JasonBlog

Clouds in the Newbiggin sky

 

What do you think they look like?

Aaaaaaaaarrrr gym lad

I think I may have used that title for a blog in the past but I don't care if I have.

I've been going to the gym more recently, or rather accompanying Ian to the gym. He's the one with the enthusiasm this time. And it makes me realize how important it is to do some things together -especially if you might need a bit of encouragement. I feel so much better going through something unpleasant and painful if I know I'm not doing it alone.

I feel the same way about work at the moment and fortunately today Tim is in. I always get more done with Tim around because I'm aware that something else on my to do list is being attended to and that's enough to make me feel less stressed. It's that simple.

There's a bloke at the gym who really reminds me of one of Rob Brydon's comic creations. He's a middle aged guy whose social life seems to be conducted entirely in the gym with people who don't really want his advice or attention. Last night he chatted to one girl about a great lasagne he was planning to make later with some mince he'd bought earlier and a jar of ragu, and then as we left he was accosting some other poor lass over something or other - talking with his face really close as she cowered, trapped on the pectoral press machine. As I checked out he was asking the blokes if amy of them fancied a shower and looked devistated when there were no takers. At least he didn't open up the offer to the girls.

This morning I'm delivering a seminar to a women's business group in a hotel in Newsastle. First one I've done in a while so I hope it goes ok - bit apprehensive. It's been billed as a web marketing masterclass. Not my hype you understand. We'll see...

That Friday feeling

I am so very glad that it's the end of the week. Katrin is back from her school field trip, Andy is back from the states, it's a BB eviction night, and I don't have to work tomorrow. Hurrah! How about you? Got anything planned?

Has this ever happened to you?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/norfolk/7496923.stm

Candle pelican triangle foam

It rained today and I got wet. It rained on Saturday and I got wet. The next time it rains I will stay away from the small pieces of falling water that make me damp. Or I will at least try.

All of our mice have gone now.

Ne ... Pas de Deux

For the last month I've been working with a group of dancers, photographing a dance project in Newbiggin called Pas de Deux. The project is inspired by the upcoming first anniversary of Sean Henry's Couple sculpture, which was installed in Newbiggin Bay last August, but also to be part of The Big Dance - a regional Dance Festival sort of thing.

This ambitious project brought together five pairs of dancers, some of whom worked with local schools to produce a variety of dance pieces inspired by Couple and the location of Newbiggin by the Sea. I was commissioned to document the project in photographs. I really enjoyed working on this - it's absolutely exactly the sort of photography project I want to do more of. I love working with artists and performers in a documentary style, and on this occasion, I'm particularly pleased I was involved - because the performance itself didn't happen due to very heavy rain.

The plan was that each of the five pairs of dancers would perform their pieces in locations along the promenade in Newbiggin, starting at The Piazza, and the audience would be guided between the pieces by a group of street dancers and performers using  different modes of transport, such as scooters, springy stilt things and stuff like that.  It sounded great, and during the  rehearsals looked wonderful. But yesterday, performance day, the heavens opened and there was no Plan B. So all we have are the photographs. A large crowd still gathered, and stood in the rain bravely, watching the first couple of pieces, but eventually the decision came to abandon the performance.

There are plans now to resurrect some of the pieces to perform them on 17th August when Sean Henry will be visiting Newbiggin to sign books and take part in a celebration of Couple's first Birthday - so that will be something.

During the week I've worked with one of the couples, Simon Williams and Kristina Berger, to photograph extra stuff, including Kristina, a dancer from New York who works a lot in Taiwan, in various locations around Newbiggin dressed in an elaborate oriental costume.

I photographed her on the beach, at the Church Point, in the Caravan Park, in the Cresswell Arms and in front of the public toilets near the Golf Club. All very tasteful, you understand, as they wanted shots that were incongruous to the sophiscticated and exotic costume. I'm very pleased with some of them. A surreal experience - especially in the Cresswell Arms where the dancers ordered champagne and we got a bottle of Asti - not sure they get orders for champagne very often there.

Sometimes it takes some outsiders to remind me that we live in a special place with special people - and I think this project has helped me remember all that's best about where I live and what I do for a job.

See the photos online at http://www.jasonthompson.biz/dance.html

Frankie Say Dance and Sing and That

Last night Ian and I attended part of the latest Frankie and the Alleycats gig at the Kings Arms, Seaton Sluice. It was fun, and loud and energetic. It was fun to see a wide selection of people there, grom goths to OAPs to trendies to me and Ian.

The music was loud and raw, and is to me best described as Rock'n'Roll'n'Punk - all of it 50s music, but performed with a punk energy and rawness. Frank pogoed around and threatened the safety of the rafters and passers by with good natured menace.

Unless I'm remembering things wrongly - which is just possible after a couple of pints of John Smiths on a relatively empty stomach - Frank jumped clean over his lead guitarist not once but twice. A feat astonishing not only for it's awe inspiring energy, but also for the seeming impossibility due to the lowness of the ceiling.

We stayed for the first set, then as prior commitments dragged us away, and we left into the sunny evening, ears ringing, but alive and happy. Frank had just got changed into a tailor made faux leopard skin shirt, and was chatting amiably to everyone there - and there were many. See his MySpace here.

Weak End

I mean weekend of course. Aren't I a funny onion? Oh yes. By which I mean no. I'm pathetic.

Well here we are half way through the weekend, and it's sunny and lovely, in direct opposition to the weather forecast. I have noticed recently that weather forecasting seems to be absolutely rubbish, and random guessing would surely be at least as accurate. I think that meteorological science should have advanced more than this. Get Derren Brown to do the weather.

Went to see Prince Caspian last night with the family. I read all the Narnia books about 10 years ago after being ashamed that I'd only read the first couple before. I have to say that I seem to remember mildly enjoying them, but I can recall not a single detail of plot or character. That's worrying.

I didn't enjoy the movie - it's the sort of fantasy adventure - featuring battles and earnest dialogue and woodland glades and castles and armour and horses and swords and talking animals and bizarre names and good and evil - that makes me glaze over. I don't engage with the characters or care about them, I know that nomatter what peril besets a goody they'll somehow get out of it however unlikely it may seem, and that even though many hundreds of faceless battlefodder have been killed in action, immediately afterwards everyone will be insanely happy that good has triumphed, despite the massive amount of bloodshed and state of mourning that wold exist if it were real. Perhaps I'm being picky, but it's not my cup of tea. But I'm GENUINELY and UNRESERVEDLY glad that there are people out there who love it and all the others. Variety is the spice of life and each to their own.

This week has been a busy one for photography. I've been working for Ira Lightman, getting his photos of the Blythscopes art project sorted out and on CD for him. He'd been working with Blyth groups to find out what they think of Blyth, and the results forf small poems that consist of two lines which share a word in the middle. The result is printed onto persepex and affixed to hoardings in the Market Place.

Thursday was the royal visit. This is only Newbiggin's second royal visit, and Prince Edward came to the region to see Woodhorn Colliery Museum, Holy Island, and in Newbiggin The Pride of Northumbria Shop, The Sailing Club, The Couple statues, the lifeboat house and the Mary Joicey lifeboat. I'm not at all bothered by things royal, but I have to say I was quietly impressed with Edward's ability to seem interested in all sorts of stuff that people were talking to him about, and he seemed to be happy and glad to be here - rather than annoyed that he wasn't just able to go to the Metro Centre without his bodyguards and spend some of his millions, which is all I'd want to do. So it was a good visit, and it didn't rain, and I hope it was worth all the days of security and sniffer dogs and sealed drains and post boxes and the entire Northumbrian police force being in Newbiggin for days.

I recently saw a great clip on You Tube that might not be of interest to all that many people but was really fun for me. Lee and Herring is a double act from the mid to late 90s that I really enjoyed. They did shows called Fist of Fun, and This Morning with Richard Not Judy. They haven't performed together for eight years but last year they did a benefit gig and it's on YouTube here and here. You'll definitely enjoy it more if you'd seen the original version back when they were younger.

On Friday I was photographing some children's dance workshops in preparation for an event on 5th July in the Piazza. It involves four pairs of dancers in pieces that will celebrate the first anniversary of Couple later in August. Should be worth turning up for - 2pm.

Films lined up to watch soon include Across the Universe (musical set to Beatles songs), Harry He's Here to Help, The Aviator, French Connection I and II, the end of Clerks and the end of a French one I can't remember the name of. I've also got to watch Snuff Box, a Matt Berry and  Rich Fulcher comedy series about a gentlemen's club for executioners.

But today I just need to unwind. I've been working on Saturdays recently to get caught up - since the phone doesn't ring and I have no meetings set, it's much easier to work and I can get the equivalent of 3 days work done in a morning. We might see if Ladi needs to be taken for a walk later...

Corn Mo Supported Ben Folds Last Night

I was at the Newcastle Carling Academy last night at the Ben Folds gig. I love Ben Folds, but I have to say that last night wasn't his finest hour. The sound was really loud and boomy, and he played all of his fast loud bashy songs, and none of his beautiful lyrical piano songs, which are by far my favourite. But it was good fun anyway.

What actually made the evening was the support act. Last time I saw Ben, his support act was the quirky and superb Clem Snyde. This time it was the turn of the eccentric and incredible accordion wielding Meatloafalike - Corn Mo. Here he is singing his most famous song Busey Boy. This song deals with the problem of being mistaken for Gary Busey, and is a great treatment of this popular subject matter, and excellent advice for anyone with a superficial resemblance to Gary Busey.

We are family

Here's a picture of Michelle, my sister, my dad, Alyssia my niece, and me. Taken today at dad's care home. It's his 75th birthday on Wednesday, and this afternoon I ordered a very special cake.