vignettes from the great clear out (6)

several people have helped us today SO much, I can't quite believe what they accomplished between them! Praise the Lord for Christian friends who willingly gave up their time and energy on this very hot day.

Two gardens readied for our departure (from pretty parlous states), cupboards emptied and cleaned, things taken to charity shops, shipping cartons constructed and a lawnmower cord severed by exciteable mowing!

Also came across a little note from when I was reading The Shack. On p.90 we come across God (Father) listening to funk. Which reminded me of The Mighty Boosh - a couple of stellar episodes about jazz, exploring our ignorant prejudices about it as well as mocking its producers and enthusiasts.

Wasn't quite so convinced by some of the theological speculations in The Shack, it has to be said. For example, Young suggests that "fathering" was most lacking when creation was broken and that's why God appears as "Father" (p.94). But don't the eternal relationships within the Trinity shed some light the other way - towards our meagre understanding of what father-son means? Of course, I mused, that formulation seems to leave "woman" out of the picture, which is not good. James Jordan's provocative thoughts on hair and glory may give us some pointers here... [PART 1] and [PART 2] of his "liturgical man / liturgical woman" essay, another collection of not-wholly-convincing speculations slightly more to my taste!

this just in

from my sister-in-law's sister-in-law.

The first 10 seconds had me quite bemused and it was a sweet click when it came (must be getting old)!

UCCF is not dull

A very amusing tribute to theologian Wayne Grudem, in the style of Grease...

http://thebluefish.org/2008/02/my-karaoke-heroes-aka-south-west-relay.html

Some delightful book plugs inspired by various TV memes and bods buzzing around in 2008...

http://www.uccf.org.uk/media/top-10-books.htm

just watched School of Rock

It rocks.

In the Loop

Armando Iannucci’s acclaimed political satire. Three stars out of five, I think.

But ten out of ten for rudeness – it might have scored higher than any Tarantino for swearing and truly offensive insults…

Although it’s the right length In the Loop is less a feature film and more an expensive exercise in astonishment. Desperately sad, like The Office; every cell in my body cringes at how dreadful the characters are, and yet how true and real they are. Frightening as well as compelling, but not one to watch again.

Performances were pretty good, in that faux documentary way, but unfortunately all the drama ebbed away towards the end. Minister for International Development, Peter Forrester, was too much of a caricature by that point for us to care about his resignation or about the ‘clever’ plan of the odious spin doctor to have him fired instead. Even the prospect of war was not very compelling. Jaded viewer or poor drama? Maybe both...

Pyromaniac picture

Of how the emerging church conducts itself.

Of course it's a gross caricature (the mini version is on their blog for July, always worth a look in its own right, pictures or no, though they do do a fine picture...), and could be applied loosely to a great many traditions within the church, but that doesn't stop it being funny!

April Fool's Concert

The fool in question is me, this morning attempting the impossible piano part of the Franck Violin Sonata (which I have been longing to play for about 15 years). I slipped in Fazil Say's Jazz Fantasy on Mozart's Turkish Rondo as a mid-concert encore (or as a quasi-finale for the 2-movement sonata) which got a few laughs.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Sonata in E minor, K304

Allegro
Tempo di menuetto

In 1778 the piano was in charge of duo sonatas and got most of the best tunes, occasionally allowing the violin to double up on them. At the recapitulation of the first movement’s main theme the violin gets its one chance to play a melody without it being first introduced by the piano. Unfortunately the jazzy chords being played on the keyboard rather steal the glory at that point! The spare, almost skeletal texture keeps the sonata from being one-sided, however, and Mozart lets the string player sing out as well as accompany the pianist. This is the fourth of Mozart’s nineteen violin sonatas, and probably the darkest. The shimmering brightness of the second movement’s trio section is the only extended passage in a major key. For a few moments the music takes on a hymn-like quality before returning to the wistful minuet, one of Mozart’s most winning melodies. Despite the relative lightness of this second movement the sonata’s dark mood dominates the final bars of the work and gentleness gives way to something much more defiant.

César Franck (1822-1890)

Sonata in A major

Allegretto ben moderato
Allegro – quasi Lento – Tempo I – quasi Presto
Recitativo-Fantasia (ben moderato) 
Allegretto poco mosso

In the story of this German-Belgian organist a blow is struck against the cult of youth and shininess everywhere. As a precocious child virtuoso Franck had ‘produced a quantity of flashy, quite worthless display pieces’ (Max Harrison), which even his reverential disciple Vincent d’Indy thought monotonous. He did not pursue the career his pushy father had planned for him, that of an international pianist. Instead, he plunged into hard-working semi-obscurity in the organ loft of St Clotilde’s in Paris for four decades, composing almost nothing. How many musicians flower in their fifties? How many composers manage to produce such original and sublime masterpieces in spare evenings and in retirement? This sonata dates from 1886 and has established itself as perhaps the pinnacle of the repertoire. It displays Franck’s skill as an improviser, sliding effortlessly between keys and sections, alongside his tight control of cyclic form, in which he used and re-used themes and motifs within and between movements. The opening movement is graceful and rarely darkened. The second is very busy, alternating between driving, flowing passages and angry declamations. A pensive, almost mystical mood infuses the third movement, some of the themes of which re-appear in the finale, woven into the extended canon (imitation) of the infectiously lyrical melody.

NT "NT" Wright

If you've ever read any Wright, you'll love this. A spoof of the great man exegeting Humpty Dumpty.

Try reading it out loud in an arch voice. Guaranteed hilarity for the whole household.

Thanks to Stuart at NTI for pointing this out.

Firefly and Serenity

We started on Serenity, which number two brother has long recommended to me. For about a year I was slightly put off by the DVD cover art which made it look much more like Buffy the Vampire Slayer (by the same writer-director) than it really was.

Don’t get me wrong, Buffy may be very good, I’ve never seen more than snatches of episodes. However, marketing that relies on flexible female teenagers (who aren't really teenagers) doesn’t usually score highly in my book. And while I’m on the subject, the cover art for the DVD of Tremors [don't click the link if you haven't seeen Tremors - instead, stop reading this blog immediately and go and find a copy of the greatest film ever made!] is equally deplorable, surrendering most of the tension of the first 30 minutes of the film by revealing in silly picture form the nature of the mysterious threat that attacks the inhabitants of Perfection!

Back to the point…

Serenity is excellent. It has one of the highest budget-final quality ratios of any recent film and is seriously enjoyable. The script is witty and passionate, the characters are engaging, the plot compelling and the set pieces mesmerizing. It plays with action film conventions and gently mocks all kinds of sci-fi and Western cliches. There is a strong anti-totalitarian anti-interventionist flavour, which adds some spice and social critique.

The music is perfect – like American folk overlaid with medieval – or is it medieval ballads played by bluegrass types? I am suitably bemused and impressed. If you haven’t seen it, then do!

On the DVD version the extras are also good value. “The Making of…” and related features are fun(ny), and not too luvvie. Most of the cast did most of their own stunts, which prompts much amusement on set. All in all a great night in, and Mrs L liked it as much as I did.

Firefly is the short-lived TV series on which Serenity is founded. Although it is very good – as funny and engaging as the film, sharing the cast, setting and mood – I can see why some in a conservative culture might have found its open discussion of prostitution rather too much for heart-warming small screen entertainment. Still worth a look.

youtube fun

Sadly, like the rest of the Web, youtube can be a bit of a snare. However, these fine videos show a range of musical expression that has to be seen and heard to be believed!

Fazil Say does Mozart's Turkish Rondo with jazz hands

Lasse Gjertsen does something with no talent whatsoever!

The Sincerest Form of Flattery

Last week I gave this rather indulgent programme of works in the style of various composers by various other composers. I performed in the style of a concert pianist, but owing to technical difficultues and man-flu there were a number of loose notes! Not that it seemed to matter either to me or the generous audience.

Grieg, Gade [Lyric Pieces, Op. 57, No. 2]

Satie, Sonatine Bureacratique (Clementi)
Allegro
Andante
Vivace

[A] The Dane, Niels Gade (1817-1890), was one of the first Scandinavian composers to win international recognition. Although extremely prolific in all forms of orchestral music he is largely found today in piano anthologies. Grieg’s homage is a graceful gem, faithful to Gade’s style, but not without a few surprises. Muzio Clementi (1752-1832) was a leading piano virtuoso and educator, who moved from Italy to England when in his twenties and continued to tour Europe, pouring out hundreds of compositions and dabbling in the business world. Satie’s gently ironic Sonatine mocks the world of business and the world of classical piano in equal measure. Written into the score like musical directions is a story in French about a self-important office worker who walks smartly and happily to work, dreams about promotion, then loses his job – all to the sound of someone practising Clementi in a neighbouring building.

Barber, Nocturne, Op.33 (Field)
Schumann, Chopin [Carnaval, Op. 9, No. 9]
Ravel, Valse (Borodin)

[A flat] Although Chopin popularised the form, the “Nocturne”, gentle night music, was actually invented by the Irish pianist John Field (1782-1837), who took lessons from Clementi en route to a career in Russia. Barber’s own modernist idiom is the most distinctive thing about his homage to Field, though there are moments of eerie beauty among the hard, metallic harmonies. Schumann tries gamely to enter into the spirit of Chopin’s piano writing, but although the melodic line is very Chopin-esque he can’t quite capture the grace of his contemporary. Not that that is a problem – this is my personal favourite from Carnaval, arguably Schumann’s masterpiece, a suite in which he set out his musical manifesto, painting a vibrant world of characters both real and imaginary who would stand with him against musical Philistines (good thing he never heard anything by Barber!) Ravel’s waltz in the manner of Borodin (1833-87) is perhaps the most perfect imitation on today’s programme, catching the mood and the distinctive harmonic progressions of its model.

Howells, Ralph’s Pavanne (Vaughan Williams)
Freedman, Prelude and Fugue in G minor (Bach)

[G] Herbert Howells wrote two collections of tributes to his friends – British composers, conductors and performers of the early 20th century – in the style of English keyboard music of the Elizabethan age. Originally for clavicord they work just as well on the piano. Howells brings the Renaissance forward several centuries and conjures up the mood of VW’s Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis. The unusual harmonies Howells plays with sound quite modern but many are in fact derived from the Renaissance idiom, fond of “false relations” and jarring passing notes that ultimately resolve into happier sounds. My friend Gordon Freedman wrote his Prelude and Fugue while he was at school. Inspired by Bach, the great master of the form, it evokes the late Baroque period in its harmonic progressions and economic figuration. Like Bach, the fugue makes no concessions to the pianist, and the clinactic appearances of its chromatic theme in the middle line are quite magical. Bet you can’t guess when it was written…

Debussy, Dr Gradus ad Parnassum (Clementi / Czerny)
Addinsell, Warsaw Concerto (Rachmaninov, Scharwenka, etc.)

[C] Clementi may have written the original Gradus ad parnassum (which can be roughly translated “To paradise, step by step”), a collection of exercises that still forms the basis of piano technique today, but Debussy also had an ear for the virtuoso Carl Czerny (1791-1857), who produced still more exercises than Clementi – perhaps more than any single person could play in a lifetime (certainly before nodding off). Film music composer Richard Addinsell produced this juicy masterpiece in 1941 for the patriotic film Dangerous Moonlight, about a Polish pilot in the RAF. It owes more to Rachmaninov than to any Polish composers (except possibly Xavier Scharwenka, one of the greatest pianists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries) but that did not stop it becoming a real hit. Although it may be overblown and cheesy in places, the late romantic grand piano style is secretly everybody’s favourite. kind of music You may deny that, but I know it’s true… ;-) This arrangement for solo piano (in the style of Addinsell, one might say) is by Henry Geehl.

Cartoon on Niebuhr

This is silly, but as it involves part of the A-Team it deserves a mention. Thanks to Stuart of NTI!

The blog itself has a lot of good stuff on depression, among other things. Very open, very honest. I take my hat off to them. In fact, it's a good read all over - a really pleasant tone that the cynics among us wish we could emulate!

Bill Bailey's restraint

Absurdist comics like BB actually seem more serious when they find real real world targets than more typical stand-ups. Jack Dee and Jo Brand might be rude about Bush, but, strangely, without the deep distaste that the absurdists seem to have for their targets. So, for Tinselworm, the bugbears were the Swiss Banks – there wasn’t much absurdity or gentle mockery here, there was outright denunciation of UBS’ complicity in the Nazi war effort. Since the old Bill’s voice and persona is quite funny, and associated in all our minds with the genial observations and absurdity that constitutes the bulk of the shows, so that portion of the show was funny. But you could tell he was cross – and not just putting it on for the sake of a laugh.

There was more restraint in his treatment of creationists. A couple of times on Monday night BB seemed to be about to launch an attack on creationism/creationists, but he never got past a few leading rude comments. I wonder whether this was because the audience seemed slightly less disposed to laugh at these lines of patter and he had to change his tack on the hoof [Mixed Metaphoropolis here we come!]. Ironically, part of his approach involved pointing out how the number of creationists in the UK had risen recently, 10%, 20%, 30%...Were they all at the Gielgud, I wonder?

Back in Part Troll there was plenty of humour about religion, but the tone was quite respectful. (I still laugh a lot at his insurance against acts of God, and comparison of theism and pantheism.) At Tinselworm there was a whiff more derision. Still, last Monday, for whatever reason, we didn't get the full force of whatever was grumbling around in him...

Comic genius

Yes, of course it's Bill Bailey. And yes, now that you sk, he did go to the same school as me. Lucky him, eh?

We celebrated PG's birthday in raucous, absurdist style at the Gielgud Theatre. Tinselworm is not quite as fresh as Part Troll, or quite at 'new' as Cosmic Jam (a very old one) and this Times Review is fair, if a little muted. However, there's nothing like good comedy in the flesh, and I've not seen any since the Edinburgh Fringe in 2000, so I was very happy to catch the old Bill.

'Have you ever stuffed so many chocolate Brazils into your mouth at once that you blacked out?' I thought, "Chocolate Brazils? What are they?" And last night I discovered (in large quantities) as Mrs L's students came round for a social evening, bringing sweet white wine (something else to disgust the purists but delight my insensitive tastes) and the aforementioned nut and cacao-based treats. Well done to them.

Lettershufflers

Sent via a maternal Scrabble network. Really rather good. I wonder which other languages can manage the same sorts of anagram fun...

> > DORMITORY:
> > When you rearrange the letters:
> > DIRTY ROOM
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > PRESBYTERIAN:
> > When you rearrange the letters:
> > BEST IN PRAYER
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ASTRONOMER:
> > When you rearrange the letters:
> > MOON STARER
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > DESPERATION:
> > When you rearrange the letters:
> > A ROPE ENDS IT
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > THE EYES: !
> > When you rearrange the letters:
> > THEY SEE
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > GEORGE BUSH:
> > When you rearrange the letters:
> > HE BUGS GORE
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > THE MORSE CODE :
> > When you rearrange the letters:
> > HERE COME DOTS
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > SLOT MACHINES:
> > When you rearrange the letters:
> > CASH LOST IN ME
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ANIMOSITY:
> > When you rearrange the letters:
> > IS NO AMITY
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ELECTION RESULTS:
> > When you rearrange the letters:
> > LIES - LET'S RECOUNT
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > SNOOZE ALARMS:
> > When you rearrange the letters:
> > ALAS! NO MORE ZS
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > A DECIMAL POINT:
> > When you rearrange the letters:
> > I'M A DOT IN PLACE
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > THE EARTHQUAKES:
> > When you rearrange the letters:
> > THAT QUEER SHAKE
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ELEVEN PLUS TWO:
> > When you rearrange the letters:
> > TWELVE PLUS ONE
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > AND FOR THE GRAND FINALE:
> >
> > MOTHER-IN-LAW:
> > When you rearrange the letters:
> > WOMAN HITLER

the shack and the boosh

Yes folks, a unique experience is offered to you this morning: nowhere else in the blogosphere are these two cultural artifacts linked.

The Shack – wordy and slightly hammy from the literary perspective, risky in terms of its theological presentations, but compelling so far (I’m up to page 89).

The Boosh – wordy and hammy, though not, perhaps, by sitcom standards; alas very hit and miss in terms of quality (‘when she was good she was…’)

The link: funk, of course. God the Father listens to funk in the log cabin while cooking, and Julian Barratt's character, Howard Moon, waxes lyrical about the genre and its relationship to jazz in the two best episodes of the series, 'Electro' and 'Hitcher'. Laugh-out-loud best, playing (ho ho) on everyman’s hesitations about jazz and its afficionados (which I share, despite wanting to get into “the most significant art form of the twentieth century” [Howard Moon]).

shhh

Sorry, but there was another one when I sneaked a look...

a big smile

and another, and another, and then a smirk, and then a chuckle and then some rocking, shaking, shrieking and nearly falling on the floor. And then a desire to share the experience with others.

No, it's not a seventeenth century ecstatic cult, nor is it the Toronto Blessing, it's me laughing.

And the the latest prompts have been:

purgatorio

emergent see posters satirising the emerging church

the journalistic scrapings of Charlie Brooker, TV pundit (and now general columnist) for the Guardian. He is SO cutting and SO witty about the rubbish spewed out by the box that I should keep a copy of his writings nearby for whenever I feel tempted to watch some or feel slightly sad that we don't own one.

new kid on the Blog

some buffoon is trying to undermine my total supremacy in all things. Look at what he's started now!

They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery but this is too much ;-)

Lost consonants

The problem with superlatives is that they get used up rather quickly. As does the reader's patience with someone who uses them - it's like a non-dangerous version of the boy who cried wolf.

So, I shall refrain from superlatives as I recommend to you Graham Rawle and his series 'Lost Consonants' in which amusing collages are blended with silly speech bubbles and captions that are missing a letter. I rediscovered these yesterday and fell off my chair laughing several times. I am told that me laughing is quite a sight, as I have a very weird laugh - mostly a squeaking, sawing noise while breathing in, simultaneously slapping furniture and thighs and generally losing control of self and words. Exhausting to perform, intriguing to watch.

Anyway, th'smore than enough about me, go and look at the genius of Rawle.