Twilight Music

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We were at Union Chapel in Islington recently to see The Gloaming. It was our first visit. Why had we never been before? It makes no sense. It’s a wonderful, atmospheric venue with a long tradition of showing class acts in intimate surroundings, and The Gloaming are certainly a class act. We arrived early and sat on the hard pews for far too long, but the music was worth the wait. Continue reading “Twilight Music”

Frames of reference

Triptychs

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This is Pink Dark Triptych, 2011, oil on linen by Sean Scully, a donation to the Pallant House Gallery Collection and the catalyst for their recent exhibition, Sean Scully: Triptychs. It sounded like a great show, I was looking forward to seeing it, but I wasn’t quick enough and now it’s closed. I was disappointed to miss it so here’s my own compilation of Scully triplets and trinities and trios. Continue reading “Triptychs”

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Mystery River

The very next morning, right after I finished patching together Out Along Lee, my post about walking the River Lea and the Lee Valley, I found this lovely and fascinating film by Michael Smith thanks to Caught By The River. It felt like synchronicity but this is much better. It was commissioned by The Floating Cinema and UP Projects; it’s a wander along the Lea, all along, down along, out along Lee.

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Out Along Lee

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Sometimes it’s the Lee, other times it’s the Lea, and most times it’s confusing. The River Lea rises at Leagrave, north of London near Luton (Leatown) and flows south via Leyton (Leatown) to join the River Thames at Leamouth. Over the years many of its twists and turns got straightened out to make it more easily navigable and the artificial channels and canals became known as the Lee Navigation. Nowadays the river (Lea) and the canal (Lee) are almost indistinguishable. Continue reading “Out Along Lee”

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London Walks!

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In the Tate Modern shop we found this inspiring book of hand-drawn London rambles. Badaude takes a line for a walk around town. Not to find one’s way in a city may well be uninteresting and banal. It requires ignorance, nothing more. But to lose oneself in a city – as one loses oneself in a forest – that calls for quite a different schooling – Walter Benjamin. Continue reading “London Walks!”

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