wendy house

Talking Heads sang Electric Guitar

Come and look at my garage,  look at my workbench and tools

My brother proudly shows me his work bench, chisel sets and other thoughtfully organised tools.  He’s recently cleared a space in the garage so he can make things. He’s always liked making things.  This hobby was temporarily interrupted by having a job selling electronic stuff in Asian countries to make big money.  Now he’s changed jobs, downgraded his income in favour of having time to do stuff he loves. On a budget.

This is my first guitar, it’s English Oak, its not common to use Oak to make Guitars, it is a bit heavy

I’m now in full audience mode. Something my father and brother have taught me to do well.  I’m mainly here to make appreciative noises and ask questions that help them tell their stories. I like the role, its fun to watch people talk about the things they love, dad and his Pylons, Bros and his making things.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

This is the first Guitar he’s made from scratch.  He looked less happy when he realised he wouldn’t be able to make a living by making guitars because it was so time consuming. I remember the first (Bass) guitar he renovated in his teens and sold for a profit over the purchase price and materials. Not profit on the labour.

His home has always been full of guitars he’s bought, renovated or upgraded.  His garden shed is a production studio for local bands, often full of people playing his instruments. 

The environmental health are investigating him,

the shed,  

for noise pollution….  …my Brother may get an ASBO….

Outstanding. Highly recommended.

My 4 day holiday weekend kick-started with  a magical evening of slick, creative, quality performances in  glowing cricketish whites over a glass of wine in the circle of the Oxford New Theatre.

Choreography  variously  included  synchronised office-chair twirling and dancers leap-frogging David while he played.  A packed audience of  silver-haired and teenage people  bounced in the good natured holdiay-ready atmosphere.

David’s vocal control and pitch has matured beautifully adding more depth to classic tracks, those played  included: Air, I Zimbra, Once in a lifetime, Take me to the river.

David was his usual unassuming, audience focused, personable-self.   When he noticed venue staff asked audience members to sit-down he stopped the band mid song and gave people explicit permission to stand-up and dance,  then  picked-up the song again where they had left-off.

A David-designed  alien themed  t-set was a featured part of the mechandising.

person:   I’ve got a ticket to see Michael Jackson,   tickets are now selling on the  Web for over £1000.

Wendy: Oh!    I’ve got a ticket to see David Byrne,   it was much cheaper and,   for  me, will be a more fabulous experience than a Michael Jackson concert.

person:   Who’s he?

Wendy:   (gulp)

Your task,  should you choose to accept it, is to convey the essence of who David Byrne is in less that 500 characters, without the aid of sound or graphics.

A local celebration of specialness involved walking around in khaki cargo pants demonstrating evidence of fertility (children) herded on bicycles.   At least,    that’s what it looked like to me.   Me = Furriner.

I was baffled by the city parade today.   “What are we celebrating?” No-one seemed to know.   “It’s Derby Days“,   “What’s that?”.   The sheer abundance of khaki cargo pants was overwhelming.   Is there a conspiracy to reduce visual diversity?  Even women appear to wear variations on the theme.   In this city the dress trends appear to conspire to dampen evidence of diversity.

20 brilliant things.   A self-referential indulgence    

Any one of these things can make my day sparkle:

1. Bakelite
2. Boyfriends
3. Bunnies
4. Cheese
5. David Byrne
6. Dreams
7. Glasses (optical accessories)
8. Gravity operated catfood dispensers
9. Hats
10. Lists
11. Mums
12. Other people’s clothes
13. Paper
14. Poetry
15. Pressies
16. Pretty dresses
17. Real Ale (NOT US Microbrews)
18. Wendy’s Frendys
19. Wendy’s Wardrobe
20. Yellow roses

What is really brilliant is that this list could go on and on and on and on….   …there are soooooooo many brilliant thangs…     …your brilliant list of things is probably different.   May include  furry bedding or something.   What-ever,     lots of goodies for the holidays.

W wonderful-thanging

I (heart) powerpoint

E.E.E.I.
Envisioning Emotional Epistemological Information

A lecture  on art, emotion and Powerpoint by David Byrne (3/6/05) University of Washington.

David gave a typically relaxed, personable and humerous presentation.   He detailed his explorations with Powerpoint  from  personal (likes),  artistic (what can I do with  this?)  and academic (how effective is it at conveying ‘information’?) perspectives.

He used a specially constructed  Powerpoint slide deck (on an Apple Notebook) to illustrate  his presentation.      He made some obvious,  poignient, observations.   For example, that bullet points are impactful in business presentations.   Power and impact.   Power points.   David commented that he had recently started using bullet points in personal emails.    Sometimes its difficult to tell if David is being increadibly earnest or facetious.   That’s half the fun.

At the end of his story  the audience questions were entertaining  in how they reflected the diversity of Davids themes and the audiences make-up:

• “What feature would you like to see added?” (Software development  question – the event was 20 miles from Microsoft)
• “how do you think  digital media influence culture”   (Exam paper essay question – the event was in a University Hall)

David answered all questions with powerful, pointed, insight.   Answers  gently delivered in an un-rushed mild manner.    

I’ll probably update this entry as I recall the humor of his points…   …that weren’t bulletted..

Thanks for visiting – Wendy