The Aardvark Blog

Xmas Fair on Sunday, Greg Lake, Abstract Expressionism at the Royal Academy
9/12/2016

Final preparations for Xmas Fair are well underway. A super soup recipe has been selected, thanks to a titanic effort the warehouse has been cleared, and all the stallholders alerted. This year we have had to turn away a lot of people who wanted stalls over  the  last fortnight. I cannot emphasise enough that  for the Christmas Fair early booking is important as we have limited space. This is our last event of the year and I am looking forward to it being a good one. I can't believe that it has been a  year since Dutch and Dayne were last here. As the years roll on, they seem to go by at an ever faster pace. This will also be our third Christmas without Edward at our side, so we all need to be extra cheerful to make up for the lack of his Irish warmth and bonhomie.

Sad news yesterday of the death of  Greg Lake - the writer of one of the best Xmas songs and a founder member of the amazing  King Crimson as well as of the eponymous ELP. By way of a small personal tribute I watched the famous video of ELP performing their version of Fanfare for the Common Man in the winter at the Montreal Olympic Stadium. If you haven't seen it, it is perhaps the best ever video of musicians just standing and playing their music. No extras, no dancers, no light shows, gimmics or wardrobe malfunctions. I then watched James Levine and the New York Philharmonic perform Copland's original version of the piece. I came to the conclusion that actually the ELP version - which is effectively a theme and variations - was probably closer to what Copland would have wanted.

Abstract Expressionism exhibition at the Royal Academy is absolutely superb. Some wonderful paintings , and generally a very successful hang. Only quibble would be the room of Rothko's which doesn't particularly work in the central rotonda ( needs a more contemplative space and also the selection of paintings is not ideal. The room of large Clifford Still paintings is worth the price of admission. On until 2nd of January.