Ali Burns weekend

 As well as preparing for two gigs, at the Cut in Halesworth and the Greenpeace Autumn fair in Beccles Town Hall,  Heartbeat are looking forward to the approximately bi-annual autumn workshop we organise at Leiston Abbey, where we will be joined by another 25 or so women for a weekend of singing and eating, with a spot of walking too in the beautiful grounds and area, including leading down to the sea. This year we will be led by Ali Burns, who also joined us a few years ago, see below fifth from left, last year it was Helen Chadwick.All singing workshops are wonderful, but there is something very special about a whole weekend  as the songs can really get under your skin; plus the therapeutic benefits of eating together, walking together, and a freeform singalong in the evening only add to the pleasure and relaxation. Much of the material we perform is by Ali Burns, with whom we have developed a close relationship over the years.

 

African Harmony at the Cut

On Friday 6th September (7.30pm) we're having an evening of song and music inspired by the sounds of Africa at the Halesworth Cut, with local a cappella group Heartbeat and a trio of musicians led by kora player and singer Sefo Kanuteh. The concert is in aid of a Soth Afican non-profit organisation empowering women through enterprise, development and education, Iziko lo Lwasi Craftworkers, and their products will be on sale at the event.   www.izikoll.co.za



http://newcut.org/events/entry/976

Star-crossed lovers

Saddlers Wells have a new production of West Side Story until 22nd September.
http://www.sadlerswells.com/show/West-Side-Story-2013
The premiere in 1957 shocked audiences. As a child I was given a Princess ballet book every Christmas for a few years (!! I saw one in Oxfam recently and was tempted to buy it, it brought so many familiar images flooding back) and can remember the year West Side Story was featured alongside the tutus and swans, and the images of young men in jeans leaping through the streets of New York seared themselves on my memory. At about the same time our neighbour lent us the vinyl of the soundtrack, which I found mind-blowing. In an era of Pat Boone, Lonnie Donegan and Matt Monroe, it was more discordant than anything I'd ever heard. I loved it.
Of course since then we've had P J Proby singing Somewhere in dangerously tight trousers, and Keith Emerson's classical rock version of America, to name just one, plus the movie and many touring versions, one of which I saw a few years ago, and still loved. Watching the movie now,one thing that stands out is the vividness of its colour palette.

The story was originally going to be East Side Story, and had several holdups as it was seen as too depressing for producers to invest in it.
Of course the sorry story of the Jets and Sharks is based on the Montagues and Capulets of Romeo and Juliet, and it just so happens the third film version  of the Shakespeare play is out this year, with a script by Downton's  Julian Fellowes; Hailee Steinfeld, who shot to fame in the 2010 True Grit, plays Juliet; and Douglas Booth, previously in Great Expectations (2012), is Romeo. Filmed in Italy, it is supposedly closer to the Franco Zeffirelli 1968 adaptation, rather than Baz Lurhmann's 1996 modern-day version. The earlier film made spotting the different families easier by colour coding - the Capulets wore fiery colours, the Montagues watery blues and purples, as did Juliet also once she married Romeo.  And there was an early appearance of Keith Chegwin as a singing minstrel.  There's an urban myth that Olivia Hussey was only 15 at the time the film was released, so that she couldn't go to the premiere, whereas she was a year or two older.
 However, any controversy concerning the character's age is being avoided in this new film, as lovemaking scenes originally planned for a 20 year old actress were removed from the script once it was decided that 16 year old Hailee would have the role. Who plays Keith Chegwin I'm not sure.....
Meanwhile anyone wishing to see the original play will have to hurry along to The Shed where the National's  family friendly production is  on until 18th August,
http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2013/jul/29/romeo-and-juliet-review

More Mark Cocker and how to be in nature

More of Cocker's lore - it's not 'them' it's you, it's me, it's us. He's urging us not to blame faceless bureaucrats. 'We don't wish nature conservation to stand in the way of economic growth.' But we need to look at our own behaviour - still eating meat, still flying, still doing all the things we shouldn't. On a more positive note, he points out that if everyone's garden was planted with 50% native species, this would be an enormous boost to birds and insects: our gardens make up 1 million acres of British land. Native creatures need native plants.
I've known for a while that alien conifers are the temperate equivalent of a desert, what Iolo Williams (Springwatch presenter) calls war graves, their rows blocking out all other wildlife, with no sunlight or wild flowers managing to creep under their massive forms, but now I've read that heaths can be as sterile . I have lived in a wealthy person's playground, with pheasants diving in kamikaze fashion close to my wheels on my way to work. What sport there is in shooting something so apparently suicidal I'll never know. Yet even I was unaware that heather-rich environments are created merely for grouse to feed on new young heather shoots, which are created by burning the heather. This of course harms wildlife but also damages the environment, stripping the moor of carbon. Also the large quantities of lead shot used in this 'chasing game' are toxic.
Conservationists are suggesting we need more research into how wildlife aids our physical and mental wellbeing. The countryside is for most people a place of leisure, and sport is becoming increasingly adrenalin based, condensing a week's worth of physical activity into a small burst at the weekend. A binge in nature then back to work. Matthew Oates, a leading expert on how to manage land to conserve insect life, suggests we should be taking up activities that 'get us still and quiet in nature as opposed to charging through it.' More walking and foraging. More just being.
David Bond's new documentary, Project Wild Thing, grew out of his concerns that children playing outside has gone down by 50% in one generation, that this is the first generation to have a lower life expectation than their parents, due to obesity and inactivity. http://www.projectwildthing.com/


I'm the first to admit I don't know enough about wildlife, the lore of our forefathers seems to be slipping through our fingers like the sand that makes the concrete that gradually tidies our wilds. But at least I'm trying.

And there are small grains of hope - as Oates points out, the way butterflies bounced back from last year's disastrous summer was miraculous, shows us what he calls 'the power of nature when we stop interfering' ; the Forestry Commission are removing conifers from ancient woodlands; Mark Cocker has become a key player in New Networks for Nature, hoping to persuade all environmental charities to join in a festival of nature.  http://www.newnetworksfornature.org.uk/

My favourite redheads

I've just read an obituary about Karen Black, who died last week, where she is described as having a 'tornado of red hair'. I just recently re-watched the 70's version of Great Gatsby, which was a disappointing experience except for her performance as Myrtle, and keep meaning to see 'Five Easy Pieces' again after watching Jack Nicholson's stroppy behaviour in the diner scene  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wtfNE4z6a8 (not because of the strop but because it looks so well filmed) which also includes Ms Black. A favourite of Robert Altman, she starred and had cameo roles in a range of genres, including comedy and horror, but excelled in portraying offbeat complex characters.

One of my  favourite actors, Julianne Moore, another redhead, has a new film out, a modern version of Henry James's What Maisie Knew, the story of a divorce from a child's viewpoint.  In 2007 she also ventured into children's fiction, Freckleface Strawberry, a picture book about a little redhaired girl coming to terms with looking different. I've always enjoyed her performances, having seen her in countless films including the Hours, The End of the Affair, The Shipping News; like Karen Black she often plays trouble women. A youthful fifty year old, she continues to work regularly in main roles.

Amongst the younger generation of redhaired screen stars is Jessica Chastain, who played Brad Pitt's beautiful wife in Terrence Mallick's The Tree of Life. Her character, Mrs O'Brien, remembers a lesson about how people must choose the path of grace or of nature; while she embodies the former, her husband represents the latter. Ms Chastain's latest project is the Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby with James McAvoy, a drama told from his and her perspective.

Meanwhile on the small screen, Christina Hendricks holds out a torch not just for redheads but also the curved figure as Joan Harris in Madmen, though she is naturally blonde (and has been colouring her hair red since she was 10) and attacks journalists for focusing on her shape rather than her talent.

In the world of fashion there's Lily Cole who has recently moved into acting and environmental concerns, launching a range of womenswear for North Circular, whose products are made from rescued sheep.

As for the men, well there's obviously not so many as they don't often dye, but let's start with Damian Lewis, who I first noticed in the excellent 'Warriors', the 1999 tv drama about the Bosnian peacekeeping force (also starring a young unknown Malcolm  Macfadyen). He's in this year's new Romeo and Juliet, playing Capulet, filmed in Italy by director Carlo Carlei, with Douglas Booth as Romeo, lately seen as Boy George and Pip Pirrip on TV.

Then there's Michael Fassbender, currently working in a Terrence Mallick film about two intersecting love triangles in the music scene, also starring Cate Blanchett, who's not adverse to the red dye bottle herself as in Hanna, Shipping News and Bandits. Of Fassbender's role in the 2011 Jane Eyre, the director Fukunaga chose him rather than actors who may have looked more like Rochester because he had the spirit of the character. The thing that strikes me about this quick infantry of my favourite redheads is how often they are in roles which involve looking at the complex layers of relationships.