St. Patrick's Festival: Poetry & Music: The Barceló Brothers

It's two weeks now since St. Patrick's Day. And what with the pandemic raging harder than ever, of course it was all online this year - at least they had more time to prepare than last year! And they did us proud, with a week's worth of festivities - most available on the festival website, and for free. I hadn't had time to see everything I wanted to, but luckily, it's mostly still there to watch. And with my work meetings cancelled, and a lull in decent programming - I decided to take some time out and have a look at something else.

What came up today was firstly a tribute to Pat Ingoldsby, a Dublin poet, with one of his short poems recited and accompanied by animation. Watch it on YouTube to get the next poetry on autoplay - a lovely piece called Solas (light): Awakening Ireland, which is accompanied by a soundtrack, and shots of Dublin, all lit up for the day that was in it.

Still lacking decent telly, I searched on - and came across a charming short video from the Barceló Brothers! These are two young brothers from Headford, and their Spanish father, who've formed a band - and this is a gorgeous snapshot of their music, performed as they lark around the hinterland of Headford. Plenty of humour too. As it says in the blurb.. "..They perform an explosive mix of old and new Zydeco infused with R&B, Reggae, Soul, and Funk music.." Definitely worth checking out - apparently, the dad is well-known in the Galway arts scene. And they have tons more material on YouTube..

I'm feeling quite spoiled, with all this to watch! And there's still more..

St. Patrick's Festival: Seoda (Jewels)

It's nearly two weeks now since St. Patrick's Day. And what with the pandemic raging harder than ever, of course it was all online this year - at least they had more time to prepare than last year! And they did us proud, with a week's worth of festivities - most available on the festival website, and for free. I hadn't had time to see everything I wanted to, but luckily, it's still there to watch. And with another lull in programming tonight (repeats, you see), that's what I did.

This time, I started from the top and just picked the first thing that looked interesting. Which is how I came to a little gem of a programme (pun intended) - Seoda (Jewels), which is a music programme, a little under an hour long, featuring artists from Wales, Ireland, and Scotland. Contemporary, but with a traditional feel. I hadn't heard of any of the artists before, but from the lilting tones of the Welsh singer, to the stunning vocals of the Northern Irish one, to the haunting melodies played on the bagpipes.. I've listened to a lot of trad and alternative music programmes before, but this one really made me stop in my tracks.

Very highly recommended - these are the kinds of artists you're liable to seek out afterwards. Truly memorable.

 And yes, there's still plenty on the website for me to check out. Which is probably what I'll end up doing tomorrow.

Cultureseekers History & Culture Quiz: London - Then & Now! & St. Patrick's Festival

Well, it's been another hectic week - so it wasn't until last night that I had a look to see whether there was anything on Meetup for today, and which hadn't been on when I last looked. And lo! there was something for lunchtime today. Cultureseekers had advertised a quiz on London scenes - guess the location, each of which was compared with an old, black and white photo of the same scene: some side-by-side some merged! Now, Cultureseekers has been on my radar for years - I know people in it, and they do seem a very busy group. But I was put off by the membership fee. Well, now it seems, you don't have to pay to attend - full membership, however, costs £13 per year, which includes some free events, some discounted events, as well as discounts around London. But that's optional. And this was free. So I signed up.

I was the 71st to RSVP - not by any means the last though, the final list had 84. I joined the call about 10 minutes early, to find I was the 13th.. in the end, we had a max of 75 (including one from New York), not all of whom stayed. But you do get that with free events. Now, with few on the call that I knew, and so many attendees.. I lurked, muted and with camera off. Well, you can relax that way, right?

The conversation was a bit overwhelming, even with only a handful of people talking - many were talking over each other. The organiser didn't participate, until it was time for the quiz - 25 questions, each comprising either a pair of photos, or two that had been merged. And apart from the intrigue of trying to guess the answers, it was just fantastic to see what clever merges had been created, and how the various places had changed during the last 100 years or so:

(This wasn't one of the photos used, but gives you a good idea of the kind of thing we were looking at.) Anyway, it was great fun - the very first photo up was of the Palace Theatre, just up the road from where I used to work, on Shaftesbury Avenue! The number of times I passed it.. Mind you, the question as to which road it was on was a bit mean, as the entrance is actually on Charing Cross Road..

In common with most of the people who revealed their scores, I got most right - there were some easy ones, like Smithfield Market, some I got after a bit of thought - I was delighted to spot Cheapside, by means of the little food kiosk on the left, which only takes cash, and which I tried just once. (Of course, I used to work on Cheapside too.) Good job I've spent most of my time around the centre though - I wouldn't have known half as many if I'd still been based in West Kensington. Fell down on bridges and football stadiums - but I had a respectable score, and as I say, it was fun.

Not much chat afterwards - but there could hardly have been, with so many people. Anyway, people almost immediately started signing off - and what a cacophony, with everyone talking over each other again. Similarly, there was a flurry of messages to the event page after. But they do seem a friendly crowd. I believe this quiz is weekly - might check them out again. I don't know why Meetup never suggested them, when I was looking for something to do.

It's nearly two weeks now since St. Patrick's Day. And what with the pandemic raging harder than ever, of course it was all online this year - at least they had more time to prepare than last year! And they did us proud, with a week's worth of festivities - most available on the festival website, and for free. I hadn't had time to see everything I wanted to, but luckily, it's still there to watch. Which is what I decided to do after the quiz, when there was a lull in decent programmes.

I finished the Foil Arms & Hog videos - they're a comedy trio that I know to be good. And afterwards, I watched an introduction to sean-nós (old-style) dancing - a traditional Irish style. A pleasant end to the afternoon. And yes, there's still plenty on the website for me to check out.

St. Patrick's Festival: Abair & Comedy with Foil Arms & Hog - Who Is St. Patrick?

On Wednesday, it was St. Patrick's Day. And what with the pandemic raging harder than ever, of course it was all online this year - at least they had more time to prepare than last year! And they did us proud, with a week's worth of festivities - most available on the festival website, and for free. I hadn't had time to see everything I wanted to, but luckily, it's still there to watch. Which is what I decided to do today. That Abair series of storytelling videos was first on my list.

So I started off with those, and watched the other two in the series. All filmed in different locations around Dublin, they have the same format, of a spoken word artist and a singer, whose performances are interspersed with each others', and who also sit around and chat with the presenter. Both of these had poetry recitation rather than storytelling. First up was The Long Sleep, filmed in the crypt of Christchurch Cathedral. The songs were good - but somehow, I couldn't engage with the poetry readings.

Still, I persisted with the last episode, The West's Awake - and I'm so glad I did. Filmed in Richmond Barracks, this episode concerns itself with revolution - and is the most watchable of the three. The singing is lovely - the singer kicks off the episode by describing how she's chosen to sing an Irish-language version of The Foggy Dew, and how beautifully it translates - and she's right. Her music is interspersed with some really engaging poetry readings - and I think, quite simply, the difference between this video and the poetry in the other is that the recitation is better. Here, she not only reads well, but sounds as though she really means it - rather than just sounding as though she's found something interesting to read in a book. Yes, this video is definitely recommended.

Finally, I checked out Foil Arms & Hog - a comedy trio that I know to be good. Sure enough, Who Is St. Patrick? doesn't disappoint.. next on my list, of course, is to check out their other videos.

Film: Dorian Gray (2009)

Plenty of films on tv these days - most of which I've seen already, most of the rest of which I have no interest in. But when I saw Dorian Gray was showing.. which I hadn't seen.. I said I'd give it a go. I hadn't heard of this version, with Colin Firth as the suave, nihilistic man-about-town who leads the title character into the life of debauchery that leads to his downfall. Ben Chaplin is the artist who paints Dorian's famous portrait.

Very pretty, this version of London, I have to say - even the squalor is sanitised. And I swear I recognised some locations - I do believe that the pub that he first takes Dorian to is the Viaduct Tavern, the steps outside Colin Firth's house look very like the steps that lead from Waterloo Place down to the Mall, and the theatre where Dorian's first love works is a dead ringer for Wilton's Music Hall, on the inside. All places I know very well. And did it ever make me nostalgic..

It's a bit prettified, as I say, and one review describes it as rather shallow. But I did find it very watchable - Ben Barnes does an excellent job of portraying the young innocent, apparently untouched by the evil he encounters, and Colin Firth is as good as always. I thought they could have done more with the supernatural painting, which (spoiler) ages and shows the ravages of Dorian's actions instead of him showing the same signs - for all the buildup, it's not that scary in the end. But the film turns out to be quite compelling - and effectively depicts the passage of time from 1890 to the period of the First World War. It's quite a jolt, moving from horse-drawn carriages, bustles, and evening gowns to motor cars, cameras, and women's suffrage - but that is what happened, in just over 20 years. Imagine.

Yep, not the best I've seen, but recommended.

Of course, on Wednesday, it was St. Patrick's Day. And what with the pandemic raging harder than ever, of course it was all online this year - at least they had more time to prepare than last year! And they did us proud, with a week's worth of festivities - most available on the festival website, and for free. I hadn't had time to see everything I wanted to, but luckily, it's still there to watch. Which is what I'll probably do tomorrow. That Abair series of storytelling videos is first on my list.

St. Patrick's Festival - Storytelling

Of course, on Wednesday, it was St. Patrick's Day! And what with the pandemic raging harder than ever, of course it was all online this year - at least they had more time to prepare than last year! And they did us proud, with a week's worth of festivities - most available on the festival website, and for free. I hadn't had time to see everything I wanted to, but luckily, it's still there to watch.

Gotta say, I love the snake logo. ;-) They really went to town, there's so much there.. storytelling by Eddie Lenihan is something I made a beeline for, today - he's the first storyteller I ever saw. And he didn't disappoint. Three videos, about 15 minutes each, were provided for the festival - but when you click through to watch on YouTube, I'm delighted to see plenty more of his videos! Will check those out at some point.

Anyway, today I watched these three. All were shot in an atmospheric little room at the Old Ground Hotel, white-plastered, dotted with armour, a large fireplace with large, white candles scattered on it, and a carved wooden chair for the seanchaí. He mentions, in one video, that he's been at this for 43 years - sure enough, I remember his tv appearances when I was a child, and do you know, he hasn't changed much! With his enormous, fuzzy beard, a pair of round glasses peering out over the top - perhaps a bit greyer, but he's still the same one I listened to, years ago.

He has a lovely, natural, old-fashioned style - but I'm glad captions are automatically enabled. He can be soft-spoken, and perhaps the accent is a bit thick, if you're not used to it. Also, it's peppered with the odd phrase in Irish, which is translated in the captions. But try to direct most of your attention to watching him - the three Irish stories are told in his usual, animated, excitable way. It's an absolute delight to watch - highly recommended.

Afterwards, having yet more time with nothing on tv, I had another scroll through the website - and my eye was caught by a series of videos in the Abair series. As explained when you click through, this is the verb "to say", or "to sing" - and they've used this as a springboard for a set of videos, part storytelling, part sean-nós (old style) singing. I watched the first - Táimse im' Chodladh (I'm asleep), which deals with the notion of sleep and dreams. Never fear - the singing is in Irish, the storytelling isn't.

This was shot in 14 Henrietta Street, Dublin - preserved as a museum of what a Georgian townhouse was like, with one room preserved as it would have looked as a tenement; Dublin was notorious, at the beginning of the 20th century, for having some of the worst slums in Europe. Anyway, this storytelling lacks Eddie Lenihan's vigour - but it's still well told, and I think I recognise the storyteller, Nuala Hayes, who comes dressed in costume, so she fits into the tenement set. She tells two in this video, each accompanied by a song, and in between, they sit around in a circle with the presenter, and chat about storytelling.

With plenty more in this series, I think I'll have enough to keep me busy for the weekend..

Film: The Breadwinner

On Sunday, Up in the Cheap Seats watched Behind the Beautiful Forevers, a National Theatre production set in the slums of Mumbai - in conjunction with a group from Toronto, it seems! Too late for me, though. Still, I've rented it to watch on my own - I have three days from when I click the link in the mail.

Which I haven't got around to doing yet! Well, if the tv is good.. Anyway, today being St. Patrick's Day, I took the day off - and the plan was to check out some more of the excellent website they've set up to entertain us. And wouldn't you know it, the tv threw up an alternative. I was meant to see The Breadwinner - live, in a cinema - years ago, but it seems there were Tube issues, and I never made it. So, when I saw it advertised today..

Turned out to be dubbed into Irish (for the day that's in it). Well now, my Irish isn't perfect, but I got the jist - the dialogue isn't that complicated, as the story is told from a child's perspective, and you do get into the swing of it after a bit. (Anyway, I checked the plot on Wikipedia, just to make sure I didn't miss anything.)

This is the story of a little girl, living in Afghanistan under the Taliban, whose father is imprisoned - for possession of a non-religious book; it's easy enough to get imprisoned in this society. Bad enough in itself, this leads to an additional problem - he was the only male in the family (apart from the baby), and women aren't allowed out without an accompanying, adult male family member. Imagine, huh? Anyway, this leaves them without a source of income, and without the means to buy food - ain't no delivery service, and they aren't allowed to the market. Starving at home, what are they to do? One day, our brave little girl stares at the scissors, and gets the idea to cut her hair.. She had an older brother, who died (we eventually learn how), so there are boy's clothes at home - if she can pass as a boy, she can leave the house, earn an income, buy food..

You'd be surprised how compelling this is to watch - no surprise it was nominated for the animated feature section at the Oscars. It's beautifully drawn, and clearly communicates the feelings of the nervous, confused little girl - if the religious police, who are everywhere, were to guess who she really was, she'd be subject to a vicious beating. At least. And what she's doing is so essential for her family's survival. To console herself, she immerses herself in storytelling - something she used to do with her dad. The reality of her life is like a dark fairytale in itself - it's so unbelievable from our Western point of view. Truly evocative of both the fear of the common people, and the beauty of the landscape - highly recommended.

There's a St. Patrick's Day special on tv as I write - well, I might get back to the festival website eventually! Mind you, U2 has chucked their collective hat in the ring, with their own YouTube channel, which will be broadcasting four of their iconic concerts over the next few weeks, starting tonight. I hope they remain on the channel afterwards, I'll have trouble watching them live..

Not enough hours in the day!

Ballet: Sleeping Beauty

Today, Up in the Cheap Seats watched a performance of The Sleeping Beauty, streamed from the Opera House, and available for rental for £3 in the UK, tax added outside the UK. So I booked that, and just watched. Available till the 28th.

Looking back in my records, I see it's about four years since I saw this! Wow, doesn't feel like it. It's so familiar.. the ornate costumes, the iconic music, that famous dance sequence where she pirouettes in place, taking the hand of one suitor after another, for balance.. the image of the ballerina in the music box. Really, you can't find a more classic ballet - full fairytale. And this is a recording of an actual, live performance - remember those?

So, after a relaxing afternoon watching the ballet, I logged on for a nice, long chat with the organiser - lovely to see her again, after what's been a long time. And I even met the cat! It's a pity I don't get to more Meetups.

The same group is actually watching Behind the Beautiful Forevers, a National Theatre production set in the slums of Mumbai, tomorrow - in conjunction with a group from Toronto, it seems! Too late for me, though. Still, I've rented it to watch on my own - I have three days from when I click the link in the mail.

St. Patrick's Festival

Well begorrah, on Wednesday, 'tis St. Patrick's Day! And what with the pandemic raging harder than ever, of course it's all online this year - at least they had more time to prepare than last year! And they've done us proud, with a week's worth of festivities - most available on the festival website, and for free. After a hard week at work, with nothing much to do at the end of today, I said I'd give it a first look..

Gotta say, I love the snake logo. ;-) They give a schedule, but don't worry, you don't have to watch at the time stated - I think that's when the video becomes available. And by the look of it, they've really gone to town, there's so much on.. storytelling by Eddie Lenihan is something I'll definitely keep an eye on - he's the first storyteller I ever saw.

For this evening, I started with a couple of things - first that caught my eye was The Dodgy History of Ireland, whose first episode - St. Brigid - is a witty, tongue-in-cheek animated tour through a mixture of history and legend, and well worth a watch.

And then I spotted the 1916 Walking Tour of Dublin, and decided to watch that as well. Very well done, shot on a lovely sunny day in Dublin (which made me quite nostalgic), we are guided - by a fellow with a strong Dublin accent - past some of the sights of central Dublin that were relevant in the 1916 Rising. The Foggy Dew features as the background music, and the history is recounted in a vivid and entertaining way.

So, both of those highly recommended! But I doubt very much I'll get to everything - there's so much. Well, with the whole country wanting to take part, I guess..

Tomorrow, Up in the Cheap Seats is watching a performance of The Sleeping Beauty, streamed from the Opera House, and available for rental for £3 in the UK, tax added outside the UK. So I've booked that, and will be delighted to join them. Available till the 28th.

Series: The Family Man (Episode 1)

Today - back to Amazon Prime. And what was coming up next on my list was The Family Man, an Indian series about a government agent who has to keep running off to deal with his wife and kids - who have no idea what he really does for a living.

It's a great premise, really - one minute he's dealing with smugglers, then he gets a call from his daughter's school - she's in trouble, he has to come in because she's scared of her mother, and he gets a dressing down from the school principal for not spending enough time with her. And so, back to the day job. He switches between the two through a constant stream of fabrications.

Should've been good - I just couldn't relate to the characters, wasn't that interested. Handy that it's in English though, so I didn't have to keep my eyes on screen all the time! Anyway, I didn't finish the episode. I'll leave it there - I have other things to be doing.

On Saturday, Up in the Cheap Seats is watching a performance of The Sleeping Beauty, streamed from the Opera House, and available for rental for £3 in the UK, tax added outside the UK. So I've booked that, and will be delighted to join them. Available till the 28th.

Film: Silence

So - in honour of St. Patrick's Day, I guess - all this month, the Irish-language tv channel, TG4 (which doesn't exclusively broadcast Irish-language programmes) is showing Irish films on Monday and Saturday nights. Some of which, handily for me, I've known about for a while but never actually gotten around to seeing. Like tonight's offering.

Silence is a film advertised as being about a sound recordist, living in Berlin, who - seemingly sick of the hustle and bustle - drives back to his native Donegal, stopping en route to record the sounds of nature.

Nope, not quite. He fetches up in Ireland rather quickly, where he seems to do all his recordings, and ends up spending more time chatting to the locals than recording birdsong. I guess he's rediscovering the nature of rural life. But this is, in fact, a very silent film. One of those where the levels are weird - I guess the tv don't want to broadcast above a certain volume, but I think certain sounds were meant to be extremely loud - for contrast - and this meant that I had to turn up the volume a couple of times just to hear what people were saying.

That aside, this is a lovely film to watch. Plenty of silent - or near-silent - scenes, birdsong, quiet conversations with just one other person. Especially during these times of pandemic, when so many have returned to their native places, and forsaken the cities - this film makes rural life very attractive, as he wanders about. (He even stops at Mullaghmore, which isn't that far from where I am now!) The people are softly spoken, no contentious topics are discussed, and you get an otherwordly sense of the place that is completely removed from the big city. Lovely and calming. Recommended if you're feeling stressed.

Tomorrow - back to Amazon Prime, I guess. And what's coming up next on my list is The Family Man, which seems to be an Indian series about a government agent who has to keep the true details of his job from his family.

And next Saturday, Up in the Cheap Seats is watching a performance of The Sleeping Beauty, streamed from the Opera House, and available for rental for £3 in the UK, tax added outside the UK. So I've booked that, and will be delighted to join them. Available till the 28th.

Dance: Grupo Corpo

Today - wow, at last, Meetup is running things early enough in the day for me again! Up in the Cheap Seats (UITCS) was watching a couple of contemporary dance shows by Grupo Corpo - Bach and Lecuona, each streaming on Vimeo and available to rent for 48 hours for £3.95. So I signed up - just rented before watching. Only to find that the price had more than doubled! ($15 when I looked). Hey-ho, it's no more than I'd have paid to see them live - and I don't begrudge it them, the arts need all they can get during lockdown.

I watched them early - why not? First up was Bach - as you might expect, the accompanying music is Bach (or a re-arrangement thereof), to which dancers move as if to visualise the music. I love this kind of dance, and it is beautiful - alternately bubbly and pensive, the movements perfectly matching the sound.

But I have to say, I was more taken with Lecuona - a slightly shorter piece, it comprises a set of pas de deux, performed to a soundtrack of Cuban love songs. Quite explicit, it also demonstrates a quirky personality, more independent of the music we're hearing than the Bach piece is. So, quite an unexpected performance.. and better watched second, to leave you with a smile. Well worth the price of viewing!

With only two of us having signed up to join the organiser, it was a real shame that my fellow co-attendee cancelled at the last minute, citing tiredness. I can't blame her though, it's been an exhausting week for me too! and TBH, I nearly dozed off a couple of times while watching. No reflection on the performances. I signed on for a solo chat with the organiser (and would you believe, found myself reaching for a pen as I logged on! Reflex action from so many Zoom calls with work..). Anyway, it was great to see him again, and we used our full chat time.

Tomorrow - back to Amazon Prime, I guess. And what's coming up next on my list is The Family Man, which seems to be an Indian series about a government agent who has to keep the true details of his job from his family.

And next Saturday, UITCS is watching a performance of The Sleeping Beauty, streamed from the Opera House, and available for rental for £3 in the UK, tax added outside the UK. So I've booked that, and will be delighted to join them. Available till the 28th.

Film: Black '47

I was miffed when Black '47 was unexpectedly shown on telly last week, clashing with what my mother wanted to see. And so, I was delightfully surprised to see it scheduled for this evening again! on a different channel, and later in the night, so I could watch it. Unfortunately, I then forgot about it and watched the most boring Golden Globes ceremony ever. Well, it doesn't help when you've seen hardly any of the nominees - although I did find it easier to spot the losing nominees' bored faces. ;-)

Never mind, I got to see over half of the film. And what immediately struck me is that it really has the feel of a Western - with more grass, rain, mud.. but you have the lone gunslinger, riding through the wilderness in search of justice, going up against the law, fighting for justice on behalf of oppressed people.. The story concerns an Irishman in the British Army, stationed in Ireland, who deserts to try to help his beleaguered family, suffering in 1847 (the worst year of the Irish famine); he can't do much for them (they are evicted, and die, starving, of exposure during a snowstorm), and so instead he heads off on a quest to avenge their deaths on those responsible for them.

Hugo Weaving plays an English ex-comrade of his, who is supposed to be on the other side, but has sympathy for him. Stephen Rea is a local man employed as a translator by the posse searching for the deserter. Jim Broadbent is the local, English (of course) landlord, as obnoxious as you'd expect - loves the scenery, can't abide the "aborigines".

It's not hard to hate the English in this - and, of course, what they're guilty of is what they were guilty of in reality. (And the redcoats are as despicable here as in any film they appear in.) But what I did enjoy about them, in this film, is that they're not cartoon villains - we get to know them, they're allowed to give their reasoning. Not that it does them much good against our vigilante. But we have plenty of reason to support the renegade - and he truly is a heroic figure, seemingly bigger and stronger than his opponents, dodging bullets, stealing horses.. I missed the start, of course, where his family dies, but what I saw is fast-paced, the action compelling. It's also lauded for its use of the Irish language. And I loved the ambiguous ending - literally, at a crossroads. Recommended - and even if you're English, well, there are a couple of sympathetic Englishman in it..

On Saturday - wow, at last, Meetup is running things early enough in the day for me again! Up in the Cheap Seats is watching a couple of contemporary dance shows by Grupo Corpo - Bach and Lecuona, each streaming on Vimeo and available to rent for 48 hours for £3.95. So I've signed up - will rent closer to the time, and we'll be chatting about them on Saturday. Phew, it'll be great to see these folks again, it's been ages!