Tuesday, January 14, 2020

Chaos, with some music and a moon

And yes, this bulletin should have been posted before double-figure dates made saying 'Happy New Year' distinctly passé but seasonal celebrations and seasonal ailments all conspired to delay it.
So let's launch off with the cultural stuff. Books! Frome's indefatigable Hunting Raven bookshop-wiz Tina Waller has initiated a book club with a difference: when you join the Proof Pudding Club, everybody gets a different book in a brown-paper wrap, no title visible (they are all pre-publication 'proof' copies) and once a month the club meets upstairs at the Cornerhouse for a feed-back sharing session, which also informs Tina as to which books to stock post-publication. And the pudding bit? After the reviews are discussed, we all have a pudding. (It was sticky toffee, with custard, this month, if you're interested - with a gluten-free, dairy-free, low-sugar alternative, obviously, we're not savages.) Thanks Denise Hunt for this snap of our group as Andy talked about his enjoyment of Losing Eden by Lucy Jones - sounds like one to look out for. This was my first session and I'm now hooked. At another wordy group meeting, Frome Writers Collective celebrated the new year with a game session at The Three Swans - no image for this, scrabble requires concentration.
Black Swan Arts first exhibition of the year is χάος - Chaos -created by Barry Cooper and curated by Hans Borgonjon, whose vision and input the painter insists is a crucial element: 'It is his concept and vision for my work which has produced something which is truly 4 Dimensional,' he says. The six major canvases each represent a violin sonata written by Eugène Ysaÿe, with other paintings exploring aspects, and the artist aims to 'reach beyond the visible to an imagined fourth dimension: length, breadth, width, and time.' Barry works often in 3-D with stone and wooden carvings and has strong connections with the Greek island of Paros: 'The way that I work is through internal conversation,' he says, and all these elements seem to join the music in this creative converse. Our regular writing workshop in the Long Gallery was ably led by Dawn Gorman with a focus on chaos of life - an appropriate topic for 2020, I feel. 

Less music than usual to report in this bulletin as this has been a time of mostly private (and fabulous) parties, but Nunney Acoustic Cafe led off the year with feature guests The Marianas, 'synth-drenched alt pop', a band whose total ages combined probably barely reach mine. We also had other excellent musical sets and a soupçon of saucy words from me - thanks David Goodman for the image.

So now as storm Brendan batters the UK and media news is daily more dire, take heart from the words of Bob Dylan: Everything passes and everything changes, just do what you think you should do. I'll leave you with an image of the Wolf Moon rising over Frome, as seen on return from snowdrop hunting in Nunney.


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