Notes on a Toy Piano

We Sink Ships vs. Glasgow PodcART

Since the very beginning of the Glasgow PodcART, I've looked on with excitement about what the guys behind it are doing.  Engaging and enthusiastic, Halina "Hi-Fi" Rifai and her motley crew lace their podcast with just the right mix of humour, music and news; and it's all centred around the artistic world of Glasgow.  Music tends to take centre-stage - and why not, given Glasgow's burgeoning live scene - but other artforms including photography get their air-time also.

As I'm sure I've made it clear by now, We Sink Ships is both an art collaboration between Heidi and I and it is the name I use for my own musical project.  It simply wouldn't be me if it wasn't confusing.  In the early days of the PodcART, Hi-fi got in touch.  One of my songs, "The Secret To Snow", had struck a chord.  She was also impressed by the WSS project as a whole and has been one of our strongest advocates to date, frequently blowing our trumpet when we don't have the lungs to blow it for ourselves.

Episode 5 featured The Secret To Snow as the show ended.  Almost 7 minutes of it.  Comments referencing the song since then have been so complimentary, I feel I've grown an extra few inches.

A few weeks on and Heidi and I were invited into "the studio" for the recording of episode 8.  We weren't entirely sure what we would talk about - infact, I made it up on the spot, as I think you can probably tell - but it was a great opportunity to talk about We Sink Ships, given to us by people we are beginning to talk of as friends.

Recording began and Megan Leggo (a good friend of Heidi's) talked a bit about her recent trip to the SxSW festival.  As she talked through it, I kept thinking back to Iceland Airwaves and how similar it sounds to SxSW, if on a completely different scale.  Then it was our turn.

 

I have to warn you, if you listen to the PodcART, you'll mostly hear me, though if you listen quietly enough you can hear Heidi nod a few times.  That evening Heidi was suffering from a persistant cough (and an equally persistantly talkative collaborative partner).  I have to be honest and admit that due to an irrational aversion to my own voice on tape I haven't listened back to it but I do hope we got our point across and it convinced one or two of the listeners to go along and see the We Sink Ships exhibitions.

Thanks to Hi-Fi, Al, Jerry, Megan and of course Heidi for a fun evening.

Oh... and go listen...

A Bit Of A Catch-Up...

March was a very lean month on the blogging front here at Notes on a Toy Piano.  From photographing a wedding on my 30th birthday (and the preparations beforehand) to being swept off to Paris for the next weekend (a birthday treat from the most amazing girlfriend in the world... ever™), there was little time to write about things and when I did, I wrote about them over on An Alright Start.

Not only was there a lack of blogging, there was a distinct lack of Daily Leica photographs.  It has to be said though, certainly not through a lack of photographing.  I think I've made more photos this March than the last 6 months combined and have enjoyed making every one.

So yes, there is a lot to be talking about as April begins and I'm not talking about Alan Shearer's shock return to Newcastle United as manager - who saw that coming, eh?  Instead, in my first blog back for a while, I thought I'd talk about what's been going on.

Scheduled for the very beginning of March, the We Sink Ships gallery was to go online although a few technical problems held us back until the 16th March.  Eventually we launched the gallery and opened the exhibition.  Talvi / Winter, our first exhibition, is a mixture of pinhole and selective focus photography depicting the winter months and the way they effect us.  Both Heidi and I are very excited by the reception it's had so far so I hope, if you go and have a look, that you like it also.

Not a week had passed before Asia was surprising me with a weekend trip to Paris.  I wrote about the trip on An Alright Start so if you fancy reading more pop over there to have a look.  Suffice to say I had an incredible time and have already tentatively started looking for places I might one day find myself living.  Something to dream about at least.  On the subject of Paris, I should mention that as late as it was, I did manage to finish my March DJ mix for We Sink Ships.  Admittedly I finished it at the very end of the month but better late than never.  It's somewhat French in nature.  Hope you enjoy it.

I'd only been back a week and Heidi and I were ready to launch the second We Sink Ships' exhibition in our online gallery.  This time, however, the exhibition we were opening was a collaboration between several photographers and boy, were we excited.  Two Times Intro was 18 months in the planning.  From the very beginning of the We Sink Ships project Heidi and I had planned to gather photographs from gig photographers in Glasgow and Edinburgh for an exhibition.  It has to be said that even we were surprised just how well it runs together when we collated it.  Where Talvi / Winter suggested solemnity and, at times, desolation, Two Times Intro is full of energy and movement.  Please pop over and have a look.

Finally for the moment and before I forget, Daily Leica has returned for April after a wee holiday.  I'll be mixing photos taken day to day with pictures from Paris and others.  I've also started adding a wee paypal button with each photograph so that if you like one enough, limited prints are available to buy.  Well, a boy's gotta eat.

'til next time.

THAT Express Dunblane story (and what you should do about it)

As a topic for a blog post, I've certainly come late to the Scottish Sunday Express' journalist Paula Murray's shameful, opportunistic and above all, unnecessary attack on the survivors of the Dunblane primary school shootings.

If you've recently returned from a holiday on Mars, you can read the article here and it continues here.

When I read the article, published on the 8th March, I thought I'd missed the point.  It seemed incredulous that Murray would be reporting on the typically teenage behaviour of these kids let alone attacking them, accusing them of shaming the memory of the dead.  I wanted to convey my anger from the off and I felt a blog would allow me to do that, however, I simply didn't have time to sit down and write it.  Consequently, before I could write this, more eloquent men than I had expressed their opinions and started a protest.

The week that followed the publishing of the article saw an incredible backlash against the Express and it's editor.  So much so, that in the following days, the editor of the Express wrote that the the whole matter had been blown entirely out of proportion and that this was solely the fault of bloggers.

Murray certainly didn't escape the backlash either, taking the brunt of the wrath of Bloggerheads.com who found her facebook and used her own comments to show the hypocrisy in her article.  Incredibly, she made a facebook status update just two days before the article was published that simply said "looking for stories".  Indeed.

Today, the perfectly opined thoughts of Graham Linehan came so close to expressing my own that it seemed needless to rewrite them and instead I would ask you to read Graham's recent post.  Assuming you feel as angry as I do after reading it, please consider following his advice in ways to register your complaint.  I'm off to do just that.

Piano Recital. Warsaw, 26/02/08

After booking our tickets to come to Warsaw this month, Asia suggested that we look at the listings for the Teatr Wielki (National Opera) and see if there was anything we should go and see.  We had been to Teatr Wielki together once before to see a Ballet performance of Romeo and Juliet but this time I really wanted to hear a concert and as luck would have it we found a piano recital being performed during the time we were to be in town.

Presented by the Artur Rubenstein International Music Fund in Łodz and the Teatr Wielki, Georgian pianists Aleksander Korsantia and Ketevan Badridze performed Mozart's Sonata in D major - KV 448/375a and Ravel's La Valse - arranged for two pianos - with Korsantia returning to perform Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition on his own.

The performance of Mozart's sonata was beautiful and held the audience in its spell through the initial and closing allegros though I have to admit for a brief moment my attention did wane through the last minute or two of the andante.  The performance of La Valse was at times sensitive, at times darkly sinister and at times wonderfully frenetic culminating in a flashy switch of pianos by the performers.

After taking their bows, Badridze left the stage and Korsantia began his wonderful solo performance of Modest Mussorgsky's suite of 10 piano pieces that form Pictures at an Exhibition.  The opening theme, instantly recognisable, was enough to bring a smile to Asia's face and as the piece progressed, I watched, spellbound, as Korsantia's fingers ran back and forward, up and down the keyboard at incredible pace while he proved why Pictures at an Exhibition is a commonly used showpiece for virtuoso pianists.

After Korsantia received a much deserved standing ovation, led by Maria Kaczyńska - Poland's first lady, Asia had a chance to sample some Georgian wine while I wandered around photographing some of the beautiful opera house building.  As I walked underneath the ornate, sparkling chandeliers I was excited to imagine when I might come back here again.  I certainly hope it won't be as long a wait since the last time.

Polish polish

When Asia and I first got together, I became very interested in learning Polish so, if nothing else, I could talk to her in her native language.  Not that this was necessary of course, her English is better than mine, but it felt like the perfect romantic gesture and so I gave it a shot. Using a well-known language course, I reached chapter two before becoming disillusioned by my poor progress and beginning to promise to "start again soon".

A year passed and several trips to Iceland lay on the horizon.  My focus shifted and I began to pick up the Icelandic books.  I found Icelandic considerably easier and now it is only time to study that occasionally stops me progressing.

On Saturday, we visited my mum for her birthday and conversely she had a gift for me.  Since meeting Asia's parents for the first time, she had been considering giving Polish a try.  Not one to scrimp, she had purchased a £70 set of 8 CDs, "The Michel Thomas Method" course.

The Michel Thomas Method to learning languages is billed as "learning another language the way you learned your own".  The tag-line itself made me sceptical as, no matter how hard I try, I don't remember learning English from 8 CDs.  Having tried, found it difficult, and not having enough time to dedicate to it, my mum passed the CDs on to me.  I imported them to my laptop as mp3, transferred them to my iPod, and today - on the flight to Warsaw - gave it a try.

In one hour on the plane, I think I have learned more Polish than in the last three years.  The method of teaching had a clarity than made learning seem quicker and simpler and I was delighted with Asia's surprised reactions to my fractured attempts at sentences.

At least for tonight, I can sit here in Warsaw, by this laptop, and feel like learning Polish is an attainable goal if I can stay committed.  Fingers crossed I can.