Text and video by Mike Parker
Summertime in Saint John is a lazy affair. Maybe it’s because of the Fundy fog that sweeps into our city each evening. Or maybe it’s the fact that we’re so far removed spiritually and geographically from the centre of the universe, er, Toronto, that we’ve never really embraced the big city life style. But one thing is certain – our sedate little Port City does the impossible and shifts down a gear once June arrives.
I like Saint John in the summertime. It’s easygoing. Languid. Yes, we are flooded by hundreds and hundreds of cruise ship passengers who make it impossible to walk through the City Market. Hipsters take note: the first ship arrives in port this week so get your lunches and coffees before noon. And yes, at times the city seems so small – so closed – that you have to fight the urge to run down King Street and jump in the harbour. And all the really big concerts? The summertime tours that you’ll tell your kids about years later? They go to the larger cities in the region because we lack the money and resources to bring them here.
But Saint John provides opportunities that are missing from larger cities. Things move slowly here in the summer and because they do then we can take the time to build relationships. To create culture rather than to consume culture. To play a role in constructing a community instead of commuting to one.
Local musician Andrew Mazerolle knows the joys of a slow day in Saint John. In fact, Mazerolle has written an entire song around this very premise called Let’s Dream About Something, which he performed last Friday at Backstreet Records. In it he sings:
I know I’ll probably have to work the rest of my life. But I just want to waste my days away, talking to you…
Andrew is the younger brother to former Saint John journalist John Mazerolle, who wrote for the Telegraph Journal and whose columns still appear in Here. Mazerolle the younger has just returned from Halifax where he is a student at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, and he is an artist-in-residence with the Saint John Art Club so we may see him perform again in the city.
Music fans will recognize Andrew Mazerolle from his numerous appearances at the city’s coffee houses over the past few years and as part of The Fedoras, with Matt Stackhouse. The band has called it quits. But both musicians played a set last Friday before closing the evening together onstage.
Serf City was at Backstreet Records for the Sake of the Song concert and we videotaped both Stackhouse and Mazerolle’s performance. We’ll release a clip of Matt Stackhouse in a few days but for now, here’s Andrew Mazerolle performing Let’s Dream About Something.
Enjoy.
Serf City 