Hello my lovelies - its good to be back, and what a glorious festival it was too. Some of the most amazing music I have ever seen. The highlight was the fantastic Titi Robin and Faiz Ali Faiz, the latter being a Qaw'ali singer which is the mystical singing stye of the Pakistani Sufis. It blew my mind, and by the looks of it, everyone in the audience too. So powerful, hypnotic and joyous - it was the sort of gig that makes you feel utterly part of the world, and human.  Titi Robin has been experimenting with Flamenco and other Gypsy oriental genres, Faiz Ali Faiz is truly spectacular. Check them out here, its worth bypassing the silly advert at the beginning and listening all the way through until it reaches its spectacular heart stopping finale:

http://youtu.be/t6v72-4SCbo

I shall speak some more about some of the other acts there in a day or two, but this was the most exhilarating gig I've ever been to, anywhere!  I hope you enjoy it - its a privilege to share.
Off to have a cup of Rosy Lee ;-)
Bye for now x

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Lovely blog readers, I'm going to be silent for 10 days whilst away at the Django Reinhardt festival in Samois http://www.festivaldjangoreinhardt.com/
So this bird won't be tweeting or blogging, but camping for 10 days in a field without any computer technology or coffee machine....OMG - this strikes panic in me as I'm writing this - am I sick?!  Routines are SO addictively cosy aren't they? I guess that's the real benefit of going away - leaving it behind and giving your brain a good old wash through.  I also remember that the reality is, that once you're away, you don't really think about what's left behind and enjoy the feast of new-ness.  This is one special kind of holiday though - the majority of the 300 or so campers are musicians, and its pretty much a 24 hour a day jam session for a week. Being a big fan of Gypsy swing this is not a problem for me, but I think it could send you insane if you weren't.  I've known unwilling partners brought along by enthusiastic boyfriends who've been reduced to gibbering wrecks at the extreme nature of the experience. I REALLY love it though.  The unique sensation of going to sleep in your tent with 360 degrees of people playing guitar and all different things does in fact make you laugh your head off!  I'm smiling just thinking about it........time to pack... 

See you at the end of the month :-)
Juliet x

So I decided I wanted more pictures on my Inspirations page afterall, and unfortunately that wonderful piece of music by Miles was too short and I haven't worked out how to get the music on a loop.  So there was a problem with getting another longer piece of music to fit with the slide show. Ok, so those who know me would know I would just LOVE to use Miles' Bitches Brew for the background, but I realise that is rather, erm - eclectic for some tastes.  So I decided to use this amazing piece instead - it is from `Heroes' Symphony by Philip Glass, inspired by the album of the same name by David Bowie and Brian Eno.  It is a masterpiece.  3 of my favourite writers on one album - I feed greedy when I listen to this.  The track is called Abdulmajid, which is apparently Mrs Bowie, Iman's maiden name. Ahh.
It works well with the images - it is intense, urgent and dark - truly wonderful ;-)

x

Ok - I have had some gentle nudges that the music on the Inspirations page wasn't quite right.  So I thought, to hell with it, let's get some Miles on there.  So now we have `Lift to the Scaffold' by Miles Davis instead.  It does indeed sound fantastic, as he always does

I've been thinking about doing this for quite a while now, but it seemed to be an impossible task every time I thought about it.  There are SO many influences to my practice, my head went into a spin even starting to compile a list.  If everything had gone in there it would go on for weeks!  So I decided to tune it down to probably the most important painters and writers, people who have altered my life quite profoundly.

Making this slideshow turned in to the most enjoyable exercise I have to say - it really made me really look at who is still casting their influence after all these years, and who has come in as a relative newbie. There are the hardy perennials like Pollock, Shakespeare, Primo Levi, Rothko etc but there are some really exciting new peeps who have recently blown my head off with their genius.  I have just recently happened upon the amazing Katharina Grosse at Frieze last year and recently started reading Virginia Woolf (why oh why did it take me so long!?)  Both women have really had an impact, in quite similar ways actually, most of them quite mysterious.  There's probably some quite interesting analysis in there.

The music that runs along side this slide show is by Robin Guthrie, who I rate alongside Eno in his ability to convey layers of emotion and the etherial in fairly short cake slices.  This all can be found first under the `Art' tab at the top. I hope you enjoy. 

Please leave any feedback you feel appropriate!

Juliet x

Check out http://youtu.be/EANzi02oiEs Always a pleasure to see the latest modern art

Enjoy, my lovely Blog readers.......


Aquatic Nocturne by Sylvia Plath

Deep in liquid
turquoise slivers
of dilute light

quiver in thin streaks
of bright tinfoil
on mobile jet

pale flounder
waver by
tilting silver:

in the shallows
agile minnows
flicker gilt

grapeblue mussels
dilate lithe and
pliant valves

dull lunar globes
of blubous jellyfish
glow milkgreen

eels twirl
in wily spirals
on elusive tails

adroir lobsters
amble darkly olive
on shrewd claws:

down where sound
comes blunt and wan
like the bronze tone
of a sunken gong.