well, another month has passed, summer has been and gone and i've had some fabulous ventures..
the last week of august i flew to bucharest, romania..
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| flying to bucharest.. |
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i met with a great friend of mine aneli, an artist who i met in brazil whilst in residence at instituto sacatar on the island of itaparica, bahia. we spent a couple of days in bucharest, her home, riding bikes around and taking in the sights of the city.. amazing.. we borrowed a car and i took the plunge of driving a left hand side drive subaru on the right side of the road, down to the seaside (the black sea), and across the border into bulgaria. after a puncture on the highway (they have gigantic potholes in the roads!) we stopped for a few days camping, right by the sea, nearby the small seaside village of krapets.
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| mojito anyone? |
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| the bar.. |
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| the stage & outdoor cinema screen by the beach.. |
the food was amazing.. local seafood caught daily and traditional bulgarian dishes galore!
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| nothing left of this sea creature.. |
so amongst the many hours of laying in a hammock reading a book, i swam in the black sea daily, saw the sunset on the beach and generally soaked up the relaxing atmosphere...
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| sundown, moon up, over the black sea.. |
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| our artistic camping spot.. |
i knew i was a long way from home when on the way back to bucharest and romanian comforts we drove past these signs..
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| long way from home.. |
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| saturn and venus? really? |
and over the blue danube on the way back to bucharest..
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| the blue danube river... |
on my return to london, also marking my one year stay here, i said goodbye to the wonderful view in world's end..
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| goodbye world's end.. |
and i moved flats, to haggerston (dalston, hackney).. into a studio. my small upright
piano now has a new home with a soundproof wall behind it so i don't
annoy the neighbours (who just happen to be australian too.. small world)!
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| my lil' piano.. |
since i've been here in london, i'm back in regular contact with the amazing australian performer
ivan thorley, an artist/dancer/puppeteer/all round maker of creative things, whom i met waaay back in 2000, whilst working on 'the angel show' (production by peepshow inc theatre company performed at la mama theatre, carlton, australia). anyways, ivan has been involved with some incredible projects over the years living in london (including the massive puppets for the olympic ceremony this year!) and at the moment, puppeteering for 'warhorse', the west end show, inside 'joey'. he flung me a ticket to their dress rehearsal on change of cast, which was fabulous.. the movements of the horse are really something. here's a sneak peak..
next on the agenda was meeting
alex mizzen, an aerial artist who is here in london working with cantina (the aussie circus/physical theatre show), for the london wonderground at southbank. i saw cantina twice during its season here as part of the cultural olympiad, so if you get the chance to see the show (
especially to see this wonderful lady perform), i highly recommend it!
i also saw
the necks when they were playing in shoreditch last week (as always, a mesmerising experience) and next week i'm off to see the
brandt brauer frick ensemble play (from berlin) at the southbank centre.
i've been to a few networking events and professional development seminars recently.. run by
basca (the british academy of songwriters, composers and authors),
apra (australasian performing rights association), the british library
business & ip centre, and
ukti (uk trade & investment), culminating in very interesting, inspiring information to give me a rev up in creative and business ventures and sometimes all round exciting brain waves.
phew! well, so it's been jam packed, but that's not all yet..
i'm just starting a project with a theatre company here, called
foreign affairs. it's a strindberg play (a swedish playwright from many moons ago) called 'simoom'. rehearsals start monday, so i'll keep you all posted with how things progress.
the final year of my guildhall masters has also started and there's some great things in the pipeline. my first project is researching aspects of proprioception in relation to musicians working with physical performers (dance, circus, physical theatre etc). in a sense, it is the essence of proprioception and kinesthesia, and how music creation can be influenced by these studies, if the composer/performer is consciously aware of the physical performers' movements, rather than the gestures solely being an external event through vision. i cannot quite tell if that makes sense or not, but that the gist of my thoughts so far (but they may change too)..
ok, over and out for another month and i'll be back with updates soon!!
:)
