Chandra Moon

Well it’s been a couple of weeks since I posted something here.

Last Thursday I went to London to my son’s end of course presentation – he’s been training in clowning which is a very fascinating and deep subject – real emotions, tragedy and comedy is got in touch with and brought into the performance – he’s found it life changing.

On Saturday we went to Bristol to a day’s workshop of sabar drumming and dance with a great party in the evening and Sunday we came back home. I’ve got a busy week ahead – I’m thinking of starting writing my morning pages again to try and keep my writing mojo going – I used to write a few pages every morning early – just to clear out thinking and get all the channels open and flowing.

This coming weekend my dad and his wife plus my kids and family are coming for a late Christmas (well not really Christmas now!) so I’m looking forward to that – I’ve got to try and get everything sorted out before Thursday as I’m going to see Paloma Faith on Thursday in London and coming back just before everyone arrives on Friday – mmm – can it be done – I hope so!!!

Just back from an amazing three week trip to the Gambia sorting out various things for the Kartong Festival and the Dombondir Festival in the Casamance.

It was wonderful to catch up with old friends and get some much needed sunshine.

Here’s a short clip of me and my friend Moriba (on the Kora) playing at a friend’s wedding in Brikama!

The anti-malarial drugs I was on Malarone didn’t do me any good though and I won’t be using that again!

Here’s a link to some photos from the trip!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=177386&id=637503707&l=98a4f9dfbf

I can’t believe that another year has passed! 2009 has been amazing on several fronts – the biggest change being moving in with my lovely partner Peter and moving out of Bristol to the countryside in Oxfordshire.

I became a grand-mother in Nov 2008 and it’s been a wonderful experience being a granny and also getting to know Peter’s grandchildren and family.

At the beginning of the year we spent three months in the Gambia helping to organise two festivals and during the summer we were involved in several amazing African drumming and dance events in the UK and also did a few short trips to France with Peter’s work.

The only downside was that having moved I have had to start my music activity pretty much from scratch and it’s been really difficult and scarey going to pubs and open mics where I don’t know anyone and also not having Paddy to play keyboards with me has been something I’ve really missed terribly. I’ve also really missed my Bristol friends and my mum, though I have managed to get back to Bristol regularly.

It’s taken me all of the last six months to get over the effects of the car crash I had in June – it left me with awful flashbacks and nightmares which have only recently stopped.

In 2010 I’m determined to concentrate more on my music, find one or two local people to play music with me, join a local tennis group to get fit again and start recording a second album.

We’re off to the Gambia again on January 5th for three weeks but I don’t intend to do such a long trip as this year’s again as it bit too much into my own life, although it was a wonderful experience.

Anyway – I hope everyone has a brilliant New Year’s Eve and a great 2010 – tell me what your hopes are for this coming year!

I have finally written a new song – it may well not make sense to most people who read it ha ha! It’s a mad reggae number and I’ll put an audio version up soon – maybe on Myspace if I can do a good enough recording.

Before You Were Born

Floating on the ceiling looking down at my bed
Saw myself lying there as if I was dead
Couldn’t move a muscle, couldn’t open my eyes
My feet were in the kitchen but my head was in the skies

You don’t need drugs to have hallucinations
You don’t need drugs to have hallucinations

Travelling in my van in nineteen seventy-three
I heard the sunset singing in Germany
The swaying corn joined in in perfect harmony
My heart and soul took flight, I had set them free

You don’t need drugs to have hallucinations
You don’t need drugs to have hallucinations

At Glastonbury Festival (the very first one)
Rolling in the mud in nineteen seventy-one
I was the acid queen of Bristol
Way before you were born…

(Break)

Climbing up the Avon Gorge to have a cup of tea
I thought there was a café at The Observatory
Snowflakes on the ground that were as big as your hand
As if some God Almighty, had waved his magic wand

You don’t need drugs to have hallucinations
You don’t need drugs to have hallucinations

If life is but a dream what is reality?
Hope I find the answer deep inside of me
If life is but a game what is reality?
Hope I find the answer deep inside of me

You don’t need drugs to have imagination
You don’t need drugs to have communication
You don’t need drugs to have realisation
You don’t need drugs to have illumination

At Glastonbury Festival (the very first one)
Rolling in the mud in nineteen seventy-one
I was the acid queen of Bristol
Way before you were born
Before you were born
Before you were born….

© Chandra Moon – December 2009

I’m just back from a few days in Bristol – we had a lovely time – P came with me to do a few jobs at the flat. While we were there we had to investigate a load of damp in my tenant’s flat downstairs and found that the wall under the bath is absolutely running with water. A vile combination of rising and penetrating damp and condensation. The whole outside render has to come off and be re-done on that outside wall and all the internal plaster has to be hacked off, lined and skimmed before Christmas – could have done without that but it can’t be bodged again this time ha ha!

We’ve had awful news from my family in Australia – one of my dear brother in laws has had a dreadful accident in the garage mucking around on his kids’ bikes and fell on his back. He’s now lying in the spinal unit in Sydney unable to move or feel anything except some slight tingling in his legs – we’re all so upset and worried about him and just praying and hoping things improve. It happened nearly two weeks ago now and there’s virtually no change. Please send healing vibes!

While we were in Bristol we went to The Canteen at Hamilton House and amazing new project/venue in Bristol with art studios, a cheap but brilliant cafe/bar and all sorts of music events and happenings. This week a guy called Mark Boyle who has given up money for a whole year and believes it’s of no use did an event which included a free shop (you just take what you want) – if you want to you can swap things and/or leave things that you don’t want. It was a wonderful atmosphere there with all sorts of stuff there not for sale but just for the taking – even pots and pots of organic chocolote spread just because the lids were missing (the seal was intact).

On Thursday evening I went to my vocalisation/freestylie group again and I’m really enjoying that and have nearly finished a song as  a direct result of attending.

Yesterday – after the “free” event we went to a house party at a friend’s place and today my mum popped round for a coffee. Tonight we’re off to dinner at some local friends’ so all in all a very good weekend.

On the 16th November my gorgeous little grand-daughter had her first birthday – I’ve put some lovely photos up on my Facebook which Facebook friends can see. It’s hard to imagine a whole year has passed since the scary night my daughter had to have an emergency caesarian after hours of labour – she looks fantastic now and is a wonderful mother to a beautiful daughter. Dad is brilliant too – they’ve really taken to parenthood.

This photo is of the sunrise where I live the other morning before some awful weather in our area – but not as bad as the north of the country where there are appalling floods – my heart goes out to the people affected.

Last night I went to the second of the amazing vocalisation/freestyle courses that I’ve started attending in Bristol. It’s amazing – we start off with warm up exercises, then scatting then freestyle lyrics to a looped back beat which we make as part of the course. It’s brilliant for trying to get back to songwriting and great to meet some other musicians and creatives.

I’m in Bristol till tomorrow and have also finished some knitting for my partner and grand-daughter for Christmas and nearly finished scraping the chimney breast where they’re going to put a gas fire and fireplace soon.

At last I plucked up the courage to go and do an open mic night at a pub nearish where I live now. I thought when we moved in May there’d be a few in Banbury (our nearest town) but there aren’t. Then what with the accident at the beginning of June I somehow lost my confidence.

Last night was rather foggy and cold and damp but I refused to let it stop me, got the guitar out and went to Witney – about 40 minutes from here. It was weird at first as there was (obviously) no-one I knew there but once a few musicians arrived I got chatting to one or two people and then had the chance to play three songs which went down well – to be honest even if had gone badly wouldn’t have mattered – just a question of getting “back in the saddle” after a long break. So what with the amazing vocalisation/freestyle course I went on last week I feel a few green shoots of creativity slowly emerging.

Plus I’m knitting – a lovely big jumper for P and a cardigan for my little grandchild. Sounds like small things but I feel I’m slowly coming out of the wilderness – it’s been a long haul trying to get over the shock of the accident – I only realised recently just how much it had affected me and I’ve been getting some help with the symptons – nightmares, anxiety, disassociation and even feeling a bit depressed which just isn’t like me.  I guess moving from city to country has been made more difficult to adjust to as a result of all this and finally I’m beginning to feel more at home here.

I love being with P and have no regrets – it’s just taken much longer than I expected to adjust.

I’m off to Bristol tomorrow for the second evening of the course and then meeting P in London on Saturday to go the Lord Mayor’s Fireworks (I’ll try and get pictures) then a couple of days with my daughter and the first birthday of my little grand-daughter.

Well what a boring week I’ve had. After a lovely weekend I started feeling crappy on Monday and streaming by the evening. I thought I’d feel better today but I’m still revoltingly snotty. I really hope I feel better tomorrow as I’m starting a weekly improvisation course in Bristol for the next four weeks which I’ve been really looking forward to.

Anyway – can’t do anything about it except rest and hope for the best.

We got back last night from a couple of days in Nottingham. The first part went really wrong as P was fixing the toilet for his daughter and a plumbing disaster ensued see PLUMBING!!

We attended a great African evening there on Thursday called Africajana organised by a friend of ours and had a briliant night out – I was in good dancing mood so had a real party.

Yesterday there was a series of taster sessions in djembe, sabar drumming and dance, Mandinka song accompanied by Kora etc. Needless to say we did the drumming (surprise, surprise).

Afterwards we went back to P’s daughter to finish off the plumbing to find chaos and the leak much worse but thankfully it was sorted out eventually.

After a quick goodbye to our Nottingham drumming friends I drove the couple of hours back home in time for bed. Tonight we have friends coming round to dinner – should be a quiet Halloween evening.

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Oh and PS – blah blah!!