29 May 2011
It’s 8:34am and I am sitting in a cloud of Greek cigarette smoke (not mine) on the Ferry from Piraeus to Mykonos. Finally. We missed the boat (literally) yesterday and had to stay the night in Piraeus. This is an experience I’d suggest avoiding if at all possible…was not brill, although a gin and tonic drip certainly softened the blow. If, however, you ever ARE stuck there, please do yourself a favour and steer clear of the little man from New York at Smartchoice travel. This place, despite the name, is not a ‘smart choice’ – they will charge you more than double for a rather mediocre room and act like they’ve just saved you from the Ebola virus whilst doing it.
But we’re on the boat now and it’s only 3 hrs till we get there. Already had 3 coffees. There is a group of local musicians sitting to my left (refer back to my comment about sitting in a cloud of smoke) amidst 7 instrument cases of different shapes and sizes. Aside from their chain-smoking, they’re quite charming and laugh a lot. They must have seen my travel guitar and decided we were the safest table to sit near…
My last couple of days in France (before my horrible day yesterday in Piraeus) were awesome. We went to this little place called Vezelay that had two amazing things:
1) a church which was simply beautiful. I got the sweetest little Mary Magdalene bracelet there – and it was also really interesting because the church itself had the signs of the zodiac carved into the walls. How weird is that? I’ve always been led to believe that astrology and religion where diametrically opposed, but this made me wonder if that was actually rubbish.
2) a brilliant photographer called J-C Gadreau. He’s seriously talented, I’m not sure if he’s on the net anywhere – I got the feeling that it wasn’t really that sort of town – but look him up if you can. He has all these shots of provincial French life and they are stunningly charming in an off-beat/60s/French sort of way.
Other than that I am now totally over cherries. If I never have another one in my life it’ll be too soon. If you’re ever on ‘who wants to be a millionaire’ and get a question about the regional fruit of Clamecy/Burgundy, call me. Or maybe don’t, since now you know the answer. But seriously, in the last week I’ve had fresh cherries, cherry booze, cherries soaked in booze for dessert, cherry pie, cherry salad, cherry steak, cherry toothpaste – okay now I’m exaggerating, but you get the drift. They’re bloody everywhere and in everything.
Speaking of TV game shows, I’ve been thinking (dangerous, I know): after managing to drive from central Paris to Clamecy at rush hour, sans map and with a sat-nav woman who had clearly been programmed by the devil; after surviving a night in Piraeus without flinging myself out the window; and after successfully changing the language on the TV at an airport hotel in Orly (Paris) to English via a remote control with only one battery, I’m pretty much ready to go on some sort of urban version of the reality show ‘Survivor’. Offers are welcome.
Am joking, sort of.
xxx
Monday, 30 May 2011
Sunday, 22 May 2011
Jean Patou, champagne, travel guitars, a hat and a million baby ducks...
May 22, 2011
So here I sit in provincial France, typing away on my beloved mac. It’s truly stunning here. The house we are staying in is big and bohemian, with wooden shutters that open onto a beautiful canal – I’ve never seen so many baby ducks in my life!
And it is silent here except for the birds, the odd rogue fly that’s found its way indoors and the sound of one of my more enthusiastic companions yelling ‘bonjour’ at every barge that goes past. We had champagne at 11am and I’ve finally had the opportunity to wear a rather beautiful hat I bought a while back and never got the chance to sport – I’m totally in love with it. Want a million hats now!
The only true negative is that, being an old house (I’d guess about 300 years old but I’m no historian), the doorframes are extremely low. In truth I think I might have concussed myself in the middle of the night whilst trying to find a glass of water. And stupidly I didn’t bring mosquito repellent with me - luckily I found some in a drawer. However, I’d say from the packaging that it was a relic from sometime in the late 60s and just one squirt is so pungent it’s sure to kill every insect in the northern hemisphere. Not even Jean Patou can save me now.
But my travel guitar made it in one piece and I’ve figured out how to work the coffee machine. So the essentials have been covered…
xxx
So here I sit in provincial France, typing away on my beloved mac. It’s truly stunning here. The house we are staying in is big and bohemian, with wooden shutters that open onto a beautiful canal – I’ve never seen so many baby ducks in my life!
And it is silent here except for the birds, the odd rogue fly that’s found its way indoors and the sound of one of my more enthusiastic companions yelling ‘bonjour’ at every barge that goes past. We had champagne at 11am and I’ve finally had the opportunity to wear a rather beautiful hat I bought a while back and never got the chance to sport – I’m totally in love with it. Want a million hats now!
The only true negative is that, being an old house (I’d guess about 300 years old but I’m no historian), the doorframes are extremely low. In truth I think I might have concussed myself in the middle of the night whilst trying to find a glass of water. And stupidly I didn’t bring mosquito repellent with me - luckily I found some in a drawer. However, I’d say from the packaging that it was a relic from sometime in the late 60s and just one squirt is so pungent it’s sure to kill every insect in the northern hemisphere. Not even Jean Patou can save me now.
But my travel guitar made it in one piece and I’ve figured out how to work the coffee machine. So the essentials have been covered…
xxx
Saturday, 9 April 2011
Okay, so this has to be quick as SO MUCH IS HAPPENING!
RAGE (really big video hits show in Australia) have picked up my video for Just Five Minutes and have been playing it. Which is so cool! Thank you so much to everyone who helped put that together. And how amazing are we to have done it all in less than a day? You are all brilliant. Not joking.
Also, the LA International Film Festival have accepted it under the Music Video category - how fun is that?
AND I've been accepted into this Country Music Academy in Tamworth (Australia) which will be so much fun. It also means I'll be performing at the 'Hats Off' music festival in Tamworth on July 9. So come along if you're that side of Oz!
Also, someone sent me a link to something one of the emerging artist judges had said about my song "Pippa Drysdale - Just Five Minutes - This song was the most infectious catchy song on my list. It's a snappy radio friendly piece of power pop".
YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY. Funny thing is I haven't sent it to radio yet. Perhaps I will.
No time to wax philosophic at the moment as, what with being completely indie, my brain is one long 'to-do' list at the moment. But I have some time in France/Greece in June and am bound to come back all contemplative/wanna-be wise after that.
Hope you're all awesome!
xxxx
RAGE (really big video hits show in Australia) have picked up my video for Just Five Minutes and have been playing it. Which is so cool! Thank you so much to everyone who helped put that together. And how amazing are we to have done it all in less than a day? You are all brilliant. Not joking.
Also, the LA International Film Festival have accepted it under the Music Video category - how fun is that?
AND I've been accepted into this Country Music Academy in Tamworth (Australia) which will be so much fun. It also means I'll be performing at the 'Hats Off' music festival in Tamworth on July 9. So come along if you're that side of Oz!
Also, someone sent me a link to something one of the emerging artist judges had said about my song "Pippa Drysdale - Just Five Minutes - This song was the most infectious catchy song on my list. It's a snappy radio friendly piece of power pop".
YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY. Funny thing is I haven't sent it to radio yet. Perhaps I will.
No time to wax philosophic at the moment as, what with being completely indie, my brain is one long 'to-do' list at the moment. But I have some time in France/Greece in June and am bound to come back all contemplative/wanna-be wise after that.
Hope you're all awesome!
xxxx
Sunday, 6 February 2011
The Experiment, shows and instant coffee
So I lasted about two hours with no digital contact. Then I broke down and logged into my email. But, in an effort to justify my clear addiction/reliance upon facebook/twitter etc I had a thought: I wonder if the reason we all love this stuff so much (love knowing what everyone else is thinking/doing/feeling 24/7) is that it allows us to live many lives at once. We don't have to skip the country anymore and move to India for a year to paint because there will be someone on our facebook page who does it for us, reports back hourly and puts pics up to illustrate. Just a thought. Have too many of those though...
I have a show later this month at Bloomsbury Bowling Lanes, I've never been there before but it looks cool - I mean they have a Don Draper room. How can that NOT be awesome?
Am sitting here drinking instant coffee, wishing I could finally remember to order some pods from nespresso for my machine.
I have a show later this month at Bloomsbury Bowling Lanes, I've never been there before but it looks cool - I mean they have a Don Draper room. How can that NOT be awesome?
Am sitting here drinking instant coffee, wishing I could finally remember to order some pods from nespresso for my machine.
Saturday, 29 January 2011
The experiment
So I saw a Pizza restaurant advert yesterday. It contained the text (I might be paraphrasing but you’ll get the jist): “It is scientifically proven that spending time with family and friends will cheer you up”.
Okay, either they’re joking/being ironic and I missed it (in which case totally ignore my rant), or they’re not. It’s the latter option that freaks me out more than just a little bit: has modern society, in all its facebook/twitter/match.com glory, seriously come the point where we’ve forgotten that spending time (dinner-at-the-dining-table-time, not facebook-you-at-work-time) with family and friends cheers us up? And are we seriously so ruled by science/left-brain activity that we’d actually require scientific proof before we’d believe such an assertion? Does science really hold so much weight in modern society? All I can say is ‘bring on the age of pisces’, hopefully it will bring with it a bit more idealism.
As for me I think I’m going to conduct an experiment. I’m only going to see people in person for a month. No facebook. No twitter. No answering the phone unless I’m at home and would answer it if it wasn’t mobile (I can’t leave it at home as I need the satnav – not want, need, as in will-end-up-walking-to-Tibet-instead-of-work if left to my own devices).
Because I don’t like being at everybody’s beck and call. And I don’t like the fact that people can simply press a button and ‘like’ your status instead of picking up the phone and having an actual conversation with you. It can’t be good. Sorry, not to sound like the last vinyl record in a world of auto-cued, digital dance music, but it can’t.
Will report back…see you in a month.
xxx
Okay, either they’re joking/being ironic and I missed it (in which case totally ignore my rant), or they’re not. It’s the latter option that freaks me out more than just a little bit: has modern society, in all its facebook/twitter/match.com glory, seriously come the point where we’ve forgotten that spending time (dinner-at-the-dining-table-time, not facebook-you-at-work-time) with family and friends cheers us up? And are we seriously so ruled by science/left-brain activity that we’d actually require scientific proof before we’d believe such an assertion? Does science really hold so much weight in modern society? All I can say is ‘bring on the age of pisces’, hopefully it will bring with it a bit more idealism.
As for me I think I’m going to conduct an experiment. I’m only going to see people in person for a month. No facebook. No twitter. No answering the phone unless I’m at home and would answer it if it wasn’t mobile (I can’t leave it at home as I need the satnav – not want, need, as in will-end-up-walking-to-Tibet-instead-of-work if left to my own devices).
Because I don’t like being at everybody’s beck and call. And I don’t like the fact that people can simply press a button and ‘like’ your status instead of picking up the phone and having an actual conversation with you. It can’t be good. Sorry, not to sound like the last vinyl record in a world of auto-cued, digital dance music, but it can’t.
Will report back…see you in a month.
xxx
Wednesday, 12 January 2011
Sunday, 21 November 2010
Instant coffee, Mad Men, songs, sun, fake snow and real books
I love waking up before everyone else. It’s so silent. I have a new computer – it’s a mac – and there’s something cute and musical in the clicking of the keys…and I have a cup of coffee (instant as I’ve run out of nespresso pods for the machine. God I love that machine). I’m not usually a big fan of instant coffee, but it’s hot and sweet, and that’s all that matters right now. I always forget how cold London gets in the winter (and we’re not even really there yet).
So I’m going home to Australia for a month over Christmas and I can’t wait. I’ll be going in to do an interview on Fremantle Radio (107.9) on January 7, so do tune in if you’re around! I’ll be talking about my most recent single and having them play the new song which will be released in February 2011. It’s a sad love song that sounds happy. But other than that I’ll be lying on the beach, playing tennis with my mum, piano with my dad and learning to surf with my sister.
You’ve probably all already seen it, but for any of you who haven’t, my new music video is up here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DnJqB41CjQ and you can buy the song on iTunes here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/just-five-minutes-single/id379279063 - I have another single due out early next year so I’ll keep you posted…
Otherwise, I’m reading this book, ‘The Finkler Question’ and it’s brilliant. Highly recommend it. Another one I read recently that had me rolling with laughter and crying at the same time is ‘The financial lives of the Poets’….
Also, Crazy (with an intentional capital C) about Mad Men. Totally in love with Don Draper. And seriously need some of those dresses – note I said ‘need’ not ‘want’?
What else…I’m not sure I’m going to get to the real snow this year, despite really wanting to, so I’m wondering where the best dry snow in London is…ideas? I know there's one that's about 40 mins out of London, surely there's something closer?
Pippa xxx
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