I am back at home!
Bit obvious statement to start with I'm sorry, I finished Uni as well! again a bit obvious. I finished Uni last week officially which is very strange, since I finished my exams on the 15th of May and left Uni on the 28th of June. I partied very hard, in the last week to ten days. My final week started with my Graduation Ball which was really nice, seeing all my friends from across the 3 years I've been at Uni was very nice, then afterwards slightly drunk I declared that we should stay up and watch the sunrise, so after a takeaway (the student substitute for almost every meal) we marched over to the info lab, a building which although about being 30 seconds from where I live I have never managed to get to. It was me, my friend Ellie, a few of her friends and my Friend Michael and his girlfriend, Michael and his girlfriend stayed till about 5am, me and Ellie stayed until 6:40am in the morning, when with the sun rising, we walked home (sober by this point), just in time for the cleaners walking past us on the way to start work!. The next few days were just as, how can I put this party - fuelled. Tuesday and Wednesday night were both Extrav nights (each college on campus has an end of year party with bands, DJ's etc), Tuesday was Furness College's Thai Beach Party result = very bad hangover due to drinking a couple of 2 pint glasses of beer. The next day was my day of results, which with an awful hangover and everyone in my family phoning me, I couldn't function. I got my results and still with an awful hangover watched England play and then promptly went and played football. That night we celebrated even more and another attempt at watching the sunrise and made till 6am and watched the rain come down instead.
I'm sorry to have go on about the final week of term, in simple it was student excess till the final day.
Since I've been back at home I've been thinking a lot about what the next step for me is in terms of ideas. I came across a really interesting article in the Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2010/jun/27/pop-up-shows-london
About pop up shows, and presenting art in disused arenas, tube stations. This seems a really interesting idea and one in particular caught my eye, An adaptation of the 1970 film 'The Railway Children' at King's Cross Station in London, which If I can make it, I would love to see over the summer. Taking art out into different spaces is of course nothing new, but it always seems to attract people so it should be something to be encouraged. I helped on the promotion of the performance by Manchester group Quarantine 'Soldier's Song' in the latter part of last year at Lancaster University, where the piece was put in the Management School on campus, somewhere not really associated with performance works. It worked as a concept, you performing a duet with a video recorded image of a member of the armed services. The personal relationship between you and the video made for a compelling performance work.
One on One performances as discussed in a recent issue of Arts Professional are a current trend at the moment and seem to hit on what Theatre and Performance's biggest strength is, you are allow in a space with a group of people or a single person performing. I always enjoy one one one performances because of course the audience are integral the performance, and to me that feels a bit nicer than being dragged up on stage in front of people, (a scenario that's happened twice to me with different results both times!) I am particularly interested at the moment at the inner side to performers, and what happens to the individual when faced with events or scenarios that test the human body to the extreme.
If you have a chance listen to this on BBC Radio 4, its 15 minutes long but as a piece of radio it is a really interesting blend of recap, audio feeds and personal stories about someone who got stuck on a runaway train in Canada: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00n6ygv/b00n6yct/Runaway_Train/
I love the power of audio to make you feel you know the people involved and the story, even though you can't see them or have met them. Its a really emotive piece of audio, and just from listening to this, I tapped runaway trains into youtube and found this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7C6-BUl0g0
Its really amazing to try and imagine what goes through the minds of people tied up in moments where the certainty of death is very near to them. Not to end this entry on a downer, I came across a culture show documentary on Michael Jackson yesterday and re visited a documentary on Quincy Jones I watched last year.
A really interesting question came out, what drives / drove these people to the enormous success they achieved?. Taking Michael Jackson first, the enormous achievements he achieved and wanting to better them every time, was it a competive spirit in beating the opposition, was it trying to show to MTV in the early days that Black American music should be presented in the White mainstream? was it to make each new record bigger, better than the one previously?
Similarly Quincy Jones, a music producer, film scorer, TV producer. I'll just state some of the things he's done:
Done the soundtrack to the Italian Job (one of my favourite Films)
Produced Off the Wall / Thriller / BAD (3 of my favourite Albums)
Co Produced The Fresh Prince of Bel Air (One of my favourite TV shows)
Produced countless Jazz Albums
This is just a very very small picture of what he has done, but what has driven him? He's worked some of the greatest performers of the 20th and 21st century, and proven he is with doubt one of the best Music producers, but what makes him want to continue?
I'll finish on that question!
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