What a surprise, Maggie was reading a brochure that arrived in the mail, promoting Ipswich. What is new, and what is happening. She noticed the heading referring to An Evening of Jazz at Studio 188, a converted church in Ipswich. 4 tickets later, last Friday evening Maggie and I accompanied by Simon and Carmen, sat down for a most enjoyable evening, 3 hours or so in a licensed facility that would make many similar ones we have been to in the past, look poorly equipped and shabby. Great food and wine, very reasonably priced nibblies.
The old Baptist Church, built in the 1870'sNow Studio 188, a facility for the musical talent of Ipswich and Australia.
The outside of the old church looked sharp..... likely a re-birth making it more conducive to modern music.
We were amazed at how this old building could have such an impressive facade, built in the late 19th century, but renovated in the late 1930's
From Wikipedia.
The former Ipswich Baptist Church, first designed by eminent Queensland architect, Richard Gailey and erected in 1877 on Brisbane Street, was originally a simple gabled brick building in a classical idiom. The church acquired adjacent land on Limestone Street and established a Sunday School hall and a manse there.
An Art-Deco influenced refurbishment of the church was completed in 1938 under the direction of prolific Ipswich architect, George Brockwell Gill. A gateway comprising a gable roof supported on barley-twist columns was opened by the church in 1954 to honour those from the church who fought, suffered and died during World War II, and to provide an entrance to memorial grounds established next to the church on Brisbane Street. In 2004 the congregation established itself elsewhere and the church was sold to eventually be transformed into a performance venue by the Ipswich City Council in 2012. Now look at this old building, a great facility and certainly very bright and modern, great lighting and colours. Well done Ipswich.
And now for the music... the Jordan Brodie Trio.
Quoted from FB
Queensland Music Award winning 20-year-old, Jordan Brodie, is a guitarist and composer from Brisbane who has been impressing audiences around Queensland. Originally from Cairns, Jordan has released an instrumental guitar album with aria award winning producer Nigel Pregrum (Pegasus Studios) titled “First Take”. Now living in Brisbane and in his final year at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, Jordan has created a new project drawing on old and new inspirations, such as Julian Lage, Ralph Towner and Pat Metheny.
The “Jordan Brodie Trio” w blends elements of folk, jazz and classical music. The performance will feature new compositions and arrangements as a trio and solo guitar pieces. Jordan’s stage presence is magnetic and displays a unique affinity between his music and his audience. The “Jordan Brodie Trio” is a show not to be missed.
"One of the best young guitar players in the area" with "a fine sense of showmanship, which should take him a long way" Tony Hillier (Rhythms Music Magazine).
If you have a chance, check out Jordan and the two Lachlan's if you have a chance, you will not be disappointed.
From the left... Lachlan, Jordan and LachlanGreat music, some excellent sounds from this trio of talented musicians.
Jordan Brodie on stage
And the musicians, wonderful young talent with a bright future ahead of them. The trio includes talented Guitarist, Jordan Brodie who played for all sets, mostly his own compositions and arrangements, backed up by Lachlan Symons the Bassist and Lachlan Hawkins (Yes they were both named Lachlan) on the HandPan’s, Cajon Box Drum and Vocals… the music was excellent, brilliant in fact.
See them playing at Studio 188, video by Matix.
First Cut Jordan Brodie TrioSample Video
Matix
After visiting Spain including Barcelona and Madrid, we met up with Uniworld River Tours in Madrid, and after two days visiting Madrid, headed to Vega de Terrón by coach to embark on the Queen Isabela. Once aboard and settled, we had dinner and orientation, welcome etc and to bed.
After breakfast the next day we took to a coach for the trip up a windy road to Barca d'Alva and the medieval town of Castelo Rodrigo. Along the road up, we noted many eucalyptus trees, it looked a lot like Australia except for the hills covered with Olive and Cork trees, and Grape Vines. We learned a lot about growing olives, cork and grapes.
Olive trees on the hills of Barca d'Alva
The following galleries with comments on many images will enlighten you, click the Info button on the gallery slideshow.
On our return, with our Queen Isabel now moored on the Portugal side of the river, we headed down river to Pinhão
View the Gallery of images for DAY 1 AM ON THE DOURO RIVER - Castelo Rodrigo
The cruise down river to Pinhão during dinner was excellent, food and service was exemplary.
View the Gallery of images for DAY 1 PM ON THE DOURO RIVER - Cruise to Pinhão
I hope to get much done as we relax in Porto for a couple of weeks.
This afternoon, we rode the city tour bus the 2 km to the Basílica de la Sagrada Família, an amazing yet surreal cathedral still under construction. The design of this building, was a brainchild of Antoni Gaudí, one of the most famous figures of Catalan culture and world architecture.
Work in Progress!
Is the Basílica de la Sagrada Família, weird? Strange? Surreal? All of those I think, but it is also an amazing creation, beautiful in it's ornate and 'ínteresting' architecture and implementation...as such beauty is so subjective that you have to admire Gaudi's ability to dream and create such a building.
The Gallery and captions presented on this page, I hope will lead you to what I saw while riding on the bus, snap shots, and while walking and viewing of Gaudi's cathedral, many other images of our walk back to our apartment follow.
Enjoy the gallery.
Patterned Ripples on the Douro river, Portugal
My pick for the week. The shot was of a passing river boat, the ripples distorted the reflections of the structure of the tour boat. A quick shot, bracketing for lighting... I liked it!
Patterned ripples on the Douro
I have many favourite images, being subjective, photography will be pleasing to some, not so much to others. The rule is, never fail to look stop and take the shot, you may never see it again.
All about photography, trying to capture life and the world around us... Subjectivity is the rule, if I like it than I will try to capture it, that does not mean YOU will like it, but it makes me happy.
