So this is what I've been up to for the past few weeks, among moving back into university and getting back into work, preparing for our college arts week! I am so damn excited about it (my job is producing a play and hosting a Mods and Rockers after-party, so much watching of Rookie's tutorials has been happening)Our logo is a moustache, which has been so much fun to work into everything! And one of the amazing committee people has put together this trailer. I am so in awe of people who can do that, and this is a thing of beauty. And therefore is a joy forever. Oh and the feet in the puddle? That would be me..
If you are in England, and can get to Oxford fairly easily, have a glance at what we've got on! http://www.wegottickets.com/f/4307 I'll be ambling round with a huge grin and a camera most probably.
Goodness me, what a poor blogger I've been. Even the stress of essays I don't understand, and having an INCREDIBLE evening to write about doesn't seem to have spurred me to my post-world, so major apologies about that. About 2 and a half weeks ago now (crikey) I travelled back homewards with some lovely friends, to the beautifully familiar (and just plain beautiful) Gloucester Cathedral to see Laura Marling! It was just the most gorgeous evening, it's really the perfect location for a gig like that; all ancient, echoey, substantial yet somehow delicate, powerful and tranquil. Sort of like LM's music I suppose. Old songs were lent a new feeling with her more mature voice (and the addition of whistling in Night Terror is a stroke of genius...is there anything this woman can't do?!) and the whole experience pulled me firmly in love with her new album as well. There were tears shed, i won't lie. Plus I was introduced (literally) to a new-to-me band, The Leisure Society. Musical excellence all round! One of my friends wrote a far more eloquent review than I could ever struggle through here, so please do read THIS
In other news....well, nothing I'm doing currently could live up to this, but I have our college Hallowe'en party tomorrow (later today if one was to be pedantic) and the baking extraordinaire behind this blog recently made the mammoth task of carving a pumpkin that's been sat around looking shifty for a while. I've already been introduced to the wonders of Rumkin (that's rum and raisin pumpkin...you heard it here first, though I can claim no credit aside from providing the rum) and am mentally planning an epic day of costume hunting and Hallowe'en themed baking; pumpkin pie (also relevant for my Mrs Lovett costume!) as well as dark-like-my-soul brownies, pumpkin cupcakes,flapjacks and cookies, toffee apples. I can't wait! Shall try and share some of this with you, but for now have an excellent friday and weekend....
Also, found this video of my absolute favourite song from the gig, thank you youtube and oWILo!
I WILL be a better, more consistent blogger. I promise. Starting...tomorrow? Why not? With returning to university, in a shiny new year and shiny new room, I am really trying to commit to new things, and stick with old ones. So posts may be a tad less frequent (and I WILL post with the marvellous Fabelists) but until I get my interweb head on, here is my song of the moment. I never went off Florence, obviously, but for a while she's been lingering in the ether of my music consciousness. Comfortably in the back. On shuffle. I was interested, not majorly psyched about the new album. And then I saw this video and was literally just hooked; it's 80s power ballad/Total Eclipse of the Heart enough so make me very pleased indeed.It's so wonderfully, almost self indulgently Gothic, the costumes are fantastic, and I know a fair few people for whom Devil-shake-flailing is the dance of choice (I'd like to say 'myself not included' but it would be a lie.) Plus the shots of smiling Florence of the ending (4.21 ish?) are gorgeous...
Although it is almost the end of August, and hence Summer, I'm not feeling too despondent. Mostly because I had a lovely bank holiday weekend. Spent Saturday making a completely loony Risk boardgame shaped cake (complete with plastic soldier topped extra cupcakes) with some dearly loved but also completely loony friends, and then Sunday afternoon playing Lasertag with more loonies..Dressed as a ninja...It was a birthday, this isn't the usual weekend fare. Then Monday was a slightly classier day, with an afternoon spent at the gorgeous Rococo Gardens near us with my parents. Also the end of August brings the launch of The Fabelist, an online art space and four-monthly journal which is highly exciting. And all that loony party baking brings this video to mind, from Au Revoir Simone (hence the post title) although I'm sad to say we aren't nearly as cool and gorgeous as these ladies...
From F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby - in a lovely little passage that sums up my excitement at the shiny new summer weather we suddenly have;
"And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer. There was so much to read, for one thing…"
And in the spirit of this, I've had a wonderfully lazy day sat in the garden and finally getting into some books I've been meaning to read for a while now, finishing Spenser's The Faerie Queene and about half of Kerouac's On the Road. Ever so slightly different reads, but I'm loving them both.Hope you've all been having a lovely sunny day!
Here's some music that really gets me in the mood for jewel bright days and balmy evenings...Enjoy!
And a song that never fails to get me in a happy sunny mood (and is incidentally very good to jog to) as well as being in one of my favourite films
Sometimes even an English student needs a reminder that she does actually like books. For me this respite from the stress of studying them mostly comes with a reminder of just how beautiful visually works of literature can be, and how lovely bookshops are (especially, needless to say, second hand and independent ones.) For a long time, Moss Books in Cheltenham has been one of my favourite places. It’s a wonderful, haphazard, crazy mound of books masquerading as a shop, and has a particular little corner which I just love. There’s a little stool there, and I have frequently just tucked myself away among the old books that are stored in that one corner, and whiled away far more time than was strictly necessary…[apologies for the fairly poor quality of these photos, by camera was having an off day]
However, there may be a rival to my affections. A few days ago, taking advantage of a brief respite in workload, we visited the bookshop-café Albion Beatnik in Jericho (the artsy bit of Oxford.) There’s a strong focus on the Beat generation here (hence the name) but also some contemporary stuff, and a substantial second hand section. Basically whatever the owner finds interesting, and all put together in a lovingly well thought out shop, with experimental jazz in the corner putting me very much in mind of the music for Funny Face’s café dance scene. In fact there was an atmosphere of quite genuine intellectual bohemia there (possibly aided by the gorgeously dressed girl studying on one of the tables and a man on a sofa pronouncing Marxist theory.) Plus, and more importantly, it has an impressive array of tea and choice of teacups. And they wrapped our purchases in paper parcels. Only future visits can tell whether this hub of book lover-y with its Prufrock quotes on the door and paper roses can replace my original love for ‘my’ corner of Moss Books, which means I shall have to return to both, inevitably spending more money on their wares. What a pity.
Tiny tiny books...
And just to make this post even longer (and multimedia) a friend showed me this lovely little book related stopmotion video a few weeks ago, which just cries out to be put here;
Just a quick one for now, a fairly recent video from one of my favourites right now...Airborne Toxic Event. They do some really good acoustic versions of their songs which will no doubt crop up later, but although this song is a new find for me i love the slightly sepia filming and want to be in whatever bar they're playing in. And more music videos should have random dance sequences from immensely cool looking black men in them. Fact.
Plus whoever she is, I highly appreciated the woman at 1:29.
Happy Birthday Chaplin! I had got myself muddled and thought this was yesterday, however thankfully not...and I did honestly try to find a good poem about ol'Charlie, but alas that wasn't so successful (there is one he apparently wrote, but it is debated whether it's genuine, so I thought I'd play it safe) anyway, today would be his 122nd birthday...so many happy returns. I confess, I have not seen nearly as much Chaplin as I would like, which is a constant sorrow to me; all my limited knowledge comes from a few snippets and this lovely exhibition at London Film Museum I saw last summer. But that was enough to convince myself he was a suprisingly attractive genius and I have often promised myself to watch more when I have time! The Moveum is actually an amazing place, so there may well be a post on it if I go back with more space on my camera
And right after we'd finished the Moveum, there was a Chaplin-imitation street performer along the river just to complete the theme. I was a bit dubious to start with, but he was actually very good and more subtle than i'd expected (plus the small audience boy he picked out turned out to be comedy gold) though unfortunately my poor old camera had had enough by then, so this is slightly stolen from my friend Tom, who is a far better photographer anyway
The only Chaplin I've really seen is an early little film-ette called 'Floorwalker', courtesy of my tutor. This is before some of the real Little Tramp greats, but I'm sure will stick with me as my first real exposure to Chaplin and is well worth a look at. This beautiful little dance sequence is quite simply wonderful...
