Wednesday, 21 November 2012

Waiting for the Wave

The launch of Bob Walton's pamphlet of poems on 19th November at The Promised Land, Cardiff, brought together music and poetry, English and Welsh into a stimulating and enjoyable evening with performances from five different artists.

Walton opened the evening with his poem 'Occasion', exploring the tender moment of picking a ripe raspberry. He also created special images from other everyday moments in other pieces – a coastal walk, a phonecall with his father about the football – but he also performed work concerned with the exotic and the imagined, describing war in the East and jazz musician Don Cherry's visit to Marrakesh.

Musician Pete Judge performed a few pieces solo on the trumpet including the famous 'Bye Bye Blackbird', but also displayed his talents on a rotary valve tenor horn, playing on it a medley of pieces from around the world.

Naomi Alderson, runner up of the John Tripp Award 2011, performed two poems from what she jokingly dubbed her 'Adele' set, about the aftermath of a break-up. Another poem, 'Engaged', played wittily off the dichotomy of engaged and vacant and her last piece (originally written for Pecha Kucha) dealt powerfully with a reaction to the Tsunami, linking and reworking images from the event to the speakers own life.

Geraint Rhys played an enjoyable set on guitar, singing in both Welsh and English and accompanied by percussionist Steve Eyers and Llyr Lewis, twice winner of the Urdd Bardic Chair also performed (although I have no idea what he was saying as the majority of his poetry is in Welsh).

 
Naomi Alderson performing with the slides at PechaKucha Night at the Chapter Arts House, 24th January 2012
 
 
 
Geraint Rhys with his original song 'Take Your Time'

Another thing I went to lately was Art Club and Curry at Milgi (www.milgilounge.com).  Every month on a Monday night they lay out craft supplies and prepare a tasty meal all for the small price of £5.  This month we wove yarn around crossed sticks to make God's Eyes, a Mexican spiritual object.  All the fun of primary school art class but with cocktails!


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