Nude

A body.

Just, a body.

Bawdy jazz band clatters and the trumpet growls up your arms.

You manipulate childish props with poise:

Feathered-fan thigh and parasol neck.

I imagine bearded men caressing your form out of undulating stone.

Hot soft marble flowing into the shape of you, whilst your

Face looks absently skyward, lips eternally pursed;

Perched on your creamy plinth, a fixed thing.

Under all these lights as you peel off skin upon skin,

Dousing yourself with tepid champagne.

I half expect it to freeze, half to boil.

You could be a daughter of catastrophe.

Mislaid in a black and white photograph,

Your skin screeching or your form contorted and wrong,

Or piled with your brothers and sisters whilst vision blurs at the sight.

Though you could be a lost Renoir.

And museum curators must stitch your sundered form together again.

Remake your world: unfracture, uncleave.

Piece. By. Piece.

Cymbals, you bow, applause.

The stage lights dim.

You and your body leave together.

Poem for a Journeyer

The familiar or the vast, and the strange, and the new.

Environment altered and skeleton walls dressed with memories.

The seasons feel different and the sky darker blue

Though the language is the same in the murmur of the trees.

A laugh heard echoing down a long corridor,

As if you never left or maybe brought it all with you;

Until you open the curtains, seeing a different shore,

Realising that what you saw through the veil of sleep was true.

But life must be movement and nothing can be still,

Scenery shifts and props brought off and on

Against the rippling backdrop of midnight skyline and summer hill.

And we must grow and learn, not feebly looking on.

What is place but rolling road and stone?

It is voices and songs that make the world a home.

Here and there and everywhere

The past couple of weeks have been full of frenetic activity and it seems that any moments of true stillness have been rare, snatched moments, and much too brief.

I've been jettisoning myself across the British Isles at least every fortnight for rehearsals for The Marriage of Figaro.  I'm performing it with Opera'r Ddraig and it's wonderful to see familiar faces, though the cramped uncomfortable coach journeys aren't exactly thrilling. Still, suffering for one's art and all that.

Aside from that I've been in Cardiff for the glorious @smithsonftw's birthday though I'll be honest I don't think people saw much of her after her hilariously early retiring from the festivities after getting royally sozzled in her inimitable fashion.

But it's been really nice being back in Cardiff so often, seeing friends from home and relying on their unwavering hospitality *solemnly salutes*

As well As Cardiff I stayed the weekend with my bestie @LauraisFrank in Bristol which was simply swell.  Perhaps the highlight of the week being our ironic racist and anti-semitic slurs and the absolute failure of the pizza delivery person in explaining where he was or where he wanted us to meet him.  Also we had a walk and looked at a bridge, isn't it pretty!

Also I had my brother visiting and had numerous hilarious adventures/disasters involving a cancelled Manics Street Preachers gig, which caused us to go to an exciting hipster post rock album launch here:

Which resulted in us missing the last tube home and walking around nightime London for four hours.  Also we pottered round Greenwich and I had my first Churro. So that was nice.

Finally I've been beavering away at my assignments and developing a passionate love/hatred of citations and essay formatting. Also on the weekend despite fate and megabus conspiring against me I managed to get to Norwich (despite a stint in Stansted airport) and saw Jimmy Eat World and had lovely catch up time with my sister, and joked a lot about raccoons. There's one on my ID, I don't know why.

Until next time. x

Ps. As always, click on the pictures to actually see them at a decent size.

A sense of place

I've now been living in London for almost a month and slowly but surely the alien is becoming familiar and the unusual slipping into a comfortable routine.

It's the small things that make life here exciting: the friendly hustle and bustle of the market on weekends, walking across the bridge over the river that shakes and rumbles when a bus goes over, and of course studying among the building's of Trinity, grand yet elegant, austere yet welcoming.

 

The ambient warmth of September has faded and the chill in the air seems to signal the year ahead and all the changes it will bring.  There's such an atmosphere of creativity here, a real place for creative potential; and when singing in a space likes like this it's hard not to be inspired.

Of course I'm experiencing the natural longing for familiar voices, laughter and home; but knowing that everyone is exploring their own new environment, it offers a shared sense of excitement for what the year will bring for friends, and sharing our new discoveries and adventures when we find ourselves together again.

200 Portraits

Now been living in London a week, still adjusting to things but overall having a really good time and should be starting regular classes and lessons soon.

Today the very talented Audrey Bishop uploaded the next lot of portraits to her amazing http://200portraits.webs.com/ project, and I discovered her portrait of my ol' mug. I hope you like it, because I think it's brilliant! x

Yet more pictures

I seem to be posting more and more pictures on my blog, I don't know why as I openly confess my disdain for bringing a camera to places and feeling obliged to take pictures. 

Note: I actually do know why I'm posting them more and more, it's just easier than writing a blog post.

But anyway, here's a quick catch up on life events. (not that anyone reading this doesn't know all this already)

1. I'm now 18, no more pretending to be 23 with my brother's ID, now to relearn my date of birth

2. Got A*s in English Lit, History and Drama, and an A in Music, which you can read about HERE!

3. I'm moving to London to study music in roughly 2 weeks time

4. So very very nervous, mostly about whether I'll be able to cope as a musician on the course...

5. I don't wanna leave my friends, especially so soon. I wish everyone congratulations and the best for their futures, and hope we all manage to stay part of each each others present and future.

6. I hope that didn't sound too cheesy...

Now for pictures from my brief holiday in and around Exeter

(As usual, click on them for effect)

Lyme Regis

Lyme Regis

My brother Rob at an Exeter vintage shop/cafe

 Exeter

That's all folks!

Possibly the sexiest picture I'll ever capture

The delightful @smithsonftw and @neufunkaum

*Again you kind of need to click on it

Remember those mountains I was telling you about...

*You kind of need to click it to appreciate it. x

When the Weather is Fine

I have a long hot summer

I have my new tenor ukulele

I have my exciting pile of books (currently reading "The Well of Loneliness")

I have barbeques and beach trips

I have the rolling hilltops

I have my birthday

I have all of this before the inevitable, exciting, daunting changes of September

Most importantly I have people like this to share it all with:

* Picture merely indicative of a sample group of people I love, there is no camera big enough to capture all of my lovely friends.

Fields of Blue

Distant shore, your music sings,
Though not to me; I hear the waves.
The ebb and flow of season tide,
The tranquil breeze and raging tempest howl.

Shimmer glint of sharp sweet waves, pushed
onward t’ward horizons tender,
New sphere of blue.
Unseen, unheard.

The ships still few as newer stars stutter past
The deep sea’s gentle tug ahead
What blue pastures lie beyond…
Did you ever see a rose the colour of the ocean?

Fringe Hopes!

Just a very short blog here to let you all know the exciting news that we are hopefully taking our A level Devised project performance to the Edinburgh fringe festival!

I can't tell you how excited we all are.

I've set up a new blog for all things about the project: http://fringehopes.blogspot.com/

I've also set up a twitter: http://twitter.com/fringehopes

Any hope and support you can give at all would be so amazing, even just encouragement or spreading the word about the blog and twitter because we need publicity, money, and even positive comments and attention from you guys would be truly appreciated.

Thank you everyone, see you in Edinburgh August 2010!

I promised you ART...

...and here IT is!  Not just 1, but all 5 of the portraits for our devised drama project!

 

Mine :)

Kath's

Kath's

Laura's

Laura's

I know what you're thinking, those lovely lasses are simply too talented for their own good.  As for the performance itself (the physical theatre piece I've mentioned before briefly) that went really well on the whole and congratulations need to be given for our fellow actors Beth, James and Megan as well as Lawrence and Alex who did our lighting and sound.

I'm so tired now but the whole experience was wonderful (especially gorging on the post show buffet, cheese and pineapple FTW!) and I think I'm going to have a couple more bashes at painting, maybe even some #AFP Art!  

Bye for now guys, I have a mini baking blog coming up next time. 

x

Watching Paint Dry...

Still waiting for my canvas to dry so I can photography it and show you all in its resplendent mediocrity!

In the meantime (Greenwich to be precise) here is a wonderful picture courtesy of this wonderful blog pointed out to me by the blunderful @neufunkaum

 

 Yoko is my favourite Beatle

Also a big shout out to the glorious @smithsonftw and her delightful blog - lovely stuff.

I shall leave you with the knowledge that I have been baking myself into an early grave and tomorrow my friend Beth shall be formally presented with some very scrummy cupcakes and a lemon meringue pie. 

OM NOM NOM

Those Blue Remembered Hills

Into my heart an air that kills

From yon far country blows:

What are those blue remembered hills,

What spires, what farms are those?

  That is the Land of Lost Content,

I see it shining plain,

The happy highways where I went,

And cannot come again.
 

- A E Housman

My Alcoholic Friends

I've been painting - more on that another time (I feel it deserves its very own blog)
I've been baking - Coconut and pineapple cupcakes + oat and raisin cookies = yum

Most pressingly I've been dancing.

Dancing in drama, well lets call it physical theatre.
Dancing in youth theatre, lets say performing arts.

Dancing with my friends, lets call it sheer, hilarious, fun.

Omegle: a synopsis (As well as brief update)

Oh dear and I began this blog in such a determined state of mind...

...OK well January 2010, AS Levels AAAB (Damn drama), slogging on with all four to A Level, Going to study music (singing) in London next year, probably Trinity College of Music, I need to get EE somehow I think that's going to be manageable, hoping to start "that" band, hoping to re-start "that" choir, hoping to re-start keyboard and drums, hoping to do some work tomorrow, performing in "Return to the Forbidden Planet" in March. Seeing Evelyn Evelyn (Amanda Palmer project in April)

That's you up to date, now onto the main theme.

www.omegle.com is a site that connects you randomly to another person anywhere in the world and allows you, quite simply, to chat.

In the inevitable world where internet anonymity leads to abject hostility and weirdness there are plenty of weirdos to ignore. However every now and then you find yourself speaking to someone completely fascinating and that seems to make it all worth while.....