It's true there has been quite a lapse in writing on this blog, and it's largely a matter of Trinity Term kicking off properly I think. At the end of the day, when you've written your essays for another week, the last thing you want to do is think about anything, anymore, ever again. Of course, since the end of term a whole new range of excuses are needed, and as it happens I've been on a choir tour to Barcelona and working as a Jellicoe Intern with the Contextual Theology Centre, which is in fact, part of the salvation of this blog.
Perhaps I am mostly doing this for my own sake so I can remember what I thought and felt whilst I was doing this, as well as what I did, but I think the internship, the work are both worthy of wider attention, and so when it ends (Sunday evening) I shall attempt to organize my adventure into some kind of thematic material that hopefully will mean I avoid both a bland then I did this, then I did that, as well as discuss what I really thought of the whole time.
Though whilst we are meandering in the world of worthy causes, the reason I am up at this hour and writing is not the fact that I am working on my final report for this internship (now overdue, but I still have no idea what I'm meant to be writing) but rather because I am copying my latest purchases from Gramex Record Store into my itunes library.
To be honest, I'm not sure I really want to share this little gem of a second-hand classical and Jazz record store with the world, but it really is just too good to keep to myself. The reviews on that link speak for themselves, I think. For my own humble part, I am not known to be a big spender, yet I have just shed myself of £39 for CDs and what have I got?
Plunder, treasure, gems. Beethoven, Stravinsky, Rachmaninov, Byrd, Schumann, Bach, piano sonatas and concertos, symphonies, choral works, songs...
That's right Stravinsky, you really are going for that cheap!
And the selection is so much bigger than that! Of course the real treasure is Roger the store owner, who has been there 30 of Gramex's 105 years (or so he said yesterday). I will say he's brilliant, but quite honestly, I would not want to ruin all the fun so it's best if you find it all out for yourself, but honestly, do go if you can. It's stocked by some real experts in the trade and there seems to be a a fast turnover (really fast in some cases, I eyed an interesting Bach number with the entirety of the Art of the Fugue on it, when I walked back 6 minutes later to pick it up I could no longer find it, and I searched for 45 minutes (yes, yes, I was in the store for 3 hours browsing everything). Alas, I think someone with more sense took it as soon as they saw it.) My only real gripe (and perhaps this is more of a backhand complement) would be that most of these CDs are not actually recognized by iTunes, probably because they are not the most 'obvious' classical music (ok, so it is now in fact a gripe about iTunes and where its priorities lie, which is perfectly fair, I think).
Anyway that's my advertising piece done with, one of London's lesser known highlights, I should also credit my friend Michael Papadopoulos for introducing me to this world of aural delight. So do check it out next time you're in the centre of the capital, and I will try to write up on what I did whilst I was working and not taking time off.
In a few days!
