I fancied

a walk along the River Brent in Hanwell,while I was having my car MOTed.

But as I didn't have my swimming things with me I had to give this part of the towpath a miss.

John Cage Musicircus

was one of the most enjoyable music events I have ever attended. ENO put on this performance to celebrate what would have been John Cage's 100th birthday. The piece is essentially an installation of a number of performances that the public is able to walk around. Today's version involved a huge cast of musicians, actors, chess players and a mycologist, and used many of the spaces within the Coliseum (such as foyers, landings and bars) that are not usually associated with performances. As a result we got to experience these parts of the building in a new way.
Co-ordinating the various sections involved the performers looking at their watches a lot . . .

. . . but the timings had been, true to Cage's philosophy, determined by chance. The order in which the material was performed was also a matter of chance, so there was a lot of dice throwing, coin tossing and card selecting going on. As an audience we were also able to choose: which event to watch and how long to stay there before moving on to the next - although that didn't stop sound the sound from several performances blending to create strange aural worlds that encompassed more than the sight before our eyes.

There's no way that a couple of photos can give any idea of the scope of events so here's a link to some more, although altogether they are but a tiny flavour of the whole. No photos, video or recording could capture the variety on offer and one of the great and unique features of Cage's piece is that each visitor has their own individual experience which they are, to some extent, in control of.