Godspeed You! Black Emperor Live at Warsaw Klub Progresja 8th November 2015

Not being that familiar with their music, I went to watch Godspeed You! Black Emperor out of curiosity more than anything else. Of course, I sensed that it would be a fascinating audio-visual experience:

Five, maybe ten minutes in, I wasn't quite sure what I was doing there, but then as seemingly semi-discordant tunes started spiralling into beautiful harmonies, it felt like I was entering the sublime.

That's just how good it was, I felt absorbed and transfixed in a wonderful audio-visual unity, admittedly not knowing any of the names of the tunes, but recognising some of them by melody.



Seen many great gigs this year, and this one might just be top of the list.

Caught opening act, Xarah Dion, who was also good:

Delain (The Gentle Storm and Amberian Dawn) Live at Warsaw Klub Progresja 7th November 2015

Enjoyed all three bands up at the Klub Progresja last night.  Delain did a nice, balanced set of old and new songs.

 Saw Delain in January at Warsaw Torwar (with Sabaton) so I've been lucky enough to catch them twice in a year.

Favourite Delain tune of the night for me was either 'Not Enough' or 'The Gathering' (really happy the band did the latter, as I don't think they did it in January).

And before Delain, Anneke van Giersbergen's The Gentle Storm:

 My friend, Romek, summed up Anneke perfectly: she just naturally makes it seem that she's singing to every person in the audience individually.

And hats off to Merel, of course, for playing guitar in both the Delain and Gentle Storm sets:

 The whole Gentle Storm set seemed to be one barnstormer after another, especially the closing 'Shores of India', and then the well deserved applause at the end:

Also made the wise decision to get up to the Klub Progresja in time to catch opening act, Amberian Dawn:

Checked Amberian Dawn out on Youtube last week and saw that they were well worth catching.

 

Not often you get to see three really good acts in one evening, so full credit to Delain for having such good opening and special guest slots.

Varna (Bulgaria): A War Memorial

Came across this impressive-looking war memorial when I got lost in the massive Sea Garden next to the beach in Varna during the summer:

Think this war memorial was near the wonderful Yuri Gagarin statue in the Sea Garden.

'Tess of the D'Urbervilles': The Friendship Theme

Amidst all the tragedy and sadness of 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles', there is a (sometimes overlooked) friendship theme.

The friendship theme, of course, comes into play when Tess goes to work for the (good-natured) Cricks as a milkmaid at Talbothays Farm.  Here, she befriends three other milkmaids (Izz, Retty, and Marian), and she enters a temporary state of happiness.  Moreover, it is here that Tess meets Angel Clare for the first time since their initial, mystical-type, May Dance encounter near the beginning of the novel.

At Talbothays, all of the milkmaids are in love with Angel Clare, who is studying dairy management there as an apprentice farmer, but it is Angel and Tess who naturally gravitate towards each other.  This causes Tess' milkmaid friends some considerable emotional pain (and some degree of self-hate, even leading to self-harm in Retty's case), but a profound bond and strength of friendship doesn't allow them to descend into jealousy and nastiness towards Tess.

After Tess has been deserted by Angel Clare shortly after their wedding, Angel asks Izz to go with him to Brazil as his mistress, to which she initially accepts, but when he asks her about how much she loves him (in contrast to Tess' love for him), she selflessly replies:

"Nobody could love 'ee more than Tess did!  She would have laid down her life for 'ee.  I could do no more!".

For me, this makes Izz an unsung hero of the novel, as she negates her own potential future benefits to be true and honest to her friend, Tess.  Of course, the tragedy of all this is that Angel Clare still goes to Brazil alone.

And thus, Tess ends up working through the harsh, cold winter months at Flintcomb-Ash, digging up root crops and doing other kinds of hard labour, (almost) as a punishment to herself:

Here, she quite naturally starts to sink into a depression, but at least she's supported by two of her true friends, Marian and Izz.

A Beautiful Song

Love 'By the Glow of the Kerosene Light' by Newfoundland folk band, The Once.  Couldn't stop playing it last Friday and ever since, it's been humming in my head.

Feel blessed to have seen The Once at the Ramsbottom Festival in Bury, Lancashire, in 2011.

Warsaw: A Marian Courtyard

If you look closely in the middle of this picture of a square courtyard between blocks of flats in Warsaw city centre, you'll see a Marian statue partly adorned with flowers.

Have seen this kind of statue in quite a few courtyards around Warsaw city centre.  So what does this signify for me?  Well, it tells me that symbols of Catholic religiosity still remain in the public domain in Poland, which helps to maintain the country's (semi-) Christian identity, even though this identity is now under attack from the godless, politically-'correct' ideology of the EU (sometimes viewed as the 'new Soviet Union' in Poland).

Poland: Dark Raciborskie Beer

Had another good Raciborskie beer last night.  This dark beer has a strong caramel taste.