Procrastination

It's about time I posted.  It's been a busy week with three shows on the go, two in rehearsal and a 'show and tell' session about the R&D (research and development) for Pied Piper.  But I'm a firm believer in procrastination; it allows time for assimilation and for fresh ideas to appear.

So I've been doodling. I first came across Norwich based artist Sarah Beare when I saw an animation of hers at the Sainsbury Centre for the Visual Arts. It had been made for an exhibition called 'Unearthed' which featured Japanese and European figurines from the early Stone Age. Sarah's animated figure was a response to that.

More recently she has been making small silver figures, a mere 31mm long, called Dolossies.  Last year Sarah made an animation to illustrate and explore their potential.  The animation was silent but, we agreed, crying out for sound.  So I took Sarah's starting point - hitting a bunch of keys - and had a go.  And, as it is such a short piece, I had two more attempts. My intention was to take a very different approach each time but somehow I kept mining the same vein.

If you're interested in the figures, and other larger figures being specially manufactured in China to Sarah's specifications, then she has a website. And Sarah's blog, which tells the story of the figures as it unfolds, is at http://www.sarah-beare.blogspot.co.uk/

Each clip is only 35 seconds long.

Good vibrations?

I played at the Sainsbury Centre for the Visual Arts earlier today, a building designed by Sir Norman Foster on the UEA campus to house the Sainsbury art collection. The jazz/klezmer trio of which I am a part is not especially loud but we do amplify ourselves. And I remember playing here in a nine-piece salsa band some years ago which certainly packed a punch.

It occurred to me that future generations may be shocked at the damage our noise has done to the molecular structures of the works on display, some of which are thousands of years old. I completed an archaeology degree at a time when the practice of leaving parts of a site untouched (so that scholars as yet unborn could one day apply techniques that would make ours appear crude by comparison) was still a recent development. It was symptomatic of a new humility in science: the idea that although we may be at the cutting edge of knowledge we may not yet be the finished article.

I love playing at SCVA but will do so henceforth with a slight feeling of unease. But I notice the venue never seems to hire any operatic sopranos so maybe they're way ahead of me on this. Should I ask to see their risk assessment paperwork or keep schtum and be grateful for the gig?

May's monthly game

This month's free music game is played in pairs. It's called Count to Three and that's all you have to do. Except, of course, that it isn't quite as simple as that. The difficulty comes from alternating the count with your partner. To learn how to play it just click on the link to the page on my site.

I first came across this game when working as musical director for Tiebreak Theatre's production of Frog in Love and readying it for its trip to the Edinburgh Fringe in 2003. David Farmer was directing the show and rehearsals always began with extended warm-ups and this was one of the games we played. I had almost forgotten it and then a drama teacher I was working with last week used the game with some primary aged children. What's great about the game is that children of six can play it as easily as adults. Or perhaps I should say with equal difficulty.

This is probably a good time to mention David Farmer's book 101 Drama Games and Activities which is full of warm-ups and exercises. It contains this game but he calls it One Two Three, a name I use for an entirely different game. And thet picture, in case you are wondering, is an unusual view of Sir Norman Foster's Sainsbury Centre for the Visual Arts.