This is just a little post today and applies only to an Irish girl I met (come April) 20 years ago in a hospital I used to work in. So, as it’s an anniversary of sorts (it feels like yesterday, it feels like a lifetime ago) I’ve been remembering and wondering.

So, Grace, if you somehow happen, against all the odds, to be reading this, I’d love to hear from you and know how you’ve been and what you’ve been up to since last we spoke all those years ago.

Here’s hoping :)

Oh, and Happy New Year to all!

Jimbob

A few posts back I featured an Enya song called Flora’s Secret and one of the lines in the song mentions ‘the one the moon loves’. This, according to Enya herself, refers to the story of Endymion and Selene from Roman mythology. Endymion (pronounced En-dim-ion) was, depending on which story you read, either a king, a shepherd, a hunter or an astronomer or maybe even a mix of the four. It was whilst studying the stars that he fell in love with Selene, the moon. Selene was so taken by Endymion that she asked his father, Zeus, to keep him in an eternal state of youth. Zeus granted her wish and cast his son asleep forever. There are variations to the story but overall the theme is the same.

Endymion is represented by the Bluebell and one of the synonyms for this flower is Endymion non-scriptum. The Blubell is associated with sleep. This is why there is mention of it in Flora’s Secret, Flora being the Roman goddess of flowers.

Anyway, I went to visit my aunty in the care home where she is housed a few months back. She was having her tea, so I sat in the quiet lounge and waited. Flora’s Secret was in my head constantly at that time and so, as I’d happened to have pen and paper with me, I started to write a poem about Endymion. I finished it off at home after a little research on the myth and the result is below.

Endymion and Selene

The days of springtime
When Rome adored her
Beneath a sky of daylight blue
Scattered in fields
The song of Flora
The joy of her love in bloom

Where grew her flowers
In midnight hue
Endymion stood in starlit gaze
Therein that sky of nighttime blue
Gazed back Selene
Her silver heart ablaze

In his youth
In his beauty
Without compare
When the leaves whispered her name
He slept ‘midst blubells in meadow fair
Slept ’til dimmed the daylight flame

Never before
Never after
Was his heart so taken that eve
And evermore
Forever after
To the moon, his heart, bequeathed

Well, there you go you lucky people! Poetry for free :)

I’m outta here,

Jimbob

I promised you something on faeries a few posts ago, so here it is.

Firstly, on my way to Scotland recently near the borders, I passed through a place called Earlston, and as I entered the town, I briefly noticed an old rusting sign saying that this was the birthplace of Thomas the Rhymer. I’d heard that name before but I couldn’t place where. When I got to the cottage in Scotland I was to share with one of my brothers and father, I asked them about it, thinking particularly that my dad would know for the amount of times he’d travelled this route. But no, neither of them could shed any light on the matter. So, I promptly forgot about it.

About a month later, I was listening to the wonderfully weird and at times, spooky, Mysterious Universe, a free podcast available for download (here, if anyone is interested). The episode I was listening to had an interview with a guy who had written a book about faeries, elves, gnomes etc. It seems, from what this author was saying, that most faerie stories actually ended up pretty badly for any human protagonist and that these otherworldly beings were quite vicious little buggers (most faerie stories that we hear about in popular mainstream media have often been sanitised (thank you, Disney)).

Anyway, the host of Mysterious Universe asked the author ‘are there any faerie stories that ended happier?’ The one (of a few) that sprung to mind for the interviewee was that of….Thomas the Rhymer! Legend has it that he kissed, or slept with, the Queen of Elphame, the queen of the faeries. Thomas went back to her castle (in one version, she’d turned into a hag and then back again by this point) and spent an evening at a party. When the queen took him back afterwards, it turned out that seven years had passed. She offered him a token at their parting; the gift of being a harper or a poet. Thomas chose the latter, hence, presumably, his name. It’s also believed that this story is the source for the better known one of Tam Lin. Just thought I’d mention it.

The other thing of faerie (I prefer that spelling) relevance is that of a few pictures I did for a project in trying to come up with templates that can be used so that children can be photographed and then ‘put’ into the pictures. I had to get images off the internet for these mock-ups and meld them together in Photoshop in a way that I found more pleasing and authentic than others I’d seen on the web. I’ve tried numerous times to contact the owners of the images I’ve used but to no avail so, I’m putting them up. If anyone out there comes across these images and knows who the author is, please let me know and I’ll contact them immediately.

In the first one, I went for a misty type image which kind of adds a little more mystery to it. The second one is more Christmas themed and is my favourite. I did a few others, but I didn’t think they were up to the standard of these two. Hope you like them :)

As you might have noticed, the new site is up and running (even if it’s laces are untied). Yup, there’s still a few things to sort out, but I’ll get there.

This has all come about ‘cos I’ve been thinking of going self-employed and having a shiny new site was a must. I toyed with the idea of leaving this blog out ‘cos it may not appear ‘professional’ enough but it’s actually the favourite thing I have on here and I wanted to keep it like it always was. I could make the design of it fit in with the rest of the site, but to me, it’s like an artifact from the old site and I have a fondness for it. So, it’s staying put!

Whether or not I go down the route of doing websites remains to be seen. Art is definitely a path I want to go down but, by doing both, I’m wondering if I’m maybe riding one-too-many horses? We’ll see.

As a last thing, if you’re an Enya fan, sign up to Unity, the official community at enya.com. Full of wonderful folk, all sharing the same passion for the music (and other things besides).

I’m outta here,

Jimbob

Originally, this post was going to be about the new site, but that’ll be my next post. Why? Well, I heard two things within hours of each other and one made me very happy, the other a bit sad, so I’ve mixed feelings at the moment.

First off, I’ll start with the sad news (that way, I can end on a high note :)). REM have given up the ghost after 31 years in the music business and, although it comes as no shock, I can’t help but feel a little down. They were such a prominent part of the happiest times of my life and songs like You Are The Everything, Hairshirt, Find the River and countless others will always be close to my heart (and I gotta thank my dear friend Dave for introducing me to their music back in 1988).

I won’t harp on, so, without further ado, here is the first song I mentioned above. No less beautiful since it was released 23 years ago and it still makes me want to give my heart away.

Now on to the best news I’ve heard in ages (musically speaking, anyway). Enya, apparently, is going to tour her next album! Woohoo!! OK, I know that might not be everyone’s idea of good news, but I’m over the moon. I never thought it would happen, but it looks like it might. Tickets will sell out in minutes, believe me, so I’ll be lucky to get one; but there’s always hope.

I don’t want to make a career of going on business courses, but I went on one recently and I played copious amounts of Enya to chill me out. It’s funny, but I was playing albums of hers I’ve been playing for years and it’s only now that some of the songs have hit home. If I Could Be Where You Are and Water Shows the Hidden Heart from Amarantine and One By One and Lazy Days from A Day Without Rain have become particular favourites. But the song that’s really took a hold of me is off the latter album, and that’s Flora’s Secret. I can’t stop playing it. I play it in my car, on Windows Media Player, on YouTube, in my kitchen, in the bedroom, in my painting room, on my phone. Everywhere I get chance, basically. I don’t think songs get much better than this. I think it’s just beautiful; a joyful paean to love and the feminine spirit (Flora is the Roman goddess of flowers). It makes me feel like I’ve given my heart away. Try listening to it and not be carried away from the humdrum of daily life to a happy place. Seriously, turn up the volume, close your eyes and give yourself permission to drift away.

Here’s the song and Roma Ryan’s wonderful lyrics follow:

Lovers in the long grass
look above them
only they can see
where the clouds are going
only to discover
dust and sunlight
ever make the sky so blue
Afternoon is hazy
river flowing
all around the sounds
moving closer to them
telling them the story
told by Flora
dreams they never knew

Silver willows
tears from Persia
those who come
from a far-off island
winter Chanterelle lies
under cover
Glory-of-the-sun in blue

Some they know as passion
some as freedom
some they know as love
and the way it leaves them
summer snowflake
for a season
when the sky above is blue
when the sky above is blue

Lying in the long grass
close beside her
giving her the name
of the one the moon loves
this will be the day she
will remember
when she knew his heart was
loving in the long grass
close beside her
whispering of love
and the way it leaves them
lying in the long grass
in the sunlight
they believe it’s true love
and from all around them
Flora’s secret
telling them of love
and the way it breathes and
looking up from eyes of
amaranthine
they can see the sky is blue
knowing that their love is true
dreams they never knew
and the sky above is blue

Well, are you happy now? Hope that’s a resounding ‘YES!!’ :)

See ya,

Jimbob

Yes, I’m alive, no, I haven’t been abducted by aliens (at least to my knowledge).

I have been to see the last Harry Potter film which was a bit of a disappointment. I’ve only read one of the books but I quite enjoyed the films. This one just seemed a bit rushed to me. I did really enjoy JK Rowlings stint on Who Do You Think You Are on BBC 1 recently. As I’d been to Scotland a few months ago investigating my own ancestry, I could identify with the wonder of finding out the little stories and chances that, ultimately, gave birth to me and mine. Amazing stuff (and something for a later post). Went to see Captain America as well which is only worth mentioning ‘cos it’s so bad. Flag waving just isn’t my thing.

Currently, I’m putting the finishing touches to a new website called ‘Breadcrumbs From Sarah’s Table’ all about some of my fave bands that were on Bristol’s legendary Sarah Records (all very twee, apparently). But more on that on a later post.

I’m also re-designing this site. It’s gonna be bigger, better and it’s also gonna make me a living (that’s the plan, anyway). I had a look at my site on one of those gorgeous 27″ iMAC’s that came out earlier this year and it was all over the place! Eeeeek!

I hope to find the time to write the backlog of posts I wanna make. I’ll definitely do one about The Lady Lever Art Gallery here on the Wirral. There’s one about Piano Magic I want to do as well as Bill Hicks, Mervyn Peake and…erm…fairy’s. Yup, good old fashioned, sweet loving fairy’s (in truth, in folklore, they’re pretty malicious little buggers).

So, there you go. Stay tuned. The world is about to change…

I’m outta here.

Jimbob

A slightly delayed post, but I have a ton of stuff to write about and, when that happens, I sometimes end up doing nothing. But, as I’m refreshed after a wonderful week in Scotland, I’m back on the blog trail :)

Last year, I was lucky enough to get along to see Peter Hook and his band giving a performance of Unknown Pleasures, the debut album by Joy Division released in 1977. He did two nights; 18th and 19th May, the 18th being the 30th anniversary of singer Ian Curtis’ death. That was sold out, so, they added another (the one I went to). Fast forward a year to May 18th, 2011 (I made sure I got tickets before it sold out this time!), 31 years after the death of Ian Curtis, Peter Hook and The Light performed Joy Division’s second and final studio album Closer from start to finish.

Well Fac 251 is not my favourite venue, but it was packed and the music was…well…let’s just say, for me, Closer is one of the best album’s ever written, though it took a little while to gain that heady place in my heart and mind. I still remember the warped vinyl I bought in about 1988, it’s undulating plastic probably only adding to the sense of distortion heralded by the music itself. Musically, I thought it was brilliant. Killing Joke garnered my love for keyboards in music, so hearing Joy Division, particularly Closer was a dream come true. From the eerie mourning of the keys in Heart and Soul (my fave) to the synth laden desolation of Decades, Closer has a glacial beauty about it that little else has ever come close to. But it was only after reading the lyrics, though, that the album just took off to another plane altogether.

I know a number of Joy Division fans felt that in Ian Curtis they’d found someone who effortlessly expressed their disaffection with growing up in the modern world, a modern world which we were supposedly meant to find happiness in but whose veneer was brutally thin and ‘all falls apart at first touch‘ (Passover). Hence the isolation and the descent into ‘the darkest corners of a sense I didn’t know‘ (24 Hours). And what of the young, carefree mind coming to terms with the horrors that man inflicts upon each other; in the trenches of WWI or in the concentration camps of WWII, where ‘we saw ourselves now as we never had seen‘ ? (Decades). Curtis was obviously inspired by much of what he read, usually dealing with man’s suffering. Not a good idea if your depressive and I’m reminded of the Friedrich Nietzsche observation that ‘When you look into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you‘. Nietzsche also happened to be an author Curtis had read.

Though some of Curtis’ words may only ever be understood by him alone, they do (or did for me, at least) touch the soul in a way that’s hard to define, much like the best poetry, almost as if they are long lost keys to hidden doors within ourselves. When that happens, you cannot help but feel a deepening of your own experience as a human being in this life. I still remember the beauty of that.

Back to the gig. Hooky forgot the words numerous times (he promised to re-read them all the next morning). In fact, I think he was quite nervous and I seem to remember that was why he said he was forgetting words. After all these years in front of an audience, you’d think that maybe those nerves had long gone. Anyway, hearing Closer live was great (pity the other two remaining members of Joy Division, Sumner and Morris, weren’t a part of it) and the audience were bouncing by the end. I was just left with a little sense of loss, imagining as I was what it must have been like to see Joy Division live back in the day, amidst the excitement of the birth of such a legend. I have this cool idea that, after we die, we can travel to any point in time and experience anything that has occurred throughout history. What would you like to see? Out of the numerous things, I know one thing I’d like is too see Joy Division live (and the few gigs they headlined with a nascent Killing Joke as support would do nicely :)).

Here’s the afore mentioned Decades, in case you haven’t heard it (I’d love to hear it again for the first time).

Well, here’s the one photo I took at the gig (yup, I think that’s Hooky), and I think it’s rather cool. It’d look good as a Joy Division cover. Peter Saville, look out!

I’m outta here,

Jimbo

Very short this time, but is this kind of thing allowed? I mean, with no acknowledgement of the original or the creator (John Waterhouse)? Credit where credit’s due, surely? Hmmmm………….

I’m outta here,

Jimbo

Well, not the most original of titles but I thought it was apt. Here’s the last oil painting I did on the largest canvas I’ve used (4ft x 3.1ft). At times it was incredibly frustrating to do ‘cos I’m really not that good at painting fur, particularly in oils, but I’ve done worse and I’ve warmed to it more over time. I decided to do an abstract background and think it’s worked OK, but maybe I’ve allowed the lighter part (the ’sun’, but make of it what you will) to take up too much space.

I hope to enter it into an exhibition at a nearby place called Gordale Nurseries. I went there last year and seen this amazing picture done by one Eric Wilson, a wildlife artist living in Derbyshire in England.

I was even more startled by this picture when I found out it was done in pastels! I’ve tried pastels and have found them clumsy to use,  so seeing this picture done in such beautiful detail has blown me away. When I see things this good I have a mixture of feelings somewhere between being demoralized and wanting to give up or being inspired and wanting to do better. I think it’ll always be the latter, but sometimes…

The picture is called Curiosity and here is what Wilson says about it on his website:

The idea behind this painting was that someone or something had scrambled up a tree to avoid being seen by the tiger. It might have succeeded, were it not for the falling  leaves that have alerted the tigers curiosity and  given the game away.

I think that’s it for now.

See ya,

Jimbob

Here’s a watercolour I finished a month or so ago from a photo I found on the internet. It’s currently awaiting trial at the Willaimson Art Gallery here in Birkenhead as it’s the Spring Exhibition soon and I entered it (with the wolf oil that I did for college last year) hoping it may get chosen amongst the hundred’s of other entries. I’ve entered pictures twice before for previous exhibitions but both were rejected so, third time lucky? We’ll see.

I’ll try not to leave such a gap before the next post, if only for my own discipline.

See ya,

Jimbob