A few more bits of Cornwall
While down in W. Cornwall, Paul switched me on to hedluv + passman, a bizarre rap duo from Redruth, best described as Cornwall's answer to Goldie Lookin Chain, but somehow more sincere, and hence more bizarre. Apparently they've performed at Urbanomic Studio as part of a launch party for an edition of Collapse! As far as I know, the only other musical performance there was last year's event involving experimental electronic artist Florian Hecker:
For the purposes of the seminar we gave on the Saturday, Robin did an excellent last-minute job of editing 30+ hours of video footage documenting the process of collaboration between Conrad S and I. He distilled this down to a ten-minute film, preceded by still photos rapid-cut to the beats of Kraftwerk's "Numbers" (from Computer World). This was particularly effective at creating a sense that we'd been doing something quite cutting-edge (rather than just sitting around a table eating peanuts and banging our heads against a conceptual wall). That Kraftwerk track was previously unknown to me, a perfect choice for the occasion. You can see a rough reproduction of that short film at 5:08 of this clip.
Heading over to Constantine to visit friends on Sunday, I made a quite detour to Pixies Hall for a brief out-of-tune saz jam (Here's some footage of Inge and I playing in there - also out-of-tune - in late '97). Sitting quietly, I even heard the "humdrazz" (an old Cornish term for the ringing-in-the-ears that's often encountered in such places, or so I'm told). Walking back through Bosahan Woods to the village, a little old lady approached and asked "What have you got there, fishing rods?" (my encased saz is also regularly mistaken for golf clubs, as well as a sitar or banjo!). I told her what it was and she said "Well you'd better get it out and play it then!", so I did, seated on a mossy rock that happened to be right there, and she listened, delighted, to me playing "King o' the Faeries", then told me I'd made her day!
After a lovely visit at Diana's new place just below the church (her old place on the hill had hosted the Dongas for a couple of winters in the late 90's), I stopped in to see Lisa who was part of the crew with whom I traveled down there - now living in Constantine, bringing up her little son Tarran. We ended up going to a 'forgewarming' party in a nearby quarry. Her friend Lisa the Blacksmith and a couple of colleagues have revived an old forge and are about to start working there, so, after forming a human chain to shift a big pile of scrap metal, tyres and rubbish, people sat around an outside fire eating, drinking and chatting. A bit of a wobbly jam started up with a couple of fiddlers, a guitarist, me, and Lisa on various wind instruments: French and Irish tunes - "The Road to Lisdoonvarna" worked quite well (I'd forgotten that one - used to play it with Inge). After that, a collective of blacksmiths and art students started singing sea shanties (they turned out to be called the Falmouth Fish Sea Shanty Collective). Nice.
Gurnard's Head, on the Penwith coastline - photo by polandeze
My last day involved an incredible walk along the coast of West Penwith from Wicca Pool (the St. Ives side of Zennor) to Pendeen. I was sensible enough not to bring my saz this time, as it involved lots of clambering on rocks, wading through gorse and heather...I've made that mistake too many times, and wouldn't have had time to play anyway, having to keep up quite a pace so as not to miss my bus connection back to Falmouth. An insanely beautiful day to conclude my Kernow trip.
For the purposes of the seminar we gave on the Saturday, Robin did an excellent last-minute job of editing 30+ hours of video footage documenting the process of collaboration between Conrad S and I. He distilled this down to a ten-minute film, preceded by still photos rapid-cut to the beats of Kraftwerk's "Numbers" (from Computer World). This was particularly effective at creating a sense that we'd been doing something quite cutting-edge (rather than just sitting around a table eating peanuts and banging our heads against a conceptual wall). That Kraftwerk track was previously unknown to me, a perfect choice for the occasion. You can see a rough reproduction of that short film at 5:08 of this clip.
Heading over to Constantine to visit friends on Sunday, I made a quite detour to Pixies Hall for a brief out-of-tune saz jam (Here's some footage of Inge and I playing in there - also out-of-tune - in late '97). Sitting quietly, I even heard the "humdrazz" (an old Cornish term for the ringing-in-the-ears that's often encountered in such places, or so I'm told). Walking back through Bosahan Woods to the village, a little old lady approached and asked "What have you got there, fishing rods?" (my encased saz is also regularly mistaken for golf clubs, as well as a sitar or banjo!). I told her what it was and she said "Well you'd better get it out and play it then!", so I did, seated on a mossy rock that happened to be right there, and she listened, delighted, to me playing "King o' the Faeries", then told me I'd made her day!
After a lovely visit at Diana's new place just below the church (her old place on the hill had hosted the Dongas for a couple of winters in the late 90's), I stopped in to see Lisa who was part of the crew with whom I traveled down there - now living in Constantine, bringing up her little son Tarran. We ended up going to a 'forgewarming' party in a nearby quarry. Her friend Lisa the Blacksmith and a couple of colleagues have revived an old forge and are about to start working there, so, after forming a human chain to shift a big pile of scrap metal, tyres and rubbish, people sat around an outside fire eating, drinking and chatting. A bit of a wobbly jam started up with a couple of fiddlers, a guitarist, me, and Lisa on various wind instruments: French and Irish tunes - "The Road to Lisdoonvarna" worked quite well (I'd forgotten that one - used to play it with Inge). After that, a collective of blacksmiths and art students started singing sea shanties (they turned out to be called the Falmouth Fish Sea Shanty Collective). Nice.
Gurnard's Head, on the Penwith coastline - photo by polandeze
My last day involved an incredible walk along the coast of West Penwith from Wicca Pool (the St. Ives side of Zennor) to Pendeen. I was sensible enough not to bring my saz this time, as it involved lots of clambering on rocks, wading through gorse and heather...I've made that mistake too many times, and wouldn't have had time to play anyway, having to keep up quite a pace so as not to miss my bus connection back to Falmouth. An insanely beautiful day to conclude my Kernow trip.
posted by Matthew Watkins at 9:36 PM
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