Z/Yen Xmas Event – Beyond El Dorado: Power And Gold In Ancient Colombia, Shunga: Sex And Pleasure In Japanese Art, British Museum, Followed By Dinner At Sardo, 13 December 2013

Because I had been to see the Colombian Gold a few week’s earlier – click here or below…

Beyond El Dorado: Power And Gold In Ancient Colombia, British Museum, 21 November 2013

…and in any case because Janie was more interested in the Shunga exhibition – click here…

…Janie and I saw a different exhibition from the rest of the people on our pre-Christmas Dinner works outing.

Below is the trailer vid for the Shunga:

We really enjoyed this exhibition.

I sense that the Z/Yen team enjoyed El Dorado too.

Z/Yen Xmas Dinner At Sardo In Grafton Way

The whole event was themed as “Gold” in honour of the El Dorado aspect. Almost everyone wore something gold.

Sardo was a Sardinian restaurant, rather a good one, which itself had a somewhat gold look to it.

I crafted a seasonal song to go with the gold theme:

DRESSED UP IN GOLD
( Sung to the tune of “Silver and Gold” )

VERSE ONE – SILVER AND GOLD – ORIGINAL VERSION (by Johnny Marks)
Silver and gold, silver and gold
Ev’ryone wishes for silver and gold
How do you measure its worth?
Just by the pleasure it gives here on earth
Silver and gold, silver and gold
Mean so much more when we see
Silver and gold decorations
On ev’ry Christmas tree

VERSE TWO – BITCOINS AND LAND – LONG FINANCE VERSION
Bitcoins and land, bitcoins and land
Long Finance topics are bitcoins and land
How do you measure their worth?
Just by the value they gain and disburse
Hedge funds and bonds, hedge funds and bonds
Seem such a bore when you show
Bitcoins and land valuations
In each portfolio

VERSE THREE – DRESSED UP IN GOLD – Z/YEN VERSION
Dressed up in gold, dressed up in gold
Z/Yen folk this Christmas are dressed up in gold
How do you measure dress sense?
Not by this sartorial elegance
Shrouding in gold, shrouding in gold
Might cause some people offence
(If) Z/Yen folk wear such decorations
At normal Z/Yen events

Once people got their heads around it…

…the singing went rather well.

We have loads of pictures from this event, which I have uploaded to a Flickr album for ease of navigation – click here or below:

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Mr Simpson’s Little Consort, St John’s Smith Square, 12 December 2013

I took my business partner Michael to this lunchtime concert after our December Board meeting.

It wasn’t very crowded, although there was a reasonable audience that lunchtime.

The image below shows the programme we heard.

Click here for a link to the Mr Simpson’s WordPress site:

Below is a recording of this troupe performing a Holborne Pavan and Galliard, which I believe we heard that day:

Below is a sample of Cate McKee singing, but she didn’t sing this beautiful Purcell song that day at SJSS:

We heard a fair bit of Orlando Gibbons that day – perhaps my first time or at least the first time I really noticed how much I like his sound. Here’s a vid of some other people doing another of Gibbons’s viol works:

Fault Lines by Ali Taylor, Hampstead Theatre Downstairs, 6 December 2013

This was not the most sophisticated or interesting play we have seen at the Hampstead Downstairs, but still it was good.

It was about a charity responding to a developing world emergency rather ineptly in the aftermath of a staff Christmas party.

We needed to suspend a fair bit of belief but there were some good fun elements and some juicy moral dilemmas thrown in.

Click here for a link to the Hampstead resource on this play/production.

Below is the trailer:

Click here for a search term that finds whatever else there might be out there – no formal reviews downstairs in those days.

Fabio Zanon, Wigmore Hall, Lunchtime Concert, 22 November 2013

A real treat of a day off, this one. Our first treat was this lunchtime concert at the Wigmore Hall.

We were most impressed with Fabio Zanon.

Click here for the Wigmore Hall programme for this concert.

It was Britten centenary day, so the centrepiece was Britten’s Dowland-inspired Nocturnal, although we did get some Peter Phillips to get a genuine Tudor feel and also some Bach and others to cruise us through the centuries.

Here is a YouTube of Zanon playing some Scarlatti…

…and here is a YouTube of someone else playing a Peter Philips pavan on the lute…

..and here is a Julian Bream masterclass on that Britten Nocturnal:

After lunch at The Wig, we went on to see an exhibition about Zoroastrianism at SOAS, but that’s a different story – click here or below:

The Everlasting Flame: Zoroastrianism in History and Imagination, Brunei gallery, SOAS, 22 November 2013

The Everlasting Flame: Zoroastrianism in History and Imagination, Brunei gallery, SOAS, 22 November 2013

After our visit to the Wigmore Hall for the Fabio Zanon concert – click here or below…

Fabio Zanon, Wigmore Hall, Lunchtime Concert, 22 November 2013

…followed by a bite of lunch at the Wig, we hot-footed it across to Bloomsbury to see The Everlasting Flame exhibition.

Information about the exhibition, with some super sample images, is archived on-line – click here.

This exhibition rounded off a super cultural day off.

Zoroastrian Fire Temple, Yazd (2)

 

Beyond El Dorado: Power And Gold In Ancient Colombia, British Museum, 21 November 2013

I went to a private viewing of this exhibition, thanks to Tony Friend of College Hill (latterly Instinctif).

It was a very convivial corporate hospitality event in that grand foyer of the British Museum…

…so much so, that I felt very much in the minority when I took a good look around the exhibition. There was plenty of time to eat, drink, be merry and see the wonderful show.

Click here for a link to the British Museum resource on this exhibition. There are some super images of the main exhibits.

I was so taken with this exhibition I suggested it as the Z/Yen pre Christmas dinner cultural event for a few weeks later.

Below is a link to the promo vid:

Below is a British Museum vid on the goldmaking techniques of the ancient Colombians:

Godchild by Deborah Bruce, Hampstead Theatre Downstairs, 15 November 2013

This was a fun play with enough drama in it to keep us thoughtfully entertained.

Tracy-Ann Oberman (formerly of our NewsRevue parish – or at least the SportsRevue version is always superb value, as is Michael Attenborough, having a go in an even smaller house than the Almeida for once.

Click here for a link to the Hampstead resource on this play/production.

No formal reviews downstairs in those days, but this search term should find whatever there is out there on this production.

Journeys Through Music, Trevor Pinnock, Wigmore Hall, 30 October 2013

It’s not easy to get Janie up into town on a Wednesday evening. But this opportunity to hear a harpsichord recital by Trevor Pinnock was too good to miss.

And boy was it good.

A fascinating programme for the evening, starting in the 16th century and working deep into the 18th.

Click here for the Wigmore Hall programme link for this concert.

For those who don’t click, it is music by Antonio de Cabezón, William Byrd, Thomas Tallis, John Bull, Girolamo Frescobaldi, Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, Domenico Scarlatti and Antonio Soler.

Many and varied.

Below is a YouTube sound piece of the Antonio de Cabezón we heard:

Below is an interview with Pinnock about his “Journey” project:

He talks so sensibly and knowledgeably in that interview, as indeed he did when explaining the recital to us on the night.

Anyway, that concert in October 2013 was a delicious as well as interesting listen and such an honour to see Trevor Pinnock perform those works up close.

The Empty Quarter by Alexandra Wood, Hampstead Theatre Downstairs, 25 October 2013

A strangely sinister play this one, about a young couple of expats in Dubai who get themselves into difficulties and fall foul of some older, exploitative expats.

The story seemed somewhat extreme, although apparently it is possible to get into extreme difficulties in Dubai and similar places and some young people do thus get exploited.

Click here for a link to the Hampstead resource on this play/production.

It had its moments but was not the best thing we’ve seen downstairs at the Hampstead – mind you we have seen some absolute crackers down there.

We didn’t regret our visit, but we were a little disappointed given the high hopes we now always take with us to the Hampstead Downstairs.

Below is the (very short) trailer:

No formal reviews downstairs, but what there is to be seen should be found through this search term – click here.

The Ritual Slaughter of Gorge Mastromas by Dennis Kelly, Royal Court Theatre, 19 October 2013

A weird and dark play about an extreme capitalist. We like Dennis Kelly’s plays – they are always entertaining with dark twists and lots to think about. This one was no exception.

Writing up this play now (march 2018), in our Brexit/Trump infused society, the play seems very relevant and prescient.

The fine actor Tom Brooke seems to thrive on Dennis Kelly plays. Actually the whole cast was good. I think this was our first sighting of Ned Bennett’s work as a director (assisting Vicky Featherstone on this one) – our next sighting being the tremendous Pomona at the Orange Tree – even weirder:

Pomona by Alistair McDowall, Orange Tree Theatre, 15 November 2014

The Ritual Slaughter of Gorge Mastromas certainly kept me and Janie entertained  during and debating afterwards.

Click here for a link to the Royal Court resource for this play/production.

Below is the trailer vid, which is intriguing but not illuminating:

Below is an interview with Vicky Featherstone and Dennis Kelly:

This one divided the critics. Click here for a search term that finds the reviews.