Edition 18 Monday 27th July 2020 Welcome to the Eighteenth Edition of our Newsletter As I said last week, this will be the last weekly edition of our newsletter. During August the newsletter will be published fortnightly so your next edition will be emailed to you on Monday 10th August. As you know our AGM is being held on line this year on the 20th August. There is an important message from Franca on page 9 of this issue and she has asked me to ask you to make sure you read it. You will notice that Alan has kindly written up the Desert Island Disc choices of Ian Rankin which was broadcast on the BBC Radio 4. Alan did this as we haven’t received any Desert Island Disc choices from members so please have a think about your eight favourite pieces of music – don’t worry about the links to hear the music, we can add those for you. Please continue to send me any stories, joke, poems etc for the next edition, as I have said before, without your contributions there would be no newsletter. Please send any contributions to Karen: [email protected] 1 Music in Our Time This is a regular item so if you have a relevant piece of music which reflects either the season, an event or our wonderful land, please email [email protected] Music Inspired By Blue Skies and Gentle Winds by Alan Malloy Has Summer finally arrived, albeit for a short time? While out on my morning walk with Hector, I marvelled at the wonderful blue sky, fluffy white clouds, cooled by a fairly gentle breeze. -It kept the flies away from us, which seem to have been more of a nuisance this year. I find that blue skies lift my spirits as much as sunshine - I hope that these four songs also do the same. Mr Blue Sky Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) It seems perfectly appropriate to start my selection this week with this record. ‘Mr Blue Sky tell us why you hid from us for so long.’ This song was written by Jeff Lynne, who wrote so much of the ELO’s music. ‘Mr Blue Sky’ was the final track of four tracks which made up ‘Concerto For A Rainy Day’. Lynne was inspired to write the track during his time in the Swiss Alps. “It was dark and misty for two weeks…Suddenly the Sun shone and I saw those beautiful Alps.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQUlA8Hcv4s ‘Blue Skies’. Irving Berlin originally wrote this song for a Rodgers and Hart musical. The musical ‘Betsy’ was not a great success, but this song was. It gained universal acclaim when it was included in the film ‘The Jazz Singer’, sung by the brilliant Al Jolson. ‘Blue Skies’ has been recorded by many singers and instrumentalists over the years, reflecting its enduring attraction. The first clip below is of Al Jolson, the second is of Thelonious Monk’s - ‘In Walked Bud’. Monk based this tune on the chords of ‘Blue Skies’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Djd1XfwDAQs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuHjgKQDofs ‘Soave sia il vento’ Mozart composed this song for his opera Così fan tutte (‘Women are like that.’, sometimes titled ‘The School For Lovers’). The story is of two soldiers who are certain that their two fiancées will be eternally faithful. Overhearing this, Don Alfonso bets the two soldiers that their fiancées can be ‘persuaded’ to leave them. And so the twisted plot starts. ‘Soave sia il vento’ (May the wind be gentle) sees the two soldiers ‘leaving’ to go to war. Of course, it is all a ruse! Their fiancées are tricked into agreeing to marry two others (the soldiers in disguise!), but all comes right in the end! This clip is from a 2006 Glyndebourne Festival. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_0FHyF3Pyk ‘Blow the wind Southerly’ This is a traditional Northumbrian folk song. It tells of a woman desperately hoping for a southerly wind to bring her lover home. This is sung by the peerless Kathleen Ferrier. Ferrier was one of Britain’s greatest contralto singers, much-love by so many of us. She died tragically young, at the age of 41. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXQuaq_2icU 2 Karen’s Crafty Corner Please remember to send in your craft ideas!! A member of Buckhurst Hill U3A has been in touch with me, she is the leader of their Craft Group. She too sometimes struggles for craft ideas for their newsletter and asked if perhaps we could share ideas. We now have a reciprocal agreement so this idea is from Fiona of Buckhurst Hill U3A How to make a little Trinket or Gift Box All that is required to make this little box is the cardboard tube from inside a toilet roll, kitchen roll or gift wrap, a little bit of card (the inside of a tissue box?) – and some strong PVA glue. The size of your little box will vary according to the size of your cardboard roll. The box on the left is made from the tube from one toilet roll. The one on the right is from a longer thinner roll from some gift wrap. The process is the same regardless of the size of your tube but you can vary the size of the resulting box. For these instructions, I used a toilet roll which was just under 10½ cm long. This worked perfectly. 1. With a pen, mark the ends of the toilet roll with a little arrow. Later on, it will be important that you can identify the ends as they need to form a smooth join where the lid meets the bottom of the box 3 2. Take the toilet roll and draw a line 4cm from the end. Then using a sharp craft knife carefully cut off the 4 cm piece – this will be the base of your box. This cut needs to be completely straight so don’t rush. If the inside of the tube starts to ‘unravel’ stick it down with some PVA. 3. Repeat, only this time cut off a 1½ cm piece from the other end of the tube - this will be the lid. This should leave you with a section about 4½ or 5cm long from the middle of the tube. The centre section of the tube – regardless of the size of your cardboard tube, always needs to be at least ½cm taller than the bottom half of your box 1 1 4. Take the centre section of the tube and make a straight cut – as in the photograph. 5. Slip it inside the 4cm base piece. It should poke out over the top by 1cm. Push it back against the sides of the tube, then where it overlaps draw a pencil line inside. 4 6. Cut the excess card off along the pencil line, then refit it inside the tube. It should now fit perfectly – fingers crossed! 7. Remove the insert and put to one side. Place the 4cm base on a piece of card (inside of a tissue box?). Draw round the end to make a circle. Cut the circle out very carefully. It should fit the end of the tube exactly. Repeat for the smaller tube (the lid) and using the PVA glue, glue the circles to each of the tubes, making sure that they are stuck at the correct end (not the end with the arrow!) 8. Next, making sure you do not glue the top couple of centimetres, put glue on the outside of the insert which slips inside the larger tube. Insert the inner piece, making sure that it sticks well to the inside of the tube. 5 9. The lid should now fit snugly on top of the tube – fingers crossed! Your box is now ready for covering and decoration – I used gift wrapping paper and some string (the string can hide any dodgy bits!) – all attached using PVA glue. I embellished with a few paper flowers – you could use beads or cut out flowers from greetings cards or gift wrap. If you decide to paint the box, (as in photo below right), use acrylic paint or ordinary craft paint with some PVA glue added to it. Avoid painting or covering the inner tube which pokes up out the of base of the box on which the lid sits. Be creative and inventive! 8 6 Each week we usually publish a member’s Desert Island Disc choices This week Alan has kindly put together Ian Rankin’s selection (from the BBC) Even if we haven’t read any of Ian Rankin’s books (he is a prolific writer, and broadcaster, having written over 25 novels and short stories, most notably the Inspector Rebus novels), we know the name! Ian Rankin is one of Scotland’s foremost authors, born in Cardenden, Fife, now living in Edinburgh. He also has a house on the Black Isle in Cromarty. Listening to Rankin’s Desert Island Discs, broadcast in 2006 (click on the link below to listen) his life has not always been easy. Most of his choices are of Scottish musicians. https://www.b bc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0093vcc Rankin’s choices are quite contemporary and most of the musicians (with a couple of exceptions) are new to me. 1. ‘Double -Barrel’ by David and Ansell Collins https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_7Kx2FlFQY 2. ‘Rage-Man’ by Mogwai https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrKtB_pKWUk 7 Please email your 8 record choices and your book and luxury item you would take to your desert island to Karen [email protected] 3.