True To My Word – Another New Post

Well I can’t say I’ve got anything spectacular to say but I’m determined to get back into blogging again. It helps me remember my own life when I look back on it ha ha! I probably won’t write much about my private life as I don’t like to break confidences about my family and friends.

This evening I have a practice with my little band comprising Paddy on the keys and Jimi on percussion – both excellent musicians in their own right. We have the possibility of putting on a gig soon at a lovely little venue in Bristol called Khan plus a chance to bid to play at the Bath Fringe in May/June. Plus, on my daughter’s suggestion, I’ve started to get back on the open mic circuit to meet other musicians for both inspiration and also to find people to put on at our Electrosonica music nights. I’ll probably re-create a lyrics page here too and some other pages with paintings and photos.

I think the old blog did more for me than I realised, as the more I reflected on my creative life, the more I felt I had to live up to it myself – if that makes any sense. So, if I tell you I’m determined to do some more painting as well – it also reminds me to get on with and not just think about it. While I was in London my son gave me the most lovely, dinky watercolour set of paints that you can carry around in your bag and sketch or paint something whenever the mood takes you and it inspired me to do a couple of quick pictures – one of them is a small painting of my son with his clown red nose on and I really enjoyed doing it as it didn’t involve a pencil at all – just brush strokes which was a first for me! This in turn inspired me to get back to work on a portrait of a friend of Peter’s that I haven’t touched in months.

I’ve also got myself a new camera – a Canon SX40HS, second hand but really brilliant and I absolutely love taking photographs and hope to put the best ones here. Anyway – there’s a lot going on at the moment and rather than just a sentence on Facebook I’m going to blog – mostly for myself but if you enjoy reading it too, well that’s great! Do let me know if you’re blogging somewhere too and I’ll come and read your posts. I miss the old Modblog days but actually, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t get that community feeling going again with a bit of effort on all our parts. Many of us are still online friends and some of us have also met in the “real” world too – so that’s my take on it anyway.

Hello again!

At last I’ve set up this new blog as Efx3 is being closed. I’m actually typing this on my Mac mini tablet to see how it works and it’s easy to use so I can blog “on the hoof”.

I’ve been awfully slack about blogging since Facebook came along, just doing short status updates but I’ve just been reading through my old posts and it makes me remember how useful a fuller record of things is to me even if hardly anyone reads this!

So, I’m going to try and keep it up again.

This last couple of weeks P’s been away in Gambia and I’ve made a big effort to do creative things and see people. I spent 3 days with my daughter and grand daughter which was lovely and a couple of days in London with my son. I’ve been on visits, been to the theatre, I’ve done 3 open mics, finished a song, done a watercolour painting and cleaned the house as well as had to deal with a few issues and family matters!

Today I’m off to a Sabar drumming workshop with Karim and when I get back this evening P will be home.

I really am going to try and get back to blogging so see you again soon.

Christmas and Mad Magpie!

Had a really good family Christmas this year (I should say last year now shouldn’t I?). The only down side was that I managed to fall down the stairs on December the 19th and really sprain my right knee.

It was all due to a mad magpie that is intent on killing itself throwing itself repeatedly at my kitchen window. I presume he sees his reflection and thinks he’s his own rival then keeps coming back to check he’s frightened himself off! I was rushing around like you do at Christmas time – I’d stripped beds ready to re-make for people coming to stay and chucked the washing down the stairs rather than take it down. Suddenly I heard that pesky magpie banging the downstairs window – I rushed down to shoo him off, forgot the washing, caught my foot in the sheets and there you have it – a horrible accident. My knee twisted right under me and I felt something inside go ‘twang’ and here I am nearly 3 weeks on hobbling around like an old lady. It is improving now thankfully with the help of a good chiropracter.

Apart from that, what a lovely time we had. My daughter and her little girl came to stay for the best part of a week, my son joined us for a few days then P’s family and children came for the weekend after Christmas. We had a great time playing with the children with a fantastic toy called Geomag – we built the Eifel tower together and ate lovely food!

Christmas Lunch At Home

Building The Eifel Tower!

We had a quiet new year with neighbours over the road and generally relaxed.

This year (can’t believe it’s 2013 already) I’ll release and launch my second album which is nearly finished, we’re planning a trip to Russia and Ukraine in July to visit P’s newly found family, legalise our marriage on May 1st at the registry office (in private as we’ve already done our wonderful handfasting ceremony), various drumming things planned as usual and hopefully a first trip to Oz for P in the autumn or spring next year.

I need to overcome my musical lethargy – I haven’t written a new song in ages but it seems to be something that can’t be forced and at least I’m practicing and recording the old songs and getting tracks recorded that weren’t on the first album!

Happy New Year to all my bloggy friends and readers.

Last Few Weeks and Merry Christmas

Hello again – as promised I’m updating my blog a bit more regularly and remembering how it helps me to reflect on what I’ve been up to myself!

Since I last wrote I’ve been up to my usual things such as regular studio sessions – I’ve now got 10 tracks virtually finished for the second album – just have to put the tracks into an order that sounds right  and get the final masters agreed.

I’ve been going to the Percussion Orchestra run by Alphonse Daudet Tuna in Bristol – great fun with people playing all sorts of different percussion instruments.

I had a lovely visit to my daughter while P was away helping to plan Kartong Festival in Gambia.

My lovely daughter and grand-daughter

He was gone for three weeks and I really missed him but got tons done! After visiting my daughter I went down to Suffolk to a great day of sabar drumming, a night in London with an old friend and a couple of nights with my dad and wife in Sussex before finally driving back to Bristol. It was a long road trip but got to see loads of people before the Christmas rush.

In between all this, Paddy (my music partner) and I organised our sixth Electrosonica evening with a great line up of artists and some rather experimental electronic music! Paddy and his partner also held a “Crafternoon” where people made lovely seasonal cards and ate mince pies and mulled wine at their house. Yummy.

Rozaya Hopkins singing with Elegance

Peter’s brother came to stay for a night and exchange presents and we went to the Colston Hall and saw Fily Cissohko play a wonderful lobby concert on kora with an Asian sitar player – beautiful.

Sunday morning we visited Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre near Bristol where we’er members and saw loads of beautiful birds and Sunday afternoon we went to the annual Bristol Gasworks Choir Christmas Concert at St Georges, which has the best acoustics for live unplugged music in Bristol.

Bristol Gasworks Choir

All weekend I couldn’t stop thinking about the poor little children shot to death in Connecticut and being so grateful that here in the UK although things are not perfect – the huge majority of people don’t believe it’s their “right” to be armed to the teeth.

Now it’s the Christmas preparations, shopping, wrapping and cooking with visitors from Sunday 23rd right through to the New Year – so don’t expect to see me here again till 2013!

Happy Christmas and a brilliant 2013 to everyone. Bye for now!

Summer – washed out but still having fun

This summer in the UK is just rain, rain and more rain. It’s rained here almost every day since April.

Despite that, I’ve managed to attend the usual drumming and festival events and this weekend I’m off to a middle-eastern festival in Somerset till Monday to learn Arabic scales on my flute.

I’m really making progress on the second album and have now got 8 tracks virtually finished – you can here versions on my music page at http://iacmusic.com/chandramoon

We’ve had amazing family excitement with Peter finding long lost relatives in Russia and he is at this moment over there being filmed for a Russian TV programme which reunites families. His dad (who died many years ago) and uncle were separated in the war and only now has news re-emerged about the uncle’s whereabouts. How incredible to suddenly discover your family after all these years.

I’m still posting photos on Facebook regularly more than here but will try and put some up here soon.

 

Time stretching in Bristol…….!

We’ve been back in Bristol now for a few weeks and it’s as if I never left. It’s funny whatever it is that makes a place feel like “home” but Bristol has that magic for me.

It’s a city like any other with all the good and bad that a city offers but it has the extra dimension of being brilliant for musicians – tons of gigs at every end of the scale from open mics to concerts. Plus it has so much green space and parks and is easy to drive out of into the countryside in minutes.

On Saturday we went to Halesowen near Birmingham to support a sabar drumming workshop (we play the chols which are the bass drums – similar to the use of dunduns with djembe). Here’s a link to a video of one of the tracks the group was learning.

Sabar Workshop

If you go out in Bristol without a plan you can guarantee to find something amazing or interesting to do. This weekend was Brisfest and we went down to the docks on Sunday afternoon and started walking about. We walked all along the river Avon back towards the Centre – we saw amazing Dragon boat racing, we popped into the new M-shed Museum of Bristol (completely free), from the roof terrace we watched down across the river and could hear the music from the festival across the way and had a great day out. In the evening we went to see our friend’s band Boxcar Aldous Huxley (as whacky as their name).

I’ve caught up with friends, been out to dinner, had friends round to dinner, seen my mum had people to stay and twice a week been back in the studio.

I’d been wanting to start my second album for the last couple of years but just couldn’t seem to motivate myself. I’m one of those people who’s a hundred times more productive when I’m busy and haven’t got time for anything – time seems to stretch and I get so much more done. Don’t ask me why or how but it’s just the way I am!!

I even feel like writing my blog again – wow!! Not to mention playing tennis twice a week again.

So……….a very happy bunny indeed.

Bristol

Well, at last we’ve moved back to Bristol.

I haven’t blogged as I’ve been ridiculously busy and also we went away in the van for 10 days in the middle of all the moving! We went on a wonderful round trip starting with 4 days drumming in Suffolk, then walking the North Norfolk coast, on to a nostalgic (for P) trip to Pinchbeck and Spalding in Lincolnshire and then home via Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire. What a beautiful country we live in with so much variety of countryside and wildlife as well as pretty villages and interesting towns.

Now it’s time to knuckle down here, sort out the house and for me, be back in touch with old friends and my mother and of course, to get cracking on recording my second album. This weekend a friend’s holding a welcome to Bristol evening tonight and then life back in Bristol will start properly…………………

Here’s a link to some photos of our holiday

PHOTOS

Blogging

I had fun yesterday designing a new blog page for Rhymester who’s coming over from Efx2 as he can’t get in to his blog there any more and revamping mine too as I like to change it from time to time to keep the interest up!

He writes great poems so should be some interesting posts coming up soon.

I’m excited about moving back to Bristol imminently so will be busy packing everything up soon. Have also been updating my radio stations at Over The Moon so lots of great tracks to listen to from many diverse artists.

Blogging Blues

Well – I’m a bit fed up with blogging at the moment. I must say I’ve felt less inspired to write and the lazy way of just updating my status and saying hi to people on Facebook seems an easy option.

Also when actually getting married only got 2 comments here it makes one wonder if it’s worth carrying on with it. On the other hand I must remember that I’m not blogging to get comments, attention or praise but for myself really. To keep a record, reflect on things as well as letting poeple far away know I’m well and what I’m up to.

The last few weeks have been busy but fun. After the wedding we had a short and relaxing honeymoon in Suffolk then helped organise the amazing ABC (African Beats Camp) in Buckingham. We then had a couple of days on the Thames before I managed to get down to see my daughter in Kent. She took me to see the new Turner Gallery at Margate which was brilliant (though the locals don’t seem to like it much).

This weekend we’re off to Cornwall supporting a sabar drumming workshop and on Monday for the first time we’re going to visit the Eden Project which I’m really looking forward to!

It’s not long now till the move back to Bristol and I’m really looking forward to picking up my music activities there again and catching up with close friends and family.

Anyway – this is a rambling post but at least I’ve written something!!!

Efx3

Funnily enough the demise of Vox has made me re-appreciate Efx3. I noticed today that some of the links to blogs etc are working better so don’t know if someone’s been fixing things behind the scenes or whether this new theme I’ve chosen works better than the older one.

It’s always good to have a sort out and I’ve got rid of a load of old links that were out of date and generally improved the look of my page. I’ve got very slack recently about blogging.

I made a new friend recently at Bunkfest who’s a keen blogger and it reminded me that I’ve somewhat lost the plot and got lazy about writing. I partly blame Facebook as it’s so quick and easy there to just update your status rather than write anything meaningful.

Today we had a great planning session for ABC 2011 (African Beats Camp) and I’m so excited about it. The meeting went on for hours as there was so much to talk about but suddenly May 2011 doesn’t seem so far away for all the work that needs to be done to make it successful again. Last year we were only able to have a one day event but next year will be a whole long weekend of drumming, dance and singing workshops all West African with great entertainment in the evenings.

ABC

This weekend we’re off to the End of The Road Festival at Larmer Tree in Dorset with my daughter and family and it marks the last “proper” festival of the season. We’re not working at this one but going as paying punters just to enjoy ourselves. Will try and get lots of decent photos.

OK – so with my blogging mojo firing again I look forward to writing again next week. I hope that the Efx3 vibe will revive and people come back and start interacting a bit more now that Vox is gone let’s use it as an opportunity to make this place stronger.