Greenbank Park

Pictures of Greenbank Park Liverpool on a bright Autumn Morning

Paul Klee

Ann and I went to see the Paul Klee exhibition at the Tate Modern on our anniversary weekend.  On Saturday we visited the market at Portobello Road, and on Sunday we saw the exhibition before having  lunch with some oaf the family.
Before we ever got to London I learnt that I liked the paintings  of August Macke. Of the paintings on the web there were very few I did not really like, bright and colourful, with broad blocks of colour, much like some of Klee's. They travelled together with another friend to Tunisia in 1914, which was very significant for Klee in gaining confidence  in using colour. Sadly Macke never saw his thirtieth birthday, as he died in the first world war. Later Klee also fought for Germany, but unbeknown to him, by that time the army were putting artists in less dangerous posts.
At the exhibition  the first noticeable thing was how small many of the paintings  were. There was often an immense amount of detail, in quite a small area.  The paintings repaid a close examination, but it was a mistake not to also view them from a distance.
We have one Klee print at home, and while I now know that he painted in many more styles, I still think of different size blocks of colour as being his signature style. What surprised me was that he developed this style quite early in his career, and continued to use it alongside other techniques. One particlar painting like this from mid way through the chronological exhibition absorbed our attention for a good while while Ann and I sat together discussing it. It was amazing how so apparently  simple painting had so much that repaid careful observation.
Whereas our print was watercolour where the blocks of colour ran into each other at points, this was different for having bold lines separating the blocks. I thought line was a major feature of many of the paintings. This was especially apparent in some paintings comprising primarily of blocks, where a few isolated angled lines conveyed the sense of a building.
Drafted in 2014 but not published until 2018.

New Web Site

Hayes and Finch Ltd have launched their new web site!

http://www.hfltd.com/

Cabaret at the Casa

The choir Liverpool Voice hosted their first ever Cabaret evening at the Casa at Hope Street last Friday, and it proved to be an enjoyable evening with a wide range of musical experience.

The evening got off to a dramatic start, with just two choir members on the stage. Dee Owen and Erik Bichard sang the soloists parts in Verdi's Brindisi, while the choir joined in flash mob style from amongst the audience, making their way onto the stage for the final section. This chorus, celebrating the pleasures of love youth and wine, was in contrasting mood to the chorus of the Hebrew slaves from Nabucco, the other piece by Verdi in this bi-centenial year of his birth.

During the course of the evening the choir, conducted by their musical director Lesley Bentley, former Director of Arts at Notre Dame Specialist Arts College, went onto to perform Java Jive, Moon River, and Somewhere over the Rainbow, before finishing the evening with what has become their signature piece, Keep you in Peace.

There is a rich vein of musical talent within the choir, and the evening gave opportunity for this to be show-cased. Phil Hargreaves and Erik Bichard are confident entertainers, and we were well entertained by their folk songs, sung as solos and duets, accompanied by guitar, trumpet and accordion. The most rapturous applause of the evening was probably reserved for singer songwriter Sean Keogh. Singing from the keyboard, he wowed the audience with a spirited performance of his songs which made full use of his excellent vocal range.

With the exception of Richard Dempsey, whose rich unaccompanied voice was well suited to the two Irish folk songs he performed, the other soloists were accompanied by the choir's accompanist, RNCM trained John McHugh. Brenda Connor sang her two Patsy Cline numbers from the stage, Mike Pendray sang Fields of Gold next to the keyboard, and Pauline Bellis sat on the edge of the stage to sing her song, Hiding my Heart Away. The warm and appreciative audience made it a very rewarding experience for the soloists, some of whom had little or no experience of performing solo before.

The third leg of the evening was instrumental music from Acoustica. Introduced by Martin Dobson, an erstwhile member of Liverpool Voice himself, the trio played folk music from various parts of the world on the concertina, flute and bouzouki.

This was the first cabaret evening put on by Liverpool Voice, and we expect that it will not be the last.

Liverpool Voice rehearse on a Thursday evening in the Edge Hill area of the city. They aim to perform to a high standard while keeping the rehearsals both fun and workmanlike. They are always on the look out for potential new members. Anyone interested in joining can ring 07901349080 and leave a voicemail message, or email liverpoolvoice@hotmail.co.uk and they will hear back.

Their next scheduled performances are Christmas concerts at St. Anne's church, Edge Hill on Saturday 7th December, and at Crosby Hall on Friday 13th December. They are also taking part in a Nugent Care fundraising concert at Bishop Eton on Saturday 14th December.

Whitbarrow

Last Saturday, January 26,  I went walking at Whitbarrow, an enjoyable walk in the snow on a bright and beautiful day.
We had snow lying on the ground in Liverpool all week, with fresh falls overnight, so it was no surprise that only two lanes of the motorway were usable going past Wigan, but when we got past Lancaster it felt bizarre as there was no snow on the ground at all.
It was a bright morning, and I parked just off the A590 by the village of Millside. I parked behind another car, and two more cars parked behind me before I had put my boots and gear on. There were clumps of melting snow falling from the roadside trees as I walked through the village.
I tracked part of my route up on Strava. There were some good views looking out across the lower reaches of the Lyth Valley.

The path brought me to the foot of white scar, and then I took a path that climbed up just before that point.

The snow was quite slippery at points, but there were some attractive trees on the way, and eventually I came out to the sunshine shining on the bright snow.

I was glad that someone else had done the walk since the last snowfall. Finding the path would have been very haphazard otherwise.

There were some great views looking over toward Grange over sands and Arnside, a bit difficult to catch on the camera.

After a while of trudging through the three inch high snow, it occurred to me that it might be quite good for making a snowman. My Snowman had height, taller than me, but not much girth, and was a rather more of a stack or chimney really.

After retrieving my hat, I ventured on, and met the first two of the nine people in total that I met during the walk a little too late to make it worth turning back and asking them to take a picture of me with the snowman.

It was glorious day, walking along in the snow, with beautiful views all around. To the left was Witherslack Hall, now a school, overlooked by Chapel Head Scar.

There is a path shown running back down the valley, whether I got the correct turn or not I cannot be sure, but I followed some tracks in the snow that turned down at a pepper pot type monument.

It felt like Winnie the Pooh, and Where the Weazle wasn't following the tracks in the snow, then the patch became better defined and there were some slippery moments on the snow.

I met a couple who I chatted with a while, and they took a picture of me. He remarked how quiet it was, which came as a bit of a surprise to me. I had made my ascent to the sound of cars travelling on the A590, but here in the valley it was very quiet.
At the bottom I took the path towards the school, and turned back when I realised I needed the path nearer the cliff. I was glad to have walked a little at the bottom of the valley. It must have been cooler here, or sheltered from the sun, and the snow was still crisp.
The path I wanted took me through High Crag Wood, underneath Chapel Head Scar. Walking there must be quite different in summer, when the cliff would be shielded by the the trees.

As it was it was almost eerie, quite quiet, but with the sounds of birds from different parts of the woods.

At one point I passed a dead silver birch tree, with saucer like fungus growing from the trunk, the brown top and white underside looking all the more strange with a helping of snow on top.

Eventually the path reached a lane, where I had a nice interlude.  Having met just nine people while on the walk there were more than that number sat in the Hikers' Rest. Some local people had set up an outhouse with facilities to make tea & coffee, with an honesty envelope to put through the door of the next cottage. I had no change, but the folk already there invited me to join them, and after some polite banter it turned out that some of them had been in Morocco with a family from our church.
The road back through the village went past a pond, where the water was very still and there were great reflections in the water.

When I got back to the car, I was able to take off my boots, which being suede had become a little soggy in the slushy slow. Before I had finished my lunch, it had started to rain, and I realised that I had enjoyed the best of the weather.

Les Miserables

This is a great film, with very worthy performances.  Of course it is a good show, with some great songs, but it did not feel like a story that was interrupted by the songs one bit. The songs were part of the emotion and the drama.
There is plenty of emotion, and Anne Hathaway, Samantha Barks and Eddie Redmayne deserve all the awards that are coming their way.
It is a great tale. The criminal Jean Valjean is caught stealing silver, and instead of being sent down receives forgiveness and great mercy, which changes his life forever.  We see him later showing kindness to a sick woman, and then bringing up her daughter. Then we jump again to her teens, and he is set to lose her to a young man, except that the young man looks set to lose his life in an ill fated revolution.  All the while Valjohn   lives under an assumed identity, as he is on the run for breaking parole, with one officer in particular, played by Russell Crowe, making it a personal mission to catch him.  Alongside all this tension and drama, Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter pay a roguish innkeeper and his wife, a bring a lighter touch of humour.
It is a long film, but the story zips along at a good pace, with the songs telling the story rather than interrupting it. As well as excitement and drama, there are some very tender moments, especially in the lull before the barricades are stormed. There is also some amazing camera shots. But for all the great acting, drama, filming and storytelling, three performances stand out especially.
Anne Hathaway has a grueling story to tell as Fantine. We meet her struggling to keep a factory job to pay for her daughter's keep, and we see her lose the job unjustly, then reduced to selling her hair, then her teeth, before taking to prostitution. With tears across her face she sings a lament for the life that she dreamed of, a very moving performance.
When Marius and Cosette first sing their love duet, there is a third voice singing. Samantha Barks plays Eponine, who also loves Marius, but helps him to meet Cosette. As songs of unrequited love go, her performance sung in the rain outside in the street has to be one of the most powerful and moving.
The song "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" is very moving at any time, as  Marius laments the death of his friends at the barricade. Eddie Redmayne performs it amongst the ruins with dirt and tears across his face, much more lament than song.
The film ends with a reprise of the barricade, resolute and optimistic, which is just as well given all the loss and sadness, and helped the audience broke into applause at the end. Well deserved applause, for many great performances and great story, well presented.