An interesting start to a new week

This morning, while I was waiting for the tram. A woman approached me and asked if the tram was calling her stop. It totally threw me, I barely uttered back some incomprehensible nonsense…something like…ah yeah…I think it does…it is the second stop.

I was just not expecting to be talked to. We’re all so well programmed to get into "tube mode" that we find it extraordinarily difficult to return to our normal ways. That woman got me out of my programmed state and made me interact.

After 10 mins another woman at the train station asked me if the train approaching was the Victoria service…I replied `yes it is` and again felt somehow that nobody had the right to disturb my quiet meditation with my music and the morning paper.

For most of us this is the only time we can unapologetically spend some time with ourselves and allow our thoughts to wander.

This morning I felt as if that right was somehow curtailed.

 

A very busy week so far

No time to write about anything interesting.

It’s all the preparations of the new exhibition that have driven me crazy!

Surely it will be worth it…but currently I’m far too busy to notice!

Monday morning and thinking about things

Do are past bad experiences live within us regardless of distance?

Yesterday I realised that however hard we try to kill emotions from the past they somehow inhabit us. I always thought I could just switch off. I now realise that it is not as simple as that.

Maybe the emotions we try to drown are the emotions that surface in the most intense way.

 

Thursday 20th

Busu busy busy with meetings…

major exhibition coming up…major headaches with it!

About last night’s concert / St John’s Smith Square – 18 January 2005

Here is the programme from last night’s concert:

Vivaldi – The four seasons, Op 8

Respinghi – Antiche Danze ed Arie

Tchaikovky – Souvenir de Florence, Op 70

London Strings

Richard Llewellyn, Conductor

Ruth Rogers, solo Violin

Always enjoy returning to St. John’s Smith Square in Westminster, if only to gaze at the serenely beautiful architecture.

Las night it was a lovely experience. The four seasons are always difficult to pay full attention to. Familiarity through over playing and advertising has “burnt” the work for me. But when I am made to listen to it live it always sound more exciting. Especially since I’ve got no access to the fast forward button! The violinist took liberties with the concluding part of the Autumn and  parts of Winter. For any music buff they would have been unbearable blemishes to a baroque gem. For me they were an affirmation of the flawed nature of all of us. They bring to life music since it becomes unpredictable and allows another level of interpretation.

Their Respighi was pretty indifferent, as most of his music is just cute sound effects, in my humble (not) opinion.

Souvenir de Florence was wonderfully bombastic. Rather fit to the specifics of the composition. originally orchestrated for a quartet, last night it was played by a full string orchestra. With truly unexpected results! They sheer deluge of sound was truly surprising. At the end of it all it’s a Russian composer trying to make “Italian flavoured” music, but finding it difficult to leave behind his Russian ways 😉 The orchestra brought that aspect to the fore. Clarified the discrepancy between the composer’s intentions and the work’s final direction. A very interesting point, made in the most graphic terms possible.

That’s all about last night…and a good chance to say once more thanks to Anna for the tickets!

Tonight tonight!

Anna has invited me to tonight’s concert at St. John Smith Sq

http://www.sjss.org.uk/this-month/page3.html

and it’s very exciting! It’s such a fantastic space for music.

The best aspect is that it will be complimentary tickets

which makes any concert all the more exciting!

Will come up with some kind of review tomorrow.

Last concert was Ute Lemper at the Barbican…which was simply breath-taking, but then you can’t expect anything less by the great Ute!

Sunny morning

Hmmm just returned from a meeting concerning the Freedom of Information Act.

A very interesting idea to provide access to all information, within reason…but surely it will have long term implications.

Clearly there will be lots of time-wasters and dubious requests.

Hmmm the implementation of the act will be very interesting indeed!

I know I’ll be very careful not too encourage all the nutty ones!

 

Good day to everyone out there!

 

A little bit of poetry, goes a long way on Mondays

Argonauts (excerpt)

Our country is closed in, all mountains
that day and night have the low sky as their roof.
We have no rivers, we have no wells, we have no springs,
only a few cisterns -­ and these empty -­ that echo, and that we worship.
A stagnant hollow sound, the same as our loneliness
the same as our love, the same as our bodies.
We find it strange that once we were able to build
our houses, huts and sheepfolds.
And our marriages, the cool coronals and the fingers,
become enigmas inexplicable to our soul.
How were our children born, how did they grow strong?

Our country is closed in. The two black Symplegades
close it in. When we go down
to the harbours on Sunday to breathe freely
we see, lit in the sunset,
the broken planks from voyages that never ended,
bodies that no longer know how to love.

 

Poem by George Seferis, winner of Nobel Prize for literature 1963.

Talking about a grey morning in London

It has been a good day in every respect.

Just can’t face getting wet the moment i step out!

Oh well looking forward to some good food and meeting a good friend tomorrow night!

ta4now

Quote

A grey morning in London
It has been admittedly grey over the city but the office is nice and quiet.

Dealing with letters and web enquiries today.

At least it’s not raining on the North bank of the river 😉

More later on

A grey morning in London

It has been admittedly grey over the city but the office is nice and quiet.

Dealing with letters and web enquiries today.

At least it’s not raining on the North bank of the river 😉

More later on