Grey Doll And Criminal Reading: Homegrown Reading

You know me as a bit of a Scandi-crime enthusiast. Bit? Huh... total reading matter more like.....
But recently I do return to home roots with  M.H. Baylis's "The Tottenham Outrage" which I certain do enjoy... packed full of multi-culture and a lively view of the streets of North London.

It opens with the death of a family picnicking in Finsbury Park on a lovely spring day. The Hasidic family are found slumped over their food and onlookers are accusing a group of Muslim youths of spraying them with something. Local journalist Rex Tracey and his photographer friend Terry get caught up in the event and what follows takes us on journey amongst the streets of Tottenham and the Hasidic communities of Stamford Hill with Terry getting accused of another murder along the way. The crime story is interspersed with the account of one "George Smith" and his involvement with a true-life historical event, the failed Anarchist robbery of 1909 known as the "Tottenham Outrage".

The writing is characterful and funny and Baylis handles the two time threads very well. In all, this series featuring Rex Tracey and the streets of North London is certainly one I would visit again. You can read the full review here.

Don't Open That Cardboard Box

Been helpin' Mrs D clear up her room to get things out the way for workmen putting in a new window.

One can't resist pokin' around in the boxes in the name of clearing out stuff. It's not a great idea. Comin' across pictures of a thinner younger self in earlier days.

See? Sunny days in the East End of London... meditatin' in the back garden. Woo-woo, light the old incense. Get ready to chill out wiv the friends... a bit of a film at the old Scala....

Nostalgia, nostalgia.... boo-hoo.

Travels with my Film-Life: Sweden

We's just been visiting Sweden via Roy Andersson's film: "Songs from the Second Floor".

'Cept... it's not exactly visiting Sweden... It's... erm..
It's entering an absurdist or Samuel Beckett version of Sweden. References and flavours that crop up after I watch the film are a collection of "B"s: Bunuel, Beckett, and Pina Bausch... with a little bit of Laurel and Hardy thrown in, especially the impotent rage of Oliver Hardy.

Beautifully and painstakingly filmed, with a succession of vignette scenes played to a fixed-point camera, in only one scene does the camera move. Finding this out, I realise why I am drawn to theatrical comparisons. In the sense of viewpoint, it's as though I am watching a proscenium theatre piece.

The occasional foray into white-faced makeup makes me think of silent films; the repetition of phrases and themes ... Beckett and Bausch; the procession of self-flagellating stockbrokers, and the serried ranks of bishops ... Bunuel.

But make no mistake, this film is not just a hotch-potch of references. It is a dark, funny, surreal, coherent piece, in which characters wander through office buildings, psychiatric wards, cafes, and an urban landscape dominated by an endless traffic jam. A railway station and a desolate, fringe-urban "plain" fill out the film's setting.

Andersson took four years to complete the film. He doesn't use storyboarding to plan scenes and shots - but walks through the scenes and situations with himself, crew members, and actors - until he has built the scene and the camera viewpoint that he wants.

Music is by Benny Andersson. No relation to the director. But yes. That - Benny Andersson. The man from Abba. I'm not an Abba Girl but ... this film's music progresses around my brain as I write.

"So who is this Pina Bausch then?" ask you.

Aah... wonderful, wonderful dance-theatre maker who died in 2009. The Old Man and me managed to see performances in London and Edinburgh. In fact, some years ago, I book tickets for a performance at Sadler's Wells. The performance coincides with The Hospital calling The Old Man in for treatment of an extreme nature... and he told 'em:

"I ain't coming in til I seen this show."

And neither did he.

The last piece of hers that we were able to see...was in 2002. We'd just moved to Cornwall. But we went back up to London to catch it. And glad we were too. This is a sample of the same piece, "Kontakthof" from another performance. (Click on that link if you want to know more.)

But I digress.
I love this here Andersson film. So I tries to find a link for you to watch a sample. Here is a trailer for it... If you are not ready for "some scenes of an adult nature" as they say .... then don't click here.

Circus Nights with Archaos

I see there's going to be a radio programme about Archaos (Thursday,9 Sept 11:30 BBC Radio 4).
An anarchic, punk, "never be the same again will the circus"- Circus; its founder, Pierrot Bidon, died earlier this year. There's an exhibition about Archaos from 9-12th September in London. Sadly we's too decrepit to get there at the moment. But you can click here to find out more.

Me and The Old Man went to see Archaos - at Highbury Fields - way back around 1990. I think we saw them a couple of times....

They got plenty of publicity about their juggling with chainsaws. And yes - they did. The Old Man saw the chainsaw juggler drinking quite well in the beer tent prior to chucking the chainsaws about.

Archaos thrived on its dangerous, heavy-metal reputation. Clowns clad in corrugated iron - chased each other with sledge hammers. Trucks and banged up cars filled the tent with diesel and exhaust fumes. A fork-lift trapeze act. (Click here to see with your own eyes, if you don't believe me.) But then I remember a juggler who worked with matchboxes, matches and finaled by lighting a cigarette with a juggled lighted match.

From the grotesque to the delicate. Outlandish, outrageous and dark... They conjured up the post-apocalyptic world of Mad Max and Tank Girl. Oh yeah we saw them - and we've got the T-shirts to prove it.

Read more about Archaos by clicking here for an article in the Independent.

Diva Diva Do

Cos I been playing Verdi's "Macbeth" quite a bit recently (see Fry-ups and Nectarines post), I decided to see if I could get hold of a DVD of the film version that The Old Man and me saw ... back in the late 1980s.

And when I say we saw the film. What we actually saw was a preview screening. Back then, for a while, The Old Man was doing some review writing for a freebie magazine run by friends. No pay. Just the perks of the shows and stuff that he got to see and write about.

So off we went to a West End cinema on some rainy morning to see this version of "Macbeth"; a film by Claude d'Anna, and starring Leo Nucci as Macbeth and Shirley Verrett as the Lady herself.

We thought it was good.

It was dark and Gothic - with the Witches depicted as feral young girls. Set in a perpetually gloomy landscape with interiors filmed in a 10th century fortified castle. We lapped it up.

Naturally, it did not get a British release.

But the DVD is available. And it came in the post yesterday, courtesy of my online classical emporium of choice "Crotchet".

Loverly.

And I notice that in the booklet there is a promo picturefor a DVD of "La Traviata" - with Teresa Stratas and Domingo in a Zefirelli cinema production. Orchestra of the Met conducted by James Levine. Mmmmn. I'd like to see that. I used to like Teresa Stratas. I'd forgotten ....

Anyway. Gotta go now. Downstairs I can hear The Old Man joining in with Callas and Gobbi who are singing on a 1953 recording of "Lucia di Lammermoor". It's all very operatic here at the moment, you know. But I guess I gotta do something about supper.

World Music: Astor Piazzolla

So with this Last.fm listening.... (see previous post)

The other night I put Astor Piazzolla's name in the box.

Piazzolla was known for his new approach to Tango: orchestral, dramatic, narrative.

Years ago - in the mid-1980s - The Old Man and I saw Astor Piazzolla,and his Quinteto Tango Nuevo, play at the Almeida Theatre in Islington.




It was the first time that I'd seen this music being played. And the bandoneon in particular. That's the accordion sound in tango. The bandoneon looks like a square, Uber-concertina. It pulls out forever. So much so, that the player stands with his foot on a stool or box and lays the instrument out across his knee as he pulls and bends it.

Bang! Bang! Percussion, piano chords, violin bow strikes, double bass slaps. Bang! Bang! And the bandoneon being pulled out in Tango time.

It was a wonderful concert. And my good fortune to see and hear Piazzolla play.

If you prefer a gentler, more old-timey feel - try the singing of Carlos Gardel.

Charlie Gillett

So this is my first post.

And I am bereft.
I've lost my music man with the death of Charlie Gillett last week.

I bought and read his books, "Sound of the City" and "Making Tracks", in the early 1970s. Then I changed my postgraduate bibliography topic from Art History to the Literature of Rock & Blues.

I was listening to his show on Radio London, "Honky Tonk", every week. On Saturdays, the Old Man and I (more of him later) - would visit Hot Wax records in Kentish Town and spend our money on 1950s-60s Doo-Wop and Acapella recordings. The Old Man would jump around to Gabby Pahinui's Hawaiian songs. I jumped around to Cajun. We both jumped around to Doo-Wop.

Everything was brought to us by Charlie Gillett. Right up to his last broadcasts of World Music on Radio 3 and World Service. We listened to these and searched out recordings from Mali, Congo, Argentine, Ethiopia and Lebanon.

Over the years Charlie Gillett opened up so much music. He laid it out, talked about it, and shared it around. John Peel has gone. Now Charlie Gillett has gone.

I am bereft.