50 Book Challenge

What kind of idiot am I? Actually, don't answer that. Foolhardy.

I've decided to try and read 50 books this year. Yes, 50 books. I'm mad. So starting from today, Sunday 20th February 2011, I'll be logging every book I read. I do love reading and have an insatiable appetite for literature so I do think I can do it. It does mean averaging about a book a week though and that worries me. I'm quite busy; working as a musician and teacher can mean crazily busy weeks where I barely have time to sleep let alone set a few hours aside for a book. I do tend to make this up in the holiday periods, last Summer I clocked up 11 books in 6 weeks.

As we speak, I'm about to finish A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters by Julian Barnes. In fact, I'm fairly sure I'll finish it tonight or tomorrow so I can tick one off straight away. Slightly cheating perhaps as I started it before by start date but it'll feel good to get one clocked up early on.

I'm not sure what to read next. A lot of books I had lined up are huge tomes but I need to get a few under my belt to give me some momentum so they may have to take a back seat.

Anyone fancy joining in the challenge?

Beware Ryanair

I received this article from the Incorporated Society of Musicians a few days ago. Sadly, I didn't surprise me in the slightest.

Firstly, the headline of the article isn't strictly true. The young girl was not turned away from the flight rather given the option to buy a seat for her violin or put the instrument in the hold.

I'm surprised that Ryanair customer service had told the traveller that they'd be able to take a violin as hand luggage. This certainly wasn't the case when I recently travelled with them; they didn't really seem to know what I was talking about.

I'd like to point out right away that I am in no way supporting Ryanair's policy on travelling with musical instruments but if you have to use this dreadful airline to travel, you have to play the game.

I travelled to Salzburg with my quartet. For various reasons, Ryanair was the only airline we could fly with for the time we wanted to arrive. BA were in the middle of strike season and Easyejt, marginally more sympathetic with musicians, only flew to Munich where we would have to embark on a long train journey. Some research prior to the flight threw up some shocking stories. One which kept cropping up was the airline selling on your instruments' seat and asking you then to place your instrument in the overhead luggage hold! Small instruments like violins and most small/medium woodwind and brass instruments can happily fit in the overheads but our cheap and cheerful airline never miss a trick to fleece you out of your hard-earned cash. It seems that hand luggage is the one thing that Ryanair don't charge you for. Unless you're a musician. It's a disgrace.

Checking in and flight went surprisingly smoothly thanks to a large amount of research. Nevertheless, we still had to book SEVEN seats for four travellers. Of course, we had to book extra seats for our instruments. Except mine; my baritone sax sadly didn't make the journey. My fellow traveller had contacted Ryanair on my behalf before we booked our flights to enquire whether it would be possible for the sax to have an extra seat. We were told, and I exaggerate not, 'It can't be taller than a small man standing on a chair'.

Yes. A small man standing on a chair.

Hang on there a moment! How small is small? Leprechaun small? Is a small man larger than a tall child? Let's talk about the chair. An armchair? A stool? Needless to say, our response was in the realms of, 'Huh?'. Much to-ing and fro-ing occurred in the following minutes when finally the customer services representative came back to tell us that the instrument could be no taller than 50cm. At this point, my friend didn't quite know whether to laugh or cry. She diplomatically asked our friendly rep, 'how many men do you know that, when standing on a chair, are 50cm tall?'. Given that the other three instruments are over 50cm when stood up yet are allowed in the cabin led us to decide that there's no way we'd attempt to take my sax on board. Luckily, our contacts in Salzburg were able to negotiate an instrument from the local conservatoire but borrowing a sax is like driving someone else's car; it's usually ok but the nerves mean it's never entirely comfortable.

I'd like to point out at this juncture that when musicians do not want their instruments to go in the luggage hold it's not because we're being precious. Have you seen the care that luggage handlers take while moving suitcases? No, neither have I; there is none. Speak to any musician and they'll provide you with endless tales of damaged instruments due to careless luggage handing. No amount of 'Handle with Care' stickers will save you here. More importantly, there can be massive temperature fluctuations in the luggage hold and can quite easily drop below freezing. Wooden instruments, such as the string family and some woodwind instruments, can be damaged beyond repair from very slight temperature changes. By putting a violin in the hold of an aircraft you're essentially sending it to its grave. You might as well smash it up right now.

Musicians have a difficult time as it is. The arts are being cut left, right and centre and live music is becoming tougher and tougher to make a living from. Airlines such as Ryanair are basically taxing us for trying to make a living by forcing us to buy an extra seat for our instruments. Our passage was smooth because we played the game, we did thorough research beforehand and despite Ryanair's best efforts, had an easy flight. The important thing to remember is never travel with Ryanair unless you absolutely have to. Paying that little bit extra is worth every penny.

Politicians and Twitter

I recently read this article by my AM, Jonathan Morgan, on the use of twitter by politicians. You can follow him here. Mr Morgan has 609 followers at the time of writing.

I've been following him for a while, as a constituent of his I thought it would be useful to keep up on local matters and a new way to keep in contact and converse with my AM. This hasn't been the case so far.

Mr Morgan makes it clear in his article that he wants to steer clear of personal matters. This is understandable. It's very easy for things to be misconstrued and small, glib comments can be career-damaging - just look at Councillor John Dixon. But Mr Morgan doesn't need to talk about personal matters to connect with his followers; showing a little bit of personality and sense of humour goes a long way.

What politicians need to realise is that Twitter is a social platform, it thrives on conversation. At times it feels like Mr Morgan is saying his bit, but putting his fingers in his ears while blowing raspberries when anyone else tries to respond. I often see Jonathan on the streets of Whitchurch; would he run away if I asked him a question? Of course not, so don't do it online. I understand the difficulties of responding to every tweet but acknowledging important local concerns is necessary and important.

I think it's great that politicians at all levels are using twitter and facebook, but more often than not they're being used as noticeboards. Social networking; the clue is in the name. By using these services, please accept that you're inviting your followers into a discourse. Twitter users are intelligent, inquisitive and active people who want to connect to their politicians! Connect with us! We're trying ever so hard.

An Evening With Rufus

It's very hard to write about what I experienced last Friday from seeing Rufus Wainwright in concert. The day after the gig, I really felt like writing about it but I still have a lack of faith in my blogging skills. Then I read the amazing blog of my good friend Sian and decided to give it a bash.

I'm a big fan of Rufus, he's been a strong prescence in my playlist for a number of years now but I'm now listening to him in a totally different way.

As we entered the auditorium we were told there was to be no applause in the first half. Having worked in a concert hall for years, I'm always sceptical about such requests as they rarely have an impact and ignored most of the time anyway. However, when Rufus started playing all my preconceptions flew out of the window. He proceeded to give a rendition of his new album, All Days Are Nights: Songs For Lulu. This is where it gets difficult for me, how do I fully describe how beautiful it was? There were maybe 1000 people in the audience, but I felt like the only one there. His music and performance drew me in completely, it felt like it was entirely for me. I had my eyes closed for a lot of the time, letting everything flow over me and trying to absorb every last note that was played so it would remain in my head forever. I regained some faith in concert-goers as we all collectively remained silent for the whole set, each being drawn in and having our own wonderful experience. The lack of applause reinforced the continuity of the album and the importance of silence in music. Silence is music. His dramatic exit only enhanced the entire experience and once it was over and the harsh house lights thrust us back into reality, I felt bereft and wanted to go back immediately!

The second half was lighter and Rufus performed some of his popular songs from previous albums. It was so comfortable and he played with such style and swagger I found it hard not to grin constantly. His ease with the audience and our total devotion to everything he said and played were truly heartwarming, it's not hard to see why he has such a dedicated following. Listening to CDs, you never quite realise what an incredible musician Rufus is. Without wanting to sound snooty, being a musician means I'm often surrounded by seriously talented players and I take this for granted a lot of the time - it's easy to lose sight of the real craft and beauty of it. The combination of beautiful songs, delicate artistry and that velvety voice that envelops your whole being reminds me what music is all about (this is where I want to rant about the importance of music in education. That's for another entry).

I am happy to say that the concert was one of the most wonderful gigs I've ever seen and am now a fully fledged Rufus convert!

The Joy of Kids

As many of you know I've recently been away to The Netherlands with a bunch of kids. I organised the whole trip from start to finish and anyone who has ever had to deal with risk assessment forms will know what an utter ball-ache this is. It's been over a year of organisation and desperately urging the kids to get their parents to part with their well earned cash. At one point I thought we'd have to cancel the whole trip as the numbers were so low which would have looked bad on me and would have been a real downer for the band.

The band, I should point out, is a group of kids from different schools in the county who come together once a week to rehearse. We have about 4 concerts a year as well as a residential course and other social events. I absolutely adore working with them. It's a system I went through myself and it hugely impacted on my life to the extent that all my closest friends were made in these bands and orchestras. I honestly believe that I wouldn't have gone into the music profession if it wasn't for the love and confidence I gained while being a member of these groups. The pay is a nice bonus really, it gives me much joy! If I make a difference to one young musicians life, I'll be happy.

So, off we went to The Netherlands. Being relaxed was not a state I'd experienced for a few months, so getting everyone settled into their rooms and having the initial glass of Heineken was a really great feeling. We'd finally arrived and all the hard work had come to fruition. The kids were all happy with their rooms and excited for the upcoming frivolities. Despite this being a musical tour, the concerts were probably the least important aspect of the tour. The real joy was seeing everyone interacting outside of rehearsals and in a relaxed environment.

Taking part in any extra-curricular activity is life-enhancing. It sounds quite dramatic, but I really believe it's true. Having a social life outside of school is important and essential for a lot of children who have few friends in that environment. I've seen amazing transformations when children whose talents are misunderstood or unsupported in school are put into a group of likeminded students. They become different people and really blossom and mature. This was certainly the case on our tour. To describe some of our students as popular would be an outright lie yet over the course of the week they really came out of their shells and developed important friendships. It's rather wonderful to witness.

By the end of the week, it felt like we'd become a real unit, including Andy the coach driver! We had a wonderful trip where the kids had made a real effort and all their little social groups had intertwined so everyone was getting to know everyone. Classic in-jokes have been established as is the way with any good tour and a great bond has developed between staff and students. A happy band is a successful band and other such cliches. But seriously, playing music with people who enjoy spending social time with is a great pleasure and will ultimately lead to a higher standard of performance.

Moaning about work, specifically moaning about working with children is something I do well and often. This week abroad has restored my faith in teenagers, education and my own personal career choices.

What I think about when I think about this book.

I've read a couple of books since I last blogged.

The first book was by one of my favourite authors, Haruki Murakami. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running is a memoir of sorts and not surprisingly, finds Murakami talking about his passion for running. His fervour is evident and was genuinely impressed to find out he had run about 26 marathons at time of publication and trains nearly every day while maintaining a writing career. Despite being a lover of his fiction, I struggled a bit with this one. I found it rambling and even though I could relate to a lot of it, the philosophies and thought processes could quite easily be supplanted into any other discipline, it felt quite self indulgent. It may have something to do with the translation, Murakami always writes in his native Japanese. I can't recall the name of the translator but it certainly wasn't Jay Rubin, master Murakami translator. I'm probably talking nonsense though, what do I know?

Anyway, I think I'll stick to his fiction from now on.

Second up was 'Eeeee Eee Eeee' by Tao Lin. My first foray into his work. I can honestly say I've never read anything like it before, very unconventional yet I loved every page. I find it hard to write about this one as it was often hard to work out what was happening at any one time! Dolphins, bears and sometimes moose co-exist with humans in a strange world where the President is an alien, Elijah Wood gets clubbed to death by a bear and Salman Rushdie plays poker. Disaffected youths talk to each other in short, abrupt sentences which are ridden with obsession and frustration. Often laugh out loud funny and dark in equal measures. If you want something different, read this book.

I feel like this blog is in danger of becoming a place where I talk about books. That was not my intention and I'm not exactly qualified to be a book reviewer. I promise to talk about other stuff too.

Snow Joke

And neither was that. Apologies.

Yet again, schools and local education authorities have come under criticism for closing because of the snow. I've given up defending each condemnation individually and decided to write the reasons I think many schools have closed and why I support it.

Yes, I do work in education and yes, I am pleased that I've had two days off but that's more down to the foot injury! I have lost out on a week of pay for this.

We live in the age of health & safety. Unfortunate though it is, this will be the first thought of the headmaster and LEA. During heavy snow in early 2009, a school I teach in decided to open to staff only. The school in question has a very steep driveway which is tricky to ascend without battling through ice and snow and driving up there would have just been silly so most teachers parked at the bottom. And yes, one of the staff fell and broke her hip very badly. The school were in lots of trouble. They would be in a much worse situation if it were a pupil who fell. It's not even getting to school that is the issue in all cases, many large comprehensives involve teachers walking around big sites to different classrooms and even driving if the school has two sites. It may come as a surprise to some but school grounds ARE NOT GRITTED. They are icy deathroads! I'm sure headteachers would rather face criticism for closing than injured teachers/pupils/lawsuits.

And a note to those lambasting schools in central Cardiff where the snow has cleared. Most staff and teachers don't live in Cardiff. The teachers I know are having a hard time navigating their way through ungritted country lanes and have turned around to go home. Even on my road in north Cardiff, there was still a good 3/4 inches of snow on the ground. Some people decided to start their car only to realise this was silly and go back inside. If say 30% of staff live in rural surrounding areas and can't travel (I'd wager it is more like 60%), a school can't operate. Simple. In my experience of teaching in more deprived areas, if the snow hits, the parents (who don't work) will let the kids have the day off anyway and schools that do open will have a poor attendance where no real work is even attempted.

Now, let's talk about traffic. I know you want to. I haven't got the figures but a big portion of morning rush hour traffic is to and from schools. Granted, some of it is unnecessary when children can walk or share lifts with friends but that's a different problem altogether. By shutting schools, the roads become clearer. Not only does this give local authorities a better chance of clearing snow and getting more grit down, it makes life easier for the emergency services and others. I'm not saying that education isn't important, far from it, but I am saying that we can sacrifice a day of lessons if it means everything else running smoothly. Inevitably, the bad weather will mean more accidents needing assistance so why not lesson school traffic so that emergency traffic will have a better chance of getting where they need. Let's not forget other professions too. It makes economic sense for shop staff to be able to get to work, the same goes for transport workers.

Right, that's enough for now. I think my opinion is now clear!