Museum Night

Museum Night. Every museum in the city was open to the public for free. Would this work back in Northern Ireland I wonder? Would people be interested? Would there be enough of a turnout of people to justify the staff working late into the evening? Would it only work if there was free alcohol to entice them? maybe if there was some 'nice house music' to make it appear trendy? I wonder how it would pan out...

In Brno all the galleries were packed with people of all ages. Some slightly less charitable types speculated this might be because Czech people can't say no to a freebie, I'd like to believe that it's because they enjoy culture. I'm naive and hopeful that way though.

I managed to visit several galleries; the three different parts of Moravske Gallerie, the museum of Romany culture, and also DŮM UMĚNÍ MĚSTA BRNA (and some other less remarkable sites not worth typing about)
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These videos were taken at the museum of Romany culture. A one-of-a-kind exhibition space. It's apparantly having problems securing funding and may become a thing of the past. Sad news.




The whole evening was very close to an overload, but as an experiment to find how many houses of culture I could take in in one evening it was worth testing myself - apparantly I have more of hunger than some of my friends...

Fanfare Ciocărlia 150108

I managed to get into the incredibly packed Fleda last night to see Fanfare Ciocărlia .
I was a bit late - the show started at 8 and I didn't get out of work until 8.30.
I was happy to join in the squeeze as people without tickets were being turned away at the doors.



The big room in the venue was jammed. The air; hot and full of dancing arms and wicked music. At first I could barely see a thing unless I was pogoing or standing on tiptoes. The music was so good that I didn't think of this as a problem.



Then the band stopped playing and walked off stage for a break. I managed to get a lot closer to the stage and waited. When they came back on the room went wild; screams, whistles, waving etc. They blasted out their string-free melodies one after another in a military fashion; bang, bang, bang. A barage of balkan brass.

When they finished their second set and encores the crowd started to flood the small bar. I was there trying to cool down after the dance-a-thon when a door opened beside me and the band stroll past, procession style, parping and honking.

Music city. I had to admire their energy. Non-stop.



Other videos are being uploaded to the dodgystereo youtube account.

Gigs and all that jazz - holiday fashion...

Big smiles here as we're on holiday. Not jet-setting off for distant shores (yet) but enjoying a little time off from the day job. Good times.The holiday kicked off with a gig in Fleda. Itch My HaHaHa was buzzing. Plenty of electronic sounds of all varieties. Smooth and rough. Turntables were spinning, beatboxers popping, laptop jockeys clicking, MCs spitting, party-goers gyrating. Good times indeed.Close friend (ceramic/pottery workshop man) Conal Mac was over for a visit for few days and the weekend was a tasty, lazy, slurpy, haze. One cafe blending into the next as we floated from one eatery to another. We treated ourselves to plenty of Czech and Slovak specialities, and doubtlessly our waistlines show it.Monday evening we went to Stara Pekarna following a tip from Sophie's art teacher Andrea. We were pleasantly suprised by the Oles-Jorgenmann Oles Trio. Two brothers doing drum and bass with an ace grade clarinet player.Modern and challenging, their mastery of their instruments was impressive and the sounds were dizzying. Spectral sweeps and cacophonous waves of sound. Not for the faint hearted, pitched at those who prefer their jazz served hot. Hot and angular. Hot, angular, and breath-taking.