Two weeks ago I described the ‘Painted Quartet’ auction at the Music Festival. I was very taken with this violin by Rhys Cowe, but the bidding started rather beyond what I could afford. It landed up going for £250, and between them the other instruments fetched about £10,000, which must be good news for the Star College.

Through this I discovered that Rhys Cowe is a local painter who has synaesthesia, and much of his work is his visual interpretation of the music he ‘sees’. For example, this is ‘Piano Song’:

Having failed to get his violin, I’m rather tempted to approach him next year to do a small commission for us …

Here’s a good idea … a way to keep part of the Cheltenham Music Festival. Last year the Festival Director commissioned various artists to take a violin or cello and paint it; the ‘Painted Quartet‘ results adorned some of the covers of the festival programme.

This year some more have been commissioned, and they’re going to be auctioned off with the benefits going partly to the Festival and partly to the National Star College, on the outskirts of Cheltenham.

Each has an estimated price, which the cynic in me thinks is more to bump up the bids than a real estimate. But what do I know? I’m tempted to put in a low-medium bid on one of them, in the hope that no-one else will like it, and see what happens …

“I hope it’s not like Dibley”, said at least one vicar’s wife. “Dibley” did appear, but only as a term of abuse to greet Adam, a vicar moving to an inner city London parish.

Rev is a new series on BBC2 that started this week, starring Tom Hollander. My worry is that the Vicar Hollander played would be similarly wet and useless as some other characters he’s played, such as the (Government) Minister in In the Loop. I’m not yet he’s going to avoid that as we already see that he can’t stand up to the manipulative and oily Archdeacon, deliciously played by the ever-watchable Simon McBurney.

The Vicar of Dibley was rightly a huge success, but didn’t really have any interest in the faith or work of the Vicar despite her being the central character. But it did at least put an unusually human and positive face on that Vicar, complete with interesting weaknesses. The supporting cast were caricatures with little complexity.

Rev does have it’s stock characters too, such as the scheming ex-MP. But I can forgive this, as it already shows much more interesting character plotting and subtle interplay between Adam Smallbone, his wife Alex, and what I expect to become the other major characters Nigel and Colin. Most encouraging, though, is that the writer James Woods seems to be interested in getting under the skin of this role, and not just play for cheap laughs. And knowing a vicar or two and their work quite well, I’d say he’s done a good job of it. I look forward to seeing of the crises of conscience, and the tensions between the roles and realities of the relationship between Adam and his wife. We also hear Adam’s thoughts as as he sits contemplating what’s going on, praying without it being childish, embarrassing or out of place.

So I hope that Rev shows not just another human face of the clergy, but shows more of what this complex vocation is all about. And to continue doing it through my ideal kind of comedy: subtle but with the odd belly laugh too.

Just one word of warning: there is occasionally more colourful language than one might expect … but still I’d highly recommend catching a few episodes.

It’s hard to find 2-player games. So when we saw Phil and Rachel last time, we got their recommendations, which included Hive. We’ve not player it much yet, but it’s good so far …

We did better at this year’s Jazz Festival, I think.

We started with Kit Downes’ piano trio, one of the new-to-us groups we like to try each festival. They’d appealed because Downes is said to have some of the same mixed jazz and classical sensibilities of Brad Mehldau, who I first discovered at a Cheltenham Jazz Festival years ago. They started with Jump which indeed had echoes of Mehldau. We also liked hearing their tribute to early Keith Jarrett, called Tambourine. Like many piano trios we thought that the drumming was too fussy and intrusive, but it didn’t mar things too badly. We’ll try to find a recording, and hopefully be able to listen again to other great pieces such as Golden and Brixon.

A Big Fringe

Over at the free Fringe stage we enjoyed Jake Hall‘s singing by turns energetic and soulful, backing himself on acoustic guitar accompanied by a friend playing a funky cajon drum and bongos.

Later we enjoyed tapping and nodding along to The Roving Crows, who were a slightly strange choice for a Jazz Festival, being as they’re an Irish Folk/country/rock band. Perhaps their booking at the Cheltenham Folk festival got muddled up … Whatever it was their French-sounding bass player didn’t seem to be enjoying himself nearly as much as the lead guitarist.

I’d like to have seen Nikki Yeoh’s piano trio again, but it clashed with one of the others. And next time, Tommy, next time …

The Headline

But back to the main festival, and the treat that was Jamie Cullum headlining. Jo + John joined us to celebrate Jo’s birthday in style. We’d heard beforehand that the Town Hall’s regular piano tuner doesn’t like him coming as he ‘trashes’ pianos. And I did feel for him when Jamie jumped up onto the Steinway grand. But in the end he seemed to have mellowed slightly (maybe now he’s a thirty-something), only jumping off the piano twice. He hadn’t lost his energy, though, and his ability to entertain. It also needs to be said that he is a consummate musician, backed up by some serious talent. His voice and way of bending and working notes is unique, and great to listen to.

Most of the songs were new to us, as we’d only got one of his albums — a problem we’ve now more than fixed! — but he rounded off the show with the haunting Gran Torino, which he wrote for the Clint Eastwood movie. Before then he and the band came down off the stage, bringing a few instruments with them, and gave as extended acoustic variations on Cry me a River in the aisle, much to everyone’s delight.

It was a greal treat, and we’re looking forward to listening to those new albums …

I’ve just had a great day off: started with full English breakfast with Mike in town, then doing some techy work on the video display system in church, then going to see Jo + John in Birmingham, seeing their new office, and then having lunch at good pub. Their Winter Tale dark ale was sweet and very drinkable. By the time we’d chatted after that we needed a latte/mocha on Harborne High St, before heading home. And the kids cooked for us, as we picked them up from the station.

The only slight disappointment was that we’d run out of time to visit Sharon McSwiney’s studio in Bransford, just off the M5 on the way home. We saw some of her decorative metalwork at the Cheltenham Craft Market on Saturday, and were keen to see more as we want to replace an old painting in the living room. I’ll need another day off …

(This pic is one of her recent creations. Wish I could create like that!)

The Times have published their list of the 100 Best Films of the Decade. We watch a lot of films, so here’s a challenge.

First off, we’ve not heard of the top film Hidden (Cache), but between us we reckon we’ve seen about 30 of the rest. There are a number of non-English films, which is good, but we’re not keen on having to read subtitles for long, so that mostly counts them out.

With a bit of thought, I’d have expected to see Michael Clayton, Blood Dimaond, Shrek, March of the Penguins, The Last Samaurai, The Prestige, Wall-E on the list. And, it might not be a film, but the best TV drama from (part of) the decade must be The West Wing.

But this list is a great reminder that we should get round to seeing Lantana (91), In the Loop (81), Monsters, Inc. (71), There will be Blood (63), Syriana (40), Man on Wire (23), United 93 (19) and of course Hidden (Cache) (1) despite it probably having sub-titles.

Whilst I’ve been off ill, I’ve been trying hard to stay away form work or work-like things. So it seemed like a good time to catch up on some movies that are sitting unwatched in our Sky+ box. They were all classics, but ones I’d never seen. But they did make for a strange mixture: Da, Pulp Fiction, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, The Usual Suspects, and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. We also saw Glory and Rules of Engagement together. Each had their strong points, but I don’t think I’d watch any of them again. (OK, OK, I had seen most of Usual Suspects before, and I was looking out for more clues the second time around. And I wasn’t much clearer … but then looking at IMDb’s film plot page, the film buff experts aren’t much clearer either.)

I’m still not quite sure how it found it’s way onto my computer, but I’m glad it did. Whilst I was doing lots of odd jobs around the house and garden, I was listening to new music. The music gave way to a lecture, and I was quickly hooked.

It was Benjamin Zander describing why he thinks Mahler’s Third Symphony is one of the most amazing pieces of music ever composed. With plenty of examples, presumably from one of his recordings, we got to hear the full range of Nature that he depicted, and man’s influence too. I am a fan of some of Mahler’s symphonies anyway, but it would probably be compelling to anyone who enjoys music.

So not only was I feeling satisfied about the jobs done, but entertained, educated, and inspired to discover and enjoy a new Mahlerian masterpiece.

Last weekend I went to Cardiff to see U2 live for the first time. It was a great show, showing off the new ‘Claw’ staging, with 360 degree runway and video display system. Wouldn’t I like one of those to play with?!

The music mostly came from the most recent “No Line on the Horizon” album, but with some older material such as Sunday, Bloody Sunday and I still haven’t found what I’m looking for. Of the new material, No Line on the Horizon and Unknown Caller stood out for me.

There was hardly any ‘preaching’ from Bono, mostly leaving it to a short video segment from Arhbishop Desmond Tutu, who noted what had been achieved against the MDGs (etc) by help from ordinary people. And urging us to support the ONE campaign. The political note was to support Ang Sung Syu Chi in Burma.

The Edge looked like he was having the most fun, though Larry liked getting freed from the drum kit for a song to wander around playing djembe. Adam looked serious throughout, and Bono managed to be both rock-band-lead-singer energetic plus brooding, all at the same time.

Overall, a fine birthday treat — thanks, Martha!

(Note to self: either the signposting to the main Park and Ride for the Millennium Stadium is bad, or the P&R itself is woefully inadequate. We landed up parking on a verge near County Hall. Not a great choice, as itt took over an an hour to get back to the car this way. There is free on-street parking in central Cardiff only 15 mind walk away, said my neighbour in the stadium.)