Six Things, Volume 28
Swan | Skipping | When | Giant Steps | Dance | Drinks
Thing 1 – Swan
I have reached the age of 58 and a bit without ever having heard of the automated silver swan at the Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle.
What the hell have I been doing with my life?
Luckily, Jane Duke is at hand to set things right. Jane is a printmaker and all-round good egg – do have a look at her Substack, Dapple Scrumping, which gives fascinating insights into the printmaking process – and her most recent post brought the swan to my attention for the first time.
What a thing. The imagination and craft required to build it are beyond my ken (although the disclaimer to that is that I’m the kind of person who struggles to make a working paper plane, so it doesn’t take much to induce the wows).
It is, as Jane says, awaiting refurbishment so it can be returned to its glorious working state, but meanwhile here’s a fillum.
And here’s another, longer fillum.
Thing 2 – Skipping
The older you get, the less surprised you are by things, so it was with a little nod of the head and a muttered “of course” that I learned of the existence of the World Jump Rope Championships.
‘Jump rope’ is, as any fule know, what we in the UK call ‘skipping’. It was Eddie Izzard who pointed out the two contrasting groups of people who indulge in this healthy pastime.
The speed and dexterity on display at these championships is quite something. Take a look at this.
The first reaction to this kind of thing is “is there nothing that can’t be turned into a competition?”, the answer to which, when you then discover the existence of the Finnish Hobby Horse championships, is, “apparently, no”.
Glorious, incomprehensible, and quite quite mad. I love it.
Thing 3 – When
Have I shared this before? I honestly can’t remember. Anyway, here it is. The Great When? Five short film clips of London per game – you guess when they were filmed. Thanks to Michael Glasper for reminding me of its existence on The Social Media Platform Formerly Known As Twitter.
Thing 4 – Giant Steps
John Coltrane’s Giant Steps is a familiar jazz standard, notoriously feared by musicians for its speed and harmonic intricacy.
Only a masochist would devise words to Coltrane’s blistering solo and then sing them.
Federica Lorusso is just such a masochist.
Thing 5 – Dance
This is just joyful.
Thing 6 – Drinks
From Tom Jenks comes this rather marvellous thing. The logging of such data is a service to literature.
The Finnish Hobby Horse Championship made me snort. All it needed was members of the crowd accompanying the participants with the sound of coconut shells clip clopping.
Great post. I love a good skip (jump rope) so seeing their skills puts me in awe. Who knew about the swan, avian curveball that.