RNCM, 5th June 2009.

In December 2007 the musicians of the Penguin Cafe re-formed for three concerts at the Union Chapel to commemorate ten years since the death of founder Simon Jeffes. His son, Arthur, took part and obviously enjoyed it, for he has now put together Music from the Penguin Cafe, playing both his father’s music and his own, new compositions.

The convert covered all of the regular favourites – and a few pieces, particularly Swinging the Cat and Dirt from Signs of Life that don’t seem to have been performed live before. That, combined with new pieces such as Finland and Bramble, provided a wide range of music from the Penguin Cafe repertoire and a great introduction to people who only know the music from CD.

There were a few technical fumbles during the night, to be expected given (I think) this was their first performance together. And lack of any brass meant that pieces such as In The Back of a Taxi lost some of the punch. However, a few rough edges are easily forgiven in the sheer fun of hearing Penguin Cafe music performed live again.

On this basis of this concert, I’ll definitely be looking forward to a studio album of Arthur Jeffes’ new material. While of course there will be a change in style between older and newer, the concept of Music from the Penguin Cafe promises as much listening pleasure as ever.

The design of Kellerman, by Imitating the Dog has drawn heavily on references from the cinema and from the graphic novel – the extremely clever split-level set design frames scenes in a similar way to panels on a comics’ page, and the use of front and back projection and a revolving stage recalls specific cinematic trick shots – the 360° pan around the action, for example. Visually, it is very clever indeed.

However, it is also claustrophobic. In some ways that’s good – it echoes the story of Dr Kellerman – a physicist incarcerated in a mental institution who has lost his wife and child- but whose psychologist insists they are merely delusions. Slipping back and forward through time, he attempts to bring them back in his future by changing the past.

However, the claustrophobia and cleverness show up the faults in this dense plot too. All the action has been pre-shot, animated and is back-projected onto the set, with the actors, in the main, merely mimicing what they have already recorded. Because of this, there is no room to grow, no room left to interpret. The piece is fixed. This may be an intended commentary on Dr. Kellerman’s future, but somehow I doubt it was meant that way.

I really want to post about all the shows I’ve seen and all that I’ve been doing for Queer Up North, but unfortunately there are a fixed number of hours in the day and I need some of them for sleep.

In my four years of working for the festival, this is quite definitely the best programme we’ve ever put together, and I’m working away to try make sure that as much as possible runs smoothly front of house.

I’ll try fill in what I’ve thought of various acts in due course; meanwhile I’m still managing to post to Twitter, – these are my posts, you can follow me here.

The Queer Up North festival has its own feed – follow it for the most up to the minute information on what’s going on.

And so to bed. There’s not been less than an eleven hour day in the past week, and I’m getting a fraction wiped. Got to conserve the energy!

I have not ridden my motorbike in nearly two weeks – last week was a mostly-walking week, I was away over the weekend, and this week has been a mostly-writing week, (until now of course – see previous post!)

I remembered that the battery was getting a little flat, so I dug out the charger. On connecting it to the bike, I found the keys were in the ignition. OK, under a rain cover, but still, that’s high stupidity.

I’m in a bit of a quandry – I should be sitting finishing off another assignment for the Open Uni course I’m doing – BSc(hons) in Technology, except I’m just not finding I’m enjoying it any more.

A lot of it is to do with the course I’m doing – T214, Understanding Systems: Making Sense of Complexity. While I think it should be an interesting course and of value to me (whether I stay in IT or not), I’m just not finding that the set work, or the assignments, are providing me with any benefit in improving my understanding of the subject. The course is all about all the different skills and techniques and mental frameworks that can be used in looking at systems wholly, which is not going to be easy for a literal and linear thinker like myself, but it’s been OK if challenging up until now.

The problem I’m finding now is that I just don’t actually care about the subject. While it’s interesting, I can’t sustain the interest in a way that leaves me with any desire to answer assignment questions, to read on, or even to think about doing another month of this, let alone another year and five months of it.

I could stop now, and apply for a BSc (open) – I have enough existing points for that. It would draw a line under the degree, and let me move on and focus on what I want to do from here. I’m working on moving careers, out of IT and into another organisational / project management field. Spending all that future time hating what I’m studying in order to get an honours classification that will be irrelevant to my future plans doesn’t strike me as sensible.

Yes, this is all self-justification. But I’m not successfully pass a course when I’m not interested in it. This was (one of the) mistakes I made when I was studying full-time first time around, and I don’t intend to make it again. I can always go study something more relevant and interesting instead, and I intend to. There has been a change in direction in my life, and I should be following the paths that complement it, not the ones that lead back to what I was doing before.

I’ve been travelling again – San Francisco and Washington DC this time. Well worth it, and more on Washington later. Meanwhile, in Sf I actually gave money to a panhandler. Because he’d trained his animals to do the following:

I thought that was well worth a couple of dollars.

The dog wasn’t being hurt by the cat, the cat was sitting on a leather pad on the dog’s back.

Distance from my house to Edinburgh: 220 miles
Distance achieved today before fuel pump on motorbike died: 92 miles.
Hours elapsed between calling the AA and being returned back to my house: 7.

Number of mum’s birthday dinners missed: 1.

Not one of my better days, today.

Gay Times Magazine has asked a number of people to write, for publication, a letter back to their 16 year old selves. Justin Bond posted his on his blog, and some of what was said resonated with me.

What would yours be? Blog it if you’d like. I’ll do the same when I’m not so beaten up after a crappy day.

Here is the “Freedom is in Peril” poster that I thought would be so good.

The Keep Calm and Carry on image is currently iconic again – it’s on posters, T-shirts, you name it. A symbol of Britain’s dogged persistence during times of crisis.

However, as an article in the Guardian points out, it wasn’t the first of these posters. There was an earlier one, one that again rings true for a different reason.

Freedom is in Peril

Freedoms are in peril – but this time, mainly from governments, businesses, and the stupid enforcement of rules by public servants. People like the Open Rights Group do what they can, but there hasn’t been an attention-grabbing thing that could raise the issue into the public conciousness.

Could “Freedom is in Peril” posters, tees and so on be that iconic image for those campaigning against the encroachment of our civil liberties? I think it’s worth a go.