O the joys of dried-up breaded haddock, pebbly peas and cold stringy chips, followed by a scoop of melting vanilla ice cream in one of those aluminium ice cream bowls that have not withstood the retro twists of time!
But back to the symposium: I can honestly say that there was not a bad paper among them. We heard about Celtic and Rangers and the Catholic and Protestant songs and chants (John Markey); the difference between the words 'diversity' and 'integration' (Rachel Lewis); Alan Turing and a play about his life, exposing the hypocrisy of the British Government of the time (Catrin Fflur Huws); Fascist music in the UK, focused on the band Skrewdriver (John E Richardson); the use of signing by Deaf people to create music (Ely Rosenblum and Jody Cripps); hidden messages in performance and performers at odds with their physical bodies (Simon McKerrell); the Drake Music Project in Ireland and its creative rather than therapeutic approach to music making with differently-abled people (Koichi Samuels); Northumbrian authenticity in songwriting and music and sometimes, inauthentic authenticity (Martyn Hudson).
All from a bunch of really engaging people; there were others who attended who asked interesting and challenging questions and I'm so glad I made the effort to attend and to present a paper. It gave me so much food for thought that is spite of being knackered on the journey home, my mind buzzed and I couldn't sleep a wink on the train.
Names of presenters later, when I have unpacked my suitcase (I was travelling heavy, having spent the weekend in Edinburgh with McMum who had some teeth out and needed a daughter there in case of problems, but luckily there were none).
No comments:
Post a Comment