A Reasonable Cause New Night November 24th Kraak Gallery

Your Monthly dose of Music, short film, drawing, videos and general craic( I tell you we didn't just move it to the Kraak Gallery for that awful pun) is back
We have some top notch music from the soulful and unique voice of Jon Kenzie plus the soon to be massive Sam Haine and The Bloodflames
We have Alan Creedon talking about his wonderful new project " Manchester Veg People" with The Kindling trust, bringing organic growers and suppliers together.
We will have a plethora of interesting videos, drawing and games.

Tony Padday, Luthier

The wonderful Instrument maker Tony Padday gets quizzed. Have a look at his website and see some of his beautiful instruments.( I am biased he made my cello)


How did you come to making cellos?

I grew up with instruments around all the time. My Dad had an idea to hang cellos and violins on the wall with the idea that it would encourage us to play them as they could be just picked up and used rather than having to open a case etc etc.If your’e a cellist with a rubbish case you’ll know exactly what I’m getting at.
Problem was that I became much more interested in how they were made than wanting to practice.


It takes a lot of patience : grooving, sticking, waiting for things to set. Do you enjoy the process, or would you rather it could be done faster?

Actually, no. You never need patience if you love what you’re doing. The patience is only a problem if you have 2 or more thoughts in your head when you are concentrating. One thought only from beginning to end. To make the greatest instrument you’ve ever made. It’s the same for actors, musicians, artists I guess. When you get really clever then…. Well maybe.


In Mali the Kora player spends 4 years learning to make their instrument before they play it, do you think we could learn from that in the west?

No I don’t like the idea at all. First The idea of having a musician around all day trying to make an instrument when they should be practicing would just annoy me. Second. It takes so much dedication to become a great musician that I think that any spare time would be best used meeting/seeing other great artists work. A trip to an art gallery or theatre would be an obvious example.

You live in a beautiful part of the world where the Glastonbury festival takes place. If someone told you that you had to leave your land because they found some oil underneath it what would you do?

I would spend a some time making sure I got a good percentage from the mercenary bastards who wanted to pump out the oil out of the ground. Once I’d achieved that I’d move on. Some things you just can’t change!

Twas a loaded question as we are allowing it to happen all over the world. How can we connect with what we feel is beyond our own sphere of influence?

Great question. I think that doing what you believe in if at all possible is the only way forward. If you really want to influence the life around you go into politics. If you have a great idea you believe in then do it. If then the idea you have really stands up, the influence it can have can be quite extraordinary.

You said hearing Bowie in your backgarden was a great experience. If Branson gets his act together and starts his flights that orbit the earth, would you be up for it?

No. I’m not to fussed about that idea. But if Bowie played Glastonbury again well that’s another matter entirely.

How are your dancing skills do you have a few moves?

Sorry I’m crap. No other way to put it really.

If David Cameron became ill and you were the man they turned to, what would be the first thing you would do?

Me. Run the country for a day.Mmmmmmmmmmmm. I like the idea of the May day bank holiday becoming a culture day. On government backed token each to give everyone a free ticket to a museum/concert/festival etc etc. Each to their own. Then everyone gets out to where they want to go. The performers get paid. The spin offs would be huge. If the Olympics are profitable then this will work better.


Do you think modern instruments are closing the gap on the old Italian masters, or is their extortionate price still justified?

The arguments about the difference between new and old instruments will go on for ever. The great old instruments are amazing. The great new instruments are amazing. If as a cellist you have several million quids worth of wood between your legs that is quite kool. It’s a big ask for any musician to not be impressed by its incredible value. I’m personally fine with great old masters selling for high prices. Look at the art market. For centuries the old masters ruled the high prices. Now the impressionist have taken over the driving seat. In a hundread years tenmodern instruments could very easily do the same. Don’t forget you heard it here first.

Is classical music destined to be an elitist occupation?

No not at all. Classical music like classical art, literature etc etc takes time and education to understand. The reflection of the education system in this country (and may others) points to a systematic dumbing down.


Finally are you a baked beans man,or spaghetti hoops. Yes it does matter?

Big question. Baked beans all the way. Spaghetti hoops – never.

Interview with Greg Keeffe

We have an awesome interview with Greg Keeffe. Who gave an illuminating talk at one of our nights. He is a wonderful archictect, thinker, and musician. Here is a link to his website

So what is your favourite Irish folk tune?
The Patriot Game. By the Clancy Brothers. Or on a more modern note Streets of New York by the Wolftones. Both for the same reasons great words brilliant tunes.


Do you think playing music from an early, had anything to do with you turning into an architect?

Yeah definitely. Both are abstract structures experienced linearly but conceived spatially. I think both professions have a lot in common. Particularly in the fact that they occupy the weird space between the worlds of content and Form. You can't talk a building or a tune.

Should we be more involved/passionate about the buildings that are going up around us?

The city is the most complex thing man has designed and at the same time the most contested. I think that buildings are battlefields of desires and that everyone should come and throw things: it's our city, no one elses.

What piece of legislation would immediately make building become more environmentally friendly, and can the public do anything to push this through?

Every buildings roof should be an energy producer. Simple. Enough energy lands on the roofs of Manchester in a month to power the city for the whole year.


Do you go to many gigs?

I try to. I saw Wire last week. They were a bit old. I like small wild gigs paul latham quartet at Matt n phreds is usually good.


What was the worst gig you played at?

I once played in Hebden bridge in 1983 it was our first gig outside of Manchester. There were six people and a dog at it. Oh and when we came out the Hells Angels were waiting for us and battered us!!! Great

You are considered a bit of maverick in the architect world, I imagine. Judging from some of the things at your talk, international ski slope in Nelson proposing to Mcdonalds how they could be sustainable by growing all there food on their roof. Should it not be the other way round that the people who are building houses to the lowest possible environmental denominator should be scorned?

I think my job is to stretch the envelope and show people how it could be. I don't really see myself as a maverick. I just start with the current conditions and be rigorous with what I do. People think they have a lot to lose. I don't think so. We need to manage the change by designing new futures rather than being in denial and have a future thrust upon us.


Do you think government lobbyists should be banned, as they seem unsuprisingly to be heavily leaning towards the rich?

Definitely. I think we need a more conciliatory system. May be one that's more syndicated so more people have more of a say.

How is your sandcastle making, does your architecture skills come in handy?

As a confirmed pacifist it perturbs me that I am too interested in the architecture of defence. I like to use my knowledge of the history of defence to build impenetrable things

Can you reccommend a book nand a piece of music, we should listen to?

I would recommend She is Beyond Good and Evil by the Pop Group as my piece of music. 1978 but it still sounds great.

The book would be Out of Control by Kevin Kelly. 1995. It talks about a new bio informational chaotic future which is onthe money. I wish I could write like Mr Kelly

Do you think it would be helpful if we could all go an a one week course so we could be filled in on the fundamentals of architecture?

Definitely We should have appreciation courses for all the arts (and music). There's so much hidden in the meta language of each art that adds to it.

Next Event

A Reasonable Cause

A night of music, short film, a talk about something green/interesting and a whole lot of fun.
We have the wonderful music of dan cropper and edmund cottam , have a listen to some of their tunes.
The Lancashire wildlife trust talking about the campaign to save Chat moss, only 15 minutes from my house.
Lucy Campbell and her film The Bird which was featured in this years Exsposures festival at the Cornerhouse

Here is a link to our facebook page

Going, Going

A poem by Philip Larkin. Notice the date, it is hard to disagree with him.
Recommended by my Dad.

GOING, GOING by Philip Larkin. (January 1972)

I thought it would last my time -
The sense that, beyond the town,
There would always be fields and farms,
Where the village louts could climb
Such trees as were not cut down;
I knew there'd be false alarms

In the papers about old streets
And split level shopping, but some
Have always been left so far;
And when the old part retreats
As the bleak high-risers come
We can always escape in the car.

Things are tougher than we are, just
As earth will always respond
However we mess it about;
Chuck filth in the sea, if you must:
The tides will be clean beyond.
- But what do I feel now? Doubt?

Or age, simply? The crowd
Is young in the M1 cafe;
Their kids are screaming for more -
More houses, more parking allowed,
More caravan sites, more pay.
On the Business Page, a score

Of spectacled grins approve
Some takeover bid that entails
Five per cent profit (and ten
Per cent more in the estuaries): move
Your works to the unspoilt dales
(Grey area grants)! And when

You try to get near the sea
In summer . . .
It seems, just now,
To be happening so very fast;
Despite all the land left free
For the first time I feel somehow
That it isn't going to last,

That before I snuff it, the whole
Boiling will be bricked in
Except for the tourist parts -
First slum of Europe: a role
It won't be hard to win,
With a cast of crooks and tarts.

And that will be England gone,
The shadows, the meadows, the lanes,
The guildhalls, the carved choirs.
There'll be books; it will linger on
In galleries; but all that remains
For us will be concrete and tyres.

Most things are never meant.
This won't be, most likely; but greeds
And garbage are too thick-strewn
To be swept up now, or invent
Excuses that make them all needs.
I just think it will happen, soon.

A Reasonable Cause, Kro, 18th of January

Hopefully with A Reasonable Cause you get a smaller slice of people which helps you see the big picture, shameless plug for the other blog I have just written.

We started the evening off with a film about drive and how money is not necessarily the gretest motivatior when it comes to cognitive and algorithmic processes. The drawing is bloody brilliant as well.

Next we had our first musician Rae Morris, who I heard at the Green Room. This girl is going to be a star, she has the ability to take everyone in the room whererever she choses to go. Have listen to her myspace. But like all great musicians you have to see her live, she is playing Night and Day this Wednesday, make sure you get down there.

In between I had time to school Owain Roberts, the legend from messner who played at our previous night, and our second musician Tom Ellis in the art of Connect 4. I gave some ribbing to my parents in my last blog, so I have to doff my cap for all the hours of Connect 4 practise. Have a wee look at Kanye West playing the great game.

We then had Sarah Davies of Manchester Friends of the Earth, who talked passionately about how she got involved with Foe, her preconceptions of the Green movement- men with beards, what she has got out of it, and that she has met some great people through it. Her three points about individual, local, and national action really struck a chord.

Our last musican was Tom Ellis an old school friend who had come up from London. It was nice having it the other way round, rather than heading down to do a gig. Tom is a stunning guitarist, with a beautiful voice. He played a mixture of his own tunes and covers. I particulary approved of the Tom Waits. Alas he didn't play the Ellis/Cashell collaboration Silly Women in Trucks, an ode to the mothers who drive around in their 4 by 4's with their toddlers in the back. But we will get him back.
Thanks to all who came. The next night is on the 17th of February

The genesis of this blog came from a wee article about landscape painting from a wonderful book by Richard Mabey,A Brush with Nature, 25 years of personal reflection on the natural world.
In the article he talks about the history of landscape painting, which originated from the great draining and redesign of the Dutch landscape in the 17th century. The point that interested me the most was the way we can see our landscape in two different forms "prospect" and "refuge".(1)

Prospect being the sweeping overview of landscape. " Just two centuries of these broad long focus capturings, the rolling farmland, the epic glens..., seem to have created archetypes for the countryside which have made us blind to the details,its contradictions and its movement through time".

I read this article and enjoyed it, but things only started to click into place after I had a conversation with Chris Walsh form the Kindling Trust, we got on to talking about the proposed Manchester Metropolitan University move to Birley fields which is just across from his office. I asked him whether he thought it would be negative losing the open space, trees and light. He wasn't certain as he said the area wasn't particularly thriving when it came to animal and plant life. I then put it to him that it was a good thing in the plans that they seemed to be keeping a lot of the trees. Chris while acknowledging the point, countered it by saying that trees are more for humans pleasure, what you also need is the foliage, good soil, scrub to create a good habitat for plants and creatures. The trees might make our streets look prettier, but lets not kid ourselves that they are doing all that much for the environment.

This brought me back to Mabeys article and how we see these big swooping vistas and landscapes, but don't see the refuge " the grass roots and hedge bottoms" that are essential to the picture. We lose the individual pieces that make the landscape special, and when we go about fashioning our new human shaped landscape we forget theses little details and placate ourselves by seeing big broad strokes.

Two more examples of this. I usually end up getting my rage on when I go shopping in the centre of Manchester. You start to get annoyed with the swarm, the mass of humanity. You have to take it apart to realise it is made of interesting people: mothers, bankers,strippers, and baristas.
We are not encouraged to stand out, or look at each other from a closer perspective. It is harder to be cold and calculating with one person, whether it is getting annoyed or falling in love.
With the group, whether out shopping, in an airport, or at a football game it just leads to one standard way of thinking, in my case, rage. The way to change that is to stand closer and have a better look and encourage the diversity of human behaviour.

My last piece on this is about the sea. Myself and my girlfriend Esther watched Hugh's fish fight and really enjoyed it( don't know if that is the correct word). It was amazing to see the fish being caught and thrown away. The mile long nets; just the huge number of fish that gets caught everyday with so many getting thrown away.
Discard is bad, but there doesn't seem to be a perfect solution to put in its place, but hopefully something will be agreed on by the EC.
It did get me thinking about the sea, and reading about how we will have made the oceans uninhabitable if we go over the 2 degree temperature rise, and how if we carry on coral reefs will be lost to our waters in the next 100 years.
Again we look at this big picture, we need to feed everyone so we need to catch fish. But we are not looking at what is happening to the fish and their habitat. If we are making the sea uninhabitable for the swimming sea snail, which makes up 45 per cent of Salmons diet we are not going to be eating salmon for too much longer(2).
Of course we have to look big, but the only way to do that is to start small and look at the individual pieces. My Mum and I always say how lucky we are that our house is by the sea, so that the surrounding area will never be built on. But alas that beautiful sparkling view can sometimes make us complacent and not see what is going on underneath.

References
1 Richard Maybey, A Brush with Nature, BBC books
2 Oceana survey
http://www.alternet.org/water/106762/how_climate_change_is_killing_our_oceans/?page=1