Marillion Live at Warsaw Stodoła 29-11-12

Again, I was down at Warsaw Stodoła on Thursday night to see Marillion, one of my favourite bands.  Me and my friend Romek got down there early, so that we could catch the Polish support band, Tides From Nebula, who I managed to get a few small mobile phone shots of:

Just like doing this for a bit of fun, as it's a real challenge getting anything out of my small mobile phone.  As for Tides From Nebula, they were fine if you like mystical-type build ups and lots of feedback, which I don't mind at all. 

And what about Marillion?  Well, like anybody else who's been following the recent setlists on marillion.com, I was able to more or less predict the Warsaw setlist in advance (not 100% of course) which isn't necessarily a bad thing.  For example, it was a dead cert that they would be coming on with 'Gaza', but I was kind of guessing whether 'Ocean Cloud' would be the second song of the night or played later?  What surprised me in particular was how well 'Gaza' works live, as the clips below show (many thanks to the people who put the clips on Youtube today):

For me, 'Gaza' may not be the best song the band have ever done, but it carries a certain mystique live, the value of watching a band enjoying being experimental, and the crowd appreciating this.  After 'Gaza', 'Warm Wet Circles' (one of two, I think, Fish-era songs done during the set) provided a nice change in tempo:

In all, Marillion were on stage for well over two hours, and I, for one, lapped it up.  Really glad they did some of my favourite songs such as 'You're Gone'; 'King' (on this occasion devoted to Whitney Houston); 'Neverland'; and 'Ocean Cloud' and 'The Invisible Man' (both worked well as epic-type encores).  Here is the band doing 'Neverland' below. 

And when they did 'Sounds That Can't Be Made' and 'The Sky Above The Rain' (both more than decent tracks from the new album, but just not my favourites), it was simply time to go and grab a pint in the hallway.  Yes, it was that incredibly beautiful hallway/bar area again:

As for the encores, well they lasted about 40 minutes in themselves ('Ocean Cloud' + 'The Invisible Man' + 'Garden Party', the other Fish-era tune of the night).  Yes, it was great to see a band serving up a full show.

And what about the personal touches during the concert, well once or twice the band were called upon to improvise which was great:

Yes, being the last concert of the current leg of a mammoth tour, the band were clearly having fun and serving up a treat.

At the end, I was just left asking myself why I seem to enjoy Prog concerts more than any other kind of concerts that I go to, and the answer lies not only in the quality of the bands themselves, but also the quality of the people who attend these concerts.  The Stodoła was almost as packed out for Marillion as Archive, but there wasn't the same degree of discomfort, which speaks volumes for the quality of the people there. 

Archive Live at Warsaw Stodoła 28-11-12

I purely went to this out of curiosity, as Archive are well known on the continent, but not many people talk about them in Britain.  I knew some of their more famous stuff like 'Fuck You'; 'Again'; and 'Bullets', so I was always going to recognise some of the set, which was fine.  However, my favourite track of the night was 'Hatchet' which somebody has very kindly filmed and put on Youtube:

Unfortunately, the Stodoła was absolutely packed out, and, for me, this makes it more difficult to enjoy a gig.  Having said this, Archive are very tight live, and with the different male and female vocalists, the songs are never dull and boring.  Yes, Archive are very creative and interesting, and in better conditions, this would've been a concert I would've really enjoyed.

However, I can only take the sardine can experience for so long, and after about 70 minutes, I retired to the Stodoła hallway to have a nice cold beer, and take some pictures of the interesting decor in this area (I did exactly the same thing at Steve Vai, I just don't like tightly packed in crowds).

Really like this kind of stuff, whoever thought it up had a great brainwave, I think.  When I think about it, I guess that it was designed to have a soothing effect on people just coming out of a packed out room.  It's true, some people sit on the steps in this bar/hallway area, just listening to the live music, and consciously or subconsciously taking in the decor.  Having said all this, I may be dragging the significance of this decor out of all proportion, as it's taken me years to really take notice of it.

Warsaw Stodoła Hallway

Just back from watching Archive at Warsaw Stodoła:  good concert, but way too packed for my liking, and really hope that Marillion isn't as packed tomorrow.  I'll report on the Archive gig some time after I've seen Marillion tomorrow.

So why am I writing a little post now then?  Well, because I'm very happy with a mobile phone picture that I got of the Warsaw Stodoła hallway/downstairs bar area tonight.

I know this picture is nothing special, but it just does something for me.

The Gladiators' Ring in Sicily

Really pushed for time at the moment, so I must be short and sweet.  When I was in Sicily a few years ago, I saw many impressive buildings, especially churches (e.g. Palermo Cathedral), but, for me, the place with the most 'presence' was the Gladiators' Ring (remains of a small coliseum) below:

Here, my camera has zoomed in on the pit in the centre, where I think that the bodies of the vanquished where thrown.  You can't really see it from the picture, but the small coliseum was shrouded with (surrounded by) trees which blocked out a lot of the blistering heat.  Yes, with this special atmosphere of a lot of sunlight being blocked out, you could almost sense the Gladiators meeting their grisly ends all those centuries ago.

Below is the famous scene from the film 'Gladiator', where Russell Crowe comes out with the Clint Eastwood-type reply "My name is Gladiator" to the Emperor's request for his name. 

The film 'Gladiator' was released back in the year 2000 (how time flies!), and at the time, I remember many people saying that it had a special quality that they couldn't quite put their finger on.  Over the years, I've thought about this, and believe that this special quality is that 'Gladiator' is a Classical film made in the modern era with a clear (religious-type) distinction between good and bad.  Yes, 'Gladiator' has a Classical hero with no politically-'correct' interference or censorship, and for this alone, the film must be applauded.

Finally, I'll leave you with the soundtrack from the film 'Now We Are Free' by Lisa Gerrard of Dead Can Dance live in Milan (many thanks to the person  who kindly put this on Youtube)

Warsaw: Three Concerts at the Stodoła This Week

In Warsaw, we're currently stuck between autumn and winter, and the nights are drawing in much quicker, so life isn't that much fun.  However, there is still some colour in the city, as the pictures below show:

In particular, I've got a good week coming up with three concerts, all at the Warsaw Stodoła.  First up, it's Archive on Wednesday.  Archive aren't really well known in Britain, but on the continent, they seem quite a big thing.  Below, the band are doing 'You Make Me Feel' from Karlsruhe in Germany (well done to the good person who got this on Youtube)

The day after, it's the big one for me:  Marillion supported by the Polish band Tides From Nebula. 

I've seen Marillion four times before, the first time being at Manchester Apollo in 1982 on the 'Script For a Jester's Tear' tour, but I've only seen them once with Steve Hogarth, five years ago in Warsaw, so I'm really looking forward to this.  Below, the band are doing 'The Invisible Man':

Third, on Saturday, I'm going watching Imany.   

For me, Imany has a wonderful voice, quite similar to Tracy Chapman.  Below, she's doing 'You Will Never Know'.

Finally, I'll leave with Tides From Nebula doing 'Hollow Lights', as I'm also really looking forward to seeing these:

Yes, it should be a really interesting week at the Stodoła.

Salt Lake City: An Amazing Coincidence

The pictures above and below are of the amazing LDS (Mormon) Temple in Salt Lake City, Utah.  I spent an amazing 15-day trip with Mormon friends in Salt Lake City in 2008, and enjoyed travelling round South Utah and Arizona with them.  The photo above was taken of the Salt Lake City Temple from an LDS restaurant high up in a building opposite it.  Needless to say, I had a decent camera with me here, not my mobile.

In contrast, the picture below is of the same Temple from the front.  On a bright sunny day, you'll see the just (eternally) married Mormon couples posing for their wedding pictures here. 

I'm not a Mormon, but the LDS religion fascinates me, especially the Temple rituals:  Baptism of the Dead; Eternal Marriage; and the Endowment Ceremony (non-Mormons aren't allowed inside LDS Temples, so, of course, I've never seen any of these rituals first hand).

Right, the crux of my story here regards an amazing coincidence in Salt Lake City.  One day, while walking away from the city centre towards the university, me and my wife noticed that we'd passed by a few Orthodox churches, and decided to go inside one.  After a few minutes taking shots of the iconography in an upstairs chapel, I got chatting to a lady outside, and after a minute or two, she suddenly asked me:  "Where are you from?", and I just answered "From near Manchester in England".  But the lady was extremely curious, so I eventually said "Bury", and her face lit up.  As it turned out, she'd been born in Fairfield Hospital, and had lived in Walshaw, Bury until she was 14, before emigrating to the US with her parents.

The lady from my story is on the right of the picture above, and as it turned out, she was an Orthodox convert, and the wife of the priest, so she'd really had quite a destiny.  And the lady on the left, well, at the time, she was training to become Orthodox, so it was an interesting story all round.

But the story above wasn't the only 'coincidence' during this trip, as on the LDS Tabernacle door, near the Temple, I met a retired American Mormon couple who'd been over to Bury retracing the steps of their ancestors.  Finally, I also met a retired lawyer and his wife at an LDS Sunday Sacrament Meeting in Salt Lake City who'd gone over to the US from Burnley (just up the road from Bury) in their early 20s.  Yes, it was definitely one of those trips, I loved it all.

St. Mary Magdalene's Orthodox Cathedral, Warsaw, Poland

Two Sundays ago, when I went looking for the Fabryka Trzciny in Praga on the other side of the river (away from the city centre) in Warsaw, I got off the bus to have a look at St. Mary Magdalene's Orthodox Cathedral (near the zoo).  Of course, I took the opportunity to get a few mobile shots while I was there:

I have a lot of deep respect for the Eastern Orthodox Church, as the sheer beauty and mysticism of their liturgical rituals seems to bind the community together, young and old.  In particular, Slavonic chant sends a shiver down my spine, and helps me to realise that one of the most important functions of serious-minded religion is to provide people with meaningful aesthetic experience (enchantment), where a sense of the divine may be felt rather than just thought about.

Below there is a short video excerpt capturing a little of the beauty of Orthodox chant on the steps of St. Mary Magdalene's Cathedral:

Really hope this music makes you feel the way I do when I listen to it.  Of course, I get the same kind of effect when I'm listening to Gregorian chant at an Old Latin (Tridentine) Mass or the Slavonic Liturgy at a Ukrainian Catholic church.  For me, genuine prayer is often done through these beautiful forms of singing, and it saddens me that the aesthetic spiritual dimension seems to have been taken out of many  forms of Western Christianity, most noticeably post-Vatican II Catholicism.

Healthy Steam-Cooked Food in Warsaw, Poland

Again, I'm really pushed for time, so it's going to have to be another short piece on food, I'm afraid to say. 

Recently, upon the advice of my good friend, Northsider Dave, I've started using my little steam cooker for the first time in many years, and I must say that I feel much better for it.  Today, I'm going to show both the meat cutlet and soya cutlet meals I've had over the last couple of days.

First, yesterday, I had the minced pork cutlet and vegetable meal pictured below:

Of course, a healthy layer of cottage cheese was 'dolloped' on top of this.  The vegetables used are carrots, broccoli and red pepper with a few pieces of butter melting into them.  Many thanks to the mother-in-law for providing the pork cutlets, as I wouldn't have had a clue how to prepare them.

Second, a few hours ago, I cooked soya culets with carrots, broccoli, onions, and yellow pepper in the small steam cooker below:

Again, it's a good idea to add a healthy layer of cottage cheese on top to spruce the meal up a bit.  Having said this, my mother-in-law's soya cutlets are almost as good as her pork ones. 

Finally, the best thing about this kind of plain cooking is that it gives no digestion problems (provided that it's not eaten just before bed, of course).

Tofu Curry at Que Huong, Warsaw

On Thursday, I'd just taught two lessons out in the middle of nowhere, an area of Warsaw called Opłotek about 30 minutes walk beyond Młociny in Stare Bemowo (I think!).  This area is quite bleak with there being a large cemetery and many factories and rubbish dumps up there.  Whenever I finish teaching here, the lingering image is of mud and pollution splattered, dry grass verges, as the place is really not that pretty.  However, on Thursday, I managed to get a nice shot of a train carrying industrial goods slowly rolling by:

Thus, after this morning saunter on the dark industrial outskirts of Warsaw, I'm always happy to get to Que Huong, my favourite Vietnamese eating place in the centre of Warsaw.  On Thursday, I had Tofu Curry which is absolutely delicious at Que Huong:

The Tofu Curry (and rice) is tasty enough in itself, but if you want to spruce it up a bit, you can soak the rice in soy sauce (I always do this), and pour a mixture of fresh warm chilli and sweet and sour sauce over the whole of the meal, as I've done below:

Either way, with or without the additions, Tofu Curry is delicious at Que Huong.  For Tofu Curry and a cup of green tea, it's about 17 złoty (about 3 pound), so well done to the Vietnamese lads at Que Huong for providing such good and more than reasonably priced food.

Beach House Live at Warsaw Fabryka Trzciny 11th November 2012

Yesterday was quite an eventful day as, for me, it was both Remembrance Sunday and the first anniversary of my mother's death. 

In the evening, I attended the Beach House concert at Fabryka Trzciny, over the river in the Praga district of Warsaw.  In the morning, I went down to the place to make sure that I would be able to find it in the evening.  The Fabryka Trzciny is really near the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, so it was just a case of finding the latter which is pictured below.

The Fabryka Trzciny is literally about 200 metres to the left of the Sacred Heart Basilica on Ulica Otwocka.  It is also very near the wall mural on the picture below. 

As for the Beach House concert itself, as you can imagine, it was a very pleasant dreamy experience, just what I needed on a potentially bleak day.  Over 50% of the audience was young women which always makes a gig a more civilised experience. 

For the first 15-20 minutes of the Beach House set, I managed to get quite near to the front of the stage, and 'fired away' with my small simplistic mobile phone camera, and was more than happy with the resulting pictures below.

With a low quality mobile, it's just a case of getting close to the stage, holding the mobile firmly in both hands, then taking as many pictures as possible, as a law of averages willl allow some to come out okay.  As usual, I retired to the back of the crowd after 15-20 minutes to relax and have a couple of pints.  The beer on draft at the Fabryka Trzciny is Lech, which, despite not being the best Polish beer, made a nice change from Zywiec.

The Beach House set itself was a nice balance between older and recent material.  Glad to say that they did my favourite BH song 'Zebra'.  Below the band are doing 'Zebra' in a studio somewhere.

Yes, overall, the Beach House concert was a really soothing experience yesterday, just the thing I needed, to be honest. 

Someone has very nicely put a short clip of the Beach House concert at Warszawa Fabryka Trzciny on Youtube, which adds quite nicely to my post here.

A Paraguayan Folk Group and Dancers in Szczebrzeszyn in Eastern Poland

On a couple of occasions, I've shown a few pictures from when a Paraguayan folk group (and accompanying female dancers) did a concert in my wife's hometown of Szczebrzeszyn in eastern Poland about three years ago.  However, I've never shown the full set of pictures that I took that night, so here goes, all 30 or so of them! 

The picture above shows the Paraguayan girls dancing with the Szczebrzeszyn locals.

The girl above waved the Paraguayan flag throughout the whole of the performance.

The shot below is my favourite as, even though it's just a close up of one girl, it seems to capture the atmosphere of the evening perfectly.

The audience was invited to put money into the flower pots near the end of a wonderful 2-hour plus performamce that was truly magnificent.

During the performance, all kinds of interesting dancing took place, and, of course, all of the girls were eye-catching.

In particular, the Paraguayan harp player was fantastic, and it was mentioned that he was famous back in his home country.

And finally, this is where it all took place in the old Jewish synagogue (now a local cultural centre) in Szczebrzeszyn.