Happy New Zealand music month everyone! For the past few weeks I've been doing teaching a songwriting workshop at Hurunui college, as part of the New Zealand music commission's mentoring program.. Yesterday was the last day and the groups I worked with performed their new songs in front of a room full of students :) it's always so amazing to see the results and I have such a wonderful time seeing these ideas come to life...
Here's a photo taken yesterday at the final performance
If you're following on twitter you probably know we've been trying to find out what's wrong with my wee kitten Freyja.. she's had some mysterious bumps since a month before christmas and we've done so many tests to try and find out what it is that's causing them... Found out that they're allergies - and finally got all the results back.. She is allergic to over 16 things! 5 trees, grasses, orris root, tomato, lamb, housefly, house dustmites, egg, cotton, tuna and a few more... Scary that such a little living being can have so many big problems.. Lucky she's an inside cat so the grasses/pollens/trees won't be too much of a problem. The next step is to order a vaccine and try to desensitise her to the things that are hardest to eliminate, dustmites and cotton.. Here she is again:
And some more news ** there's a brand-spanking-new website up on Bandcamp! Some completely unreleased stuff is up there! it's such a wonderful site! you can name your price for single song downloads or whole album downloads.. For the first time 'Live at AL's' is available with all the lyrics! (they show up on your ipod/iphone/mp3 player when you play the songs) and lots of extras - including live video footage from the night, and the Feels so good music video, photos, artwork and more!
There's also a live album called 'Live in Reykjavik' that was recorded at the album release concert for 'Hafið þennan dag' and has never been available online :) and an unreleased EP that was recorded just after the release of 'Not so sweet' in 2001..
So go have a look :) --- you can listen to all the songs there for free :) :)
Hope you're all having a wonderful May! And as promised, here's another of my early poems..
And there I will wait Written May 1997
If you want to find me, go to the moon and look for a pathway of stars. Pass the crystal roses and the water of life and head for a planet called mars. There will be temptations like lying and lust and obstacles causing delay. And then theres the words hiding deep in your mind if I go, will she force me to stay? Cross the fields of silence, but don't make an attemt to pick the black daises of fear. But don´t worry, your journey will soon come to end I can feel it, I know you are near. The diamond dewdrops of sorrow will shine on the grass of dreams in the night. You will walk through the forest of stories and lies very soon, I will be in your sight You will push your way through the burning bush of promises made but not true, And there in the pond of hope I will stand, and I will have been waiting for you.
Hera Hjartardóttir.
