November 19th.
Sun slinking in slanting rays through smeared windows as the year swings to the solstice season so sing songs of soothing succour to assuage the sultry sun. That’s enough ‘s’s for now anyway.
It’s nice to be back in England now that November is here. I went to Florida to show the film ‘I got the blues’ made a fewb years back in Austin Texas and featuring Pinetop Perkins and Mick Jagger. Some of you may have viewed it on Sky Arts which despite the horror of the Murdoch Empire and all it stands for does air continuous music based programmes which are usually worth watching.
The film had not been aired in the US however so it was shown at the Orlando Fim Festival held in that Micky Mouse City. After a few days there John Peyton and myself (we made the film together) went to New York and it was then shown at The Maysles Brothers cinema in Harlem which is where I stayed while in NYC. It was great meeting the veteran director Albert Maysles and he is as perky as a fifty year old. Amazing that he shot the film on The Rolling Stones all those years back and it still looms large in the documentary world partly because of all the tragedy that surrounded it at Altamont.
After the screening I played a few songs and he filmed me in the process and that as a reciprocation to me filming him earlier in the day telling stories of when he first hooked up with The Rolling Stones (this in his office above the cinema).
It was novel for me to see NYC after such a long while. I visited Jann Wenner who publishes Rolling Stone and other magazines, and stayed in Harlem at the kind hospitality of Marcia Gay Harden who is an Oscar winning actress and the sister in law of John Peyton. I walked abouyt the famous Apollo Theatre (though there’s nothing interesting in a venue without a show) and ate in soul food cafes and rode the packed subway from downtown one rush hour. The night we arrived I appeared in Carla Rhodes’ amazing stage show, a mini musical, which sees her hold a one woman show for an hour and display her talents of writing material, ventriloquism, singing and telling jokes and stories. I hope she achieves recognition for her original talent.
Right now tis the season of obtainingn gigs and many an agent is scrabbling about to fill their books with dates for 2011, including me so any suggestions welcome!
Enjoy the solstice!!
Chris
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