Calling all Sydney caffeine addicts – your time is now. Sunday April 25th 2010 sees the Rocks transformed into a mecca for Sydney coffee lovers with the return of the annual Aroma Coffee Festival.

According to official sources, this year plans to be even bigger and better than last year with more vendors, more entertainment, more cupcakes and more camel rides.

Personally i’m still of the opinion that putting massive four legged beasts in what is a crowded, noisy and unfamiliar environment is a recipe for disaster, but the kids seem to enjoy it.

Divided up into The Oasis, The Continent, The Orient and The Latin Quarter, with appropriately themed food, beverages and entertainment filling each. Last year saw a reported 114,000 tweakers descend upon the Rocks to take advantage of $2 cups of coffee. As you would imagine, the promise of cut price caffeine means that the crowd tends to quickly build to epic proportions so i’d suggest an early start if you’re not a fan of queues resembling those normally associated with the line for beers at the Big Day Out.

As per usual, Electric Firefly will be hawking our wares up on George Street and as a demonstration of our love for one of the few remaining mood altering drugs not yet banned by our government, we’ll knock $10 off any large lamp purchased on the day if you mention this post.

Yesterday whilst at the Old Bus Depot Markets in Kingston, out of the corner of my eye something caught my attention – the recent addition of a glass chimney stack towering above the  Canberra Glassworks.

A welcome addition to the ever growing Canberra skyline, Touching Lightly, by internationally-recognised Australian artist Warren Langley towers 22 metres above the Glassworks and looks amazing. The Glassworks are housed within what is Canberra’s oldest building (constructed 1913 – 1915) and despite the dazzling panels of reinforced glass being in almost total contrast to the grey reinforced concrete walls of the original structure, somehow both manage to co-exist, complementing the another yet at the same time succeeding as individual entities. The chimney rises from the base of the former powerhouse smokestack, evoking memories of the building’s previous 35 metre-high steel chimney.

It was only later whilst talking later to some locals I learnt that the arrival of nightfall marks the tower being lit internally by thousands of green powered LEDs that bathe the glass tower with a brilliant blue light. Sadly I couldn’t stick around to see this firsthand – the image on the Glassworks site looks nothing short of spectacular. Hopefully i’ll have a chance to get some night shots next time I’m down that way.

Has it really been three months since the last Handmade Market? According to the official Electric Firefly calendar, it has indeed!

This Saturday, June 5th sees the return of Handmade, Canberra’s Premier Quarterly Market at the Kamberra Wine Company. If you’ve attended any of the past Handmade Market events, you’ll only be too aware that it’s a great day enjoyed by both punters and designers alike. Of course Electric Firefly is proud to again be a part of Handmade – as per usual we’ll be packing the car full of lamp-goodness and making the obligatory road trip south from Sydney.

Official kick off for punters is 10am with the final siren sounding at 4pm. If you’re the public transport type, the 956 stops practically at the front door, or alternatively if you’re driving there’s plenty of free parking. Be aware that there is no ATM on the site though some stalls (including Electric Firefly) have EFTPOS terminals.

Rock and Roll – Hopefully we’ll see you there!

Following on from the continued success of the Handmade Market, Julie (Shop Girl) Nichols and her designer collective have opened Shop Handmade in the heart of Canberra. A retail space offering punters a unique shopping experience, Shop Handmade also provides Australian indie designers to sell their creations outside of the markets environment. (more…)

Just thought I would share with you some of the wildlife I saw on the way up to Corin Forest on the weekend. For those outside of the know, it’s the site of the 3rd annual Corinbank Festival just outside of Canberra, which come next weekend will be a hub of wild life, music and art extravaganza.

Corinbank 2010 will feature some  50+ acts over the course of the weekend inluding Clare Bowditch, Ash Grunwald, Urthboy, Astronomy Class and the inimitable bad boys of dirty down rock and roll, You Am I, Corinbank 2010 promises to be the biggest and best yet.

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This coming Sunday will see Tropfest, the annual short film event taking over Stage88 in Commonwealth Park Canberra. On the off chance you hadn’t caught one of our numerous press conferences or received a media release, Electric Firefly will be making the incredibly boring drive down from Sydney to light up our market stall with the complete range of Electric Firefly lamps and lights.

But wait! There’s more! In collaboration with event organisers Tom-Tom Events, Electric Firefly is proud to be spreading the love by way of lighting up the VIP and sponsor areas. For those of you that didn’t receive your invitation to either of the aforementioned events, don’t despair – we’ll be recording the event for prosperity by way of taking several hundred photos, the best of which we’ll share with you.

Just when you thought the whole affair couldn’t get any more impressive,  it turns out that Tropfest Canberrra has gone totally green! How so you ask? (more…)

Unless you’ve been living under a rock or hiding out in a cave with no electricity, you’ll be only too aware that the good old fashioned incandescent light bulb is a thing of the past, relegated to dodgy backroom deals and overpriced eBay auctions. Here in Australia the Government has decided what’s best for its population by completely phasing them out. It’s a similar story overseas.

Whilst the energy savings resulting from solely using compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) is beneficial for the environment, what isn’t widely known is that CFLs (and the older style tube fluorescent lights) contain a very small amount of mercury (about the size of a ball point) sealed within the glass tubing. In case you don’t know, mercury when combined with the human body is bad – really, really bad. (more…)

Following the recent implementation of our new Electric Firefly Design & Creation Gold Star / Black Cross Human Resource Motivation and Reward Scheme (EFDCGSBCHRMRS), I am proud to announce that the first Gold Star has been awarded to Lucy for once again flying the Electric Firefly flag, this time in the loving arms of Melbourne.

Lucy spent today at the Rainbow Artisans’ Market at Northcote Town Hall and will be at Revolver Designer Market on Thursday 11th & 25th Feb and again on the 11th of March.  There’s cheap food and booze on offer and if that wasn’t enough, there will also be free Atari, Super Nintendo, Sega Master System and Foozball for all to enjoy.

So Lucy, congratulations on your EFDCGSBCHRMRS Gold Star – give yourself a pat on the back. The Force is strong in you.

Oh yeah, the Black Cross goes to Lewis for getting sick in India.

Revolver Upstairs
Address: 229 Chapel St, Prahran, 3181
Phone: 03 9521 5985
Web: www.revolverupstairs.com.au
Email: revolver@revolverupstairs.com.au

6-10pm
Thurs 11 February
Thurs 25 February
Thurs 11 March