Creageivity

To describe MARK RIMMELL as a movie set designer, or as a jeweller, is to barely scratch the surface of an extraordinarily rich and varied life.  Mark starts us off with his birth in the slums of London's East End in 1933, followed by incredibly difficult years. Gradually he overcame many obstacles and his creativity began to flower as a singer, and through an appreciation of fabrics. 
As a young man, moving back to London from Northamptonshire, Mark ran an antiques shop and started rubbing shoulders with the likes of Paul McCartney, Derek Jarman and Francis Bacon.  (Talk to Mark for a while and it becomes easier to say who he hasn't met or worked with - check out the story of 'Charles and Marlon' at the end of the episode).
Mark lives in Budapest, Hungary, where he makes wonderfully exotic jewellery and has produced over 70 gem-encrusted crowns. He is a testament to the spirit of Creageivity.

Many thanks to musician and artist Maia Eden for her songs 'New Horizons' and 'Home':
https://www.maiaeden.com

If you feel you're too old to be creative, or too creative to be old, then Creageivity is the podcast for you!

Wow! Eleven episodes of Creageivity, so we thought we would open the treasure chest for a bumper bundle compilation of clips from throughout 2023. Featured guests are: Lisa Armytage, Claire Waller & Arthur Brown, Tim Fraser, Gregory Gudgeon, John May, Honora & Dahlan Foah, Jonathan Weightman, Mich Maroney, Steve McDade, Hermione Elliott, and Emil Thompson - All full of inspiration, fascination and creativity!

Music clips include If You Don't Love Me by Louise Setara, Fables of Faubus from Mingus in Newcastle, Long Long Road by Arthur Brown, I Keep Waking Up In Your Dreams by John May, White by The Birth of Color Chorus, Offstage Stories Theme by David Personne, Front Line Man by Emmanuel Williams & Emil Thompson, and Introduction by Emil Thompson.

The opening speech from King Lear is performed by Jonathan Weightman, and the photograph for episode 12 is by Skylar Kang, with thanks.
Thanks also to Mark Flett and Richard Bolley for the kind permission to use their music in earlier episodes.
Listen, enjoy, and please return for season 2!

If you feel you're too old to be creative, or too creative to be old, then Creageivity is the podcast for you!

Our guest on Creageivity 11, Jonathan Weightman, performs as King Lear - a 2023 film role he starred in. Listen to this wonderful bonus minute of Jonathan in full flight!

If you feel you're too old to be creative, or too creative to be old, then Creageivity is the podcast for you!

Jonathan Weightman has had a storied career as an actor, writer and director, beginning with almost exclusively female roles including Lady Macbeth and St Joan while at school, coming right up to 2023 when he starred as King Lear in a movie, shot underground!

With an English father and Brazilian / Uruguayan mother, Jonathan describes how he always felt something of an outsider. However while he was at university in Manchester, Jonathan's mother moved to Portugal, and on his visits there he began to love and appreciate the country. Meanwhile he was involved in theatre and street theatre projects in the UK and across Europe, and in this time met his husband-to-be Keith Esher Davis. The deportation of Keith from the UK, as an 'undesirable alien' meant that they could no longer perform their jointly written play, Fever, and began their search for a haven where they could build a new life together.

That place turned out to be Lisbon, Portugal, and in time Jonathan became a director at Lisbon Players theatre, and co-founded the Tagus Theatre. When covid came, he transferred his skills from live theatre to writing and directing two movies, We Came to Lisbon (2020), and  Offstage Stories (2021). He also had a short story, Mary Dances published by the Daily Telegraph in the same year, to his 'mixed horror and delight.'

Jonathan's life admirably underscores the themes of Creageivity - of keeping on keeping on, and of finding outlets for personal expression, whatever we are presented with. Or as Jonathan says, "I have been extremely lucky."

If you feel you're too old to be creative, or too creative to be old, then Creageivity is the podcast for you!

Visual artist, writer, magazine publisher, and classical music enthusiast, Mich Maroney is an inspiring creative who relocated from the metropolis of London to the rural peace of Ireland. It's here that she has realised a long-held ambition to start a magazine blending the written word with distinctive visual art. SWERVE Magazine is available in print and on the web, featuring stunning images and writing, from a wide variety of contributors. These include international artists, as well as members of the local community.

Mich is the designer and maker of SWERVE - skills she has taught herself in recent times - and is very inclusive in her activities. These include encouraging others through workshops and writer's groups, and running a scheme for guest artists to stay in the County Cork town of Skibbereen to work on their own projects. In the podcast Mich describes herself as both a gambler in life, and someone who is scared of fairground rides, and yet her roller-coaster activities are testament to a 'never say die' creative spirit. SWERVE Magazine is an inspiring distillation of her ideas, and Creageivity 10 with Mich Maroney is a must-listen!   
The podcast also features music by the contemporary composer Richard Bolley.

For more on Mich, go to:    https://www.michmaroney.com/
For more on Swerve Magazine, go to:    https://www.swervemagazine.org/
To hear Richard Bolley's music, go to:    https://soundcloud.com/user-374152765-982950488

Photograph of Mich by Sarah Kate Murphy:    https://www.sarahkatephotography.ie/

If you feel you're too old to be creative, or too creative to be old, then Creageivity is the podcast for you!

Based in the countryside near Dundee, Scotland,  'Old Man Thompson' - Emil Max Thompson  - is a talented musician, songwriter, stonecarver... and so much more. In this fascinating podcast he traces some of his family roots, including a cross-dressing great grandfather who was a risque star of Music Hall. We also learn what ekphrastic means, and how this is linked to the Glasgow city coat of arms and Saint Mungo.
Then there's a diversion into piano tuning and how every instrument has its individual character, and why Dundee played a formative part in the writing of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.  This is nothing if not an eclectic podcast.
Emil has collected many of his past musical works - and those of other musicians, including Creageivity guest John May - on his record label Souterrain Sounds, where his latest EP release Sailing To Port Manto is now available. Some of the EP is included in the podcast to whet the appetite of listeners.
To hear more, and learn about lithophones and rubber bridges, listen to Old Man Thompson on Creageivity 09.

https://souterrainsounds.bandcamp.com/
https://souterrainpress.bigcartel.com/about-us
https://yelluk.wixsite.com/my-site-22591/ABOUT

If you feel you're too old to be creative, or too creative to be old, then Creageivity is the podcast for you!

In her late 50s, as she was contemplating retirement from a career as a nurse, midwife and counsellor, Dr Hermione Elliott instead embarked on a huge journey of what she describes as ‘Unfoldment’. She saw the need for end of life care which was analogous to the Doulas who assist with birth, and has since worked tirelessly to found and lead the organisation Living Well Dying Well.
Hermione is passionate about care of the whole person – physical, emotional and spiritual – and about upholding dignity and self-determination at every stage of life.
In our podcast she talks about what led her to start LWDW, and how it was ‘a profoundly creative process’ in her own development.
It’s an inspiring story with messages for everyone, and in particular those who are growing into their later years – an unflinching, but also uplifting look at death and dying. Unmissable!

Find out more  about LWDW, End of Life Doulas, and Hermione at:

https://www.livingwelldyingwell.com/

https://eol-doula.uk/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/hermione-elliott-7a47a44/?originalSubdomain=uk   

If you feel you're too old to be creative, or too creative to be old, then Creageivity is the podcast for you!

A drummer who arts, or an artist who drums? Steve McDade's academic career culminated as Head of Fine Art at the University of Chichester, and he has been a constant painter and exhibitor over the years: his most recent work being shown in 2023, with a back catalogue spanning very many art shows.

As a musician​ he was inspired by Tony Williams at an early age (banging out rhythms on Tupperware, as we learn in this podcast).  ​He has played in a wide variety of jazz-oriented combos, from the free-form Displacement trio, the guitar-based Big Tent, and On the Corner, an ambitious big band rendering of works by Charles Mingus.

And here's another thing: Steve, Adrienne, and Harlan were students together at Maidstone College of Art about 50 years ago, but somehow neglected to catch up until now. Join us for a deep dive into the art of painting, and find out why we are living in the 1970s, all over again.

Steve's website is at: www.stevemcdade.co.uk
Steve's YouTube channel is at: https://www.youtube.com/@StevenMcDade-cn2fl

If you feel you're too old to be creative, or too creative to be old, then Creageivity is the podcast for you!

Honora and Dahlan Foah are multi-disciplinary artists and producers, living in Atlanta USA, and working across a dazzling variety of media. Together they are creating a sequence of seven Frequency Operas, with the first of these unique events being staged in a Budapest church, and the latest taking place in the Vatican.

Honora originally trained as a dancer, while Dahlan was a photographer and early audio-visual pioneer. They joined forces, forming Visioneering, a production company making large scale events and experiences around the world. 

In this podcast Honora talks movingly about their visual work for children’s hospitals, how she views death, and the conscious process of becoming an elder. Dahlan also reflects on his side hustle as conductor of two prestigious orchestras. 

Plus you can  learn why Honora times the duration of the Frequency Opera sections according to the resilience of the average human bladder...

But what is a Frequency Opera? Tune in to Creageivity 06 to find out!

More info at:
The Birth of Color: http://www.birthofcolor.org/
Mythic Imagination Institute:  https://www.mythicjourneys.org/newsletter_nov06_foah.html
Atlanta Musician’s Orchestra: https://www.amorch.com/aboutus
Honora bio: https://mythhonora.wordpress.com/about/
Dahlan bio: https://www.birthofcolor.org/bios/dahlan-robert-foah/

If you feel you're too old to be creative, or too creative to be old, then Creageivity is the podcast for you!

What hasn't John May been involved in?  He describes himself as a Generalist, and his first activities were in the early UK Arts Lab network. There followed eight years with the New Musical Express (at the time the most influential music weekly in Britain), writing as Dick Tracy.
He has met and interviewed - among many others - Allen Ginsberg, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, William Burroughs, Al Gore, and our favourite muso, Captain Beefheart.
He is authour of numerous books, including four for Greenpeace, and is active in green and climate change issues. His collection of magazines, posters and interview recordings is vast, and in this podcast he talks about his role as 'Archivist of the counterculture and connected thinking'.
John is also a poet, songwriter and musician, and we're pleased to have two of his tracks on the show, from his album Boho Solo.
A fascinating journey through the history of almost everything, from a self-described 'young elder'. 
The photograph of John was taken on his 73rd birthday, by his son Alex.

http://www.generalistarchive.co.uk/
https://hqinfo.blogspot.com/p/about-john-may.html
https://twitter.com/generalistblog?lang=en

If you feel you're too old to be creative, or too creative to be old, then Creageivity is the podcast for you!