Author: Ian Louis Harris

Inaugural Long Finance Conference, Singing, Talking, Dinner And BASIC Event, 1 February 2010

I don’t Ogblog much work related stuff – Ogblog is supposed to be about life beyond work. But of course work and life overlap at times – into “work life”.

This was such a day.

Following much thought and planning, Michael Mainelli had arranged an inaugural Long Finance conference – click here for the resource on the event.

We wanted the event to have a slightly different feel, so Michael suggested that I pen a couple of silly songs to use as interludes, getting the audience to exercise their lungs occasionally rather than just get geeky and morbid about the long-term future of finance, post the debacle of 2008.

Partly through Michael connecting up with The Long Now Foundation and partly through my personal connection with Brian Eno through my health cub, the event included a panel with Brian, Stewart Brand and Zander Rose, which was a very generous gift of time and reputation for a fledgling idea such as Long Finance.

Bernard Lietaer also kindly gave of his time and energy for our inaugural event, proving to be both fascinating and charming in equal measure.

Our honoured guests seemed happy with the idea of light audience participation interludes for this event; Brian was positively encouraging of the idea, on the grounds that singing helps open up minds to fresh ideas.

Anyway, here are the two little ditties I concocted and conducted for the conference:

MY FUND MAN
(Song to the Tune of “My Old Man Said Follow The Van”)
My fund man,
Said “borrow and plan,
So don’t fret,
When you run up some debt”.
Off went me house to a mortgage tracker,
In went the cash to an equity knacker;
Which dillied, then rallied,
Rallied, then dillied,
Lost its way and sank just like a stone.
Oh you can’t trust the bankers,
They’re a load of…….thankless-
-Folk who repossessed my home.

Not the best I have ever written…nor the worst.

Home In On The Range
(Song to the Tune of “Home On The Range”)
Oh give me a home.
For the finance I own,
Where the bulls and the bears can all play;
With seldom a jump,
Or discouraging slump,
So that value’s preserved for decades.
Home in on the range,
Where the bulls and the bears can all play;
We’re girding our loins,
For some eternal coins,
Cos “Long Finance” is now here to stay!

After one of them, I think the first, Brian said “don’t give up the day job”, which sounded like highly sensible advice, yet said in a friendly, tongue in cheek manner.

We all enjoyed a decompression session at Z/Yen after the conference, after which Brian left us, as he had a diary clash with dinner; a BASIC event to organise at his studio. Stewart, Zander and Bernard joined we Z/Yen folk and others for an early evening “Musing Dinner” at the Farmers Club to continue the Long Finance discussions.

Before departing, Brian suggested that Stewart and I might like to join his BASIC event at the end of the evening, as I live round the corner from Brian’s studio and Stewart was staying very nearby.

So after the dinner, Stewart and I went to the studio. By that time, the formal elements of the BASIC evening were over and there was a party in full swing. Brian’s studio parties are always good fun and this one was no exception.

I discovered that I had acquired a sort-of groupie at the Long Finance conference; a young Swiss woman who lived nearby and had come along, I think at Brian’s suggestion, then gone on to the BASIC event. She spoke in glowing terms about the sing-song, which was rather flattering. I would run into her in the neighbourhood quite frequently for several months after this day. I don’t think she was stalking me. Nor I her, I hasten to add.

I wrote to Brian the next morning:

Just a quick note to thank you for your hospitality last night.  I met some very interesting, BASIC (and non-BASIC) people.  It is a real shame that our two events ended up clashing, as I would have enjoyed hearing the formal part of the evening.

I can report smugly that I soldiered my way to the gym at 8:00 this morning, but I shall no doubt need a power nap for a while this afternoon if I am to make it through the whole day.

Once again, many thanks.

That weekend, I received a short missive from Brian:

I saw a bloody piece in some paper or other which picked up my ‘Don’t give up the day job’ quip..of course. Why didn’t I see that one coming?

I’m sorry – it was meant as a joke, as I think you realised. In fact both Stewart and I were full of admiration that you had the balls to do that, and I think it was a great contribution to the event – it made people laugh, and also got them involved. I use singing myself often in serious situations, but usually at the end. The beginning is a good place too.

I hadn’t seen it. I needed to do some Googling to get to the bottom of the matter…The Evening Standard of course…then replied:

Many thanks for your kind words.

When The Evening Standard approves of everything we’re doing, then I might really consider giving up the day job.  Please don’t give that matter another thought.  Despite “The Standard”, Michael is suggesting that we make group singing a tradition of Long Finance gatherings.

More than seven years later, I tried to find the offending Standard piece, to link to this Ogblog piece.

Gone from The Standard site. Airbrushed out of history. Understandably so.

But, undaunted, I thought this would be an excellent test for the Wayback Machine, which I have oft thought about possibly using for Ogblog purposes but have not previously needed.

Well, it took some rummaging through the 305 billion or more Wayback Machine pages, but I surprisingly quickly found what I was looking for and scraped it to Ogblog: City Spy_ Singalong gives Willis and Brian Eno the blues… _ London Evening Standard.

I can cope with the indignity of the piece, but being so cruelly juxtaposed with a picture of Prince Andrew really gets my goat. In the interests of decency, The Standard could have used this august image instead:

Really Old, Like Forty Five by Tamsin Oglesby, Cottesloe Theatre, 30 January 2010

We were very keen on the idea of this one and booked a preview.

We are glad we did; the play was enjoyable, agonising and thought-provoking in equal measure.

Partly about the domestic and interpersonal aspects of ageing, the play also takes on questions of government policy around ageing, including social care and the potential for robots to provide same.

A summary of cast and some interesting links on Wikipedia – here.

I make it sound a bit “everything but the kitchen sink” on the topic, because in a way it was, but in a good way. The themes do more or less come together into a coherent whole and there is an element of comedic romp about the play which allows room for some forgiveness.

It was pretty well received on the whole – a rummage through the reviews and materials yielded by this search term should satisfy your curiosity if you remain curious.

Excellent cast, well directed, well produced…

…what do you expect from the Cottesloe?

The Beggar’s Opera: Reborn, Reverb: Roundhouse, 25 January 2010

This was the second Reverb: Roundhouse concert we went to over a long weekend in January – we took that Monday off work.

This one didn’t wow us quite as much as the Joanna MacGregor one on the Saturday, but still we really enjoyed it.

In many ways this one was more star-studded, with Charles Hazlewood, Adrian Utley from Portishead, Charlie Jones from Goldfrapp and both of the Unthank sisters to thank.

It was an interesting idea to set The Beggar’s Opera with folk tunes and baroque music from Purcell and Handel. It succeeded in its own way, but perhaps, to my mind, Brecht/Weill have taken that work as far as it can go down the fusion line.

We were thirsty for more of this sort of thing at the Roundhouse, but have not since (writing in 2017) seen quite such inspired-looking programmes at that venue. Which is a shame, as we really like the place.

Still, this evening rounded off a long weekend well, at the Roundhouse

Joanna MacGregor and Britten Sinfonia, Reverb: Roundhouse, 23 January 2010

We went to two classical concerts with early music leanings at the Roundhouse in the space of three days as part of the Reverb series; we loved both.

This was the first of the two, on the Saturday.

We hadn’t seen Joanna MacGregor before, although we had heard of her. I was aware that she had been a Gresham professor of music.

There was real flare and excitement to this concert; a really interesting blend of early music, south american music and contemporary and jazz themes.

In the moment, I bought a couple of Joanna MacGregor albums on the night:

We’ve listened to these albums a lot and had a lot of enjoyment from them, although they bear little resemblance to the music we heard that night.

Subsequently I bought another one, Play, which reflected at least a couple of the items we heard in the concert.

Here is an interesting video interview with MacGregor on the Telegraph website, made just before this concert.

Anyway, the concert was lovely and left us very excited ahead of the next one, a mere two days away.

Six Degrees Of Separation, John Guare, The Old Vic, 16 January 2010

Around the time that we booked this play, I was writing the chapter of The Price of Fish, coincidentally Chapter Six, that explains the “shrinking world” theory known as six degrees of separation.

In theory, this play is all about that concept. In practice, I struggled at times to link this social comedy with the theory.

Without the futile search for intellectual insight, it was a reasonably fun evening at the theatre but a rather lightweight one. A super cast for this revival, but I’m not sure this play is worthy of a revival within 20 years, even though the world has/had changed between times.

Here is a link to The Old Vic resource on the production.

Here is a link to a search term that finds plenty of reviews, mostly indifferent ones. The consensus seemed to be that the production was excellent but the play somewhat lacking. Although neither Janie nor I had seen the play first time around, we thought that assessment was right.

Maharaja: The Splendour of India’s Royal Courts, With Tony & Phillie, 1 January 2010

Tony and Phillie stayed with us over new year that year and we went to see this exhibition on new year’s day.

We had the idea for it when we went to the V&A with Z/Yen a few week’s earlier – an event that will be Ogblogged in the fullness of time.

Tony and Phillie really enjoyed spending the day with us and also enjoyed this exhibition – Tony especially enjoying the V&A and its artefacts.

There is a good V&A resource about it – here.

I remember being astonished by Phillie’s energy, although she was very poorly by then, as she wanted to explore some other bits of the V&A before we left.

Rope by Patrick Hamilton, Almeida Theatre, 19 December 2009

We weren’t as keen on this one as we had hoped to be, given the synopsis and the fact that the Almeida was going through a purple patch at that time.

I’m not sure that Patrick Hamilton works for us on the stage – indeed we have recently at the time of writing (May 2017) passed up an opportunity to see one of his in the forthcoming Hampstead Theatre run.

We’re becoming an increasingly picky pair these days. We tend to avoid booking much in that pre-Christmas period also, now, given the nightmare journeys that often ensue at that time of year.

Anyway, here is the Almeida on-line resource about the play and production, which includes information, review links, photos and even a vid from the rehearsals.

It was of course an excellent production and very well acted. I think it was the play that didn’t quite do it for us. Janie and I like 1920’s and 1930’s styles generally, but strangely we don’t tend to like plays/the theatrical style of that era.

The reviews – mostly very good but not great – are mostly linked from the Almeida resource – here’s that link again.

For some reason British Theatre Guide doesn’t usually make it to those links – Philip Fisher makes good points in this review, not least that the play is quite long compared with the much vaunted Hitchcock film version.

Skimming the reviews reminds me how very well acted and produced the piece was, it just wasn’t really our type of piece.

Still, we’re both glad we caught this production; I have little doubt that this production is as good as it gets for Rope.

Notting Hill Brasserie, Preceded By Decode Exhibition At V&A, 18 December 2009

For some strange reason we have no pictures from the 2009 Z/Yen seasonal event. I find it hard to believe that none were taken, yet there is no sign of anyone uploading a batch to the Z/Yen server, although that habit had become established by the end of 2009.

The headline picture “Z/Yen In Hats” was actually taken the previous year, but was the December 2009 picture in the Z/Yen calendar, so it will have to do.

Our friend and client (through Charity IT Leaders), Sarah Winmill, was CIO at the V&A at that time. She very kindly gave us a private viewing and “backstage look” at the highly popular Decode Exhibition which was “the thing” at the V&A that season.

The following video gives a good idea of the fascinating stuff on show.

Needless to say, many Z/Yen folk were as happy as Larry at that show. Even an arty technophobe like Janie found lots to enjoy there and all enjoyed the behind the scenes tour.

Then on to the Notting Hill Brasserie.

I do hope that someone who attended did take pictures and keep them – a stack of pictures from that dinner would be good. I remember it was a lively crowd and the private room there was a good venue for our do.

The seasonal song that year was our first (but not last) attempt at “ExtZy” to the tune of Branle D’Official (Ding Dong Merrily On High) – click here for a pdf or read below:

EXTZY

(Song to the Tune of “Ding Dong Merrily On High”)

          Buy/sell merrily at Z/Yen,

          In market games we’re trading;

          Buy/sell heavily, you ken,

          Z/Yen coffers we are raiding.

          ExtZy,

          For prizes or donations;

          ExtZy,

          For prizes or donations.

          This lark isn’t just a game,

          We’re Z/Yen Communitizing;

          Building membership’s our aim,

          And benchmark analyzing.

          ExtZy,

          For prizes or donations;

          ExtZy,

          For prizes or donations.

          Play you doughtily, we’ve made,

          Z/Yen peoples’ role as ringers;

          Let’s just hope that when we trade,

          We’re better play’rs than singers.

          ExtZy,

          For prizes or donations;

          ExtZy,

          For prizes or donations.

Fragments – A Worcester Ladymass, Trio Mediæval, Wigmore Hall, 13 December 2009

Trio Mediæval by Tore Sætre, CC BY-SA 4.0

Trio Mediæval, the Bananarama of high quality mediaeval singing, bowled us over with this concert in late 2009. Three Scandanavian sopranos who sing beautifully and look like they are having fun doing so.

This is what we saw:

I have managed to find, on YouTube, a fragment of Trio Mediæval singing some of these fragments, albeit singing them somewhere other than the Wigmore Hall.

It should give you an idea of what we heard:

After the concert I bought their album, Words Of The Angels – we listen to it quite often it is so lovely.

Janie and I were not yet daunted by the dread of going up west that close to Christmas (to be fair, Sunday evening is probably as tolerable as it gets), so we booked this concert for mid December and I’m so glad we did.

A very memorable and enjoyable evening; we also enjoyed a Monday off  work the next day.

Red by John Logan, Donmar Warehouse, 5 December 2009

The more cynical reader/theatre lover might imagine this play/production having been designed for a Broadway transfer from the outset.

A two-handed, short play about the artist Mark Rothko, with an all (both) star cast and Michael Grandage directing.

Indeed, had it not been for the fact that the subject matter interests us both and that the stars in question (Alfred Molina and Eddie Redmayne) are both stars we like, we might have given this one a miss. We were falling out of love with the Donmar Warehouse by then.

But this was a very interesting play and it was superbly done, so we are very glad we went to see it at the very start of its transatlantic journey.

No on-line resource from the Donmar – they are far too busy arranging West End and Broadway transfers for that…

…update – I feel bad about having said that now that the Donmar has made its educational Study Packs available for download – here is the pack for Red.

It got mostly very good reviews, but not universally so:

It did well on transatlantic transfer too – here is Ben Brantley from the New York Times the following spring.

But back to London during chilly December 2009, Janie and I were really taken with the preview we saw, which is the bit that really matters. It has also made us look at Rothko works slightly differently since. We’re still not sure about their meditative qualities though.

Finally, here is an extracts package from Playbill from the Los Angeles transfer – sadly without Eddie Redmayne by then, but still you get to see Alfred Molina as Rothko: