The Rockman of Hunstanton paints the cliffs with rockfall, stones and giant pebbles to stop the rising tides sweeping the cliffs away.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
ROCKMAN PAINTS THE CLIFFS
The Rockman of Hunstanton paints the cliffs with rockfall, stones and giant pebbles to stop the rising tides sweeping the cliffs away.
Monday, August 30, 2010
THE WRECK OF THE SHERATON, AGAINST THE HUNSTANTON CLIFFS
Built in 1907, the Sheraton started life as a trawler but was later moored on the Lincolnshire side of the Wash to be used as a target ship. In 1947 she broke free from her mooring in a gale and drifted on to the beach at Hunstanton. The ship was sold to scrap dealers and now only a section of the hull remains. Location: Beneath the cliffs at St Edmund's Point.
HUNSTANTON - AN INSPIRIATION
I returned to Hunstanton today for inspiration. For me, it is the most dramatic place I've found in East Anglia. Awesome.
MILESTONES JAZZ CLUB, SEPTEMBER
UK JAZZ LEGEND MICHAEL GARRICK AT MILESTONES JAZZ CLUB
This month’s concert at Milestones Jazz Club on Sunday 5 September features a rare local appearance by a bona fide legend of UK jazz showcasing a new project and new singer –Michael Garrick and Nette Robinson.
Michael Garrick has long been at the forefront of British jazz as a prolific composer and pianist, often called ‘The English Duke Ellington’ for the depth, originality and beauty of his musical vision over the last fifty years.
Earlier this year Michael was awarded an MBE for services to music and BBC Radio 3 devoted a ninety-minute performance to mark fifty years since his first BBC broadcast.
His latest collaboration, ‘Remembered Time’, is with the expressive singer Nette Robinson on originals, standards and, to mark the thirtieth anniversary of his death, work by the great pianist Bill Evans.
Since the 1960’s Garrick has raced from one project to another: his ‘Jazz Praises’ project, using choral voicing and jazz that found its realisation in the organ loft of St Paul’s Cathedral - the pivotal Don Rendell and Ian Carr Quintet – the ‘Poetry And Jazz’ roadshow that involved setting music to poetry and numerous large and small scale works, sextets, septets and big bands that have featured amongst others Joe Harriott, Shake Keane, Art Themen, Henry Lowther and Norma Winstone.
At the heart of Garrick's jazz is a unique brand of 'Englishness’, taking on board all that the American jazz heritage could offer, but also incorporating his own culture and sense of place.
Being a composer doesn’t stop him relishing live jazz performance, "a freedom to be a composer all night from the very first note".
Although he still remains in awe of piano giants like George Shearing, Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea, the striking feature of Michael's own playing is that he sounds like nobody else, with a total abstinence from clichéd phrases.
There can be few jazz musicians who have spent more time developing young talent than Garrick - forming his Travelling Jazz Faculty in 1965, holding teaching posts at the Royal Academy of Music, the Guildhall and Trinity College of Music, instigating jazz courses at John Dankworth's request and holding his own annual Jazz Academy.
This musician of such enormous scope and unparalleled achievement has also just found time to publish his autobiography, ‘Dusk Fire - Jazz in English Hands’.
This is Michael and Nette’s only East Anglian concert on a tour to promote their new album, ‘Remembered Time’, and therefore not to be missed!
Listen to the music of Michael Garrick and Nette Robinson at www.michaelgarrick.co.uk/#/music/4540451140 or www.myspace.com/michaelgarrick or visit the club website atwww.milestonesjazzclub.co.uk
NB Milestones Jazz Club takes place in a basement room that requires the use of stairs. If you have a disability please contact milestonesjazz@hotmail.co.uk or (01502) 568684 for more info and help in entering the building.
This month’s concert at Milestones Jazz Club on Sunday 5 September features a rare local appearance by a bona fide legend of UK jazz showcasing a new project and new singer –Michael Garrick and Nette Robinson.
Michael Garrick has long been at the forefront of British jazz as a prolific composer and pianist, often called ‘The English Duke Ellington’ for the depth, originality and beauty of his musical vision over the last fifty years.
Earlier this year Michael was awarded an MBE for services to music and BBC Radio 3 devoted a ninety-minute performance to mark fifty years since his first BBC broadcast.
His latest collaboration, ‘Remembered Time’, is with the expressive singer Nette Robinson on originals, standards and, to mark the thirtieth anniversary of his death, work by the great pianist Bill Evans.
Since the 1960’s Garrick has raced from one project to another: his ‘Jazz Praises’ project, using choral voicing and jazz that found its realisation in the organ loft of St Paul’s Cathedral - the pivotal Don Rendell and Ian Carr Quintet – the ‘Poetry And Jazz’ roadshow that involved setting music to poetry and numerous large and small scale works, sextets, septets and big bands that have featured amongst others Joe Harriott, Shake Keane, Art Themen, Henry Lowther and Norma Winstone.
At the heart of Garrick's jazz is a unique brand of 'Englishness’, taking on board all that the American jazz heritage could offer, but also incorporating his own culture and sense of place.
Being a composer doesn’t stop him relishing live jazz performance, "a freedom to be a composer all night from the very first note".
Although he still remains in awe of piano giants like George Shearing, Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea, the striking feature of Michael's own playing is that he sounds like nobody else, with a total abstinence from clichéd phrases.
There can be few jazz musicians who have spent more time developing young talent than Garrick - forming his Travelling Jazz Faculty in 1965, holding teaching posts at the Royal Academy of Music, the Guildhall and Trinity College of Music, instigating jazz courses at John Dankworth's request and holding his own annual Jazz Academy.
This musician of such enormous scope and unparalleled achievement has also just found time to publish his autobiography, ‘Dusk Fire - Jazz in English Hands’.
This is Michael and Nette’s only East Anglian concert on a tour to promote their new album, ‘Remembered Time’, and therefore not to be missed!
Listen to the music of Michael Garrick and Nette Robinson at www.michaelgarrick.co.uk/#/
All Milestones gigs are held on the first Sunday of every month and take place at Hotel Hatfield, Esplanade, Lowestoft with the doors opening at 8pm.
Admission - £7 / £6 (concession).
Admission - £7 / £6 (concession).
NB Milestones Jazz Club takes place in a basement room that requires the use of stairs. If you have a disability please contact milestonesjazz@hotmail.co.uk or (01502) 568684 for more info and help in entering the building.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Sunday, August 22, 2010
TWO TRUTHS & A LIE
'Two Truths & A Lie' is a great game to play. Yet, what is truth? I'm increasingly fascinated by History because it is "another country" of both facts and fictions.
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It is very important to remember that within myth and folklore there are grains of truth. As historic society became more complex (and more divided) the need for myth and folklore has grown with the most modern genre of literature - the novel.
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We'd not read novels if there were no truths within them.
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Helping to film in Kitty Witches Row, Great Yarmouth, last week, I recall a local historian telling me the myths (and folklore) of 'Kitty Witches' was pure fiction - that the Row was named after a baker's there and had no origin in a) a band of crazed, black-faced fisher widows or b) prostitutes. That maybe 'true' but didn't women ever gather themselves together in the town in the 18th Century? Didn't prostitutes gather?
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Some local historians cannot abide folklore. I understand. Goldfish swim round and round because they can only look sidewise.......
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
WHERE THE LIES HAVE NEAR FOSSILIZED...
I've decided to dedicate my latter years to history, that country where our rulers' lies have near fossilized. Today, we have Tories rewriting history by proposing private schools as Free Schools. Very many Quakers, Socialists, Trade Unionists and Free Thinkers will be turning in their graves!
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Free Schools was a late 19th Century/early 20th Century movement to strive for equality in education provision and the liberation of young people through sharing education. From the Burston Strike School near Diss, Norfolk to the rebellion of Risinghill "Comprehensive" School in Islington in the Sixties; from AS Neill's Summerhill Free School to John Aitkenhead's Kilhanity Free School in Scotland (where my mother taught in 1945/6), the heart of "free schools" was democracy as a cradle-to-grave right. For kids, democracy is not a game but a means to confront bullying, poor teaching and grievances while enabling all - adults and children - to strive for and achieve learning.
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Over the last generation of self-self-self we've lost sight of this concept of education as democracy. Now the right wing are busy stealing the clothes of this progressive force - to proclaim a private education for their kids - not yours! Free Schools THEY ARE NOT!
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Free Schools was a late 19th Century/early 20th Century movement to strive for equality in education provision and the liberation of young people through sharing education. From the Burston Strike School near Diss, Norfolk to the rebellion of Risinghill "Comprehensive" School in Islington in the Sixties; from AS Neill's Summerhill Free School to John Aitkenhead's Kilhanity Free School in Scotland (where my mother taught in 1945/6), the heart of "free schools" was democracy as a cradle-to-grave right. For kids, democracy is not a game but a means to confront bullying, poor teaching and grievances while enabling all - adults and children - to strive for and achieve learning.
***
Over the last generation of self-self-self we've lost sight of this concept of education as democracy. Now the right wing are busy stealing the clothes of this progressive force - to proclaim a private education for their kids - not yours! Free Schools THEY ARE NOT!
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Third Hand Recycling
Third Hand Recycling is a Builders' Merchant DIY venture based in North Norwich. It's a simple but very effective means of "re-use" where anyone can donate large or small items for DIY or builder.
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Not only does the venture provide work and sought after materials, this "re-use" facility is an excellent means to stop landfill waste.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
GREAT YARMOUTH CEMETERY
Great Yarmouth's main cemetery is a fantastic historic resource, connecting the past with the present. It is also a haven for wildlife and a lovely place to walk. Sad then that gravestones have recently been vandalised. It is as if History is being beheaded.
Monday, August 09, 2010
THE GOLDEN SANDS OF CROMER
Actually, this outcrop of flint on Cromer beach is utterly fascinating - some flints are as big as bodies and some flints look like bodies!
Sunday, August 08, 2010
KM DERSLEYS NEW CHAPBOOK
'Management Gold Not Me' is Suffolk Beat Poet KM Dersley's new chapbook which can be ordered from the publisher, Propaganda Press.
G NASON - FIRE
One of the 1000-plus art postcards created by Gerald Nason showing at the Halesworth Gallery, Suffolk, until August 18. Collage, drawings, paintings and a measure of sculptural form, Gerald packs images and words into thousands of 6 by 4 ins cards. It's a brilliant concept: walls full of postcard art!
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In the age of the Internet and the mobile phone it would seem postcards have had their day. Not a bit of it! Holiday postcards thrive, while Blogs - like this Blog - are pure postcards. Indeed, I'm even composing this text in a postcard size box!
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More than this, I collect old postcards. I love that they're global and have been around way over a century. Better than the image alone, used postcards carry texts which illuminate lives.
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The postcard will change but won't die.
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