April showers, part one

It's not just another very special episode of the Second Sunday Sipping Sights & Sounds Series this 10th of April, oh no.

It's Glasgow International season, and in the spirit of the visual art vanguard, we'll be presenting the five films of Ella Bergmann-Michel she made from 1931-1933. Two are advert-like silents with intertitles extolling the virtues of a new elderly home and raising funds for a soup kitchen. The other three more resemble her still work, as collages of scenes taken of street vendors, fishing and the 1932 election campaign. The last serves as a rather stark reminder that these films capture life on the verge of totalitarian collapse. The sound plan will be a touch sparse compared to the usual slabs, attempting to underline the fragile lives and ways of living on display. There's many things vying for one's attention that particular evening, including the close of the Counterflows Festival, Glasgow International installations here 'n' there, but this wee episode of the SSSS&SS will be a real treat, and a rare treat at that - these films cannae be found on a mere internet browsing spree, and the sounds, as always, will be fleeting.

Enticements Everongoing

Join your beloved comrade williwaw tonight and every second sunday night at six pm for a bit of that amp'd uke action you crave. watch the advert. be enticed. go. If I can't change your mind, then no one will.

random sound cavalcade #53

It's the 53rd random sound cavalcade! Rejoice! An odd word, rejoice...

And this sound is a fresh one, from the just past episode of the second sunday sipping sounds series (next date: 08 February 2015). But this sound is also a tried-to-tired bit of tune: the well-worn favourite a farewell to mister barnes, which previously has been built around and built up from a plagal cadence (the IV-I for all the Romans). here, it appears that our comrade has nearly forgone with that -- it only appears at the end along with traces of seemless -- and gone on and on and on with the build up. it's all whirlwind, heat and flash. the tuning is a bit off throughout, as the strings were fresh 'n' bright 'n' still stretching ever so slightly during these long journeys at sea.

if shockwave-flash inoperative : a farewell to mister barnes

second sunday sipping sounds forever

set your course for adventure, your mind on a new romance, and love...

it may be a new year, but this li'l love boat sails ever onward : williwaw's particular blend of amp'd uke mayhem continues its residency at The Old Hairdressers (27 Renfield Lane) with another electroacoustic rumpus on 11.01.2015 at 6 PM.

seeing out the end of the williwaw vicennial

it's now been over twenty years of this amp'd uke malarkey - braw!

to ring out the vicennial year as well as the usual year, williwaw has a cavalcade of sight and sound for the 14 december 2014 episode of the second sunday sipping sounds series at the old hairdo, 27 renfield lane, glasgow, starting at 6 pm. more info slowly, as if coming from a gravitational intravenous feed. Drip, drip, drop.

asleep at the recording wheel: fragmentary evidence

Due to a usual lack of preparation, but less usual neglect of battery life, there is scant record of the november 2014 episode of the second sunday sipping sounds series, which is a shame, as dr. rachel drury kept the cascade of melody flowing until the the end. the following clip is the only bit of evidence, from near the very start, comprised mostly of the folk tune the irish washerwoman, which was used more than once that evening.

playing the other nine eleven

the williwaw vicennial continues with another episode of the second sunday sipping sound series at the old hairdo on the ninth of november, starting at six pm. there'll be sounds galore, and visual fodder to match. and a special guest or two to guide things merrily along. could you spend a matinee better? perhaps, but, oh, how hard pressed you'd be to do so. why not relax, sip, listen and watch the night unfold with us? oh, do!

random sound cavalcade #52

more snippets of sound-actions just previous. two internal bits of the 12th of october 2014 episode of the second sunday sipping sounds series: a coronach, a meditative set of revolving seventh chords, and the first and third (final) parts of a farewell to mister barnes, omitting the usual plagal cadence that was the second part for this go-round. enjoy.

random sound cavalcade #51

the first and second bits of last sunday's sipping sounds, comprising most-to-all of the latest williwaw chestnuts a coronach and chin down. the former is an unrelenting unspooling of chords in memoriam, the latter a diversion from a ditty developed at the home of jen and craig abell-champion in 2013, possibly based around much older ditties: the verse of "pearly white" by bale (which was itself borrowed wholesale from k. p. w. rainey), the williwaw fave "cherryvale" and the gymnopédies no. 1 vamp.

matinee sounds at the Old Hairdo

a second sunday sans sport

This Sunday evening, there is the conclusive competition in intercontinental no-touch ball. Also this Sunday evening, there is the ongoing melee between the two hands, two feet, two amps and the faeries with boots that is williwaw, applying sonic accompaniment to Viktor Turin's 1929 film Turksib at The Old Hairdressers. Please choose your weekend-ending battles wisely.

random sound cavalcade #49

the end of the 8th june 2014 episode of the second sunday sipping sounds series.

a(nother) summer of amp'd uke love

Time to set the start of the summer 2014 calendar alight with the sounds so right. all sounds free 'n' easy as the williwaw vicennial rolls merrily along:

date	time	place	what-in-the-heck
24.05	14:00	gusto and relish	a short set of sonic sustenance at the home of glasgow's undisputed sausage king
08.06	20:00	the old hairdressers	the return of the second sunday sipping sounds after a month's hiatus. low-end tones abounding.
21.06	20:00	the green tea room	a pure battery infused solstice fete in the new victoria gardens allotments

second sundays with ozu and you too

the next second sunday at the old hairdressers with your musical host williwaw, according to our organizing companion the calendar, is the 13th of April. starting at 8 pm, there'll be another bevy of favourite overlong overtures to stasis and decline, but nestled in the chiaroscuro will be Yasujiro Ozu's 1930 silent kessaku, Sono Yoru No Tsuma (That Night's Wife), a happy-go-lucky tale of a dying child in a desperately poor family.

random sound cavalcade #47

play one or more - at the same time even. Oh, the Imaginary Landscapes of it all! - of these tantalizingly higher fidelity excerpts from the 9th of march 2014 episode of the Second Sunday Sipping Sounds Series.

tramp! tramp! tramp! the second sunday is marching!

What praytell will this March bring? Spring? Senatorial conspiracies? Alas, these queries can only be answered by the fates. You, though, can be secure in your monthly dose of amp'd uke histrionics, the Second Sunday Sipping Sounds Series at The Old Hairdressers with your sonic foil williwaw, celebrating its vicennial. Come all ye fateful.

williwaw vs. asphalt

...it wasn't the most thrilling accompaniment, but afterwards, someone asked if it was available anywhere. so here it is, in all it's impromptu, lo-fi splendour.

...and if you prefer your videos from another source, well, it's a banner day for accommodating requests here at williwaw HQ.

random sound cavalcade #46

here's a wee lo-fi-but-loving sampling of some sipping sounds from the 12th of january episode. in this scene, our comrade williwaw actively awaits the return of jamie bolland and rachel drury to the non-stage for a second set of subsequent trio action. in other words, this is intermission music. the footage is a bit of tomfoolery involving fred astaire and a faulty bicycle. behold, a broken chain melody.

full disclosure: this was all cobbled all-too-hastily together to mark the forty-sixth journey 'round the sun of craig abell-champion.

williwaw provides asphalt-flavoured sipping sounds

the williwaw vicennial continues with that staple amp'd uke manoeuvre: playing sonic foil to a silent feature film.

for the 9th of february 2014 episode of the second sunday sipping sounds series at the old hairdo, we present the usual transcendence of chaos with joe may's 1929 meisterwerk, Asphalt. refreshments will be served.

random sound cavalcade #45 : an everlasting summer place

look at we three, sandra dee... the merrily rolling progression of max steiner's theme from a summer place as performed on the 10th of january, 2014, by our comrade williwaw and his stalwart crew, jamie bolland (keys/birdsongs) and rachel drury (alto saxamaphone) at the old hairdressers (as part of the second sunday sipping sounds series). a horribly lo-fi recording of twentysome minutes of trimonious sounds. yes, trimonious.