One Creative Thing: Just a little bit every day

Tuesday, 20 April 2010

Finished Art & Fear

For the second time. That’s one powerful book. It totally captures the wonder and massive insecurities of being an artist. I think this should be required reading for anyone who lives with an artist and isn’t one themselves. And even if they are, then I’d probably recommend it. I’m hoping to do a proper book review of it soon, but first need to sort out this house business first – putting in a lease application in the morning, then signing the lease probably on Thursday. Moving in about a month, it seems, so regular posting should hopefully resume after that.

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Saturday, 10 April 2010

Had a lovely sociable afternoon

Met up with a friend in Notting Hill for the Grand National and a meal (it started out as being supposed to be brunch, but can it really be brunch at 5pm?) – we wandered around a bit and ended up playing Uno in a gelato shop. Totally revitalising :-)

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Thursday, 8 April 2010

Wrote a list of everything I’m trying to do

It filled a whole A4 page. Without really trying. Which is rather scary, I think. Conclusion: I’m expecting too much of myself, and because I’m too tired to be rational, I’m blaming others for not apparently putting in as much effort as I’d like them too (even though they have their own stuff going on). I think this has been useful. Unfortunately there’s very little I can ditch off the list right now, but at least now I have a better handle on why I’m falling apart so I can hopefully be a bit kinder to myself and a bit more forgiving of others. Or at least that’s the plan. Oh look – a plan. That’s another thing for the list. *sigh*

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Saturday, 6 March 2010

Went to the Van Doesburg exhibition at Tate Modern

Some awesome stuff in there, but unfortunately they had major fail when it came to providing seating for the crippled – enormous exhibition, only 2 benches in the whole thing, as far as I could see. I didn’t quite get halfway through it so will have to go back again. At least once. Possibly twice in order to get through the whole of George Antheil’s Ballet mécanique. Why oh why include the whole of a 16-minute film, with only two sets of headphones and nowhere to sit down???

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Wednesday, 24 February 2010

Listened to Bach violin partitas

while baking a 7-apple crumble to salvage the near-extinction apples I bought a couple of weeks back. Peaceful times.

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Monday, 8 February 2010

Nico Muhly concert!

I thought I’d missed them all, but no! Superb performances all round, brilliant programming, wonderful music and I can’t wait to hear the new Muhly piece again. I also stayed for the after-gig, Nico, Pekka Kuustinen and friends – deeply, deeply awesome.

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Friday, 29 January 2010

New CDs!

I actually felt OK at the end of the day so I did a bit of a detour on the way home – I’ve been going nuts being at home so much and really wanting to get out to the shops. I didn’t get to all of the ones I wanted (Foyle’s for a harmony text and Fortnum & Mason for writing paper will have to wait) but I did get to Muji to investigate their filing options (not what I wanted for composition files but at least now I do know what I want) and to the remnants of the HMV sale, where I pounced on the 22-CD set I’ve been thinking about ever since I saw it there before Christmas – 22 CDs of composers performing or conducting their own works. All sorts of people – Stravinsky, Roussel, Britten, Holst, Elgar, Bartok, Hindemith – and a bunch more, and a whole heap of repertoire, much of which I’m not familar with… yet. And of course, this week I actually have the stereo entirely to myself. Wheeeee!

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Saturday, 23 January 2010

Quiet day with the Wii

Broke out Lego Star Wars today, and I’m pleased to find it’s every bit as fun as the Lego Indiana Jones. I wasn’t too sure about having to start with Episode 1 because I hated all the new films, but it’s heaps of fun, not too hard and has the added bonus of being able to inflict grevious bodily harm ‘by accident’ on JarJar Binks on a regular basis. Very satisfying :-)

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Wednesday, 20 January 2010

Took delivery of a new book

Twyla Tharp’s The Creative Habit: Learn it and use it for life which I’ve been salivating over on Amazon for quite some time, and which has made it to my house at long last thanks to an Amazon gift voucher Christmas present from a lovely friend (also Wii Fit Plus which I can’t wait to go on once the wretched sprained ankle is fixed!). First thoughts: Ooh, nice typography!

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Tuesday, 19 January 2010

Played the piano

Trying to get back to music but my brain is resisting so I’m sneaking up on it, starting with playing the piano. Discoveries: the piano is very, very dusty, John Field’s Nocturnes would sound a whole lot better with a working pedal, and Howard Skempton is, in the main, more forgiving of a bung pedal than the esteemed Mr Field.

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