I already knew Bohemian Geek Soul singer-songwriter Jody Gnant was a big part of the one red paperclip story, that Kyle had accepted her offer of a year's free rent in her downtown Phoenix apartment in exchange for time in a recording studio, which was exactly what Jody needed at the time.
That was Kyle's tenth trade. Some people thought he might stop now he had traded up to "a house". But of course he carried on, and had a house for keeps four trades later.
As for Jody, she used her recording studio time well. I understand most of her new album Pivot was recorded there, and it's going down a treat. If downloading is your thing, you really don't have to go far to get yours...
Pivot Jody Gnant
A week or so after my Trade 11 with Kyle, I sent an email to Jody asking her if she might be interested in doing a trade with me one day.
Jody replied five days later with "I want a replica 1870 London Metropolitan Police whistle!!!" and later on "it's gonna be hard to top the whistle."
I wanted one whistle to go Jody's way as much as she did! But initially I thought it was a no-go, because I always trade in person. But Jody was thinking of visiting Europe some time after the Pivot release, so a trade in person might have been on if I kept it for a few months...
Some weeks later I discovered Jody had started broadcasting her life, literally! Live at www.jodygnant.com. I communicated with her through this new Internet phenomenon. And I was nothing short of amazed - you could ride in a car with Jody, see the blue skies of Arizona and the palm trees whizz by and listen to the radio with her. I knew I was watching something radical, and sure enough people all round the world are now tuning in - even my daughter in Ireland was listening to the Ray Darcy radio show from Dublin recently, and he was checking in watching Jody sleep (with her make-up on he said, hmm..).
Jody still had bundles of enthusiasm for the whistle, and she really didn't want to wait. So I decided to make an exception - we would do a postal trade!
But what would I get from Jody?
It took a while, but we got there...
I put it to Jody: "How about we give someone the chance to give you an idea to write a song about?"
Jody thought about this for several seconds... "Yes, OK - deal!"
I thought that was great, because I knew the collaboration could happen over the Internet. And it was going to get even better...
I called Jody - her first ever call from England! - just to make sure she would be happy with my wording, and she told me she wanted to offer a choice of either:
give Jody a concept for her to develop into a song, in which case Jody's collaborator is rewarded with 20% ownership of the song.
co-write a song with her, in which case Jody's collaborator is rewarded with 50% ownership of the song.
So Jody's collaborator could be anything from someone with no experience to a seasoned composer - a truly inclusive trade!
And believe me, Jody is well excited about all this. (Go on - ask her yourself!)
So I finally got round to posting the whistle off today (I wanted to do the "Spot The Whistle" photoshoot first). Again it was a little draughty, cue the trusty paperweight...
And what will become of one whistle in Jody's hands?
I really can't wait to find out - I'll be tuning into the Jody show, should be able to watch the continuing adventures of one whistle unfolding there...
STOP PRESS!... I finally got to actually meet Jody in Amsterdam on February 28th, 2008, and we took a few photos to make Trade 14 official!...
Click here for more on that day, when we also did Trade 19.
If you want to offer me something bigger/better for the chance to collaborate with Jody Gnant, find out more about the offer here, or just go ahead and contact me.
Three interesting deliveries arrived by mail recently.
This one arrived by email, from Trade 12 Corina...
Obviously quite a big article. Corina is sending me a copy in the post too, maybe get that next weekend I guess...
Thanks for all that Corina!
And a few days before that... hmmm... a familiar return to address in Canada, yet curiously posted from the United States...
Inside was this...
A North American print copy of Kyle's one red paperclip book no less! which I sort of won months ago by responding lightning fast to an email.
I was sure it was meant to arrive many weeks before, direct from the printers, but it didn't... so Kyle, being Kyle, sorted me out pronto, with a signed copy - Thanks Kyle!
It is a great read, IMHO. So far anyway, still some way to go...
This book qualifies to be offered up for a trade as an adopted item, since I got it for nothing. I would need Kyle's "OK" and I want to finish reading it first of course, but I might get there and decide I want to keep it after all, so we'll see...
And before that, this also arrived through the door in Ireland...
Now, I'm still not entirely convinced there exists such a place - I mean come on, who in their right mind would build a city where the average temperature in January is -30c? (yes, average!) - but I must admit, after seeing first the website and now the contents of this envelope...
... well, either this is a mightily impressive hoax or there really is such a place.
Included in the package was this business card...
I don't know what all those triangles and squiggles mean, but I do think it looks dead cool, for a business card - and now I want one with my name on it!
I wonder how you get one?
I'll just have to apply for jobs in the City of Iqaluit, and hope there really is such a place and take it from there, I guess. Fingers crossed.
Thanks for sending all that Mike... wherever you are!
I'm glad I didn't go out my way to buy a paper weight, the clothes peg did just fine.
I actually very nearly lost one whistle at Liverpool Airport yesterday. Four security officials had a serious little conference before they let me take it with me. Apparently bad people can use whistles to do bad things on airplanes. I didn't know that, I had no idea. That's the kind of world we are living in I guess. Amazing. Bad things with whistles, eh?
Earlier in the day and also the previous Saturday I took a few snaps of Beatles spots. Trade 14 Jody Gnant, who now owns one whistle come to think of it, so I would have had her to answer to... Jody told me she loves The Beatles! And since I live nearby and was interested anyway, being a fan myself, I decided to take one whistle on a whistle stop tour of Beatles spots of historical interest...
Non-Beatles fans might find this a tad boring... so they can play Spot the Whistle!
one whistle can be found in all of the photos in this blog entry - can you spot every appearance?
St. Peter's Church in Woolston, Liverpool, is the site of the very first meeting between John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
In the graveyard stands this gravestone...
Was this where Paul McCartney got the name and maybe the idea too for the song Eleanor Rigby? I don't think he has ever confirmed it, probably wants her left alone - or maybe even he doesn't really know!...
And on the day they met, John Lennon played with his Quarrymen group on this spot...
Yes, the whistle really is there - honest!
Paul McCartney was present, listening.
I crossed the road to the church hall, the building inside which the historic first Lennon-McCartney meeting took place a little later on. And of course it was locked, so I couldn't take a look inside.
At this point it would have been helpful if a complete stranger suddenly appeared in his car and said he could let me in, and also said he could show me the exact spot where the meeting happened, and also maybe even said he knew John Lennon and he was actually there and witnessed that said historic meeting.
But far out stuff like that just doesn't conveniently happen, of course, so...
Except on this occasion it did - it really did!!
The complete stranger introduced himself as Dave. He worked for the church now as a helper, and was there to help prepare for a wedding on later, but he still found ten minutes or so for me. A very decent man, is Dave.
He told me he was fifteen on that day (July 6th, 1957), as was Paul McCartney, and John Lennon was seventeen. Quite a few teenagers were hanging around the front of the stage, which has since been removed. Dave showed me this old photograph, explaining the exact spot of the first meeting was at the bottom of the steps to the stage...
Oops, sorry, I hope you didn't look too long, one whistle wasn't in that one.
Today that would be about between the two radiators, as Dave showed me...
McCartney impressed with his tuning of an acoustic guitar (so he could play it left-handed) and his rock and roll variety performance that followed.
More about that first meeting here and here if you are interested.
John Lennon lived from the age of five to twenty in this house called "Mendips" in Woolton, with his Aunt Mimi and Uncle George...
John's bedroom was a small room above the front door, I believe. Much great stuff was written and rehearsing went on here, sometimes in the front porch, when Aunt Mimi had had enough of the noise. e.g. Lennon and McCartney wrote the Beatlemania smash "She Loves You" in the front room downstairs, I read somewhere...
Strawberry Field was the name of a Salvation Army orphanage just around the corner from Mendips, the gate is still there...
Lisa thoughtfully remembered it was John's birthday a few days earlier, on October 9th (erm, whistle isn't in this one either, sorry)...
Lennon and his childhood friends, including Ivan Vaughan who first introduced him to McCartney, used to play in the trees behind the orphanage. Strawberry Fields Forever was mostly John Lennon's work...
As a teenager, Paul lived less than a mile away from John, in this house in Allerton...
Paul's bedroom was also a small room above the front door, I believe. (Is there something in that!). Much great stuff was written and rehearsing went on here, more than at Mendips I understand. Lennon and McCartney wrote the early classic "I Saw Her Standing There" in the front room downstairs...
So, follow the road from John's home toward the city centre, pretty soon you're at the Penny Lane roundabout - for want of a better name, it's actually a triangle - and Penny Lane is one road that leads off it. Penny Lane was mostly written by Paul...
Yes, the whistle is in this one too, maybe the hardest of the lot to spot though...
Here, have an easier one, and notice the bus shelter structure is still there behind the two cars...
Very near to the north is the house John lived in for his first five years...
Further north is George Harrison's birthplace and first home...
Yeah, a great excuse for some classic George! why not...
From 1950 George lived in Speke in this house, also much used as a rehearsal place...
... and until 1955 Paul lived very near by, in this house...
At some point they first met close by at a bus stop, where they were both waiting for a... bus.
And here is Ringo's home, which I didn't think I would find (difficult spot this, so I'll keep it higher res to make it easier)...
And here's Ringo!
John Lennon can be seen these days, sporting an un-John Lennon looking haircut, it has to be said (erm, please don't be angry at me John)...
... opposite the Cavern Club entrance...
And I think that's enough Beatles for one day... even for me!
Apologies for the over-use of the word "classic".
Maybe I should go send one whistle to Jody now, before I lose it.
Posted by Andrew @ 11:37pm
Thursday October 18, 2007
Make Mine A Double Please!! (Trades 12 and 13)
This was my first double swap!!
And I bet this was also Corina's first double swap!!
And Jane's first double swap too!!
"Overuse of the exclamation mark is generally considered poor writing, since it distracts the reader and reduces the mark's meaning.”
Notice there wasn't even one exclamation mark in that quote. Hmmm. I would have put probably two on the end.
Where was I? I think I got distracted - sorry! OK...
This trade was in the making for a few months. I had written to both Jane and Corina separately back in August, and both responded positively. Jane told me she was in Poland at the time but after September we could sort something out... and Corina replied me she too would like to do a trade, but not for a while.
... to September 17th and Corina indicated she was ready, by making me an offer with the online form.
From me Corina wanted...
the old matchbox
the Happy-go-Lucky painting
the decayed I mean decade old film
And from Corina I would get...
two of her handmade paperclay sculptures
a signed copy of her book too if I liked
We had a deal!
In our correspondence that followed, Corina suggested her friend Jane may be interested too. Good job too, because I hadn't twigged that Jane also lives in the town of Lismore!
So I got back in touch with Jane, who also filled the form, offering me...
one of her hand made flaxpaperclay pod forms
plus perhaps an old book about nuclear power
In return Jane wanted from me...
the rocking chair
the old matchbox
Ollie the metal fly
Uh oh!
I think maybe I should have told Jane I had already promised Corina the old matchbox, to be fair...
I also hadn't yet thought out how I could transport the rocking chair to Lismore, so I suggested an IOU might be the best I could do for now...
Alas, Jane kindly agreed to go ahead anyway with these amendments...
So we had another deal!
A week or so before swap day I received an unusual request - a trade for two doggie toys!! Well, I asked Corina if she could maybe help me out by including two such items in return for something extra. She kindly obliged, and wouldn't accept anything more from me.
On the swap day (Saturday, October 6th 2007) I drove the 90 minutes from Kinsale to Corina's home in Lismore, only to be met by Jane on my arrival. We all then did our greetings stuff.
I detected no sign of feuding between Corina and Jane over the old matchbox, thankfully.
Pretty soon Jane realised she forgot to bring the book along. She insisted she went home to find it, and sped off in her powerful motor car carefully observing the speed limit...
And whilst Jane was away Corina made a cuppa and gave out about all the fruit flies in her kitchen, asking what they were doing there in October... at which point I was just hoping she wouldn't freak out when I produced a 12 cm long fly.
About 55 seconds after she had left - and I think she lives a about a mile away,so go figure... - Jane returned with her gem of a book.
We all got our bits organised, or were trying at least - I was taking forever to re-assemble Ollie the metal fly, eventually figuring out how to put his head back on the right way up. Ollie's legs kept falling off, prompting Jane to comment he should be fine in Ireland because it is a good place to be legless!
Corina threw her Charlie Chaplin tin into the deal, explaining she had had it for 25 years and she had got a new tin the day before, which again I much appreciated! And an excellent tin it is too - e.g. can carry two doggy toys, no problem.
So, outside the back of Corina's house, Corina and I did Trade 12...
And yes, Corina knew the Kodak film wouldn't give any pictures, but she still wanted it, for a prank.
So then Corina swapped places with Jane so that Jane could do a swap with me, and we even swapped seats before we did Trade 13...
OK OK, I have a conscience so I'll come clean. Trade 13 happened before Trade 12. But Jane had just had a very lucky week - I forget the two events that made it that, but she didn't mind being number 13!
So Corina produced a tripod, and I skillfully lined up the shot and set off the 10 second timer, a mechanism which somehow virtually guarantees smiles all round...
Well... the top of my head isn't all that important, is it.
After we had eventually figured out who now owned what, I headed back to Kinsale.
Imagine the look on the security guy's face at the airport when he opened the Charlie Chaplin tin to find it contained two doggie toys. And I kept a straight face too.
Oh, and driving back from this trade into Kinsale I nearly ran over Trade 3 Alex at a zebra crossing, according to Trade 3 Alex.
I have a verbal agreement, and in this case that's good enough for me. No meeting has taken place for this trade - it just wasn't feasible - so we just communicated over the Internet and by phone to work out a great trade.
I traded one whistle with Jody Gnant, a singer-songwriter and pianist based in America, for the chance for someone to collaborate with her in the composition of a song.
There are two possible ways someone could collaborate, and either way could be done over the Internet:
give Jody a concept for her to develop into a song.
co-write a song with her.
Either way, the collaborator will have a slice of ownership of the song - I still have to get details on exactly how that works from Jody, it will be on Jody's terms for sure... but 20% if it is just giving the concept, or 50% if a full co-writing effort.
This is a truly radical trade, we both reckon, made possible by the Internet. And it will probably be possible for anyone on the Internet to see the song writing process happening...
More details very soon!
I was hoping to post the report on Trades 12 and 13 this evening, but... hopefully tomorrow!
Posted by Andrew @ 11:55pm
Monday October 8, 2007
Tasty
A belated big THANK YOU to Tarik at the True Taste of India in Leigh (tel: 01942 670400/01942 674207) for insisting I take away from the take away their only customers' copy of this Leigh Reporter!
So tomorrow night I'm off to a lecture on Bentley cars by Bentley car people. And of course I'm hoping my luck's in - I'll take the crystal vase or something along and maybe come home with a brand new Bentley!!!
Posted by Andrew @ 11:45pm
Saturday October 6, 2007
No Harm Done!
This incident was nothing to do with me or Speedy the llama, OK?
Honest.
So Trade 12 and Trade 13 (Part 1?!) happened today in Lismore, County Waterford, Ireland. More about those soon, and sorry I can't show you any pics yet, I forgot to bring my camera cable over with me...
