As the picture above shows, a few days ago, spring was trying to break out of the prolonged winter here in Warsaw. Alas, today, Good Friday afternoon, it started snowing again:
Perhaps this is appropriate weather (e.g. offering a symbol of purification and atonement) given the religious significance of Good Friday (I'm a half practising Catholic, wish I had the strength of conviction to be a full practising one).
However, behind this white background, like other Slavs such as the Ukrainians, many Poles are busy designing their own wonderful ornate eggs at Easter time:
Got this picture off an advertisement hoarding, but this is really what the Slavic Easter eggs look like, as people spend hours gradually decorating and building up the colour of the eggs.
Finally, must find something interesting to do on Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday this year, but what shall I do?
Must admit that I enjoyed this gig a lot more than I'd expected, both the concert itself and the special kind of anthropology that occurs at a Swans concert (e.g. many people quite wisely having cotton wool in their ears; people avoiding being in the immediate path of the main speakers; some people finding something sublime in the music while others look bemused etc.).
First up, Jamie Stewart (Xiu Xui) walked on stage in a suit and tie; stiffly opened up his guitar case; got his guitar plugged in; got a background tape of birds singing going; and finally sat down to play and sing (many times as a faint whisper):
At the time, I found all of this a bit bizarre, but. later on, after seeing Swans, I could see some coherence to the whole evening as Jamie Stewart's mellowness offered a nicely balanced contrast to the constant (albeit sometimes beautiful) thud of the Swans set.
In all, Jamie seemed to utter four words in between songs: "Excuse me" while tuning his guitar, and 'Thank you" at the end of the set. Nothing wrong with behaving enigmatically, I guess.
How about Swans, well I was just in the mood for the grinding mixture of sometimes discordant and other times hypnotic sounds that they gave out. Glad to say that they did (or seemed to do) 'The Seer'. Not being able to drink much these days, I was happy to be whipped into a trance-like state through the often repetitive but equally beautiful sounds served up.
To protect my ears, I stood on the borderline between the concert hall and central bar area at the Stodoła, which, having not brought any cotton wool, was a real wise move. Moreover, when the band came on stage, doing their final tune-up, I (like a few others) took the opportunity to go down one of the channels to near the main speakers to get a few shots with my small mobile:
While these are only poor quality shots from a small mobile, I think they do at least convey something of the excitement and tension that was there before the great band got going. Glad to see that somebody has put a kind of montage of sounds from the Swans' Warsaw show on Youtube below:
Also managed to get a couple of mobile shots of the band during one of their quieter moments below:
Of course, I didn't hang around long enough for louder moments to arise, and soon retreated further back.
Yeah, overall, I can think of much worse things to do on a Saturday night, and, at times, I found myself getting genuinely hypnotised by the music. Dare I suggest that Swans have a 'rugged Gregorian Chant' kind of quality? Well, they do for me, and that's what matters, I guess.
This is an interesting place in eastern Poland called Radecznicy. It's a small place that has a shrine dedicated to St. Anthony; and a huge Franciscan church that is in some way connected to a psychiatric institution, both being perched at the top of a hill overlooking the shrine at the bottom.
First off, there is the shrine on the pond dedicated to St. Anthony:
Was really happy that I managed to get a reasonable shot of the altar inside the wooden shrine building. There's a certain peacefulness both inside and all around the wooden shrine, especially in the winter snow around Christmas time.
In the picture below, I'm looking back down at the steps that I've just climbed up to get to the Franciscan church on top of the hill.
As for the Franciscan church itself, it sits in grandeur at the top of the hill:
Inside, the church is rather big and contains some impressive religious artwork:
At Christmas time, a small model of the church and steps leading up to it is positioned near the Nativity Scene:
Yes, this can be a place of quietness and stillness where you can get away from it all and encounter your self. Tied in with this, the area around the altar is incredibly beautiful:
Sometimes, for various reasons, I'm not sure if I believe in God anymore, but, still, this church is a magical place, an enchanted place: it offers something away from the increasingly God-less secular world where I must exist.
Perched just behind the Franciscan church and in a slightly higher position, there is the psychiatric institution:
At the moment, the patients are looked after by trained medical staff, but I guess that in the past, they may've been taken care of by the Franciscans. One story I've heard is that shortly after the end of the 2nd World War, the patients were brought here covered with blankets on the top of horse and carts. Thus, this place has a lot of interesting history.
Been another hell of a busy week, but thankfully got out Wednesday evening to see Threshold and Enochian Theory at Warsaw Klub Progresja. The latter holds some great Prog evenings with the small intimate crowds often making for a really good evening, and such was very much so on Wednesday.
First, I got up to the Klub Progresja at eight, bang on time for Enochian Theory beginning their set.
Of course, as usual, I had fun with my small mobile camera.
I just take loads and loads of shots, and a law of averages allows me to get a few reasonable ones.
Like I guess some other people, I've become aware of Enochian Theory through their videos on Youtube and generally like their stuff:
My favourite Enochian Theory track is 'Movement', and I'm glad to say that the band did it on Wednesday (the video above is from Germany a couple of years or so ago - well done to whoever put this on Youtube)
Actually seeing Enochian Theory live, their music had a more 'powerful edge' than I'd imagined, while their on stage presence and rapport with the crowd was subtle, good-natured and positively humble. The picture below shows the band getting stuck into packing their gear up immediately after finishing their set:
Second, I really enjoyed Threshold as they did a lot of tunes from their recent 'March of Progress' album, such as 'Ashes' and 'Staring At The Sun'. Glad to say that somebody has quickly put a few tracks from Threshold at the Klub Progresja on Youtube, including part of 'Staring At The Sun':
Must emphasise that throughout the set, vocalist Damian Wilson was an absolute star and gent with the crowd:
What really impressed me was that the band were really up for the gig, and when Damian said that they liked playing on small stages so they could actually see people's eyes, he really meant it. Moreover, Damian provided some good fun by stagediving backwards in the middle and at the end of the concert, after making sure that there were enough strong people ready to catch him (magical stuff).
Also good to see that the same good person who videod part of 'Staring At The Sun', has also put 'Light and Space' and 'Long Way Home' on Youtube:
Moreover, I was happy to see that the band did my favourite tune of theirs 'Pilot In The Sky Of Dreams'. Below there are a couple more pictures of Threshold from Wednesday which seem to capture something of the great atmosphere of the evening :
Thus, again I had another great night of Prog up at the Klub Progresja in Stare Bemowo. Really looking forward to seeing Pain Of Salvation in early April and Riverside in mid-April there.
