Green Woodpecker and Green Cones!

June is certainly busting out all over in our neck of the woods! Today we had a visit from a green woodpecker, he was attacking the ants that nest in our lawn. One of the fir trees in the front garden has in the past produced the occasional cone, but this year seems to be sprouting them in profusion! Don't you just love this time of year :-) Happy mid-summer!!! :-) (Not my woodpecker pic.)

Gigging at The Grapes while England drew 2 - 2

Rigo Jancsi made the long trip to Sheffield tonight from Norwich to play at The Grapes. An unfortunate night for a gig as many of the audience were well distracted by the footballing adventures of England. For those who did make it into the compact upstairs studio, the boys put on a great show! Well done lads!

1930's Realism, Surrealism and Abstraction.

TMA04 is safely tucked in its envelope and has involved me in a journey through the 1930's - but what have I seen?! Well the question asked me to investigate each of the above art forms for their view on reality! I guess then that what I've seen is the 1930's almost in Cubist style from three different angles at the same time!

My first view was that given to me by the 'realists', lead by their instruction from Stalin to be the 'engineers of souls' and to glorify the working man, the revolution, and utopian future that would be there for all under communism. Strange as it may seen today, this idea found a resonance in the Depression years in the United States of America, as this form of realism was translated into a political tool to raise spirits and unite the nation. I looked particularly at the work of Ben Shahn, photographer and artist, whose work was linked to exposing social injustice.

The second angle, Surrealism, brought to me the harsh painful view of the Spanish Civil war and the oppresion of fascism with Picasso's Guernica. Its distorted figures, its silent scream, and its shards of pain and suffering. Although showing no naturalistic realism through its Cubist fragmentation and Surrealist distortion it delivers a view of reality that can leave no viewer in doubt as to the darkness of mans inhumanity to man. In Picasso's own words 'Art is a lie that makes us realise the truth'.

Finally, from what many claimed to be the empty and meaningless world of abstraction, the artist Ben Nicholson reveals his view, that abstract art is like religion, a quest for ultimate reality, offering a view of those ideas and beliefs that are intangible, but that affect the lives of millions, and demonstrated how those ideas perculate through to the everyday life of the common man, as aeroplanes, cars, refrigerators, electric torches, and lipstick holders! Together they converge in what many would see as a jumbled confusion, but others would see as a view of the complex political and technological world of the 1930's!

More Ginger!!!!

This time the venue was at the Corporation in Sheffield, the tickets had been bought weeks before, and we were all set for a great evening out! Unfortunately our two good gigging mates couldn't make it this time, of course we were disappointed, but equally we understood the circumstances! So it was just him and me! LOL I was pleased to see that we weren't the only oldies there, though we may have been the oldest! LOL It was a hot night and the first support band 'Gundogs' were so loud with two wailing women that we found ourselves outside chatting to the bouncers! By 9.45 p.m. the Sonic Circus was up and playing, the atmosphere was great and the excitement gained momentum over the next hour and a half, as the band played all the favourites, and a few more besides! With big grins we left...full of the Ginger magic! :-) When's the next one?

Celebrating Silver!

Enjoyed a great family get together last weekend in Suffolk. About thirty of us got together to throw a surprise silver wedding party for Mum and her beau! Mum's now 85 and her beau 92:-) They loved it, although Mum was a bit overwhelmed by it all at first, but that didn't last too long as we enjoyed good food and cracking conversations! We were so fortunate to have beautiful weather, so the celebrations could all take place outside. Well done to the happy couple! LOL

Rigo Jancsi at The Brickmakers!

Bit behind with my blogging, and really I should be writing TMA04, but thought that can wait as I've got much more important things to write about ;-) Thursday, 1st June saw us in Norwich at The Brickmakers, a well known local musical venue. I was very excited because it was the first time I was going to hear Rigo Jancsi live, and I had every reason as Ben, Will, Sam and Sam, wowed them with the now familiar to me songs (from Myspace) and some new ones too. It was such great fun and thrilling to be part of the performance, with family links to the band I felt so proud! But that aside from a musical performance viewpoint it was excellent, very satisfying and far more exciting than listening to their music online. Well done lads! Hopefully see you in Sheffield at The Grapes on 20th June :-)