Herzog, Margins and the Makar - a typical Friday in Glasgow!

What great Friday night in Glasgow. Started off going to see The Cave of Forgotten Dreams as part of the the rather fabulous Glasgow Film Festival. I am a big fan of Werner Herzog and for fans of his work you will not be disappointed. Beautifully shot, beautifully lit and, as usual, he manages to track down some extra ordinarily quirky interviewees. I think his skill is that he likes to operate in areas that are unique or on the edge ( or should I say Margins!) and these tend to attract people with true passion, some might say obsession, and as a result their enthusiasm comes across as engagingly quirky in an increasingly bland and homogenized world. Herzog's commentary is oddly riveting and delivered in his trademark monotone that always promises more. The music was rather dronaly fabulous even without the contribution of the late Florian Fricke, so all in all a joy to watch in a very full cinema.

But – and it is a very big but, the film is 3D and so I was double glazed with a pair of Buddy Holly specs on top of my own bins in anticipation of my first filmick experience of 3D. I can only describe it as dreadful. Its not my first experience of 3D having watched a rugby match on the TV rendered though an interface that frankly reminds me of the give away 3D pictures that would occasionally be given away in breakfast cereal packets as a kid.

Blurred at the extremity, unsettling as prominent features go out of shot but, more than anything else, really headache inducing. Now, being a glasses wearer I am familiar with the experience of collecting a new pair of glasses with a changed prescription and the somewhat unsettling drunkenness that occurs as your eyes become accustomed to the new lenses. Your eye balls ache as they strain to settle and frankly it is not an experience I like. Well watching 3D was much the same. Ultimately it was so distracting and uncomfortable I simply took them off and watched it without the 3D and you know what – it was better.

As a glasses wearer I am very comfortable with a bit of blur so the film frankly seemed entirely acceptable to me. I have actually seem 2D films badly projected look a lot worse. The maximum blurring comes on the exterior long shots and, as these were not the main revelation of the film, it really lost nothing. The cave paintings themselves looked no different, or if any change was perceptible the lighting was better without glasses.

Great film but Werner, hear me, 3D sucks - big time.

So onward and upward and after a bag of chips from the legendary Blue Lagoon on the way to my next appointment Margins festival at Stereo in Renfield Lane. Fantastic venue and great event. Margins – for those that don't know - is the brainchild of the founder of Gargo publishing Mark Buckland and he deserves a great deal of praise for his vision and persistence in making it happen.

Now we at TESCAPE can only be excited about a spoken word event and this did not disappoint. Coming in the run up to Aye Write I think of this more as a Wee Speak. I was late, well crowded and hectic schedule, and arrived too late to hear Annelliese Mackintosh but if the rest of the show was anything to go by she would have been great. I caught Alan Bissett – fantastic and finely observed reading very well received by the audience. Top of the bill the wonderful Liz Lochhead – Scotland's very own Makar. She was sensational, with the Newly Married miner being my particular favourite.

Margins is still running till Sunday and for a £1 entry its not to be missed. To really top it the bar man looked strikingly like Rufus Sewell – maybe he is resting at present – and I swear he was replaced at some point in the eventing by Juliette Binnoche. Maybe my eyes deceived me, maybe it was the effect of those darned 3D glasses, maybe I was just having too much fun.

Ans so on to a late supper with a few friends – you know with Fridays like this living in the city of Scotland with Style is pretty damned good.

Makassar, De Gaulle and Tuak

Apparently it is 70 years to the day that two of the most memorable wartime broadcasts were made those being Churchill's finest Hour Speech and De Gaulle's first broadcast to the Free French from the UK. The impact and galvanising effect of these pieces of spoken word is as we know immense and once again reminds us of the power of the human voice to inspire and affect us is so many ways and in so many parts of our life.

I have to say these pieces of historical magnificence are such a contrast to the rather poor quality of speech and debate we heard yesterday at the Congressional inquiry at which Tony Hayward was pilloried. Now let me say for the record I have no sympathy for big corporates that do wrong and ride roughshod over ethical standards in pursuit of profit, and BP looks as guilty as hell so they deserve all they get. But it is the hypocrisy and arrogance and rather poor rhetoric of of the interrogators that got me. If only there had been such outcry over Bhopal. But of course there are some memorable appearances before the committee- George Galloway springs to mind.

On a more personal note the reminder of the French Government in exile took me back to a time some 20 years ago when I spent a good deal of time travelling in Indonesia. I travelled alone and reached some pretty interesting places – notably staying with a Dayak group in central Borneo. But my self satisfaction at being something of an intrepid traveller was rather punctured when I met a Dutch lady called Nina in central Sulawesi. She was in her late 60's, diabetic and had some difficulty walking having been run over by a bus in an earlier expedition. Her sight was not all that it might be – as a result of her diabetes – but she was not to be daunted in her desire to travel. Nina was full of fascinating tales having spent part of her childhood in Indonesia, and being part of the Free Dutch group in exile in England during the war. She could tell many a fascinating tale and we dodged the torrential rain and potent red Tuak rice wine in tumble down bars as nasty creepy crawlies climbed the walls and occasionally our legs. She spoke of the occasions she had met De Gaulle as well as part of the community of exiles in London at the time all in her quiet and soft English tempered by the Dutch accent. We lost touch and I have no idea where she is now or even if she is till with us, but it is a fond memory and if you read this Nina, yes I did look for the Makassar Schooners – did you find that Captain?

Spoken word a winner - again!

David Attenborough has won the Sony Radio Award for Speech Broadcaster of the Year. Described as “a masterclass in story-telling, a truly compelling listen and a classic example of vivid mind pictures created through beautifully crafted words, and delivered with a mesmerising and re-assuring voice” I assume this is for his contribution to A Point of View on Radio 4 – but I could be wrong. It is a fabulous collection of spoken word material and is a tribute to the man’s versatility given his most well recognised achievement in a remarkable life has been producing extraordinary visual material – albeit with a distinctive voiceover. The splendid thing about it is the way it is unmistakably Attenborough, and the anecdotal style is wonderfully intimate. And for anyone who thinks this is easy stuff well Attenborough himself says radio is tougher than TV and you only have to listen to Simon Schama recent efforts to see how easy it is to come very unstuck – sorry Simon.

Hat tip the ongoing success of Doctor Kermode in the same awards. On ya mate!

The Angels have a new boss

Once again – an obituary piece. This is getting sad, but this morning I hear about the death of John Forsythe. I suppose the curious thing for me is that, whilst most think of him in his role in Dynasty where he sparred with Joan Collins in true soap style, for me he will always be Charlie, the disembodied voice of the eponymous Angels’ boss. Despite all of the other things clamouring for my attention in Charlie's Angels (and bear in mind that when it first aired my hormones would have meant that I had eyes for little other than the fairer sex!) I was very much intrigued and drawn in by his superb vocal performance. Some may mock but even now I can conjure up that voice to mind in a heartbeat. For me it reminds me that the voice has such power, and when commanded by an actor of skill it is a lasting and striking tool. Fare well John and thanks.

Progress?

A report today about the planned retirement of analogue radio services highlighted the challenges it presents. This is an issue close to my heart as radio, particularly spoken word radio, remains one of the great joys in my life. The general public perception apparently is that they don't want or need any more radio channels and that the broadcast quality and reach of digital services is so patchy that the loss of analogues services would be unacceptable, a view incidentally which I share. Of course it wont stop the government ( of any colour) pushing ahead in the pigheaded way that they always do, but it is just another example of an occasion where new innovations that are foisted upon us are in many cases simply not as good as what they are replacing nor do they have any obvious advantage. My little transistor radio runs on batteries for weeks, but my DAB radio chews up power to the extent that you can forget about having a battery powered one. Even in a big metropolitan centre like the one that I live in the broadcast quality and reliability of the digital services is poor. You have to have the ariel up and taken together all of these things seem to go against the great advantage of radio – its portability. So it is with flat screen TVs. The quality of the picture is simply not as good as a CRT, and the power consumption is so much higher. But as a result of over promotion and relentless advertising many perfectly good CRT sets are ending up in landfill. One has to question how all this sits with the supposed desire of the governments – of all stripes – to push us to be more green. We are pressed to destroy perfectly good kit to replace it with new kit which is in many cases not as good, obviously costs in CO2 to produce the replacements and generally consumes more energy. This can also be said of the new low energy light bulbs. Of course they may use less power but it is negligible when you think how much more our TVs now consume and the DAB radios will. But most importantly they are not good sources of light – which surely should be the first consideration.

I guess I am just old fashioned but the “progress” we are all supposed to be “enjoying” just doesn't seem like progress to me, and runs counter to what is supposed to be our most pressing concerns – the environment.

Oh dear another one gone!

At the risk of this blog becoming an obituary column we have to say farewell to Harry Carpenter. Harry has been described as “one of the old school”, and I think that is meant affectionately rather than in any pejorative sense. He was without compare as a boxing commentator but was versatile and acted as anchor for more general sports programmes – notably Sportnsight.

He was, though, BBC trained in the days when the BBC could get it right. An interesting voice rather than a spectacular voice, but he used it to such good effect. Modulated and not prone to hyperbole or high volume outburst he was able to inject tension excitement and bring the viewer of listener into the event. Today's scruffy and unrestrained commentators – who seem to think that shouting and squeaking, as if on the terraces, makes for good commentary – would have learned a lot from Harry – know what I mean?

It's in the Voice

The death of David Vine was announced last week and it was particularly sad - if not surprising- as it seems to come on the heels of losing another great voice that of Oliver Postgate who left us late last year.

The thing about both of these peole is that they are both very much part of my youth, and to me partners in shaping my world with me. The reason they feel that close, I think, is the magical power of their voices. In both cases the voices are distinctive, and in many ways not the classical BBC voice of their era. But each had a distinctive quality that was well matched with what they were doing. Postgate had that wonderfully grandfather like quality that spoke of comfort and friendship and whimsy, whilst Vine was able to invest even the most mundane sports with vigour vim and passion.

It took only the briefest snatch of listening to them to be transported away to nicer places. Happily recordings of the remain, so for me it is possible to experience that again, but importantly for me it is a reminder of how powerful the human voice is and why TESCAPE is so passionate about it.

We have also lost Tony Hart and I mourn his passing for entirely different reasons.....

Happy New Year

Well that was a pretty poor performance in terms of blogging last year so perhaps my new years resolution should be to blog more regularly. Either way here it is, the firs of 2009.

Alistair Cooke must be one of the shining jewels of the spoken word world. His passing deprived us of the continuing joy of tuning in on Sunday morning, at least that is when I did, to listen in to his musings on life on the other side of the pond. Point of View is fine and I can listen to the idiosyncratic delivery of Clive James with a good deal of pleasure, but Cook is still king.

One of the good things about 50 years of broadcasting though, particularly with an organisation of the quality of the BBC, is that a good deal of archive material still exists of Alistair Cooke speaking at different times on a variety of subjects. As a result, and in the absence of anything better, the BBC do periodically dust off Cooke broadcasts and share them again with the nation and this Christmas has been no different. So it is with pleasure that I recommend to you the festive Alistair Cooke broadcasts. Introduced by the rather limp Justin Webb - but you can quickly overcome that to wallow in the honeyed tones of the master.

Find the broadcasts here.

Shun the frumious bureaucrat!

After such a positive and happy previous post about the joys of poetry recitals it is sad, but not entirely surprising, that this time I feel forced to report that there are those out there that clearly don't share my enthusiasm. Or at least cant rise above their own petty bureaucracy to embrace the joy of spoken word.

Apparently a poetry group meeting in the Royal Standard pub in Ely have been forced to suspend their meetings as the local council - East Cambridgeshire District Council - have decided that whilst the pub has a license for music this does not allow it run spoken word events.

This raises a number of points not least the idea that you can have a license to put poetry to music but this does not allow for you to speak the same lyrics unaccompanied. The absurdity of this position is clearly lost on the spokesman for the council who tries to defend the idea.

On a broader issue, from my perspective, is the question of why you should need a license for a spoken word event for anyway. Stealth tax perhaps?

More details of this case can be found here.

There are times when you have to fear that a country run by such small minded nongs really has gone to the dogs. I'm off to the pub for a beer to drown my despairing disbelief, but I wont make a joke with the landlord or anyone else at the bar because they may not have a comedy license.

One small note of good cheer, I did notice from the article that the poetry group was getting some Lottery Funding- huzzah!

Remembering Not to Forget

Here at TESCAPE we believe that the amount of material that can benefit from being lifted from the page through spoken word is broad and rich. So I was particularly pleased to come across an initiative by the National Archives to produce a series of podcasts that commemorate the armistice of 1918 that ended the First World War. It is right that we remember the anniversary of such an important event that brought to a close such a grim period, and giving voice to the words that detail some of the human stories of that war has a particular power.

The podcasts are relatively short and so far have covered some diary and reportage pieces detailing the reality of being part of a fighting unit in the maneuvering and skirmishing of the conflict and draw upon the materials held at the Archives in Kew . But one of the most interesting, for me, was the very first pod which is a fascinating account of correspondence (the letters being read) between a war widow and the ministry, in her efforts to get an up lift to her pension and allowance. In between the starchy language and letter writing style of the time there is a desperate human story, a tragedy that seems to be made more so by the apparently mundane circumstances of the officers death ( if death can ever be mundane) in a conflict so renown for its brutality and senseless waste.

This initiative is a wonderfully evocative and appropriate way of helping to remember not to forget by bringing a human voice to a subject that can seem increasingly distant. I for one will continue to subscribe and wear my poppy with pride as we remember the sacrifices made by so many some 90 years ago.

The series is available as an RSS feed here, and I would strongly recommend it.

Darwinism

There has been a good deal of debate about the theory of evolution and the ideas of intelligent design and the literal interpretations of creationism. It has led to people stepping down from roles, and a good deal of fiery exchange but, to be honest, it is not something that really exercises me.

However, I have discovered something that comes from Darwin that really does. I seems that on the excellent Darwin Online site there is available for download a spoken word version of Darwin's Beagle Diary. It is five episodes as heard on BBC Radio 4's Book 0f the week back in 2006. Already started to listen and it is great. This just the sort of material that TESCAPE will be bringing to you, so in the interests of letting you know about the best why not visit the Darwin Online site and take advantage of this great offer.

Poets and Mystery

Much excitement in the last couple of days with the discovery and release of recordings of Agatha Christie discussing some of her work, and an announcement that recordings of a selection of the United States most important 20th Century poets are to be released.

The sound quality of the recordings, from what I have heard, is not of the highest standard, but there is such magic in hearing their voices that it makes any quality issues entirely secondary. Hearing how the poet felt their work should be performed, and understanding a little better the thinking of one of the most succesful writers are just two examples of how spoken word can add to the enjoyment of the written word. There is a richness in that transaction, yet at the same time the spoken word has an intimacy that video fails to capture. At the risk of using a tired cliche from the arena of knowledge management, I can say more than I write, and I know more than I can say.

It still matters - in cricket anyway

I am one of those lucky people who take it for granted that it is entirely possible to listen to a radio commentary of a five day game of cricket and never be bored. Its because I have had the immense privilege of being able to listen to Test Match Special (TMS) on BBC radio. I almost envy those who have not discovered the wonders of TMS because what a wondrous awakening they have available to them. For me there is little to compare to the joy of waking up at, say, 3am, on a cold winters morn getting a pot of tea and snuggling back down beneath the warm bed covers listening very quietly to a commentary of an England winter tour delivered by the masterful TMS team.

Now TMS is an institution, and it is not a trifling matter to amend or meddle with an institution and woe betide anyone that does. Now it seems that TMS has a new producer or some such and as is often the way of things, he has decided to make changes - notably bringing in some new commentators, and losing some others. Some of these have not been well received, and to be fair the excuses for these changes offered in the blog, have been fairly roundly exposed as little more than vacuous management speak. But the thing I find gratifying is the way people are not resisting change of itself, they are saying that the change must be for the better and that some of the new voices are simply not up to the job. Now its interesting that it is not the voice itself, although that does clearly matter, but it is the quality and depth of insight an analysis that the contributors can bring that is important and what concerns the listeners most (along with some issues about conflict of interest and ethics - also important values).

To me it is once again a reminder that, in a world of multimedia, wide screen freeze and replay TV, there are people out there that truly value spoken word and the quality of the material they are listening to, and still take the time to fight to preserve it.

It is things like this that reassure me that TESCAPE does have a ready audience, I only hope that when TESCAPE has been operating as long as TMS has been, that we can still retain such passionate and discerning followers.

The gentle rain

For the last few days it has rained, and rained some more. My mother, who clearly resides in a less rainy area, was happily telling me abut all of the wonderful homegrown vegetables she had served at dinner that evening. I was tempted to say I had eaten a fish caught in my own back yard.

Whilst the rain, in what is supposed to be summer, can be very disappointing, rain at night is welcome. It saves me watering the garden and feeling guilty about using potable water in that way, but most importantly it sounds so delicious. It sooths and calms and comforts and gently wraps you into sleep. It was whilst experiencing that delight once again that I was reminded exactly why I founded TESCAPE. The sound of a human voice can have exactly that same soothing calming effect. It can do so many other things a well, intrigue, inspire, indoctrinate. But just as your mother may have read a bed time story to you, or maybe stroked your feverish forehead telling a story and saying all would be well, the power of eh human voice to comfort endures throughout life. So in praise of that magnificent quality, TESCAPE will continue to generate quality spoken word for your enjoyment.