Five years time; it's five years later

Having read a couple of articles about Noah and the Whale and Laura Marling recently, I've only just realised the connection between them, that Laura was not only on the Whale's first album, 'Peaceful, the world lays me down' (with the single Five Years' Time,  plus 2 Bodies 1 Heart and Shape of My heart),but was in a relationship with Charlie Fink, and that 'The First Days of Spring' which I have and love is all about their break-up.

Charlie Fink says that their latest album, 'The Heart of Nowhere' , released 6th May, was inspired by  a close friend getting engaged recently, and his realisation that it's a landmark moment when your first friend gets married. Hardly surprising coming from a young 26 year old, whose band is named after their collective favourite film 'The Squid and the Whale' (the story of a divorce seen from the perspective of two young boys) and its director Noah Baumbach.

The album includes a track 'Silver and Gold', which begins 'I was looking for Harvest but I found Silver and Gold', all about discovering Neil Young, who himself wrote 'Only love can break your heart' and 'Heart of Gold' - on the album 'Harvest'. Neil Young was an influence on the band and on Laura Marling.
Marling's first album, 'Alas I cannot Swim' released in 2008 when she was just 18, and nominated for a Mercury Music prize, was produced by Fink. After her relationship with him, she was linked with Marcus  Mumford of Mumford and Sons (he plays on some of her recordings) but they separated in 2010, the year she was again nominated for the Mercury prize, for her second album, 'I speak because I can'.

Now with the release of 'Once I was an eagle' she is quiet about any possible relationship, but has moved to Los Angeles where she says she has to do 'a lot less explaining about herself'; she claims to find Americans more poetic, London life hemmed her in. In 2012  she toured the West Coast  in the manner of Joni Mitchell in her early days, who she is often compared to, without a band or roadies, just herself and a hire car, calling it the Working Holiday tour. In America it's easier to be alone without being lonely, she maintains. (It was in Los Angeles in the 60's that Neil Young met Stephen Stills; in California  Stills and Graham Nash met David Crosby, who also introduced them to Joni Mitchell, and CSN and Y were formed).

So 2008 saw the release of Marling's debut album, Alas I cannot swim' and the re-release of 'Five Years' Time'. Here we are five years later, it took me a while to discover both acts, and I'm at last putting the pieces together.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8YCSJpF4g4

Birds, Birds, Birds....

Tippi Hedren

So having seen the Voice Project's Ideas of Flight last weekend, it keeps striking me how birds are very much in the public consciousness at the moment, the Zeitgeist or what!? There's Peter Cowdrey's compositions and works where he takes birdsong, slows it down, records humans imitating it, then plays the recordings back to birds who recognise and respond! http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/sep/30/claxton-norfolk-beautiful-music-birdsong


Waveney and Blyth Valley Arts are focusing on 'The Famous Five' for their project this year, taking groups of people into local schools to introduce young people to five of the region's most interesting feathered inhabitants.http://www.waveneyandblytharts.com/

Among young songsmiths there's Beth Orton who professes a personal link with birds and uses their song in her latest cd Sugaring Season and its accompanying videos, the single 'Magpie was released last autumn; Laura Marlings latest album due out 27th May is entitled 'Once I was an eagle', and includes the tracks I was an eagle, Master hunter and Little Bird.http://www.lauramarling.com/

Even Hitchcock's film The Birds and bird-beaten actor Tippi Hedren seem to have been featured in the media ad infinitum recently, in tv's The Girl, etc.

This year's cold winter has driven more unusual birds into our gardens in desperation for food, but that doesn't mean there are increasing numbers, though perhaps we are more aware of them.And in the words of an earlier singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, 'Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you got til it's gone...'

http://bethorton.wordpress.com/page/2/

Ideas of flight

Last weekend as part of the Norwich Arts Festival I saw the Voice Project's Ideas of Flight, Sian Croose's most ambitious venture yet, which combined  100 voices, plus soloists, Andy Sheppard on saxophone (I've seen him perform with the Voice Project a couple of years back), the Trio Zephyr string quartet, together with the  beautiful visual treat of the nave of the Cathedral covered in the projected shadows of bird flight. Devised by Sian and Jonathan Baker, with poetry by among others Andrew Motion and Maura Dooley, put to music by Jonathan plus Karen Wimhurst, Barbara Thompson and Orlando Gough, the evening was rich with soothing music interspersed by the singers' impersonations of birdsong.
'Here are the sky-nails they asked you for
So long ago
and this their purpose,
in fixing our eyes to the heavens a moment
the heart lifts'   Maura Dooley
 http://www.voiceproject.co.uk/   http://voiceproject2.wordpress.com/2013/02/04/19th-february-ideas-of-flight-voice-project-choir-taster-session/
Afterwards we followed the magical stiltwalkers of the Companie des Quidams, swathed like Arabs in volumnious white fabric, out of the Cathedral where they draped themselves against the Cathedral entrance as if they were part of its stone decoration, then around Cathedral Close, where their fabric tranformed into giant lanterns.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76ln3BycITo http://www.quidams.com/Reve-d-Herbert.html?lang=en 

The festival continues until 26th March   http://www.nnfestival.org.uk/ http://www.edp24.co.uk/mobile/news/norfolk_concert_series_is_inspired_by_the_songs_of_birds_1_2188477

Don't worry about the pucker, it's only Seersucker

Watching the Great British Sewing Bee, I've just found out that seersucker comes from an old Hindustani word meaning milk and sugar, because of its distinctive texture, smooth and bumped all at once. It's a fabric that makes you long for the summer, puckered cotton, so never needing ironing, oh joy, and cool because it is of necessity loose fitting. Often white and blue, it can be checked or striped, usually in summer colours obviously. I used to have a brilliant dress in this kind, forgiving, fabric, but foolishly got rid of it when it didn't fit me- which I think it would again now, that'll teach me!
Originally popular with British colonials, especially for men's jackets, then later for uniforms as so easy to wash. However one reason it's not so popular now is that it tends to be expensive because of the slow weaving speed. Shame, I'm sure with a few more imaginative uses of colour it could make a big comeback!

S.O.S ......Save Our Shops!

              Saolré Irish knit design has just supplied one of the top 8 voted favourite shops in Ireland, Pebbles boutique in Schull, West Cork.
Also supplying the very new Jackdaw gallery in Kinvara Co. Galway.
Individually handmade Wraps, cuffs and neckpieces of knit created in the natural yarn of a blend of kid mohair and silk, inspired by seashores along the west coastline of Ireland.
INDEPENDENT RETAILERS form the backbone of Irish life – in both rural and urban communities. They are, first and foremost, enthusiasts and fans. They welcome you in, share their passions and their favourite finds with you.
These shops champion local craftspeople, food producers, artists and services and offer more than just a point of sale: they help you to the car with your briquettes and always put your favourite magazine aside (they know you’ll be in for it eventually).
Theirs is a David-vs-Goliath struggle against huge chains with more resources and more cost-effective buying platforms, yet these shops lure us in, time and again. What every customer get is enthusiasm and expertise, a desire to share knowledge and an understanding that you, the customer, is also knowledgeable. Browsers are as welcome as buyers.
Time spent in these shops is time well spent. You walk away feeling enriched by the conversation, the goods you saw and maybe bought. And you also know that you can ring them afterwards and get great after-sales service.
Our streets and communities need these individuals to keep doing what they do.

Fifty love

The Guardian Saturday supplement published an article by Jess Cartner-Morley last week, her choice of the 50 'best dressed over 50'. Now part of me wants to take issue about the whole idea of it being a challenge to even think of such a list, or that over fifty year olds are forced to rely on snappy dressing to make any sort of impact. Also, the list  was heavily weighted in women's favour, 34 in all, so I'd like to consider a bit of parity here; if it's important to flash style in your fifties, then blokes should too.  I also smarted on reading her introductory explanation about how 'when youth and beauty are taken out of the equation' there is suddenly a level field. So I'd start by saying that at least some of her choices are beautiful, and that beauty is possible after fifty, especially when it comes from inner qualities of calmness and experience. So, the 'nominees' I would agree on would be (her number one) Helen Mirren, Tilda Swinton, Judi Dench (whose name now is a by word for great in urban slang), Joanna Lumley, Kirsty Walk, Kristen Scott Thomas, Charlotte Rampling, Chrissie Hynde, Catherine Deneuve, Julianne Moore, Aung San Suu Kyi and yes, Mary Berry. But what happened to Meryl Streep, Susan Sarendon, Michelle Pfeiffer,  Nigella Lawson, Christine Lagarde, the glorious Maya Angelou who was eighty-five today (4th April) to name a few. And even Jo Brand is looking trendy and restyled nowadays. While we're on comediennes, what about Ruby Wax?
As for the male suggestions I agree with Jess on, the short list would be Willem Dafoe, Bryan Ferry, Paul Weller (the mod's mod!),Bill Nighy, Christopher Lee and Barack Obama. So a few I'd add to swell the ranks would be  Christopher Walken, especially as he can dance so well in a suit, David Bowie, Danny Boyle, who has been everywhere lately looking dapper to promote his new film, Jonathan Ross, yes the old bright jackets included, Tom Cruise and Ralph Fiennes both just scraping in at 50, Pierce Brosnan, Robert Palmer, whose name is surely synonymous with suits, Robert Redford, Michael Douglas, Patrick Stewart, Roger Moore, Harrison Ford, Liam Neeson,  Michael Caine, Lenny Henry when not wearing a red nose, Jon Snow, and Jools Holland.

Not quite 50, a few vacancies for later ideas!!

One million faces

   The above photo is from PORTRAIT SALON, a collection of portraits that have been entered for the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize at London's Portrait Gallery, the ones that didn't quite make it, or as they describe it a ' form of Salon des Refusés - an exhibition of works rejected from a juried art show - which has a long tradition as a fringe way of showcasing artists’ work that may otherwise go unseen.' A collection was highlighted in the Sunday Independent, and a larger sample was projected in venues in London, Brighton, Cardiff and Leeds last November. They can still be viewed at portraitsalon.tumblr.com. Since 99 per cent of entries don't make it to the Portrait Gallery, many by professional photographers, it's obvious there's going to be a lot to interest and impress among these, an amazing record of people in the 21st century.

Of course the other excellent way to view modern portraiture is to take a look at the many 'Humans of' Sites on Facebook, though the best is still the original Humans of New York by Brandon, who even covered a recent trip to Iran on the site, a very interesting project http://bit.ly/UGUtMx  .
But now he's back in New York, and he has an eclectic mix though his favourites seem to be lovers of all generations, children, and the most colourful residents. What's so impressive about Brandon is his ability to relate to his subjects in a very sympathetic but simple way, with his posts made more intriguing by short explanations or stories.