By Irene Kappes
Trombone Poetry
If you’re interested in music and poetry, you might like to take a look at the website of Trombone Poetry www.trombonepoetry.com
This is the home of Paul Taylor, who is a seasoned and well-travelled trombonist, composer and poet.
As much at home playing latin and jazz as pop or brass band, he’s a veteran of the Roberto Pla Latin Ensemble, has toured and recorded extensively with Snowboy and even done a stint with The Pogues. He runs his own show, so to speak, in the form of Trombone Poetry and various other intriguing musical ventures. There are three poetry anthologies on offer, the most recent being, ‘Robots’ – a collection of poems linked to online articles on the development of these fascinating items.
Buy a book, listen to a recording or subscribe to the Trombonicle to be alerted to up and coming gigs and read about his trombone’s latest travels.
TechBookReport
At www.techbookreport.com you’ll find over 400 ‘independent developer book reviews by and for practitioners’, as well as a range of tech tutorials. TechBookReport, created by our own Pan Pantziarka, who has a background in all aspects of software development and data analysis, is a sort of techie heaven. It is a must if you are interested in books on software development, data analysis, science or technology. There’s everything here, from data science to quantum physics to Java programming. It’s also good for a laugh, in the form of the ‘Meet Joe Bloggs’ series – thirty-eight short episodes about developer Joe and his not-so-techie-savvy boss(es). You may even recognise some of the characters…
Incidentally, Pan has also written a fascinating book on spree killers, ‘Lone Wolf’ as well as the New Paradigm book, ‘Starthrowers Guide to Cancer’, which is written from his perspective as a researcher in the field of cancer and repurposed drugs.
Take a look at TechBookReport; find a book, have a laugh along the way.
Michael Kodicek, Sculptures
If you search for Michael Kodicek sculptures, you will see various photos on Flickr and short videos on YouTube presenting the oddest of moving sculptures by this rather eccentric artist.
Born in Czechoslovakia (as it was then), but migrating to England in 1968, Michael was trained as a concert pianist, and continued to occasionally give concerts to raise money for good causes. He spent many years working in stage-management for a London-based young people’s theatre and taught young people with learning difficulties to create and manipulate puppets for black light theatre. Black Light Theatre or Black Theatre, originally from Asia, became very popular in Prague – puppeteers in a ‘black box’ dressed from head to toe in black, manipulating fluorescent puppets under UV light, rendering the puppeteers invisible and giving the puppets a distinctive life of their own.
A man of many talents, Michael is also a long-time sculptor, producing extremely strange and often provocative and amusing creations from every-day objects.
Have a look at the two minute video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ez2ZLLkRUjw
House of Dreams
Equally as bizarre, is the home (literally) of Stephen Wright, an artist and former textile designer. I learned about him from Michael Kodicek, and I can’t help wondering if they went to the same school…
If you’re fascinated by dolls and collections of found objects (including false teeth) then this is definitely for you, but I think I might have nightmares if I lived there. On the other hand, it looks like a treasure trove – a fascinating concentration of colours and textures and shapes. You can visit the House of Dreams Museum in East Dulwich, London, in person on open days or virtually on the site. You can also buy sculptures and framed pieces from the site. www.stephenwrightartist.com
Twelve of the most unusual sculptures around the world
And while we’re on the subject of sculptures, take a peek at this page on Brightside.
https://brightside.me/article/15-of-the-most-unusual-sculptures-from-around-the-world-14055/
