City too hot...

I've a feeling my previous dalliance with a sun dance has gone a little too far: a victim of it's own success if you will.

It's absolutely tilted in the wrong direction now – the heat is stifling and I'd guess sales of fans have hit the roof?  In fact I mosied on by a couple of local electrical stores at the weekend and guess which implement dominated the window displays?  Correct – the 'Fern Cotton' free range sowing machine...but in second place (and by some considerable distance over the runners up) were the selection of fans.

I attempted to turn on a cheap heater/fan we purchased in the winter when the boiler broke down – works ok heating up a cold house but is almost useless as a fan.  It blows a fine stream of cool breeze much like a six month old baby would blow a raspberry.  Not sure I trust it anyway- it cost less than a decent takeaway for two in some far flung land I've never heard of.  We had a decent fan but I can't for the life of me locate it.  It wasn't need at all last year but summer has returned with a vengeance and we just aren't (as usual) prepared for it.  I've half thought about knocking some window shutters into the bricks outside to recreate that Mediterranean villa look (but in inner city Manchester).  As I work for the most part from home I don't have the luxury of 'air con' and it's probably a ridiculous  apparatus for anyone to place in their home in the UK anyway...but at the moment I covet one like nothing else.   The blinds are shut, the curtains drawn but still I cannot shake off the heat – the sweat occasionally dripping onto my keyboard forcing grammatical errors (yes more so than usual).

Perhaps I can fill the kids paddling pool up later and dive into that (should I be able to fit).  I'm sure that will be a sight for the neighbours, sore eyes?

Shame it isn't the weekend then the only thing to do under these circumstances is fire up the bbq, grab some ale and stick on some classic Studio One reggae sounds...well that's my plan for the weekend sorted should I not perish in the heat before then.  Ironic really as I was only recently bemoaning the fact that our summer was a complete and utter washout.

Sack Mask Kid

Finally got round to seeing the Orphanage last night following it's release on DVD (having children it's difficult to get to see films at the cinema).  Billed as a horror/thriller it does indeed cause the hairs on the back of your neck to stand up and your spine chilled by some invisible force.  This is far removed from the Eli Roth new wave horror currently saturating the horror market and more akin to 'The Others' and 'The Sixth Sense' although I felt this was superior to both of those.

This is one of those 'gets under your skin' type horrors: not so much blood and gore but psychological terror running most of the way through the film.

A decent horror for me is when it's finished and your senses are heightened by what you've just seen, therefore you don't want to hang around in the dark room downstairs you just want to climb inside the sack and dream of 'nice things' like fairy cakes, posh salad and, erm, the chuckle brothers.

Directed by first timer Juan Antonio Bayona, this is an intelligent stab at the scare movie genre.  It's no surprise that Guillermo del Toro was involved in this movie (Executive producing) as the style is similar to his Pans Labyrinthine film.  The Japanese have made great strides in horror cinema of late but the Spanish are coming up with gems like this (and the aforementioned Pans...).  

Without giving too much of the plot away, the film revolves round an old Orphanage revisited (after the opening scenes) a few decades later when one of the children returns as a grown women to live there (and take in disadvantaged children).  Shortly afterwards her own child (who 'plays' with imaginary/dead children) goes missing, whilst the mother is being terrorised by a child wearing  frankly disturbing mask wear.

It's a good enough film to stay with you long after it has finished: part of the reason for me was a  parent I now tend to pick up on the relationship aspects more than I used to (I felt a similar, sickly unease with the Japanese film 'Dark Water').  Best watched in an old Victorian school/orphanage/hospital for maximum effect.

Certainly recommended but I'll also be keeping an eye out for future films from  Juan Antonio Bayona and of course  Guillermo del Toro (soon to be working on the two Hobbit films).

Sun Dance

I've recently viewed a healthy portion of Sun Dance festival endorsed films – for the most part cracking independents: the Irish film 'Once' was the last such Sun Dance endorsed (actually winning the World Cinema Audience award) film I viewed – I really enjoyed it, the music and the naturalistic acting made it quite a moving experience.

But it's another type of sun dance I'm talking about today...during our p*** poor summer I think most of us were getting to the end of our tether with the weather (did I mention my poetry skills?)...so I decided to do something about it.  I researched then performed a native American Sun Dance in my back garden one evening last week (in the rain I'll add).  I set to work on a repetitive drum loop (using logic pro) and set this to over 30 minutes downloading it onto an iPod so as to not scare the neighbours with 'crazy, incessant rhythmic beats'.  A genuine sun dance (still performed in the United States and Canada) goes on for hours, but as we had a film to watch later in the evening I performed an abridged version.  Again a true Native American Sun Dance could involved the piercing of my breast area tied to a tree the culmination of which would see the skewered flesh torn  off.  I just wasn't in the mood to be honest so instead pierced those blister bits you get on the bottom of your fingers, palm side with needles and a bit of string.  A good 30 minutes later (and worn out from the non stop dancing) the needles were broken free from my hands and I called it a day.

I always wanted a life on the plains of America pre Columbus – I guess I was influence by Kevin Costner's 'Dances With Wolves'.  Like the aborigines of Australia, these seemed to me a people very connected to the earth and the spiritual side of life.  Pre modern world (industrial & digital) they could probably have lived on as they were for many millenniums, without any sign of technology (which of course makes our own lives ultimately slaves to the machines...).

And by god did that dance work?  We've had a heatwave ever since then – friends have congratulated me on my good work, although if I'm honest, I could do with a spot of rain and cool breeze...it's almost stifling now isn't it?

Urban Moves

The Urban Moves festival came to Manchester this weekend (which happened to coincide with a dozen or so other festivals taking in or around the city) and I made a point of seeing at least two performances.  I'm not sure whether this was that well advertised (which might be a budget problem rather than anything else) because aside from a couple of web links and the odd newspaper article it hadn't settled in my conscience like other events taking place (certainly the Jazz Festival and the Mela festival in Rusholme)...which was a shame really as the events I saw were fantastic: first off was Liz Lea performing a singular dance routine in the large expense of Albert Square.  With the music system piped up somewhat and a small crowd gathering, the audience soon swelled to a pretty healthy size given the time (8:00 in the evening).  The weather was fantastic, all blue skies and magic hour with the beautiful back drop of the Town Hall and the European looking Albert Square doing what it does best.  So Liz (makes her sound quite anglified, but she looked quite Spanish to me) set about with her routine.  Her routine revolved pretty much solely around a 40 odd metre blue dress which she arranged and took off occasionally (much to the delight of the males in the crowd) – flowing around Albert Square like an amalgam of a peacock and flamenco dancer, with such an assertive and, it has to be said, sexy manner I felt that little bit smaller sat gawping in the audience.  My daughters certainly enjoyed this dance – I guess they were inspired somehow to perhaps one day take dancing up  - something I'd encourage – what better way to express your freedom and confidence in yourself?

Next up were Provisional Danza – a group from Madrid I've seen perform before in Manchester.

Now if the the previous routine was mildly flirting with the erotic then this bunch were leaving little for the imagination to run off with and have fun (they occasionally peform naked, although on this occasion they kept they're clothes on – it was, after all outdoors...and we aren't very 'Holland' over here are we?).  They looked like they were having fun – this is the more artistic side of dance rather than the established waltz et al moves you see on the likes of 'Strictly Come Dancing'.

Again I really enjoyed this...perhaps I've missed my muse all these years...?

The, ahem, climax of this show was the letting off of 4 huge hose pipes (and not your garden variety but as used by the local Fire Service – in this case Stockport Fire Department).  I'm sure you can guess what they were meant to represent...suffice to say a drenched set of dancing 'girls' (I'm sure one was pushing into her fifties – still she was a fit as a fiddle) on a balmy evening in a glorious public space made my weekend.

Right...now off to perform some funky Spanish moves on my kitchen floor downstairs... 

Flower Festivals?

My Mother came to stay with us this weekend and as her visit coincided with the RHS Tatton Flower show we thought we'd all peg it down to Knutsford on Sunday.

Having never been to any type of flower show before in my life I can't say I was bursting with anticipation: I've done a spot of green fingered business in my time (and we're currently growing veg in the back lawn) but as yet I've not been hooked.  Perhaps one day in later life when current pastimes fall off my radar (or I end up becoming sick to the back teeth of them) I'll take to this sport with much more enthusiasm...or perhaps I'll end up living on a boat and take Tai Chi to it's ultimate conclusion.

However, despite my less than keen motivations to attending this popular flower show I ended up rather liking the whole affair.  For one I was amazed at the scale of the event: I've been to a few local festivals recently and those combined could barely fill one of the numerous show tends dotted around here.  I've read that an estimated 300,000 folk turned up over the last few days which is pretty remarkable.  I can why it's popular mind.  I was astounded at many of the hundreds (thousands?) of varieties of plants and flowers on show: some of whom I'd never seen before in my life.  From beautifully delicate lilies (again  - so many sub varieties it befuddled me) to quite odd looking grasses to giant fruit and veg and a shrine to one of my favourite

 'vegetables' (part of the Capsicum family) the chilli.  A bonsai stand containing hundred year old trees (pictured) almost blew my Birkenstock footwear off my feet – incredible.  And so I was beginning to enjoy this event I initially thought might be a bit of a struggle.

We took the kids along, although in hindsight this is probably not the best day out, certainly for the  younger children: there's simply not that much for them to do.  It also didn't help that it was one of the hottest days of the year (and the heatwave in Manchester continues) – there's only so many 'magnums' and 'citrus infused water' you can give a child which is hot and not entirely convinced by the attractions.

Another bonus was the bar (strangely only one serving ales, although there were plenty more 'Pimms stations' dotted around). A couple of jars in and the vibrancy of the plants and flowers take on a much more exuberant appeal...I was fighting with my maestro card not to pick up a couple of sublime Japanese Acer plants (they have a sell off at the end of the event which soon enough evolves into a mass scramble for the offers).  

Aside from the flower and plant tents were the collection of show gardens (a la Chelsea Flower Show) – surprisingly some of these were for sale...and I'm talking about gardens with small lakes and ancient olive trees, artistic furniture being transported and transplanted in your back garden.  Possibly a reality for many of the Cheshire set but not so us.  I procured a couple of lilly bulbs which happened to share the name of one of our daughters.  Perhaps next year I'll upgrade to a water feature?

Aside from all the flowers/plants/furniture/show gardens et al was a huge marquee filled with shops selling anything from posh pyjamas, beds, champagne and local produce.  As we were pretty starving by this stage of the day we grabbed a load of posh sausages and breads and called it quits – a barbecue would be struck into action on our return home.

I think I'll probably return again next year, it's made me look at gardens in a whole new light...whether I find the time and inclination to set about mocking up a 'show garden' is another matter...maybe in a few years we'll move on down to Cheshire and recreate that mini lake and Japanese bridge we saw at Tatton... 

Performances Complete

Bit of a delay since my last blog...the run of schools I was filming took over everything for a couple of weeks.  One of the dates got mixed up (no hands held up on this one...) and meant the final date of the plays I was to film was put back a week.  This also meant that the delivery date would be a lot tighter – instead of having a week or so to edit and create the DVD's I now had around 2 days (and two days over which we had guests coming to stay).  

One of the schools had ordered 30 odd copies and luckily I found a local DVD duplication company who also produced good quality print inserts  (based in Heaton Mersey) and who could turn them around within a day.  So finally with but a day spare I managed to get them all completed and delivered within the deadline (not adhering to this would've meant we wouldn't have got paid...and all that hard work down the drain).  

Quite pleased with the results and although we weren't given a huge amount of time (and budget) to get these completed I think the viewers (really the parents of the kids) will be pleased.

The Manchester Arts Council grouo behind these productions has sadly been disbanded after around fifteen years, but it's highly possible they will reform under another guise: here's hoping because i bet they did the kids involved in these plays a whole world of good.

Theatre time again.

Last year I was invited to film a series of schools plays at the Central Library Theatre in Manchester as part of the Manchester Arts Education Initiative.  I really enjoyed carrying these jobs out and gained a lot of experience from them.  Not only that I thought the plays were put together really well and on the whole, the kids performances were fantastic.  Many of these schools were situated in inner city locations and  most probably the kids (from 11 to 16) get a whole load of unwarranted flak in these times of 'danger kids' (there are admittedly a minority of unsavoury bunch out there mind).  It's a fairly large theatre (it is used for many larger theatre productions throughout the year) and I felt a little intimidated by the whole process myself – and I wasn't the one up there in front of a large audience and lit to high heaven.  But the kids handled any pressure really well, any shyness buried deep in their junior period costumes.  I was there to do a job but it was hard not to get drawn into the performances rather than concentrating on the camera and sound (I was a one man band on these occasions).  If you've ever written the majority of kids off as 'this', 'that' and 'the other' then you should stop by events like this.  I bet it does wonders for their confidence for there are few constraints holding people back as strong as a lack of self belief.  Of course, I joined in the rapturous applause at the end of the performances and felt a whole lot better about the world then before I went in.  Not only were there really good, young actors and actresses but also the 'orchestra'  were a bunch of kids too.

By the final performance and even though I'd watched some of the same plays several times over ('The Weaver's Tale' and 'Marie Antoinette') I was perhaps a little sad it had to come to an end.  I'd filmed quite a few performances and it felt like a routine: I'd go there every other night over the space of a couple of weeks and got to know the crew at the theatre as well as some of the directors and production staff.  

I sometimes wished that a few parents who turned up late and in the middle of the performances, perhaps should have realised that I was filming and maybe it was best not to walk in front of my camera...that's what editing is for I guess?!

When all was said and done, the final stage was to edit all the performances and create DVD's for the schools and families (the brochure artwork/DVD covers created by a friend of mine.  I hope they were all pleased with what they saw.  I felt we did a good job creating a lasting archive for the parents and children to view for many years.

This  years dates have just been released and I'm back doing them again.  My first one is this Friday evening and I must say I'm rather looking forward to it.