music, music, music

Wonderful - Andrea emailed me today to confirm that she has booked the recording venue for Sunday 18 November and she has a full choir ready to stand on a horseshoe. Charles will be there manhandling his sooper-dooper new surround sound microphone with which to perform recording justice. Mike Westbrook will be on hand to give the young ladies a final fillip, and I'll be there as bag-handler extraordinaire. Did I lose my vocation in life, or have I just found it?

So, a sudden burst of adrenalin! Although another delay in my self imposed timetable!

Plus I've got the Dublin filming trip sorted (5-8 August) - living near the Channel I'm used to rather better deals than appear to be available Holyhead to Dublin (no point in going by air because we'd have to pay a second mortgage on the weight of the camera equipment). So it's Kent to Lincolnshire, thence to Anglesey (meeting Jeremy - great guy, long, lanky, drole, dry sense of humour - helped me massively with Bangor collection), across to Dublin where Charles has challenged me to sipping a Guinness (not exactly my tas de the unfortunately so be prepared for a GRITTED TEETH smile), mad dash round the Iveagh related sights and FB's stained glass window, back to Linolnshire etc etc.

See you in Dublin - if not before. If you spot us - we'll treat you a drink!

2 July 2007 Life Class

Listening to Andrew Marr (one of my heroes) whilst doing the housework this morning (Monday = kitchen and breakfast room) - one of his guests was Pat Barker, also from Tees-side and born in 1943 (a good vintage). She was talking about official war artists. That got me thinking (rare policy). So many writers have stated that FB was an official war artist as if it were a badge of honour. But FB wasn't.
a) he was not a propagandist

b) he would not have prostituted his art for filthy lucre, and a cause he did not believe in (or in which he did not believe)

c) he wouldn't have towed the party line, far too individual and stubborn for that!

He did, however, produce over 80 designs for posters during WW1 - but the majority of these were given freely to charitable organisations..

1 July 2007 Frustration, frustration, frustration

Or should it be rabbits, rabbits, rabbits, and a pinch and a punch. Mike thinks the music will be ready by the end of July (a capella, interweaving melodic lines with passages of dense chromatic harmony - sounds wonderful), so time to organise a recording session. All I have to do is liaise with Mike, Andrea and Charles. Poor Andrea has to co-ordinate the diaries of her eleven choir members, book the church where they usually record, and liaise with me. And we are going round in proverbial circles which reminds me why I like working alone, had my fill of committees and reinventing the camel years ago. Artist in the garret syndrome for me - actually a ground floor room with a beautiful unhindered view past my yellow flowering hypericum and yellow clambering roses across poppy filled fields! Bliss.

Sad news yesterday. Ruth Artmonsky rang to say that Brenda Rawnsley had died suddenly of a heart attack. Brenda sounded such a character and we had been hoping to film her. Ruth wrote a wonderful book and curated an exhibition about Brenda's forays into art - The School Prints. A Romantic Project (2006).

27 June 2007 Task Sorted!

So I emailed Gareth, who sent me the name of the only company in the UK which blows Antique Glass - the eponymous English Antique Glass Company and they were perfectly charming and we can film any Monday/Tuesday when they are flattening glass. Brilliant news - only when can we find a Monday/Tuesday when either of us is free?!

And the other good news this week is that Martin Eidelberg, Professor Emeritus, Art History, Rutgers has agreed to be interviewed - he's an expert on Tiffany and has a wonderful impish sense of humour, reminds me of Robin Williams!

The bad news is that Peter Cormack isn't free to be interviewed when Charles is in London next week, and that the William Morris Gallery is absolutely definitely only going to be open 2 afternoons a week and Saturday and Sunday, and the staff will be reduced to practically zilch - this despite worldwide protests. Intellectual vandalism.

24 June 2007 - The aftermath

Breakfast with Mike Westbrook (not literally but on a CD) which seemed apt. Those wonderful squiggly menu drawings I made last night, don't make quite as much sense this morning. Wonder why that is. I guess this is what CM calls a 'sophisticated menu structure'!

However, there will be an introductory page explaining the contents etc, and this leads to two buttons, Catalogue Raisonne (which leads to general information on Brangwyn's work and stained glass in particular; the academic information on each stained glass panel or window; slide show of all windows and studies) and Movie Menu. The latter will lead to another menu which has buttons for the main film of the windows; longer individual films of each window; filmed interviews with experts and practitioners; filmed biography. The music can also be heard without having to watch the film, and we're hoping to get Mike to talk about the composition, and Andrea the performance. And last but certainly not least, Gareth will be filmed making the stained glass panel - and then we thought, how about filming antique glass being made?

Fire, jolly colours etc - having just finished work on Elemental, the film about the Japanese potter, Ken Matsuzaki, Charles is into furnaces! So that's my next task to sort out!

23 June 2007 - Pushing the right buttons

Here's Charles wearing his snazy FBSG T-shirt (designed and painted by yours truly), slaving away at the Bruges rushes in his edit suite.

Later, over a bottle of Crozes-Hermitage 1996 rescued from the flooded cellar, Charles and I discussed the layout of the DVD, the menus, how many buttons, whether there is a jolly musical intro before one reaches the first menu - it brought it home to me how the whole concept has expanded - bit like Topsy - but also how very exciting it is, how adaptable in format, how multi-layered. I feel a little like Oscar Wilde with his blue pots - am I worthy of this brainchild.

I had also become concerned that the words I'd done before camera encapsulated each project rather too succinctly not leaving sufficient room for manoeuvre, but these will go into the overall film, with more detailed expositions within individual sections.

All most confusing for a bear of little brain!

5-7 June Dublin's fair city

And isn't it just! I'm told we spent a day here when I was early 20s but cannot recall a thing - and I wasn't high, honest me lud (not even taking the shot above!). Arrived c/o Ryan Air an hour late, to perform pre-filming recce and research (not your usual R&R), dashed to the Pembroke Townhouse - very comfortable, stylish, clean and not part of a dreaded daisy chain - walked back into town and caught the bus to the wonderfully named Representative Church Body Library where the staff were brilliant and patient and I got the info I needed.

Back into town and walked back to the hotel soaking in the atmosphere, the Georgian squares, the wonderful doors, the friendly people, folks sitting out in the sun having a pre-prandial. Perhaps I'm old fashioned but on my own I find it difficult to eat or drink out, so gathered myself a salad and some decent bread from a deli and ate same slowly during the evening whilst I caught up on work on the laptop. Gosh, what an anorak!

Following day 'walked' some of the town guide, taking in the sights then on to the Hugh Lane Gallery (thoroughly enjoyed the Francis Bacon studio - I know people who live like that all the time and not just in one room either - naming no names of course!) to see their Brangwyn collection - they have the amazing Mars and Venus, the chap being a rather lascivious looking devil!

Wanted to do more sight seeing on the way back but luckily forced myself to book into the National Library first. They were due to shut in 10 minutes for lunch and one needs a ticket. To get a ticket one needs a passport photograph. Ugh! Luckily the bookshop provides a service. Dash downstairs, polordoid type photo taken in a trice or thereabouts. Need identity. Passport at hotel. Joggle back to hotel, collect passport, joggle back to Library, fill in form, get ticket. The letters I want to see are next door, dash down road. Need another ticket. Luckily the guy was charming and we commiserated about Collingwood Library in North London. FINALLY got to sit down with the letters. Afterwards back to main library to read old newspapers. Waled back to hotel rather slower this evening! Won't let on about a meal!

Following day walked to St Patrick's where the other Brangwyn memorial window to Lord Iveagh is to be found. Took notes about important things like plug points in vicinity of window and what would be the best time of day to film - it's in the north transept (seen below centre). Statue of Benjamin Lee Guiness outside the Cathedral (below left). Thence on my pre-ordained tour of Guinness sights - Iveagh House on St Stephen's Green, the Iveagh Gardens, Iveagh Market Hall (the winking stone below right is said to be Lord Iveagh - good to know they had a sense of humour) etc etc (but not the Brewery - I'll leave that for Charles to investigate, beer not exactly being my tass de the, accents excused). Back to the hotel to pay the bill, collect my bags and then a few hours wait until returning to the airport. Luckily the weather still gorgeous, so sat in one of the parks, sunning myself and reading - that's multi-tasking for you!

Guess what - Ryan Air was one hour late again.