Newsroom

I really like the theme music for the American HBO Tv series Newsroom – it evokes all those past B & W news stories when news seemed to be real and hard hitting, individual, and on the ground rather than the smooth over versions we seem to get now.

So I checked to see who the composer was and discovered it was a Thomas Newman who has also composed the music for films such as American Beauty, Shawshank Redemption, Skyfall and others.

I often switch off the news because it is so bland and gets blogged down in minute details rather than really telling us the story. HBO has the freedom to be creative with its writers and it seems these days that the DVD tv series are often of higher quality than most movies screened at the cinema.

2014!

Quote TS Eliot 

"Last year’s words belong to last year’s language,

And next year’s words await another voice."

 

"We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring/ Will be to arrive where we started/ And to know the place for the first time." 

We play out our lives in real time, one day, one place, one heart, hoping to reach others.

Life is not linear

And Art is about mystery.  P. Keightley

Thomas Eliot (1888 – 1965) was an essayist, publisher, playwright, literary and social critic and "one of the twentieth century's major poets." Born in St. Louis, Missouri in the United States, he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927.  He attracted widespread attention for his poem The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (1915), which is seen as a masterpiece of the Modernist movement. It was followed by some of the best-known poems in the English language, including The Waste Land (1922), The Hollow Men (1925), Ash Wednesday (1930) and Four Quartets (1945).^[2] He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948.

Music photography 2013

Miles Kane

Music photography 2013  - 
I have had some fun gigs this year. Miles Kane had so much energy at the O2, Kris Drever and Eamon Coyle provided first rate folk tunes, Neil Young was memorable, Finlay MacDonald and Chris Stout played fine jigs and reels at Celtic Connections, LA female rock band Haim had strong vocal harmonies and great fun rock tunes at SW3, and best of all Peter Gabriel with his mesmerising voice and meaningful songs at the new Glasgow Hydro.

Django Django

 

Kris Drever and Eamon Coyle provided first rate folk tunes, 

Music Photography

Sometimes at gigs something magic happens…. the audience is really up for it, as are the musicians on the stage. It is as if it all comes together in that one time and place. And it is at these rare gigs that I am able to get a good position and shot unobtrusively for the entire gig – and I am not restricted to those ridiculous 3 songs grab (which I know matter for the bigger stages). The trouble with restrictions is it creates a ‘manic’ grab for photographers while it can be an adrenaline rush. It means all a photographer can capture is those head shots, perhaps more if they are lucky. .

 I am not sure it’s the best situation for portfolio images or a quality photoshoot. 

 

 I took some photos at a gig several years back and realised I had a talent for capturing the right moments and occasionally even an image with something a little bit magic. Music is my motivation - from Mozart to pop to folk and shades inbetween!  I grew playing Joni Mitchell and Bach.

In recent years I have attended some magic gigs and I have posted here about my top ever gigs.

Finlay MacDonald and Chris Stout played fine jigs and reels at Celtic Connections, 

Pauline Keightley Photography

Music and Portrait Photography

Glasgow

Emeli Sande, Celtic Connections, Edinburgh Festival,

http://pkimage.co.uk/

X Factor UK 2013

It is hard to judge what impact the tv show X factor (and other reality shows) may have had on the music biz today. Some contestants have gone on to highly successful careers after the show – notably boy band One Direction, Olly Murs, Darius, Leona Lewis and from Britain’s Got Talent Susan Boyle.  Oddly most of the most successful graduates of reality tv shows were the runner ups. I am not sure what that tells us about the voting public or of the music biz??  

I notice this year that judge Louis Walsh has used words such as – hard working and musical about the contestants. I assume to give the impression this is not about a quick fix superstardom at all – but rather an opportunity for those who have already put in hard graft. After all I am certain The Spice Girls and Westlife were also put together bands only behind the scenes back then. 

There are few live music shows in tv and with so much recording going on and I am sure the live style of these shows is here to stay.  

Talent singing contests went on in ancient Greece, so I’d say the format is here to stay – while it does need to evolve and change, I like my books serious and my tv light and slightly trashy! Mind you I do enjoy those American Tv DVD drama series such as Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Boardwalk Empire and more.   

The winner 2013 Sam Bailey has been given a support slot on Beyonce's tour. All about the live gigs these days. Nicholas MacDonald, only 17 and from Scotland, was the runner up. this year.

And PS - I enjoyed Elton John and Gary Barlow on their pianos as they sang a world exclusive song Face to Face ,... but what happened to Kate Perry's singing, it was totally off tune!