Back And Proud

Posted on January 22, 2006 by richie paradise

Not the Gypsy Kings

No, Not the Gypsy Kings, but The Orchestra with a vengence. As you have no doubt already read and seen, The Maestro Peter Swaffer Reynolds was back. With him, his own special brand of musical madness stroke Art, odd time signatures (anyone for 13/4?), a new Violinist (Simone) Simone And the return of Mr Hopkinson Hopkinson, in a kind of Dalek way.

Mr Hopkinson’s said quite a bit about this so i’ll be brief. A good turn out
turn out
A youthful looking Mark, Adam ‘The Wolfman‘, Leo, Bel, Hugh, Marcus, Mr Hopkinson, Chris, David, Simone, Peter, and yours truely. Some great material born from Peter’s ideas and that 13/4 turned into a smoking little tune with lots of drive and passion (we’re very passionate people us Orchestra types let me tell yew), reminded me of Chris Bowden‘s big band stuff.
And despite Peter’s flattery of me, it took me ages to get something to work for it.

Peter unleashed the Accordian and We ended with me playing 4/4 and 5/4 whilst everybody else played 7/8 and 5/4, crazy yes but it somehow worked.

Ch, Cha Ciao for now, Richie Paradise Richie Paradise

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so the bin is back!

Posted on January 20, 2006 by ben_gaster

here i am in san jose which, according to the song, is difficult to find and the weather is just lovely. the sun has been out all day and it is really quite hot.

…heading back tomorrow and looking forward to being back in the uk and heading down to the cube for some live music and catching up with friends.

as you can see i’m getting along well in the land of CA as really can think of very little to say at this point.

SO SEE SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON.

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Pet_er re_turns, in a circular style

Posted on January 19, 2006 by site admin mr_hopkinson

My first Orchestra Cube practice in a few weeks, and Peter’s first in a few months . . . the maestro returned to conduct us with his trademark charismatic conviction. It almost felt like he’d never left except we were in the circle formation that developed in his absence . . .

peep the conduct

. . . it’s much more fun in my eyes and ears than trying to conduct yourself ( which I’ve never been able to do properly ) , even though I was often challenged, or should that be baffled (?), by the strange time signature combinations and circular motif suggestions. Meanwhile the “brilliant” Richie Paradise ( (c) Peter Swaffer-Reynolds ) did a great job with the various difficult rhythms.

The main theme seemed to be instilling a sense of structure to allow improvisation to occur within, with a nod to it being palatable, or even seductive, to the potential audience.

There were lots of new faces, to me anyway, and I was sort of sad to have missed the previous practice which was apparently the antithesis of this week’s control with way too many people, not enough amplification and almost no coherent sense of direction – sounds like another kind of, but still, fun to me!

Posted in admin, Cube Orchestra, General, Richie Paradise | 2 Comments

Düne it 4 the kids ( and 4 the adults 2 )

Posted on January 17, 2006 by site admin mr_hopkinson

Not the first recording of this, but, for now at least, the latest . . . Herman Düne, as if you didn’t know, played a show for kids at the nanoplex, and a show for the ‘dults at the strangely similar looking microplex all in the same day.

I missed the animation that was screened first, but got there in time to video, and photograph . . .

look at them, not me !

. . . the first performance, which was followed by an intermission and gingerbread men care of the Blackout Blusherettes . . .

well bread

. . . which was followed by The Monkey vs Robot puppet show . . .

seen here with helpers . . .

. . . which was followed by the second short HD performance, with mini on stage chorus for the last song . . .

seen here with helpers too . . .

. . . which lead on to a nano-stage invasion and a musical chaos that even the Cube Orchestra may never achieve . . .

chaos said the captain!

. . . which concluded the first part of the day.

In between and in the office Tom ( as in Tom Bugs ) fixed the fridge . . .

Frozen Bugs

. . . and Tom ( as in Freeze Puppy Tom ) arrived to support the adult show. FP walked mechanically onto the stage to commence his, as ever unlike-anything-else, set . . .

Frozen moments of Puppy

. . . and concluded with an audience involving version of Happy Birthday for his Grandmother, who was actually in that there audience.

Next up, those Herman Düne boys, AGAIN . . .

once again

. . . wowing the sell out crowd, including enthusiastic fans who gave them drawings and ukuleles . . .

Uke between his legs, there

Rounded off, for me at least, by a round of TeamBrick impersonations in the office . . .

Let'sgo Brick

Düne & Done.

Posted in admin, General, Herman Düne, Life, Music, performance, Team Brick, Theatre, Video | 4 Comments

Onwards And Upwards

Posted on January 15, 2006 by richie paradise

Though I have to say there was a fair share of downers too this week but I’ll come on to that later (nothing to worry about).
War Commitee
The Cube Orchestra Steering Commitee (personally I prefer War Commitee but I’m in a minority) met with Mark Slater, who, correct me if I’m wrong here Mark, is in charge of mergers and corporate takeovers at The Cube alongside designing the Cube’s blueprint for THE TAKING OVER OF THE ART WORLD. It was very successful meeting and hopefully they’ll be a lot more orchestra type things going on this year, including a Nanoplex performance. We’re also planning an invasion of the Royal Philharmonic.

ale shows how
As for this weeks meeting, well 4 newbies (2 in the photo above), David on keys and laptop, Adam also on keys. Leo on geetar and (i think, apologies for forgetting) Carol on Ukulele.
Adam was the wearer of a tres bizarre hat moon now if you randomly came across this picture without any context, you’d think that was the moon and Adam was turning into a Werewolf. Funnily enough there was definately something evil about the music this week, we were all over the place, inspiration was sporadic, but at least we had the return of Tomoko Tomoko and Bel brassy bel These two were instrumental in helping us end on a high note, a long languid bluesy jazz tune with trumpet bursts and some great traditional bass work from Kobe‘s finest. We also saw the return of Hugh marcus and hugh (seen here walking past Marcus). Hugh encouraged us to play quieter, seeing as there was alot of soundspace being taken up, he was right and Hugh I apologise for my vile and vulgar response, too mnay years spent in mess halls and class rooms.

Next week sees the return of The Maestro, Peter Swaffer-Reynolds, I’m sure inspiration will flow forth.

Ciao for now, Richie Paradise Richie Paradise

Ps the answer to last weeks Guess who was Ale

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BEAT IT PUNK

Posted on January 15, 2006 by richie paradise

Barry
Do you know Barry? Barry is the nicest man in the Cube, nay the world, and I’m glad to say he’s not ejecting folk from the Cube, he’s just being proper bo.
He was manning the sales desk for the rather marvellous ‘The Beat That My Heart Skipped‘ (De battre mon coeur s’est arrêté)
 beat it I really enjoyed it, as did Mrs Paradise and the rest of our entourage. I was so moved that I had to go buy myself one of those suits that French guys wear so well.
Because it was so busy we were also treated to a short film by some of the Cube gang cube typesvanish and also a few stills from a great night at the Cube which featured Burlesque related fun, radical cheerleading burlesque

Good to se the punters cramming in for the next film too.
Au Revoir mes amis, flying Richie P Richie Paradise

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wet in san jose

Posted on January 15, 2006 by ben_gaster

so it seems i’m getting bit by the bug with this my thrid report in almost as many days! i’ve just arrived in san jose… do you know the way…and for the first time since i’ve been coming to this part of the US it is really quite nasty weather but i suppose it does remind me of home.

quite excited that tomorrow i’m hoping to head of to san francisco, always fun, and check out dave eggers pirate shop 826 which is also a center for creative writing. although might go the other direction and head out down 101 to Cannery Row and check out the fishs in Monterey it all depends on what the people I’m with feel like doing.

god knows i’m feeling a little tired so off for a cocktail and then some sleep.

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some thoughts

Posted on January 13, 2006 by ben_gaster

i’m not at the cube much lately, due to a little baby amoung other things, but the few times i’ve been there over the last couple of the months have been great and i do miss the place. so thought maybe i would start to write in the log even if not at the cube, hope this is ok? i will however be at the cube on Sat 28th for The Books who are currently one of my fav listens of 2005, Lost and Safe (Tomlab), and have been waiting a looooooooooooong time to see them live. Check out there website for more info The Books.

so what do people talk about in blogs…personally until this day i never really been into the idea of writing a blog or reading others talk about themselves in a slight hint that it is actually worth the time and effort and i expect in my case it probably won’t be!

another thing i looking forward to is an event happening not at the cube but at the top of a car park…for two weeks…promoted by Blackout Arts, a group often found in and around the cube for one reason or another. the event itself is called intimate~INTIMATE and “for two weeks, one of Bristol’s landmark buildings, Tollgate House, will be turned into a giant canvas and project space”. For more info checkout the website Blackout Arts

ok better not go on to much as i’m not sure if it is allowed to use the Cube bog in this way, can someone answer this?

c ya ben…

Posted in General | 1 Comment

The Blog must flow

Posted on January 10, 2006 by site admin mr_hopkinson

Wow, great flurry of posts – hope this bodes well for 2006 and the long held dream of a true multiperspective Cubelog as varied and wonderful and the real world Cube.

As most of the new post was on Herman Düne I thought I’d add a new category for them . . . meanwhile my unedited, but optimised, pics of the night can be trawled through starting from here.

I would, and will, put up my view up with pictures, but I’m preparing, and indeed plugging, a Computer Sings gig right now . . .

Ahem, anyone in London on Wednesday ( 11th January ) it’s at The Social, 5 Little Portland St, London . . . and it’s free . . .

first click http://www.tiredandlonesome.com/ ( and then click on “live” )

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doing it for the kids at the Nanoplex

Posted on January 9, 2006 by ben_gaster

it has been a long time since my last entry and again it seems to be inspired by Herman Dune… this time doing it for the kids!

yesterday saw Herman Dune return to the Cube after last years two day session and in conjunction with the Nanoplex, the Cube’s answer to Cinema, Music, and puppets for children outside the multiplex world of Disney and Dreamworks, preformed two 20 minute sets, along with Russian Animations and Monkey vs Robot Puppet madness.

The show was just great with kids and parents alike taking over the place, drinking tea, juice, and eating cake allowing the Cube to become again a new place for people to express themselves a venue outside the norm. personally I had no idea if this event would be busy or how it would work but in the end the kids filled the stage with Herman Dune and Friends smashing the drums and shaking anything they could get to make a noise… as if we don’t get enough of these when they are at home!

the evening was great too but now as a father speaking i can’t think futher than my little daughters happerness…are now i’m off to be sick!

see you all again in 6 months time.

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