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Hot News; Fresh from the Floe.
Newsletter #2 - July 2007

Hello once again my furry, feathered and Hi-Tec-fleeced friends – welcome to the second edition of your Arctic Circle round up!

This edition includes:

• Details of the next Arctic Circle event next week at The Spitz just a week away featuring Rothko, Klima, Anne Garner, Inch-time and much more.

• a little bit more from some of the artists from 30 May Spitz event such as David from Ellis Island Sound, Jo from Sundown Multimedia and Stuart of Hybernation who tell us about their highlights and inspirations.

• Just in case you weren’t able to make the last Arctic Circle night or are feeling all nostaligic. You can now view over 300 photos of previous events at Flickr here. You can also now find us at Last.fm & Facebook (search for the group 'Arctic Circle' you'll recognise th penguin!).

• And finally pass the emergency brandy there’s a good chap - your most esteemed Chief Penguin waxes old-school about something or other in his memoirs.

CP
chiefpenguin@jointhecircle.net

MERRY MONTH OF MAY

Now we travel back in time...wosh....to the end of May and our first outing at The Spitz. Are you there yet?

Anyhow mere moments before they played at the last Arctic Circle, these lovely chaps gave PTTP the low-down on their recent triumphs and most happening brain-thoughts:

David from Ellis Island Sound

“A recent highlight was meeting Mike Andrews; as you I'm sure you know, he did the soundtrack to Donnie Darko and that rather brilliant Miranda July film with the complicated title (and which is a far better soundtrack actually). His enthusiasm for all kinds of music is genuinely infectious!”

“According to our publisher Ellis Island Sound music is being used in the current series of 'Wife Swap'! I haven't checked it out...”

“I've been re-reading the poetry of Tomas Transtromer - which is less like 'poetry' as such and more like a sensory rollercoaster, or a day spent in solitary contemplation in the middle of a dark forest, all of it distilled into these sublime Swedish haiku-type texts.”

[Ellis Island Sound will make a triumphant return at our Christmas Gig @ the Union Chapel 5th December]

Jo (Sundown Multimedia) the poet

“Performing poetry at the Latitude Festival last year was pretty special, because it was the first year and opening of the Latitude Festival and also I was on the same running order as Patti Smith and I met John Cooper Clarke. Also, booking John Hegley for Sundown was a huge deal for the event and for me personally because he's a favourite of mine and I was proud of myself for nabbing him! Getting a Sharks Head made for me for one of my poems was very cool too.”

“Strong influences for me are poets such as Spike Milligan, John Hegley, Ogden Nash and Edward Lear. Charles Bukowski is also a massive influence and favourite poet of mine. I love the way William. S. Burroughs writes, beat writers definitely turn me on in the literary sense. I'm often inspired by the proposterous, and like-minded people who seduce my silly flame. But great lyrics in a song, a photo that makes you stop in your tracks, a film that's affected me for over a day, or just looking out of the bus window, all of these things influence my writing.”

Stu from Hybernation

“Hybernation is the electronica guise of me, Stuart Bowditch, for music I make indoors during the winter months trying to keep warm. I have produced music and DJ's under this name at many events in and around Essex and London since 2001. A new EP is due out on Rednetic Records this summer.”

“I’ve also started the Telephasic Workshop in 2006, which is an event for dj‚s and live acts to play all kinds of electronic music from ambient to electronica, techno to noise. Running monthly, the event has played host to artists such as Kristallo, Dumi, Claxton, DJ Wes Cliff, Reason or Romanza, Kirmann, Jacen Solo, Sunosis, Zainetica, Rocket Numner 9, VJ Mokital and Robin Saville from Isan.”

“Along side this he has recently completed the soundtrack to a film commissioned by Art for Shopping Centres at Futuresonic Festival in Manchester which explored the use of parkour in urban areas, and also helped developed the AWSoM (Ambient Weather Sound Machine) installation which uses the weather to play foundsounds on recycled equipment in a remote location.”

MY MEMOIRS - Part one

Dear Readers...

I address you as such, although I confess I know not who you are, or if indeed you shall ever exist, for as many who feel compelled to record their lives in circumstances such as these, I hurl my words into the black void where they may remain undetected, un-read and I shall never receive so much as an answering echo. To these uncertainties I must remain resigned.

The inhabitants of Arctic Circle HQ now consist, other than myself, of the Head Yeti Keeper; part penguin, part abominable snowman, with origins in Rio and a past to match his colourful hair, this mutant freak is now the closest I have to a companion. Mad Scientist Bob; Bob is the only official resident of the station since The Fleeing, the only member of a community notorious for its loose connections to reality, mad enough to stay. Finally there is Tinkles, the ex-elf fired from Santa’s Workshop for his ambitious consumption of narcotic substances and his appalling knock-knock jokes. Tinkles has Jinx of course, the ancient one eyed husky with the thousand yard stare and a penchant for kippers.

Well friends, the fire is low as we have been sealed inside the capsule for over a week now and fuel is low. Tomorrow we must attempt to break though the ice or freeze to death as our fires go out. But for now I sip my nightly ration of emergency brandy, re-light the stub of last week’s cigar and browse the shelves that my room’s previous occupant left full of enough books to make a lifetime under the ice a manageable prospect.

Good night dear reader, sleep tight.

full news on all gigs and other Arctic Circle activities at:
jointhecircle.net

and become our friends or visit us at:
myspace / last.fm / flickr / facebook

written by: chiefpenguin
with artwork by:pika pika