Halloween Playlist

For my Halloween festivities I am enjoying:

Some Weird Folk

Especially Grendel by Foxpockets.

I am also getting some mileage out of:

Some Weird Stuff

Including the classic I Put a Spell on You by Screamin' Jay Hawkins.

You might also try:

Some Weird Australian Stuff

The Love Me Or Die by C W Stoneking.  Or anything else by C W Stoneking, for that matter.

You could do worse than a bit of The Tiger Lillies, especially Hell and Heroin and Cocaine.

Some Misery Guts Music

Bolsover: Big, Balls, and Boobs

I was in need of cheering up today after an horrendous visit to the physio yesterday; so Aimo took me to Bolsover Castle.  We had accidentally signed a direct debit to join English Heritage (I'm sure we were just supposed to get a free look around Tintagel Castle); so now we've got it, we need to get our money's worth.  My friend from Worksop knows Bolsover Castle from school trips, but it is new to me.  All I knew about it was Southerners sneered at it's "country bumpkin" classical style.  Actually it is really funny, in a good way.  It cheered me up going around, saying in an imaginary country bumpkin Duke voice: "what I need here is BIG".  BIG gates, BIG windows, BIG doors, BIG balls (over the pediments) BIG balls on Hercules  (over the door).

A BIG Door

A BIG Window

The castle is built in different phases, and it's fun to guess (a bit easy really) which bits were built by the father Charles "Little Castle" Cavendish, and which bits were built by the son William "Big Billy" Cavendish.  The clue is: is it unnecessarily big?

Big Billy then decorated the Little Castle with tasteful paintings, quite a lot of which feature boobs.  There is a whole room devoted to paintings of "girl lesbians kissing", and a room with depictions of the five senses.  Vision is represented by boobs;

Looking at Boobs

Touch is represented by boobs; generally there are a lot of boobs.  He knew what he liked, did Big Billy (big things and boobs).

So it was quite a laugh really.  I hasten to add we weren't laughing at him like nasty Southrons, we were laughing WITH him.  The Little Castle is great in a Shabby Cheek kind of way, well worth a visit.

There was some imagery you may be able to help me with.  In one room there are depictions of the saints.  They have their symbols, e.g. a jar of ointment for Mary Magdalene (well, she was a prostitute), some keys (to the Gates of Heaven) for Peter; but some of the pictures didn't have names.  Who is the saint who carries a cup with a snake in it?  Is it St. Patrick?

Guess the Saint

Saints with chalices of snakes, sounds like a Fleamsy kind of saint.  Actually, it reminds me of The Lair of The White Worm, so he's quite a Ken Russell kind of saint:

The Lair of the White Worm

It's another one of my in German purchases - same deal as last time - Sprachen, Englisch, Bob's your uncle.

Snakes, Serpents, Worms and Wyrms

Still looking through my new book, Devils, Demons and Witchcraft, it's quite topical and Halloweeny.  I was interested to see in the old woodcuts how little differentiation there is between snakes, worms and wyrms.  Corpses arising from their graves (surprising how often this occurs in folktales and folk illustration) are always illustrated with worms crawling on and through them:

Surprising How Often This Occurs

The wormy grave motif is also quite common in folk songs, especially in the "My Dead Love" variety.  However, looking at the illustrations in my new book, I saw how often corpses and graves were represented filled with some creature that looks much more like a serpent:

Serpents or Worms?

This type of illustration crosses over with a type of illustration which depicts the hellish punishments for the seven deadly sins.  One of the punishments in Hell is being thrown into a snake pit:

Hellish Snake Pit

You will also see here that the snakes raining down from the sky also include what we would call dragons, or wyrms in Old English (like The Lambton Worm and The Laidly Worm of Spindlestone Heugh).

What an interesting confusion.  But then thinking back to the writing of Keith Thomas, and this biography of Thomas Bewick:

A Good Book

We see that it was well into the nineteenth century before classification of animals started to be scientifically studied.  Before then, there was no strict differentiation made between different species, and animals could be known by their metaphorical or allegorical meaning rather as separate creatures.  It is well worth reading about.

Broomsticks - Which Way?

I have just taken delivery of this brilliant book:

A Great Book

And it has given me an idea about the great "broomsticks - which way round?" debate.  Part of symbolism of how wrong and unnatural witches are is showing them doing things back to front.

So in some illustrations, the artist remembers to use this symbol, and shows witches flying to their sabbats the wrong way round:



A Witch flying Backwards on a Goat

Whereas other illustrators don't use this device:



A Witch flying Forwards on a Goat

For this artist clearly flying on a goat is weird enough in itself, and he doesn't feel the need to add extra weirdness, that is flying backwards on a goat.

Using this argument, I propose this is the answer to the illustrations showing witches flying with brush first on their broomsticks (or stalks of Ragwort, or whatever).  It depends on how much the artist wanted to stress the point that witches doing things unnaturally.

Anyone have any more specific ideas about which way to fly on a broomstick? 

White Horses, Doctor Who and Sloe Gin

If A Traveller in Time by Alison Uttley was the favourite book of my early childhood; my favourite book of later years was The Moon Stallion by Brian Hayles.

My Actual Childhood Copy dated 1979

I read it so many times I know it off by heart.  Since the arrival of DVDs I looked for a DVD.  The only one I found was this, by BBC Germany.  It's alright because all you do is go to the Sprachen menu, select Englisch, then go back to Hauptmenu, and watch it in it's original BBC form.  If you do, you're best to ignore the first five minutes, they're pretty cringeworthy (false railway carriage, very crude introductory conversation).

Der Mondschimmel

It's a brilliant story, with some beautiful imagery, totally recommended if you like Fleams.  You may have noticed from these two covers, the main character, a young girl called Diana is played by Sarah Sutton, who went on to play Nyssa in Doctor Who, in the classic Tom Baker Years.  I loved it then, it was heavily Art Nouveau styled.  Apparently Tom Baker was styled as a Toulouse Lautrec poster.  Nyssa had a velvet fitted jacket, and, to start with, a puffy, tutu-type skirt, little Victorian boots.  The style was great.  It's kinda mixed up in my mind with The Moon Stallion and a play of Maria Marten in the Red Barn.  I'm not sure if Sarah Sutton was in the play, or whether it was an actress called Julia Proctor, who I thought looked like Sarah Sutton.  It's all mixed together in a brilliant Fleamsy dark folk mix.

Brian Hayles used the work of George Ewart Evans, especially his oral history work with horsemen as his inspiration.  I have some of his books, like:

A Good Book

More Fleamsy dark folk brilliance.  Who could ask for more on a blustery Autumn afternoon by the fire.  Not me.  Unless you added a snifter of sloe gin.

Dew Ponds

I went to Macc today, and looking out of the bus window the views were beautiful.  As it has been raining so much the dew-ponds were full and they looked like Mermaid's Pools among the tawny tussocks of the autumnal moors.

On my wish-list of books to read is Philip Heselton's Mirrors of Magic, about dew-ponds.  I haven't read it, so I can't tell you anything about it, but I think it should be good.

On Ascension Island all the water used has to be desalinated by reverse osmosis to supply fresh drinking water to everyone there (not like that's loads).  In the old days the water came from mist collectors and dew-ponds.  I think mist-collectors sound very romantic.  Here are some of Aimo's pics:

Mist Collector

The Same Mist Collector

Master Aimson just said to me that some of you may think I'm bullshitting, and I'm not an exhibiting artist with a husband that goes to Antarctica, The Falklands and Ascension Island; a son who's studying to be an actor, and a daughter at UEA studying Eng Lit and Creative Writing; and I just make all this stuff up.  Well they'd be wrong.  It's all true.  Even Fleams.

Here is a picture of Master Aimson at 2011's Buxton Festival Fringe (he's at the back with a cap):

The cast of Masquerade

Crossing the Line

My cat friend feels she was grossly misrepresented in the post Cat Shit.  She says she does understand the nature of friendship, and isn't merely looking for a convenient toilet, and anyway, can I prove all the shit in the garden is hers?

She has been around a lot lately, and I have wondered if her peoples are away and she is lonely.  There is a loads of so-called "scientific" talk going around at the moment "proving" that cats don't need as much care and attention as dogs.  What a load of bollocks.  Just because cats don't bark and annoy the neighbours doesn't mean cats aren't lonely when their peoples are away. 

There is another cat on our estate who we only see occasionally.  For a week or two he will be round all the time, looking for company, then we don't see him again until next time the people are on holiday.  One time, as he was prowling along the pavement on the other side of the road, I said "Hello, Stanley"  and he ran across the road and replied, "Yes, I will come in thank you very much" and made for the front door.  I had to explain I was merely passing a friendly greeting and didn't actually want to sit and watch Coronation Street with him.  He was quite cross about it.

When I was searching in Aimo's images for the penguin photos I used the other day, I found some pictures of my cat friend.  I think some kind of a line has been crossed when you have pictures of somebody else's cat on your computer.  An even further line has been crossed when you post them on your blog:



My Cat Friend



on a cushion



in the garden



at Aimo's House



a while ago

I would just like to say in my defence that I may have put a cushion out for her, played chase-the-stalk-of-grass with her, and stroked her, but I have never fed her or invited her into the house.  I am not without any morals as regards other people's cats.  But I did put her on this blog.  Crossed a line...

A Walk in the Rain

Some pictures of a walk in the rain near Fleams:

I love Fleams, even in the rain.

A Century of Blogging

100th post! Yay me!  Exciting times.

An exciting day yesterday also.  Firstly, many people think that once you're in the Bad Back Hotel, you can check out, but you can never leave.  But I have been given ticket out:

A Ticket to Healthy Back City

by my yoga teacher's sister, who is a neighbour of ours.  With the help of this book, my yoga teacher Lynn and some bolsters I will one day check out of The Bad Back Hotel.

Secondly, there are exciting developments with the first book about Fleams.  I have completed 11 illustrations, planned the other 15, and written the rhyming scheme.  Intriguing, hey?

Going back to the first point for a moment, I have often wondered if you can statistically measure the artiness of a town by the number of yoga teachers per head.  I think it works like this.  Yoga teachers and hippies moved into towns in the 1970s where cheap accommodation was available.  Cheap accommodation is also a draw for artists.  Ergo, number of yoga teachers per head high = arty town.

See you in the next century!

p.s.

Just discovered an exciting new chapter to the chapbook story, thanks to Rima Staines blog.  In Russia, this style of book is called a lubok.  To quote Wikipedia:

A lubok (plural Lubki,) is a Russian popular print, characterized by simple graphics and narratives  derived from literature, religious stories and popular tales. Lubki prints were used as decoration in houses and inns. Early examples from the late 17th and early 18th centuries were woodcuts, then engravings or etchings were typical, and from the mid-19th century lithography. They sometimes appeared in series, which might be regarded as predecessors of the modern comic strip. Cheap and simple books, similar to chapbooks, which mostly consisted of pictures, are called lubok literature.   Both pictures and literature are commonly referred to simply as lubki. The Russian word lubok derives from lub - a special type of board that pictures were printed on.  Very very interesting and an exciting discovery for me.  I know you already knew about them.

p.p.s.

More exciting things happening!  Master Aimson came home with an antique mandolin he had bought.  It is very knackered and very gorgeous.  Very shabby chic, or Shabby Cheek, if you go to the Treacle Market.  I like Mr Shabby Cheek.  One day when I am as rich as JK Rowling promised me, I will wear Shabby Cheek jewellery.  One day...

Spinning Jenny and Flying Witch

Yesterday was the day that I retired from textile art.  I have moved on to new pastures - the world of fiction, books, and illustration, where, I believe, the streets are paved with gold.  At least that's what J K Rowling told me.  Here's the nearest I will be getting to textiles from now on:

Spinning Jenny of Fleams

 a picture of Spinning Jenny.

Here's me flying away to pastures new:

Weird Folk

Yesterday I was discussing with Miss Aimson our joint entry for next year's Buxton Festival Fringe:

July 2014

The working title of the joint installation is Canholes Wood.  I shall base my work on Canholes Wood in the time of Granny Wildgoose (she of Fleams Fables fame) in the time of Fleams; and Miss Aimson's work will be based on an earlier era of Canholes Wood, weirder than Fleams.

"Weirder than Fleams?" you say.  "Yes" I say, Miss Aimson is weirder than Fleams.  Here is a photo of Miss Aimson doing an Alice-in-Wonderland impression, for which she shrank the dining room at Aimo's House to the size of a shoebox:

Miss Aimson - weirder than Fleams

There are some weird goings-on and Weird Folk at Aimo's House.

Stan Laurel, Anyone?

We went to see Master Aimson in Beauty and The Beast last night:

Well, it's not often you get the chance to see him in a sparkly suit and glitter make-up..  He was the m-m-mechanical m-m-manservant of Beast.  The mechanical man is a bit of a player, flirting with the maids, and, at one point, climbing under the hooped skirt of a very pretty wardrobe.  Master Aimson said at that point a member of the audience in the front row caught his eye and glared at him in disgust.  Obviously he was attending a play without having a concept of acting.

Master Aimson is, of course, very good at acting.  He is also very good at clowning.  Very often in his performances you are reminded of Michael Palin, but last night I was detecting hints of Stan Laurel.  If anyone is planning a biopic of Stan Laurel, maybe in black and white, a la The Artist, then Master Aimson is definitely your man.  (Tickets still available for Beauty and The Beast tonight, see what you think).

Here are some photos from the show:

Penguins, Foxes and Whales

I have been thinking about the South Atlantic, maybe because it is the time of year when Aimo would be going South.  This year he won't be, unless he has a short trip to the Falklands.  So I've been thinking about whales and ambergris.  What's ambergris?  Look it up, it's very interesting.  Aimo has never brought me any ambergris back from the South Atlantic, but there's time yet.

So I was thinking about whales and I found out about the Falklands Islands Wolf.  In 1876 at Shallow Bay (I love factual place-names) in the Falkland Islands, the last Falklands Wolf was killed.  Charles Darwin himself had predicted it would go the way of the dodo.  Which it did, but has not become as famous, which isn't fair really.

The first recorded sighting of the animal was made in 1690 by the crew of a British ship, the Welfare.  The animal was stocky, russet-coloured and about the size of a Labrador.  It had a thick woolly coat and a white-tipped, brush-like tail.  So was it a wolf or a fox?  In most respects it resembled a large, muscular fox, albeit one that ate penguins, geese and seals.

How cool is that?  It deserves to be as famous as the dodo for sure.  Unfortunately I don't have a picture of a Falklands Islands Wolf-Fox, but Aimo has lots of photos of penguins, so here are some Falklands Islands penguins, on the beach, on the dunes, hanging out...

A Man in a Penguin Suit

A Penguin on a Beach

A Penguin on Holiday

Penguins on a Windy Beach

Two Penguins

One Penguin

Penguins Dancing on a Beach by Jack Vettriano

Darwin stated the mystery of the Falklands Islands Wolf(Fox): "As far as I am aware there is no other instance in any part of the world, of so small a mass of broken land, distant from a continent, possessing so large a quadruped peculiar to itself".  Various theories have tried to explain this evolutionary mystery.  Some have suggested that the wolf-fox was descended from the domesticated culpeos, a South American fox which the Yaghan people of Tierra del Fuego used for hunting.  I'm not going to bother to describe the other theories, they are much more boring than that.  Hunting with foxes, I like it.