advent: we who still wait

I’ve been involved in an Advent project with Proost in collaboration with the very talented Ian Adams, Chris Goan and Si Smith. Si has been the “ideas man” behind the project and writers/poets Ian and Chris have put together some powerful words and reflections for each day of Advent… my contribution has been to provide 100 supporting photographs (four images per day). After Si had suggested 24 daily themes, it was really fascinating to see what Ian, Chris+I independently produced by the end of the process – and how they worked so well together.

I’ve never been involved in anything quite like this before and so it was interesting to “hand over” the completed sections to Proost and for them to put them together in a downloadable resource. Actually, I have to admit that I also found the very end of the process somewhat frustrating! Unsurprisingly, the final layout certainly isn’t how I would have laid out the images and text. For example, I would have had gaps between the small photographs (and would have also have arranged them in a square format) and I’d have liked to have been able to see all the daily texts AND the images on the same page (or double-page)… but, hey, what do I know! Afterall, Proost are the experts in this field and have years of experience behind them.
The poems and reflections are just great and the resource is available here at a ridiculously low price of £3.50/$5.75 (or the bonus version – with pics – is £5/$8). A book version is also due out soon.  

gasworks at christmas

Moira+I continued our Christmas concert schedule last night to see/hear The Gasworks Choir at St George’s, Bristol. We’ve seen them LOTS of times (our lovely friend Gareth is a member), but every concert is guaranteed to raise your spirits – through the choir’s sheer enthusiasm (and colour!), obvious enjoyment and wonderful talent and through the brilliant musical direction of their conductors/arrangers, Dee and Ali.

One of Bristol’s absolute treasures.
Photo: I assure you, there ARE quite a few blokes in the choir too – it’s just that most of them were partly obscured by the gallery on our side of the auditorium.
PS: The ONE downside of last night’s concert was that it meant me missing the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year on the television… thank goodness for iPlayer!

exultate singers: carols by candlelight

From time to time this week, I’ve been listening to my Christmas playlist. You know, the usual stuff: Nat King Cole, KIrsty MacColl and the Pogues, Waitresses, Joni Mitchell, Chris Rea, Pretenders, Steeleye Span, John Tavener and the like. As a result, in the words of another classic, “it’s started to feel a lot like Christmas”.

But, last night, Gareth, Alan, Moira+I went to hear the brilliant Exultate Singers perform “Carols by Candlelight” in the stunning St James Priory, Bristol… and captured the REAL spirit of Christmas. This was the second time we’ve seen/heard them perform at St James Priory and they are simply quite, quite brilliant. For me, the highlight of the evening was their rendering of Morten Lauridsen’s “O Magnum Mysterium” (see PS). Imagine the choir members standing around the edges of the packed, candlelit church at perhaps 1.5m intervals and singing this beautiful piece of music. Although the choir were performing in complete unity, the fact that they were standing apart meant that it was possible to pick out individual voices – and this only emphasised just how brilliantly talented they all were.
This was their second (and final) sell-out “Candles in Candlelight” performance of 2012 and I’m certain that we’ll be back next year to capture the Christmas spirit all over again, in what will no doubt become a new annual tradition for us.
Absolutely exquisite.
Photo: Exultate Singers (courtesy of their website).
PS: Listen to a clip from Lauridsen’s “O Magnum Mysterium” here from their “Visions of Peace” CD.

 

pre-christmas family get-together…. almost

As you can imagine with three married daughters and with their various other family commitments and complicated schedules, the opportunities for us all to get together at Christmas are relatively rare. Yesterday was due to be one of those key occasions – it might not coincide with the “proper” Christmas holiday period but, for us, it was going to be very special. Alice+Dave etc were due to come to stay for a couple of days but, unfortunately, due to the horrendous weather conditions that have disrupted so many people’s holiday plans, they were forced to abandon their attempts to drive down from Lancashire in the snow and ice (the prospect of being “trapped” in traffic with young children for hours on end were rightly considered untenable). As you might imagine, we were (and still are) left feeling very sad by how things turned out. Despite this, we decided to continue with our family supper arrangements last night (it was Felix’s night off from performing at the Tobacco Factory Theatre and Stu managed to get back safely from a crucial glass installation meeting in London – albeit he missed the main course, poor man!) and it WAS lovely.
We count our blessings as a family… and Alice+Dave were definitely with us in spirit last night – just very sad that they weren’t actually there to hug!
Photo: Iris attempting to catch snowflakes on her tongue earlier in the day.