Friday, February 10, 2012
Smiles
Shouts to Reni's Cafe on Barnet High Street. What a lovely place to sit and chat over a coffee and a sandwich on a snowy day, with smiling staff and home-made food. Long may they prosper! And at the other end of the street, All Aboard, with the singing sales assistant who gave me a toy helicopter to take home with my 1960s cardi!
Thursday, February 09, 2012
Shipley Art Gallery
Saturday... Martin and myself have a gig at the Shipley Art Gallery, with a short guest spot from Pauline Murray and percussion from Fin McCardle.
Be there and be a Geordie!
Be there and be a Geordie!
Wednesday, February 08, 2012
Regrets
You know. Last Tuesday, Grayson Perry came to the University of the East, my all-time favourite contemporary artist. I remember the moment of bliss I felt as I walked around the Turner exhibition, and I remember floating on air back home with a big smile on my face.
Alas, I had a seminar scheduled for the very time that he was talking and I spent the afternoon helping students with their CVs. It was so busy iI didn't even have time to imagine myself into the lecture hall.
My Office Pal went and said it was fantastic- she even had a front row seat.
I have, however, managed to get a ticket to the British Museum show and I am looking forward to that with bated breath.
Alas, I had a seminar scheduled for the very time that he was talking and I spent the afternoon helping students with their CVs. It was so busy iI didn't even have time to imagine myself into the lecture hall.
My Office Pal went and said it was fantastic- she even had a front row seat.
I have, however, managed to get a ticket to the British Museum show and I am looking forward to that with bated breath.
Tuesday, February 07, 2012
Long Day
What a. Time stretched, patience stretched. Half an hour added on to everything at both ends. Fantastic speaker came to talk to students; new students appeared from mystery origins. Students hated me and I loved them back to spite them. Martin cheered me up: gigging together on Saturday in Gatesheed, recording a bit on Sunday with Joe Guillan, John Cavener, Little Johnny and Keith Shepherd.
Cup of tea steaming away, early night, welcome tomorrow in spite of freezing slush!
Cup of tea steaming away, early night, welcome tomorrow in spite of freezing slush!
Monday, February 06, 2012
Sunday, February 05, 2012
Big Up Ben Wilson
http://londonist.com/2012/01/benwilso.php
Ben has an 'exhibition' on the streets of Docklands!
I had wondered what he was up to. This is the tiny painting that he did for the cover of Suburban Pastoral.
I didn't realise that no-one would twig how tiny it actually is. It's one of the few left in Barnet where the nasty council ripped up the paving stones after taking him to court. They are absolute philistines.
You can still just about see this by the side of the Old Magistrate's Court on the corner of Normandy Avenue. It has been scuffed by feet but that's sort of the point, according to Ben.
He painted it there because that's where he thought I lived, but I actually lived in Bedford Avenue (though I don't any more) and that's where I wrote all the songs on the album.
Local musician makes local songs and asks local artist to paint picture for cover!
When I listened to them, I heard the songs of a very unhappy and unloved middle aged suburban housewife. And that was me!
Not any more.
Still middle aged though.
I had wondered what he was up to. This is the tiny painting that he did for the cover of Suburban Pastoral.
I didn't realise that no-one would twig how tiny it actually is. It's one of the few left in Barnet where the nasty council ripped up the paving stones after taking him to court. They are absolute philistines.
You can still just about see this by the side of the Old Magistrate's Court on the corner of Normandy Avenue. It has been scuffed by feet but that's sort of the point, according to Ben.
He painted it there because that's where he thought I lived, but I actually lived in Bedford Avenue (though I don't any more) and that's where I wrote all the songs on the album.
Local musician makes local songs and asks local artist to paint picture for cover!
When I listened to them, I heard the songs of a very unhappy and unloved middle aged suburban housewife. And that was me!
Not any more.
Still middle aged though.
Sandie's Film of Mr and Mrs Songsmith
Sandie filmed this at the Camden Eye- thank you! This song is going to be on The Cafe of Tiny Kindnesses along with two instrumentals, and songs by Martin and myself:
Beachwalk (instrumental)
The Cafe of Tiny Kindnesses
Steal You Away
You and Me Time
Samba Blue (instrumental)
All Systems Go!
Mandy Rose
Gaudi's Garden
Sunny and Blue
It's going to be a digipack for private sale only, at gigs and off Martin's mailing list and mine: email me if you would like me to keep you a copy helen_mccookerybook@yahoo.co.uk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjUf_O75lhU
Beachwalk (instrumental)
The Cafe of Tiny Kindnesses
Steal You Away
You and Me Time
Samba Blue (instrumental)
All Systems Go!
Mandy Rose
Gaudi's Garden
Sunny and Blue
It's going to be a digipack for private sale only, at gigs and off Martin's mailing list and mine: email me if you would like me to keep you a copy helen_mccookerybook@yahoo.co.uk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjUf_O75lhU
Saturday, February 04, 2012
Something To Do In Hove Tomorrow
Put on your wellies and gardening gloves and your trousers with inbuilt kneeling pads... or even your sparkling evening wear... think of the spring and the summer; plan for lots of Sunday lunches with your own home-grown vegetables and herbs, flowers for your mothers and your lovers or even just for you.
Alas, I shall be sitting here writing humungously long and intricate lectures. But I do have a little box of tropaeolum that will go into the soil as soon as it's thawed, and some snowdrops just about to emerge, next to a pot of dwarf irises, Katharine Hodgkin ones.
And I will be imagining the green fingered folk of Brighton and Hove pottering around the stalls with steaming mugs of coffee talking nerdy seed-speak (not the same as seedy nerd-speak, I assure you), just as they are imagining future warm days in abundant gardens and allotments......
Edinburgh
I have just floated back from Edinburgh: Ayr first to do External Examining duties (what an interesting course and what good lecturers!) and then back to fairytale city with its drillings-into-the-road for a tram system that sounds more like a train set than a tram service.
I chatted to a retired Chemistry lecturer and ate shortbread at McMum's gaff, silver hair and gossip aplenty.
The weather has been so beautiful- cold and clear, a bit like the feeling just after you've brushed yer teeth with spearmint.
I should probably work today but I'm not, partly in celebration. The washing machine pump stopped working on Wednesday and I had to head north with a machine full of water and clothes stew. I'd tried to trick it into pumping again but to no avail. This avo, an old-fashioned chap turned up with a toolbox and a moustache and within five minutes had removed a button from the pipe and fixed it; the clothes don't even smell.
Amazing what boring postings I can do, isn't it?
I chatted to a retired Chemistry lecturer and ate shortbread at McMum's gaff, silver hair and gossip aplenty.
The weather has been so beautiful- cold and clear, a bit like the feeling just after you've brushed yer teeth with spearmint.
I should probably work today but I'm not, partly in celebration. The washing machine pump stopped working on Wednesday and I had to head north with a machine full of water and clothes stew. I'd tried to trick it into pumping again but to no avail. This avo, an old-fashioned chap turned up with a toolbox and a moustache and within five minutes had removed a button from the pipe and fixed it; the clothes don't even smell.
Amazing what boring postings I can do, isn't it?
Wednesday, February 01, 2012
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