When I first met Joff, none of this was true. I knew him for his role as drummer with Simon Roberts in the beloved Bristol duo Bucky... and then more personally, when he used to come into Glastonbury Library, where I worked, and rattle through the CD shelves in a fashion almost as loud as it was amiable. We share a love of the public library which Bucky have even committed to song - I've always hoped to use 'I Love the Library' as the theme tune for my as-yet imaginary library podcast. But, when Bucky listed their five favourite libraries in the world - in the sleeve notes to their album 'All the New Mistakes' - it was not Glastonbury Library that featured, but our neighbours and arch-rivals, Street Library [very sadly, no longer funded by the Council nor housed in the dedicated stone building of the time]. Needless to say, I shall never forgive them.
It is, therefore, with a proud and bitter heart that I present this characteristically charming Ritual from Joff Winterhart - in his own words:
[editor's note - for the most part, links within the text of Wedding Ritual as a whole have been sourced and placed by me {Wes}, and I think that generally that's likely to be fairly well apparent to a curious reader - but Joff has a writing style which lends itself quite easily to inserting his links into the text, and so some of those are the ones he provided. In general, if the linked webpage seems to be a sound, direct reference from the text at hand, it's probably courtesy of Joff - if it's off at a wild and obscure tangent, it's more likely my fault]
Something Old
"Here is a video made very hastily in 2012, for the release of my band's 'Women, Ladies and Girls sing the Bucky songbook' record. Some of the women featured on the record couldn't make it to sing at the release show, so I had to cobble together some music 'videos' (a medium I am generally not that fond of) to represent their song on the album. This is one of them, the song a sort of new wave/post-punk pastiche (or as near as our limited music skills could manage!) The singers/performers on it are my dear friend and great artist Sue Palmer and eminent epidemiologist, writer and podcaster Suzi Gage.
"The starring role is played by my pal Ally Cross, who was a really good sport about it all until I suggested we did some filming at dusk by a condemned 80's housing estate, where some sketchy looking teenage boys were setting a bin on fire.
"The Art teachers are played by my bandmate Simon and myself, both in heavy disguise!
Its no-budget VHS-rendered nature is very apparent, and it's both ultra-literal and overly illustrative (something pop-videos are apparently never meant to be) but I am quite fond of it because I like the song / singers, and very much still enjoy the dead-eyed conviction of Ally's lead performance AND the incredible job she did on her costume(s) and make-up."
Something New
"These are some images from the book project I am currently (nearly always!) working on. Like these ones, all the pictures in it are mono-printed and - in BROWN - exclusively! This is not the main character in the story - that's an older woman named Margaret, but she's really quite shy, so might not wish to appear here yet* before she is braced and more ready to appear in the whole book.
"This man is called Allan Hands and he is categorically NOT shy. Despite the way he looks the story isn't set in the past (though it might end up having to be, slightly, due to our recent and rapidly different-looking world) but he is just dressed up like that as it is sort of his job.
"I think i'm actually making it sound a lot more interesting than it is or will be...which isn't hard! Yes, you guessed it - right now I am at the rabidly doubtful stage (usually lasting the entire duration of making the book) and wondering if any of it really is worth doing?? (At the same time as all this hand-wringing, I truly am grateful to actually get to be doing it at all.)
"So I press on - sort of literally - accidentally covering my forearm with brown paint and listening to the appropriate sounds of Kathleen Ferrier, Connie Converse and Molly Drake (Nick's mum.)
"*Twee alert?!"
Something Borrowed
"I like this section...
"The only reason I would ever desire to be any more 'well known' than I am now (ie not at all really) is to be asked, on occasion, to list or recommend art (or music, film, books etc) that I feel passionate about. I promise this doesn't entirely come from some ego-based need to proselytise or appear coolly esoteric to the general public - it's just I personally really LOVE to read things about what other artists (and anyone really, cricketers even) are into and inspired by... (eg. the other posts on this very blog!) (Likewise the main part of Desert Island Discs I am interested in is what records they choose.)
"ALSO another MAJOR reason I feel particularly excited by such a request is that there is SO much stuff out there that I love, that I would consider to be eternally under-heralded or unjustly obscure or whatever... As a result, now having to choose just one thing for this cool blog here?!...
"As a result, now having to choose just one thing for this cool blog here?!...
"I really don't know whether to choose this beaut of a short film made about one of my major heroes and inspirations, the wondrous Sister Corita Kent - radical screenprinting peacenik Nun from the 60's...
[Unfortunately the video Joff is referring to here appears to have been removed from YouTube, so until we can source a version of that that we're allowed to share, this first video offers a profile of Sister Corita Kent's work, while the second is an extract of the one we wanted to feature - Wes]
"(I especially love one part near the end [of the original video - I promise to post it here if it resurfaces - Wes] with the people walking around the city with that sweet music, and then her righteous and increasingly well-known 'rules' iterated at the end, which continue to help and inspire me in my efforts to make things!)
"OR maybe I should choose to highlight the songs and singing of the criminally underrated Lisa Marr, most well known for the the 90's Vancouver 'cuddlecore' band 'cub' but crafting countless classic sad songs and pop gems ever since, in various bands and projects (the LMX, The Here & Now, Los Gatitos.) Full disclosure: In 2006 I wrote her a fan letter, and we since have become great friends, but still I remain entirely objective about her wonderful songs and singing. Many of the great songs she has written/recorded over the last few years aren't really on the internet, often written for friends, favours, or fun...all admirable motives! But just listen to this recent version of her song Salvation -
"- the backing band sound a bit too muscularly proficient for my tastes, but still do not obscure the lush melody of Lisa's song or her dreamy singing... or this song, covered by the better-known Neko Case, but here in its definitive form -
"Hmm, I think I might be well beyond my allocation for this 'Something Borrowed' section!"
"Now for ...
Something Blue
"WHOOOPS - sorry!
"Here is the 'Something Blue' that I made...'blue' in a couple of senses!"
"It's a picture of Keith Nutt, one of the main characters from my book 'Driving Short Distances' as sort of... 'involuntarily imagined' by the other main character, Sam. This actually is a variation on the actual picture I used for the book, which was a bit smaller and more...ahem, modest?!"
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Joff Winterhart's graphic novels 'Days of the Bagnold Summer' and 'Driving Short Distances' are available now. You can find out more about Bucky at buckytheband.com - 2 volumes of treasures coming very soon - and watch his award-winning animation 'Violet and Turquoise' on Vimeo. For updates, see his Instagram.
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Wedding Ritual is an ongoing series of artist profiles curated and edited by Wes Viola. For updates, follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. I don't think the 'subscribe' button on the blog itself is actually functioning at the time of writing - I'll try and get on that. The blog is open to submissions from visual artists, sculptors, musicians, writers, dancers, sculptors, filmmakers and all kinds of creative practitioner. For more details of what's going on here, and especially if you'd like to feature yourself, check the always-popular 'what on earth is going on here?' page. For a list of every artist featured to date, see Every Ritual.
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