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Me and my camera at the ENO
Today, thanks to GodDaughter2, who is a singing student, I got to see a dress rehearsal of a new opera being staged by English National Opera called Jack The Ripper: The Women of Whitechapel. I had my...
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Something I forgot to mention
There you were, waiting for a good time to con your way past the front door of my block of flats by saying you’re the postman, to climb my stairs, to bash in my front door and to plunder my classical...
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A composer called John Smith (and a couple of comments)
Late yesterday afternoon, in Soho, I photoed this blue plaque: At the time, I hardly even read it, because my eyesight is so rubbish. But I photoed a note. And today, I was able to read this, about...
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A photo-expedition that started well and ended well
Today I went on a photo-expedition, my first big one since getting back from France. It went really well, but because it went so well, it also went on a long time, and now I only have enough energy to...
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Recently purchased books
Photoed just now: Although, I should say that I didn’t actually purchase Kristian Niemietz’s book about Socialism. I tried to buy it, at a recent IEA event, but they wouldn’t take my money and just...
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“It depends” is not an answer
Today, the Official Designated Destination for my photo-expedition proved to be a disappointment. So, because I was in the middle of London, I then amused myself by photoing interesting vehicles, taxis...
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GD2 does a selfie session with a fan
Yesterday a big gang of friends and family, me among them, heard G(od)D(aughter)2 do her end-of-year recital, way up at the top of the Royal College of Music just near the Albert Hall. It was terrific....
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Paris photographique
At the old blog, it was quota photos. Now it’s quota galleries, because they’re so easy to do (at least compared to how hard they used to be to do). And just as I didn’t expect you to expend any more...
View ArticleMisbehaving opera stars
Two interesting recent postings by Norman Lebrecht. First, Anna Nebtrenko has been bunking off from Bayreuth in order to go to a family wedding. Both she and her also-bunking-off husband were...
View ArticleBad Bach
Here are two enticing paragraphs from a book which is coming out next month, entitled Music: A Subversive History by Ted Gioia: I’ve talked to people who feel they know Bach very well, but they aren’t...
View ArticleDisplacement
So much for logic. More World Cup torture, for England anyway. By the end, it wasn’t even close. Looking back on it, it seems to me that what England did in this tournament was what France have done...
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There is always more space if you just keep looking
For quite a few months now I have been pacing about in my little flat in London SW1 (one of the many unfashionable bits of that postcode) looking for more space to put shelves for books and magazines...
View ArticleHappy Birthday Dear GodDaughter2!
Happy Birthday is the worse song there is, because you only ever hear it sung by people who would never, never otherwise attempt choral singing. But this song, they do attempt, with a combination of...
View ArticleCorona Time
Yes: “Corona Time”. I just heard this phrase, from the all-the-rage-just-now Icelandic classical pianist Víkingur Ólafsson. He was being interviewed on Radio 3’s Music Matters, and talking about how...
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Howard Goodall on the world’s first recording star
I’ve been dipping into Howard Goodall’s Big Bangs, which is a book (based on a BBC TV show), whose subtitle is “The Story of Five Discoveries That Changed Musical History”. I have started at the end,...
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And we could also use more Ancientism
Yesterday I said Modernism isn’t going anywhere. Today I say that this doesn’t mean we can’t also have more Ancientism. Like this: That’s Photo thirty-five in the top fifty architectural photos that...
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Incoming symphonies
On CD, by Haydn and by Bruckner, and this despite my CD shelves already being crammed to overflowing: Oh no my mistake, that’s not my CD shelves, it’s a building, at the top end of Victoria Street. On...
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Strange creatures in Exhibition Road
Just over a year ago, in May of 2019, I was making my way from South Kensington Tube, up Exhibition Road past Imperial College, to the Royal College of Music, there to witness a performance which...
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Signs of our time
Regulars here will know that I love to photo signs and notices. So evocative. So precise for defining a time, a place, a mood, or an official attitude. And never more so than right now: Those are some...
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