So, the spring develops apace:

 

 

 

Time of year for these:

 

 

Hot Cross Buns.

 

Spring Equinox on the 21^st: Half-Light/ Half-Darkness.

 

 

 

To Cornwall and my favourite place near Gwithian. I move in to the shack of friends Susie and Russ for a Robinson Crusoe few days. The expanse here is amazing – and the lights!!

 

 

 

 

 

IMG_1618

 

 

 

I am down to do a Dowsing weekend on the Mesolithic age: in the UK that is about 8 – 10, 000 years BC. At that time, the sea was about 30 metres lower and England was joined to Europe by Doggerland. Basically, the Stone age.

 

 

 

I am amazed at some of the finds: this is a crude tool but look at its fine workings:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hunter gathering nomads moving to settlements at the end of this period.

 

 

 

I also do some art whilst in Cornwall. Firstly, Outi Pieski – a Sami artists working in the traditions of hand crafts in her tradition. Quite Shamanistic.

 

 

 

 

Rare to see some work from Pamela Colman Smith exhibited as well: one of my ‘spiritual’ painters:

 

 

Nice to be back in the Tate St Ives:

 

 

 

 

A little more local was Martina Thomas who painted locally in a fauve style: obviously inspired by Miro and Van Gogh:

 

 

And, then back to St Hilary:

 

 

 

Why is this Church filled with paintings from the cream of early C20 British Modernist?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why did Mary Butts, the Great Grand-daughter of Thomas Butts – one of William Blake’s patrons – make a journey over to the Church on Sundays from Sennen Cove?

What has it to do with mining and fishing?

What is the connection to the BBC and nativity plays?

And, the connection with the Primitive Methodist Chapel in St Ives High Street?

Why was the Church attacked by a band of protestants in the 1930s? Wielding sledge hammers and cutters? Altars were broken, paintings torn down.

Why did the Vicar get imprisoned in the tower? Apparently, parishioners kneeled with candles along the track from the Church door singing hymns as he was released with the Eucharist.   

 

If you do not know the answer to these questions, you need to read my article:

 

‘The Savage Salvation of St Hilary’.

 

Cornwall’s very own Rennes-le-Chateau.

 

On the way back, I visit one of my favourite churches in Temple, with its Knights cravings:

 

 

 

My friend from Toulouse days, sends me further photos:

 

 

Yes, folks, this wamm me! A little tense in those days!

 

 

 

Quite a lot of film and culture this month:

 

An amazing film by Wim Wenders on Anselm Kiefer. I have always been a bit taken back by the sheer scale and scope of his work. But, this film converted me.

 

 

 

 

An amazing body of paintings and sculpture – with even incidental stamenet here and there on the like of Heidegger and how his philosophy ate away his brain:

 

By implications, I have been re-reading the poems of Paul Celan:

 

 

 

Also, a lovely book about breathing and breath:

 

 

Listening to the amazing String Quartets of Robert Simpson:

 

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXwi79lMYE8

 

25^th March: the 39^th anniversary of Guitar Craft.

Here are some live video recordings  of recent GC associated work with Musica en Moviemiento in Argentina.

 

http://www.michaelgrenfell.co.uk/musica-en-moviemiento-live/

 

A new feature, ‘Movement of the Month’: the First Obligatory.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbL9-xwj2MY&t=14s

 

 

Well, February, and still it rains. We are told that it has been a warm month – one of the warmest – but oh the damp!

People are scared the water table is rising where I live and homes will be flooded. Still, there are those who deny climate change. Admittedly, it is probably too late now to do much about it. Still, we drive on….

Nevertheless, there are signs of spring!!! The birds are chirping and bulbs are appearing:

 

 

 

Notice the wet puddles though!

 

I reconvene at work: a ‘post-modern’ building:

 

 

I do not normally post photos of other here. However, two noticeable events this month: meeting up with an old student friend – Richard – from my time in Toulouse, France – many years ago. He saved my bacon. He saved my bacon. Because I was not officially a student, I had to rent a private studio. I had no money even though I worked for the Aérospatiale, and no kitchen. The room was damp – literally, water coming down the walls, and I heard rats scurrying at night. No heating or sheets on the bed either. I realised in those days how ‘bourgeois’ I was. Despite all this, the thing that bugged me most was having no hairdryer!!

Anyway, my friend used to sell me meal tickets to eat in the University refectory.  They had two meals a day and only needed one. Pretty good for a few French francs – three courses of a hot dish, starter and dessert. The French way!

He also suffered my endless talk about French history and philosophy. I was very intellectual in those days!!

 

 

Tywi also came to work with me. We did a lot in one day!!

 

 

Continuing the French theme…

It being an ‘indoors’ time, I had a bit of a French cinema fest; namely, the Antoine Doinel series from the French film Director François Truffaut. They begin with 400 Coups (1958), starring the then child actor Jean-Pierre Léaud. Great film in black and white with historic shots of Paris at a time of transition. Antoine is a bit of a wayward boy constantly getting into trouble with his parents and school. Yet, seems prone to bad luck: for example, he steals a typewriter but then gets caught when he is talking it back. A great film that announced Truffaut as a leader in the new wave of French cinema:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i89oN8v7RdY

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAVOlu8WP1Q

 

The next film – Baisers Volés (1968) – catches up with Antoine again when he is now in his 20s and follows him still somewhat mystified by adult life and the opposite sex. My favourite film of the series, with Paris of the day again starring.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9d99YymOxk&t=28s

 

 

 

1970 and Antoine is now married but still crazy – Domicile Conjugal.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9gGZJdR3yg&t=15s

 

 

Finally, in L’Amour en Fuite (1979), he is divorcing his wife. Still confused, however, with his life coming back to haunt him.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3b-RgvCHQww

 

 

The series tells a tale of the troubles of fitting in and finding a stable life. Léaud was the perfect actor to convey this. In fact, he became something of an unofficial adopted son of Truffaut. When the latter died, he went off the rails. Léaud did play other parts but never ever lived down being ‘Antoine’.

 

Oh, these days of wine and roses:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVh3jPtGKjQ

 

My business partner in Argentina getting the Spanish version of my Guitar Craft book about.

 

 

I have been reading the new collection of poetry by David Harsent:

 

 

I also picked up a new reprint from the J G Bennett group. The title says it all:

 

 

I have also been listening to the romantic sounds of Franz Schmidt thanks to GC Brother Ugo Adam from La Platta, Argentina drawing my attention to him:

 

 

Investigating why I have not heard of him, I read that he is the ‘composer that history forgot’. The reasons do not seem to be justified. Certainly worth unearthing:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Schmidt_(composer)