Blossom falling

A few weeks ago i was about to leave for work but returned inside to get my camera cos the blossom on the tree outside looked beautiful against the deep blue morning sky. Most of the blossom is now on the pavement and blowing onto my entrance. Or it was, mostly yesterday, the tree being almost bare i decided it time to get to sweeping it up. Some of it had got wet and begun to degrade and stick to the tarmac and it took quite some effor to sweep it up and bag it up. Two bin bags full, and it weighed quite a bit too. Felt like i'd accomplished something and i went to read in the back garden. After about 15min ct called, she was in the area and wondered if i was free to meet up for a drink. I was and as i left i noticed that it hardly looked like i'd spent ages sweeping the pathways! thank you wind. Oh well, most of it is swept, i'll just wait the final petals to slip their grasp and float to the floor and begin the task again.

in the country of men

Picked this up on the cheap at tescos. Liked the front cover, shortlisted for the man booker, and the synopsis sounded good. Hooray, it was a good on the spot purchase as i enjoyed this story. It's set in post revolution libya, late 70s and is a story told from the perspective of a nine year old boy who's father is involved in anti-gadaffi propoganda. The story is thus interpreted from the snippets of conversation and scenes viewed by the nine year old. Which i like as it keeps you guessing as to what is actually happening, it's not an unreliable narrator, but some things take a while to make sense. In addition it is well written, though i wonder if some of the descriptions and metaphors are those of a nine year old, am i showing my writing prowess, or am i writing as a nine year old, that seems to be the dilemma of the author (hisham matar). The imagery is good and you feel like you are in arabic north africa. Being fairly short it didn't take long to read.

not making the grade

My mstu teletext review has not made the grade - boo, especially as i find it difficult to review a band i like so much that most people have never heard of. So just for you I'll recreate it here, just imagine it in those beautiful blocky graphics:

Monkey Swallows the Universe - live Sheffield Lantern 21/4

Tonight a small Victorian playhouse nestled in suburbia is awakened by
the magic of mstu. Utilising the tools of twee: acoustic guitars,
strings, recorders, the product is more substantial. Hovering around
the territory of the delgados and camera obscura producing songs of
instant impact and longevity. Nat's achingly beautiful vocals
compliment the delicate folky-pop, a sound that is ambrosia for the
ears. Whilst the world's attention is tuned into Sheffield's more
famous monkeys, they're missing the jewel – don't fall into the same
trap.

9/10

the fields

My review of the fields gig, and i feel i should add the tag 'as read by nat of monkey swallows the universe'. Cos it is, after the gig on sat she mentioned that she had seen it. To be honest this review pretty much sums the gig up. If you click on the image you can see it larger, if you want to read it at all! I think i may get their album if it's cheap in fopp. Thanks to ad for scouting teletext this week for my review.

Monkey Swallows the Universe - lantern

There is nothing better than an evening listening to some of the finest music currently being penned. I'd had a fairly good day, book writing, milling in town, more work in the garden. And then chesterfield lost (not quite so good), so relegation is now inevitable, though not least predictable from this years performance. Just finished eating tea when ad came round to give me a lift. Never been to the Lantern theatre before, and had found the address from the internet, somewhere in the hinterland of netheredge. Map in hand we attempted to find the venue, but if you're familiar with that area you will know that a map is pretty useless. Roads run into each other, they change names, keep names though bear off on a tangent, and even as many as five roads can converge in a chaotic junction. A spiralling journey eventually took us past a road name that was recognised and the venue was located. An old victorian building, built by some rich cutler in order to have private viewings. I guess the equivelent to having your own cinema these days. It fell into disrepair and was renovated in the 1920s, and it made for a nice quaint venue. Holding no more than a hundred. The culmination of an easter tour that has seen mstu claim record of the week in the sun and bagged appearances on 6music and loose ends. The evening commenced with a fairly awful, if i can be conservative with my critique, stand up act. Obviously a friend of someone, who may well be funny in a pub after a few beers, but tonight told rambling stories that lacked humour or punchline. The musical support was from rory mcvicar, a singer songwriter of significant guitar playing talent. I'm afraid his music doesn't grab my attention and the pleasent tunes float gently by. He is joined by members of mstu for some tracks which is nice, and you get the sense that they've all enjoyed touring together. MSTU are superb, and already have a considerable set of tunes from which to draw. A number of new tunes are given their debut airing, and the quality remains high. All suggesting that the new album is going to be well worth the wait. The intimate venue and appreciative crowd really suited. Without dissecting each song, there is not much else to write without covering old ground. Suffice to say this band are great and i hope they get the recognition they deserve. Here's a little clip of a song likely to be on the new album to whet your appetite.

there's also a small clip of rory mcvicar and nat here

Hush the Many

I've a few gigs to report on, but I'll start with this one, cos it was on teletext (thanks to ad for the photo). On wednesday I heard a track by the fields on 6music that I enjoyed. Discovering that they were playing at the leadmill I bought an impulse ticket and persuaded ad to come along too. That same eve I went for a meal with my family to celebrate my sister's b'day before heading down to the leadmill where a band were just setting up on the steel stage. We were stood near the stage and the bass player came over and we had a chat, discovering that they were the support act called hush the many. Once on stage it was apparent from their opening track that they were excellent. I really enjoyed the mix of guitar and cello, with intricate guitar noodling noises from the guy on lead. Add in a mix of driving bass and drums and it formed a beautiful soundscape. Moving effortlessly from quiet through to loud in a mogwai-esque style. We enjoyed it a lot, so i was pleased to get my review on teletext. My first for an unsigned band (though they do have a single deal with fierce panda). check them out at their myspace page too.
Click my review to see it full size.

Update: I've put a little clip on youtube. This is them perfoming the end of a track called Revolve. If you like, you can hear the rest of the track on their myspace page

Books I've been reading

The sailor who fell from grace with the sea by yukio mishima
Picked up this book at fopp for a bargain £1. Money well spent. I really enjoyed this translation of a japanese novel, it is written with such poetic language, and is nice and short. The story revolves around a widow and her young adolescent son. A son who, with friends, have formed a view on the futility of life as expressed by their parents (whether pre-teens actually sit around discussing Nietzche is another matter, but it is fiction). Along comes a sailor who seems to embody the carefree approach to life with no ties so longed after by this group of boys. However their illusion is dashed as he falls in love with the widow, leaving his nomadic lifestyle to 'settle down'. Angered by this action the boys have a macabre scheme to keep the image of the heroic sailor they wish to have.

Children of Men - PD James
I got this after v told me about the film. I wanted to read it and check that it didn't cover ground that the book i'm writing covers. It doesn't. I was a little disappointed by this book, it's an interesting idea, the human race can no longer reproduce. In the novel it seems to be down to barren men and women, but the focus seems to be on defective sperm. To be honest the technology is around that obviates the need for sperm anyway, the most important thing is the ova. You can use some kind of cloning technique. Anyway, that is a flaw that is by the by. The novel is written part as the diary of the lead character and part as third person narrative. The diary entries I sometimes found too full of background setting information, the kind of things you really wouldn't put in a diary. The story continues and is punctuated with twists that are obvious a mile off, which added to my frustration of the read. It's an interesting story, but could've been told better, and I look forward to seeing the movie, which may well be better.

There'll be more later

easter

there's been a bit of a back blog of things i've been meaning to report, but just not been in the write frame of mind (sic). Briefly, I was involved in setting up a meditative space for good friday, late into the eve of maundy thurs. Although it was not well attended, the actual act of preparing the room on the thursday felt like an act of worship. Creating and interactive art space, that did have the odd few drop in off the street. There's some pics and words of explanation on my good friday flickr set. Also enjoyed a walk around the river don, steeped in industrial history and a longer more challenging walk around lose hill and mam tor. There was some work undertaken in the garden as I fought the dicotyledens in my lawn in a battle I seemed to be loosing, leaving sparse clumps of monocotyleden grass clinging to the soil like wisps of hair on a balding mans head. Which annoyed me until my housemate reminded me that it wasn't as if I spent hours outside admiring my lawn. True. There's been some gigging too, and I'll write about that in due course, after submitting some reviews to teletext. So keep a look out this week, I may get something published. i hope so.

what's that

Started my drive to work this morning and oddly I could only see about 20m ahead. Well, I tried washing the windscreen, but it made no difference. Even the usual land marks were obscured, only becoming visible as I got closer, like they hiding, and then jumping out to reveal themsleves at the last minute. When I got to the motorway it all made sense. Those great big signs that tell you not to drink and drive etc today proclaimed 'FOG'.

Of course


That's why I couldn't see very well, it was foggy.



In other news, I recently bought a new razor. In fact this story starts years ago, when I used to use a Gillette razor that contained two blades. I bought it cos the advert said it was the best a man can get. It worked fine. Then they invented a razor with an extra blade that they claimed enabled you to travel three times the speed of sound, or somesuch. That also worked, but was slightly more expensive. Now they have five blades, where will it stop. I thought three was excessive. What next, I'll soon be using a razor as big as my face with a hundred blades in it. No more. I recalled my dad saying he also had had enough with the expensive razors and was now using disposable ones from tesco that were equally as good and cheaper. Excellent I thought, and purchased some to try this week. Three blades as well. Yesterday I tried gliding the blade across my face and I kid you not a wood planer would have been better. Had to check in the mirror that my face was still there! It was uncomfortable and worse than using a bic razor. There's a lesson here, don't accept frugal advice from your dad, you'll end up eating no frills food, scraping your face off and wearing abbibas trainers with wrongler jeans. They're just as good as the originals.

yeah - right (!)

The Alchemist

Went to the lyceum last night to watch a performance of the alchemist. You may recall I read the novel last year. It's a delightful little story about chasing your dreams, and the fortunes and struggles that ensue. Being a highly narrative story I had wondered how well it would transfer to the stage, but the adaptation worked wonderfully, performed by 5 actors, interchanging between narration and characters. Using movable blocks as stage props worked wonderfully too.

It was a whole different experience to when I went to see the cherry orchard. This time the audience was mainly under 35, which was refreshing. I'd booked an aisle seat for added comfort, cos I find the leg room quite small in that theatre. As I took my seat before the performance, some of the actors were roaming around in character selling programmes. I don't usually bother wasting my money on such things, but I really enjoyed the 'hard sell'. The programme came in a bag with sand from the dessert, a stone and a chocolate. I had to bargain hard with the girl, who was really quite attractive, who played fatima. I'd argued that she should be selling them cheap as they only had a few dates of the tour left. It was fun.

Seeing the story all in one go reminded me of its simplicity, it really does have an uplifting theme. Being led to chase ones dreams, but not a quest of pre-ordination where everything falls into place, but one that demands decisions and endurance. A path that includes loss and suffering, but one in which all things conspire to ultimately help achieve your aim. Along the way we meet others who have become comfortable in their routine and have forgotten their dreams. It's inspiring. Whilst there I bumped into an older lady who i know from churchy stuff. We were at conference together a few years ago. It was nice to see someone I knew and have a good chat. She had actually come thinking it was another play called the alchemist! However, despite that she had enjoyed it.

Little things

CC came over on sunday and we went for a wander around the bole hills after lunch, meeting up with ss. Good to see them both and to hear their stories of uni life. As we were meandering along the footpaths we passed a guy carrying a hoe, he'd obviously been out in the allotments. Following him was an attractive girl, probably his girlfriend. I turne to cc and said, 'check out that guy, out with his ho'. It amused me for ages, did that. Talking of amusing tales, I remembered one from work that I was retelling to cc and ss. I was down on site in Mansfield working in the site cabin, showing some of the guys how to work this computer package. We were all huddled around my computer at a desk in the cabin when in walked the cleaner. She had in her hand an upturned broom, it was a huge stage broom, almost a metre in width. 'Sorry to bother you', she said, 'but I can't seem to find my broom, I can only find this one and it is too big. My broom is much smaller, if you see it can you let me know'.
No one had seen her broom,
'I don't know where it could be, but we'll buy you another one', said the project manager and as she left and shut the door he turned to us all and said 'it'll be the guys out on site, they'll have had it at lunch time to play quidditch.'

Yorkshire walking

Jonah had invited me over for the weekend as I'd been feeling a bit down, I decided to take him up on the offer and drove over to his house after work on friday. We spent an enjoyable evening drinking decent beer in some local pubs and then watching some phoenix nights. We were able to share our stories of failed relationships and wonder what next. It was also good to share a few humourous tales too. Had a bit of a lie in and read for a while this morning before getting some breakfast and setting off for a walk around the village of askrigg. At the start of the walk we had to traverse a river via means of rocks placed as stepping stones. I followed Jonah and was nonchelently crossing the river when Jonah slipped off the next stone ending up with a very wet leg. It was then that I noticed the rocks were covered in a glaze of algae slime that was impossible to get a foothold on and suddenly the 30cm gap to the next rock seemed a gulf that was impossible to negotiate. All of a sudden I thought my next step would result in a broken ankle. It was strange the psychological fear that Jonah's slip had conjured and I finished crossing in an ungainly manner of leaps and squat using my arms to steady myself. It really was very slippy. The scenery in the area is stunning and the walk was great, jonah identifying birds and wildlife whereas I admired discarded farm machinery and pondered the construction of roman roads and dry stone walls. A nice 8 or so mile stroll. Just need to find some time to work on my book, which would've been my alternate option for today.

Another Review

I was a bit late, but I finally got round to submitting a review of the malcolm middleton gig to teletext this wednesday and it was published on friday. I really enjoy seeing these published, though I'm not sure how many people actually read them.


You can click on the image to see it larger

Ice Cream

Had a fairly rubbish week, I feel like I'm caught in a cycle of despondancy that I'm finding it hard to break. My dislike for my job and commuting are not helping. On thurs i went round to m&e for a house group social. M had prepared a number of desserts for us to sample, including three different home made ice creams. They were delicious. It was nice to get out and enjoy some company. On the down side, I was tod that someone would be bringing uno to play. I'm not a fan of this game, it's the card equivalent of beetle drive and should be banned due to the lack of skill involved. I think it stems from my competetive nature when it comes to using my mind, that I somehow feel cheated if the odds of my winning are slashed due to the cards I am dealt. It actually made the game a little more enjoyable as everyone mocked my hatred for the game and upon winning the winner would claim their position was acheived through skill.

Malcolm Middleton

Thursday night i went to manchester with ad to go and see malcolm middleton. The one time guitarist with arab strap was promoting his third album, and i enjoy his music. Combining a rare gift in lyrical astuteness with a superb guitar playing ability. Most of his lyrics tend to be down beat and self loathing, covering failed relationships and sadness. He sings how he wishes he could have a run of happiness and then he could put away his guitar, as he would have lost his depression induced inspiration, and just go and get a job like 'normal people'. Despite the sombre nature of the lyrics, they are delivered with wit and sly self mocking accompanied with upbeat melodies. In fact, I think Malcolm is one of the best guitarists I have seen, effortlessly moving from complex plucking melodies, to riff driven noise. He makes guitar playing look simple. For the most of the gig he was backed by an able posse of musicians, including Jenny Reeve, who also supported. I'd seen Jenny a few times as part of the live band touring with arab strap where she would play violin. This evening she performed as 'strike the colours' and showed that she was also an accomplished guitarist and decent singer, and then later as part of malcolm's band she added keyboards to her reportoir.

I was also able to tick off another blogger in my 'i spy' book of bloggers on my blogroll. I came across being felicity whilst searching reviews for an arab strap gig at the leadmill i went to ages ago. It was a good review and i left a comment, she returned the comment and thought that she could discern the back of her head in one of my photos of the gig. Read a few more of her entries and enjoyed them and so she was added to my reading list. When i arrived at the gig with ad we found a couple of spare seats and sat at a table whilst i looked around the audience to see if i could spot her. Well it occured to me that i didn't really know exactly what she looked like having only seen glimpses in photos. Looking around the venue i spotted a good candidate sitting near the front. But how to find out for sure without it being embarrasing for both parties if the answer is a negative:
'excuse me, do you write a blog?'
'a what?'
'a blog, i thought you were someone whose blog i read'
'weirdo'

thankfully it was and we had some good conversations using the gift of speech, as opposed to using these new fangled electronic medias.

Photos of the gig, on my flickr page, and a clip of Malcolm performing 'Monday Night Nothing' on youtube below:

Paintings

Popped over to see my m+d this afternoon for mothering sunday. They've been busy 'down sizing' and my mum had come across a bunch of paintings that me and my sister had painted whilst at nursery school. It was quite amusing looking through them, but I was quite impressed with my abstract work, with the vivid colours and expressive brush strokes. I don't think they would look out of place in the tate! My sister's paintings tended to be mainly pictures of the family and cat. It was possible to distinguish what the characters were, and they were generally anatomically correct. Which may be all impressive for a three year old, but they weren't worthy of the tate modern, they looked like kids paintings. Mine on the other hand.....

you can check them out on flickr here

the cherry orchard

Went to the crucible last night to watch the cherry orchard. It's first time i've been to the crucible in ages, i'd forgotten what an excelent intimate venue it is. The stage is encircled by the audience, with the performance taking place within the centre. Interesting to see the types of ppl who go to the theatre, there were many from the older generations and i thought this is just like going to church. There were a couple of students in the mix, plus a few, that i can only describe as guardian readers who eat only organic food. Those people hovering on the border of eccentricity. and me. I was really impressed with the stage, and the lighting was also superb, they had employed a 'hazy fog' effect through which the lighting diffused. A couple of women in the row in front of me wre quite amusing as they were busy cleaning their glasses 'ooh, it's all hazy, I think i've got something on my glasses'.

I'm no theatre critic, but i thought the performance were very good, and there was an almost audible gasp of excitement in the room as joanna lumley appeared. However it was the story line of the cherry orchard that i found most fascinating. Set against the backdrop of social reform in russia at the turn of the 20th centuary. After the emancipation of the serfs, the lowest social class were able to amass their own fortunes, if lucky and astute business characters. Whilst the aristocrats frivoled their wealth away. In this play a rich landowner has amounted huge debts and her estate and cherry orchard need to be auctioned off. The newly rich 'serf' of the play tries to advise new ways to use the land of the cherry orchard for profit, the building of holiday homes. But the aristocrat will have none of it, the cherry orchard symbolises her youth and status and it will not change. Inevitably the orchard is sold and she loses everything. Reminded me a bit of the way church buildings are often revered to the detrament of doing the work of the gospel. All effort and money ploughed into maintaining a crumbling relic. The play is full of other interesting and amusing characters, including the left wing 'perpetual student' who offers great idealistic advice to one and all on the purposes and goals of life. This student reminded me a lot of Raskolnikov in crime and punishment. Probably reflective of the growing bolshevik movement of the day. I think I may have to read some more of anton chekov's work, as this was very enjoyable.

Arcade fire live review

My review of the arcade fire gig made it onto teletext. Thanks to my dad for the photo, as i don't seem to be able to tune my tv into the analogue channels.

How I bought the Neon Bible and other stories..

Went into town on saturday, and I really enjoyed my morning wandering around. Sheffield is an excellent place. Went to the urban deli for a bit to write and drink, and I got a text from phil asking if i was going to the chesterfield match. I didn't realise we were playing at home, and i had my mind set on a relaxing day, so decided not to go. After the abysmal performance i'd witnessed on wednesday it was not a difficult decision to make. Next it was time for a trip to fopp, always a dangerous shop for me as i always buy more than i bargained for. They didn't have the limited edition arcade fire album, but i did come away with 2 cds (anthony and the johnsons and low) and 'children of men' novel. Had to go to a bigger store for the arcade fire album, more on that later. Wandered down to the crucible to pick up a ticket for 'the cherry orchid' and noticed that the lyceum is showing 'the alchemist' which i read recently, so i got a ticket for that too. Feeling rather cultured with my theatre tickets, i decided to wander up to the millenium gallery where they had a free abstract exhibition on. There were some striking pieces, but one particularly caught my attention. Maya Roos had created a giant 'portrait' of coloured lines and boxes influenced by an image captured from norton disc clen up application. I was amazed that this huge piece seemed to be painted directly on to the wall and asking a curator I discovered that it had taken three weeks to paint by a team of three and at the end of the exhibition it would be sanded off and the wall repainted. The transient nature of this work made me admire it more. Got home and saw the football results come in, lamenting a further chesterfield defeat. A managerial change can be the only answer to this dreadful slide towards relegation, the last few games have been void of any ideas and passion. Phil was in agreement, and yesterday Roy graciously stepped down from his managerial role. I'd've preffered to see whole sale changes to the backroom staff instead of promotion of assistant manager, but we'll see if the performances turn.

Ok, so the Neon Bible, the second album from arcade fire. Sorry if you had to read so far if you were only interested in my review, and if you're not interested then you can stop reading now! Their first album, funeral, was my favourite album of 2005, barely a flaw on it, quite superb, so it's always a slight worry whether a new release would match the standard already set. After a few listens i think it is close to reaching those high standards. The neon bible is distinctly arcade fire, yet different from funeral. Produced like some overwhelming symphony the songs form a score of melancholy of the futility of life, or more accurately those bodies that seek to bring meaning, politics, religion. Yet there is some sense of upbeat within the tunes that make you want to dance too. The layers of instrumentation are really quite superb, without becoming some pompous over produced nonsense, they manage to balance grandiose church organs, harmonic choirs, flowing strings, bombastic brass, with guitars and drums. Some of the church organ sounds are immense, apparently recorded at some church, you can imagine some giant gothic cathedral with a bank of a thousand pipes springing forth from some huge organ. Certainly a top candidate for album of the year. And it's making my dreadful commutes all the more bearable as I blast it out from my iPod.

arcade fire

It was an early morning start as I had a work related course to attend in manchester at 0830, so I left the house at dawn, the sky just turning blue, but the moon still prominant. In fact on my way up the hill, the moon appeared above the horizon looking huige and bulbous, but as I got higher, the angles changed lifting the moon from it's horizon hugging position and the satellite rapidly shrunk. It's a bizarre optical illusion. The course wasn't too tortuous, and at lunch I picked up the last minute ticket for the gig I had purchased, that had been mailed to the course venue. It's presence helped get me through the afternoon session, a slight excitement building. Once the course ended around 4 ther was a swift and mass exodus of the participants as they headed out to beat the rush hour traffic. I meandered down to a pub for a drink and to finish reading a book. After some food the traffic had died down and I managed to navigate myself to the apollo, spend some time in a pub awaiting the door opening. There was quite a queue, but it quickly dwindled as the doors opened, a very efficient scanning system was used for swift entry. I've not been to the apollo before, and it is a very nice medium sized venue. A theatre with the seat removed in the stalls, leaving a slightly sloping floor aiding good vantage points, even from the back. Being early I hovered neaer the front and watched the roadies set up the equipment. They seemed to be having problems with a theramin, and it was amusing watching them frantically waving their arms around in the air in an effort to get it to work. Patrick Wolf was the support act, a camp and flambouyant character whose music is worthy of further investigationn I think. Quite heavily string laden, but with hauntingly god melodies. Finally just after 9 arcade fire took to the stage. A vast array of instruments, organs, keyboards, hurdy-gurdys, strings, guitars and horns were used to create their eclectic art rock symphonies. It really was a fantastic spectacle. The only down side being the sound is obviously mixed for the centre of the auditorium, whereas near the front, the bass speakers take precedence so the mix of higher frequencies was too low at this position, due to the fact that the speakers producing the higher mix were hanging about 10m above my head! The other annoying thing were some idiot students near me, who seemed excited to see the band but then continued to chat through most of the songs. During 'power out' win butler invited some of the audience on to the stage, which included said students who cavorted around in an awful display of egotism, especially the boys. Arms aloft and chests out, they really detracted from a fantastic song. They seemed to think that the crowd were cheering them and were feeding from this in some kind of frenzy, it was a sad spectacal. No doubt they know think they are great, thing is, I didin't know who they were, don't know and don't care. Which is true for 99% of the audience. The arcade fire on the other hand.... There were some other audience members onstage watching the perfomance for it's entirity and they acted with much more dignity. The gig mainly consited of tunes from their new record, the neon bible, interspersed with tunes from funeral. From first impressions neon bible is going to be another great record. The musician ship of arcade fire is remarkable as they inter-change instruments and vocals. It's great to see, though sometimes breaks the flow of the concert as you are left waiting between songs as the band members swap instruments. Well worth paying slightly over the odds for the ticket.

most of my photos didn't come out, but a few are available on flickr arcade fire set