lord in lichfield

just said goodbye to Jon Lord who has been in Lichfield early this morning having a go on the cathedral organ in preparation for his 17 July performance here. This is Jon's first visit to Lichfield Cathedral, and his first visit to Lichfield since the 2007 Festival when he came to meet Matthew Barley, the cellist in Lord's Durham Concerto. It was really great walking around the space again with someone seeing it all for the first time. Now, having heard a bit of what the cathedral organ can do, he's gone off to plan how best to use it in his event.
Thanks to Martyn Rawles, Lichfield Cathedral's Sub-Organist & Assistant Director of Music, for dragging himself out of bed to demonstrate how to drive the thing.

Incidentally, Durham Concerto is apparently the highest new entry in Classic FM's Hall of Fame.

thongs or flip-flops

the cover of this year's booking brochure, which was signed off at the start of last week and which is due back from the printers tomorrow, has highlighted another small cultural chasm in the festival office. For the majority of people who work here, this is an image of festival flip-flops. For the two antipodeans here, of which I am one, this is a pair of festival thongs.
To me, the word 'flip-flop' remains nonsensical, despite its obvious onomatopoeic origins. To others, the word 'thong' conjures up completely unintended images. That said, we have been discussing whether we should get a few of both made in readiness of the summer.

thanks again are due to yellow design for devising something so wonderfully fun.

Deconstruction of an apocryphal cat

Jasper the cat, he was hairy, sly and fat,
Lame and with only partial sight he wondered,
Pawing, clawing, ever nearer, rose bush bills getting dearer.
Jasper longed to open a flower shop in Greece,
A Greek interloper on this fair and rosy isle.
Jasper holidays with Top Cat in the Hamptons,
Such a grumpy cat but he so loved roses.
Paws for thought to avoid clawing back contractual costs,
Jasper the cat launches training course for ambitious kitties.
Cat fell like a drunk from a bar stool:
Jasper awoke. Bang!! Got the f****r. Jasper was dead.
A shallow grave: Red rose bush for a tombstone.

Clore Leadership Short Course 19 March 2009

short text piece to demonstrate the use of technology to blur the lines between artist, audience and producer.

go to flatpack

one of the most extraordinary film festivals in Britain starts this week, right on our doorstep, and I'd encourage as many people as possible to go to it. Flatpack Festival starts with Curzonora at Birmingham's Town Hall on Wednesday, and then explodes all over Birmingham's Eastside until Sunday. Organised by the good folk of 7 inch cinema, Flatpack offers

a head-scratchingly good lineup which roams the wild frontiers of cinema and takes in animation, music films, live scores, shorts, archive treasures, street art, flipbooks, independent movies, latenight horror, installations, talks, shindigs, and so forth along the way

Some of it is pretty hard to define. All of it is fab! Highlights for me include David O'Reilly's Please say something, Let the right one in from Sweden, and Tokyo!, three films directed in turn by Michael Gondry, Leo Carax and Joon-Ho Bong. Flatpack's installation trail launched on Thursday, captured on film here. Unfortunately I will be missing it all because I am here for the next two weeks on this.

Lichfield Festival will be working with 7 inch to bring their Travelling Picture Show to Lichfield this summer, offering families the opportunity to see new and rarely screened short films. 8 lucky youngsters will also have the chance to take part in animation workshops leading directly to the creation of a new film created by young animators from all around the West Midlands.

Lichfield Festival has been screening film in Lichfield since 1990, and the Travelling Picture Show hopefully suggests a change in how we screen film. Admittedly this change started with Charlie Chaplin silent shorts in 2006, and is part of an ongoing plan to bring this artform into line with everything else we do. Who knows what the future might hold - films in car parks, free outdoor screenings and weird and wonderful films popping up in unexpected corners all over Lichfield - anything is possible. However, mainly due to the diversification of TV, the proliferation of DVDs and the vastness of the internet, screening films as we have done in the past will sadly stop.

I would love to start a film festival here. The idea of a film festival in a city without a cinema was just too good to be true. So bravo to the Garrick Theatre who are starting the Inspire Film Festival in Lichfield on 3 July which promises to feature:

entries from up and coming filmmakers from across the country and culminating in the presentation of awards in numerous categories to the producers/directors of the best submissions

shared ground on Radio 3 today

around 2.50pm today on BBC Radio 3, the recording of Alec Roth's and Vikram Seth's Shared Ground, taken at the 2007 Lichfield Festival, will finally be broadcast. Performed by Ex Cathedra, and with interjections from violinist Philippe Honore performing Roth's Ponticelli for solo violin, these pieces were musically inspired by the solo violin and double choir works of J S Bach with Vikram's texts based on George Herbert. If you are listening earlier you'll also hear Ex Cathedra perform Bach's Komm, Jesu, Komm!, BWV229.

The poem above both captures and represents the image of a lone oak tree reflected in a small lake of still water, with the tree existing above and below the water line. Below is the actual oak tree referred to in Seth's poem, but without the reflection from the storm the evening before. More of Seth's Shared Ground poems with an interview can be found here.