Nearing xmas, we can all expect to see Aardman Animations' familiar plasticine characters on-screen very soon. In fact they've come sooner than we all expected for the purpose of a new and very astute ad campaign for Leonard Cheshire Disability. Not only is the Creature Discomforts campaign a fantastic concept well delivered but I'm also very proud to say that my sister Lucy played the pivotal role in publicising it's launch all over the globe.
Leonard Cheshire provide innovative services that give disabled people the opportunity to live life their way. Having worked with similar underlying concepts at the Orpheus Centre in recent years and being an advocate of accessible web design in my career it's a cause I feel close to.
Creature Discomforts for Leonard Cheshire
Russell Malone
I recently looked up who played the guitar track on Diana Krall's version of I Can't Give You Anything But Love. Here he is, it's Russell Malone, with a very nice piece of music by the BeeGees. Check out those harmonics near the end, gorgeous.
The Chalk & Channel Way
All hail Thule roof/bike rack systems! So impressed am I with mine that I felt it required a decent test. Looking for a gap in the weather, yesterday appeared on the radar to be our window of opportunity. An immediate coastal ride beckoned, and the chance to put our digital cameras to the test. We planned to follow National Cycle Network Route #2 on the South coast of Kent between Folkestone and Dover. An undulating, eight-mile trip following the white cliff-tops over the Seven Sisters, commonly known as the Chalk and Channel Way. A fitting location for Remembrance Sunday, but no bluebirds in sight.
From the car park to the top of the cliffs should have been a steady climb making use of the local one-way traffic system. Though halfway to the top of the Warren, Tay spied (past her enormous pink beanie) a dubious shortcut leading us up the remainder of the hill almost in a straight line. Scrambling up and slipping down the grass bank with our bikes was a great warm-up for the thighs. I'm sure the longer, road-based route is just as challenging given it's extra mile in length but short of time we got ourselves up on top with haste, making the most of the day.
Once aloft, it was all stunning scenery to the right, expensive property with oversized windows to the left, and - according to signs dotted around the memorials - adders beneath! Rolling towards Lydden Spout a rainbow unmasked itself perfectly in front of us. Had we cameras with wide enough lenses, powerful enough zooms or rich enough colour depth then perhaps our attempts at recording it would have been less frustrating. Still, a full bow of colour is not to be sniffed at, even in the chill of November.
Route #2 takes a turn for the town once Dover begins to loom around the last bend. It was perhaps a little naughty but the walkers' path along the edge of Shakespeare's Cliff seemed so much more inviting, despite two fences standing in the way. Not a soul but us were on that cliff during Sunday's sunset. The last of the slippery climbs took us to the highest we'd been all day, and made great use of the waning light. Descending the dark side of the hill we met Shetland ponies and a slightly worse-for-wear hitch hiker, desparate for someone to give him a lift, or a light for the roll-up attached to his lower lip. My thoughts, however, were back in Evans cycle shop where a salesman had sold me an expensive new tyre under the premise that it's knobbly grip formation held self-cleaning properties. . .
It was a one-way ride for us in the end. Lack of handlebar-mounted LEDs and fairly crispy ears meant that for us this short November day ended with a train journey back to the car. Possibly a slight cop-out but at least a 15-minute chance to immediately recount the views of the day. By this point the temperature had severely dropped. Rolling down the hill to Folkestone harbour we passed the first car park that we'd tried to enter earlier in the day, and remembered the height restriction bar above the entrance that I spotted with a full six-inches to spare. That's the only fault I can attach to the Thule system, it's so good you forget you're hauling two bikes about, even on top of a meagre VW Polo. With chapped lips, streaming eyes & petrified bones in our hands there was no greater pleasure than throwing our steeds up on the roof and locking them down within one minute, roll on the next ride I say.
Montiverdi, with Kate & Nathan
As I grew up I often listened to my mother singing soprano lines in practice for her choir's next performance. Though it's not so often in life you find yourself living with a professional opera singer. Having emmense volume Kate's voice carries up through every floor of our house & waking to the sound of her vocal warm ups is really quite pleasant. Lately, I've found myself living with two opera singers after Kate's boyfriend Nathan joined us in the house. Not content with living together, right now they're also working together for English National Opera, performing in Monteverdi's Coronation of Poppea at the London Coliseum. With company tickets my parents, Tay & I watched the show from the stalls.
"There's Kate, she's first to sing" I advised my parents. Sure enough, out strutted Kate in a mauve wig, transparent PVC dress and six-inch high heels. "Oh yes, we saw her earlier when we delivered a basket of flowers backstage" says Mum. Right, no need to point her out then! The tone for the whole show was set. Performers scantily clad in neon colours, women playing men, men dressed as women, simulated sex on-stage... In short, this modern adaptation was debauched, what an introduction to the opera!
Despite this production being sung in English with the lyrics displayed above the stage I did find opera a tad heavy-going. The first half featured the introduction of most of the characters which meant listening to singular voices each tell their part of the story for an hour or so. Of course we're somewhat biased but Tay & I agreed that Kate's voice, in comparison to other sopranos on the night (including the leading lady), had a particularly sweet tone, like a nice, soft, oval wine gum. Mmmmm, lovely. Nathan's turn to sing ushered in some welcome harmonies. From there the show slowly swelled into the crescendo of the majority of the cast during the coronation scene.
Looking back at the show as a whole I really did enjoy it. Opera has a canny knack of drawing you in to the more delicate parts of a scene. It can feel drawn out at times and it's hard at first to merge with a story told only in song. But given a real chance, some undivided attention and an appreciation for the acted, sung and orchestral elements of the show it's a technically amazing and powerfully creative performance to watch.
Choir Crashing
My flux capacitor has been working overtime of late. Visits to the Surrey University campus in Guildford for late night jams in the practice rooms with Tay have been taking my mind back in time to my student years. Tight deadlines for spoken assignments have kept Tay too busy to play piano this week but if possible she wouldn't miss out on choir practice. So neither did I!
Heavy rains fell all morning drenching the entire chorus of students on their way to Studio 1. So wide had the heavens opened that the regular conductor Russell Keable spent his time stuck on the M40 behind an accident. A shame for Choir Crashers like me as his eccentric warm-up routines are apparently great fun; 1... takita 1 2... takita 1 2 3... takita 1 2 3 4... takita tah! (All complete with stretching exercises and loose-limb movements!)
Once inside I did my best to blend in with the educational crowd. In true student style I too had forgotten my sheet music. Standing with the Bass register I marked myself at a B+ for picking up the bottom line of I'm Getting Married In The Morning followed by I Could Have Danced All Night. Choir Maths Level 1: Basses + Baritones + Tenors 1 & 2 + Altos 1 & 2 + Sopranos 1 & 2 = 8 lines of harmony. When all our voices came together the sound in the studio was awesome. A shorter than usual session unfortunately meant cutting Auf-fer-stehn out of the reportoire. Damn, I could have done with the German lesson so close to our trip to Berlin on Monday.
Coming back to the future we travelled via the scenic route and stopped to take a gander at the rainbow-coloured views over the Albury Downs at Newlands Corner. Fantastic.
Classical Guitar
There are two YouTube videos I've chanced upon recently that require posting. Enjoy!
Bohemian Rhapsody - played by Edgar Cruz
Super Mario Bros - played by someone who probably should pop his name up next to the video!
Rodrigo y Gabriella
After one replacement battery and four years of near constant use my second generation iPod finally spun down. A disaster as such for me as I threw out my old portable CD player with the advent of the little white iMusthaves. For almost two weeks (an eternity I know . . .) my ears have taken leave from the thumping assault of Django and The Rosenberg Trio that they're used to on public transport. So where do ears go on holiday?
MEXICO! A CD kindly bought by Simon & Carolyn for my birthday recently has taken residence in this particular holiday camp. Rodrigo y Gabriella are an act not to dismiss by the odd artwork of their album cover. I'd briefly seen this reviewed in Word Magazine and sitting at the front of music stores but thought no further of it.
This is the kind of music that makes me want to learn these fantastic rhythms. It's anything but easy though. Some serious rasgueado practice is called for to play like a true Mexican reptile. Now that my replacement iPod has finally been delivered my ears have returned from their vacation with a much appreciated gift. I can once more enjoy decent entertainment on the Tube journey to work, drift away with the fairies and miss my stop at Waterloo while my brain has flown to Seville for an intimate flamenco show outside a tapas bar . . .
Photosynth
I usually try to keep my work life out of this blog but a link received from Leon late tonight has blown my mind as to the future of web design. This is Photosynth, a piece of software which, well, just watch the video...
Acoustic Rock Week 2007
So, that's another week of music and madness at the Orpheus Centre resolved. Working at last year's short course was a wonderful experience and round two entirely lived up to it's expectations. Once again head tutor Russ Barrow led the jamboree to greatness with the help of Caliko members Jon and Jo, and new friend Andrew Coleman, a fantastic pianist and singer-songwriter from Liverpool.
This year's course featured no less than twenty students. Writing a song with each of them was a solid task and remembering so many arrangements during rehearsals really took some doing. Without this year's extra enablers to help compose our ditties putting Friday night's production together would have been somewhat impossible.
Many songs were written by students completing their last year at the Orpheus Centre, their lyrics reflecting the jumble of emotions that come bundled with leaving to start an independent life. Becky's strangely poignant Finding Home and Jenny's Big Impact brought this sentiment to the foreground beautifully. Some of the most impressive compositions effortlessly fell from tutor Andy Coleman's hands. Pat's Louise and Anna's Lost breezed with a wistful jaunt of Andy's pop style. A personal favourite was Nick, Jon and I introducing the second set with a Kelly Joe Phelps inspired country/blues tune, Dance With The Devil, which saw the resurrection of my dobro after a year of gathering dust.
Following last year's Flip-flop-flop-flip-flip-off, an updated aerial competition (also devised by Russ) featuring malteasers caught in the mouth from long-distance throws provided lunchtime entertainment for everyone on the course. First place went to Jon with a floor-less three out of three! Other amusing events during the course included the toaster overheating early one morning, filling the kitchen with smoke and resulting in pajama-clad enablers meeting at the fire point!
The concert was a sell out with just over ninety guests in the audience including my entire family, cheers for coming guys! Great props were employed; Veasna's backing band wore Tae Kwon Do head bands made from toilet paper and Atalia and Jenni dressed as matadors during Matt's soundbeam solo in Spain.
Once again I'll be producing the DVD of the show, the best tracks of which will by finding their home on YouTube and, of course, right here on Bob's Times. Carrying my musical equipment into my house after the constant, raucous happenings of The OC cues an immediate feeling of boredom, despite the need for rest. After the week of developments I've returned to London to meet some friendly new neighbours moving in next-door. It seems that finding home in some shape or form has been the trend of late . . .
London Symphony Orchestra
If ever I did have a musical meander, it was tonight. Leaving work with the plan to go straight home I noticed the usual summer stage out on Canada Square Park. A minor detour took me to tonight's gig, the London Symphony Orchestra playing the themes of Hollywood; ET, Saving Private Ryan, Lord of the Rings, and so many more including - as a celebration of it's 30th anniversary - a medley of Star Wars classics.
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