I am Ashley Elsdon

someone who's doing some things

Homeland

Posted by ashleyelsdonon in Listening, MusicLeave a comment
Laurie Anderson Homeland

I’ve been a fan of Laurie Anderson for as long as I can remember now so I was so pleased to finally get my physical copy of Homeland together with a signed 12″ of ‘Only an Expert’.

Homeland is a great album. I remember seeing Laurie Anderson perform it at the Barbican a couple of years ago. What an amazing show that was.

One of the things that I really enjoy about her music and especially her lyrics is the way she sees things from a very different perspective to the everyday. It’s more than just a step back and look at things with fresh eyes, it’s more of a step back and to one side and repeat for quite a while. If that makes sense.

Getting a different perspective is so important. I constantly find myself bombarded with news and opinion from every direction, be it the internet, TV, radio, print. Sometimes in the midst of all those competing opinions it is hard to find your own perspective, your own voice. Listening to Laurie Anderson reminds me that it is still there.

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Tall Tales from Beyond the Border

Posted by ashleyelsdonon in FestivalsLeave a comment

I was at the Beyond the Border International Storytelling Festival recently, which was great as it I had seriously thought it would never run again. The festival has had a few years off due to funding woes and for most festivals that normally means that they won’t be seen again. Not so for Beyond the Border. This year they were back just like there had been no break at all and I was very happy to be there.

It was a superb festival with lots of amazing music and stories from all over the world. Whenever I get to events like this I’m amazed at how riveting storytelling can be. How just listening to one person telling a story can captivate your imagination.

I’m so impressed at the immense cultural heritage that’s gathered in one place. It also reminds me of how easy it is to forget our own cultural heritage, and how in large cities we can forget our stories.

Stories are important, they help us to understand where we are in the world and make sense of things. Living in cities can disconnect us from our stories, and being at an event like Beyond the Border helps reestablish that connection, helps us remember our own stories and reminds us to continue to tell them.

It feels good that Beyond the Border is back. It should be on again in 2012, and I hope I’ll be there.

Walkway to the stories
The walk down to Beyond the Border Storytelling Festival

I’ve been meaning to do this for a while

Posted by ashleyelsdonon in Admin, Creative ProcessLeave a comment

Having written a blog that’s just about mobile music for just over 4 years I thought maybe I’d start to write something about me and what I’m up to. A more personal journal if you like. This blog won’t be about the world of mobile music. Although I’m sure that there will be lots of creative stuff that I want to talk about and some of that will inevitably be mobile related in some way. But that’s not essentially what my own blog is about. Having said that, I’m not entirely sure what it is about, but I can tell you what it won’t be about, which is at least a start.

It isn’t about:

  • Boring rants and complaints about the state of this, that or the other in the world / neighborhood
  • It isn’t about what I’m having for lunch
  • It won’t contain excessively dull family details about holidays and days out
  • It won’t just be a another Palm Sounds, although there’ll be a little bit of an overlap

What it will be about will evolve over time, and as it does it’ll be interesting for me to see where it goes.So don’t feel bad if you decide not to read this blog and just stick with Palm Sounds. That’s fine with me.If you do stay with this, the please let me know what you think. As always, I’m interested in comments.