Good lord it has been a long time. In case any of you are wondering I'm still here, still alive and working full time at long last, making ends meet in BSB Whiteladies. It is reminiscent of the Forest of the Suicides as described in Dante's Inferno. But do not worry, I shan't do anything silly. I have Things To Do.
For this week I have been presented with a task, to make cakes for a tea party. It may sound frivolous but, like Algernon Moncrieff the frivolous things in life are those I take most seriously. Besides, I got to experiment with some new Nigella recipes, from her current book and series, Kitchen. Her writing is characteristically personable and helpful. Usefully, not all her recipes require expensive or specialist ingredients, so I've chosen two from the current batch: chocolate orange loaf cake and rasberry bakewell slices. So far the former is finished and I'm slightly reluctant to see it go tomorrow. Add some of my macaroons to the mix and it's not a bad bag from me. Frankly I could do this all day. This cooking and baking lark grows on me daily. I think if I absolutely had to give up the dizzying high of a stage I could just about manage it for smoked paprika and cinnamon. The smell of a kitchen is an intoxification all of its own, I find.
However my life does not yet teeter on the precipice of boredom, for at last thursday approaches. Ah, thursday the 30th, how I have waited for you. For then my first burlesque class for Daredevil Divas begins. Six classes of a variety of Burlesque, vaudeville and cabaret classes ending in a performance put together in less than 48 hours. I am excited beyond expression, I'm afraid, but I will make a point of updating this blog with my weekly adventures, as at last I shall have them. I have been looking for a way to get in to the world of burlesque and cabaret and I hope this will give me the inspiration I need, as without being a trained dancer I will need a hook. Much as I would love to bake indulgent cakes onstage that would take longer than the average striptease spot and would merely fill the venue with the pleasant smell of baking. Pleasant, but not necessarily titillating. Though now I think about it, I'm warming to combining Nigella's foody sexiness with Bobby Baker's performance genius. Something delicious or scary could come from that combination. That's going in the cerebral back burner.
Anyway this blog is to announce a future, more interesting blog that maybe springboards yet more interesting blogs for weeks to come. We could potentially all enjoy this. Or just me. We'll see.
Nigella's new show airs on BB2 at 8 on thursday the 30th. I shall have to iplayer it as I'm at class but I can already tell you her book is marvelous and full of good ideas, so do tune in.
TTFN
Showing posts with label bar work. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bar work. Show all posts
Monday, 27 September 2010
Wednesday, 4 August 2010
Summer Time, and the living is doable
I have been a little remiss lately with blog postings. This is mainly because I wanted to use this blog as a journal of my adventures here in Bristol and the number of adventures seems to have lessened slightly over the past couple of weeks. But fear not readers I am still alive, if not kicking and I am still functioning on the basic level of human ability.
My most recent adventure was bar work at WOMAD festival. I had no idea festivals had become such grown-up, middle class ventures. To be fair the festival is currently situated in the grounds of Charlton Park in Wiltshire (though sources tell me this will change next year- thoughts?) so I shouldn't have been surprised at the number of organic cafés run not by hopped but by farmer's wife matrons, purveyors of Gloucester Old Spot sausage sandwiches, pigs so thoughroughly pleased with their good breeding and care they happily signed their own death warrant in the foyer of the organic abattoir simultaneously agreeing to a press release fronted by Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall demonstrating their humane demise and subsequent deliciousness. I had one. It was alright.
As I was behind a bar for 30 of the 60 festival hours I didn't catch a great deal of music but there was a tremendous highlight on Thursday: The Bays and the Heritage Orchestra with Simon Hale and John Metcalfe. Yes it sounds nerdy but trust me on this. If the Bays come to your town/city/festival venue then you must see them and I will tell you why. These guys do not make recordings; they do not write songs. In a word where downloads are free and production levels often outweigh music quality The Bays are the embracing the live performance, making a niche of the you-had-to-be-there aspect of a real gig with real musicians. With a drummer, bassist, and two DJs they turn a gig into a full length set without any prior discussion. Add to that the Heritage Orchestra, a genius conductor and two composers (Hale and Metcalfe) writing music as they go, sending it straight to the ereader/music stands of the orchestra and throwing in film footage while they're at it and you've got a fontal lobe-meltingly wonderful 90 minutes. I have not seen this much talent showed off this skillfully in my short life. It's nearly two weeks since I saw them at the Big Red Tent out of curiosity, only now do I even know the name of the band but the music has stayed with me and image is indelible. The shining star of the set for me was conductor Jules Buckley at the core of this performance, taking newly written music, assigning parts and sending them to the orchestra members instantly and unthinkably conducting two DJs and a band.
This is young music talent at its best and, to my mind, exactly what contemporary music should be doing. The decline of interest in so-called classical music has nothing to do with the music or musicians: the listeners are at fault. They want their music safe, tame, believeing that somehow Beethoven would be horrified by Pink Floyd or that Mozart would loathe modern DJ equipment. This is simply not true, music has always embraced new technology and techniques. The Heritage Orchestra looked like they were having the time of their lives, relishing the chance to show an iTunes-hardened crowd just how clever classically trained musicians are. The crowd went through all manner of confusion, amusement, frustration and joy and even the most English among them (me) was jumping up and down like a maniac after 20 minutes of sheer musical excitement and did not stop till the end.
Don't look them up on YouTube, you won't get half the feel or experience of them live. Just go see them, and keep an eye out for Jules Buckely; if he's not a big name in music by 2020 I'll buy a straw hat and eat it. Live.
My most recent adventure was bar work at WOMAD festival. I had no idea festivals had become such grown-up, middle class ventures. To be fair the festival is currently situated in the grounds of Charlton Park in Wiltshire (though sources tell me this will change next year- thoughts?) so I shouldn't have been surprised at the number of organic cafés run not by hopped but by farmer's wife matrons, purveyors of Gloucester Old Spot sausage sandwiches, pigs so thoughroughly pleased with their good breeding and care they happily signed their own death warrant in the foyer of the organic abattoir simultaneously agreeing to a press release fronted by Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall demonstrating their humane demise and subsequent deliciousness. I had one. It was alright.
As I was behind a bar for 30 of the 60 festival hours I didn't catch a great deal of music but there was a tremendous highlight on Thursday: The Bays and the Heritage Orchestra with Simon Hale and John Metcalfe. Yes it sounds nerdy but trust me on this. If the Bays come to your town/city/festival venue then you must see them and I will tell you why. These guys do not make recordings; they do not write songs. In a word where downloads are free and production levels often outweigh music quality The Bays are the embracing the live performance, making a niche of the you-had-to-be-there aspect of a real gig with real musicians. With a drummer, bassist, and two DJs they turn a gig into a full length set without any prior discussion. Add to that the Heritage Orchestra, a genius conductor and two composers (Hale and Metcalfe) writing music as they go, sending it straight to the ereader/music stands of the orchestra and throwing in film footage while they're at it and you've got a fontal lobe-meltingly wonderful 90 minutes. I have not seen this much talent showed off this skillfully in my short life. It's nearly two weeks since I saw them at the Big Red Tent out of curiosity, only now do I even know the name of the band but the music has stayed with me and image is indelible. The shining star of the set for me was conductor Jules Buckley at the core of this performance, taking newly written music, assigning parts and sending them to the orchestra members instantly and unthinkably conducting two DJs and a band.
This is young music talent at its best and, to my mind, exactly what contemporary music should be doing. The decline of interest in so-called classical music has nothing to do with the music or musicians: the listeners are at fault. They want their music safe, tame, believeing that somehow Beethoven would be horrified by Pink Floyd or that Mozart would loathe modern DJ equipment. This is simply not true, music has always embraced new technology and techniques. The Heritage Orchestra looked like they were having the time of their lives, relishing the chance to show an iTunes-hardened crowd just how clever classically trained musicians are. The crowd went through all manner of confusion, amusement, frustration and joy and even the most English among them (me) was jumping up and down like a maniac after 20 minutes of sheer musical excitement and did not stop till the end.
Don't look them up on YouTube, you won't get half the feel or experience of them live. Just go see them, and keep an eye out for Jules Buckely; if he's not a big name in music by 2020 I'll buy a straw hat and eat it. Live.
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