|
11/7/2013 Bookish humour
Someone shared this image on Facebook and you have to admit, it's cute. Loads of other ones HERE. Lurvely if, like me, you're obsessed with books!
10/7/2013 A little bit of promo...
This Saturday is Village Green, the arts and music festival organised by Metal Southend.
The culture magazine Level 4 has produced a pocket edition of the mag, and in there, you should find a review of I Am a Muse, as well as an ad for Arcane Publishing and one for Matt ArtPix! :-) I am really pleased to have my little book in there. I will post a scan of the article in the review section next week. 8/7/2013 Great finds again!On Saturday, I found some more great books for the stall... Among others: 
A smashing The Complete Gilbert and Sullivan by Diana Bell, Quarto Publishing, 1989 edition, hardback, near perfect condition! 
Betty Grable, The Reluctant Movie Star by Doug Warren, Robson Books, 1982, perfect condition! 
Michael Curtiz's Casablanca, The Film Classics Library, Picador/Pan Books Ltd, 1974 (probably first edition), "the most accurate and complete reconstruction of a film in book form!" 
John Huston's The Maltese Falcon, The Film Classics Library, Picador/Pan Books Ltd, 1974 (probably first edition), "the most accurate and complete reconstruction of a film in book form!" 
On the same day, I also purchased a marvellous copy of Thomas De Quincey's The Confessions of an English Opium Eater, with illustrations engraved on wood by Blair Hughes-Stanton. This hardback copy is from a very early edition (1948) of the Folio Society, and it is gorgeous!
There are a few more details about the book and some examples of the illustrations on this blog: THE BOOK EXAMINER . This book will not be available to purchase on the stall at the moment... It will become part of my personal collection! I am still sharing Matt Artpix's stall at the moment, but it is possible that Arcane Publishing will be booking its own stalls for fairs and markets in 2014 - with Matt Artpix and Arcane Publishing stalls located next to each other but offering an even greater range of goodies! 6/7/2013 New event! Maldon Motor show Tomorrow, Sunday 7th July, I will be at the Maldon Motor Show. I will not be selling I Am a Muse - customers will get a flyer for the book! - but I will have a great range of second-hand books: cinema, entertainment, classic cars, glamourous Hollywood stars, football,... And of course, Matt ArtPix will be selling his range of vintage-inspired art (read his blog about the event HERE)!
Next week, we will be posting some news about I Am a Muse and we will start the count down to Shorelines: literature festival of the sea! After weeks of not being able to write, I have next week free to work on The Book of Thoth. Deadline for the first draft is approaching dangerously... I might have to change the publication date from summer 2014 to autumn 2014... In the next few weeks, I am hoping to start working again on the promo for I Am a Muse and Arcane Publishing...  The Eden House: Stephen Carey, Tony Pettitt, Jordan Reyne and Laura Bennett. About two weeks ago, I finally finished my review of The Eden House's gig at The Lexington and sent it, together with some photos, to the guy who puts all the articles online at La Magicbox. Unfortunately, it looks like he's so busy that he still hasn't found any time to post it, and it has been sitting there for a fortnight... Therefore, I have decided to put the article here in the meantime. The photos are not very good as my trusty "gig camera" doesn't work anymore... When the review is up on La Magicbox, I will come back to this blog and link it (there will also be a French version of the article on there.) Supporting were Jordan Reyne (whose new album The Annihilation Sequence I have reviewed HERE) and Red Sun Revival. *Update 24/07/2013: the English and French versions of the review are now on La Magicbox website: ENGLISH FRENCH THE EDEN HOUSE – RED SUN REVIVAL – JORDAN REYNE The Lexington London, UK 9th June 2013 The launch of The Eden House’s second album Half Life (reviewed by me HERE) feels like some kind of laid-back, good spirited family affair. The Lexington hasn’t got the barriers and the overzealous security meat-heads that so often spoil the gig-going experience. We are left free to enjoy some of the best music around without the corporate beer and the idiots watching the bands through the tiny luminous screen of their smart phones. I first came across New-Zealand artist Jordan Reyne last October when she supported Fields of The Nephilim at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire, and I’ve been hooked ever since. Tonight, Jordan is smiling, relaxed and chatty, her tumbling curls looking ablaze under the red lights. She is a charismatic performer and born storyteller armed only with an acoustic guitar and a machine that mixes sounds and vocals live. Her work is an intoxicating and intriguing mixture of folk and industrial with a dark heart and a fascinating and fluent narrative core. Her set mixes songs from her brand new album, The Annihilation Sequence, and from the previous one, the excellent Children of a Factory Nation. She also plays the powerfully evocative The Proximity of Death from her 2009 album How the Dead Live, a real treat! Another highlight is the stunning, hauntingly visceral The Narcissus – from the new album – a track that burrows itself under your skin and makes your hair stand on end. To see Jordan perform it gives the song the flesh and bones it crucially requires. Thundering machines beat the rhythm of Factory Nation and a mosaic of sounds inhabits London, whilst A Woman Scorned is incredibly poignant in its bare simplicity. A truly riveting performance. I didn’t know Red Sun Revival before I checked them out ahead of tonight’s gig. A relatively new band – formed in 2011 – comprising of accomplished and experienced musicians, the quartet has already built up a faithful following. Their music is a rather traditional gothic rock, full of sweeping melodies and heavy hearts. Frontman Rob Leydon’s sonorous, emotional voice is delightfully theatrical and suits the music perfectly. As the set goes along, I warm to them and their meticulously crafted, perfectly delivered songs. I particularly like Christina Emery’s violin, which really adds an interesting dimension to the tracks, as on Nothing To Hide, Running From The Dawn or the very Fields of the Nephilim-inspired My Child. Red Sun Revival's Rob Leydon is most certainly a much-in-demand musician as he has just officially been announced as a new member of The Eden House, replacing the very busy producer Andy Jackson on guitar. Back on stage as well is Jordan Reyne, who tonight will be one of two main vocalists, together with Laura Bennett.
Now, The Eden House is probably one of the best live bands around, but tonight, we are in for a very special treat indeed. Joining Stephen Carey(guitar), Simon Rippin (drums) and Tony Pettitt (bass) are Bob Loveday on violin and five of the female vocalists who appear on the new album, Half Life – and I’ve got the feeling that if Monica Richards hadn’t been living in the US, she would have been here tonight as well to sing Bad Men. Seeing The Eden House live is a masterclass in musicianship and excellence: Stephen Carey and Tony Pettitt play with a quiet concentration which is nothing but impressive; Jordan and Laura sing with gusto and passion but I would have liked their microphones to be set on a higher level; their beautiful voices are getting slightly lost, overpowered by the sheer might of the music. Three songs from the first album Smoke and Mirrors – God’s Pride, All My Love and Sin – remind us all of why we fell in love with the supergroup in the first place: this unique, intoxicating mixture of grandiose melodies, dark undercurrents and epic sense of the dramatic. Live, liberated from the shackles of the recording format, the beautiful monster that is The Eden House’s music comes alive and finally has a face, a body and a soul – albeit, much like Frankenstein’s Creature, it is made of a multitude of components: singers, musicians, moods, genres… And just like said Creature, it is so incredibly strong and powerful, we can literally physically feel the music taking possession of our senses in the small venue. The mainly instrumental Timeflows keeps the promises of its title: it rumbles like a swollen river of sound flowing across a wild, unforgiving landscape. Soul singer Queenie Moy confidently takes possession of the microphone for Hunger, whilst Anathema’s Lee Douglas is joined by Jordan and Laura for her pitch-perfect, rousing City of Goodbyes. The playful Phoenix J enchants us with her sunny presence and First Light, during which Bob Loveday gets a little pipe out and plays the little bird fleeting around PJ’s head. It is all so heady that when we are denied an encore because of venue time restrictions, we feel a tad lost. And we therefore exit onto the busy Pentonville Road, convinced that we have witnessed something special and magical. It was a privilege to be there. You should have been too. 1/7/2013 Decisions, decisions... From Echoes of a Sunday artist, link at the end of this blog. I have just printed off the Arts Council England application form guidelines...
I now have to decide whether or not to apply for funding for The Right Place... It would be for the £15,000 or under grant; I need to spend some time in Dorset to research and write the book, and I currently cannot afford to stay there more than two weeks... It would potentially pay for the cover artwork: I would like local artist Sam Cannon to provide the illustration, as I think it would capture the feel of the area perfectly. It would also pay for the right to print the full lyrics of the PJ Harvey song The Wind at the beginning of the book - if permission is granted, of course! So in the next few days, I will be reading the guidelines very carefully and decide if I feel confident enough to apply for funding... It is a lot of work and therefore I would need to be 100% confident that I can do it as best as I can and give myself a chance... [Image at top of the blog is from HERE] |
AuthorI think therefore I write. Archives
August 2024
CategoriesAll Art Books Cinema Culture Events Idea Ideas Inspiration Inspirations Literature Music People Places Promo Publishing Reading Reviews Self Publishing Self Publishing Self-publishing Society Theatre Thoughts Working Work In Progress Work In Progress Writing Writings |
RSS Feed
