance and play instruments upon a floating world of golden clouds and mountainous divides.
Bill Hammond’s sentient birdmen came about after a trip to the Auckland Islands where birds rule. Like New Zealand before the people got there.
Great Lake Swimmers have also contributed an original song entitled, “Gonna Make it Through This Year”, to a new compilation release named “PEACE ON EARTH: A HOLIDAY ALBUM” available exclusively as a digital download from Hard to Find a Friend and featuring fifteen never-before-released covers of Christmas classics and special holiday themed originals from various artists. Profits raised from this album go directly to Toys for Tots to give gifts to needy children on Christmas morning.
Here’s Scott Cudmore’s new video for “Your Rocky Spine”
PJ Harvey is coming to New Zealand and Australia in February for a handful of exclusive solo shows. A limited number of tickets will be available from http://www.frontiertouring.com from Thursday 8 November 12 noon AEST to Friday 9 November 12 noon AEST. Tickets will go on-sale to the general public on Tuesday 13 November 9:00am local time.
Polly will be performing an intimate solo set, for one night only, in each of the following cities:
