CHINHEALER'S BLOG:
Within Temptation fighting child abuse
Good on you Within Temptation for highlighting the ongoing evil of child abuse with your wonderful song Frozen from the new(ish) album. And even more kudos for donating all proceeds from the single to Child Helpline International.
Do check out their website and do buy the single:
http://www.childhelplineinternational.orgMany of us are praying/sending our thoughts/love/healing out to little Madeleine McCann on her 4th birthday. The maggot-infested excuses for human beings who are responsible for her abduction/disappearance will get what's coming to them. Their evil will undoubtedly grow a thousandfold and rebound onto them. I'm not in a position where I feel able to send healing out to them yet. And I see no point in sending out hate. (Love being a far more potent force, of course.) Let's all hope against hope that Madeleine can be returned unharmed. Let's also remember that hers is but one case and that many thousands (perhaps millions) of innocent children are suffering around the world right now. Isn't it about time we, the so-called adults of this world, refused to accept this state of affairs?
Peace&Light from
Chin
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Monday, 9th July, 2007:
I'm looking forward to two, rather different cultural experiences coming up at the end of the week. On Friday, I will be taking a pew at Coventry Cathedral to witness the splendour of the Mediaeval Baebes live. I saw them last year in Shrewsbury and they were spectacular in spite of a lacklustre crowd and a mediocre setting. Performing at Cov. Cath. promises to be a truly magical event to behold. (The Baebes are currently on a Cathedral Tour... it's a little surprising that Church authorities seem to be oblivious to the subversive nature of much of their music... there's a powerfully pagan/Wiccan/feminist energy underpinning a lot of the Baebes' oeuvre. Not to mention an ungodly preoccupation with (whisper it!) fornication. Check out 'Sour Grove' (an incredibly moving paen to the female organ) and 'Dringo Bell' (an incredibly amusing account of saucy, sexual shenanigans) from The Rose album.
So, anyway, I'll post my review of the gig in a madrigal-soaked reverie by the end of the weekend.
The other cultural highpoint of this week will be a youth production of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe at Redditch. Last year's megabudget film was enjoyable enough, but pales in comparison to the 70s animated version which had June Whitfield as Mrs Beaver if my memory serves me. This was quite possibly the most magical film of my childhood. And the Narnia series was possibly the most magical literature of my early childhood. Perhaps if I read these books today, I'll find myself gagging on the righteousness and religiosity of the whole enterprise. But as a kid, I was enchanted. I believed in the characters. I believed in the tales. I believed (literally) in Narnia. I think I still do. And I'm hoping against hope that the young cast on Saturday in Redditch can reawaken some of those fond feelings/memories in me...
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Baebes' Gig
Re: The Mediaeval Baebes in concert at Coventry Cathedral, Friday, 13th July, 2007
Well... there were moments of glory the other night in Coventry. And the singing was as tight and inspiring as ever. And the choreography was better than ever. And the excitable girlies in the audience brought some much-needed fun and levity to proceedings. But I have to say that Coventry Cathedral itself left much to be desired. It was all too cavernous a venue and much of the power (if not the beauty) of the songs got lost, I feel. Not the Baebes' fault. It pains me to say it as I was sooo looking forward to the Cov gig, but in terms of the music itself and the Baebes' performance, I have to say that I was much more blown away by their gig in Shrewsbury last year. Even though the audience was a collective non-entity back then, the relative intimacy of the venue meant that the singing and music reverberated through us, the audience, and penetrated to our very souls in a way that they didn't at Cov. And the loss of Marie Findlay is a major blow. She was sorely missed at Cov. I don't wish to disparage the newbies in the lineup - they acquitted themselves very well. But Marie as a personality and stage presence as well as a singer is an all-round package that is nigh-on impossible to replace, I'd say. Personally, I felt the Marie-sized gap on Friday night. Sorry to sound critical. But the Cov gig only had isolated sections of greatness (eg Katherine's solo, the Coventry Carol, Gaudete) whereas the Shrewsbury gig last year was one big cauldron of bubbling, magical greatness throughout!
It's probably unfair of me to make these comments considering how good the Baebes were at Cov. Even with these criticisms, they blow most other bands out of the water. Unfortunately, they'd set yourselves such a high standard back in Shrewsbury that living up to those would have been extremely difficult. That gig is forever enshrined in my heart as a pinnacle of my artistic experiences in life... and there's nowhere higher to go from a pinnacle!!
Cheers, Peace&Light from
Chin