Jason Thompson's Blog

Doing stuff

There has been a flurry of gig activity recently and I'm beginning to wonder where the next offer of tickets will come from.

Last week I was lucky enough - thanks to the wonderful Doug Sharp - to land an unexpected but most welcome ticket to see The Mighty Boosh at the Arena. Very funny it was too - but the most amazing part of the evening was bumping into a great friend I haven't seen for about 15 years or possibly more. Clive 'The Chive' Jackson, one of the original Backworth drama Centre group (some of whom pictured right, including me on top of Clive) from the early 1980s when I was there. We had a quick catch up and vowed to meet again soon (this Thursday). Can't wait.

Then only last night my excellent friend, mentor, guide and therapist Andy Curtis called with the offer of a pair of tickets to see Kathryn Tickell at New Hartley. Having no other plans Toni and I went along, joining Andy and The Liz. It was a lovely gig - just Kathryn and her brother Peter - playing a series of solos and duets on pipes, fiddles, guitar be voice. Excellent music. One unnerving moment towards the end of the gig involved her stopping be asking me if I played the fiddle as I looked very familiar. For one awful moment I thought she was going to ask me to join her on stage to scrape along trying to pretend I was the fiddle player she had mistaken me for. Anyhoo - the moment passed and the rest of the gig went off without incident.

Today I've been at the new Arts Centre in Newbiggin with others from the Forum, getting the plcd cleaned and tidied ready for next weekends Arts Fair (Sunday 7th 2-6pm - all welcome please come and see the place for yourselves - Woodhorn Villa near Kier Hardy Court). I was putting up pictures and generally trying to make the place look artsy. Should be great by next week - we've got a Christmas tree and lights and everything. Woohoo.

This week is going to be more fun work-wise for me as I'm starting a few new web sites rather than finishing stuff off. I'm actually looking forward to it - including work for a patisserie, industrial lifting consultant, musician, and a famous frozen drink company. Have a nice evening - speak soon!

Wok an amazing instrument

This is a Hang Drum - an amazing new(ish) instrument from Switzerland. As played by The Portico Quartet (who Neil knows about) and as above, Manu Delago. See also http://www.manudelago.com/eng/home.htm

Horse Looming

After a very mixed week, in which there were very unproductive spells and very enjoyable spells, tonight we're off to the Star and Shadow Cinema for an evening of New Weird Folk with Emily Portman and friend, neighbor and alternative folk superstar Steve Malley, aka The Horse Loom. I've heard great things about Steve - and I've been meaning to go and see him for a couple of years. So tonight's the night - wish us luck!

The weeks has seen Toni's birthday, which was very pleasant, and included a jaunt through to Newcastle for a bit of retail therapy, and a visit to Frankie and Benny's with the family for a birthday tea, then on to Ben and Jerry's for ice cream.

I wonder how many other successful food franchises have two names in them? Colin and Morris's? Brian and Dave's? They don't sound as good to they.

 

I'm also getting to know some new bits of photographic kit at the moment - namely a camera and studio lighting setup. Budgetary and funding constraints have meant that I have shelved plans to get the forthcoming Canon 5D mkII, and have gone for the less expensive but still magnificent Canon 50D - so I'm learning it's new tricks.

It already makes my 20D seem very very out of date, and is a wonderful bit of kit that I'm very much enjoying. The studio lighting flask kit is a revelation. I've used constant lighting for portraits and product photography up until now, but no more.

The flash stuff is amazing and really gives the results  want. Wahooo! Watch this space for examples soon - but for now I'll leave you with a couple of photos from this morning. My sister Michelle and her daughter Alyssia.

A week of cultural highs

This week has left me quite exhausted, and for several different reasons.

Work is showing no signs of slowing down despite the credit crunch - people seem to still be in the market for web site and relater tomfoolery, so that's good for my business, but not for my stress levels. It usually slows down coming uop to Christmas, but this year looks a little hectic. I'll need to manage my time effectively not to be a burned out quivering mass of nerve endings come Christmas Day.

There have been some interesting developments in my Arts life this week. On Wednesday a group of Arts Forum representatives visited London to meet with Sean Henry, and see his current exhibition at Mayfair's Osbourne Samuel Gallery. It was a great opportunity to have a couple of hours talking to Sean about his exhibition of figurative sculpture, and the owner of the gallery also. Sean also agreed to be the Patron of the Newbiggin Arts Forum - even though he thought he wasn't old enough to be a patron.

All of the sculptures in the exhibition were either larger or smaller than life size. The smallest figures were about 18 inches high, and the largest was about 9 feet high.

This one on the left was one of the newest - and incorporates a painted background - something that Sean has started doing to give his sculptures a context. This one is about 7 feet tall, and made of cast bronze, then painted with car paint so that it will be weather proof. The Couple statues in Newbiggin were painted in Marine paint, and this car paint will be able to be powerjet cleaned.

On Thursday the Arts Forum met with Wansbeck District Councl and talked through the lease agreement for the new Arts Centre. We thought we might have a fight on our hands, as there were some changes to the lease we wanted to make, surrounding money and repairs. To our very great excitement, all of our requests were taken on board, and the lease will be signed next week. The Arts Centre will be ours within the week, and our first event will take place in the afternoon on Sunday 7th December. We're having a community Open Day and Christmas Arts Fair at the Arts Centre - Woodhorn Villa 2 - 6pm all welcome.

 On Friday evening I was given a very nice gift of a complementary ticket to see Herbie Hancock at The Sage, alongsde Tim and Branda Sokell. They even paid for my parking because I'd turned up at the gig without any money, like a feckless Susan. There were 6 musicians, all of whom were excellent.

At times the music did get a little complex, and dare I say it, self indulgent, but the concert was superb, and two high points for me were a sublime solo piano piece played by Herbe, and the finale of Cantaloupe Island - one of my favourite jazz standards. Wonderful stuff - and he played for 2 and a half hours without an interval. Pant-wettingly impressive.

Pride of Dinky's Nibble View House?

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=fjW4P5DXmUM

I love these Armstrong and Miller sketches set in a small cafe. It has completely changed the way I listen to the tensely polite banter of stressed servers. I'm sure there's nowhere like this in Newbiggin...

If you like Armstrong and Miller you could do a lot worse than check out their excellent Times Online podcasts. Click here for more information.

Happy Sunday

I don't know why, but recently I've renewed my interest in magic (or rather illusions and tricks) and entertainment. I have for years been interested in the mechanics of magic, particularly close up magic. Magic shops have fascinated me, and I have read a few books on the subject. Something about the art - and it is an art - intrigues me, and I admire very much a trick done well - the sleights, misdirections and subtle techniques (and some not so subtle) to sell an effect and utterly convince someone that what they think happened really happened.

I've just read a great book by master magician Dai Vernon called Inner Card Secrets - that explains some very clever handlings of card tricks. Things that look impossible but can be learned and performed if you have the confidence. And that's the important thing. What I find hardest when performing card tricks myself is to lie convincingly - to present one thing whilst being fully aware that quite another thing is actually happening. My mind battles against it - and betrays that what is happening isn't really happening at all.

I was talking to some friends last night about some of the psychological stuff Derren Brown does - some of which is very complex but looks very simple, and some of which is very simple but looks very complex. I like his style and the ways he's able to 'fool' and misdirect people, and really seem to achieve the impossible. I use the phrase FOOL in inverted commas, because what he and the best magicians do is not to show up the one being tricked as an idiot, but to try and help them to experience something unexplainable. He's not out to show how clever he can be - and that's where some magicians go wrong.

I'm also interested to read about the complex psychology of magic - how a trick done one way works well, but with a different attitude will be much less effective. Even down to how skilled the performer seems to be is of great importance. Dai Vernon was such an incredible technician because he was at pains to make his handling of the cards seem very casual and at times inexpert. This takes a great deal of skill - the temptation if you can handle cards expertly is to show off and be slick and fast - but the psychology shows that it's harder to impress people if you're too flashy. If you look like an extremely skilled card handler, the audience will assume there is trickery going on, and that you could do anything - whereas a casual and ordinary handling of the pack makes the inexplicable even more impressive.

As well as magic, I've resumed my juggling quest. I'm determined to be able to juggle well - and I'm definitely improving. What I don't understand is why I want to do it. I's such a useless talent in some ways - but there's something about it that appeals to me. It might even be the sheer randomness of it - it's just something for it's own sake that is fun to do. I don't understand where I'm coming from.

None of these things are really about performing - I rarely do tricks for anyone other than the kids. I's more of a need to know. I remember watching Paul Daniels when I was a kid, and desperately wishing that I knew how his tricks were done. Well, now I know how some of them were done - and it's more of a need to know secrets tan anything else.

The trouble is, that once you know you can't go back to not knowing, and the magc is gone - it becomes technique. That's fine by me - but I hope that there'll always be secrets and magic - just to spice life up a bit.