Last FM

In my surfing and twiddling on-line I discovered the delights of "Last fm" and created a library of music for myself

Visit it Through Here!!

Malvern Country Show

The Malvern Country show made for another diverting day out in which to admire
giant vegetables..

admire the efforts of people who "know their onions".....
or indeed, fruit...

and who delight in their prize blooms...

Other attractions including dog shows, llamas, horses..... tarantulas...
and plenty of opportunities for sampling cheeses, pickles, apples, ginger wine etc etc etc. Another fun day out, and good weather too!!

A Working holiday in South Devon

This year's working holiday took us to a secluded holiday home in the South Hams of Devon, to be found after a twisting, turning and somewhat narrow and hedge-constrained drive down several lanes, such that ideas of just "popping out to fetch fish and chips for tea" were abandoned!

It was a homely home, though.
and pleasingly not too far away from accessing the coast from Dartmouth and around to Slapton

As well as beach visits, our day trips took us to the Buckfast Otter Sanctuary and Butterfly Farm




and we also paid a visit to Paignton zoo

Chameleon tail

A caiman

A stone curlew

By the end of the week, however, I sympathised with these sentiments...

I also realised that I had been bitten by bed bugs......ouch, they itch!!!!

More Kites!!!! (the other ones......)

I took the chance of a sunny day off to go to the International Kite Festival at Bristol

It was fun!

Bristol International Kite festival 2008
Uploaded by agracarter2

Sunday 27th July Womad: Final day.....and out with a bang!

The closing highlights of WOMAD, for me at least, were, firstly the amazing GOCOO (Japanese Taiko drummers) + GoRo (didgeridoo). The "lead" drummer with her wild hair and the whole exhuberance of the performance was enthralling!!!

Here's an extended clip of them performing on another occasion!

The second, equally superb highlight...the final act leading up to midnight, were "Son de La Frontera" - a flamenco group who played and danced with all the usual passion and rhythmic patterns of this style....Here they are, for example, performing in Montreal 2007

Then after a wonderful evening, and a last wander around the stalls to find a bed-time cocoa I returned to my tent, intending to sleep, but there was little chance for that with the excitement of Gocoo and flamenco rhythms running through my head - and the sounds of the Vogon destructor fleet (ie the start of stage and tent dismantling processes!!) rumbling in the near distance. So I got up again, took down my tent and went in search of my black car in a pitch black field......

So farewell to Womad 2008, roll on Womad 2009. I cann't wait!

Sunday: Sunshine, sights, sounds and Sa Dingding

Dance workshops were entertaining to observe....just observe, mind you. The energy levels were flagging by now, after the late night and the chilly pre-dawn.
I particularly enjoyed the tounge-in-cheek Bollywood workshop!!

Later came Sa Dingding- described as a "Chinese Kate Bush" or an "Asian Bjork"(ie quirky and theatrical.....and from China)- who was a winner of Radio 3 World Music awards for the "Asia/Pacific" category: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/worldmusic/a4wm2008/2008_sa_ding_ding.shtml and her performance lived up expectation.

A Youtube video of one of her performances....

The children's area part of the festival Samba-ed its way around the main area later in the afternoon, adding an extra touch of the Carnivalesque!

and the flags fluttered merrily

Womad: Saturday - Sufi Night

After a hot, hot day in the sunshine the late night focus for me became the cool, mesmerizing experience of the Sufi night, beginning with Egyptian Sheikh Taha

Here's a Youtube clip of his performance from another event....

The second series of Sufi devotions came from Uzbekistan singer Munadjat Yulchieva apparently a former opera soprano
Here she is, from a DailyMotion posting, singing in 2005.....

Monajat Yulchieva
Uploaded by ZamanArts

And thirdly, replacing a Pakistani singer (Asif Ali Khan) who couldn't get a visa to travel to the UK came the group "Sufi Women of the Islands"....although it wasn't clear quite which Islands these were (which would have been good to know)! I was intrigued to notice red spots decorating the palms of their hands........must be symbolic, I guess.

It was a fascinating evening's programme, finishing well past midnight but worth staying up for.....and I enjoyed some friendly chats with neighbours in the crowd between the acts. it was unfortunate though that their was quite alot of "noise pollution" from other events happening nearby, and people chattering through some of the songs was rather rude, I felt...

With the performances over I returned to find my tent, and attempt some sleep. The hot day, however, lead into a chilly night (well...dawn especially) and I got up at an unearthly hour to see if I could warm up with a walk...or a cuppa from some late night stall. Hence the following early morning images.....

And with some hope of temperatures rising again, with the rising sun, I went back to sleep a little more!!

Womad: Saturday 26th July.....Kenyan, Balkan, Cambodian....what a mix!!

I arrived back on site late morning, pitched my little tent and then made my way to the center of the site just in time to catch the African liveliness of Kenge Kenge Orutu Systems (from Kenya) performing on the BBC stage....a slightly more restricted platform than they had had when I saw (and much enjoyed) them yesterday. But they were still lots of fun to listen to and watch, complete with some enthusiastic dancing!!

And this song tribute for their Luo relative Barak Obama....

....after a pint of Somerset Cider, and a Greek style lunch, I endulged in a little shopping before returning to the BBC stage for a musical taste of the Balkans ("Paprika Balkanicus" to be precise!!) Womad had a flypast from the Red Arrows during this part of the day!!! (YouTube link here: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=uH0G0R5Xtas )
I looked the band up on YouTube and found this....

and this...

Later in the day, temperatures rising in the glare of wonderful sunshine, came "Denge Fever", a group from California with aims to revive Cambodian rock music traditions after its suppression by the Khmer Rouge.....interesting. (I loved the beard too!!) The Children of the Khmer joined the performance for a time adding to the Cambodian aspect with some traditional folk dance arrangements and ever graceful hand gestures...

One more visit to the BBC stage today, and an attempt to see Punk veteran "Jah Wobble" with a "Chinese Dub" performance with elements of traditional Chinese music and Western modern rock styles. I tried to penetrate the depths of the crowd to get a clear view, but managed barely a squint through the trees....

So sadly I missed seeing some apparently rather spectacular mask changing dances...