Joe Boyd's A-Z

A friend recommended a weekly podcast. It's called Joe Boyd's A - Z. 

Joe Boyd is one of the most influential and significant record producer's in the UK since the 1960's. He's produced music by Eric Clapton, Fairport Convention and Pink Floyd. He's also been collecting records since the 1950's and has begun sharing his vast collection in weekly 10 minute podcasts. It is a real treasure trove and I just had to share it with you.

Each week Boyd chooses one song - in alphabetical order - from his collection for his podcast. He uses that one song to explore the song, the artist, musician's, the genre and historical context of the song.  It's really informed, entertaining and I'm really enjoying Joe Boyd's wide musical tastes. 

Click here for a link to the podcast.

FOLK BRITANNIA - FOLK ROOTS & NEW ROUTES

I stumbled across this documentary - is it just one, perhaps it's two - on youtube - originally broadcast on BBC 4 - while I was looking for something else. But whatever this is it is completely brilliant. It's just incredible for so many reasons. It contains some fantastic historic film footage of England from the early 20th century. It tells the story of English politics and culture.It tells the story of Ewan MacColl. It tells the story of the American blues It has clips of some of my favorite folk heroes like Andy Irving and Davy Graham.

Anyway I really recommend it. Enjoy!

Joy of Living: A Tribute to Ewan MacColl

Have I mentioned Joy of Living to you at all?





















I think it's a truly remarkable CD. It's a tribute to Ewan MacColl the English folk singer song writer who was born in 1915. The double CD includes 21 covers of Ewan MacColl's songs - some iconic and others lesser known - at least to me. But they cover a wide range of his song writing skills. Some songs are political, some social observations, some songs celebrate working people, some autobiographical and others love songs. 

However not only do we have some of the most dynamic and exciting songs written in these islands of the 1960's and 70's, but Calumn and Neil - Ewan MacColl's oldest and youngest sons have brought together an amazing list of contemporary English folk singers - both young and old - to sing. Many of these recordings were made especially for the CD itself. It feels like a labour of love for the family,who also accompany and do the arrangements on some of the songs.

I was just trying to write a list of some of the highlights from the CD but I found myself jotting down from memory almost all of the songs. Each one of these recordings is filled with a spirit of respect for the writer and a genuine love for the music he created. Each singer owns the  song for themselves - it is both their's but still also Ewan MacColl's. 

I am still completely stunned by the music every time I put it on. I continue to be blown away by Seth Lakeman's The Shoals of Herring, Karine Polwart's The Terror Time, Martin Carthy and Martin Simpson, The Unthanks, Dick Gaughan, Eliza Carthy, Billy Bragg, Rufus and Martha Wainwright and Christy Moore. But then there is Chaim Tannenbaun's My Old Man, Steve Earle's Dirty Old Town and Paul Buchanan's brave rendition of The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.

I think what made the present particularly special was that it was given to me at Christmas as I was recovering from a serious medical condition

Some books I've enjoyed recently

I've been reading quite a lot since August. So I thought I'd share one or two of the books I've particularly enjoyed. I've just finished reading 1606. It follows the year in Shakespeare's life in which King Lear, Macbeth and Anthony and Cleopatra were written and performed.



Shapiro links these three plays to there historical context by identifying them as Jacobean dramas that could only have been written during King James 1st reign rather than Elizabeth's. For example in King Lear, Shakespeare tackles a central issue of James's early reign as king, that of an act of union between England and Scotland. One of the main themes of the play is the problems of dividing a kingdom. This important policy that James was passionately advocating incurred huge opposition in parliament. Macbeth on the other hand draws directly from the attempt - only a few months earlier in November 1605 - by a radical faction of Roman Catholic noblemen who attempted to assassinate King James and destroy the houses of parliament and the democratic structures of England in an attempt to create a new type of government and to reinstate a Roman Catholic monarchy. I'm being incredibly simplistic in this summary. The book draws on a wide social and cultural range full of interesting historical and literary details. As well as Shakespeare's personal and public life is woven throughout the book. Also Shapiro is aware of the contemporary threats being made to our own institutions by Islamic extremists.



I don't feel I can really move on without a brief mention of Shapiro's fabulous earlier literary biography of another year in Shakespeare's life, that of 1599. this history tended to focus much more on the day to day details of Shakespeare's professional life. It is set after all at an earlier stage in his career during a period of extraordinary creative output. The later book in contrast focuses on his first Jacobean dramas much closer to the end of his career where Shakespeare found the transition of writing from the Elizabethan court to the new and establishing Jacobean court quite difficult. His creative output at this stage in his life had slowed down somewhat.

I've been reading this social history of Britain since the first volume - Austerity Britain was published in 2010. Part 1 of the third volume is as lively and exhilarating a read as that first volume. However it's a lighter less intense reading experience than the first two volumes. There isn't, for example, the intense and challenging chapters on town planning or government economic strategy that we find in Austerity Britain or Family Britain. And perhaps there seems more emphasis on the developing youth culture, the growing significance of television and the birth of a popular celebrity culture. Despite this absence though it was a thoroughly enjoyable read.

I don't know when I'll get round to the final part of volume three that will mark the midway point in this epic popular social history. But part one has left me eager for more. And that is another fabulous front cover photograph. Don't you think?

One of the features of this collection of Sappho's poetry that I've enjoyed is the commentary on each poem or fragment and the way this is laid out in the book.

I feel so removed and detached from her work that the commentary has become indispensable reading. It doesn't cover every aspect of the poem or fragment but rather concentrates on specific points of cultural and literary difficulty.

I started reading the collection when Iona told me she was studying Sappho for her degree and I wondered if I could help out at all. So I tried reading the poetry alongside her.
However I recall Iona talking about the poetry over lunch one day where she left me rather stumped with her insights and knowledge of the poetry and history of the time. 




I've also spent some time reading the T. S. Eliot prize 2015 short listed poetry collections. It was not particularly easy reading collection after collection in what was for me a rather too short period of time - about 3 weeks over Christmas. But I particularly enjoyed Don Paterson's 40 Sonnets and the winner's - Sarah Howe's Loop of Jade. I did read Citizen An American Lyric by Claudia Rankin practically in one sitting. It was a dazzling and powerful experience. But hoped the prize would go to someone less established.

I also read Clive James's translation of Dante's Inferno. I was going through quite a difficult time as I was reading it.  The children had returned to Nottingham after the new year, David Bowie had died and there were difficult personal circumstances we were having to deal with at the time. 

At times it felt like I was walking through my own hell. It's not an easy read at all. especially as so much of what Dante writes is bound up with 14th century Florentine politics and public life. Again what helped was Penguin's own edition of the poem that contains a commentary on each book. I used both books to help me. It did take a long time to read.



Each of the images I've posted here is a link to amazon. So if you felt like clicking through you can order copies of these books from this blog.

Dinorwic quarry sunset

I grew cold 
and weary in the embers of 
this sunset

Haiku by David Loffman
Photograph Sunset at Dinorwic Quarry by Katy Loffman used with kind permission

Sunset line

sunset clouds like a golden fleece

iambic hexameter by David Loffman

Photograph Golden Clouds by Psyche Delia

reprinted under flicker's Creative Commons licence

T.S. Eliot Prize Reading 2015

This was an extraordinary evening. I sat - for three hours - for the most part transfixed by the most amazing group of current poets reading from their short listed collections of poetry.

I felt - sort of - privileged and honoured to be present at this occasion. At times it was as if what Ian McMillan said in his introduction, that despite an audience of over 2000, the readings were intimate and direct. The poetry filled the auditorium and ignited our imaginations.

I've been reading the poems on the short list for the last couple of weeks. It's been a rather frantic experience dipping in and out of collections. Sometimes the experience has been frustrating, always humbling and often a sheer delight.

I don't really have any clear idea of a winner - and already in a way - all the short listed poets are already winners. But I've particularly enjoyed Sarah Howe's Loop of Jade and Don Paterson's 40 Sonnets.

But we'll all know in about three hours time.

David Bowie

I wanted to find words - a song of his - to mark David Bowie's death today, but found myself reflecting on this piece of music. It seems to convey something of that lonely passage we will all encounter. There is something terrifying and comforting in it.

If I'd ever met him I'd want to thank him for the gift of words he passed on to me. And thank him for his life, growing up in a south London suburb. He was a just a lad growing up among the debris of war and yet touched our lives.

'Ziggy played guitar.'

New Year Iambic hexameter

first light prizes open the year

Iambic hexameter by David Loffman
Photograph Richmond Park Sunshine by Steve Calcott
reprinted under flicker's creative commons licence

Three Advent and Christmas haiku

outside

the trees dressed in hard

galactic light

Haiku by David Loffman

Photo milky way silhouette by Indigo Skies Photography reprinted under flickr's creative commons licence 

we fend off

the vast darkness with

candle light

Haiku by David Loffman

Untitled photograph by Ryan Martinl reprinted under flickr's creative commons licence 

the stable boy

stirs in straw and rags through his

first long night


Haiku by David Loffman
Untitled photograph by orientallizing reprinted under flickr's creative commons licence 

The Wexford Carol

Click here for a beautiful Christmas carol.

November Haiku and Photograph

suddenly 
the cold - dry and clean, sharp
like a blade

Haiku by David Loffman
Photograph The Frost is all Over by London Looks
published under flickr's Creative Commons licence

November lines from Richmond Park

ghosts appear sculptured out of dense grey fog

   
   
Iambic pentameter by David Loffman
Photograph Through the Mist by antgirl 
published under flickr's Creative Commons licence



great stag stands antlers rooted to the sky
   
   

   
   
Iambic pentameter by David Loffman
Photograph IMGP3935 by Laurence Arnold
published under flickr's Creative Commons licence

Two autumn lines and photographs

sunlight shattered into pieces of gold

Iambic pentameter by David Loffman 

Photograph Autumn colors by peaceful-jp-scenery
Published here under flickr's creative commons copyright

behind

quivering leaves, shafts of sunlight

find me

Haiku by David Loffman
Photograph Autumn by Harry Lipson
Published here under flickr's creative commons copyright

Joni Mitchell In Concert BBC 1970 - DVD quality plus

I came across this BBC Joni Mitchell concert from 1970. Just stunning!

File on 4 Colleges in Crisis

Here is a link to File on 4 broadcast on Tuesday night. It presents a rather disturbing portrait of the Further Education sector in which I have worked for almost 30 years.

Click here for the link

Ted Hughes - Stronger Than Death

We've just watched an outstanding documentary about the life of the poet Ted Hughes. We were completely spellbound by it.

Click here for a link

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b06j7pkl/ted-hughes-stronger-than-death

A concert at the BBC PROM

On Friday evening I watched this fantastic concert at the BBC Prom. The Beethoven triple concerto just blew me away. Daniel Barenboim is incredible. Click here for a link to it.

Being Dead by Jim Crace

My ambition has been to read every Jim Crace book he has ever written. But I've been quite slow. Here are a few observations about the second one I've read. 

Being Dead by Jim Crace.

Two middle aged doctors return to the sand dunes at Baritone Bay after 30 years where they first met and made love. It marks the start of their 30 year marriage. But this second visit is different. They are naked and dead. They have been murdered.

The novel weaves different narrative strands. Firstly the novel details  the slow decomposition and decay of the bodies until the corpses are discovered six days later. We read about the changing weather, the different creatures, the chemical reactions, the body fluids. Crace writes with a detached detailed and sensitive prose that becomes poetic at times. We are confronted by the physicality of death. Its materialness. There's nothing spiritual or emotional about it. It just is.

A second narrative thread describes the first meeting 30 years ago as post graduate students staying at a cabin near the bay along with four other students. Crace describes attitudes, attractions and ambitions of the six students - with special focus on Joseph and Celice's meeting and relationship. The prose here is delicate, sensitive, observant. He picks up details of character that draws us in. A third narrative is that of the couples final day. Crace takes us on a journey from the moment they were bludgeoned to death by a random stranger to the start of their day. I found this thread the least interesting with lots of domestic details and descriptions of the relationship established over a long period of time. The final narrative thread - the most novelistic - follows Syl's discovery of her parent's  murder. Although not a close family - she seems quite antagonistic to start with - soon becomes love, hard won, battered out through the years. It is touching, beautiful at times.

I enjoyed the novel. Read it in three readings. I liked the individual, unattractive couple and their daughter. I liked the random act of murder that is left completely unexplored except for the inevitable mopping up by the police. I loved the forensic descriptions of purification and decomposition of the two bodies. I thought the Syl narrative - introduced about half way through the novel - helped keep the text engaging. Crace is a craftsman. He's completely in control of his material. And brings it all gently and pleasingly to it's end.

FE and Sixth Form Colleges funding - The Today programme

Click here for a link to an article on the Today program about Further Education and Sixth Form college funding. I'm sure I've become a victim of the funding cuts that have taken place from 2011. And still set to continue.

You'll find the article 2 hours and 41 minutes into the program. The article lasts just about 5 minute. It ends at 2 hours 46 minutes and 14 seconds.

Little Gidding

I first found out about Little Gidding in 1980 /81, 34 years ago. It was the title of one of the poems I studied for my English A level. One of the sections of the poem really stood out for me because it tells the story of a journey to a little chapel or church in Cambridgeshire where the narrator - the poet T. S. Eliot - came to pray and describes a mystical encounter with God. As I came to know the poem over a period of months I realised that the poem was telling my own story of a discovery of a church close to where I lived in Harrow, where I felt that I had had a mystical encounter with God.

I've read that poem again and again over the years. I've performed it in public and I've preached about it twice in my own church in New Malden. But it never really occurred to me that I could actually visit the little church at Little Gidding.

But this weekend we did visit the church and stayed the night in Ferrar House - named after Nicholas Ferrar the 17th century son of a merchant, who restored the church and built several houses close by to create a Christian community. The church of St John the Evangelist is situated in the grounds - or garden of Ferrar House. The house is a Christian retreat centre and is open to individuals and small groups to stay.

It was an incredible visit. Both my wife and me can barely believe that we actually spent a couple of hours in the church on Friday and then spent the night next door in Ferrar House where we were looked after very well. And then the following day we spent a few hours in the library of the house and then a final visit to the church before heading off.

Click here for a link to an article about Little Gidding.

Click here for a link to the Ferrar House website

Click here for a link to a printed extract of the poem

Here is Eliot reading the whole of Little Gidding. He first visited it in 1936. The poem was published in 1942

And here is my reading of the first section of Little Gidding

Beyond the Border 2016

The dates for Beyond the Border 2016- The Wales International Storytelling festival have been announced. The festival dates are Friday 1 - to Saturday 3 July 2016.

Click here for a link to the BtB website.

I expect we'll be going and it would be great to see you there as well.

At the Summer Exhibition 2015 Royal Academy

Here are a few highlights and impressions of the Summer Exhibition this summer. I've reproduced the work here out of sheer awe and wonder at the work of these artists in the hope that others will appreciate and support them. 

flat platted river

slowly flows

into vast Atlantic blue

(c) David Loffman

This is Mississippi River Blues by Richard Long RA. It's in the Summer Exhibition.

Click here for a link to Richard Long's Official Website and click here for a link to the Summer Exhibition 2015

Through woven sunlight and rainfall

I'm looking down at butterflies

(c) David Loffman

This is Rainfall by Ermioni Avramidou. It's in the Summer Exhibition.

Click here for Ermioni's facebook page and click here for a link to the Summer Exhibition where you can see the real work

A smudged line

between sea and sky.

Earth dissolving.

(c) David Loffman

This is Uist by Jock McFadyen. It's in the Summer Exhibition.

Click here for a link to Jock McFadyen's website and click here for a link to the Summer Exhibition where you can see the real work

We move among the metal forest
where the nymphs are departed
and only our fractured shadows remain.

(c) David Loffman


This is The Dappled Light of the Sun by Conrad Shawcross. It's in the courtyard at the Royal Academy as part of the Summer Exhibition. The photograph also contains an image of the artist.

Click here for a link to Conrad Shawcross's website and click here for a link to the Summer Exhibition.

Gannets and vast jigsaw pieces of rock

(c) David Loffman

This is Gannets on Flannon by Norman Ackroyd RA. You can see this at the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy.

Click here for a link to Norman Ackroyd's website and click here for a link to the Summer Exhibition

And finally click here for a review of the exhibition from the Telegraph. It's the closest review to my own thoughts about the SE. And besides it gives Norman Ackroyd's work a positive mention.

* Text in italics is my responses to the work. The copyright is mine.

The Clangers

They have remade The Clangers. Series 3 is now available on the BBC iplayer. It's interesting to compare the differences between the original 1970's episodes with the most recent ones. Here are examples of the opening episodes from the first and most recent series.

What do you think?

Click here for a link to the opening episode from the 1970's

and click here for the most recent episode. Only available for the next month.

Notice how linguistically sophisticated and varied the original introduction is in comparison to the simple lexical choices and visually more dynamic the recent introduction is. Notice also the long, slow sweep of the camera from Earth to the 'star' where the Clangers live, compared to the fast forward focus in the recent series. There is also something terrifying and alienating about the black expanse of the cosmos in the original compared to the sub-urban blue sky of the the recent one.

It's interesting to consider what these differences tell us about childhood, the expectations and assumptions we have of childhood experience.

Click here for a recent interview with Peter Fermin on Radio 4's Front Row about his work on The Clangers.