Have just tracked down a crazy good track from Late Junction last week

After a long trawl through Max Reinhardt's Late Juntion site on the bbc iplayer I have tracked down a crazy good track I heard round midnight last week. It is sung by a half-Armenian woman from Suffolk...
Cevanne

A departure from Annabel Karmel

I have never warmed to Annabel Karmel's work apart from the inspired combination of mashed banana and avocado. So I am proud to document today's suppertime success:

Rice-flour fusili with leftover beetroot sauce stirred with grilled mackerel and yoghurt.

Totally polished off.

Here's the beetroot sauce from a Jocelyn Dimbelby recipe scanned from A Taste of Dreams published 1976:

The Really Terrible Orchestra at the Edinburgh Fringe

I have just designed the flyer for the upcoming RTO concert at Edinburgh's Festival Fringe:

No prizes for guessing that Carnival of the Animals is on the bill.

mrpeach the Architect performs at the Edinburgh Festival

How about that, I have been invited to participate in an ArtsAdmin event on the Festival Fringe in August. Artist Richard Dedominici will be coordinating a Human Library where human books will be lent out for 10 minute chats to library visitors to expostulate on the future of their profession. Subjects of the Edinburghian books include beekeeping, wrestling and now, Architecture, as I have been invited in that particular capacity. Borrow me between 3-4pm on 11th August at the Forest, Bristo Place, Edinburgh.

Interactive ipad books for children

Are these the best thing since the invention of the printing press? Or are they to be viewed with a similar sneer as the one bestowed upon wall-to-wall C-Beebies by a certain tranche of middle class parents? So far I am torn on this matter.

A couple of weeks ago I had the good fortune to be able to jump on a bicycle, alone, at midday, under the beating sun with no need for a coat on and cycle 15 minutes to arrive at the Hampstead ladies pond for an idyllic and ultra-refreshing swim. As the dragonflies flew past my head I had not a care in the world, it belied description. And as I savoured the glow afterwards, gazing down the meadow an apparent brainwave came to mind, to design Liberty print kilts for little boys and girls! R&D is underway, watch this space as they say.

I mention this as a preamble to another apparent brainwave, to harness skills for an interactive i-pad book for children. I thought this was a novel idea and tapped it straight into google where in a split second I had over 350,000 hits. (The kilts were definitely more original). Nevertheless, I guessed that very few of these would be an interactive book that I actually appealed to my critical eye. The book, or series of books, that I have in mind are remaining tightly under wraps, suffice to say it was published over 30 years ago and deserves an outing in the new millenium. But it has got me all in a lather about my stance on this.

Peruse Alice in Wonderland for ipad. It feels like you are the first to see this, no? but there have already been over a million viewers on that youtube video alone.

Why I am deeply suspicious:

Speed. The advert is over five times as fast as I would like to view it. This is purely a sign of my age and reminds me that since the fast cuts of hospital series ER first came on the screen I have been increasingly left behind by the ever accelerating trend for speed in editing the moving image. Somebody half my age has been brought up on this and has a brain that appears to tolerate watching such a storm of images and process it, whilst also processing music through and earpad (sic - I know) in one ear and corresponding on facebook with one eye. The trailer for the world cup was, for me, the latest in this Babel-like fantasy which shows no signs of slowing down. Since the 'Alice' advert is in this gear is then it seems like too much to hope for that the ipad book will provide a slow enough medium to discover the text at any real level of depth.

Sensation. Corny it is, but surely nothing beats holding the soft paper of a book. I could rhapsodise about the aged origins of a sheaf of papyrus, the world-changing democracy of Gutenberg's printing press, the well-chewed, well-loved corner of a board book for a 6 month old, and I have; it's all true. When holding an ipad I bet what you feel is a thrill of owning and touching the latest piece of MacSoftware worth £xxx and that the kudos is more than half about the zeitgeist and your utter coolness to be touching such a fancy piece of kit, rather than an engagement with the text it portrays.

Wholeness. This was pointed out to me by a friend but I'll claim it was latent in my mind. A piece of art has a beginning, a middle and an end, right? or thus it was drummed into me by a certain dragon of an English teacher a while ago. When I read a bedtime story to a child the child knows and I know that I'll be getting to the end and then that afterwards presumably that story can be digested in the mysterious drift off to sleep. Music and visual art also gain their own force in being made whole. When you open an ipad book I expect you select it from the sea of other files you own and that when you are in it there is no physical sense of its entirety, short of maybe a time-bar if you tap the screen. It leaves the medium open for abuse, for unsatisfying nibbles and tastes of artistry that may be abandoned at the moment that attention wanes. I'm all for long attention spans.

Why I am thoroughly seduced:

Fusion. I have a feeling that this format has created a whole new medium for art that is greater than the sum of its parts. What are its parts? Well, the written word, visual art, the spoken voice, music, animation and lastly, the empowerment to be able to bring about cause and effect in all of these. So, the talking book answers a need when you are in some long daily commute by car; the illustrated book is the current state of the art and is loading up your bookshelf, looking good; the music is there in the film version; the animation has been there in Walt Disney's Fantasia for well over 50 years; the web has been there for more than a decade and now we navigate websites at will. A toddler until a certain age that I have not yet had the glee to observe cannot navigate a website at will, but pressing on a throbbing potion which is audibly calling out "Drink me!" and then basking as the liquid plays some sort of trick may well be possible.

What else? That's about it for now. Ever cautious, the cons seem to have outweighed the pros at the moment. It's all a ruse to keep you from guessing what my ipad fantasy will turn out to be, but again, watch this space, the voice of the century has agreed to read it for me!

A hot tip for that coordinated mother-toddler look

If you are at a certain age and stage I have a little project here to achieve that coordinated look for mother and toddler. Instructions for making your own trouser and top combo.

What you will need:
- a toddler, a sewing machine, elastic, perseverence against the odds and an easy-going attitude to what you thought of as "style" before you read this.

To do:
1. Trawl your local charity shops for a jumper that is not quite 'you' but that has a great colour and fabric - today I found a brown and blue striped merino wool top from Gap for £5
2. Purchase, take home and cut off the arms leaving the seam on the arm side and raw edge to the body
3. If you think the fabric is going to fray, take the sawn-off body and do a zig-zag stitch on the raw armholes. There you go, that's your new top!
4. Take each arm and hack out a quarter circle from the wider upper arm end. Make the resulting shape look like your toddler's trousers when they are lying there flat and folded in half down the middle. What used to be arms are now legs!
5. Take the legs and make a great effort to work out which sides you need to pin together in order to sew these into something resembling trousers. Tack the raw edges that you have pinned and attempt to put toddler in to check for adjustments. Measure the length of elastic you will need for the waist in order to make these bags stay on.
6. Take them off again and sew seams together
7. Make a hem for the top by double-folding the edge towards the inside and sew into place leaving a slot for the elastic.
8. Pin a safety pin onto the elastic to hold onto whilst threading this through.
9. Sew together and neaten up as best you can!

OK, this is somewhat of a hoax because once I got home and tried the stripey jumper on I quite liked it and am still wearing it now, intact. But if anyone gets there first be sure to let me know! If I ever do it I promise I will put post photos here.

The inspiration for this was the time I used my cashmere polo neck to dress my own toddler (legs into the arms) after a complete soaking in the sea without a change of toddler clothes to hand. It looked so snug that I wondered why we did not do it more often although there was a lot of spare fabric around the waist.

what to do at the Edinburgh festival with a toddler?

Having trawled the Edinburgh Book Festival program and the Fringe festival program I hereby highlight the events recommended for toddlers ie. people under 2 years old. It goes without saying, as an adult if you only attend these events you might feel like a toddler yourself but here goes:


Book Festival


I am looking forward to the annual occupation of Charlotte Square. Located at the west end of the magnificent George St it's one of those excellent grassed town squares that you wish were public. The office people looking on to it certainly don't seem to use it for the other 11 months of the year. It is gloriously open to the public in August and these toddler and babes in arms events are free events! but they require booking.

Bookbugs
Little ones and their grown-ups can sing along with traditional nursery songs and action rhymes. This incredibly popular event is hosted by Edinburgh City Libraries and is part of Scottish Book Trust’s Early Years Programme. Maximum 4 tickets per booking.


Scots Rhymes
Craigmillar Books for Babies returns with their ever-popular singalong event chock full of Scots rhymes. A lovely playful half-hour which helps to develop language, rhythm and coordination skills through motion and gesture. Maximum 4 tickets per booking.


Fringe Festival


The choice here is overwhelming, even when you isolate the events suitable for under-twos. Weirdly it is not possible to do this on the fringe website as far as I can imagine but in some spare minutes after toddler bedtime I lay on the recliner and manually trawled the program. In doing this I questioned the age rating of some of the shows, witness Oz, seemingly about the trauma of death in the family. Why this is rated as being suitable for 0 to 1 year olds I have no idea, perhaps it's a typo in the program or perhaps it's for babies so young that it remains for the adults to seek interest in the storyline. On the other hand a trawl through the online program led me to shows which the printed program missed for 0 to 2 year olds including Baby Disco, surely worth a visit with a little one who has newly found their feet and Buzzing, which discovers the poetry in insects at the Botanic Garden. Here are the rest of those isolated events for your delectation. I have copied in the blurb from the program and you can click on the links to find out cost and times and to buy a ticket! Only a couple are free but I have indicated when they are:

The Amazing Bubble Show 
C too St Columbas by the Castle, Johnston Terrace 
Breathtaking bubbles, people-inside-bubbles, square bubbles, amazing bubble colours, sculptural bubbles, special effect bubbles. A show for kids of all ages to thrill, laugh, love and learn about the world of Bubble-Ology. Book early.

Doctor Austin and Sparks in Space
C Central Carlton Hotel North Bridge 
Puckish pop scientist Doctor Austin is back with cheeky puppy Professor Sparks in an all-new puppet science show for the whole family that's out of this world - literally! 

Flamenco for kids
C Plaza George Sq Theatre
Flamenco for all the family - learn the rhythms, stamp your feet, clap along, get up on stage...and dance! Costumes for kids and instruments to try out.

Hairy Maclary
Assembly @ George St
Out of the gate and onto the stage went Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy. Come and see the UK show, based on Lynley Dodd's much-loved children's books, featuring many of your favourite characters.

Little baby Snoogle-Fleejer
Church Hill Theatre
An imaginative tale by President Jimmy Carter. Others might flee at the sight of a terrifying sea monster, but Jeremy is surprised to discover a kindred spirit and learns some valuable lessons along the way.

Monkey Music
Pleasance Courtyard
Back by popular demand award winning Monkey Music has fun filled workshops for six-months to two-years (10:30am) and two-years to five-years (11:30am). There'll be action songs, games and fun with percussion instruments. Join in the fun with Monkey.

Our Little Green Book of Children's verse
St Cuthberts Parish Church, corner Lothian Rd and Princes,
FREE non-ticketed
New original fun-filled show! Come and join performance poet Jenny Wilcock as she travels through her garden and beyond. 

Oz by Don Zoldis 
the Spaces@Surgeons Hall, Nicolson St
Reeling from her sister's death, a young woman finds herself on a journey of the mind, into a world suspiciously resembling 'the Wizard of Oz'. Enjoy a hilarious and often heartwarming exploration of grief and perseverance.


Pandora's Book
Church Hill Theatre
A precocious little adventurer must save the day when stories escape from a magical book. Join Pandora as she outwits folktales from around the world in this whimsical, humorous tale featuring live music, puppetry and multicultural performance techniques.

Penguin
Pleasance courtyard 
'Penguin' is a spectacular puppet show, adapted from award-winning book by Polly Dunbar. Follow the twists and turns of this wonderful tale, in which a silent Penguin turns marvellously eloquent and a little boy finally gets his heart's desire.

Petite Rouge
the Spaces@Surgeons Hall
'Petite Rouge' - book, music and lyrics by Joan Cushing. Children's musical - Red Riding Hood is a duckling and the wolf an alligator called Claude! This entertaining fable is colourful with jazzy foot-tapping tunes.

The Red Bus Children's Show
The Meadows
Classic entertainment for children on board our original 1962 red double-decker Routemaster bus in the Meadows. Puppetry, singing and storytelling every day, 11am 'til 5pm. You can't miss us! Rides first and last thing. 

Seesaw
Dancebase 


Sparkleshark
the Spaces@Surgeons Hall
Sparkleshark' by Philip Ridley is an adventure-laden show wherein teens battle monsters and rescue princesses, becoming fast friends. Highly interactive, come and witness the power of storytelling! First premiered at the Royal National Theatre in 1997.

Tall Storrie and Wee Godley
Pleasance Dome
Scots mother and daughter team Janey Godley and Ashley Storrie have exciting games, storytelling, comedy, funny improv and music. Kids are encouraged to bring along their own favourite instrument and join the house band. 

A World of Pure Imagination
Laughing Horse@The Three Sisters, Cowgate
FREE non-ticketed
Interactive show of favourite stories and poetry from authors including Kipling and Lewis Carroll. Each performance varies, uniquely brought to life by entertainers inviting you to share their world of pure imagination. 


Ok, so the last one sounds right up my street. But with the likes of a children's musical penned by ex-president Jimmy Carter I feel I must issue a disclaimer and point out that the above selection is made wholly on the basis of age bracket alone and I have not viewed any one of the above shows. Barring Monkey Music which I did go to last year and about which my most generous comment is that I will reserve judgement until revisiting this year.

Thank you Emergency Budget for crushing building development

Today I head that a medium sized developer was shelving a building project that has been in progress for about 4 years. His reason? the risk of the banks pulling out of his project in a couple of years time is too great. This affects not only his livelihood but the livelihood of all his consultants. Thank you Conservative Emergency Budget for crushing the construction industry. I am profoundly miserable that you ever got in to power. And don't get me started about the inane, erroneous and patronising handle of "Big Society".

Gareth Malone and the Korrel question

I am rarely addicted to a tv series. The last one was a grudging but profound addiction to Madmen and before that a wholehearted addiction to Six Feet Under which was quelled when David picked up a sadistic hitch-hiker and I nearly had a heart-attack. At that point I decided that it was only a tv program and that I should not put myself in the position where I could die at midnight watching it on a Monday evening after a hard day's work and a bottle of wine. But then came The Choir! to which I was not addicted but wept with emotion whenever I stumbled across it.

So, in the post madmen vacuum I have landed upon Gareth, thinking woman's crumpet, to elevate my scarce tv-watching minutes. And his Glyndebourne program does not disappoint.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00stckf

He is surely doing an essential job with joy and flair and determination. He inspires people to find a voice, and whilst his guise appears to be from Royal College of Music silver spoon elite he is drawing out the latent but universal instinct to sing from a culture who have lost it. Of course this glittering intro precedes my critical take on the second episode of the Glyndebourne Knight Crew project. The bulk of the crew has been selected to hone evident talents but from an immediate reading of the program it seems that the program exists to focus in on marginalised youngsters and follow what is hoped to be a transformational exercise. This is how some of the suspense is created for the viewer.

Hence Kia, Stefan and Korrel. The less obviously talented crew members make it through on account of their looks and their expected stage presence therefore Stefan, the 18 year old cadet who was adopted as a toddler, Kia, who is having a hard time settling into a new school and Korrel, trawled from a young offenders centre. Kia was singled out by Gareth as she had fallen out of participation, and whispered the notes she was asked to sing in a one-to-one session. It was cringe-making watching as we feel for Kia, racked by shyness yet glowing when she loses her reserve. I could not believe there would be a turn-around. Stefan was singled out by Gareth he was apparently tone-deaf. Yet tone-deaf is not a word you would hear on a Gareth Malone program and I wonder whether it should ever have been coined. Stefan when asked to sing a note repeatedly repeatedly repeatedly sang a different one. I am familiar with this from the example of my brother as a young teen. I was convinced as I was when watching Stefan that this is where his career in singing would end. But marvellously and magically Gareth persisted and the next time we see Stefan he can not only sing his part but sustain it whilst Gareth sings a semi-tone above! I was totally bowled over. Clearly tone-deafness does not exist or if it is present is not absolute. The euphoria you feel as a viewer is amazing. The confidence it gives the performers is profound. It's a total success already, against the odds, set up by the program construction.

But this is where I come to a perceived fault. Korrel was really the one who would only succeed against the odds. Young offender is used as a term for his status but no one delves into why he was in prison aged 14 and what mark this left on him. Arrestingly handsome he plays truant, talks on the phone over Gareth's presentations and his gangly teenager body language spells a lack of trust. Gareth follows him in his spare time for a pep talk at the young offenders institution to talk him into participating fully. His call to arms is the challenge that "this will be the best thing you have done in your life" Korrel is practically fighting back the tears, his hormones awry and his rebellious nature foxed into silence. But will it really? what if Korrel already saved a 3 year old sister from drowning? or what if he gets up earlier than his mother in the morning to make her a cup of tea? The arrogance of suggesting that performing in the Knight Crew will beat anything that Korrel has ever experienced was too much for me. He dropped out soon after that, but not until he had a rare to-camera talk where he revealed that these people at Glyndebourne who are running this thing would never survive in prison, that they do not know what it is like. And this has stayed with me. Firstly I feel the awkwardness of putting him on the spot in a case-study rough diamond but secondly because what he seems to be saying is that these Glyndebourne people cannot earn his respect because they would not survive what he has. Nobody pointed out to him that they would not have found themselves in prison in the first place, but then Korrel was a child when this happened, in all likelihood he was a victim of his circumstance. But his circumstances remain a question that this program does not have the time to delve into, it just places upon him the high expectation of being able to comply as the rest of the cast are being asked to. The pity of it is that at such a young age Korrel is using his prison experiences as a benchmark to judge the behaviour of every figure of authority he meets. On reflection this is understandable but I feel that this has to be challenged. Now he has left the cast has he been thoroughly dropped?

And what of the rest of the cast? after their performances what a come-down period there could be! Once the cameras have left their lives and they return to their life what will they do with their energy? It's safe to say that this exercise will be exercising areas of their mind and body that go beyond their experience so far, will they return to school and be able to channel the energy successfully? Whilst this experience shoots them to fame and acclaim has anybody pointed out that the life of an actor or musician is not as financially secure as they may think? This last comment is a sadly jaded view from me and I would almost delete it yet I think it is relevant to consider when making choices of what to study and why.

Conclusion: Gareth is doing a great job. Specialist mentoring is needed for specialist cases.

Crusts in milk

Excuse me but toddlers CAN eat the crusts of bread. If toddler leaves the crusts, plump them up in a little ramekin of milk and offer them when toddler is next hungry. Squishy milky stodge seems to go down very well.

front mounted bike seats for toddlers

Here am I, a relatively new mother, longing to get out from behind the pram and back onto her bicycle, looking out for the time when her child is old enough to sit on the bike too. So why is it that it took me until I was given a hand-me-down bike seat to spend an entire evening online weighing up the alternatives? And now, months later, having finally bought a tiddly helmet, I have actually attempted to put the bike seat on the bike. Falling at the first hurdle I have found I can't even get it on over the luggage rack so I am returning to that old list of favourites. Let's take a closer look! Whilst our hand me down is to be fitted behind the rider, all of these are for front-loaded children. Instinct tells me that this is a great idea, providing head-on collisions are not a feature of our road experience.

In general in this position on the bike the child is in a kind of recumbent position, with legs strapped into modern day stocks. The first one here has the child's legs flung far forward and kept immobile, leading me to think that you'll need a very "biddable" child (as my mum would say) to tolerate this. This is the i-bert safe-T-seat. Although it's american and all about safety, the whole thing and your child cantilevers off the stem of the bike. This seems a bit far-fetched to me but it's not the only model to do so....

£72.99 on ebay

http://www.ibertinc.com/theseat/

Next, the anthropomorphicly named Rabbit seat is clumsy looking but I'll try not to let that put me off. This seems to rely on gravity and fixes to the crossbar.

£51.08

http://www.kidsonthemove.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=291

The Bobike is probably Dutch and has that aura of confident if slightly geeky design whilst flying in a higher aesthetic stratosphere than our own UK efforts (with a price that reflects that). They have chosen to go for stem-mounting as well so it must be all right.

£90

http://www.bicycleworkshop.co.uk/products.php?plid=m2b0s96p131&i=332

The Hamax is Norwegian and judging by their standard of living we can probably assume that the design has reached the apex of comfort and safety although without too much thought given to design flair.

£55.99

http://www.twowheelsgood.co.uk/index.php/product/child_cycle_seat_hamax/hamax_child_cycle_seat/discovery_child_cycle_seat/index.html

And lastly in my selection, another animal-named product is the kangaroo, the only one complete with headrest for toddlers who nod off at the wheel. For us I think that is going a bit too far. By the time a child is strong enough to support a helmet he or she is over 1 year old and probably also by then having only one nap a day which is likely to be from about 2-3 hours long. Following this train of thought, therefore, I would not expect to need the headrest unless going on a 20-30 mile scenic trek complete with food provisions, all-weather clothing, GPS and first aid box etc etc, an unlikely picture at the moment for us. The fixing method seems to involve the installation of an independent bridge. Conclusion, then, nice idea Kangaroos but we'll pass having whittled it down to the above four options.

£69.99

http://www.weeride.com/Kangaroo-LTD-Special-Edition

I am coming down in favour of the Rabbit, although if price was no object it would probably be the bobike, the two polar extremes of style. My only reservation is that I wont have enough room for my legs to actually turn the pedals comfortably, thus negating the whole exercise. Time for an internet trawl to see who has actually used these seats and can compare them.

Even better, tell me if you have?

Radio 3 bookends my day

Radio 3 bookends my day. It fills, illuminates, illustrates and enumerates those quite times first thing in the morning and last thing at night. Sarah Mohr-Pietsch on R3 Breakfast Show even managed to get in the buzz word vuvuzela this morning, here's a lurid description from the world's encyclopaedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vuvuzela

But R3 does more, the music transports the spirit to new invisible landscapes. My unmissables are SMP's show and Late Junction with Verity Sharp or Fiona Talk-alot-ington

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00sq54f/Breakfast_Tuesday_Sara_MohrPietsch/

Cruiser shoes, why so overdesigned?

Why is bottom-line design so overdesigned? Why do we have to pay more for things which are designed to be simple? It seems to me that the same goes for prams (whilst I don't have a bugaboo I do deem it to be the apple mac of the pram world) as for shoes, Camper costs practically twice the price of Clarks!

To illustrate today's theme all I need to do is to attach two images and you can go compare...