Trafalgar Square Festival

Three weeks of outdoor performances – gymnastics, dance, art, and music – at Trafalgar Square this month – Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sunday until Aug 20.

Featuring:

Awaz by Akademi – A fusion of classical, folk and festive dance that celebrates the dynamism of modern Asian women.

Pax Pace Paz Paix Peace – A powerful evocation of those who fight for peace.

Road to Nowhere by the Shout – A rousing musical theatre performance of Goodbye Old Ship of Mine.

Dervish in Progress by Ziya Azazi – A spectacular performance of contemporary and traditional Sufi dance.

Ritual Imaginaire by Nzi Dada – Funk, Jazz, electronics and African percussion dance and music.

Urban Rotations by Acrojou Acrobatic Theatre – Two performers spin around each other in giant steel wheels.
Return Journey by Expressive Feat – An aerial performance suspended from a sculptural spiral with Palestinian Jazz.

Vem – Beyond Loneliness by Gisele Edwards – Amazing aerial theatre and live music.

Spell by the Cathy Marston Project – Spell celebrates the seduction of summer in London with energy and elegance in dance

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The Complete Short Stories of W. Somerset Maugham (Vol. III)

The Complete Short Stories of W. Somerset Maugham (Vol. III)

Maugham was a witty fellow. This collection of short stories features the British agent Ashenden – who it is said inspired Ian Fleming’s Bond. { particularly in Ian Fleming’s accounts of James Bond’s dealings with M}

In any case, they revolve around the First World War – and are loosely based on the author’s experience of being an agent for the Intelligence Dept. during this time. As he puts it – ” The work of an agent in the Intelligence Department is on the whole monotonous. A lot of it is uncommonly useless. The material it offers for stories is scrappy and pointless, the author has himself to make it coherent, dramatic and probable’

Apparently some of his stories were juicier and closer to the truth but were axed by Winston Churchill because they violated the Official Secrets Act..

Very readable, witty, highly recommended.

Another work – Ashenden: Or the British Agent which Somerset Maugham published in 1928 and is a complete collection of all the Ashenden short stories.

***

William Somerset Maugham was born in Paris in 1874, his father the solicitor at the British Consulate. He studied literature and philosophy at Heidelberg University, and then medicine at St. Thomas’ in London. It was during this time as a medical student he built on his experiences and published Liza of Lambeth in 1897.

After the 1930s Maugham’s reputation abroad was greater than in England.

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Events and Gigs

Steve Salfield: Jazz

Saturday 19th August 2006: Jazz in a summer garden

3-6 pm. Vicarage gardens, Baslow.

Steve with friends Sarah (vocals) Chris (piano) Bennett and Geoff Pearson on double bass will be making things swing at a unique afternoon of Jazz and Song in the lovely Vicarage Gardens, Baslow.

All proceeds will go to Village AiD, a Bakewell charity that works in West Africa with poor marginalised rural communities.

Tickets are £6.00 including a strawberry cream tea & a glass of fizzy wine and can be obtained in advance from Village Aid on 01629 814434 or from their offices at Lumford Mill, Riverside Business Park, Buxton Road, Bakewell.

Sunday 20th August 2006:

Steve plays a wedding gig in Birmingham with singer Alice Harvey and band led by Eugene Portman. This will include a solo sax set by Steve. It’s a private do but I put it here to remind you that bookings like this are easily arranged by contacting me!

Then I’m off to France for a lot more jazz and back to play for a private party on 16th September.

Friday 29th September: The Strand, Dale Road, Matlock

Steve with that old groover Pete Moxley on piano at one of our regular haunts playing cool and hot jazz. Lovely restaurant. Booking recommended. tel: 01629 584444
Hope to see you soon.

Steve

via Steve Salfield

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Notepad: I’ve been reading..

The Holy Blood – Holy Grail – Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln (1982)

Written as a follow up to a BBC documentary, this is the book where the authors presented an ‘audacious’ and groundbreaking hypothesis : theories which of course have achieved notoriety in the shape of Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code. It’s funny – on the back cover ( it did cause a fair amount of hoo-ha when it was released) Newsweek said ‘ A brilliant thriller in the making’ – and of course, as we know, some people came along and did just that. Definitely worth a read. Of course for all Templar and Grail enthusiasts but nowadays anyone who wanted to know about where some of the ideas presented in the fictional Da Vinci Code had their roots ( and enough information and bibliography is presented in the text for people to take their own research further and draw their own conclusions about the subject matter) Again – they make it clear that theirs is a startling hypothesis and a set of speculations about historical events.

The Rule of Four – Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason

Great – I really enjoyed reading this – I admit i’m fascinated with ancient and mediaeval texts and a good mystery at the same time so this was right up my street. It’s focus is the mysterious, lengthy, erudite and anonymous Renaissance text – the Hypneromatochia Poliphili

“A mysterious coded manuscript, a violent Ivy League murder, and the secrets of a Renaissance prince collide in a labyrinth of betrayal, obsession, and genius..”

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August 2nd: On this Day 16 Years Ago

August 2nd 1990 – 16 years ago. Iraqi troops invade Kuwait – eventually leading to the Gulf War.

I remember that day far too clearly – I was 12 years old then. About 6 a.m. my dream was getting a bit loud and i woke up and found the noise was was real. a funny noise and the floor was somewhat shuddery.. I had these great big windows and i leaned out and what did i see..( well i don’t have my own pictures anymore so this will have to do to give you an idea)

We were supposed to be going on holiday at 10. a.m. Seeing as the airport was the first thing that was bombed – that obviously wasn’t going to happen. What was going on ? i remember the unreality feeling being the strongest during those early moments. is this really happening? this can’t be happening! we had to listen to the BBC and Voice of America broadcasts on the radio announcing that Iraq had invaded Kuwait before it started to sink in. Well it didn’t really sink in for a bit – not till later on in the day when we stepped outside to see lots of soldiers with rifles milling about, and later later on all the casualties of the morning’s shelling strewn about the highways and roads. of course there was no one left to clear up the wreckages. one of the things that most stuck in my mind was the image of a car wrapped around and melted into a traffic lampost, and you could see the hole where the bomb had landed. Years later obviously no car anymore but the warped lampost remained..

anyways. i hope never to wake up to something like that again – but you never know. taking safety for granted is something i try not to do anymore.

–There’s not much interest on the net about this day and memorials etc. – i did a google search to see if anyone else had noted that some of us might be marking this date – ha not much – everything is either about the Gulf War – or as is to be expected – stick in invasion and iraq and kuwait and the 2003 events come up) But hey. I know there are a lot of people out there – spread across the world ( Kuwait was and still is mostly full of ‘expatriates’) who went through this ( who’re still alive that is..) and whether or not they are sitting there consciously remembering this day 16 years ago – here’s to life.

I haven’t ever really written anything much about my experiences and I may do some day. There’s too much to go into here and now anyways. Later on in life when i read the Diary of Anne Frank a couple of things really resonated with me. The waiting the not knowing and Anne was writing about her 14th birthday in hiding, and that made me think about my 13th birthday. i’m a virgo so i turned 13 that September, still under ‘Occupation’. Some fun that was! Being a year younger than the others in my class had always made me eager to be a bit older. and as a 12 year old i couldn’t wait to become a teenager. all my mates’ had had their 13th birthday parties and i had been so looking forward to mine. Alas..
Still i’ve lived to tell my tale if i so choose but unfortunately Anne – and a million other people across the world in different conflicts – didn’t. So i’m pretty thankful and lucky.
On a lighter note : – in 1967 on this day the second Blackwall Tunnel opened in Greenwich.

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