Junes adventures part 1

a mad couple of weeks, so much happening, no time to do art. Art requires a balance between input & output, that is real life inspiration and interaction going in, and Art development creative output coming out. Masses of the former as we've traveled about recently, none of the later. Also we normally don't see many grown-ups, living so remotely, there is always plenty of time to digest and mull any social interaction, adding it to the pot of inspiration. However this month its been incredible how many amazing people we have been lucky enough to spend time with, my head is brimming with ideas !

Saturday 19th June
Belfast Puppet Picnic and parade. such a riot of music, colour smiles, laughter, dancing creativity community projects dancing their way through Belfast, it bought a lump to my throat, goosebumps, something timeless and magical, international, so many memories of festivals from another lifetime, colour & joy.People coming together in the sunshine, I could have watched them all day.

Sunday 20th June
I read folklore & went over some work while the boys went swimming & played computer games. my head starting to spin with giants, ghosts, seal-folk, tasks in threes, lost worlds and layers of metaphor long lost.

Monday 21st June
Met up with Micheal Carroll of Quantum Prophecy books fame & the brilliant Leonia. Had a fantastic day doing the Antrim coast tour, Torr point, Carrick a Rede rope bridge, Bushmills, the Giants causeway. The weather was idyllic, the sea colours mesmerising. The company wonderful, ideas bouncing around.

 Tuesday 22nd June
a day off, to do more folk stories, fairy stories & celtic tales reading. reminded how much of an early influence tales like Thomas the rhymer and Tam y Linn were.

Wednesday 23rd June
Pearl jam concert in Belfast. had fan club tickets, queued early with the fan club, coralled in pens like sheep, 3 hours people watching, many familiar faces from the London gig last year, admiring lovely tattoos, many people from all over Europe following the tour. got in early, got 3rd row standing position right up near Mike McCreadys side of the stage. Ben Harper and relentless 7 supporting. Ben's voice incredible, the music & guitars are great, prog rocky, folk, blues, lots of influences, but I could listen to his voice alone endlessly.
Then after such a long wait, the stage set, the lights dimmed, the intro music I'd heard at last years concert came on, the tears started, the crowd surged forward wedging us into position no feet or elbow room, 20/30 000 ? people united in song & emotion. Wham. this time wasn't so physically painful, there were no scary moments in the mosh pit, the folks were were wedged against were all lovely, apologies to the guy who had my hair in his face all night. I managed to catch a couple of guitar picks from Mike. The most emotional song was ' amongst the waves '  read the words to work out why. Wonderful night. can't wait for the next tour. can't wait to do some more paintings inspired. Love these guys.

Thursday 24th June
6 am start, ferry, long drive home, un-pack and re-pack for next trip. fire training night first aid refresher until late...

adventure part 2 to follow.

Two lochs Radio- Sunday Brunch

Today was my Radio Debut. Mike and Graham from Gairlochs' Two lochs Radio station were kind enough to invite me onto their 'Sunday Brunch' programme to talk about being a community Fire fighter. Apparently this is the UK's smallest radio station, the tiny building stands overlooking the scenic Loch Gairloch. Inside I was pretty impressed with the technical gadgetry, all the more surreal watching a hawk feet away outside the window during the programme.

I was a wee bit intimidated by the Microphones at first, especially as the show was live. However a few firefighting questions and a couple of shameless plugs for my website later and I was quite at home.

The really indulgent bit was that I'd been asked to select my 4 favorite songs to play, it was a real kick to hear those playing out !  The programme was available live over the internet as well as on traditional radio.

Its in no way a definitive list, but I'd selected a representational radio appropriate cross section. These were;

Pearl Jam - Alive  which is an emotional one for me, more so after seeing them live at the o2 this summer.
Audioslave-Cochise Chris's vocals & Tom's guitar? wow! the lyrics are also important to me.
Tom Petty - Saving Grace, what an evocative poignant song- a real road song.
Steve Earle- City of Immigrants, particularily topical this week after the Question Time debacle, We saw Steve Earle at Belfast in September, a powerful political & moving performance.

So check out Two Lochs Radio, and Thanks to Mike & Graham for asking me on.