Brigitte is a fabulous French duo that I’m listening to a lot at the moment. I only heard of Brigitte because of a Facebook share by a French friend I’ve never met. Why? Well Britain doesn’t really follow European music does it. Such a shame as it means we miss out on gems like Brigitte. We tend to avoid the blandness of Europop or the noise and aggression of German techno, but let’s be honest, it’s mostly because we didn’t pay attention at school and we can’t understand the words of songs in any other language. In fact we can’t even understand American English most of the time – “like a cheese stick, like a cheese stick…”

Brigitte is a feast for the ears and even if you can’t understand the words you can enjoy the sound. They sing, they clap, they play guitar. Sometimes retro, a folky sound, yet contemporary and always always so utterly French! Brigitte are also a feast for your eyes! Sylvie and Mayanne are filles tres jolie (to use a little Franglais) and would look like a million bucks in any costume which is a good thing as they wear more retro-chic, sexy and surreal costumes than you could imagine, not to mention a pair of glasses to make Harry Potter weep!

These girls blend their voices together so sweetly, and I’m glad to say that you can get an idea of their range as Brigitte’s Youtube videos include both professionally produced official music videos like the one below, and informal acoustic performances like the one above. Hey Brigitte, when are you playing a gig in London?

Astrud Gilberto

Tall and tan and young and lovely… Yet again I have a shortage of bare ladies to model for me so I looked elsewhere for inspiration andas I keep returning musically to the delights of the Getz/Gilberto I decided to draw some sketches whilst watching them perform on television in the 1960′s. No of course I didn’t draw them in the 1960′s, but it’s all there on Youtube. So here is Astrud Gilberto. My sketch is a bit cartoon-like. And below is the man blowing his magic horn, Stan Getz. Musical dullards like to argue about which of these two was the star attraction. Was it the lovely young, natural Brazilian girl singer or the established jazz saxophone maestro? No, you blockheads! Just listen to the song, they compliment each other perfectly. It’s the combination of them both together, plus the rest of the ensemble including Astrud’s husband, that takes this song to another level and makes it one of the most popular songs of all time. Because it’s so good it has inspired a thousand cheesy cover versions, but the real Girl From Ipanema is just unbeatable.

Stan Getz

Drawing of a Younger Man

I felt the urge to draw again but owing to the current world shortage of bare ladies I had to find somebody else to draw. OK, there are probably just as many bare ladies to draw as there ever were, but I am not currently enroled in a class so had to improvise. The reason I have called this Drawing of a Younger Man is that the man looks much younger in my drawing than in real life. I didn’t plan it that way, it’s just how it came out. I tend not to have this problem when drawing bare ladies, but here I seem to have taken a good twenty years off the model. Also, in fairness, it does resemble him slightly it is not really a recognisable portrait. Even though it’s a face I should know pretty well as it’s been looking back at me from the mirror for rather longer than I care to remember! Why is it such a poor likeness? Well I guess that in drawing, like everything else in life, the more you practice the better you get. Currently I am out of practice. I’ve been very busy honing my video skills and have neglected my drawing. Maybe next term I will find a nice Life class and get back to the grind of drawing or painting bare ladies once again. Meanwhile I think I had better sharpen my pencils and get some good practice in drawing random people anywhere I can, and back to the museums to draw some statues. Statues are great subjects for the slow struggling artist because they really don’t mind you staring at them and drawing them, they work for free, and they can stand really really still.

The beautiful Corrine Bailey Rae singing “Like A Star” has worked magically on my spirits so that’s absolutely my tune of the week, or quarter, or whatever. Maybe I should just say it’s my tune until something else inspires me more. I’ll probably get bored with it eventually, you know how you wear out a favourite song by playing it too much. But right now I love it so much I’m embedding the video on my Tune of the week Page here. Hope you like it too.

S&M Tools in Leather Lane. Every day I walk past this and it always makes me smile. Is it just me?

Yes S&M Tools, Leather Lane! Perhaps it’s juvenile of me. What do I mean “perhaps?” Of course it is. I’m really not into S&M myself but can’t walk past this sign without a smile. In reality the shop is just a good old fashioned hardware store, and in contrast with most of my other posts on here, not a single bare lady in sight. It was just a matter of time before fun won out over common sense and I pointed my camera at it, so here it is.

As you’ll know if you’ve looked around my blog, I believe that the true purpose of art is looking at bare ladies. Top marks then to Dan Attoe. I Googled him and discovered he’s a real artist, this is one of a series,so why is this work glowing at passers-by from a window on Leather Lane?

Enjoy!

London loves Barclays

Priceless...

For my next art project I need input from others. If it helps you can imagine I am Santa, your boss, your significant other, your fairy godmother, your president, your friend, your parent, your child, anyone you might want to give you something or grant your wishes. You get the idea?

OK now please just answer this question in any spontaneous way you like:

“What do you want?”

Just ask for anything you want. Please answer either using the Comments on this post, or by emailing me direct at

eclectnik@googlemail.com

or send me a post card, Youtube video, anything you like really.

Thanks for your help, and when enough of you have replied you’ll be able to see the resulting work right here on this blog.

OK I thought it was time to try something new. Move in a new direction. And initially the direction is down, as you will see in the video.