A Mardle at The Museum of English Rural Life
21 January 2012 // Photography
Field Work: Photographs from East Anglia by Justin Partyka
As part of The Museum of English Rural Life’s exhibition of the work of photographer Justin Partyka, A ‘mardle’ will be taking place this Tuesday evening, between 6 – 7.30pm.
This ‘mardle’ will see Justin Partyka in conversation with fellow Norfolk writer and artist, Jonathan P. Watts. They will examine Justin’s inspiration and discuss his commitment to photographing rural East Anglia. Slides of his work will reveal how the medium of photography can become a way to explore a sense of place. ‘Mardle’ is a dialect word from Norfolk and Suffolk and means to have a gossip. After their initial conversation Justin and Jonathan will encourage the audience to join in and have a mardle with them.
The exhibition runs until 22 April. Further information can be found HERE.
Corvid
21 January 2012 // An Antidote To Indifference //poetry
A poem by Will Burns.
Crows devoid of detail -
sharp black shapes against the snow.
All that was once greens, yellows, reds -
reduced to a near geometric pattern
of cordoned white and blackish-brown;
the hill’s edge running
straight into the grey-white sky.
The bird’s calls crack
across the blank expanse of the valley’s
improbably uniform, endless sky-sheaf.
All these movements are
not actual crows, not individuals,
but the bird’s monotone essence;
the idea of the crow, the crow’s core –
marks on a white page.
Will has written about the poet Edward Thomas in the current edition of the Caught by the River fanzine, An Antidote To Indifference. He will be talking Thomas and reading a poem or two at the Antidote Alive! event, taking place at The Stag public house, Hampstead, London, on Tuesday night. Advance tickets (at the cheaper price of £5.00) are availabe HERE.
Caught by the Reaper – Etta James
20 January 2012 // Remembrance
Hard for me to pick a favourite song by Etta James, impossible in fact. Over at The Guardian site Richard Williams (a man forever reliable when it comes to soul) has managed to get it down to ‘her ten finest performances’ (listing a couple that I have never heard but certainly will have before tonight is over) but his list doesn’t include Seven Day Fool, Can’t Shake It, Tell Mama…I could go on. Richard’s tribute is obviously worth a read and you can find that HERE. I’m going to pour myself a beer, put on Can’t Shake It and go look for those tunes that Mr Williams has hipped me to. Rest in peace, Etta. (JB)
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First Aid Kit
Birdsongs 9
19 January 2012 // Film/TV //Music
It’s been a long time coming but I’m happy to announce that number nine in our series of ‘bird songs’ downloads is going to be coming your way tomorrow. That is of course if you are on our mailing list. If you’re not then sign yourself up in the box at the top of the page. Each Friday we send out a round up of the sites activites along with the occasional competition, special offer or an early birds heads-up of a Caught by the River event. What’s to lose?
Bird Songs 9 has been compiled by Stephen Cracknell, singer, songwriter and all round good bloke. Along with his band, The Memory Band, Stephen is very much involved in an evening of ‘Folk on Film’ that is taking place at King’s Place, London on Friday, 27th Jan. Programme details and ticket information can be found in the following press release: (more…)
How I Came To Know Fish
How I Came To Know Fish by Ota Pavel, Penguin Translated Texts
By Chloe Evans.
When I was a little girl, I was allowed to go with my Dad fishing the trout streams around Llanddewi Brefi, a blonde dot trailing after him with a blue and white rod. I fell in the water so often I was eventually banned, health and safety were never invoked, but scaring the brownies away was a cardinal sin. I relived the unexpected cold of that water, and sighed again over my Pa’s obsession as I read How I Came to Know Fish, Ota Pavel’s memoir of pre-war Czechosolovakia. The book reads as a tribute to his father and a childhood spent learning to see the beauty of his homeland. But this is also a celebration of the abundant carp they fished out on their expeditions together and the freedom from worry and hunger that gave them. (more…)
On Holme Beach
by Danny Adcock.
As I crest the dunes a flock of fieldfares take flight, and lifting from the spiked sea-buckthorn bushes circle back behind me over the golf course. The distant tide is visible, but only just. There’s a stillness to the morning that stretches out across the landscape. The sky and horizon blend in a monochrome grey wash. (more…)
Starlings in Brighton
Dear Jeff,
Chris’ programme sounds wonderful (CBTR 17 Jan) . One detail is incorrect, the press release says that ‘The starlings have passed into history’. As all your Brighton readers will know this isn’t the case you can still see them sweeping over the West Pier at the end of each winter afternoon.
cheers,
Mathew
Chris Watson Watch
17 January 2012 // Chris Watson Watch //Radio
Nature – episode 3 – The Ghost Roost
First broadcast today on BBC Radio 4, and now on the iPlayer.
Press release:
Over ten years ago before the West Pier in Brighton was destroyed by storms and fire, wildlife sound recordist Chris Watson and sound designer Thor McIntyre Burnie were given permission to rig up microphones in what had once been the grand concert hall. During the day, the pier was a dangerous place to venture, but on a winter’s night, as dusk fell, and the sea glowed red, it was transformed into a magical scene as tens of thousands of starlings gathered in the air above, performing their aerial acrobatics (murmurations) before descending onto the pier to roost for the night. The starlings roosted in what remained of the concert hall, and it was the sounds of these birds gathered in their night roost, which Chris and Thor wanted to capture – from dusk until dawn, when the birds departed once again on their feeding trips. (more…)
Darkroom
A poem by John Barlow.
Darkroom
Black whelks
seam the strand line
detritus of masked crabs, a cuttlebone,
and three guillemots
the winter tide
has brought to land. A crow turns
the sea potatoes, selects one
and hunches to fly.
A blink of a white flash
will develop in the mind.
