Bit of a housekeeping morning – although no actual housekeeping was done. I extended the domain mapping for http://pulpmagazine.co.uk (it’s a bit of a pain that WordPress.com is one of the few blog services that charge for such a service). The site is mothballed now but I am loathe to let the domain lapse, and for the links to break (we have a great many external links to the site), so £7 for a year’s reassurance is worth it. Plus, however it turns out, the Guardian Student Media Awards are this Wednesday. It makes sense to have the site still functional during that time at least.
I also ordered some shoes. Predictable as it may be, I just know where I am with Converse shoes, to the degree that I can order them online knowing they’ll fit. Of course, they would if I ordered the right size. Fortunately, cloggs.co.uk‘s customer service is snappy and helpful and they were able to cancel my order in time. The correct order should arrive tomorrow, all being well.
A lazy afternoon from then on – I haven’t really had a ‘day off’ to myself for a week or more so it was quite nice to make some lunch and dump myself in front of the PS2 and play some videogames. I did that till John got home from uni, and then he did it a bit too.
In the evening I headed into the city for an event I had heard about earlier in the day: Naomi Kashiwagi doing something called “Wind Up” at the Central Library (see above). Acoustic noisemaking, using the natural reverberation of the Central Library’s domed main room? Yes please! I bumped into Clare and some of her Whitworth buddies, and before long, Naomi was winding up the two gramophones she was using, set up on a table near the centre of the circular room.
For the next half an hour, we (and there were about a hundred folks scattered around the large room – some still trying to get their work done!) listened as she set up different loop tracks and lock grooves on manipulated 78rpm discs. Some had cuts in, or tape stuck so that the needle would dance over portions of the sound, creating a rhythmic, clickety-clack sound. She went on swapping discs over and gently moving the needle to different portions of the surface, much like a modern DJ, only the sounds she was using were very old-fashioned (I wish I’d had a look at what 78s she was using now!).
The coolest bit, obviously, was that the sound from the gramophones was completely unpowered and unamplified, and the natural reverberation of the room – which is remarkable even when just browsing books and hearing whispers and bangs echoing around the room – created extensions of the noises she was playing.
It was a really interesting performance, and I’m glad the library allows such things to happen. I believe Naomi has done similar performances at the Whitworth Art Gallery and Victoria Baths, and long may she continue to do so.
The walk home was very nice too. It’s a good 40-minute walk from my house to the library, but a pleasant enough one, and the rain hadn’t arrived by then. I spent some time taking a few long exposure photographs up and down Oxford Road, remembering for the first time in a while, how much I love night-time photography in cities. It’s been ages since I had a good little session of it.
I got home and watched some King of the Hill with John and hit the hay soon after.
*****
Grandmama update: mum says that things are looking good and confirmed again that she was up and about a bit, walking with the aid of a frame. Of course this is a shame on its own, but really it’s the best that any of us could’ve hoped for. That she is still mentally sharp as a tack is just wonderful.
