Thursday, January 31, 2008

Quay Brothers Exhibition at Exeter University





For anyone interested in animation there is a good exhibition of the Quay Brothers animation sets and puppets at the Centre for Arab and Islamic studies at Exeter University. It was nice to catch up with my own favourite characters from The Street of Crocodiles which the Quay Brothers made in 1986 and was quite influential when I was at college at that time. The show runs until about the 24th of February and The Street of Crocodiles is on YouTube and is well worth a watch.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Acoustic Guitar Playing



Playing the guitar is something else that I have spent a lot of time doing over the years. I have been in a number of bands but at the moment I enjoy playing solo stuff on my acoustic guitar. I play an old steel strung Levin which was made in the early seventies, I bought it in a guitar shop in Southsea in about 1980 for £160 which was quite a lot of money in those days though not on a par with the cost of something like a Martin. Since I bought my Levin they have become quite collectable as they are quite rare and a few fairly famous people use them now. If you have the time have a listen to some of my tunes, most of which I have written myself. There is a live link in the above title "acoustic
guitar playing" hope you enjoy! and if you are learning to play the guitar get yourself a tuning fork in A (440cycles) to tune your guitar with. Don't strike it on a hard or sharp surface but on your knee or something like that, after striking, touch the ball shaped end onto a wooden surface (like your guitar) let it resonate and tune to that. Tuning forks teach your ear how to listen. Tuning forks don't need electricity, wires or batteries, won't go out of tune like pitch pipes do after a while and if you look after them they will last pretty much forever or your part of it anyway. Put away your weapons, pick up your guitar and chill out.

Sunday, January 13, 2008

The Woods in Winter





Lots of gales around here lately so big seas. The sun came out long enough for me to go for a walk and take these photo's yesterday. When it gets dark at about 4.30 or so in the afternoon there is not long to get outside into the sunlight.

Monday, January 07, 2008

New Year



The New Year comes in with a gale here with high seas and lots of rain, the cat is hiding under blankets and climbing inside cushions, I seem to wearing a hat permanently. Hope you have a good year. As usual I have forgotten where I got the calendar images from.