Wednesday, 12 December 2012

A Transport of Delight!!


Can't say I was overjoyed initially with my song choice! Flanders and Swann? Who? A Transport of Delight? What??
Sounds like something Reeves and Mortimer would take the piss out of...hmmm...actually, could be interesting...my suspicions were confirmed when I googled 'Flanders and Swann.' 'Flanders and Swann were a British Comedy duo.' "Oh no! Not a comedy song! LAME!"
"Suppose I'd better have a listen then,"
Exactly what I thought, piano intro, 'Pathe' 'clipped British accents' rather jolly, chortle, chortle, Chumley Warner, how very amusing!
...and actually, rather charming...
...then I found this little gem...
 A Journey by a London Bus
...and I am in love.

Thems were the days, a more innocent time, a more respectful time and a golden age of travel!
Ting ting! All aboard!!

And the song that chose me is....

So project 7 is upon us!...and it is entitled...'Storybook Songs'!

You are going to explore how a basic narrative form (simple CD book format with words and images) can be used to powerfully communicate emotion and personality to an audience. Book formats are a little like a sequence of individual frames from a short piece of film. When we digest information from a book we do it over a period of time, page by page.
It is completely different to the way we take in information from billboards, magazine ads or, as in the case of digital music, postage stamp-sized iPod icons. As with film, we also have the possibility to surprise or challenge our reader, as they just don’t know what will be on the page that follows the one they’re looking at. You can employ variation to keep them interested or bore them to death with page after page of repetitive uniformity…

Deliverables
1. Six page CD ‘booklet’ insert – 120mm X 120mm
including the song title and artist on the topmost
page. Jewel Case Back card – 118mm high X 150mm
wide (each spine is 6mm wide) including the artist and
title on each spine. Digipak and custom-made designs
have a maximum dimension of 125mm high X 142mm
wide although there is no restriction on thickness of
the spine.There is no restriction on the size of associated
packaging.
2. Research and development work showing the
journey to final artwork remains an important element
of the assessment process.
3. Your completed (apart from the final section) self
reflection form

Points to consider
Like an actor playing a part, your treatment of the
lines should be believable and true to the original
artist’s intentions. At worst your design should
complement the experience of listening to the song,
at best it should positively add new dimensions to the
experience!
If you were an actor reading these your song’s lyric as
lines on stage you would be expected to have:
1. Explored and understood the lyric’s meaning (are
the words used literally or metaphorically?)
2. Found a point of view or tone of voice that
represents the lyric effectively
3. Brought something of your own experience
and personality to the performance - what special
‘something extra’ does a good actor bring to the part
they are playing?
You should exploit the unique possibilities of format
in enhancing such things as the drama, pace, humour,
mood and meaning of the written/sung words.
Your final piece has the potential to be both interactive
and tactile. Think about materials and surfaces and
how they can hugely enhance the viewer’s sensual
experience.
Consider changing the format of ‘spreads’ by including
‘gatefolds’ and ‘fold outs’; binding in different types/
colours of paper/materials; cutting the page (holes,
slicing the edge etc.); utilising accordion folding etc.;
pop-ups; ‘tipping in’ (sticking things on to the page);
employing a slipcase.

And the song that chose me is.....


Flanders and Swann-A Transport of Delight

A Transport of Delight

Some talk of a Lagonda, some like a smart MG,
Or for a bonny army lorry, they'd lay them down and dee.
Such means of locomotion seem rather dull to us,
The driver...
... and conductor of...
... a London omnibus!

Hold very tight please, ting ting.
Hold very tight please, ting ting.

When you are lost in London, and you don't know where you are,
You'll hear my voice a-calling, "Pass further down the car!".
And very soon you'll find yourself inside the terminus,
In a London transport, diesel engine, ninety-seven horsepower omnibus.

Along the Queen's great highway, I drive my merry load,
At twenty miles per hour in the middle of the road.
We like to drive in convoys, we're most gregarious,
The big six-wheeler, scarlet painted, London transport, diesel engine, ninety-seven horsepower omnibus.

Earth has not anything to show more fair,
Mind the stairs, please, Mind the stairs... Mind the stairs...
Earth has not anything to show more fair, Any more fares?
Any more fares, any more fares?

When cabbies try to pass me before they overtakes,
I sticks me flippin' hand out as I jams on all me brakes.
Those jackal taxi drivers can only swear and cuss,
Behind that monarch of the road,
Observer of the highway code,
That big six-wheeler,
Scarlet painted,
London transport,
Diesel engine,
Ninety-seven horsepower omnibus.

I stops when I'm requested, although it spoils the ride,
So we can shout, "Get out of it! We're full right up inside".

We don't ask much for wages, we only want fair shares,
So cut down all the stages, and stick up all the fares.
If tickets cost a pound apiece, why should you make a fuss?
It's worth it just to ride inside,
That thirty-foot long by ten-foot wide,
Inside that monarch of the road,
Observer of the highway code,
That big six-wheeler,
Scarlet painted,
London transport,
Diesel engine,
Ninety-seven horsepower,
Ninety-seven horsepower omnibus!

Hold very tight, please!

Tuesday, 4 December 2012

Excerpt from 'The Madness of Peter Howson'

Artist destroys his own painting-Youtubehttp://youtu.be/EkOsUF8AUhA

Peter Howson-A Perspective





http://curiouspresbyterian.wordpress.com

Above are two paintings by 'theological' painter Peter Howson.
According to Wikipedia 'Theology (from Ancient Greek Θεός meaning "God" and λόγος, -logy, meaning "study of") is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.[1]'

I prefer to refer to him as Peter Howson, painter, not due to my personal feelings about religion, but because I'm sure he would not refer to himself as a 'theological painter.' Who would?
I discovered the work of Peter Howson due to a BBC documentary which chronicled his life and near break-down during his attempt to complete a commission from the church to paint The Martyrdom of St John Ogilvie, a Scottish Saint.
Peter Howson,OBE was the official painter of the Bosnian War, a former drug addict and alcoholic he 'found God' in 2000.
His work is dark, often depicting the ugliness, desperation and despair of humanity, but rendered in a sublime, ethereal way.
He uses light, shade and perspective to dramatic effect and the grotesque, bulbous, anatomical representations of the subjects of his works echo the horror of war and the bloated, twisted minds and egos of the men who create it.
Peter Howson is from a rough, tough world. Born in London and raised on the mean streets of Glasgow in the 70's and 80's, the characters he portrays are characatures, but they are also brutally real. Their eyes speak of sadness and madness...and knowledge, and pity.
I think they are beautiful. An honest study of the human figure, and regardless of my views on religion, I still believe that religious texts are part of the human story, a commentary on all facets of the human condition; life, love, death, greed, hate, jealousy, ignorance, hope, glory, determination, the search for eternal happiness and the fight against damnation.
Howson's paintings are dark and light, soft and hard, damning and forgiving, beautiful and ugly.
If religion is what gets him out of bed in the morning, then who the hell are we to judge?!