Archive of April 2012

April 24

Little Big ride

This weekend will see "The Big Ride" in London, organised by the London Cycling Campaign with closed roads between Park Lane and Embankment and plenty of satellite rides feeding in from Boroughs and towns all around. And I am respecting my daughters stated wish to join the ride without recourse to motorised transport - this indeed will make it a Big Little Ride! Having plotted the journey for the quietest options it looks like we will put in about nine miles each way, maybe a touch less on the return depending what we do at the ride. And the ride is sure to be about six miles - which makes the total my daughter will be attempting about twenty four miles.... now you have to remember her previous maximum distance was under twelve miles and that took about two and a half hours..... So I have every faith that this is within her capabilities, but also I know this is going to be a big ask she is making of herself. I just hope I can be a good Dad about it and keep all pressure off and above all make it fun and safe so that she has only good memories of the event. I am not worried about my memories in the slightest - it is going to be hard work for me too End of the day my only "get out of jail card" is to lock the bikes and resort to public transport or cab, returning at a later time to pick up bikes.... Then again, this is England, there is the weather.... But then I am me and my daughter seems to be growing a similar affinity for cycling so far as I can tell..... Buoyed up at the moment having plugged in my hi-fi again after it's last mothball period - not the turntable obviously - that would need a new house basically to be viable... But one day my vinyl may be heard again, one day....
03:58 AM | 0 Comments
April 03

Arvo Pært's Pasio

Yesterday I discovered this was to be performed at Westminster Abbey tonight. There were still tickets in the North Nave, just a few so I took a couple. Glad I did as I see it is now sold out I have since learned this is apparently one of his most popular works, base don the St Johns Gospel and involving some complicated schema known as [tintinnabuli](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tintinnabuli "a description of tintinnabuli from wikipedia") which I guess is where tintinnabulation comes from? Jesus is a baritone with Pilate a tenor and a quartet for the evangelist - with choral backing I guess.... Seventy minutes straight through so there's some level of anxiety about being there on time! This was an extremely memorable concert, but I have to be honest - there were perhaps six or maybe a dozen bars in the performance that I found incredibly transformative, needless to say the crucifixo and the closing bars were the passages. I do not mean to diminish the rest of the performance though and I am certain the whole was required for those parts to have affected me the way they did. I have never had the sensation of light as intensely as the closing of that piece, and I can completely understand the reasons for the ascension and halos to be golden now.... During the more narrative parts I did idly wonder what the life of a serious choirboy at a school like that is and how it shapes the man; and ironically my thoughts tended to be along the lines of "there but for the grace of God!"...! Well, it strikes me as ironic now, perhaps there is something of the Easter message in that to be discovered?
05:00 PM | 0 Comments