PrettyInScarlett

The Red House - Old Shire Hall Still on a roll after my Thursday trip to London, M and I continued the farewell-to-Durham party with Lumiere on Friday.  I obtained tickets for the Friday evening ticketed slot - remembering the post-ticketing queues from 2013's edition - and M and I met a few friends to explore. There were still more larger installations - still not quite as completely random/otherworldly as some of Québec Lumière 2012 - but a very high quality of work. We headed first to Old Elvet for the The Red House and Dreamers .  The Red House in particular was very well done. Heading onto the peninsula, we went to see the Cathedral installations. The World Machine , this year's exterior sound/light installation, was fantastic; a visual explanation of the birth of cosmology. Once we had queued into the Cathedral (this section - not enough thought into the organisation) we were treated to Complex Meshes ; this interactive display on the vault ceiling referred to

About a year ago I was invited to join the Facebook group Piano Network UK. The group is for pianists, teachers, composers, promoters, tuners, journalists: anyone with a specific interest in the UK piano scene. A very friendly bunch, as shown by the 'launch event' held in London last Thursday, 12th November.  The event was initially booked months ago and in the meantime my diary has become very full - such that 3 hours each way to London and back became valuable downtime!  I had also booked an audience ticket rather than performer - it would have been great to perform, but a good decision in the end as I had (still have!) no brain space to prepare anything at the moment. The meetup was held in 1901 Arts Club which is a really small, intimate venue just next to Waterloo station - along one of those curious super-narrow London streets. The ground floor was our performance space for the evening; upstairs there is a cozy bar and lounge. Once we got started, the vibe w