Author: ashleyelsdon

Storyteller - Poet - Explorer

Spending some time at the Art Gallery of Ontario

Posted by on in Exhibitions, PlacesLeave a comment

This is a beautiful place. I was only in Toronto for a few days but this was on the top of my list of my places to go. My visit was back in July and it was really hot and humid, which was another great reason to go to the gallery as it has great air con!

I wasn’t really interested in the European art there, and much keener to see that First Nation art on show. I wasn’t disappointed. There are some stunning pieces there, and the volunteer guide who showed a group of us around was very good and had a lot of information on hand.

The Rebecca Belmore exhibition was stunning, and at times, disturbing. Whilst I can’t say that I enjoyed all of her work, I can say that it gave me more insight into First Nation issues.

A few days on a canal boat

Posted by on in Friends, PlacesLeave a comment

It’s been a long time since I was last on a canal boat, but, as this year was a somewhat significant birthday it seemed like a good idea to celebrate with a few days away on a narrowboat with some good friends.

The boat was May, the pace was slow, and the beer was flowing! Basically, it was a good choice and I’m pretty sure that everyone had a grand time. Perhaps I’ll do it again for another ‘significant’ birthday.

Not getting to Beyond the Border this year

Posted by on in FestivalsLeave a comment
  • Flag at Beyond the Border

Which is a massive shame really. I’m going to miss it. Last time it was an amazing experience and a huge amount of fun too. I’m a big fan of storytelling. It’s important. It is just so fundamental and core to how we understand things.

I’ve always found the storytelling at Beyond the Border to be incredible. The range of stories and tellers is so rich that I don’t think I’ve ever been disappointed in all of the years that I’ve been there.

Maybe disappointed with the weather, but even then, not that often.

I hope it’s as amazing as ever this year. I’m just so sorry not to be there.

Pi Sound is a go (nearly)

Posted by on in TechLeave a comment
IMG_2481

This is the Blokas Pi Sound board attached to my Pi 3 with 7″ touch screen. I’m looking forward to getting some time with this soon. I’m keen to see how it works with the Android app too.

My plan is also to see how I can use Pd on the Pi as well, possibly other stuff too, like Supercollider. Who knows. This card opens up a lot of possibilities.

The start of a modular thing

Posted by on in Music, TechLeave a comment

This is something that I’ve been putting off for a long time now. Mainly as just about everyone I’ve spoken to about modular synths just tells me it sucks every last penny from you and you’re never really finished in any meaningful way. Which is a shame. So you can understand why I might decide not to go down this route. However, after a series of events and triggers I have finally given in with what can only be called a modest initial set up, and one that is in keeping with my largely mobile aspirations.

The set up is inside a lunchbox. So it’s pretty small, and almost all of the modules are from Music Thing Modular, so it is a fairly esoteric modular set up.

I hope to have some kind of output to show for it in the not too distant future, but for now I thought I’d at least post some pictures.

Record Store Day 2018

Posted by on in MusicLeave a comment

Last year I skipped record store day as I’d been queuing at Sister Ray Records in Soho for about 3 hours and at the end of the process I’d got 1 7″. That was all. I wasn’t terribly happy about that at all, as you can imagine. So I said to myself that I wouldn’t do it any more. I’d give it up. And I did, I didn’t go in 2017. Then I saw the list for this year, and on it was a David Sylvian album that I really wanted to get, and that I knew I would be really annoyed not to own.

So I decided to do it again. However, as I was going to be out late in London the night before I thought that the most civilised way to accomplish the task was to get a hotel room nearby and stay in town. So I did. I stayed at a very nice hotel on Brick Lane which was very reasonably priced too. It meant I could get up really early and walk down to Rough Trade East before 6am.

And my forward thinking paid off. I was probably around the 100 mark in the queue and got inside at about 8:30am. Not bad. I also got everything that I wanted too.

The most important of course being “Dead Bees on a cake” by Sylvian.

So maybe I will go again next year, at least I’ll give it a chance anyway.

Laurie Andrerson, Nothing in my Pockets

Posted by on in Books and Audiobooks, People, SoundsLeave a comment
Laurie Anderson Nothing in my pockets

I was given this book as a present a while ago. I hadn’t heard about the book, or the recordings before this, so it was a very nice surprise.

I’ve just finished reading the book. It’s short. Very short, but very readable, and very engaging indeed. Bits of it made really me smile, and I can thoroughly recommend it if you’re a fan of Laurie Anderson, or if you appreciate her style of music and performance.

It made me think about what an audio diary or audio journal would be, or indeed should be. It raised some interesting questions about what constitutes meaningful and engaging sound. These are all good questions. I don’t have any answers as yet, but they’re definitely on my mind, and, as and when I do have some answers, I’ll let you know.