Jonti and The Chap – Gotye Hammersmith (by sarah)

Gotye has quiet a diverse taste in music so we were intrigued as to what type of music would be the support bands. So we got to the Apollo early thinking we could go in and sit at the bar (this is what happens when you live outside of London for anytime you forget about all the people!). There was already a huge crowd and we couldn't find the end of the queue. A nice doorman person at the end came up to us and directed us to another door - were we were scooped in with the VIPs and what have you. I think this was because I was on my stick and to be honest I had completely over done it and was shaking with fatigue just standing was painful so I am extremely grateful though was a bit grumpy that the seated tickets were upstairs and there was no lift so me and the people on crutches made a slow rise to the circle which fortunately did have loos and drinks (they'd confiscated my inch of severn up!). I took pictures of pretty lights whilst we waited for the first act 🙂

The first act was Jonti for Alaric this slightly topped Gotye as it was interesting and new were as the Gotye tracks were familiar and comftable and fun due to the little quirks put in.

Jonti

I attempted to take some of the photos through the monocular - it did work brilliantly but I quiet like this pic of Jonti.

This guy wizzed about doing funky electric synth mix stuff with like little dance movements inbetween - I think the universe might implode from music awesome if he ever met Brown Torpedo. He had a guitar made out of an old oil can and a funky looking uke (I think). Alaric was entranced and enthused 🙂 To me he was bordering on a Dr Who-esk style performance.

The Chap

• I swear that I already knew these guys I had a vague impression of having danced to some of the songs with my friend Aiofe and they were very much her type of music! I also almost said hello to the drummer before the show (before I knew he was one of the bands - it was surreal I thought I recognised him and then realised I didn't). I enjoyed them though the people behind me didn't to the point were I was ready to throttle them for making comments all the way through :/ Yes it wasn't the same type of music as Gotye and yes everyone was waiting for the big act but you know some of us were trying to listen and cough dance in their seats.

At the end we went and talked to Jonti and The Chap and got them to sign the ticket though we were missing the girl from The Chap - I was in a lot of pain so didn't want to hang around and was perhaps a bit snappy when it was pointed out that a band member was missing 'Yes well!' which was a bit rude but there you go. We were going to by music by them but somehow failed to do so though we did end up with a signed copy of Making Mirrors by Gotye.

Us with The Chap

Me with Jonti

Due to both being shy we had to work as a team to actually go up and chat to them - so glad we did 🙂

Make Good Art or Get Creative (by sarah)

This speech by the writer Neil Gaimon I found extremely powerful especially for someone like me who has to do creative things to survive.

But also the fact that I have not done things the normal way and that I keep hitting barriers such as I don't have an art degree so therefore do not count as an artist for some people. I am in a space inbetween. When I hear or read that others have not done it the normal way either it gives me hope.

Also I feel encouraged that I am not the only person who finds that trying to do projects for money fail and end up leaving you worse off than you started but the ones you do because it's a fun idea race ahead and are successful.

He mentions the changing landscape of publishing too which for me is an emotive subject - I really think I am going to continue on my own path with my blogs and getting my own CDs printed and what have you. I have tried traditional publishing twice now and both time the company has gone bust or something similar - one still having the rights to the work I'd done so I didn't even end up with it and worse they have not done anything with it :/

My first attempt at crowd funding has been a huge success 🙂 So I am very happy with that.

He mentions throwing bottles into the sea and then they all start coming back and you have to learn to say no. And you know - this is actually happening - though I would say I have been shouting into the void and now the echos are not only coming back but are bouncing and reflecting and propagating and I am having to turn things down! (But please still ask as I may not be doing stuff that weekend etc... or like with the Stroud Water Festival - what I was supposed to be doing may have been canceled).

I do feel a bit weird though it is just like suddenly I am this person that people know of - I'm getting pounced by people who I do not know who start chatting to me about my art (ok well this has always happened quiet alot but frequency has increased!).

It is bizar but I do feel like a fake - really? Me? That thing I made in the middle of the night? That story I wrote whilst breast feeding the baby at 5 am? The knitting I did at a festival whilst listening to my favourite local bands? That really? You like it?

It is not all positive feedback mind - one of my best friends hates my songs, I was accused at the Poetry Festival of being arrogant as my business cards say Artistic Scientist and Scientific Artist. Alaric cringes at my Wiggly Pet stories and visual puns. Performance poets see me as a page poet, page poets see me as performance or worse experimental and the artists are scared or the science part and the scientists are like 'you have no PhD!' and I have people ranting at me over spelling mistakes on my blogs...

But....

That is small compared to what is coming back to me at the moment. I keep thinking I'm so lucky how has this come about? But it is such a knife edge world really - I'm getting bookings now but 6 months down the line? And also it still isn't actually making money 🙁 And what it does make tends to be for charity.

But you know people are excited about Ballads of the Scientifica and there have been requests for a Wiggly Pet book and for t-shirts with things like my Normali Tea picture on.

If you watch/listen to Neils speech he says make good art, I would change that to Get Creative.

When I tore the ligaments in my ankle and had to be flown home from a field trip in the desert I GOT CREATIVE - I made Wiggly Pets

When I had to take a year out for medical treatment to my back - I GOT CREATIVE - I began writing and designed a series of childrens' science stories.

When I found myself having nearly died, and crippled from childbirth, boiling with anger and fear - I GOT CREATIVE - I started writing a novel and so was found in a cafe by the now Cheltenham Poetry Festival Director.

When our house was flooded I GOT CREATIVE and designed childrens activities to entrain my toddler.

When I got shingles and had to rest and give up the Master degree for the second time I found the Paleo Art community and began drawing trilobites and things.

When I was devastated about miscarriage I constructed The Punk In Pink personality.

When I was petrified of going to the hospital to have little Mary I wrote poems about that fear and about having a separated pelvis.

When we were being chucked out of our home I made a poem about how the home is not the building but the people with in.

And so on. There is an even larger list of good times and being creative but that would make this post silly long! 🙂

Basically as I have struggled to build my own serendipity funnel and have just reached my perceived tipping point and this talk resonated so strongly that it made me cry (yes I know that will be the hormones).

If you haven't already listen to it 🙂 But most of all Get Creative!

Music Corner (by sarah)

So this is music corner in the house - off course there is also the hammond organ as well. I love having the instruments there and accesible. The only sad this is that a few weeks back I dropped contessa and she is not really repairable at least not for the sort of money we can pay out 🙁

This had actually been more of an issue for my guitar playing than it should be - basically I am now being a little worried about picking up the electric and playing it incase the guitar strap gives way on it (which is what happened to Contessa).

But after watching some hot guitar playing today I am psyched to get going with the guitar again.

I think having the instruments as part of the room rather than a thing that is put away and hidden has made a huge difference. I feel I am developing musically - I know I'll never be a professional person or anything like that but it means I can do little twiddly things for my poetry collections - like the recorder for the Easter Collection and the Organ for Shy.

The girls also love the instruments especially Mary who plays with them probably more than the baby toys we have for her!

Even Alaric has been caught playing cords on the organ 🙂

Windy Gloucestershire (by sarah)

This is the song I won the bronze for in the Gloucestershire Creative Olympics - as far as I can tell it is ok for me to put this up now as the event has been and gone. I found out about the competition with three days to go so wrote the song, revised it and recorded it wrote on the CD and posted it. I had a cold at the time but I am still happy with it.

This is for all of you who moaned at me for not telling them I had this song!

Me, Science, Geekery and Art (by sarah)

I have two thirds of the funding I need for phase on of Science-Art for all. It would be great to get that last bit of money in the pot so I start work on the project.

Also I am working hard on getting Ballads of the Scientifica in all of its forms ready. In case I haven't mentioned it before I have my Science-Art website and I also have Astronomy@Geology.

I am very happy about my science-art at the moment and where it is going. I feel that art is probably the best way in which to get the general public to engage with science and communication of the ideas and concepts to EVERYBODY is of upmost importance.

Science permeates every aspect of our lives and I do not just mean medicine and technology. Food, water, our clothing - all of it relies on science. But understanding that science is important - that it is the cure rather than the disease is still being lost.

Science is still seen as a dead boring subject - but it really isn't. It uses creativity as much as any art. The wonder of everything around us - this we need to show people. There has been some wonderful popular science programmes over the last few year which are helping to instill the awe of everything in people but we are a long way off.

I use art to try and communicate emotions and concepts. And am very pleased to have had some of my work likened to Carl Sagan.

I started the Ballads of the Scientifica to help me put all of my spoken and sung science-art in one place but have found it is linked to my visual art very much.

Here it is though it is still being worked on:

But my work is still infantile compared with the group I found yesterday called Symphony of Science. Mary and Jean both love the songs - that are made out of snippets of documentaries and the like.

And then just as I was thinking about it all I turned around to find the baby now 15 months had been selecting books off the bookshelf. She had a maths book, another on electrical experiments and the last was 40 More Gadgets For the Evil Genius - the geek in me found this halarious 🙂

I do still miss the lab - though and the deeper into art I sink the more keenly I feel the lose. I want to blast rocks with military grade lasers to see what they are made of - to make element maps and to piece together the evolution of systems be they life or rock.

But this isn't doable for me - not at the moment and I am over whelmed by the wonder of the naked ape infants I have in this house ie Jean and Mary. My main hope is that I am showing them the beauty of it all and how to think for themselves.

And I do actually feel very hopeful at the moment - I have a meeting about my science-art this afternoon then tomorrow I'm performing in Gloucester.