Ditchling goes Dutch

Sat 16 Jun
Ditchling Village Hall

Ditchling Morris had Dutch dance group Lesseschots over for the weekend; we went to the ceilidh in the evening with Unreel - exuberant playing and very danceable. The cart-horse didn't come but the clogs did.

Lewes orchids

Sun 10 Jun
Lewes

They're out again! Bee Orchids, Pyramidal Orchids and Common Spotted Orchids, each in their own territory, although often mixed in with other things that can make the Bees in particular quite hard to spot. They're on this street, and just round the corner from the roundabout at the bottom.

Here's the pics from 2005, when I first heard about them.

Local music for local people

Mon 11 Jun
Trevor Arms, Glynde

Will Duke's English music session, which meets 2nd Mondays, with anything from 10 to 20 or even 30 musicians all going for it hammer and tongs. It's been going for 30 years or more, under one guise or another, formerly at the Ram at Firle, now at the Trevor Arms.

This week there was the usual mix of concertinas, melodeons, accordions, fiddles, banjo, clarinet, bones. A few years back the regulars got some 180 of their favourite tunes together and published them in a gorgeously produced book which they called The Lewes Favourites (what else?). So there's no excuse for not learning some of them so you can play along, is there?

Wed 13 Jun
Fountain Inn, Ashurst

The Sussex Chorus and Harmony session (2nd Wednesdays). English (mostly) songs, with lots of choruses and lots of harmony, just what it says on the tin, really.

The Lewes Arms Folk Club has a listing of Traditional Music Sessions in Sussex - something to suit every taste (well, most). For a broader listing of clubs, concerts and festivals in Sussex see the Folk Diary, free from all sorts of places and also on-line (.pdf format); the current one's red, so you can't mislay it.

I'll get hammered if I don't mention the Royal Oak, which consistently has the best programme of traditional (and contemporary) music of any club I've come across. It's just that I don't think I've been since I started this blog . . .

[wot no pics?]

With the Grain

Fri 8 Jun
Assembly Rooms, Lewes

David Nash: Wood Sculpture. What this man sees in trees!

[pic from the Sculpture Exhibitions website]

Heartbeats of the Earth

Fri 7 Jun
Lewes Corn Exchange

A Journey through Art, Science and Nature: from Sussex to Antarctica by Chris Drury - a talk & slides on how his approach to his art has evolved, focusing particularly on his recent trip to the Antarctic as Artist in Residence. I couldn't hear very well from the back, & would love to know whether he has a recording available. Good job Jan was taking notes . . . He sees things in nature that I would love to see - so it's great that he's there to point them out to me. His blog of the Antarctica trip is very engaging, with a stack of wonderful photos, many of which appeared in the slideshow.

See the Heart of Reeds project in Lewes, which he has designed.

[pics from Chris' website]

Selim Sesler

Sat 2 Jun
Barbican

Lovely swinging Turkish music, all tradition-based. Sesler on clarinet, with darbuka, oud, kanun, violin. The CD Anatolian Wedding is delightful. See him in Crossing the Bridge - The Sound of Istanbul; read The Coltrane of the clarinet, Fiachra Gibbons' review in The Guardian.

[Jan's pic]

Fanfare Ciocarlia

Wed 30 May
Barbican

Fanfare Ciocarlia's Queens & Kings - gypsy musicians from all over Eastern Europe, and Perpignan. FC are a blast - 9 brass and 2 percussion, I bet you could hear them from Blackfriars. They are from Rumania, and their guests included Esma Redzepova (Macedonia), Jony Iliev (Bulgaria), Kaloome (Perpignan) & Mitsu (Hungary) - Esma & Mitsu - what voices! This was the only UK performance - sorry! The CD must be a cracker - listening to it now (Sun), and it is!

Preceded by an illustrated talk by Garth Cartwright, author of Princes Amongst Men: Journeys With Gypsy Musicians.

Dansez Français

Sat 26 May
Patcham Memorial Hall

Our monthly French & Breton Dance night - info. Chien Bizarre played, and everybody danced - plenty of new people, which was just as well because lots of regulars, including most of our musicians, had sidled off to Chippenham. Where I'm told it rained. And rained.

For starters as usual a set from Jeudi Matin (who meet on Wednesday mornings, of course).

Next session Sat 30 June - then break until September. Here's my Google Map.

Second Life Best Practices

Fri 25 May
Second Life Best Practices International Conference 2007

Another 24h ed-fest - this time situated entirely within SL. Lots more to ponder on - will ponder elsewhere shortly.

Pic from Jeremy Koester's "outside the box look at immersive environment opportunities in SL." Loads more pictures on the Flickr site.

WiAOC 2007

Fri 18 - Sun 20 May
WiAOC 2007: Webheads in Action Online Convergence

A 3-day 24-hour extravaganza - emerging technologies in education, and in language learning in particular. It had to be good - I installed Windows on my Mac for this! It was good - very good. All sorts of things I'd not seen, heard of or done before. More elsewhere soon.